blow for nicolas sarkozy losing out to a socialist candidate francois on gnome's the first round of the french presidential election. faceoff in the second stage in a fortnight. for the last point challenger secures more than twenty eight percent of the pros and he can also cause he has become the first incumbent leader who has failed to take the lead in the first round of the presidential race in over fifty years will join me for more of that a few moments. popping happy pills to forget the horrors of war and you concerns for u.s. soldiers overgrown dependence on sedatives and antidepressants. and syrian rebels refused to dance to foreign cuba insisting military intervention is no way to resolve the deadly conflict.

internationally isn't comments twenty four seven this is o.t. because sarkozy and socialist challenger francois hollande will go head to head in the second round of the french presidential election in two weeks time they have on the first round so that one at twenty eight point five percent of the vote again sarkozy's twenty seven percent is the first time a french president seeking reelection has failed to win the first round for more than half a century which crosstalk correspondent. is in paris for us that's a humiliating defeat in this station sarkozy how could a school of voting be for the second round on may the sixty think. well it will certainly be connected to the results of we've seen putting a lot of good friday it was as expected the polls have been predicting that the campaign will see them both coming very close to each other first of all there are

a lot of variables that will come into play here one important thing i'd like to note is the exit polls of the the a polling agency asking the voters after the first round who they will vote for the second round fifty three percent said they will vote for a lot however the big question here is who are those the candidates had voted for the other candidates who are they going to vote for for the second round he will have to get the money in the pen of voters on the far right and i for now the prophecy percent of them said that they will vote for cycles for our lawns aside though he has to get a look at nationals voters on that side ninety percent said they will vote for him away over there and it all comes down to pitting their policies to get to a beside each other at their personalities events and also the voter turnout for the second round will be important as well which is also like to note that francois bayrou the centrist he also has a policy about nine percent of votes and his voters are split between the two so a lot of factors still to come into play neck and that is what we'll see the second round. probably has his popularity

much. well that's right he is a branded by some people a wall some of the polls say that he is actually the most unpopular president in modern history and he even five years ago as this reformist president who wanted to change france within five years down the road we see a country that's a lot poorer and many people here say that it is has become less about the people and more about institutions more about capitalism and liberalism and receive unemployment rate at about ten percent it's all twelve year high during the reign of psycho's e. and so the unemployment issues being the top concern of french people has not been addressed it's clear to see why has become so unpopular. so how much of a surprise was the strong national front. oh yeah the fact that she had a cave in a third of this race was not so not a surprise at all but the fact that she had garnered more than what was predicted by it more than eighteen percent is the big surprise as the campaign was going on

we've been talking to a lot of fresh people asking if there has been a shift towards the campaign that he looked at as he put it forward and he immigration and to you are more nationalistic perspective now some would say there's an element of a protest vote in the polls for her however exercise would say that has to be acknowledged that there is because of this big base there is that element of support for this kind of campaigning cynical us like rosie if you want to get the votes of many that have been have to again go on to that platform under what kind of the reaction has been among the public and people you've been speaking to about these results you know what's interesting here is that this is a very grim predation about the turnout for the first round but what we saw was eighty percent of the french people had come out to vote however that optimistic number does not at all represent the pessimism that the french people are expressing they're very disenchanted very disillusioned still believing that there's not much of a choice really being presented to them and there are no solutions that they see

and they also say that the second route is really all about compromise they say the first round you vote for the candidate that you like the most and the second route you vote for the candidate that you dislike the least so you very interesting to see how they will cast their ballots given this very very big just at chapman among them. but there's also the reporting from paris thank you. reaction from a political writer johnson who joins us now. yeah you can hear us yes you can now the first two rounds is clearly an indictment by. far country rebound in the second do you think. well i think it will depend and. this is a very large for not a good. if. if. i'm going to do it

all along is going to be able to mobilize because he's not a very charismatic i think. that all the people who. will actually vote if they do it. then. so we're. all on house to have to do to win over the floating voters who clearly gave their preferences to other candidates well i don't think you know i'm going to do very much except not make any mistake because i'm usually the majority vote and i'm going to get rid of. but as i say first it's going to be more of. the interesting thing and to raise the race. which i think did move my eyes a lot of people because you had two charismatic figure running for third place that

