can a stand. decision day for the syrian people as they take to the polls over a new constitution that would herald the end of single party. but the opposition is but that's the facts and if the country's violence with security forces on high alert here in time at the polling stations. in the syrian capital damascus. thousands join hands in a massive flash mob for fair elections trying to encircle moscow city center a week before the country goes to the polls. and thousands again march in protest against education cuts in spain as the euro crisis takes hold around the mediterranean greece breeze a sigh of relief with the final approval of

a much needed. six pm in moscow i met treasure bring you today's top stories and a look back at the week's headlines here on r.t. the syrian people voting on a new constitution the most significant poll for forty years and the backdrop of violence plaguing the country since last march the opposition though is boycotting the vote or he's worried if it has the latest. but we've been hearing lots of alarming reports on possible terror attacks and provocations and strikes here in the capital damascus and everywhere in syria for that reason clearly security has been tightened up and police officers are literally everywhere we've seen many of them today patrolling the streets trying to watch the situation their position has

indeed been boycotting the vote but not only that they've been calling actually on all people to go strive not to go cast ballots and to take to the streets to protest against president bashar assad and to ask for him to step down the violence is continuing in the country with reports on people dying in a literally every day but as for the vote actually it is progress thing we've been able to visit to polling stations here in the capital damascus and people there are people there are voters we've been able to speak to them they don't feel afraid some of them have said that yes we know that there are armed groups in the countries who are trying to make provocations who are trying to prevent us from voting but we hope that this referendum in this constitution as part of the package of democratic reforms promised by bashar assad and his government will be able to bring peace and stability to our country so we are voting no most of what they say

but of course the pressure from the opposition as well as from the international community is very high because they call this vote laughable. ballots instead of bullets mesta ministrations and violent protests have been rolling across syria for almost a year. the syrian government desire calling for the people to shape their future together by taking part in a referendum on the country's due constitution fulfilling its pledge to reform. a boss who's very excited that he'll be able to decide his own tomorrow. it's a completely new era is good for everybody even opposition can take part it's for all amendments to the country's number one law have been among the key demands of the opposition since the uprising began it starts with eliminating baath party supremacy which have ruled the country for the last fifty years introduces a multi-party system and sets

a two term limit on any future president however even these reforms a cause in controversy to harden his friend odin flower shop in damascus he says this new document draws a line between him and his muslim business partner. there's a big contradiction article thirty three says all equal rights number three says only muesli can be a president so what about the other ten percent we're not here temporarily we've been living together for ages who want to be counted. now maybe ten percent of the people they speak about this ok but maybe if we was removing this article from the new constitution the ninety percent would said well why you take this article out. public debates on the draft constitution have been organized to bring the people and the author of the new document together they don't trust me they don't suppose you just say that these people you want.

me to leave your c.d.'s you know you see this becoming but some say the reste a long way to go to that new syria and they don't believe the government to follow through with the reforms and the thirty five again is the constitution somebody will forward shoot me clashes and protests almost every day but some hope that the referendum will not only breed and you constitution it might even be able to stop the bloodshed refinish. damascus syria. if you may is putting the smart money on nuclear intelligence while the un's atomic agency struggles to reach a conclusion on iran's nuclear weapons u.s. intelligence agencies have their own evidence and it may not sit well with israel. but first our ring of solidarity that was the protesters calling for free and fair

elections in russia thousands took part in today's attempt to surround the center of moscow holding hands they want to complete the city's garden ring the road that in circles the historic center peter offer has more. the goal of sunday's demonstration was to form a human chain around the garden ring in moscow and i want bodies as a ring road that goes around the downtown area of the russian capital. now the activists who are organizing this event today had called on supporters to come out wear white and support of their cause which is to see free and fair elections in russia no they were able to complete that journey around the garden ring that human chain around sixty kilometers from one end to the other so clearly masses of people coming out and taking part there there were also some supporters of the blood to be a putin for president who turned out it is a week before the presidential vote and there were some heated exchanges at times between supporters of the various political factions here in russia all of them

peaceful but a few raised voices at times all of this coming either say a week before russians go to the polls to elect the next president and we've seen a a space of political rallies in the last week we've seen supporters of the timea putin for president also still supporters of the the the leaders of the liberal democratic party and the communists as well as other groups coming out and showing their support for the particular candidates that they want to see take the top job . next sunday's presidential elections. as peter reported next sunday russians will head to the polls to choose our next president selecting from a number of candidates who are all out on the campaign trail but one contender is keeping a relatively low profile and stirring some buzz though a broad as artie's laura smith reports from london. russians a used to seeing putin in all manner of surroundings not only in top level meetings also out in the wilderness and even singing to

