the french decide their future with voting in the presidential election well underway today its support in a country hit by social. unemployment. mission in syria but despite a unanimous vote in the security council some members are accused of undermining the peace of. a controversial formula one grand prix goes ahead despite widespread protests against the regime and a crackdown by police reports suggest that's left at least one person. and thirty minutes the global attention. if you show me this week quite a range of reaction from the praise all the way to hysteria. a

very warm welcome. from moscow with me. the process of choosing their next president there are ten candidates in the running including incumbent. and his main rival socialist francois hollande and the main. turnout will be discontent over a struggling economy unemployment with the latest report from paris as arts these tests are our city. and as a voting continues this is the big variable that everyone's watching closely there's a projection that up to a third of french people not even bother going out to vote but that's not out of apathy it's more that they feel that there really isn't much of a choice of solutions being offered especially by mainstream candidates don't really address the problems that they see the economy for example the job situation

or social divisions resulting from these and this very dissolution actually has given rise to more extreme views if you will of propping up counted as such as putting the pen on the far right and so on the middle shows a hard line a leftist out of this playing into that the numbers this is really i would be very closely watched now i mean we all know what later rod of the direction of that's a round one of the presidential race will be taking as the initial i asked him minutes will be announced at eight pm local time but in the meantime let's get a bit more insight on exactly what is going on in france right now from fredricka bonifay he's an economist from the think that ok so the french people are very disillusioned you know they they feel that there is no solution to any of the problems that they are seeing what kind of a solution are magical are they looking for we see there is a solution actually but it's always the same more sturdy and more reduction of structural deficit and to start with a massive could down on the social spending and the reason why people turn to leftist or extreme right is candidates is that mainstream ones actually have to

offer the exact same solution there is very limited room for action so i guess the sense of dissolution of the recent well is is actually linked to that fact will friends become a headache no matter who becomes president a headache for its euro zone partners that is i guess the main demean challenge faced by the continent of france is key to see the new year a zone which again is in the midst of a crisis that is far from being over if friends falls and so does the european financial stability facility and i believe so does the minister union so we need to make sure that paris is in full the footsteps of. in athens fortunately we're not you know as bad in as bad a solution as those two countries yet but we need to urgently take some action and quick last comment on immigration is this something that will stay to have an adze immigration feeling here. i sense that healing among the population here but

personally i think immigration is per se a positive for the economy as long as again the social system is there corresponding with we just that you're looking for a social solution i'm looking for a major cut back on social spending and public spending reaching still fifty six percent of g.d.p. which is you know world record so we need to be handled out pretty pretty closely right thank you very much well again there's a lot of political debate on a lot of topics here in france once again this reminded you that voting is underway and voter turnout the number is expected to be released an estimate of that in a few hours because this could sway the results of the first round there could still be surprises in the french elections so we'll bring you all the latest live from the french capital. on these a currency crisis tough cuts. tragic integration. who will be left standing when the people speak. the french election are to.

come here live from moscow now the u.n. has agreed on a resolution to send three hundred observers to syria to monitor the french troops that moscow's welcome the move but washington warn it may still take action against a mask if it fails to comply with a peace plan we're in a fortnight i reports from new york. once again the united nations security council has unanimously adopted a resolution on syria the most recent one drafted by russia and co-sponsored by eight other countries the resolution calls for and authorizes up to three hundred unarmed u.n. military observers to go to syria and monitor the truce the cease fire that was put in place april twelfth between damascus and the opposition groups this resolution also calls on the syrian government to meet its responsibilities and pledge is called for in the six point peace plan laid out by u.n.

joint envoy mr kofi annan on russia of course of believes that this most recent development in syria is a step in the right direction in the meantime the u.s. ambassador to the united nations susan rice left the meeting on saturday not showing as much optimism as. many other countries had susan rice took to her twitter feed to say the deployment of three hundred or three thousand unarmed observers cannot on its own stop assad's murderous rampage susan rice said that external pressures are additionally needed to solve the problem in syria the us ambassador also said that washington and its allies are preparing for action that will be required if assad persists to quote slaughter i've. said that

these efforts that are trying to put pressure on an already stressful situation does not help bring peace and security to syria there missed an opportunity it was a signal to a position that you're criticizing the government saying the world they expect the opposition which is in fact. very clearly in the second. city council resolution which they themselves have just voted for and all those predictions of a boom and gloom my own threats of various plans which are being hatched this are where those things are not productive i think they are distracting from the implementation of the core pheromone plan on from the political efforts of the security council and they may give a ground for some extremists to believe that their cause is a still has some prospect for for taking over the political process where not naive even though the security council voted unanimously some members of the security council some important members of the international community still continued to