is mary and optional and. you don't seem kind of. either of those to the. floor for or will know that you had either of candidate. france's economy like many others really isn't it donna states with high unemployment and sluggish growth a change of the top might feel fresh but surely one wins will inherit a place in china so i think. well sure but you see the situation isn't as bad yet as it is in other things so a lot of people aren't feeling the hurt they're worried that is coming i mean there are reports of other people who are unemployed and so on but they're living with their parents or they're not desperate. the. addiction things are going to get much better much worse before they ever get better they ever do get better and so this is a phony period in a way overdone is

a great candidate for this sort of ambiguous spirit that you don't really know what's going to happen. yet everybody is predicting that this is going to get terrible in france are still living pretty well as the world goes and are more afraid of what's going to happen given what's happening in greece spain italy and so on then feeling the pinch here. is a big thing is going to be the national front vote and. interesting because i think. it is very much. when he goes along because she wants to be and she said the leader of the opposition now that stuck with me will fail then she will become the leader of the right position to invest in government so if. the next president or a lot of steps from this policy towards the u.s.

and its relationship with. well that and that i really. didn't want to know is going to carry their a bit of meaning candidate but what do you. feel is. growing. in. europe now do you think. by. a number of candidates and. so i mean i think a lot of good going to have a great deal of difficulty. he will. not do anything radically. but he will be nicer about. will be a bit more noticeable. that. he is not going to be likely any

thread in any direction and thought ok we have to leave it there for now political writer donna dawson live for us here in r.t. thank you. i remember that there are more stories and updates awaiting fuel at all web site r.t. dot com as to what else you can find that day a close enough of the drug however on the head started building its own copy of an unmanned u.s. . captured last year. also on lying and saying their prayers tens of thousands of orthodox believe is there in central moscow in a show of support for their faith or at least the churches. so obviously they stick a set of keys in the songs is the show on our web site you can catch the next edition of the president on there tomorrow here in r.t. but this thing on whether we can be xmas guilty of treason. there's been

a record increase in the use of antidepressants and other prescribed pills among us soldiers but it's seen as a way to help service personal survival brutality of war is concerned it's merely a sticking plaster for the deeper psychological damage suffered by soldiers what is going to change you can have the story of a record number of american troops are on antidepressants according to the u.s. army surgeon general more than one hundred ten thousand active duty servicemen and women are taking prescribe narcotics sedatives and anti-anxiety drugs that's an eight fold increase since two thousand and five michael brown served as a marine in iraq up until two thousand and six he started taking antidepressants after he returned from the war when i was i mean. i. make regression. my brain was cluttered.

when my. three different points. i mean i couldn't be able to make a decision on whether or not. the person or carrying them in front of me. really knew that me or whether or not we're. just very well in earth production michael says while in iraq he could see about a third of his fellow servicemen taking psychotropic pills to get through the day. some suggest the current increase in suicides and homicides in the u.s. military is not a coincidence although the link with the use of drugs has been proven in court only in a handful of cases american soldier david lawrence was charged with murdering a detainee he was guarding in afghanistan his sentence was reduced to ten years it was proved that the psychotropic medication that he was prescribed made his mental condition worse the fact that our military is saying oh if you just take these

pills you'll be fine and go on back out there and give these people guns this is crazy and now we're seeing this terrible combination and reaction of these these medications next scene and a lot of the soldiers self medicate with alcohol and those don't mix military official see no reason to panic saying the use of psychiatric drugs this comparable to civilian use if you were a civilian. spoke to a psychiatrist and said i have trouble sleeping and i have anxiety problems and i have post-traumatic stress disorder. they wouldn't give you a gun and send you out you know to face danger i mean as opposed to driving you're taking some of these medications michael says when he complained of depression he was given drugs before he even had the chance to talk to a doctor i was handed over. want to consider.

