all in all and one will be the next french president as the front runners go through to the second and decisive round of voting in two weeks' time. all round one of the french presidential races gone pretty much as expected but the big surprise is actually the voter turnout which is much higher than was predicted join me for more in a few moments. also this hour the u.n. resolves to expand its monitoring mission in syria but despite a lot of misspoken the security council some members are accused of undermining the peace effort. bahrain's controversial formula one grand prix goes ahead despite widespread protests against the regime and a brutal crackdown by police that's left one. hundred thirty minutes the grip of global attention during the premiere of his own interview show on r.t.e.

this week sparking a range of reaction from praise to this theory are all top stories this hour. with a look back at the past seven days top stories and the latest developments this is the weekly team so in france presidential election front runners nicolas sarkozy and his main rival socialist force for a while and look to have reached the second round of voting in two weeks from now and only polls suggest the two kind of it's a more or less neck and neck as a sailor is following the voting in the french capital and joins me now live. polling stations are closed the turnout has proved higher than dissipated has it all go very much as expected. well yes it has a far as the early polls are concerned but again the big surprise is actually the

voter turnout earlier before the actual election at the projections was that up to a third of french people will not actually go out and vote but now we're seeing eighty percent turnout and that is a big difference indeed we know from the last few weeks of the campaigns of cycles and a lot of they have been encouraging people to vote now we have yet to see the final numbers from the french ministry of interior but we do have some ranges now from the early polls i can tell you that has gone up between a twenty seven to thirty percent. of the incumbent president twenty four to twenty seven point five percent followed by moving the pen of the far right national front seventeen to twenty point seven percent and as long as the left front support pocket thirty percent again looking at those percentages is pretty much in accordance with what the polls were saying throughout the campaign so again all smooth here polls are closed so we're waiting for those final numbers because of one of the main concerns for voters in this election. oh yeah throughout all

of this it's all a bit it's been about jobs unemployment and the economy this has been the talk concern of the french people as well as purchasing power which is essentially money in their pockets and this is going to be central to the campaigns of the two who made it to the second round at this point the first well not it was he will have to certainly in the corporate got into their campaigns much stronger than they have done in that be a first round and also what they will be having to do is trying to win at the of voters from the two sides on nicolas sarkozy will have to win voters from the new look pen and he may have to again appeal to their sentiment he has been doing so it is this anti immigration such event for instance but again he has to start talking about jobs but he does have the support of the voters of a centrist francois bayrou but it's not surprising because he may get a prime ministerial position should sarkozy where and now france all along will have to get the voters and shunned we know that metal show has been calling for revolution a civic insurrection and these are the people who who are very anti capitalist and anti liberalism he will have to win these voters get all the left to support him so

the two will go head to head because sarkozy says that if it comes down to the debate he still confident again we see a leader of a lot it may continue on to the second round of all of this a very interesting that to see what's going to happen again in the second round the campaign that they're going to put forward it's got to be much stronger to with a very pessimistic french public thanks very much indeed for that live update from paris to a city that. the un's top body has agreed on a resolution to send three hundred observers to syria to monitor the frontal truce moscow's welcome the move to washington warned it may take action against a must because if it fails to comply with the peace plan report as more 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 believes that this most recent development in syria is a step in the right direction in the meantime u.s. ambassador to the united nations susan rice left the meeting on saturday not showing as much optimism as russia and many other countries had susan rice took to her twitter feed to say that deployment of three hundred or three thousand unarmed observers cannot on its own stop assad's quote 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 says to pull. back or can't get. these efforts that are trying to put pressure on an already stressful situation does not help bring peace and security to syria the missed an opportunity it was a signal to the position they get criticizing the government saying that some go wild they expect the position which is in fact. very clearly in the. council resolution which they themselves had just voted for and all those predictions of a boom and gloom my own threats of various plans which are being patched this hour we're those things are not productive i think they are distracting from the

implementation of the coffee on plan and 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 that some members of the security council some important members of the international community. still continue to think and confrontational their own stores of the syrian government and that's 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 my 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 atop that also underscores that the syrian government and the opposition group

both have to put their weapons out but instead out and begin engaging in dialogue. then the friends of syria group met in paris this week to discuss putting more pressure on damascus they called the called the u.n. back plan the sub's last chance for peace but middle east expert panel of funny says that some world powers at the gathering are not interested in 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 i'm able to express way out from the quote neither in which the country is full full of several months and good like to open negotiations to sincerely probably with governments and with international community didn't 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 that is not the case there are several groups which are responding to 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 agreement between iran and the united states so they will try to 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 this is the weekly on r.t. still to come this hour extremism. confessed mass murder and the brave it uses a court room to promote his ideas and his views are far from unique in europe as we hear a little later. and a candle for nato forces in afghanistan as new photos show american soldiers posing

