let's make some stories from our teeth tens of thousands rally peacefully in central moscow against the results of the recent parliamentary vote while president to meet him in bell's bold political reforms. the head of the arab league mission to syria arrives in damascus amid fresh claims of violence. and a new era as north korea mourns the death of its ruler can jolly old his youngest son steps into power. very warm welcome to you five o'clock here in moscow we go now to your top story tens of thousands gathered in the russian capital on saturday and

a second peaceful rally protesting over the results of this month's parliamentary election protesters were calling for a rerun of the election which they claim was raked the russian interior ministry says thirty thousand people turned up but organizers say the true number was over one hundred thousand meanwhile president medvedev gave his annual address to the nation promising widespread political reforms some of which are already underway in the elected state duma this can all for ports. the time for change has come. people are tired of not being able to promptly solve the most pressing issues people are tired of having their interests ignored speeding and his fourth and final state of the union address the president listed a set of proposals which have already been deemed to be sweeping political reform he wants to change the rules for the registration of political parties as well as

for taking porting elections in fact a total ground up rebuild of the whole electoral system to the governors in russia are up pointed there are. by the president they used to be elected in the ninety's but this was cancelled and thousands now they need to remove it if it wants to bring the vote back as part of the move to vertical ice power in russia it took over a decade to build the current vertical system of power but now russia's regions are told it's time to start gaining more independence from moscow the president's proposed reforms will also hit the state duma which will include two hundred twenty five deputies each independently elected within their own tutorial constituency and when it comes to new parties in order to register political parties need to gather at least ten thousand approval signatures and have representatives in over a half of the eighty nine regions the new initiative is to reduce this figure to

five hundred which should give the green light for more political forces the president's speech followed the recent parliamentary election which caused widespread discontent among the public the biggest brutus rally since the collapse of the u.s.s.r. have been taking place across the country with tens of thousands of russians shouting out accusations of fraud and other violations over fifty criminal cases have been opened looking into the allegations while the results from more than twenty polling stations have been cancelled russia has enormous potential enormous human capital physical capital and has the potential to become a world leader and they would like the spirit of the educated people would like to play a part in that the president praised the legal right to express opinion but warned any attempts to manipulate and provoke the people will not be accepted. we won't allow extremists or probably caters to draw society into their shady enterprises we won't allow interference from outside in our internal affairs russia needs

democracy not chaos getting back to the reforms to the need to be viewed if announced in other. concerning his own paused as well you know order to run for president independent candidates have to gather at least two million approval signatures from voters three hundred thousand as asked the new figure currently being proposed which will most likely widen competition for russia's top job even though the president doesn't plan to run for a second term in office it doesn't mean the reforms will be forgotten the need to diffuse a mean for the prime minister's seat if he wins the upcoming presidential vote in more. is going to orgy moscow. he had of the arab league's observer mission to syria arrives in damascus general mohamed al darby's aim is to check the country's compliance with an arab peace plan aimed at halting the nine month long run a further group of fifty arab league monitors should reach syria on monday

according to estimates more than five thousand have been killed since march the monitors visit coincides with fresh claims of violence in the city of homes and twin suicide bombings on friday that killed forty four but as r.t. sara firth reports with western sanctions strangling the country it's the syrian people who are bearing the brunt. it's been nearly ten months since there is uprising began the capital of damascus has remained largely sheltered from the conflict. in the bustling sun so it seems like it's business as usual when says the winds of change have begun to blow a little stronger the arab league's imposed tough economic sanctions the effects of which would be felt even head in a poor area of damascus and her family struggling to make ends meet has certainly has learning difficulties for the beans for a living but he barely makes one hundred fifty three and pounds

a day three dollars to support him and here's why. now the fuel for his vending cart has become harder to get hold of with the economic sanctions driving the price up. their last products available and the prices are pushed higher there have been fights over gas we've been trying to manage by cutting back as much as we can sometimes when we can't afford it which is don't eat the economic situation in syria was one of the areas president assad had been seen to be making some progress be it slowly for a population that it started seeing the results of economic opportunities a. financial transactions. have blackouts become the new. they could be even the financial times ahead. because of the economic sanctions people rush to stockpile of fuel of gas just in case people are a little bit afraid of the fact that water or gas might run out this is why you see