first and foremost. you were very very you know second prior to the rap war soldiers could not go into combat and psychiatric drugs but the stress of combat took its toll. for in order to keep the ranks for maybe life in the u.s. army started handing out more pills but what seemed like an easy solution has become a problem all of its own i'm going to check our reporting from washington harvey. but still ahead in the program setting sail he reports from the ongoing joint naval exercise russia china right out what it becomes already for. a few minutes learn what kind of challenges future potential astronauts face in the way it's becoming space spine is. the u.n.

is a briefing of its observer mission to syria as the balance day continues unabated political leaders of the rebellion against a call for military intervention that's something that many people on the ground refuse to accept and he's also both in the reports. almost everyone in syria these days is in opposition to something ready to lash out at opponents at any moment and seventy six year old my feet mohammad is in opposition to that he says syrians are still worked up about politics it has become difficult to make people smile but he found a way to. go i like dancing in the streets and i like the reaction where you seem to free this way yet even if he can stay away from politics when i ask him about his biggest concern is sask syria should not dance to somebody else's tune. we don't need any countries meddling in our family. here. while the

prospect of a levy has no intervention seems everlast likely to militarize the position and their supporters are still asking for arms. and. when they are almost one from another and the presidents of other countries is that they support us in our cause we the rebels wants to get armed. all the rebels may have caused all the media attention is syrian opposition speaks with many voices its often faulted for being disorganized and fragmented but there is a surprising unity when it comes to the issue of military intervention. is the position activists asked he was detained and mistreated by the security services and while he is calling on bashar assad to leave serious political scene he says the armed groups should do the same. like

him abdul aziz is not afraid to go public refusing he just returned back from moscow where the opposition delegation tried to persuade the russian authorities to put more pressure on their side regime he says not all powers to mediate in the syria crisis are really out. you know all the world. we are supporting. well we've. always said it's not support that. are running through some sort of that. if that comes. and it's cannot. agree of dark. and syrian people will suffer too much.

reference from maybe a civil war no one knows what with levy and iraq just across the border imported democracies are not held in high regard here even among the opposition. well syrians remain highly polarized across political lines most of them agree that the solution to their current prices should be worked out within the country even for the opposition big dago they know is no better than the demons that now haunt neighboring countries economic boycott artsy damascus syria now let's take a look at some other news in brief around the world the south sudanese war planes carried out strikes on south sudan on monday killing three people or something. like you that's less than a day off to you farting about on the border between the two countries but the troops were pulling out just want to make sudanese officials say up to four hundred of their soldiers were killed during the battle became independent last year

running civil war which led to many million deaths. a colombian military says it seized more than two tons of cocaine in the western part of the country it happened during a raid on a drug the border which is believed to belong to the far colombia's largest rebel group distribution of cocaine is the rebels' largest source of income in the campaign against the colombian government has been raging for fifty years. and there is very vick is set to give his final day of evidence to a norwegian court on the killings he carried out last july already a native's baltimore seventy seven victims in the oslo bombing and shootings on a nearby island pleads not guilty on friday braving gave chilling details of the gun rampage in which she systematically shot dead screams of young people depending on whether or not he's around sane places in the prison littleton psychiatric

institution. russia and china are holding their first joint naval exercises both sides stressed the war games near the korean peninsula are not aimed against anyone nazis denise lawsky is on deck to explain what political waters are going beijing selling towards. i'm standing on board the russian destroyer of middle vinogradov and we are now in the chinese port of king it took us nearly a week to reach the starting point for the joint russian chinese maneuver it's called naval corp two thousand and twelve the russian convoy consists of four big warships armed with conventional weapons three destroyers and the flagship missile cruiser but they are basically what we are going to see here in the next few days is an exercise in cooperation between russian and chinese naval forces for the first time were four key areas anti-terrorist missions protection of marine lines of communication guarding of civilian vassals and joint supply operations the

