the. blow for nicolas sarkozy losing out to socialist candidate francoise alarms in the first round of the french presidential election with a pair of steps to face in the second stage in a fortnight. the left wing challenger secures more than twenty eight percent of the vote said that nicolas sarkozy's the first incumbent leader who managed to didn't manage to finish first in the first round of the presidential race will join me for more in a few moments. you know the news israel warns of peace deal with egypt is in jeopardy that's after cairo said it's scrapping against the export pact with its neighbor. and syrian rebels refused to down to a foreign true and insisting military intervention is no way to resolve the deadly conflict.

live from our quarters in central moscow you're watching archie with me and he said now it's good to have you with us two pm here in the russian capital twelve noon in paris and nicole are star cozy and socialist challenger francois alarms will go head to head in a second round of the french presidential election that's in two weeks time well results from the first round so a long one twenty eight point six percent of the vote against sarkozy's twenty seven that's the first time a french president seeking reelection has failed to win the first round for more than half a century let's cross now live to our correspondent tell personally if she's in the french capital for us that's a humiliating defeat here in this opening stage for fargo's the how will the voting be for the second round on may the sixth what's expected. well that is

a big question right now if you look at the numbers it is certainly neck and neck could be a difference between that the top two candidates is very small on the right now it's a one point the difference is so the question the people be asking is which way will the voters who had voted for the other candidates how will they vote in the second round will be will it be a lot will it be so close enough for nicolas sarkozy he will have to try to get the voters of money in the pen who is on the far right from the national front she had managed to get seventy point nine percent of the votes according to the exit polls about half of her voters may go to nicolas sarkozy but again these are just estimates and as far as a lot is concerned he will have to get a john dickman on shore from the left front his voters who have been very very creating a lot of noise towards the end of this campaign while ninety percent of voters from that side say they will vote on a lot but still there are a lot of factors that could affect and swing the vote in the second round and not least of all the pessimism and the lack of enthusiasm of the french people they may have come out to vote for the for in the first round that eighty percent but that doesn't necessarily mean bill do the same in the second round another factor to be

considered but let's get more insight now on for more of yesterday mr john laughlin from the institute of democracy and cooperation thanks very much after being with us today let's talk about this this feeling of lack of enthusiasm from the french people they're very disenchanted there's a there's a feeling that there's no solution presented out there how would this play out in the second round was difficult to say and you've just said in your remarks the lack of enthusiasm isn't reflected a tool in the turnout on the country it's been a very high turnout there are many conflicting emotions going on in this election so i don't think we can say with certainty a tool that will be at a low turnout on the sixth of may and with regard to the the higher numbers that might independent the far right have gone there's a lot of reaction here from the french press that this is a surprise to them what significance is this hold and how will the voters of marine le pen do you think voters it's an absolutely incredible result and it's definitely the biggest story of. this election how will the voters behave we don't know that

is the big question marine le pen has said she will announce her choice on the first of may but. boyfriend and the head of the fullness of none of the number two in the fullness and are doing early oh i said he will he will cost a blank vote on the first of may so what does that mean though in ideology and what it means is that there is no certainty or tool that the from national voters will vote for the right wing candidate nicolas sarkozy on the contrary one of the main reasons why running the pen is done so well is that that electorate hates nicolas sarkozy for various reasons not least because they felt betrayed by him after having voted for him in two thousand and seven so the really big question now in french politics is actually of course the six that may but also what will happen in the legislative parliamentary elections in june and my feeling is that money look penn is aiming for that poll more than for the six and the may pole and what i mean by that is that she is aiming to reconstitute the french right there in other words

to break up the sarkozy party to break up the u.n. people r.t. her to reconstitute a defensible as far as she can around herself with a view to winning some kind of parliamentary majority in judo we're fighting to follow up on again is the campaign ideology that business has had been put forward how will the next president whoever he is be able to meet all the demands from the far right who are anti immigration anti hero and on the left who are anti capitalist and you know so all of these ideologies there are lots of conflicting ideologies but it is a mistake in my view to talk about the for the national front as far right because the striking thing about this campaign has been precisely the extent to which marine le pen has run a left wing campaign and he capitalist anti free market in favor of protectionism and so on most of her voters are young people and people from the working classes. this is not a classic right wing or at least bush electorate. on the immigration yes there is