these queues this in place by the arab league it is hate the sanctions which the government has and when it came to ending the violence in the country business side syria at the moment many feel is every day people being punished economic sanctions still. thinking. that he will want to hit. that become part of the daily life of many people here in syria. from the arab league will be paving the way for an observer mission at the end of the month much opposition they remain skeptical about whether that to bring about any change. in the west of the conflict areas changed. to seeing some parity of teeth families like finding life under the sanctions increasingly desperate search. damascus. the arab league's observer mission to damascus follows syria's membership of the

organization being suspended but jordan bass professor and journalist ibrahim unused believes the league should not be lecturing another arab country talking about reforms in syria especially when this kind of talk is coming from out of gulf states. even the constitution yet on top of. the freedom of the media or the other that i to organize them political parties or organizations so this is this is just nonsense i mean when when someone who lacks the very basic tenets of democracy is preaching to syria or other arab states that independent or somewhat untie imperialist about democracy but that's what the syrian regime has said we are going along with all our reforms on our agenda and our time and we need to see what those states have in the way of reform before they start preaching to us about reform this is obviously. an sos and see that has been

instigated by night so and it's cronies and the out of world. and later this hour the inside track on the year's most monumental event. journalists. but we couldn't stop thinking. what if they make and we stayed one of our t's team of international correspondents maria in the ocean that shares her own experience in the nato strike zone in war torn tripoli. north korea is mourning the death of its leader kim jong il who passed away from a heart attack at the age of sixty nine his death was announced on state t.v. on monday in an emotionally charged public statement the former rulers bonny is now lying in state in the capital pyongyang as north koreans continue to pay their final respects with millions of people shown weeping in the streets the funerals

planned for december twenty eighth news of the leader's death put neighboring states on high alert japan called a special security meeting fearing instability in the region while south korea says its military is on stand by kim jong il's youngest son kim jong un has been proclaimed the new supreme commander but independent journalist tim chirac believes that the successor will need time to shore up on his position he's only been around for three years in the public life he went to school in switzerland apparently he knows a lot about how the internet works and he knows a lot about social media but beyond that we know very little except he's been appointed a four star general he has no military training very very you know this bureau next to zero military experience but i think what these two leaders closely held leadership in north korea once is a symbol of their regime and this is a clear you know successor symbol they can they can use to continue their power and

i think that the fact that it took two days to announce his death and they announced one hundred fifty personnel funeral committee made means that they have the people lined up. behind them you know on this decision and they're getting ready to move forward on whatever was going on before in terms of the kinds of discussions with the united states south korea with other countries it did take kim jong il who just passed quite a few years to actually gain total acceptance with the power structure there with the powers that be there in the in the party in the government to actually you know take firm control so i think that's an open question after the fall of the gadhafi regime in libya revenge killings have become a common occurrence in the country stability peace and freedom from persecution are just a dream tribal violence is on the rise has more. this is what it's like to look down in the face a group of man the young and old captured after the nadir propped rebels overran

get off his hometown of sirte there was behind the camera delivers a verdict did you work for gadhafi did you. and the captives themselves seem dat certain about what's coming next. scenes like these play now with a costly be as the rebels assisted by western powers so to liberate the country from gadhafi i've been lodgings about he said to stick tendencies grow more and more outlandish by the day and that seems to justify any sort of treatment for his perceived loyalists in some places the violence is quite bad the town we looked out in was called. and the militias from the neighboring town of misrata are terrorizing the people of to where they accuse them of having fought for qaddafi of having committed atrocities. in his but in name this is one of the liberated tripoli's new landmarks a prison where moammar gadhafi was set to hold his political opponents with no

access to lawyers and no chance for a fair trial. but while the prisons new guards a very elaborate in their rating good office for all cities here in hatred still reside in this neighborhood. obviously is a poor area in southern tripoli where more are more and gadhafi had strong support base parts of. the district also has its name in a tourist prison a scene of torture and arbitrary killings but while gadhafi is gone the human rights abuses still remain rather from this area are still disappearing without a trace their families are too scared to talk about. this is probably the only place in all the beer with families of a logic get off the supporters can turn to for how mohammad form peace and your earlier this year it's investigated the fate of those who disappeared in good