exercises are the bad building on what's both forces have been at each doing and of past couple of years in the gulf of aden to counter piracy chinese and russian warships of the schools the civilian convoys the coast of somalia and now they'll be learning to make it a joint effort most of the chinese ships we've seen here in the harbor look brand new princes right across the page here you can see the guided missile destroyer hard being which will take part in the joint exercises in the yellow sea both sides stress that the war games are not directed against any particular country or military blog but there's in the creasing a concern and both north cohen beiji about the u.s. naval buildup in the asia pacific and that's not to mention japanese and south korean naval forces to close allies with the us we've seen signs of japanese and south korea on our way to china when our convoy it was frequently followed by

a nato reconnaissance planes destroyers and submarines hundreds of sailors will take part of both sides supported by planes and helicopters. it's a dream for many young people to one day become an astronaut and russia's space agency is now open for new applicants but hopefuls need to prove that their body and mind will be able to withstand the challenges that his office can afford to see if he's got what it takes. this isn't an ordinary session at the gym these men are trying to prove they have what it takes to become cosmonauts russia space agency is now recruiting i mean you have several qualms language one of them health and one of them but of course. the beer and readiness to go through all the difficulties all africans have to go through a tough filtering system involving tests and exercises somewhere new some have been around since the very start like a centrifuge to get us off

a model of says for him doing a g.'s on that centrifuge was the most difficult he's been training for two years now and is set to officially become a cosmonaut after passing one final state exam. one after that and i was a kid i used to think cosmonaut is like a robot who has to be able to run and jump twenty four seventh's like chuck norris and bruce willis combined with even james bond and superman but it's all much more serious in real life and. we survived well i. i i was scared fresh for you. jokes aside the survival in the wilderness training is one of the toughest test for three days the can live in the woods using nothing but equipment from the ship but still how hard can it all be. this is one of the first test in the first stages of the

selection process that all candidates have to go through all basically it's a coordination task sold shows how the mind and mind of the can but it is able to control the body and basically it's a jumping test so what will that should mean if i call you. to. thank. you. thank you. thank you. thank. you. he says four point six out of ten agreed but the real challenge still ahead we're going to. i was expecting this would be my problem but it turned out it was the damn thread no coke of you know this

but the quality and the central bank of why i went back and i wanted to take to get off but they just didn't let me and sense of it you know and so they have to go through these i think and to coach finally after the speech camps to run from hell. with me you know becoming a space. you go to school or de star city. probably not. the business news now with daniel and it turns out that state

companies coming more efficient after all down the years many economists accuse assume they're less effective at least on emerging stock markets like russia and china a report found government backed firms outperform others now the most external tears are dropping in the first hours of trade on this monday we price is on helping energy stocks cause down after an oil spill transfield in the arctic the spill has now been contained is slipping its privatization could come by the autumn first deputy prime minister hugo chavez all of has just said magnets among the top gainers after reporting an almost three fold increase in net for quarter one now if you can look at oil because it's falling as u.s. economic growth raises the risk of lower demand the euro is losing value against the dollar but it regained some ground from the ruble off and on certain week last week with paul bit of news from italy and spain france this election is a negative for traders the case in france on opening just an hour ago the country split between sarkozy and oil on supporters and that's bad news for markets

stability and. losses this hour now tokyo slipped into the red off the weak chinese manufacturing data that is extending losses almost two percent down now it's a bad day for the markets and the producer of the kalashnikov is on its way to exit bankruptcy being the was leading maker of small arms the factories raked up some five hundred million dollars of debt as of twenty ten will finish the first stage of recovery. the model with two key general motors which went through very deep water just rushing through the bankruptcy case and creation of a new company which took all good assets and just sold by the similar strategy we use the. design of the factory was for single product very mass production so now market demands many more products with much less warriors efficiency or production we need protection but work will work. to finalize our two billion

rubble investment problem within three years all right you are out today latest news and figures are on the website of the dot com slash business ok thanks for that more later. that coming out of sports and headlines in just a few minutes stay with us.

you know some other seal story and it seems so for like sleep you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm sorry welcome to the big picture. more news today violence is once again flared up the film these are the images cobol has been seeing from the streets of canada after. the giant corporations are on the day.