that. football now where in the english premier league manchester united have lit rivals manchester city at the summit following a two one victory over liverpool at old trafford double from wayne rooney in the second hargate since man in essential win on the scoreboard for the visitors red devils are now at a point above city in the table with roberto mancini charges notts playing until sunday. in other football news final preparations are taking place ahead of this year's african cup of nations final ivory coast will be the overwhelming favorite one they take on sunday in the decisive clash in the bourne. booked their place in the final with a one mil victory over mali in the samis on wednesday the tournament favorites haven't reached the showpiece final since back in two thousand and six but forward kalu says the elephants team spirit could be the secret to their success.

and the team spirit. and you can see with every game we played even destro. you know. so i think that the spirit those who are we looking for we want to we. most important to google to feel that's what we are for was reached the final after a surprise one nil win over ghana in the semifinal selby huge underdogs ahead of the game despite that victory at parts kept saying chris scott tong is convinced his side can cause an upset. but i did it more me than living but i think i want to be fulfilled if you but i want to be the one this is the moment that we can show all the guys to get out the team if we can show. as. we did it for nobody

expected it but we believe in ourselves that we're going to do and i think this is our moment. now russian efforts are says are becoming a major force at the paralympics of their winter games countries strongpoint russia is slowly climbing up the rankings and some are disciplined says while a correspondent or mark or serve has met one of the leading russian palin parents. while the russians dominated the winter paralympics it's the chinese who are unquestionable leaders when it comes to the summer portion of the games however the biggest country on earth could put up a decent fight against the world's most populated nation as soon as this summer their all these great opportunities but russia like china may look at china look at china tops the summer games table russia tops the winter well let's see what happens in london there's a big team coming from russia about one hundred eighty s. weights you know you could do very very well with the upcoming paralympics in

london could become the visually impaired but the call was third successful podium attempts. and they did won her maiden paralympic gold at the two thousand and four athens games but failed to repeat that feeds four years later in beijing settling for bronze but london is slowly dawning on me as she dreams of ending her career with another piece of paralympic silverware. i was thinking of retiring after the two thousand and four games i told myself this is it this is the last time but then i got to go to the games again but this time i'm definitely going to retire that there's. douglas dons a sports world is mostly famous for its multiple freestyle wrestling and big champions this russian republic is predominantly muslim and the majority of athletes are male. as example good proper rising demand for women in sports who are already becoming a regular sight in the distance gems. i don't get negative comments that often of

course some people say that girls should stay at home and cook dinner but none of my friends or fellow athletes would ever say such a thing they always treat me with respect they're always happy for me none of them think that i'm doing something inappropriate. muddiness success in life spans far beyond her sporting glory until recently she had the full support of her family and friends but that circle has now been complemented by another to die hard supporters her husband and new born son who will hopefully witness their favorite women reach the top of the paralympic podium once more room on call sort of artsy russia's republic of dagestan. over to winter sports no where in bought sleigh this series do you have to thomas one part or have claimed the world cup title that's after clinching victory at the final stage of the season in calgary the two men but with

have to end the party came germany's shots and. one hundredth of a second now that german crew finished third. son is of course for russia came fifth here to take third place overall. in formula one team for i received a much needed boost as fernando alonso was fastest on the final day of the time to twelve pre-season tests in spain the spaniard clocked the first time of one minute eighteen point eight seven seven seconds to finish just ahead a french driver. whose result was almost a second slower. defending world champions of us and fattal finished third on the day with one minute nineteen point six zero six seconds in the road while mclaren hamilton was fourth fastest. want to world racing now where you are a lot for a lot of finland has taken the lead at the grand prix of sweden despite winning

just one of the ten special stages completed so far but he's fought to a stage win and three second place finishes to overhaul compared to make him in it by seventeen seconds claimed three of the day's stages but some troubles on course let him to second place overall of norway currently lies twenty seconds behind the leader a time world champion sebastian up came off route stage seven finish the day in seventh place almost a two minute gap. and finally cycling frenchmen not tomorrow has won this sixth and final stage of the twenty eight twelve tour of qatar tom boonen of belgium sealed overall victory there at the last competition boon and came home just fifteenth but this was enough to secure first support overall for the belgian while britain's mark cavendish suffered some bad luck i say went down during the finishing sprint

this left him in sixth place overall but it was demar who celebrated victory in qatar as a final stage out printed russian denise. and mark pressure off the finish. is yet to get used to plate on the podium admitting there is still a lot to improve. well i am very happy i have reached another level of great circumstances. good the result i still have a lot to learn the whole week has been a very enjoyable despite the strong wind in my teammates of teaching me a lot this important. ok you have to do not think so watching us where there is next good bye. well. science technology innovation all the latest developments from

around russia we've got the future covered.