office prisons he is now primarily dealing with people who went missing under libya's new leadership it's usually mothers who come here and at first they are scared to tell me that this son or husband was with the forces they usually say he was a civilian court in the crossfire but i tell them that i don't care which side he was on all i need is accurate information so that we can start searching. mohammad and his friends have been taking photos of unidentified bodies that have been popping up across lead beer in recent months this naturists are probably their relatives most realistic hope of finding closure but even after sifting through them many managed to retain hope like this man whose brother disappeared on the front lines of banjo. i hope he's in tunisia maybe his in hospital maybe he's lost his memory or has no way of contacting us. they say hope dies last and leave it

still alive even if many people are in. artsy tripoli. it is believed that up to thirty thousand people were killed in the libyan civil war it's a story that's dominated headlines since day one and has become one of the top ten world events that shaped the year here on r t r t's maria in the ocean that covered the situation from inside libya and that looks back on her time there. we arrived in libya in the evening this is how you'd expect this kind of story to start but actually we crossed that unusual border when the sun was too high. our driver told us to be careful we all thought that was a little bit unnecessary. but he explained that they sway nato and qaddafi.

could both blame each other if this scope killed. when our first night in tripoli would go to a very warm welcome rixos hotel we knew that the state was just. away from. his residence. and that was bombed that night as it had never been before and would never be wards. it was literally shaking in our rooms were moved even with doors firmly closed my bed was just beside a glass wall i did. into the room because i was scared. an explosion could destroy literally. my western colleagues explaining that. rixos hotel at the time was the safest place in the because nature knew best where journalists order but we

couldn't stop thinking. what if they make a mistake the residents of secrecy were districts here in st for they have been woken up by a strike in the middle of the night and all some old bombs landed here this story as you can see behind me some world three story buildings. and there were no professional rescuers at the scene. with bare hands. and one after another they pulled out five dead bodies. where she couldn't see that but is themselves. because they were just wrapped up in blankets. lifeless bundles. in the morgue we heard that they were three little babies. they were lying there. the cold mats hold tables still in pampers. and next morning

nato confirmed. it had made a mistake the intended target during last night's best truck in tripoli was a military. however from our initial assessment of us it appears that one weapon did not strike intended target due to a weapons systems. of course i wanted to meet qaddafi or his son say for this every journalist did but that was kind of impossible. as you remember one day after a news conference my friend and a time photographer came to me and pointing at the man. in his suit told me he wants to meet you the next night i got to call the car he said wait someone told me weeks back to them to blindfold us but they didn't do anything like that. you know

the option of hold the enter the room and no one paid any attention to him. but he was different when he entered we all know taste we all knew that he is right now in the room. there was an injury common artful name very powerful man. he invited me to follow him in a separate. group. with questions many questions like what do you think about what do you think about the uprising hey and maybe what do you think about me what do you think about my father but i was calm and confident. and then he suddenly stopped and looked at my shoulders high heels. and he went. sweetie what about your questions and you know he looked like he didn't take me seriously actually and i looked at my notes and him on the first questions there

was did you or your father. give the order to kill civilians. but i didn't tell him that and i was like smiling just ordinary questions. and he said ok let's go. and that interview was one of the past interviews in my life it's not the best interview safe was very sincere. very open and he thought always before answering that was really literally electricity and that true. will left next morning and i had a feeling that i would never see this country again. i didn't go back six weeks later. but that was a different country already with new faces new heroes new everything. the country i had traveled in the summer of two thousand and eleven it is now just a part of history

a good. every day right up to the new year will bring you more personal refract reflections from our correspondents who saw the biggest stories of twenty eleven first hand in case you missed any you can see them all on our website r t v dot com. so i had three of us our christmas tragedy. separate terror attacks in nigeria by extremists have killed at least forty. with slamming restrictions on the sale of drugs used in the u.s. to execute convicts american officials are running out of options. arac has been heading deeper into political crisis since the final u.s. troop withdrawal earlier this week the country has been rocked by a massive bombing in baghdad which claimed at least seventy two lives on thursday it was the worst attack in months in iraq and its leaders and gauged in a tit for tat blame game over the latest wave of violence fears have been growing of a return to the sectarian conflict of two thousand and seven that left thousands dead