a right wing discourse i agree lauren older is also a right wing issue but her appeal goes way beyond the simple left right prism and so when you ask the question as you rightly do about how the various candidates going to capture this electorate it's obviously impossible to square the circle because fos well lawns might be able to reassure those as it were left wing from the sort of voters while sarkozy might be able to seduce the as it were right wing ones but we'll have to see right now thanks very much seven o'clock and for joining us well there you have it still a lot of topics issues it to be put in the political debate all on the sarkozy will have a one two one and this could also sway the voters depending on how they do want to pay so we're looking forward certainly to the second round of the presidential race both said to be an interesting two weeks plus hours earlier reporting live from paris covering the front elections thanks for that. now whatever inherits power out

there it is a palace will also inherit a country with severe economic difficulties record unemployment and social division later this hour we talk to a member of the french socialist party. and here's a preview. the friends we have today is significantly poorer than it was five years ago but she's probably lost her influence in 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 i'm going to call in the suckers have agreed on a draft european treaty which is very favorable to german interest and i'm very i'm favorable to the interest of the rest of europe france is mostly very divided as we are today. largely dot com once your vote on what the biggest challenge for france is next leader will be so far more than

a third of you say bearing the euro zone burden more than a quarter believes the biggest challenge will be kick starting the economy about a fifth think the trickiest will be using tension over immigration while slightly fewer claim it's france's involvement in foreign conflicts your vote count i don't know if our dot com here's what else you can find online right now. the clone of the drone how you braun has started building its own copy of an unmanned u.s. spy aircraft kept search box here. a fresh diplomatic route has broken out in the mideast after egypt said it's terminating a gas exports you know with israel television warns the move puts the peace treaty between the two countries on the line sour first as the latest from cairo. well the head egypt stating 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

this and others also reports of 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 and one of the crisis in relations between egypt and israel and called on the u.s. who is the sponsor of the gas deal between the neighboring countries to intervene and i was going to be said that they're very controversial here in egypt 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 seen as representative of the knights normal 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 resentment recently for the first time egyptians have been to dating

egypt's relations with israel quite publicly now the current rulers and the islamists in parliament has vowed that they're going to uphold international relations that certainly has been a feeling here in cairo a lot of people that you could pass in the run up to the elections be about to see a role here period in relations between the two countries as three front men currently for that presidential spot have placed it they're going to respect the peace deal at the navy every single one of them has said that they're going to be looking very closely at the fairness and appropriateness of this very unpopular gas deal. but i'll get some reaction and analysis from israeli journalist and media developer. who joins us now live from jerusalem thanks for being with us. people have been strongly opposed to this gas field for years should we be surprised that car has decided to scrap it now. first of all the decision is not

this far as we know for money taken by by cairo as a governmental move what an israeli party to this deal has been informed came from its own egypt's and commercial counterpart this is on the technical side on this stuff that that you're definitely right that israel has been for decades on the receiving end of a very vicious propaganda you need to provide them a bargain which seems a state controlled media and this is a letter there was also about the atmosphere by israel's military commander said today that his troops are ready for any kind of confrontation with egypt is that statement warrant it. on aware that these are the exact words that he has said but israeli generals have been saying. all these decades within the us any commander of any army with an enemy says that they're ready just in case unexpected things happen not to think there's more to any of these israeli military statements than

that. what about the presidential vote coming up by egypt's door staff threatening that gas deal with israel is likely just why public opinion there why do you think it's seeking to benefit. i think this is very absurd to think. anything egyptian israeli even this particular deal is even a minor detail in the broader scheme of things as far as the egyptian voter is concerned what matters if you're an egyptian today is who and whether anyone will supply you with jobs with housing with education with infrastructure all of which egypt so glaringly lacks until this deal or shall we centrally year ago egypt was universally celebrated as an emerging market with a promising future in the wake of what we're witnessing now one must suspect that egypt has turned itself from an emerging market to a high risk economy one where no foreign investor can assume with signed and

written statement on the part of any gyptian interlocutor is worth more than the ink with which it is signed. america supported the revolution in egypt what position it will it take now that its key ally israel is pretty much at loggerheads with karo or at least the heating up certainly. israel is not a loggerheads with cairo i don't think that's the case i think the cases that he took right now is in flux it's in francis and nobody knows exactly where and how the new order in egypt will emerge we need geo political patience in this regard what we're witnessing right now in egypt and the sign. they've been in so that's a microcosm of this we're witnessing an interview we're witnessing a political twilight we understand what we were parting with we do not know what were approaching. and this is surely how the americans view the situation in egypt . many in washington today as far as we understand regret the haste with which

america helped. barak and his regime leave the scene but that is of course one water under the bridge in terms of the specific candidacies in the upcoming election i'm unaware that america has a specific candidate that it is promoting or whose victory it thinks can really lead the region in general and bilateral israeli egyptian relations in particular to greener pastures. and i want to live with us on the line from jerusalem a writer and journalist for the wall street journal thanks but i. thank you. and still had for you on the program popping happy pills to forget the horrors of war new concern for u.s. soldiers over a growing dependence on senators and antidepressants the details coming out for you on our team in just a few moments. the u.n.

