the biggest stories of the week here at all to see a lot of it emerges triumphant in the russian presidential election after turning overwhelming poll numbers into a convincing victory but tough challenges still ahead for the new leader. emotional position scrambles to recapture the public's passion but dashed expectations and internal fractures leave the movement increasingly short of support. russia in the arab league and finally in the same boat about how to stop the syrian crisis but still trying to put stakes in the spokes of diplomacy. three days of reported off israeli airstrikes on gaza after the killing of

a palestinian resistance needed since rockets flying over the border on top stories this hour. in a pack of the past seven days top stories and the latest developments this is the weekly . the long hard fought race for the kremlin is over with prime minister vladimir putin now set to make a return to the presidency after a landslide election victory but expectations are not greater than at any other time with serious national challenges still ahead compounded by a public more politically aware than ever before. reports. it was one emotional night full fledged even approach and yeah i did promise you we would win. i mean. we have won. but you

look at prime minister may have just defined history as might a strong wind but no one would be surprised if it was caused by the joy of victory i it was hardly a shock as clinton had been the elections clear front runner with eventually result of almost sixty four percent even though at the helm who would never think about such a high result so it's going higher than we predicted for ourselves and it shows once again actually proves that we're going as a political figure number one of these countries and he's potential is here so is yet to be oh those are there but it's no time to party now many experts believe putin's real challenge in fact starts now. this will be sort of a battle between the two outer of course all of that state are relevant here and development strategies for myself i identify the first concept as portugal and they want the russian political system to be transparent whereas russia's economy where

they will get no nepotism and no corruption but on the other hand this other group . as well as russian probably whom i associated with they. they just need status quo they need just some ten dollars from the state they don't want any change which is the road to nowhere to change manifested itself in the sudden rise of new car you broke it off in under four months the russian billionaire managed to persuade more than five million people to vote for him many say this new face in a country school takes has serious potential and growth have already declared an intention to form an opposition party with which in promising humans cooperate with it to symbolize the new the new russia and some be sure. all the other candidates. from all stylish sonot. they're not you know any more leaders of the younger generation and figures before

themselves second place community leaders are going to gauge seventeen percent in his fifth compatable presidency less than he scored he had earned a parliamentary vote and experts say even this came mostly as protest building in the eyes of many this is a clear signal it's time for politicians to make way in the western countries if a party loses the election its leader is no friend changed if it happens again then he's definitely changed these guys had lost three times prior to this a lot of those folks are still seen as being somewhat out of touch you and the russians traders you know work these guys had their chance in the one nine hundred ninety s. they screwed things up you know we still need stronger leadership very able to offer we need a more concrete program and. will continue his work as prime minister for two more months of the period which could become crucial and decisive for the country's long term future what do you to put in will officially return to the kremlin on may the

seventh that is when his inauguration takes place i told then the president elect will have to work out a strategy of holding a dialogue between those in power and bills in the streets and given that some are still calling for him to step down even after such a convincing victory this may prove to be quite a task let's see russia ascii r.t. reporting from moscow. one issue this presidential campaign will be remembered for is the massive rallies that heralded a political awakening for russia's public and by all appearances they worked with transparency becoming a top government priority today however the protest movement seems to be fizzling out and support quickly fading he said in english looks at why. when the protestors unhappy with the results of the presidential elections took to the streets the day after the votes took place some kept the police busy. to give myself decided to i'll stay they wanted two hours yes you were there third posted here your role i'm

not going to leave this square i'm staying here until putin leaves where the tents and there were no tents but there was a fountain which all died so chose as a makeshift stage to make his statements from and from which police removed him and several dozens of his supporters. a situation repeated itself on saturday when police pulled all the stuff from an electricity transformer again after the opposition rally was issuing over but the antics of the opposition leaders seem to do little to keep people coming to protest rallies they use the word but also it was the what. if that hysteria that irritation and aggression had continues it would have alienated the public no one here wants a revolution no one wants to fight with police the people who come to these protests only want change they don't want bloodshed or violence which is what could scare them away the results of the elections to the studio hotly contested by many

brought tens of thousands out in the streets of moscow by the day after presidential elections there are only half of that number showed up to post in squares square and even fewer still to the demonstration on saturday young of the ratio was written on my spiritual protest action which took place over the last are going to see it more as if they go very badly you go it's not so you have ok well you know your guy you know here is was there somebody in the lack of a coherent idea and absence of unity among the opposition leaders for the waning support that i had i think these people all have a different agenda some don't even know rival here if i would start i don't see different in japan. good candidates that i could choose from but i don't think we can really reach any goals by protests like this even some of the most volatile supporters of the movement for their actions see solid foundations are necessary to carry on with the movement. and it's not some sort of regulation and structure is

