a blow for nicolas sarkozy losing out to socialist candidate francois alone in the first round the french presidential election set to face off in the second stage in a fortnight. challenger secures more than twenty eight percent of the votes and it will 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 on that in a few moments. israel warns it's a peace deal with egypt is in jeopardy. export deal with its neighbor. and syrian rebels refuse to dance to a foreign insisting military intervention is no way to resolve the conflict.

this is r.t. last from moscow welcome to the program because sarkozy and socialist challenger francois a moment will go head to head in the second round of the french presidential election in two weeks time and their final results from the first round. twenty eight point five percent of the vote against twenty seven it's the first time a french president seeking reelection has failed to win the first round century a correspondent there's also reports now from paris. well it will certainly be a connection to the results that we've seen putting a lot of good friday 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 of will come into play here but important thing i'd like to note is the exit polls of dva polling agency asking the voters after the first round who they will vote for the second round three percent said they will vote for a lot however the big question here is who are those the candidates have voted for

the other candidates who are they going to vote for the second route he will have to get the money lappin of voters on the far right and i for now the prophecy percent of them said that they will vote for for our lawns aside though he has to get voters on that side ninety percent said they will vote for have a wherever they're at it all comes out of 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 not just also like to know 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 and neck and neck is what we'll see the second round of some of the polls say that nicolas sarkozy is actually the most unpopular president in the modern french history and he came in 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 its two sions more about capitalism and liberalism and received

unemployment rate about ten percent it's it's all the twelve year high during the reign of nicolas sarkozy and so the unemployment issues being the top what sort of fresh people has not been addressed it's clear to see why has become so unpopular the fact that many lappin a cave in a third and this race was not not a surprise at all but the fact that she had garnered more than what was predicted by him more than eighteen percent is a big surprise you know as the campaign was going on he's been talking to a lot of french people asking if there has been a shift towards said the campaign that he looked at as with putting forward. anti immigration and to you are more nationalistic a perspective now some would say there's an element of a protest vote in the polls for her however experts have been saying that has to be acknowledged that there is because of this big base there is that element of support for this kind of campaigning some because like rosie if you want to get the votes of many that kind may have to again go on to that platform eighty percent of the french people had come out to vote however that often mistake number does not

at all represent the pessimism that the french people are expressing their 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 of you very interesting to see how they will cast their ballots given this a very very big disenchantment among them. professor of political science west university. simply failed his country. pro his hands for. as a person who is 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 monday the opposite the next they're

also incompetent. to do very much of a crisis the president isn't it's likely to be a long we'll have to face the markets we 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 guy want 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 this systemic crisis but immigration doesn't cause the economic crisis it becomes such a problem because people want to simplify everything and therefore very sort painting a group of immigrants. country with severe economic difficulties. and social division. a member of the french socialist party

. is a preview for you. preview of france we have today is significantly poorer than it was five years ago she's probably lost her influence of the world with for example the failure of the union for the mediterranean she's lost much of her influence in europe and the best example of this is how angela merkel and nicolas sarkozy have agreed on a draft european treaty which is very favorable to german interests and very unfavorable to the rest of the rest of europe france is mostly very divided with a heretic today. r.t. dot com we want to your vote what the biggest challenge for france france's next leader say so far more than the then of you say it's. quarterly the biggest challenge of kickstarting economy not a fifth thing the trickiest problem with using tension grecian than

a few of you so far today claim it's a process involvement in foreign conflicts and your vote counts now but not in that camp and here's what else you can find that might. be closing on the drone how iran has started building its own copy of an unmanned u.s. spying craft captured last year. also you can watch the first episode of genocide on just a new show on our website that's the next edition of the program on air tomorrow here not the same on the intro of europe and the last state. a fresh diplomatic round was brokered out in the middle east after egypt terminated its gas export deal with israel. says the move puts the peace treaty between the two countries on the night let's get the latest from our correspondent sara firth who's in cairo for us today. so what's the reasoning for cutting off the

gas well and why is this happening now. well the head of egypt's gas company has said that this is a trade not a political issue and that the terminations of that deal with some form of payment to another as was reported the coming from egypt but it seems some people in israel have interpreted that as a possible violation of the count david peace treaty that was signed between the two countries in the one israeli opposition figures come out of one of the crisis in relations between egypt and israel and called on the us who is the sponsor of the gas bill between the neighboring countries to intervene and i was going to be said that there was a very controversial here in egypt a very unpopular amongst egyptian people who view it as a deal which denied egypt a fair market price on gas provided to israel and also very much seeing as