with the corpses of afghans that story coming your way in just a few minutes from now here on three. in the meantime bahrain's controversial formula one grand prix motor race has gone ahead without incident but there have been furious rallies against the country's regime outside the race track seven straight hours of clash with security forces over the past week as police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets protests intensified on saturday after the body of a man shot dead was discovered on a rooftop security forces have set up checkpoints and brought armored vehicles to control any possible protests there are reports that ten female activists demanding freedom for political prisoners have been arrested all through middle east expert tonic and he explained to me earlier why political changes in bahrain a lot in western interests. we've had demonstrations and anger just on be before so ben clearly security will save every. police and

security officials have been called in to help and former senior scotland police chief john yates warned apply brown supply munition would be used interesting way to defend democracy in the west africa totally is locked police bit interested to get rid of this so ruler because he's one of theirs i mean you know just compare what is going on in bahrain to other parts of the arab world where the west sees government as their opponents and the weird dear word the way the west reacts and pistol shows the blatant hypocrisy in relation to human rights and be use of human rights for human rights marches to get their own wit strategically bahrain is of key importance for the united states and its allies and so we have here in the arab world a group just display of double standards yet it. thought ols relating to the

trial of norwegian mass killer anders breivik will be classified for sixty years and judges say the documents could be harmful to the public and would be kept secret until twenty seventy two the decision came of the brave instead of god's trial viewed across the world he's admitted to killing seventy seven people in a bomb and last year but denies criminal guilt claiming he was protecting norway from being taken over by muslims so you have a step by step account of exactly how he mastered massacred his victims claiming he had to d. humanize himself to become a mass killer if brave it could face a maximum twenty one year prison sentence if the judges decide he's insane he'll be sent for indefinite psychiatric treatment norwegian journalist star and i curse says that brave because partly succeeded in using his trial to promote extremism the big paradox concerning this case is that. because the

outset made this is planned more. than published it were outlined his plan in this plan was to do an outrageous criminal act and then use the court proceedings later this around the world and in that sense. one might say that he has succeeded that in the court case he has a monster that's called an numerous and witnesses extremist witnesses both from the extremist right side and islamic extremists to sort of. build under this notion that he has that there is a war a clash of civilizations and there's been a debate on some of that what this is called and have actually refused to go and because they don't want to be part of this propaganda that he is using the court case to promote. by the way if you want even more stories in addition to what you see here on screen to head online and go to our three don't call and there you'll

find still in the fight u.s. presidential hopeful and congressman ron paul shows no sign of slowing down is relying on his healthy bank balance to keep him in the republican race. and a massive explosion of a chemical plant in japan kills one worker and in just over a dozen witnesses say the windows of one hundred houses near the plant was shattered more video on you tube channel. when julian assange to show premiered on t.v. this week the media reaction was global from praise to hysteria the response was anything but indifferent he's going to has been gauging opinions across the atlantic for most american media julian assange is guilty without charge reckless traitor and a threat to our national security interests sleazeball named julian assange 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 the accusations kept flying as the whistle blower's very own show premiered on tuesday but i saw it coming through as our elite who got an operator get integrated from the kremlin. during the terrible radicals or. i think that's the sort of it's a trivial. thing for absolutely. we know that we have complete control of the guests of his first show was the head of hezbollah as ignited by the us is a terrorist organisation it was not starlost first interview with international channel in six years the. the reason why him could be found in the interview itself the united states is. posting into us as well

when we want to be able to tell people that one of us is terrorism or is that smoking lies ations if it is but they want to keep this into us high from ohio for example if there was a just a trial and yet at the very meaning the defendant should 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 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 demonized targeted as a quote terrorist by the purpose of demonizing somebody like nazi or nelson mandela who was considered a terrorist until 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 were pointedly have a secret indictment ready for a sign was made public thousands of leaked documents with embarrassing details relating to the worsening 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 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 of the united states the guy ought to be and i'm not for the death penalty so if i'm not for the death penalty i want to do it illegally shoot what about freedom of the. information cherished is a poor principle of democracy it's almost like leading to letting a genie out of the bottle mr a science has the the internet and the governments and

everyone else at their own game because he's gone from 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 of the news the need 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 alfonso is under attack by the us government and the media for practicing tor for. the freedom of information that america preaches around the globe i'm going to strike now reporting from us and. the second edition of julian assange just show is coming away on tuesday at fifteen thirty muska time eleven thirty g.m.t. this time he'll be speaking to professor. he's a philosopher

a left wing commentator and also david horovitz a conservative writer and campaigner and we talk about global politics and whether we could leaks was guilty of treason. another week 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 another isolated incident some antiwar activists believe despite the afghan war being hugely unpopular it's just too profitable to cut short. and there is no popular support for this war in the us nor in the u.k. nor 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 us sixty two percent last week want to see an end to the war but the people who benefit from the war quite happy to let this one the longest as long as possible and those who benefit

