sarkozy for one will be the next french president has the two front runners go through to the second decisive round of voting in two weeks time. round one of the french presidential races gone very much as expected but the big surprise is actually the voter turnout which is much higher than was predicted it's only for more of a few moments. the un resolved to expand its monitoring mission in syria good despite a unanimous vote in the security council some members are accused of on the nine in the fisa. bahrain host the controversial four hundred one grand prix while sending in police to prove the crackdown on demonstrators angry at the regime. and thirty minutes that gripped global attention julian assange is probably at his opponent to be shown on t.v. this week sparking a range of reaction from praise to his syria. with

a look back at the past seven days top stories and the latest developments this is the weekly on r.t. . in france presidential election front runners nicolas sarkozy and his main rival socialist francois hollande looked to have reached the second round of voting in two weeks time early polls suggest our land won the first round by a small margin so severe is following the voting in the french capital. 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 psychos and a lot of they have been encouraging people to vote throughout all of this it's been

about jobs and employment and the economy and this has been the top 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 in the second round at this point francois a lot of nicolas sarkozy will have to certainly more break that into their campaigns much stronger than they have done in the first round and also what they will be having to do is trying to win the of voters from the two sides on nicolas sarkozy will have to win voters for marine le pen and he may have to again appeal to their sentiment he has been doing so this is anti immigration such a hit 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 that position should sarkozy with and now france all along will have to get the voters and we know that militia has been calling for revolution a civic insurrection and these are the people who who are very anti capitalist and anti liberalism and he will have to win these voters get all the left to support

him so the two will go head to head because he says if it comes out of the debate he still confident but again we see a leader of a larger it may continue on to the second round of all of this a very interesting to see what is 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 win a very pessimistic french public. in paris and the. professor of political science at paris west university told me earlier that nicolas sarkozy has massively failed his country and whoever gets into power will have his hands full. as a person he was extremely arrogant he was perceived as the president of the rich precisely at a time when there's a crisis and also. he doesn't have a very clear political line he says one thing one day the opposite the next day. also. incompetence because you know he's not been able to do very much about the

crisis the president isn't likely to be alone would have to face the market had to face a very tough situation. if there's a crisis in france which looks a bit like the crisis in greece they would be demonstrations and then france being such a big amount to me within europe that would make a big difference from my point of view they don't understand that there is a systemic crisis and that immigration is one part of the systemic crisis but integration doesn't cause the economic crisis it becomes such a problem because people want to simplify everything and therefore there is. blaming a group of immigrants. well whoever becomes france's president faces a whole list of issues on a website. you think will be the biggest challenge of the results on screen i will say for the majority of you believed to be bearing the euro zone's debt twenty

seven percent think kickstarting the economy will be the hardest ninety percent challenge in defusing tension over immigrants and finally sixteen percent think that involvement in foreign conflicts will be the biggest problem join the debate cast your vote right now dawtie dot com. the un's top party is agreed on a resolution to send three hundred observers to syria to monitor the fragile truce there was has welcomed the move but washington want it may take action against a mask if it fails to comply with the peace plan report now has 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 the cold war is in the six point peace plan laid out by a u.n. joint envoy mr kofi on on russia of course of 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 have susan rice took to her twitter feed to save the deployment of three hundred or three thousand unarmed observers cannot on its own stop assad's murderous rampage susan rice said 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 hold water ambassador churkin said that 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 a signal to go a position they could criticizing the government saying that. they expect the opposition which isn't for. very clearly it was a good. council resolution which they themselves had just voted for and all those predictions of doom and gloom threats of various plans which are being hatched this hour where those things are not productive i think they are distracting from the implementation of the coffee i don't plan on from the political effort 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 their political process where no even though the security council voted unanimously to some members of the security council some important members of the international community. still continuing to think in confrontational terms stores a cd and government and that's richardson says the syrian government will be primarily responsible for the safety and security of the un 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 station of violence this resolution the most recent one it's up to also underscores that the syrian government and the opposition group both have to put their weapons out weapons down and begin engaging in dialogue. and the syrian opposition is renewed its calls for u.n. fact military intervention this is the friends of syria group met in paris this

week to discuss putting more pressure on the assad regime researches sarah marusek has told me she believes that one sided efforts underline the importance of the observe his mission in syria. this is incredibly significant especially when we consider a lot of the other regional neighbors of syria behaving very poorly and provoking violent conflict in syria and suggesting that they want to arm the rebels and continue and actually increase the level of violence that's happening in syria so we have this whole region that's actually instigating violence and we have the so-called friends of syria of western powers really who will no influence over syria and have very little to say or do because they they don't have any relationships they don't have any information that will provide any help to the people of syria to solve this crisis so with those two efforts happening you know