think in confrontational terms towards a syrian government and as richardson says the syrian government will be primarily responsible for the safety and security of the u.n. unarmed observers that will be deployed to syria they will be deployed once the u.n. secretary general ban ki-moon feels that it's safe enough for the observers to go and there has been enough to say should of violence this resolution the most recent one i talked it also underscores that the syrian government and the opposition group both have to put their weapons out weapons down and begin engaging in dialogue not his marina pornography one of the friends of syria the group met in paris this week to discuss putting more pressure on damascus called the u.n. by plan a last chance for peace in middle east expert paolo griffo name says that some world powers of the gathering simply are just not interested in any form of

stability. we have a government which is the assad government which is under attack internationally accusations sanctions and so on on the other hand you have an internal political opposition which is mostly able to express way out from the quagmire in which the country is full fold since of several months and like to open negotiations to sincerely probably with the government and with the international community they can have armed groups of different sorts some foreign countries namely france for instance wants them to be all represented within the syrian national council but it is not the case there are several groups which are responding to other inputs not everybody really wants peace because if we take the interests of certain arab states from the gulf evidently they are much more interested to use the syrian case against the possibility of maybe agreements

between iran and the united states so they would argue take syria against this and so everybody is trying to get something out of syria but nobody's really caring for the syrians themselves and what is going on inside for the population. so three minutes past the hour here in moscow this is r.t. still to come on the program for you a lot of extremism on our own show norway's confessed mass murderer anders breivik uses of course room to promote his ideas and his views are far from unique in europe as we hear just a little bit later. and another scandal for nato forces in afghanistan as new photos show american soldiers posing with the corpses of so that story in just a few. grains controversial formula one grand prix is going ahead despite widespread fury against the regime on the

streets the demonstrators of clashed with security forces during the past week as police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets protests intensified on saturday after the body of a man shot dead and overnight violence was discovered on a rooftop parties a really good reports from the. it took a car fire ahead of a major sporting event for the world to notice the flames of discord in golfing a small island nation in the persian gulf but green is suffocating in the smoke of an ongoing struggle between protesters and police demonstrations have been happening in bahrain for more than a year now protesters say this is the longest lasting revolt in the arab spring but so far the only result from them has been an increase in violence on all sides scenes from the capital be a more than passing similarity to the pictures out of the embattled syrian city of homs but the city's enjoyed a very different level of attention. and the media stayed surprisingly silent

considering their stance on other middle eastern revolutions they were all but silent when the bahraini revolution was crushed last year they're all but silent about the human rights abuses in bahrain itself and formula one race is just focused attention on that society and when the media does turn to her they seem to do more harm than good foreign media coverage but also has a big view they always use the free market forces because. they don't understand that this actually helps the governments to see the way of free syria such as the opposition says hundreds have been wounded in standoff with police and many sacked from their jobs or arrested for taking part in mass protests that i might consider ian lee bia no one has called for foreign intervention. bereans problems put before

the international human rights council or european as if american countries were enthusiastic about exploring this issue with the us prefer to believe it's the independent commission created here by the government it did bring back several iranian human rights defenders who were in exile when the real one speeds out of town much of the media and the world's attention is likely to follow in bahrain it even goes. it is good to have you with us here on r.t. today files relating to the trial of norwegian mass killer will not be classified for sixty years the judges say the documents could be harmful to the public and will be kept secret until two thousand and seventy two a decision came beds are a brave acts televised trial viewed all across the world of a gallon or zero he's admitted to killing seventy seven people in a bomb and gun attack last year but deny its criminal guilt claiming he was

protecting norway from being taken over by muslims you're so gave a step by step account of exactly how he massacred his victims claiming had to dehumanise themselves to become a mass killer if found guilty could face the maximum twenty one year prison sentence if the judges decide that he's insane he'll be center for indefinite psychiatric treatment former member of the european parliament a glynn ford believes the extensive coverage of a trial could turn it into a showcase for brig's extremist ideas. that is the way the fuel the justice system works in it in the european union in norway he he will clearly how is opportunities to express his own views one just hopes that the overwhelming majority of people will reject him for what they are signs of if you want him a man who who is deluded and a racist isn't a focus is something that we've seen across the european union. in germany and in

france in the united kingdom as well as in norway he's just he was pretty successful but i think he see he's one of. many maybe too strong really he's certainly not unique in amy's whatsoever and least groups are actually working together to promote these kind of lone wall into any sense is follow the same pattern as the some of the muslim fundamentalists. because when the top stories of today end of the week with the weekly here. when julian assange just show premiered on r t this week the media reaction was certainly global from praise to hysteria the response was anything but in different teams going to check out has been gauging opinions across the atlantic poor most american media julianna songes guilty without charge reckless traitor and a threat to our national security interests sleazeball named julian assad who is bent on damaging america how did this guy just land his own t.v.