obviously the the global elites the bankers those in the military industrial complex them having a prolonged conflict is just it's not in the bank really the us 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 all the thirty thousand troops that are due to still remain there after two thousand and fourteen or can be 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 the scope of the support coming will ensure that the majority of u.s. troops the combat troops will be out by twenty. live from moscow this is the weekly still to come this hour. the head of the orthodox church leads a service that's been dubbed in defense of the faith joining us from moscow's main

cathedral very shortly. but first for next month's presidential election in egypt creeping into closer tens of thousands are joining protests to call for the end of military rule but trying to that's been running the country since the toppling of president hosni mubarak a year ago is losing support daily off the surface reports. in egypt's the cost of democracy has not been an easy one and now the journey which the president the barracks for last year and para taken is a by the military council because in the build up to presidential elections that the take all right back to travis the people are angry at what they need to see even military councils attempt to cling to power fueled by recent disqualifications popular presidential candidates i know this person writing is not all true conservatives the lefty creature he was disqualified because his mother allegedly held the u.s. passport but his supporters say they were doesn't exist i think the decision to not

let him run regarding causing some of this has been so long as a lot of the clear reasons against him and his trip to the local too much that he will. bring them to the both ends when he would show them what we are throwing out to move mix selection according to this system one of our. needs. i think to this committee but it's an mc. election we that was independent journalist belching he's been covering the uprising from the very beginning he told us that the deep mistrust of the elections committee and the military council selected playing anger amongst the people it's hard to see exactly diminishing think we're even though he wasn't. so i think what we can safely say is that whatever action is going in a moment to really trying to make for good business this is written in the constitution that whoever is president who basically taken to its entrenched

parents' place is now a cheesy egypt's military rulers is hijacking the ventilation obviously things are moving toward a collusion here the military doesn't want to give up its privileged position in in society the protesters want a genuine democratic system where this thing is headed it's impossible to know some titus's remain on terrorist that they found sixty fishing ahead and apply pressure on the military council to provide the classic transition that they say will be installing so this time we decided we would go to where you we're and they. would limit. you think. that the middle east to the point of because now we are things are nothing you have to see just to see who has been thinking. feeling towards. these are the people troublesome egypt to come here to try to explain their tens of thousands

the message being clear they did see people who think very hard for a chance a genuine democracy and they punch a few they see that chance is now being denied to the sane and moving willing to keep on fighting for a surface r.t. how to spank a right. just in twenty four minutes past the hour here in the russian capital other news in brief from around the world now in our world aids in southern yemen violent clashes have erupted between troops and militants linked to al qaeda twelve insurgents and seven soldiers have been killed in fighting 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. run claims it's started to build a copy of the top secret american spy drone captured last year by its armed forces and military says it extracted data and figured out how the craft works u.s.

officials are knowledge losing the surveillance drone but said it would be difficult to exploit any data or technology because of its security measures. there . satellite images show that key oil infrastructure in sudan's disputed heglig region has been destroyed during recent border fighting with south of then southern forces captured the oil rich turn last week raising fears of war between the two under international pressure the south then started pulling out of the area and said its troops were bombed while leaving south sudan became independent from the north last year following a long running civil war which caused nearly two million deaths. nearly seventy thousand off the docks believers have gathered at moscow's main cathedral for a service in defense of the faith and follows a number of high profile cases of vandalism of churches and sacred objects over the past few months here's r.t. jacob griefs. we can see and indeed hear thousands of people who've congregate it here goes main cathedral christ the savior they're being led in

perception by patriarch kirill now this perceives here's a number of hours of mass prayer and also a list of the service that was given itself has been replicated around the country as a whole at some of the key centers of the orthodox church in russia some its main cathedrals and really sent home to drum up support for the faith has been coming under some criticism of laces be facing some troubling times its leaders among them patriarch hero say they've become under attack from an anti christian campaign and the there have been attacks made on numbers our number of church properties around the country what taking place at a creature and present are where the front door was the entrance was set ablaze also some of the religious symbols sacred symbols have also been attacked among them an idol of the virgin mary and

a crucifix some of those who are held up high by a chart carol here today among those crowds have gathered now really stirring some of this resentment of the church on as being a venture took place in favor that's when pussy riot say punk groom with a very much protest message to christ the savior cathedral there they tug seize their song at present elect that amir also at a truck hero and he said support for blood amir who simply no was outcry among faithful gatherers that when using such a sacred place for their demonstrations there's also been a lot of condemnation since from human rights groups don't like how the church handled this saga and how it came down safely when it came to pussy riot. jake agreed. that in central moscow now in a few moments we'll be talking to one of the french politicians who for the presidential election that's off the headlines coming up shortly stay with us and i

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did i kill innocent here i was at the base of course and that's never answered. mom a song from the school spoke with me i think of it every day. but still the flashbacks from the memories i'm glad to say my son a long time this year trying to go. i was ashamed. i was ashamed that i didn't. i was ashamed that i hadn't a clue. why i got my goat the way it's coming off. in the mosque. i'm proud to be our nominee or to. not believe what i was going on once or i think. that i was a good soldier. but namo soldier on the other side.