between the arab league and the friends of syria it's actually very refreshing to have a u.n. observer mission because it's talking to everybody people are taking it seriously and so this is very promising indeed to see these developments and it's just not a solution and that's going to solve everything and one day for example and it will take many different compromises and steps but with patience i think that this is certainly the best and most promising development that we've seen in a long time. this is the weekly live here on r.t. still to come extremism on the show the first mass murder and this baby uses a court room to promote his ideas and his views are far from unique in europe as we hear a little later. on another scandal for nato forces in afghanistan as new photos show american soldiers posing with the corpses of afghans and that story coming your way in just a few minutes here on r.t. . but first 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 demonstrators have clashed with security forces over the past week as police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets protests and tense are fired 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 ports that ten female activists not in freedom for political prisoners have been arrested author middle east expert atomic alley explained to me earlier why political changes in bahrain are not in western interests. we've had demonstrations in anger just clear on be even if they're sober and clearly security will serve agree. to police and security officials have been called include. former senior scotland police chief john yates

warned apply brands of family mission would be used interesting would defend democracy in the west africa to believe it's a lot police spirit in cross-stitch to get rid of this so ruler because he's one of the i mean you know just compare what is going on in bahrain to other parts of the arab world where the west sees governments as their opponents and there will be a word the way the west reacts and bistros shows the blatant hypocrisy in relation to be human rights and be. use of human rights for human rights mass to get their own way it strategically bahrain is of key importance for the united states and its allies and me so we have here in the arab world group cesc display of double standards yet again. files relating to the trial of norwegian mass killer and his brain it will be classified for sixty years the judges say the documents could be harmful to the public and will be kept secret until twenty seventy two and

a decision came up to believe it's partly televised trial began early last week as admitted to killing seventy seven people in separate borman texas last year but their lies criminal guilt claiming he was protecting norway from being taken over by muslims and also gave a step by step account of exactly how he massacred his victims claiming he had to deal humanize himself to become a mass killer if found guilty braided could face a maximum twenty one year prison sentence but if the judges decide he's insane if he sent for indefinite psychiatric treatment former member of the european parliament lynn ford believes the trials extensive coverage could turn it into a showcase for believe its extremist ideas and that is the way you want a justice system works in it in the european union in norway he he will clearly i was opportunity 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 to

a man who who is deluded and and a racist those on a focus is something that we've seen across the european union. in germany in france in the united kingdom as well as in norway he's just he was politically successful but i think he's a he's one of. many maybe too strong body he's certainly not unique in amy's whatsoever and least groups are actually working together to promote these kind of low wall wazoo in many senses follow the same pattern as the some of the muslim fundamentalists. for more news stories in addition to what tell you see here on screen just head online and go to www dot com where you'll find it still in the fight u.s. congressman and presidential hopeful ron paul shows no sign of slowing down and he's relying on his healthy bank balance to keep him in the republican race. on 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 were shattered more video for you on our you tube channel right now. julian assange to show premiered on r.t. this week the media reaction was global from praise to hysteria the response was anything but in different things going to car has been gauging opinions across the atlantic. for most american media juliana's songes guilty without charge reckless traitor and a threat to our national security interests sleazeball named julian a song 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 because doing a. really combatant. parable

radical. i think that's the sort of it's a pretty trivial. play for if you look at how. we read we have complete control of the guests of his first show was the head of hezbollah 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. posting in to us as well when they want to be able to tell people that he's one of us or terrorism is a small organization and murders but they went to the police and so this is high profile for example if there was a just to try the. very meaning and defend them should have an opportunity to defend themselves some say in the court of public opinion as presented by the u.s.

mainstream media there is a tendency to simplify issues often at the expense of the full picture somebody agrees or doesn't agree with has what was 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 carer's by the purpose of demonizing somebody like nasr our nelson mandela who was considered a terrorist until one nine hundred eighty eight is that really to stop terrorist ideas from infiltrating but for the american people to only hear one side of a debate to 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 our time 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 assigns the founder of wiki leaks and bring him to justice as a as a violator of the espionage act because if we don't just keep parroting the dead man can't leaks that this guy is a traitor and treasonous and he has broken every law the united states the guy ought to be so i'm not for the death penalty so if i'm not for the death i don't want to do it illegally shoot son of a what about freedom of information cherished as a core principle of democracy it's almost like leaving and letting a genie out of the bottle mr assad 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 a court of public opinion then julian assange is someone who presents to the jury

that is that he wears arguments evidence voices which they almost never hear on mainstream media and it's up to us to form an opinion but what many find ironic is that our forces under attack by the u.s. government and the media for practicing pool for stand for freedom of information that america preaches around the globe and banished our reporting from washington. then the second edition of the union sunday show is coming your way on choose to fifteen thirty moscow time and that's eleven thirty g.m.t. this time you'll be speaking to professor. he's a philosopher and leftwing commentator and david horovitz a conservative writer and campaigner they'll be discussing global politics and whether we can leaks was guilty of treason. another week earned 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 maintains is just another isolated incident something antiwar activists strongly disagree with. this is what happens when an occupation lasts for ten years and is manifestly failing i imagine that the morale of the troops is that rock bottom they have absolutely no idea what they're doing there they know that the populations in their home countries whether it's this country or the united states are overwhelmingly against the war and this is bound to produce a situation where the occupation becomes more brutal for them because they they know that they're on the run they know that the business of training the afghans to take over is actually resulting in a situation where afghan armed forces are increasingly shooting members of the occupying forces so i think that this is a generation of what was already at these are stressed occupation and what the situation will be like when they've gone is this but whatever that of course these