show the implication is a sergeant is a russian agent whose anti-american mission is now out in the open for all to see and accusations kept flying as the whistleblowers very own show premiered on tuesday but i saw it coming he's doing this on a daily combatant a traitor getting into bed with the kremlin and. interviewing. terrible radicals for all. i think that's the sort of it's a pretty trivial car park. for a few look at how the service where we may we have complete control over the guests of his first show was the head of hezbollah are designated by the us as a terrorist organization it was not starlost first interview with international channel in six years the reason why him could be found in the interview itself the united states is walking. into u.s.

. they want to be able to tell people that one of us is in terrorism service that's ok nice nation. but the one that people listen to us high from the heart of something if it wasn't just a trial and yet very different thing to have an opportunity to defend themselves some say in the court of public opinion as presented by the us mainstream media there is a tendency to simplify issues often at the expense of the full picture and somebody agrees or doesn't agree with hezbollah's ideas or all of their ideas ideology or their theology american people hear the voice of hezbollah rather than simply have them demonize targeted as a quote terrorist by the purpose of demonizing somebody like nazi or nelson mandela who was considered a terrorist until one nine hundred eighty eight is not really to stop terrorist ideas from infiltrating but for the american people to only hear one side of

a debate only hear one side of an argument julian assange is now under house arrest in the u.k. fighting extradition to sweden where he may well be extradited to the united states u.s. prosecutors reportedly have a secret indictment ready for a sign was made public thousands of leaked documents with embarrassing details relating to the wars in iraq and afghanistan as well as other issues in the u.s. has been under fire from capitol hill the white house and the media and we've got to apprehend mr a silence the founder of wiki leaks and bring him to justice as a close of violator of the espionage act because if we don't this will keep happening the dead man can't leaks that this guy is a traitor a treasonous and he has broken every law the united states the guy ought to be and i'm not for the death penalty so i'm not for the death penalty i want to do it illegally shoot what about freedom of information cherish is a core principle of democracy it's almost like leaving and letting genie out of the

bottle mr songs has the internet. and the governments and everyone else at their own game because he's gone to a place where others have not been before and he's introduced the types of information the range of information that previously were not available if one views the media as the court of public opinion then julian assange is someone who presents to the jury that is that you were arguments evidence of voices which they almost never hear on mainstream media and it's up to the us to form an opinion but what many find ironic is that our forces under attack by the us government and the media for practicing poor false then the freedom of information that america preaches around the globe i'm going to start our reporting from washington. of course if you want to hear more stories just head online a good to talk there you'll find for example the still in the fight by u.s. presidential hopeful and congressman ron paul shows no signs of slowing down he's

relying on his healthy bank balance to keep him firmly in the republican race. life after death more than half of russians think that lenin's body should be removed from his red square mausoleum and buried with human rights activists say the fight over his remains will go on and find out more about our two top. another week and another scandal for nato forces in afghanistan the latest uproar is over a new photo showing american soldiers smiling and posing with corpses of afghans said to have been suicide bombers the white house has condemned the actions of the troops but maintains it's just an isolated incident some antiwar activists believe that despite the afghan war being shoojit out popular it's just too profitable to cut short. and there is no popular support for this war in the us nor in the

ukraine or in any allied country to be honest i think the statistics now show that over seventy percent of the u.k. population want our troops out the figure is rising in the u.s. sixty two percent last week want to see an end to the war but the people who benefit from the war what happens if they let this one along just as long as possible and those who benefit obviously the global elites the bankers those in the military industrial complex to them having a prolonged conflict is just it's money in the bank really the u.s. actually what they're planning is to have a substantial military presence until twenty twenty four and i think that the russians and the chinese. don't favor that at all the thirty thousand troops there jeter is to remain there after two thousand and fourteen can be looked conveniently located right along the proposed oil pipeline. i think that the russians will obviously benefit from the oil pipeline in their own exports but it's likely that the strings that are attached to the aid this couple that's forthcoming will ensure