representative of the much warmer relations between israel and egypt that were formed under the former president hosni mubarak said not a popular little it's certainly been a target for is that in three thousand and it's just a month to go before egypt votes for a new president is this latest round with israel likely to affect the race. well of course yes presidential elections just around the corner now what you thing really is the first time egyptians have being debated in egypt relations with israel quite publicly i love the current rule is and the islamists in parliament have found that they're going to oppose international relations because i think it's been a feeling here in cairo a lot of people that you could buy a house in the run up to the elections be about to be a role here period in relations between the two countries those three front currently full presidential spot has pledged that they're going for a space peace deal have been nearly every single one of them has said that they're

going to be looking very closely at the fairness and appropriate of this very unpopular guest. ok r.t. sara for live from current thank you. but still ahead few in the program are popping pills to forget the horrors of war you concern for u.s. soldiers over bro dependence on saudi troops to the prisons details in just a few minutes. a report from the ongoing joint naval exercises between russia and china with the big guns removed from. the u.n. this is beefing up its observer mission to syria there's a balance there continues unabated but it's called leaders of the rebellion against a mask this according for military intervention but something many people on the ground refuse to accept his offer. 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 so worked up about politics it has become difficult to make people smile but he found the way. i like dancing in the street and i like the reaction it produces in i feel free this way. even if he can stay away from politics when i ask him about his biggest concern is ask syria should not dance to somebody else's two year. old i did we don't need any countries meddling in our family. here. while the prospect of believe yes the intervention seems everlast likely to militarize the position and their supporters are still asking for arms. and. man they are all one from ana and the presidents of other countries is that they support us and now we the rebels wants

to get armed. all the rebels may have caused all the media attention the syrian opposition speaks with many voices. it's often faulted for being just organized for granted but there is a surprising unity when it comes to the issue of military intervention. this opposition activists he was detained and mistreated by the security services and while he's calling on bashar assad to leave serious political scene he said the armed groups should do the same. like him i do was easy is not afraid to go public refusing he just returned back from moscow where the opposition delegation trying to persuade the russian authorities to put more pressure on their side regime he says not all powers mediating the syria crisis are really helping you know all of the world. we are supporting.

you know that some. of the states but support them and some are trying to play some sort of pressure. if that happens. and that's perhaps not succeed but it will be agreeable. people will suffer too much. reckon three maybe a civil war no one knows what with believe and iraq just across the border in forty democracies are not held in high regard here even among the opposition while syrians remain highly polarized across political lines most of them agree that the solution to their current crisis should be worked out within the country even for

the opposition they doubled they know is still better than the demands that now haunt neighboring countries and some of the weaker artsy damascus syria. let's take a look now at some other news in brief from around the world a south sudanese war planes carried out as strikes on south sudan on monday killing three people their southern oil town of them and you know it's less than a day after new fighting erupted on the border between the two countries as the south's troops were pulling out of the disputed border town bigley south sudanese officials say up to four hundred of their soldiers were killed during a battle in the region that became independent from in the last year during the long running civil war which meant the two million deaths. the 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 lab or a tree which is believed to belong to the park colombia's largest rebel group and

distribution of cocaine is the rebels' largest source of income financing a pain against the colombian government that's been raging for fifty years. and this brave is set to give his final day of evidence to a norwegian court on the killings he carried out last july he's already admitted slaughtering seventy seven victims you know warming and shootings on a nearby island that pleads not guilty on friday grave it gave chilling details of the gun rampage in which it systematically paints goals of young people in the room whether or not the same place and see the prison or committal psychiatric institution has been a recording crease in the use of antidepressants and other prescribed pills among us soldiers well it's seen as a way to help a service personnel survive a retarded sea of war is consumed it's merely a sticking plaster for the deep psychological damage suffered by our soldiers what is going to try to count as a story. 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 prescribed 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 anti-depressants after he returned from war when i was i mean. i. make a rational. and my brain was so cluttered with other garbage that was going to run my. three different points. i mean i couldn't be able to make a decision on whether a. person that carrying them happened in front of me. writing about me or whether or not anywhere. just her production michael says while in

iraq he can 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 commons this is crazy and now we're seeing this terrible combination and reaction of these these medications nic seen and 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 in no to face danger i mean you're even supposed to drive if 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. to consider. first and foremost. you have a very good health second prior to the iraq war soldiers could not go into combat on psychiatric drugs but the stress of combat took its toll. in order to keep the