whatever the problems whatever the military situation is in the country it will at least be afghans who are settling their own future at the moment we have a colonial system where the major powers are trying to run somebody else's country now we should have left that kind of mentality behind in the nineteenth century. russia and china have begun their first ever joint naval exercises that taking place in the yellow sea near the korean peninsula two thousand vessels and thousands of sailors are involved in the war games plan for six days both sides into exchange experience as they focus on air defense submarine warfare and search and rescue tactics. tension on the korean peninsula is escalating the u.s. shifting more military attention to the asia pacific region experts say washington is aiming to counter potential threats from regional powers like china. this is r t 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 base join us for. very shortly. but first the controversial anti counterfeiting trade agreement or act as it's known has been dealt a heavy blow as the second largest group in the european parliament has announced it will not support it perhaps a sponsor anger among many european states sign an agreement in general thousands demonstrated against it saying it would give major corporations a president to control over their personal data from if occasion is due this summer in the european parliament as a commentator loop samuel says the treaty exposes undemocratic decision making in the e.u. . the real problem with that specifically is how it shows that you're opinion it's effectively allowed to do politics without any reference to national populaces so the fact is that this is a piece of. law it's

a trade agreement that will. on european countries to make law in certain ways but it still is europe it's european law making effectively by proxy i'm going to shows is that the european union have affectively created institutions and procedures which have prevented these kind of agreements coming under any kind of democratic scrutiny whatsoever but the real problem is it's true that countries have signed up to it but no point of national populaces have any say whatsoever in the provisions of this agreement so that's with a really troubling aspect of it but it's fundamentally antidemocratic. approaching twenty four minutes past the hour in the russian capital now some world news in brief making headlines that moment in our world update in southern yemen violent clashes have erupted between troops and militants linked to al qaeda 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 last two minutes and government forces lost control due to turn all elsewhere in the country last year

before the eventual departure of dictator early summer. to run claiming it started to build a copy of the top secret american spy drone captured last year by its armed forces the military says it has extracted a terrine figure out how to craft works and u.s. officials acknowledge losing the surveillance drone but said it would be difficult to exploit any data or technology because of its security measures. satellite images show that key oil infrastructure in sudan's disputed region has been destroyed during recent border fighting with self's of them southern forces captured the aldrich town last week raising fears of war between the two under international pressure of the south and started pulling out of the area but said its troops were formed while leaving south sudan became independent in the north last year following a long running civil war which caused nearly two million. barely seventy thousand orthodox believers have gathered at moscow's main cathedral for

a service in defense of the faith follows a number of high profile cases of vandalism of churches and sacred objects over the past few months is art is jaded grapes. we can see and indeed the thousands of people who have come the gate is here at moscow's main cathedral crisis savior they're being led in perception by patriarch kirill now this perceives here's a 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 at some of the key centers of people for thoughts church in russia some of its main cathedrals and really set him 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 kirill say they've come under attack from an anti christian campaign indeed there have been attacks made on the numbers our number of church

properties around the country want to your place i think these are and present are where the front doors the entrance was set of place it's also some of the religious symbols sacred symbols have also been attacked among them annoyed to 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 released the ring some of this resentment of the church sean has been events that took place in favorites that's when pussy riot a punk room with a very much protest message took to crisis a bit to the usual there they tug sees their song at present a lecture about a man who simply also at patriarch kirill and he said support for blood to me to sin no was outcry among faithful gather a certain limit using such a sacred place for their demonstrations but it's also been a lot of condemnation since from human rights groups b don't like how the church

handled this saga and how it came down safely when it came to pussy riot. g q greaves reporting. there from central moscow without a few moments we'll be talking to one of the main contenders for francis top that will be off the headlines with me coming up shortly in about three minutes from now on our team. to.

bring them all the viewers. we have five forty acres and nineteen ninety three and the side it will be a great place to find myself a home and retire. there she is. we call it our new neighbor neighbor i know seven. we have seventy acres here and i can convince them that they need to drill somewhere besides two hundred feet from. the needs of our growing economy also means expanding our domestic production of oil and natural gas which are vital fuel for transportation electricity and manufacturing this is the fourth amendment

problems of it before we do the right and then change. your flows are not toxic and we did a lot of. understanding of what i. said you cannot hear unless you come over here and live in my house for a week. i have no rights. to british soil. sometimes that is. a pretty hot. markets why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy in the kinds of reports on. world. series technology innovation.