that the majority of u.s. troops the combat troops will be out by twenty four. we're not far off from the world of gates here in r t but for now other controversial and counterfeiting trade agreement or act has been dealt a heavy blow as the second largest group in the european parliament has announced it will not supported the pact sparked anger among many europeans when e.u. states signed the agreement in january thousands demonstrated against it saying it would give major corporations on presidents of control over their personal data vote on ratification is due this summer in the european parliament but david martin the m.e.p. responsible for monitoring its progress has already said it should be rejected. in terms of what i was trying to achieve going quite happy with i think it's important to europe does because it was a commercial property that had a number of unintended consequences. one was it would have put a duty in internet service providers to think that we act as the european police

force of the internet and i don't think that's right i think that's from the formal judicial authorities secondly i didn't like the idea that actor could possibly have criminal i used young people who were quite innocently dying and looting films and music and so on in the privacy of their own homes. act the same as the should only be for commercial purposes but commercial purposes are very weakly defined the other concern that people have about i care that it was negotiated through a five six year period behind closed doors the rights holders seem to be involved in that discussion but the civil society did not seem to be to be proud about discussion and most of the member states partly didn't really understand what they were signing up for i mean the british house of commons i don't one lane reporter night which said that i did not met a debate on the floor of the house of commons and as an aside i actually demonstrates the importance of the european parliament and the european decision

making process because of it the european parliament act that would probably no below. you all would still to come for you this hour. the heads of all be orthodox church leaves a service that's been dubbed in defense of the faith joining us from the main cathedral very shortly. thereafter yemen or rather southern yemen kicks off the r.t. what update here violent clashes have erupted between troops and militants linked to al qaeda where twelve insurgents and seven soldiers have been killed fighting occurred in the south where the yemeni government is trying to regain parts of the country lost to militants government forces lost control due to turmoil elsewhere in the country last year before the eventual departure of dictator ali abdullah saleh. satellite images show that key oil infrastructure in sudan's disputed heglig region has been destroyed during recent border fighting with south sudan

southern forces captured the oil rich town last week raising fears of war between the two under international pressure the south then started pulling out of the area but said its troops were. leaving south sudan became independent from the north last year following a long running civil war that cost nearly two million deaths. iran claims it started to build a copy of the top secret american spy drone captured last year by its armed forces military says it has extracted data and figured out how the craft works u.s. officials acknowledge that losing the surveillance drone but said it would be difficult to exploit any data or technology because of its security measures. now more than fifty thousand orthodox believers have gathered in moscow's main cathedral for service in defense of the faith that follows

a number of high profile cases of bad the lism of churches and sacred objects over the past few days are these groups reports. we can see and indeed here thousands of people who have combed the gates it's here at moscow's main cathedral christ the savior they're being led in perception by patriarch kirill perceives. the number of hours of mass prayer and also the liturgy service that was given this of his being replicated around the country as a whole that some of the key epicenters of people who don't stir shit russia some of its main cathedrals and really sent him to drum up support for the faith has been coming on to some criticism of late has to be facing some troubling times its leaders among them patriarch kirill say they've become on the attack from an anti christian campaign indeed there have been attacks made on the numbers on number of

church properties around the country will take place at a creature and present are where the front door was the entrance was set ablaze it's also some of the religious symbols sacred symbols have also been attacked among them annoyed two of the virgin mary and a crucifix some of those were held up high by a charge carol here today among those crowds that have gathered now respond to some of this resemblance to the church on has been events or took place in favorite muslim pussy riot a punk room with a very much protest message to christ the savior cathedral there they tugged at his best song at present election blatter may have pushed him but also at a truck hero and he said support for blood amir hussein no was outcry among the faithful gatherers that loom using such a sacred place for their demonstrations there's also been a lot of condemnation since from human rights groups who don't like how the church

handled this saga and how it came down safely when it came to pass the right. to stay with us if you can hear. voting for a new president is underway in francois in a few moments we talked to one of them a kind of it's a that'll be off of the headlines in just. a

bit are killing innocents here how is it that it's a crisis and that's never answered. mom a song from the school still with me i think of it every day. i feel the slightest right from the memories. of so much so a long time this year trying to. i was assure you. i was ashamed that i didn't. i was ashamed that i had been a hero why i got. the legs coming off. in the mine. where i like to be out not how i was a boy to. not believe what i was going on once or i think. that i was a good soldier. but you know most soldier on the other side and i think the.