the latest news in the week's top stories on our t.v. the first u.n. monitors arrived in syria following saturday's unanimous security council vote for an observer mission as damascus warns of retaliation if attacks by armed groups keep up. the day of attacks in kabul after the taliban strikes at the presidential palace of western embassies and nato saying its response for recent actions and killing by u.s. troops. access denied scores of activists from across the globe perceived as a security threat by israel and banned from flying into the country and some do make it into protests. and the holiest day of the religious calendar for millions

of orthodox christians celebrating easter sunday with the most spectacular service held here in moscow. seven am in moscow i might try to bring you today's top stories and a look back at the week's news the first u.n. monitors have just arrived in syria to oversee the tense ceasefire there sent after a security council resolution passed saturday this comes as damascus warns of retaliation if attacks by armed groups increase the number of demonstrations of erupted in the wake of the fragile truce since it began last thursday leading to fresh confrontations with security forces archy's marina port i reports from new york. according to russian ambassador to the u.n. to tell you one russian officer will be part of the group heading to syria the resolution that was adopted also calls on all parties in syria including the

opposition to immediately seize all armed violence in all its forms this is what was the sticking point on friday and why the security council was wasn't able to vote on a resolution friday because according to russia's position the u.s. first drafted resolution made many demands of the syrian government and no explicit demands of the syrian opposition or russian ambassador. vitaly churkin said at this critical junction is very very important for all syrian parties including our opposition to comply with the six point peace plan that was laid out by u.n. special envoy kofi annan on this of course also calls for an immediate cease fire and for an inclusive political process in syria in which the opposition groups and the syrian government engage in a dialogue with the russian ambassador said that moscow from the very beginning has

been supportive of mr a knowledge of peace plan it is only he said through an objective balanced approach that the security council was able to reach a consensus on saturday but. even though. his draft resolution has been significantly. more instance to seize more. of syria's government it will be an. observer mission according to this resolution the u.n. secretary general ban ki-moon will have to report back to the security council on april nineteenth regarding how the resolution is being implemented whether the observers are being granted access throughout. whether humanitarian officials are being granted access throughout syria if the syrian authorities and the syrian opposition is complying with what the security council is this monitoring mission

will eventually grow to a team of two hundred fifty people we should know though that it does say in this resolution the house and there is a vague reference that if syria does not comply with what the security council is asking further measures can be taken what those further measures are or is not clear yet i think at this point all security council members are hoping that the armed opposition group in the syrian government do comply with what's being asked and peace is finally established in syria political analyst kamil was nieces pledging of more support for the opposition by washington and its allies will not help bring peace to suitor. there is some party is within the middle east trying to sabotage the peace plan that is a range by mr annan and the u.n. i think somebody in qatar and sued year arabia they're not liking the plan and they want the bloodshed to continue in syria and for our belief we have seen and witnessed in the past couple days major of rest from other terrorist organization

and getting from arab countries into syria and causing all these against the stability of syria and i think in my estimate the peace plan should have signed by and by the qatari and the sudanese and the united states so that because of because these factors are actually causing instability and escalation to continue at this point we don't understand how mr obama would say i'm supplying all kinds of. different technique of supplies mostly weapons to the opposition and at the same time you want to have a peace plan is working at this point. a series of explosions have rocked the afghan capital in a coordinated wave of insurgent attacks across kabul with targets including the presidential palace the afghan parliament and nato headquarters conflicting reports

from kabul where the interior ministry said the fighting has ended but the police chief says the operations against taliban fighters are ongoing most of the targets were in the city's diplomatic district with western embassies and residences coming under fire at least seventeen insurgent fighters and two police officers were killed while dozens more were injured military airport in jalalabad was also hit with clashes in two other provinces the taliban says it's retribution for recent attacks by u.s. troops including a massacre of civilians and the burning of the qur'an to the packer packing expert in the middle east and former afghan correspondent thinks the behavior of the foreign troops has been a factor in stoking the violence. it is widely that. using events like the unit digging by the american marines on the dead up the body then the burning of the koran that it's really offensive actions by putting troops in

anything in any can work but of course i understand that the culture oh well and that was gone on since the late one nine hundred seventy so these actions are easily implemented afghanistan is a president a country if that means to go unstable country need more then i'm going to be. made to groups and it be to me that most of our. most of us get drawn at the end of next year is the the fact that old school for me to come into government open then close up. that. it's the bible would be very difficult to stay with us here on r.t. still to come show. premieres and exclusive interviews as r.t. launches a new program featuring the world's most well known whistleblower julian us on this coming week. and spain's financial troubles played find their way into the sporting