from los angeles to chicago to birmingham twenty trauma centers have closed since two thousand severe problem is not enough inpatient beds not enough heard mercy department beds and not enough nurses to man those deaths to take care of all the people who are the only real health care system that we have in the city of los angeles is the los angeles fire department in fact when i started my venture is a firefighter i didn't want to be a mask i started out running just do firefighting it's about eighty two percent of what we do the florida problem is medical but they had a rescue couple weeks ago waited four hours for bit i've waited sometimes three hours but i was it's a safe francis and we went for four hours and fifty minutes standing against a wall with a patient and we have a federal law that mandates that if you can't turn no one away who seeks care in an emergency room. we have the most expensive health care system in the world and it's probably valued

the least. more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world

has been seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations are on the day. egypt's streets and squares were alive with running crowds once again

a year after president mubarak was forced from power. people here are calling the military council to step down immediately saying they're blocking reforms in the country more from tahrir square just ahead. more pressure is called on the syrian regime as you know it's a new resolution blaming it lands at the u.n. general assembly we'll have live on syria shortly here on r.t. . and greek lawmakers further to brussels with more cuts in exchange for pain of cash while people vent their frustration on the streets of athens our top stories this hour. international news and comment live from moscow this is twenty four hours a day egyptians are staging a general strike in a day of civil disobedience to mark the first anniversary of the toppling of former

leader hosni mubarak they're calling for the military rulers to step down immediately accusing them of hindering reform well he's only going to school reports from the iconic on his square. if you ask those people they will tell you that really nothing has really been sneezed in the years has been barak has been ousted as a matter of fact there is saying that things have gotten worse because now they have to do with the military council the scouts and head of the country's government right now with forces him to step down for saying that they're going forth with democratic reforms but most people here believe that is not the case and that is why they're calling for this massive act of civil disobedience the people who are i think i think i just source this call are the egypt service nuri alliance which is comprised of more than fifty political groups. six of the six of them are the most probably revolutionary groups in the country a lot of them are university students for whom it is the first day of the semester

and they're staging sit ins and walk outs they're not going to lectures they're not going to classes they're boycotting exams they're saying that they do want to see some real changes towards democracy in the country which they haven't seen yet they're also calling on workers for massive strikes to go on indefinitely until the military council steps down but a lot of the parties that have made it into the parliament. during the recent elections are actually not supporting the strike primarily or we should know it's the muslim brotherhood who are saying that these that this these calls for a massive strike are actually destructive to the country because that will only charge egypt into further poverty and disarray also the religious leaders in the country are not supporting the strike as well but students the young people who are behind this really sit well with the workers who wanted to see some real differences there are saying that things must be chasing me more on why it's absence are going to strike here's my colleague mary snow. around a thousand killed at least six thousand injured and even more still missing egypt's

people have paid a high price to leave in a new country but despite all the sacrifices the shadow of the old regime still lose large during mubarak thirty years of mubarak's rule the estimated number of people try them under military tribunals where one to two thousand now you know within about ten months or eleven months we have twelve thousand which is of course a humongous number for a country ruled by the military the supreme council of the armed forces or scaf that's no surprise but surprisingly enough those discomforted over from who'd previously run the country are not themselves before military tribunals. for. suspected. civil court system. the ordinary people i mean. medical