needed some sort of goals an understanding of what happens next which could be easily understood by people who are also necessary. to protest movements which began as a call for free and fair elections in russia following the vote for the state duma seems to have turned into haphazard series of gatherings they have achieved success in that bringing people. to the streets and try to attract more attention to their slogans but we are now witnessing their slogans leads to the change there is a need for a us gender impact the rallies seem to have only one slogan out with putin but what to do if he leaves no one seems to know in moscow in a girls' school our team. reaction to vladimir putin's return to the presidency by no means stopped at russia's borders coming up in about fifteen minutes from now a stake for everyone the media is to raid against putin his candidacy comes to an

abrupt halt as observers of russian voters paint a very different picture of reality. and if in the mood for more election stories or footage of korean post poll rallies it always find what you're looking for at r.t. dot com also their expert an amateur opinion on what's ahead for russia and the course that the people want to take that and plenty more for you at r.t. dot com. debate on how to stop the syrian crisis has been tending towards diplomacy russia and the arab league have come up with a joint plan ruling out foreign intervention and calling on both the government and the opposition to lay down arms that says the u.n. arab envoy has been to syria promoting an all inclusive garlock was artie's more information reports there are those still trying to hinder the efforts. after several recent differences between western and arab views and those of russia and china on how the long running syrian conflict should be handled we're now seeing some consensus looking after the meeting with his arab counterparts russia's

foreign minister sergey lavrov has said they hammered out a common plan it sounds a clear message to all of the sides being involved in this crisis. we've agreed a joint position of five main points first to stop violence wherever it comes from second to create an impartial and independent monitoring system third no external interference for the unrestricted delivery of humanitarian aid to all syrians and finally a firm support of kofi annan mission to start a political dialogue between the government and all of position groups you've seen it was it. the joint u. arab league envoy is currently on a peace mission here in damascus both their sources and within the country opposition welcomed the initiative but the efforts were dismissed even before coffee islands arrival to syria by another opposition group based outside the country the syrian national council recognized by many countries but e.u. as a legitimate representative of the syrian people seeking for democratic change is firmly

rejected talks with the government it's called one more meeting pressure on the regime of bashar al assad these calls were followed by suggestions by qatar to deploy foreign troops to syria but there is a fear here on the grounds of the growing international interference in the country's conflict is paving the way for an even bigger crisis as the syrian conflict stretches out in time it has also spread geographically i case of the uprising belt far from the country's borders but what's happening in syria is heartbreaking. and what you've seen is the international community mobilize against the assad regime strategic analyst doctors to leave says one thing is clear though that mobilization has many more than officially stated. during the operation in baba amr the syrian army. arrested fighters from gulf countries and afghanistan iraq libya and some european states their work was coordinated by could tori and saudi intelligence officers as well as cia and mossad its also seized israeli

weapons especially missiles and israeli drones while the u.s. and many other countries have admitted al qaeda linked extremists groups fighting alongside beyond authorization in syria dr salim says some countries are using those groups to further their own interests. to get local players involved in order to hide and this is why we hear mostly arabs like saudi arabia and qatar or iraq these countries don't have democracy at home of course they cannot ask for stablish in it in syria they have another agenda. there are books and written sources where this plan is described in detail decades ago and how to coach blogger and freelance journalist has been investigated for an important and serious crisis since last year she says this is a story with three main chapters weapons smuggled across the border this is contractors and foreign cash. when you see

a lot of money in syria then you really believe that this is comparable to what happened in the supreme war in lebanon there were plenty of money then you will find not going to talk about hundreds of dollars or something nobody would kill him so. now you would see now this is the beginning of a war here in syria with more and more reports on international involvement emerging and calls to arm the opposition getting louder he has put those at the grassroots for the uprising the initial euphoria is churning. i can say we regret what we did but we didn't want things to go that far but it turned so much militarized globalized and boil and we never want to and don't want intervention. but fears are. that it's could be too late to stop this older planes of conflict while the conflict between president bashar assad and his

opponents here in syria about to enter its second year and other conflict is also in full swing between those calling on dialogue and political settlement as their way out and those who insist on military solution and the lactase turning into a fight almost as important as the one claim in blood on the streets. see damascus syria top u.s. defense officials admitted this week that president obama has asked the pentagon to set up military options on syria that's despite recently dismissing veteran senator john mccain's calls for airstrikes saying any attack would be a mistake she returned say a london based journalist and author told me that he thinks neither the united states nor the european union are interested in a peaceful solution. the horrifying prospect of foreign intervention hasn't gone away the e.u. and the us not concerned about humanitarian help for the people being killed by troops if they were really caring about humanitarian issues maybe caring about the