field as top soccer clubs struggle to pay down their debts. but first more than forty activists from the welcome to palestine movement were detained by israeli authorities at tel aviv's ben gurion airport israel's also refused entry to dozens part of a so-called flight hilla who said they planned peaceful activities like planting trees in the west bank now in its third year of the campaign with activists for more than fifteen countries also challenge what they call the israeli siege of occupied territories or peace paul sleeker has more. they're all part of this international campaign that has been both come to palestine and the intention of this campaign is to highlight the plight of the palestinian people its intention is to really hold peaceful demonstrations in the west bank they were planning to meet with palestinian families to climb trees and to gather in bethlehem and they say that this is also an attempt to highlight the way the israeli police in these

middle thirty's deal with afterbirth all foreigners coming to me as well who hold political views not shared by the government there was a small counter demonstration by a group of israelis who shouted at him go home go to syria what are you doing here israeli police accuse these activists of provoking the situation they say that they were intent on disrupting public all then they really were trying to be legitimized his role this heavy handedness by israel is not something new we've witnessed it took a short time ago with the way the israeli police dealt with the day commemorations there one person dead and several other palestinian activists injured throughout the west bank from jerusalem and then of course they've been to attend sin previous years for ships to reach gaza those flotillas were unsuccessful with the first one resulting in nine activists killed. with the french a week away from picking their next president candidate so staged massive rallies in paris in what's said to be a very tight race one hundred thousand people gathered outside the stadium

supporting the socialist candidate. who is slightly ahead according to the latest polls meanwhile president nicolas sarkozy who's seeking a second term swope in central paris to work for out his supporters estimate as one hundred fifty thousand strong as artists are so he reports it's growing immigration and fear of terrorism that many french politicians are banking on to lure votes. anti immigration anti euro antiglobalization and advocates of protectionism. all in the name of the french state and national identity there is not a single french person not one european who does not know that i am a sworn enemy of the european single currency buskers it's a radical islam as a direct consequence of mass immigration that's the left and the right in hose on us for decades if you make no. conditionally on the fringes of france's national

politics the rhetoric of today's far right may no longer be as far off for its citizens as it once was opinion polls suggest that presidential candidate marine le pen of the ultra right wing national front party is third with potentially ten million votes its biggest support base ever there is no potency of friends so if you don't speak french. it doesn't bother anyone but. we don't want to look like england so we will hold one. of the different communities but don't speak together. as an identity it's destroyed this identity. spencer let's end with her calls for economic patriotism prioritizing france over europe its native citizens over others of giving the french back their jobs. and center right incumbent nicolas sarkozy stands accused

of jumping on the far right bandwagon some say for the ballot sake of history. our integration system is getting worse and worse. because we have too many foreigners in a territory threatening to withdraw from the shank and border from the agreement by no coincidence at a time when europe is seeing an influx of refugees fleeing conflicts in north africa and the middle east this is a trade or shift so we will have to see. what it will do is sarkozy knows pretty well as he was elected in two thousand and seven only because he was able to catch the vote as a national front and no the situation is quite the same some say that what was once a protest vote is now a more permanent part of the french political spectrum so luckily i think there is certainly a part of the electorate who vote for the reasons of dissent but i think it must now be recognised even if it's difficult to accept that the vote for the national

front is increasingly a vote of support. we increasing prominence of right with rhetoric in france especially the lead up to the presidential elections it's clear what's more difficult to decipher is whether this growing support for the right reflects the direction that russia cycle values have stated or is simply a kneejerk reaction to everything the french see wrong in their country just are so your r t paris. is the show that has people talking in a premiers on tuesday here on r t we can leaks founder julian assange sits down with newsmakers in the program where he's from which he's filmed well under house arrest in the u.k. or a smith gives us a sneak preview of what to expect. the first episode of the show will be broadcast on cheese day april seventeenth about this chews day coming and we get are really hoping this is going to be an explosive new show i can't tell you the name of the first guest you'll have to choose name yourselves to find that out on choose day

but i can tell you that they are all opinion formers some of them this isn't and some of them have never been interviewed before on english language television the first guest is particularly controversial and according to julian in the wake of the interview holly charismatic so you find out what that's all about i met with him recently and i talked all about the show how he chose his guests why he decided to do it and of course he spent a lot of time sitting on the other side of the interview as desk and he told me a bit about his disenchantment really with the mainstream media and why he chose to broadcast first this show. for him to report green color and. you know many women who. work. for the wall street he broke his mother's plea bargain for kurtz gently or not this week coming up for the week in which the first show is going to be broadcast is really a week of anniversaries for him both personal and professional it's going to be