records this is. and this is in the. hasty with no proper investigation usually with no lawyer and behind closed doors and with no right of appeal human rights activists complain military trials provide no justice and violate human rights you know you have a nineteen year old getting a twenty five year old center in your centers because he has a box of molotov cocktails and people who are found guilty of killing somebody by brutally beating him up and torturing him until he died these are getting seven years in jail so i mean it they're obviously there's something wrong with this picture a lot of these people are trying for absolutely no reason i mean some more just just being in the wrong place at the wrong time is enough to get you in trouble that's exactly what matters is his case september the time the israeli embassy in cairo the place. beyond screenplay writer was present at clashes between the army

and demonstrators and began helping the injured arrested he was brought to military barracks after summary trial which lasted just twenty minutes he was taken straight to prison to serve almost four months for terrorists and he says the military dishes out a very rough justice. in the emerging a seventy two year old who's been in the army for at least thirty years it must be hard for him to take off his uniform and this lifestyle and this was the only way they know how to deal with problems. for several days what did know her son's whereabouts who were there on business when his sister came to me and said i have to talk to you i knew it was about him hoping for the best i prepared myself for the worst. a month after ahmed was released he now faces yet another trial from the same incident at these really embassy. go is to intimidate people the message is

clear if you go to to really you'll be arrested and it makes us even stronger how is it they don't understand that mad is no work you know he wants a title you must shut up he explains if people didn't give up after been beaten and humiliated they'll never give up until their voices a herald of. the citadel in cairo egypt a medieval symbol of power and strength it was fortified centuries ago to protect the region from his enemies at that time crusades and crusaders today egypt's rulers are doing the same striving to defend themselves and to keep power with thousands in jails and dozens killed the concern here is that they may have been working too hard. written off nati cairo well let's get some more perspective on this joining me live now is bell true she's a freelance journalist based in qatar and i understand you've been closely

monitoring the developments there so why are gyptian protesting are the military rulers promised a presidential election in june now that's just three months away why they run out of patience. well i think first start people are unsure about where they're actually transfer in jean and so far the military the ruling military council has yet to fulfill any of its promises that said since it came into power also just generally on the streets we're seeing massive human rights violations towards protesters with people expressing their freedom of speech and we've seeing excessive use of tear gas and cartouche they call it here which is birdshot and maiming protesters has been absolutely no reform of the police as it exemplified by the football disaster a few weeks ago which saw over seventy four people die so essentially we've seen very little reform since mubarak stepped down and people are basically anxious that nothing will change and that will just slip into a new

a new dictatorship it's interesting isn't it that the party that won a majority in the recent elections the muslim brotherhood they are not supporting the strike the protest why is that considering just a few days ago they were pressing the army to replace the current prime minister with their own candidates. it's a strange move from the muslim brotherhood but we've seen this continuously not backing revolutionary actions so for example during the bamber in december there were sit ins into his square against the military and the most in brotherhood refrain from getting involved and because they were actually sort of doing their campaigns for the elections and there's a brotherhood of playing a safe game at the moment i think people here saying that in parliament they want to stay in parliament it want to rock the boat. they were calling these strike actions as destructive and i'm going to cause the ruin of egypt so i think for them they're just protecting their own interests which is to stay in parliament where they have a majority and what is the future then for egypt with that muslim brotherhoods

majority in parliament. it's a difficult one to predict exactly what's going to happen i mean the parliament itself quiet reduced alleged power thanks to the constitution that gratian written by the ruling military council so it's difficult to say how much effect the muslim brotherhood is going to have on egypt as we hear what you have a constitution in place we're not really sure what the role of parliament is and they're really finding their feet at the moment so i think for most egyptians parliament really isn't the issue it's the government and he's actually in control who's in control when the constitution is written really it seems that nothing has changed since the fall of mubarak and we're seeing of course these very strong protests and i'll always perhaps seeing the chance of another revolution happening in egypt. i think most people here would would say they do say that the revolution never ended but it's called the continuous or the ongoing revolution really since

january even after mubarak stepped down this time last year they've been continuous sit ins and protests and violent clashes with egypt's security forces pushing for protesters pushing for change they have a son yes so really we are looking at a continuous revolution just very briefly your your experience of life there in egypt just how is this arm rest affecting the economy and the people there at the moment just very quickly your own personal observations. it's seriously affected the economy of. the stock market crashed massively this time last year and the people feel it on the ground people are desperate for food on the table and this is what's turning opinion against the ongoing revolutions that definitely the economy to get back to pick up seeing true thanks so much for your time there corridos journalist joining us live there in egypt. a draft resolution on syria has been circulated at the u.n. general assembly by saudi arabia it's similar to the text vetoed in the security