ranks for maybe less depressed the u.s. army started handing out more pills but what seemed like an easy solution has become a problem all of its own. r.p. . russia and china are holding their first joint naval exercises the war games in the korean peninsula come with a ton of increasing tension in the region. to explain what political waters moscow and beijing are selling towards. i'm standing on board the russian destroyer of middle vinogradov and we are now in the chinese port talking it took us nearly a week to reach the starting point for the joint russian chinese maneuvers 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 part of building on what both forces have been each doing in the past couple of years in the gulf of aden to counter piracy both chinese and russian warships have of course the civilian convoys of the coast of somalia and now they'll be learning to make it a joint effort and most of the chinese ships we've seen here in the harbor look brand new princes right across the plane here you can see the guided missile destroyer harbin which will take part in the joint exercises in the yellow sea both sides stress that the war games are not they wrecked it against any particular country or military blog but there's in the creasing concern and both moscow and beijing 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 u.s. we've seen signs of japanese and south korea on our way to china when our convoy it was frequently followed by 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 astronauts and russians a space agency is now open for new applicants hopefuls that need to prove that their body and mind will be able to withstand the challenge is not a zero percent offering to see if he's got what it takes but. this isn't an ordinary session at the gym these men are trying to prove they have what it takes to become cosmonauts russia's space agency is now recruiting i mean you have several. language one of them health if one of them but of course. the beer and reading is the growth of all the difficulties all africans have to go

through a tough filtering system involving tests and exercises some are new some are going around since the very start like the thank you q two that's one of my all of says for him doing a g.'s on that thank you for huge 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. with one after 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 or like chuck norris and bruce willis combined even james bond and superman but it's all much more serious in real life. we. go well i think. i i was fresh up to you but i. always i jokes

aside the survival in the wilderness training is one of the toughest tests for three days the move in the woods using nothing but men 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 fast so it shows how the mind the mind of the candidate is able to control the body and the screen for jumping tests so well that should mean difficult to. thank. thank you. thank. you to. four point six out of ten. but the real challenge souly ahead to.

i was expecting this would be my problem but it turned out it was the damn thread no code or go we know this but the core of the and look central to get what i want to kick at the end of the king and i wanted to take to get off but they just didn't let me and since you and said have to go through the day i think to do cold finally after the speech hamster run from hell. i'm not really keen on becoming a space. you go to school or to see star c.v.

. it's time to dive into the world of money now and. success for us in a bad day for world markets yes terrible there's lots of reasons for that as well let's not. manufacturing data there has sent the continent heavily down france's election is a negative for traders the character on two fronts is now one hundred percent lower the country's split between sarkozy and supporters and that's bad for markets have been but the most six years of slumping further some two and a half percent we call prices helping energy stocks as you can see there a spill at the lukoil to the poles it is reportedly over two thousand tons of crude privatization could come by the autumn russia's first deputy premier said about an hour ago retailer reported nor most three fold jump in net for the first quarter is falling as that core economic data raises fears crude demand will fall the euro is

losing value against the dollar and the ruble in the last hour after a dutch minority member of the cabinet refused to back the contrie spending cuts tokyo slipped into the red of the weak chinese manufacturing data the hang saying is extending losses as well and the producer of the kalashnikov is on its way to concluding bankruptcy proceedings is causing the world's leading maker of small arms the factory has wrecked up some five hundred million dollars of that as of twenty ten it's now finished the first stage of recovery. more the way to cook general more those which went through a very difficult or just rushing through the bankruptcy case and for creation of a new company which took all good assets and just sold by the it's a similar strategy we used to use marsh design of the fact it was for single product very modest production so no market demands many more products with mice

less warders efficiency of production when you put children but what will work. to finalize our war two billion rummel investment program within three years and europe today the latest news is on the website of the dot com slash business ok thanks that's more from late. but next to me cap of our top stories stay with us arundhati.

when you force spring overseas my grocery birds will come home to roost. when their massive tongue great. empathy gives way to ponder the motions. towards those who live on the currently. are. did i kill innocents here or was it a call it's a crisis and that's never answered it. on a song from the skull still with me i think of it every day. of the flies fired from the memories. i assume i saw a long time in the series trying to tell. i was so sure. i was ashamed that

i didn't. i was ashamed that i hadn't a clue why i got my arm i got my legs i'm a lot. bigger than the mind. what i wanted to be out of knowledge i was a boy to. now 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 i'm just a good. fit.