a hollywood a list crowd. but there always needs. heights to scale and you currently find him looming large on a london icon the double decker bus. is coming it proclaims so may find the wording of the slightly sinister but it's all to do with a new book which analyzes putin the man not the politician the books the results of a six year collaboration between a british author and russian journalist alexander. put in there is probably the most interesting political in the world at the moment and yes the right people who feel and be violent towards the rebels who love him or those who do but the most important thing is that sort of. can see that they don't. although as it turned out that wasn't quite true you know if somebody like the desperate or russia

did name. those you probably appreciate you supposing the russian. i don't know about. the prime minister of russia but what. the authors say friday's book release isn't connected to next month's election in russia but it does come hot on the heels of two separate british documentaries involving putin one a look at the controversial political youth group nash and the other a critically acclaimed part counter through relations with the west during his twelve years at the top there will be the world's attention on him again and people want to know is this a man we've seen before is he changing will he change can he face the new challenges and how does the recent protest movement affect his politics and his outlook having his face on double decker buses were helping to save as russians

prepared to go to the polls but love him or person's reputation as russia's strongman has captured the imagination of documentary makers. and in the u.k. and elsewhere whether it's in sydney it's an open question numerous mentality. stay with us here on r.t. still to come accused of aiding the enemy america's most famous whistleblower gets his first court hearing after nineteen months in custody and two weeks after being nominated for the nobel peace prize war in a few minutes. but first spain's students refusing to sit quietly with thousands again turning out to the streets mainly over planned education cuts but also after police came down hard on their last rally officers were accused of brutality at a protest earlier this week that left several people hurt and more than forty arrested r.t. sara for reports from the coastal bloc. you know the problems that face every day

like of money competition for jobs add to that spain has the highest unemployment in the year two t. nine percent the sixteen to twenty four year olds unemployed in the country and factor in that they just had recent spending because it is a thank you to education in fact they badly this some of these students who come to the streets say they haven't even got basic heating in the coliseums and well this is the result really thousands and thousands of people already out on the streets but to protest some of them that gaze right the way along the main high street in the city have a lens here now some of the signs every day and now a students about it enough that's mbak friends to the protests we saw at the beginning of the week where the police were condemned to directions which was seen as being excessively violent scenes of than chasing and hitting some of the protesters spoke very fierce reaction from a lot of the public and a lot of anger his guilt about these actions huge number of people joining in this

protest and a lot of anger and of course this pos is the one demonstrations we've seen happening in recent days as the all star team is that of being voted in by the new government have provoked this angry reaction. across the mediterranean greece managed to snatch of saw from the jaws of default this week it took months of waiting but he knew leaders eventually clear the latest hundred thirty billion euro bailout but at the cost of imposing further cuts harlan green from popular economics dot com believes the austerity without a plan for reviving the economy is futile. they're using the wrong vehicle for this all. it basically has the rebuilding of greece and it should be the i.m.f. that is running the program not the european banks the i.m.f. how's knows how to redevelop the country reconstitute increases case they've lost productivity they've lost what we call economists call aggregate demand by just

demanding austerity without a plan for recovery it's a plan for recovery that's missing that i haven't seen yet if you just call for hysteria the u.k. . kills it it kills the economy merkel's counterpart gearhart schroeder you know the socialists that was voted out by her has said this stead of austerity they should be giving them more aid to help them rebuild their economy i mean i doubt even every one in germany agrees with shortly why believe it's running the economy. to the afghan capital now where one u.s. soldier has reportedly been killed and several wounded in a grenade attack this amid the sixth day of anti-american riots across the country sparked by news that copies of the koran had been burned at a u.s. airbase washington apologize for what it called on the stake in the afghan president is urging for calm but hammad karzai admitted the sentiment in his country was a legitimate reaction and called for those who are in the qur'an to be punished dozens have been killed in iraq since tuesday including two senior u.s.