council last week while calling for an end to violence by all sides it lays blame primarily on the syrian authorities state t.v. says government assassinated an army general in the capital damascus the first killing of a high ranking military officer since protests began in the group port of ongoing fighting in the country the city of aleppo suffered twin blasts on friday that killed twenty eight the free syrian army initially claimed responsibility for the attacks but later denied involvement in the government meanwhile syria's opposition says it expects official recognition from arab gulf states later this week. with no u.n. mandate to intervene in the crisis the u.s. is now said to be getting a coalition of states to support the opposition with calls from washington to arm the rebels well for more on this i can now talk to sarah marusek she's from the so acute university based in beirut syria's draft resolution it's reached the un general assembly moscow opposed the discussion of a similar text veto just a week ago in the security council how do you see this latest attempt by western

and arab states to unite international pressure against. well it's kind of expected really it doesn't seem like they're ever willing to negotiate or compromise on any of these issues and they're just always interested in forcing their own interest and their own agenda down other people's throats no matter who they're dealing with it's always comes down to their interests and really it's been very well known that united states and european allies are interested in regime change in syria and they won't stop at anything. that does not deliver a different government that they hope will be more sympathetic to western interests which is quite naive really when you think about it because the people in syria are likely not going to be more sympathetic to american and israeli aggression throughout the region and so it's interesting that they seem to be so hard hard

hard core with pushing these resolutions through either through their own. diplomats or through their puppet allies in the gulf states so i don't think that if the if the resolution was already vetoed by china and russia once before i don't think that this is going to change anything it just shows that this is not a negotiation it's not a compromise it's again an act of imperialism trying to push through poor and interests in syria that syria's population and syria's people you know the syrian people in a poll recently said that the actually favor assad staying in power because they fear the consequences of him leaving fifty five percent and of course this doesn't get published by any mustard media and no western diplomats or politicians would ever think to take seriously that kind of information this talk about the way the u.s. and other arab countries and nato allies are trying to pursue their interests there

we do know that there are calls from washington to. the rebel groups but we also know that some of those opposition groups are being linked to al qaida does the u.s. and its allies really intend to support them directly indirectly in that way. it's absolutely fascinating hearing the contradictory reports coming out of washington recently there were you know u.s. politicians saying oh these are just peaceful protestors they're not armed at all they're not doing anything violent we must support them we must back them and basically take down assad and then you have reports yesterday regarding the blast in aleppo saying that you know by u.s. intelligence officials saying that this was the work of al qaeda likely coming through perhaps iraq or something like that but if so yes of course you are right it's very ironic that you know maybe we have another case where libya a situation where the united states is just so naive in pushing through this policy

that they're willing to overlook intelligence that proves that they're going to be supporting our sworn enemies you know this is we kill people constantly with drones you know suspected terrorists and here we are going to arm the russian of course russia of course is saying this is a serious matter to be decided by the soon some souls and pushing for negotiation now we're seeing the free syrian army looking for recognition from the arab gulf states this weekend well how significant is that by picking out one element of the opposition the gulf states doing that. help in any way to promote future negotiation efforts. i don't see this actually being very good for the syrian people at all the free syrian army is the armed opposition it's conducting very violent acts against civilians in syria against both the government and you know innocent syrians we don't know who the body counts you know what politics people have who are killed and it's just purported reported by the media that these are

like anti assad civilians but they're not they're also pro assad civilians and so i don't think the syrian people are really going to appreciate you know an outside exile group that's doing acts of violence you know suddenly undemocratically declaring that they represent the people and that they should be recognized as syria's true leaders but you know again this this probably reeks of you know suggestions of washington suggestions coming from the capitals of europe you know arming and training these people in different quote unquote democracy exercises training they're going to basically say to them look you have to get legitimacy you have to convince people you're really representative but there convincing the wrong people they're convinced in the arab states are not convincing the syrian people and it's just grateful to think of what could be coming next if in externally poor .