find out what's really happening to the global economy with max keiser for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into kinds a report on our. that's sweet sound stories from r t tens of thousands rally peacefully in central moscow against the results of the recent parliamentary vote for president dmitry medvedev pals bold political reforms. the head of the arabs league mission to syria ronson damascus and made fresh claims of violence. and a new era as north korea mourns the death of its ruler came down on his youngest son steps into power. news and comment live broadcasting from the heart of moscow six o'clock here we go now to your top story tens of thousands gathered in the russian capital on saturday

in a second peaceful rally protesting over the results of this month's parliamentary election protestors were calling for a rerun of the election which they claim was wrecked the russian interior ministry says thirty thousand people showed 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 newly elected state duma this week all reports. 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 today governors in russia are up for. they're rackley by the president they used to be elected in the ninety's but this was cancelled and thousands now the meeting with wants to bring the vote back as part of the move to vertical eyes power in russia it took over a decade to build to 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 stay 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's will not be accepted when you know it 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. another proposal 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 media may be diffuse aiming for the prime minister's speech if. the upcoming presidential vote in more than he is going to have orgy moscow ahead of the arab league's observer mission to syria arrives and damascus general mohamed el dobby's aim is to check the country's compliance with an arab peace plan aimed at home the nine month long rest

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 twenty two aside bombings on friday that killed forty four but as artie's sarah 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 so and the winds of change have begun to blow over little stronger the our belief in pace tough economic sanctions the effects of which have you felt even headed in a poor area of damascus and her family struggling to make ends meet as sonia has learning difficulties beans for a living but he barely makes one hundred fifty three in pounds

a day three dollars to support him and his wife. now the fuel for his vending cart has become harder to get hold of with shortages 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 opportunity and financial transactions. blackouts become the. fifth they could be even the financial times ahead. because of the economic sanctions people rushed to stockpile of fuel and gas just in case people are a little bit afraid of the fact that water or gas might run out and this is why you

see these queues this in place by the arab league it was hate the sanctions would pull the government hand when it came to ending the violence in the country but inside syria at the moment many feel is every day people who are being punished economic sanctions still. thinking. that he will want to hit the mosque has 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 to 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 change can come a moment tesing is imperative to the families like. finding life under the sanctions increasingly desperate search. damascus. the u.s. and its allies claim their foreign policy is aimed at stopping president assad's

regime cracking down on protesters but despite mounting evidence the west remains reluctant to recognize that the opposition is also armed some analysts believe it's because the anti damascus coalition wants to see regime change in syria what we see hear about these atrocities five howser. death here and the so-called massacres none of these numbers are confirmed that they are actually given and if you look at the media they are actually telling you that they're getting their information from the. rebel army but they're not getting it from inside the country but of course when you look at the mainstream media at least here in the united states they are just repeating those numbers because this is basically a make up of a psychological warfare first of all the decision on syria was made months or years ago even as the preparation began and this is

a church key on the border there there nato's airbase there injured airbase in the may two thousand and eleven so they have the decision they have had that this is then they have been preparing for an actual war and then they begin the propaganda and the psychological warfare by trying to get the public support for an unwarranted war and that's the popular sea off the u.s. foreign policy you're looking at live playing right in front of you. and later this hour of the inside track on the year's most momentous events. in asia news bestway drone is. which we couldn't stop thinking. what if they make a mistake one of our t.'s team of international correspondents maria shares her own experience in the nato strike zone and rewards for traveling. 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 ruler's body 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 il has been for claimed the new supreme commander tim beal an asia specialist who's written extensively on the korean region says it's still hard to predict the impact kim's death will have on events in the peninsula. the americans i think at the moment not moving climate because they want to keep tension on the korean peninsula apple's way of contain china that so i would read the american response whether they will

decide to do this they won't come back a negotiator we don't yet know if we have a smooth transfer of power in the in the north i think it's likely. it will. we will move forward perhaps not this year but before knowing when this new government in seoul and we may get a return you like to be engagement of the of the previous five years ago. if on the other hand those some sort of turmoil in the north if the. systems mark maturity on that lapsed then we may get into the engine from the start and then. who knows what will happen after the fall of the gadhafi regime in libya revenge killings have become a common occurrence in the country civility peace and freedom from press

persecution are just a dream as tribal violence is on the riots x. out of whack a has more. this is what it's like to look death in the face a group of man the young and old captured after the needier propped rebels overran get off his hometown of sirte there was behind the camera delivers the verdict did you work for gadhafi did you. and the captives themselves seem datz sad to hear 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 district 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 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 have very elaborate in their rating doctors ferocity his fear and hatred still reside in this neighborhood. obviously is a poor area in southern tripoli where more margo duffy had strong support base prior to his fleeing the district also and his name to notorious prisons 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 of their families are too scared to talk about that. this is probably the