officers made a think tank to erector in neighboring pakistan says the americans neither understand nor respect the afghan culture. in the decade that the u.s. military has that in abundance done for the first time even if you do smaller places and provinces in towns where ever there is a u.s. presence ordinary of guns are laying siege to these places even after two years it seems the americans don't know who they're dealing with the don't know the i'll get on very well the u.s. military are increasingly treated to what i would call anti islamist and they're constantly sort of indoctrinated into into into treating islam disrespectfully i sailed to see how the u.s. military personnel and the of the east end of gun army personnel would be able to restore the level of trust that existed and let's see if i do a good turn now to some other stories making headlines across the globe

a car packed with explosives were rammed into a church in nigeria killing at least three people wounding several others the church was filled with sunday morning worshippers when the suicide attackers struck in the city of jos radical islamist group boko haram is being planed all being blamed although no one is yet and emitted to carrying out the attack the sect has killed more than three hundred people this year alone in its quest to impose sharia law all across the country. pakistan more than halfway through. demolishing osama bin laden's final hideout the al qaeda leader was shot dead by u.s. forces bought a bad compound last may after hiding out there for several years no official reason being given for the demolition but it's thought authorities don't want the site to become a shrine. in yemen army shelling has killed five al qaeda linked militants officials say the strike began in the southern town of zanzibar saturday night and continued into the early morning a yemeni soldier was also killed when he stepped on

a mine in the same area government forces have failed to oust militants from the south of the country who managed to seize control of several parts of the region in the past year. the standoff over iran's nuclear program shows no signs of reaching a resolution with the u.n. atomic officials saying to iran has failed to cooperate they visited the islamic state twice this year and say iran has stepped up its uranium enrichment western allies suspect iran is building a nuclear bomb but iran says it has the right to a peaceful nuclear program the country is currently struggling under harsh sanctions from the u.s. and e.u. with israel threatening military action but u.s. intelligence has reportedly said there's no evidence to support accusations tehran is pursuing nuclear weapons raise a mirage here from the national iranian american council and a former u.s. state department official says a new approach is needed to solve the crisis. the american intelligence agencies and for that matter the israeli intelligence agencies and many other foreign governments intelligence agencies are saying that iran is not made the political

decision to pursue weaponized stations and that leaves time for diplomacy to be pursued to find a peaceful solution that's beneficial to all parties involved the primary sticking point the primary tropp problem that we see is that nobody trusts one another people in the p five plus one don't trust each other iran doesn't trust anybody in the p five plus one so in an effort to try and move things forward and shift that paradigm from the negative to the positive you know we need to get creative and international leaders need to find ways to take risks for peace anything from broadening the agenda to discussion issues not just focus on iran's nuclear program but things that iran is also interested in regional security energy security things of that nature you also bringing in some. outside actors who the p five plus one and iran do have trust within turkey and brazil being to keep samples of the parties that could play that kind of mediating role if positive inducements are not offered to iran and if the west doesn't seriously consider whether or not offering

those positive inducements to iran are in america's interests europe's interests i'm negotiating will fail because iran will not like israel has been repeating its threat of military action on iranian nuclear sites saying that slapping sanctions on the countries not working but the u.s. and britain have warned against the move saying it could be disastrous for the region as artie's or an english girl reports from tel aviv in anti-riot inoffensive may already be underway. israel's leaders are actively drumming up the military rhetoric. iran is the biggest terror exporter in the world the israeli government and its security forces will continue to act forcefully systematically and calmly against international terrorism eating from iran. a potential israeli rocket clash looks more likely than never there is speculation a preemptive strike against iran's nuclear sites could happen as early as spring or summer although that's not causing undue concern in israel i think possibly people

you know they make their plans for a vacation you know pass or a vacation summer vacation possibly people are beginning to wonder well is there going to be a war is something going to mess it up or i think they're probably going ahead with it with sort of a thought we're back home or it would be nice if we could get a flight that we could cancel you know is that sort of thing israel has previous experience when it comes to putting an end to nuclear ambitions which pose a potential threat in one thousand nine hundred one is jets wiped out reactors in iraq they struck again in two thousand and seven hitting sites in syria but with iran's nuclear program things may not be so simple if israel attacks iran it will not stop iran forever from getting nuclear weapons the only postpone it for a relatively brief amount of time the. installations are too diverse and far flung to destroy practically israel does not have u.s.