saudi arabians of the regular people over the weekend or the bahraini government killing its own citizens the league says strapped for document is correct british troops are there now american special forces british special forces on the ground libyan money hundreds of millions there the supply routes from turkey this is. horrifying prospect. i should return to talking to a little earlier the libyan whose interim rulers are struggling to keep the country together after a group of tribal militia leaders declared a partial autonomy for an all rich region in the east the head of the national transitional council was quick to blame remnants of the gadhafi regime for the breakup stuff also said the country's integrity would be defended by any means including force if needed the country has real world affairs magazine spight says these comments expose the new rulers to accusations that they are operating just like gadhafi. you almost couldn't make it ultimate stuff. now the head of the

national transitional council their former himself the minister of justice under gadhafi is now threatening to use force against you know the kind of these three region garth you can about its head because they decided to act autonomous lee i think that's very worrying you know this is an unelected representative saying this you know how can you justify this you know how can we actually say there are many better than gadhafi if i'm going to use brutal force if i'm going to use coercion to try and keep my country together so it meets with my will which is not the will of the people because i haven't been voted. coming up in afghanistan as american forces have some major blood on their hands it covers all three u.s. soldier opens fire and civilians in kandahar killing sixteen people many of them children what effect will this have on washington's quest to win over hearts and

minds there are. all sorts of visions of sudden collapse to all those grease hammers are the biggest debt reduction deal in history what it's praised to the hilt by brussels rating agencies slam it as default other name. so those two stories still to come for you plenty of others in the meantime israel has carried out several airstrikes on gaza killing seventeen people over three days that's the worst violence the region's seen in more than a year the first attack came just got an informal truce between the two sides targeted a high ranking palestinian resistance leader and sparked fears exchange of fire. is watching developments there. such a thing here on the ground continues to escalate as israeli forces and palestinian militants continue exchanges of fire now the latest figures we have put the palestinian death toll at seventeen most of them on the embers of islamic jihad but overnight a twelve year old palestinian boy was killed in the jabalya refugee camp by an

israeli air strike cairo is reportedly needed eighteen what he's trying to mediate it is a her master negation in egypt and the gyptian ambassador to the palestinian authority has put the blame for me on the shoulders of the israelis saying that they are to blame for breaking this tacit ceasefire that has been in place between israel and gaza at the same time the arab league has been meeting in cairo and they've also called israeli airstrikes and massacre the middle east quartet is needed to look at these stores negotiations between israelis and palestinians that meeting comes ahead of a special session of the united nations security council that will be addressing the arab spring uprisings. a u.s. soldier has been detained after going on a shooting rampage in southern afghanistan killing sixteen civilians including nine children and it's thought he opened fire inside local homes in the middle of the night later is investigating the incident which comes after

a mass protest last month over the inadvertent burning of copies of the qur'an at a u.s. military base in the german from the start the war coalition in london believes this is massively damaging for america's entire pain in the country the americans will try to say this is just an isolated incident but we have to remember that there are one hundred thousand occupying troops there are many many demonstrations over the pearly of the koran that isn't just about the offense to islam it's also about the occupation itself the airstrikes and particularly in this case we know that every night tonight can stand up to forty thousand it's a raid it looking for alleged terrorists in the country now if this soldier is one of the many who've been involved in these raids and it does raise many many questions as to exactly how the americans are treating the occupied population the afghan people. and speed

a week of sharp ups and downs for the greek economy athens minister to private creditors into accepting a crucial born swap deal that's considered the biggest write down in history the greenman seem to loosen the rope around athens and they are reducing the debt burden by more than one hundred billion euros e.u. leaders praised the deal to the skies claiming a solution to the crisis had it not been found but just hours later the bureaucrats suffered a major slap in the face from the credit rating agencies as moody's and fitch both declared greece in default but i'm anderson associate professor from frostburg state university believes that the even politicians are just putting their heads in the sand and unwilling to admit the obvious. this is a before i'm going to whatever you settle with your creditor for less than what you . have agreed to do it then and you do it i don't care how systematic it is or how complicated these debt swaps are we are dealing with a real live before everybody knows that just because he claims that it isn't