five hundred days since the investigation into these allegations of sexual assault by two swedish women began now we've seen that at the request for his extradition go through the courts here in the u.k. right up to the supreme court which in that case finished at the beginning of february that's ten weeks ago now and we still don't have a verdict we are expecting it possibly to come next week but there's still no set date for that verdict to be handed down and still after five hundred days no charges have been lazy against him it's also a hundred days since the wiki leaks bank accounts were first frozen so that has made funding for wiki leaks very difficult at. and threatening that whistle blowing organization all together and really that's what makes this program so unique the fact that it was conceived of thought of while a soldier was virtually living under house arrest here in britain awaiting this verdict on his extradition. first of all being under house arrest sort of more

interesting happened is that i'm going to learn more about the world and the conversations we're having a quite interesting one and one for the people who thought it was going on that's one reason the second reason is that as someone who's given a lot of interviews before and it's been on the receiving end of a very aggressive start because i found that i wasn't getting much more i mean. pretty quickly and we're going to do some sort of i think it's a principled stance are. going to take one percent of the context and i want to have a different sort of corporate people and why that approach has been difficult and sometimes i think it is also it's excitement and something that we have really really all sides or very interesting and important people in the normal because they're not dealing with. human with someone who is under house arrest. and call

for political problems. so you can see the full version of that interview on monday the sixteenth of april and that will be followed hot on the heels by first episode of the program on tuesday the seventeenth of april we're still awaiting the projects and you're not just extradition but we are quite glad that he's managed to make this program before whatever happens to him happens temp obviously his main fear has always been that he will be extradited from sweden to the u.s. . there hasn't been anything yet on t.v. he. used to get the maximum political impact. before the source material is what helps keep truism on the we. we wanted to present. something.

the story series goes on air tuesday and as laura mentioned full interview with julia songe monday at four thirty g.m.t. so tune in to hear more from a controversial whistleblower north korea celebrating one hundred years since the birth of the nation's founder kim il sung at the centerpiece parade his grandson and current leader made his maiden public address praising the country's military might and calling for even more resolve what kim jong didn't mention was friday's failed long range rocket test of young yang says it was supposed to put a satellite in orbit but it fell into pieces and launched into the sea moments after blastoff u.n. security council condemned the launch saying it was a breach of resolutions as a result the u.s. move to suspend two hundred million dollars worth of food aid to the north asia experts him deal says that faced with external pressure pyongyang doesn't want to appear weak. it's all part of the negotiating ploy with the americans. on the one hand. thanks bill it's either going to make some concessions and in the

same time they have to stand up for what they regard to this is called the knights and russia. and china are quite right to point out every country has the right to launch satellites to have these peaceful space exploration and they didn't want to have my parnate international want to get it. thirdly it by making the united nations sanctions that we you know ethnicity and that concern that right around there is not tension in iran. and that it ultimately doesn't really come from from some young young young is desperate to get an economic back and he's been sanctioned. for ten of the twenty three candidates in egypt's presidential election have been banned from standing in next month's poll those bar to have those part.

the right to appeal and demonstrations are expected in the capital blacklist include the mubarak era intelligence chief omar suleiman and the candidate of the country's largest muslim party which is backed by the muslim brotherhood political activists ahmed says despite moves towards democracy it will be hard for egypt to break away from military rule the running mates that were banned such as hide its author almost said a man will causing a lot of tensions on the ground so egyptians are receiving this glad visit the minute that i state here for over sixty years the military has been ruling this country anyone from the nice and heads the governors the mayors they're all retired military terms this octopus depend because i have a strong grip over the country it's not easy to the root this those i remember when we were first in the square said we're not here this is not an islamic revolution with the gypsy ins and once things settle down we'll definitely run for parliament

and that we will not get all the thirty five percent maximum of the parliament and this is this was more of a promise than just the statement what we've seen is that they actually began with seventy percent and then said it would be twenty five and and then they said it will be thirty five what we've seen is that with the broad coalition of salafist reached over seventy percent of parliament spain's financial crisis could spill over into the country's favorite sports soccer as the world famous clubs are themselves taking a financial kicking despite star players pulling massive crowds and huge salaries and transfer fees if plunged many top spanish clubs into debt as r.p.g. could greece reports from madrid it is feared that the final whistle could be about to blow for many teams. here in football list for many d.m. body meant to the beautiful game but off the field is getting oakley top flight