as the u.s. made good on its promise to pull out the troops and insisted a stable country has been left behind but joseph has sure a writer for the world socialist thinks the latest flare ups in the region are a product of the u.s. occupation. this was not about you know securing iraq and giving it freedom it was about securing resources and in the process. so kerry intensions devastated the entire society and this is really the product of that you have different factions of the iraqi elite who are battling over power over control over resources including particular oil contracts and it threatens to unravel into a civil war that conflict the violence in iraq is very much a product of the occupation itself and you know that's really the source of the crisis facing iraqi politics and iraqi society i mean look at what what this

occupation has produced over one million people killed by some estimates thirty five percent of iraqi children. living doll is orphans destination of infrastructure the entire society has been scarred by this occupation by this war on christmas day nigeria was rocked by a series of blasts targeting christian worshipers and leaving at least forty debt. on church doorsteps after attending christmas mass authorities acknowledged a lack of ambulances in the area and warned that casualty numbers may rise the radical muslim sect boko haram has claimed responsibility for the attacks that group was involved in problem violent clashes with military forces that have killed at least sixty in the past few days stephen leatherman a radio host and author from chicago says april's election results contributed to the unstable situation in the country. boko haram may be an extremist

islamic sect but the issue is a very political corruption cronyism deprivation human need and last proposal actions were worse than free and fair here who felt jonathan was a way he represents the christian south about half of nigeria is a muslim here in the north they would imagine why he's again there they are being totally shut out of the system and jonathan is a close western tyreese close washington times close big oil guys and ease their mayor if their man to turn the country over to big oil and let them just suck the wealth out of it if he explains that the people vets the anger the stripey needs this firearms. the u.s.

commonly uses drugs to execute convicts but the local manufacturer cease production last year and now the european union has restricted supplies of the federal compound but some activists saying that the chemical used is far from humane u.s. authorities may have difficulties finding a new source but as artie's ever bennett explains the shortage could actually be making the situation far worse. they've tried hanging electrocution and most recently a drug used to euthanize animals but now american jails will find it much harder to kill prisoners on death row the main supply line for its lethal injections has been cut off after the e.u. slips new restrictions on drug exports i really think this more make a difference and we will see the effects of this this control order in the coming months that the u.s. relies on european drugs for use of executions and without them they're going to be stuck and lives will be saved specifically execution drugs aren't made in the e.u.

but several american states have been importing sedatives instead drugs designed to help being used to hurt. exports of drugs like sodium thiopental will now be controlled to stop they use in a three part lethal cocktail the n a static was being used to put the condemned inmate to sleep as another drug paralyzed before the final heart stopper was administered without that initial numbing stage lethal injections are unconstitutional under u.s. law the usual supply for these drugs has been dwindling since the only u.s. manufacturer ceased production last year american prisons though found an alternative source right here in west london at this fairly unassuming driving school buildings also shared by dream farmer a british firm exporting british drugs the us prisons to kill people the u.k. government soon found out and banned its use so american prisons searched elsewhere

r.t. reported in may how some states have begun using pen to bottle a drug normally used to put pets to sleep that's never been tested for human executions its primary use for humans is to treat epilepsy but it has no pain killing properties many feel its use on death throes tantamount to torture this can cause excruciating pain if something goes wrong and because we have no tests we cannot guarantee that nothing will get around to people at risk of not being killed being tortured to death following a report danish manufacturer impose their own restrictions to prevent printed bottles misuse the new e.u. embargo covers eight barbiturates in total including painted barber tell us stockpiles will eventually run dry but many fear it's only a matter of time before prisons try again with something else unfortunately the death merchants in the us can sometimes be creative in terms of what they put to

use in order to put people to death and so i think what we need is a clause which said if other drugs should appear on the market and we discover the u.s. is missing. we can quickly have a quick procedure to add those to the list without in away to another year aside from lethal injection other methods like hanging and firing squad are still sanctioned in the us but now rarely used these new restrictions may not choke off the drug supply completely but it will certainly tighten the noose on america's controversial death penalty. either bennett london those were the main news stories that have shaped the week i'll be back with the headlines after this short break. thanks.

wealthy british style. guys. like that. market.