a deep thought means absolutely nothing it's a politician i don't believe the pm leaders are trying to put a political spin on this but what you have in the end is in fact the taking of assets that are worthless and you have a subtle by attending but these assets mean something that these assets really are valuable when in fact they're not and then they try to monetize the whole thing and then pretend it so they solve the problem and solve nothing they have actually made it worse because they won't admit what is going on. the more public anger over unemployment in spain is so intense that it is even called the official commemorate commemoration of the two thousand and four madrid train bombings to people spoke by day because of nationwide rallies called by the country's two biggest trade unions which have drawn thousands on to the streets are outraged over reforms that make it easier and cheaper for companies to file workers the country's unemployment rate is

currently story more than one in five spaniards. nicolas sarkozy has warned that france would put out of the e.u. spoken border shame game agreements unless the union toughened up its immigration policy making it an election rally on sunday the french president pledge the whole of the number of illegal immigrants if he's reelected controllability issue as the country heads towards the first round of the coming presidential poll in april shellshock. and in other world news a suicide bomber in northwest pakistan has attacked a funeral being attended by an anti taliban politician these thirty mourners have been killed and thirty others wounded a politician escaped unhurt secular leaving the army national party holds power in the region and several of its leaders have been targeted in the possible. iran's president has defied threats coming from israel and the u.s. saying they should show respect to his country instead of bombs and missiles rather

washington or tel aviv and ruled out an attack on tehran despite a shared restart of international talks on its nuclear program during the meeting with the israeli prime minister barak obama called for any possible attack to be held back to give diplomacy more time. and yahoo's response indicated his country's patience route to run was running out of reports later emerge israel has asked washington for high tech weapons that could be used in a strike or the u.s. defense chief in turn said an american attack on iran would be far more effective raising what actually from the national iranian american council says it's crucial for regional stability and israel's warlike cries a muslim after three decades of little or no communication between iran and the united states there's no question that it's going to be a very challenging path but with all sides are facing and you know i think being on the precipice of war has to really focus the attention of the various decision makers in various capitals and focus them specifically on the need for all parties to compromise and there's

a difference between what the united states and the international community are asking for and what the israelis would prefer they've done a very good job of trying to take actions that would lessen the possibility of diplomacy being successful but the obama administration understands better than anyone right now what's at stake he's taken multiple steps publicly and privately to push back and i'm hoping that we're going to see more of that continue because if it doesn't they're going to continue to try to bully. the international media made little secret of where it's. a lot line when it comes to russian elections weeks before polls open u.s. networks are spinning fraud as facts and rigging as a given skipping over opinion surveys that painted a very different picture result he's got to reports there are perceptions to the whole. even before the election the american audience were primed to believe that the presidential vote in russia had to be a fraud is this one going to be worth a read in the west or call a free and fair election. it seems are highly unlikely that it will be a free and fair election in our sense of the term and then as russians made their

choice we knew the results of russia's presidential election therefore a single vote was cast. let me put victory was confirmed not just by the vote results but even before that by major opinion polls as well the focus of some media on rampant fraud or stolen elections seems to leave out of the equation the vast majority of russian voters would be choose their next president if you look at how western alex look at russian opinion there's a tendency to ignore inconvenient opinion so support for putin is ignored which is genuine i don't know if it's quite as overwhelming as the election result when they can it's is large and sincere i think it's easy for westerners to ignore like that because they don't really fit in the narrative very easily and the question some ask is why would we didn't try to rig the vote when opinion polls before the elections clearly indicated that he had sixty plus percent support it's very

possible it would result in order any of this stuff but there are supporters or people is a long tradition in russian. culture and history of people underlings trying to please people further up the chain of command unlike the media the reaction of the white house to the russian elections was more reserved they congratulated the russian people with their elections and said washington looks forward to working with the president elect and urged the russian government to look into the reports of violations when it comes to the media coverage here it's not just about reporting on certain irregularities which absolutely should be covered but it's one perception is being created whole vote was a fraud no matter what the majority of russians say and it caps the shadow of not just on the future president but also on those who voted for him i'm going to take our reporting from washington r.p. . so that's how the news looks this hour a special report from the us is coming up in a few minutes we pulled a poll that i'll be back with a summary of i thought stay with us from. the

. there's you know soon as my aunt and i know. this is not cold those are not patriotic like the american flag but this song tells it otherwise. their words through song it is we will stand forever as a nation under the flag. meaning the red white and blue stripes.

is a salute to the trying to be the clips on the outside. but their heart disease is full of anger. the heart. of all kinds of struggles and they allow the choose. to allow these things to stay there choose alcohol or the choose drought. this is that people buy at local stores here and they. they open it and they fill it with water over there from that spigot and then and then i think they drink it because it has to because it has alcohol in it and so the into the drink it is actually hairspray. i could even live there now you. know but it could not be. my family. not. vocal all those who try nobody could stay

the course i. want.