poured the white house secretary advisor was in israel warning against a move on iran saying it was better to wait for tougher sanctions to take effect in the coming months but mines may already be made up i think one of the things to create this aura of inevitability is to shut them up to shut up opposition at home and of course to convince the united states and europe that this is an inevitability it's going to happen daughter pose that in fact why don't you help us out there is a question mark however over whether israel has what it takes to carry out the mission i doubt whether we have the capability. creating the images to the extent of the mediating the program and even if israel's military prowess will allow it to carry out a strike on underground facilities in iran chances are it won't and if their president saddam hussein and bashar assad by the time they knew what was happening was over and could just you know grumble without having to fight back you imagine

iran sitting still you know all day day after day day after day while israel is hitting trigger to hit back i think any any sane person realizes that there will almost guaranteed be missiles falling on israel and considering your own fault one of the twentieth century's longest wars against iraq in the one nine hundred eighty s. it consequences could be five reaching and destructive. to zero has been suffering some bad weather as of late but it's unlikely that even the strongest winds will blow the country's foreign policy off its course and when it comes to israel's forecast for iran this storm clouds seem to be growing ever darker in tel aviv r.t. . later this hour a former us presidential advisor tells r t i was country should give up trying to end world tyranny and instead focus on its interests rather than stepping in to others here's a preview. the idea that we're going to end tyranny in the world is utterly utopian

we never are we've had tyrants from time immemorial and what the united states should do in my judgment in its foreign policies is build a defense establishment strong enough to protect our vital interests and our vital allies and when problems arise whether it's in zimbabwe or somewhere else the people there have got to deal with their own problems there no doubt about it that throughout history tyrants have arisen and see power in one place or another and as long as they don't threaten our vital interests or threaten and kill our people the fact that they rule and or misrule certain countries. it is none of our business. the u.s. soldier accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of secret military files to wiki leaks chose not to enter a plea during his first court appearance thursday bradley manning who faces twenty two charges also passed on deciding whether he wanted to be tried by

a military jury or a single judge if convicted of aiding the enemy he could be handed a life sentence with no chance of parole he's considered a hero to some americans and is even being nominated for the nobel peace prize by an icelandic group but there are doubts over whether the whistleblower could get a fair trial even after president obama publicly stated he broke the law former ooc war veteran michael prysner thinks the u.s. government is using manning's trial to send a message to the military. the u.s. military before bradley manning was convicted of any crime he still hasn't they wanted to punish him and they wanted to punish him very harshly for with the accused him of doing but not only that he wanted to send a message to every other person in uniform every other service member that if the to decide to take that type of action that bradley manning is accused of taking that they will be well aware of very harsh torture is repartitioned if they decide to do this and this is a real big concern for the u.s.

military because all that bradley manning did what bradley manning experienced was he was a rank and file soldier who went to the war in iraq and was repulsed by what he saw he was repulsed by the war and he was repulsed by that the things that he saw going on day to day and so he felt that he had to take a stand and thought that other people deserve to see what was happening what all of their tax dollars were going to and what their families were dying for now this is a war this was a war that the vast majority of americans oppose and a majority of soldiers opposed in the war in afghanistan is no different the majority of pows out where the majority of soldiers oppose that war as well so the u.s. military is really dealing with the threat of rank and file soldiers being the ones who take a stand and say this is wrong and we no longer want to take part of it and the people need to know the reality of what's happening because the government is just lying to us. remember there's plenty of war from our t. dot com here's what's on the line right now. the man proclaimed for i hero

for overriding a third world war his story on our website. was rio's legendary carnival coming to its colorful conclusion with a massive show fireworks and thousands of exotic dancers joining the celebration if you're not in brazil watching it yourself you can have fun watching the footage of the parade. coming away a little later in our tease sports update a gathering of legends forty years after beating each other for the first time on the ice stars of hockey come together again we tell you why in our sports update in about twenty minutes. but first our interview focusing on the u.s.

stance over syria after a recap of the week's top stories stay with us. we

have a vote before the office was given the notes we have a while to believe the only groups the causes of the sluices also are using the who have more rights in africa just by marriage was like many at that marriage it wasn't forced marriage it's the smadi when i was fifteen yes you can liberate other when you certainly can't do it through the barrel of a gun effective social changes can be the afghans themselves afghan men and women we believe going to spawn cannot truly cross paths with out the part of the patient it's chemical for the shot and that it comes to action but stop people in the obama administration talking about how much they care about the women of afghanistan it's not true they don't care about the women of afghanistan.

and treasure to. be true. family. and a link. on the bottom of a coffee swamp.

lead it's. illegal. it's just silly.