news uncommon 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 protesters were calling for a rerun of the election which they claim was raked 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 good 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 speaking at 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 pointed directly by the president they used to be elected in the ninety's but this was cancelled due to 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 way elations 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 and almost 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 a legal right to express opinion but warned any attempts to manipulate and provoke

the people will not be accepted up with him 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 but getting back to the reforms to the need to be another proposal concerning his own post 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 mediate if he's aiming for the prime minister's seat if putin wins the upcoming presidential vote in mark he is going to have already moscow. the head of the arab league's observer mission to syria arrives in damascus general mohamed el dobby's

aim is to check the country's compliance with an arab peace plan aimed at holding the nine month long unrest 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 suicide bombings on friday that killed forty four but as artie's 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 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 as one says the winds of change have begun to blow the little stronger the arab league's impose tough economic sanctions the effects of which have been felt even head in a poor area of damascus and her family is struggling to make ends meet

so new 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. and now the fuel for his vending cart has become harder to get hold of with the economic sanctions driving the. last products available and the prices are pushed higher there's been fights over again we've been trying to manage by cutting back as much as we can sometimes when we can't afford it we just don't eat. economic situation in syria was one of the areas president assad had been seen to be making some progress will be it slowly the for a population that it started seeing the results of economic opportunity. financial transactions. blackouts become the new. they could be even financial times ahead. because of the economic sanctions people rush to stockpile

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 is hate the sanctions would the government hand when it came to ending the violence in the country is inside syria at the moment many feel is every day people who are being punished economic sanctions so it's just like taking the lead that he saw on his day that must have become part of the daily life for 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. position they remain skeptical about whether that too will bring about any change. in the west of the conflict areas change can come in to seeing some parity of toothy families like. finding life under the sanctions increasingly desperate

search for. 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 here about these atrocities five to house the. death here and the so-called massacres none of these numbers are confirmed they are actually given and if you look at the media they are actually telling you that they are 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 this is basically a make up of a psychological warfare first of all the decision on syria was made

a years ago even as the preparations began and this is a turkey on the border there there are nato air base there injured airbase in may two thousand and eleven so they have the decision they have had the decision 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 key pocket 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. major news of us were drawn is the one 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 un 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 apples way of contain china that so i would read the american response whether they will decide to do it 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 the following year when there's a 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 and more if the. susan's not the children. that there was a true last then we may get into don't you try insults and then she who knows what will happen after the fall of the gadhafi regime in libya revenge killings have

become a common occurrence in the country so ability peace and freedom from press persecution are just a dream as tribal violence is on the riots accent of waica 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 nadir propped rebels overran get off his hometown of sirte there was behind a camera delivers a verdict did you work for gadhafi did you. and the captives themselves seem dad sad to hear about what's coming next. scenes like these play now with a costly being as the rebels assisted by western powers so to liberate the country from gadhafi arbonne 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 is ferocity is here and hatred still resides in this neighborhood. obviously is a poor area and solved in tripoli where more margot duffy had strong support base prior to his fleeing the district also has his 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 legit good office supporters can turn to for how mom and 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 gadhafi 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. mohamed and his friends have been taking photos of unidentified bodies that have been popping up across leadbetter 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 hold dies last and leave 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 finishing the cover the situation from inside libya and now looks back on her time there.

we arrived in libya in the evening and 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 khadafi. could both blame each other if journalists got killed. when our first night in tripoli we got a very warm welcome rixos hotel we stayed was just a kilometer or two away from. his residence. and that was bombed that night as it had never been before and would never beat our wards. it was literally shaking curtains in our rooms were moved even with doors firmly closed my bed was just beside

a glass wall i moved. into the room because i was scared that an explosion could destroy literally. my western colleagues explaining that. rixos hotel at the time was the safest place in the air because major news events were drawn this morning 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 also some old bombs landed here this story as you can see behind me some rolled three story buildings. and there were no. rational rescuers at the scene only man who bare hands. and one after another they pulled out five dead bodies. wishing you could see that but.

because they were just wrapped up a blanket. five live band all. in the mall we heard that they were free little babies among the dead. they will line there. the cold metal tables still in pampers. and next morning nato confirmed. it had made a mistake intended target during last night's best strike in tripoli was a military missile site. from our initial assessment of it appears that one weapon did not strike the intended target due to a weapons systems failure. 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 tonne photographer came to me and pointing at the man. in his suit told me he wants to meet you the next night i got a call the card he said wait someone told me weeks back to them to blindfold us but they didn't do anything like that. you know the rock you hold the enter the room and no one paid any attention to. what he was different when he entered we all noticed we all knew that he is right now in the room. there was an injury common knowledge from a very powerful man. he invited me to follow him in a separate. group me with questions many questions like what do you think about nato what do you think about the prize in hand 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 look at my notes and among 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 he thought always before answering that was really literally electricity and that truth. 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 two thousand and eleven it 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 any you can see them on our web site 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 school was 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. so i had for you this hour christmas tragedy. five separate terror attacks in nigeria by an extremist sect have killed at least forty. 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 having 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 in gauge him

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 had and insisted it had left behind a stable country but 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 the shias and the kurds that was an issue that plagued the american occupation for all of its long 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 violence 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 dad most stand 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 the group was involved in prolonged 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. both will have a room maybe an extremist islamic sect but he issue is for the political corruption crow years of deprivation human the

last elections were worse than free in fear. still of yarn of the looser way he represents the christian south about half of nigeria is a muslim there in the north they want. it year the year they are being totally shut out of the system and jonathan is that close western charities close washington ties close to big oil and ease their near east their men to turn their country to big oil and let them just suck the world out of the experience of the people vets the anger the striving these arabs it has been a year since a stunning i 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 at a chef school has more on paper these people live in one of the most prosperous economies

of the baltic region in reality their homeland. is the e.u.'s poorest country and after spending a year being part of the euro zone these people say the positive changes that were promised are nowhere to be seen but the home of a lot recently euro commission check their pensions are authorities told them received an average pension of six hundred euro this is far from reality pensions in greece which fifteen hundred euro we hear get around two hundred. stoli 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 clearly political advantage in terms of if you want locking in more firmly into the e.u. . is well in terms of investment the support for the euro is holding up very well. people seem to be to see the advantages you maybe politically rather than

economically but the year award option 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 bail out countries like greece and now experts say this membership comes at a price and cannot afford to pay for the formula for us very bad because we need to . or. from our g.d.p. rich countries something more than nine percent from our budget the poorest country we need to pay off my trichet 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 tallinn in a stony. those were 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 world prepared is a must and if you're lucky enough. you'll never forget your experience only nice them a screen that's going to be heading. in the flight see a movie and below the ice on our t.v. . thank you for being with us and here is our team of the stakes in the week's top stories tens of thousands gather for a peaceful rally in the russian capital demanding air. on all the parliamentary elections president dmitry medvedev of valve's a bold reforms promising an overhaul of the country's political system. the head of the arab league's mission to syria ransom damascus amid fresh claims of violence and turn national pressure mounts on the syrian regime to end its crackdown on protesters as violence in.