spanish clubs are struggling with massive debt no entry descent of who european teams of the bankrupt a based in spain. presently the premier league clubs are either bankrupt or half bankrupt and this is a terrible result of the clubs have to realize that they can only spend as much as they have invested so many. space it is not just the sports that actually part of the nation but as with many other aspects as mannish life is facing financial ruin needs of a year and you resign the nation's schools minister recently said spanish health maybe help in the form of victory structuring the refereeing the crisis german politicians appear to have kicked that idea into touch with one n.d.p. calling the move a threat to competition oh asking german clubs to speak out i find it unthinkable we're paying hundreds of millions of dollars to help them recover from the

situation and clubs are trying to avoid paying their debts it cannot go on like this. the posing has since been dropped but the problem persists a spanish clubs owing more than seven hundred fifty million euros in unpaid taxes. is one such it ministration is struggling to pay its pays wages. i think the spanish players were outraged when we talk about a strike it is obvious that spanish football is going through a really difficult time and it didn't seek to pay salaries is something if it seem many clubs last year called the place the strike wages are only part of the problem we spend the internet the world's greatest talents amounting to four hundred million euros the top league and those who lead teams from the boardrooms think something drastic needs to change for people who don't have the now spanish football and the spanish economy need investments from abroad it's not only about football but also spain as a whole on the pitch

a similar scenario is being played out an uncompetitive economy is not yielding many positive results and some accuse football clubs of taking that always difficult blue many are saying to say about the nation's leaders to greece madrid spain. and some other stories making headlines across the globe this sunday the taliban says it is responsible for the masses of nearly four hundred prisoners after a full scale attack on a jail in northwest pakistan heavily armed is list and surgeon stormed the prison with guns and grenades early sunday morning among those freed was a militant placed on death row for attempting to kill pakistan's former president suspect the attackers had help from someone inside the prison staff. president barack obama promised more sanctions on iran if negotiations over its nuclear program said all his remarks were delivered at the close of the americas summit in colombia obama's warning came as more talks are planned between iran and

the five plus one group of world powers next month after resume talks to strive described as constructive resumed in istanbul the group aims to persuade iran just stop uranium enrichment which tehran says is for peaceful purposes despite international fears it seeking to build a nuclear weapon. people in the central plains states of the u.s. preparing for miller souvenir weather after tornadoes ripped through the so-called tornado alley over the weekend killing five in injuring twenty nine deaths happened in a small town in oklahoma after warning systems failed to alert residents of the upcoming storm in kansas which was hit hardest by the twisters and declared a state of emergency. and. finally in the news block millions of orthodox christians around the world have been marking the holiest day in their religious calendar easter sunday celebrating the resurrection of christ the largest overnight vigil was held in russia's main church the christ the savior cathedral where the

congregation of thousands including the country's political leaders are he's tom barton reports. easter services in the russian orthodox tradition are designed to be both long services but also very beautiful services stylized markings of the key moments in the story of christ's death and his resurrection on the third day a key moment in the service is the easter vigil when the priests walk in a circle around the church holding candles and they also change their outfits three times during the service from the black which represents lent through the purple which represents the passions of christ went through and on to the one which represents the resurrection itself. the holy fire has also arrived here in moscow this easter as it has done since the eleventh century when it first made that journey from the church of the holy supporta in jerusalem the story

surrounding the fire is that a light shines through the roof of the church of the holy sepulcher every used in jerusalem and somehow manages to light candles wall of which is brought to moscow and is then taken around to merely orthodox churches a very special symbolic moment for the russian orthodox church easter in the russian orthodox church also comes at the end of a great lent that's seven weeks of fasting no meat a no dairy products but at the end it is time to bring out some special foods with a special connection to easter what is coolidge a cake of the sweet and filled with raisins another is named after easter in the russian language plus it's a sweet dessert. also designed to be a celebration after the long weeks of fasting and also that universal symbol of easter eggs many are painted and often shared with family members and all are taken

to priests at easter for blessing. with holy water they'll be shared around by all the docks families the world over as will list phrase in thirty thousand russian orthodox churches i'm a communities around the world should issue the russian orthodox greeted will be said attitudes to christ has risen and it will be answered with a nova reply about traditional russian orthodox reply indeed it has risen. we got of our top stories coming up after a short break stay with us here on r.t. .

something. lies beneath. thousands of meters of ice. broke. the law. that is a loser for many. but dangerous even to those who keep it to distance.