only place in all the beer with families of a legit good office supporters can turn to for how mohammed to form peace and your earlier this year it 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 because daffy 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 lee beer in recent months this naturists are probably the 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 banter about. 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 a whole dies last inly bit it's still alive even if many people aren't. artsy tripoli it is believed that up to thirty thousand people were killed in the libyan civil war that'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 our team artie's maria cover the situation from inside libya and now looks back on her time there. we arrived in the evening this is how you'd expect this kind of story to start but actually we crossed the 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 the scope killed. one our first night in tripoli would go to a very warm welcome rixos hotel we stayed 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 with districts here in street really have been woken up by a strike in the middle of the night and all summer long slender to hear 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 tables still in pampers. and next morning nato confirmed. it had made a mistake the intended target during last night's fast track in tripoli was a military. from our initial assessment of us it appears that one what did not strike intended target due to a weapons systems. of course i wanted to meet qaddafi or his son safe. every journalist did but that was kind of impossible. as you will 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. what 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 knowledge from the 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 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 if not the best interview safe was very sincere. very open he thought always before answering i was really literally electricity about 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 which is now just a part of history for good. every day right up to the new year we'll bring you more personal reflections from our correspondents who saw the biggest stories of two thousand and eleven first hand in case you missed i mean you can see them all on our website r t dot com. it's been a week of mourning in russia as more months greet genet for the victims of last sunday's oil rig disaster the platform mostly manned by a crew from water months chua's sunk in a storm while being towed to port in the country's far east sixty seven people were on board fourteen of them were immediately saved after the platform went down but thirty six are still unaccounted for and listed as missing with the search and rescue operation over there's little hope of finding any more survivors the bodies

of seventeen victims have been recovered investigators suspect a breach of safety procedures is to blame for the tragedy while there was no fuel spill it's the deadliest oil rig disaster in russian history. still ahead for you this hour christmas tragedy. five separate terror attacks in nigeria by an extremist sect have killed at least forty. a citizens of cash strapped dystonia are paying the price for joining the euro as they're forced to fork out for other nations' mistakes. iraq 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 it it and insisted it had left behind a stable country a former american diplomat here mark van buren thinks the current situation in the country is a direct result of the occupation. the united states unleashed a lot of demons in iraq when we invaded in two thousand and three the most significant of which was the ethnic and religious tensions between the sunni's the shias and the kurds that was an issue that plagued the american occupation for all of its war and desperate nine years and even though the united states troops have pulled out as of last week that doesn't change the equation those tensions still exist in iraq and will have to resolve themselves one way or the other i'm afraid that the resolution will likely involve euless hopefully not at the levels that we saw in two thousand and five and two thousand and six but politics in iraq is very much a full context sport it's a dangerous game to play there and people often do die in the course of political

resolutions on christmas day nigeria was rocked by a series of blasts targeting christian worshipers and leaving at least forty dead most started on church doorsteps after attending christmas mass authorities acknowledged a lack of ambulances in the. area and warn that casualty numbers may rise the radical muslim sect boko haram has claimed responsibility for the attacks the group was involved in prolonging violent clashes with military forces that have tell that 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 but will now room may be an extremist islamic sect but the issue is our very political corruption cronyism deprivation human need the last elections were worse than free and fear. still hyun of the english the way

he represents the christian cells about half of their eight year a year is a muslim there in the north they want more notion why is it given the year they are being totally shut out of the system and jonathan is that close western territories close washington ties close big oil and ease their way here if they're merely to turn the country to big oil and let them just suck the wealth out of it if it's the little people vets the anger the striving these arabs it has been a year since a stone it became the newest member of the single currency but with the recent euro zone debt troubles a stance find themselves apprehensive about their financial future artie's aleksei had a chef ski has more. on paper these people live in one of the most prosperous economies of the baltic region and reality their homeland. is the poorest country and after

spending a year being part of the euro zone these people say the positive changes they were promised are nowhere to be seen at the helm of recently euro commission check their pensions are thought he's told they received an average pension of six hundred euro this is far from reality pensions in greece which fifteen hundred we hear get around two hundred a stone he adopted the euro last january but despite a general positive attitude towards the move until now it is mostly big businesses and politicians that are really enjoying the transition there are truly political advantages in terms of if you want locking your more firmly into the you cannot make advantages as well in terms of investment the support for the euro is holding up very well. people seem to be to see the advantages you may be politically wrasslin economically but the euro or gumption party soon brought a painful hangover since september a story has agreed to take part in the european financial stability facility the

body created to combat financial crisis and the bailout countries like greece and now experts say this membership comes at a price and can not afford to pay for us. because we need to. or. from our g.d.p. rich countries something more than nine percent from our budget poorest country we need to pay off march richer countries the country central bank has even warned of a possible recession recent polls suggest up to sixty percent of historians are against the country's membership of the. the government however doesn't seem to pay attention and refuses to drop out of this relief fund meanwhile members of this community say they would rather help greece with potatoes and far it would then see

their pension money heading their adopting the euro soon or later was a necessary condition for a stone you to join the european union but being part of the european financial stability facility was not in the agreement and while economists are speculating whether stonier should continue its membership in this organization ordinary people are left to wonder why they have to pay someone else's debts. reporting from. elsewhere the main news stories that have shaped the week i'll be back with the headlines after a very short break. whether

you dive from high or to the depths. catch the power of the wind or drift in the beauty of the currents. the well prepared is a must and if you're lucky enough. you'll never forget your experience will.