is beefing up its observer mission to syria as the violence there continues unabated political leaders of the rebellion against the mascots are calling for military intervention but that's something many people on the ground refuse to accept this archies like fun of boycott 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 so worked up about politics that it's 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 people i feel free this way. even if he can stay away from politics when i ask him about his biggest concern is to ask syria should not dance to somebody else's tune . we don't need any countries meddling in our affairs.

here. while the prospect of a levy a style intervention seems everlast likely the militarized position and their supporters are still asking for arms. and they are all move on from iran and the president of other countries is that they support us and now because we the rebels want to get arms. all the rebels may have card 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. through this a position activists as 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. thing like him abdul aziz is not afraid to go public refusing to use 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 mediating be syria crisis are really helping you know all the world. we are supporting. well you know some. of the states don't support that and sun are trying to play some sort of push. that. and that's probably did not succeed. it will be a very dark. history and people will suffer too much.

you can use the country. war in one of those words with lead 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 the devil they know is still better than the demons that now hong neighboring countries that's one of our c damascus syria a look now at some other news in brief from around the world this hour sudanese warplanes carried out airstrikes on south sudan on monday killing three people in your southern oil town venting you with less than a day after new finding a ruptured on the border between the two countries south troops were pulling out of the disputed border town pegleg south sudanese officials say up to four hundred of their soldiers were killed during the battle the region became independent from the

north last year following a long running civil war which led to nearly two million that. the colombian military says it sees more than two tons of cocaine in the west of the country it happened during a raid on a drug laboratory which is believed to belong to fark colombia's largest rebel group and distribution of cocaine is the rebels' largest source of income financing a campaign against the colombian government that's been raging for over fifty years . anders breivik has offered an apology to the families of the victims of last year's oslo bombing on the final day of testimony but he showed no remorse for the thousands of people slaughtered on an island huge camp pervert scribed the youngsters as political activists working for the destruction of norwegian society if found guilty he could face a maximum twenty one year prison sentence if the judge decides he's insane healthy

sound for infinite psychiatric treatment. but there's been a record increase in the use of antidepressants another prescribed pills among us soldiers were seen as a way to help service personnel survive the brutality of war there's concern it's merely a sticking plaster for the deep psychological damage suffered i soldiered as he's going to camp house the 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 service men and women are taking prescribed narcotics sedatives and anti-anxiety drugs that's an aide told the 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 under.

water. so i mean i would be able to make a decision or. person. or you know me or. just heard action 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 of ghana then 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 gazans this is crazy and now we're seeing this terrible combination and reaction of these these medications nick 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 is 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 and i mean really this was 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. or consider. the first and foremost. you know with everything else. 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 us 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 out reporting from last r.t. . the debut of julian assange has a t.v. show host here in r.c. has provoked a strong reaction from around the world tomorrow the second edition of his program and focus focuses on global problems and talks to solve any and philosophers. self described communists and american david horowitz

a fiery right wing zionist there's all the crap. we have a new revolutionary government and with you it's managed to get hold of that yes you will discover you've got the documents and we were going to probably should i be i'm sure you wish with. me i cannot get a few spare jokes here you know what it's true for me to answer this question how will i be part of the ship lucian of the government i believe my own. time now chad what's happening in the world of money daniel bushell joins us and the international monetary fund secured extra funding over the weekend what is the market making up the market what are the markets i should know i mean there's a heavy sell off in europe the extra four hundred thirty billion dollars haven't lifted spirits traders all focused on the french elections and what it means for europe's problems in your part of their capital joins us now roland thanks for joining us those no i mean it's

a bailout spain or italy if they need it. well clearly the markets aren't convinced that they've got enough money and that's really because it's not just about money europe really needs to do a lot of very difficult structural changes money on it so only solves the problem in me in the short term and it's the political will to be able to make those changes that i think the markets are skeptical about so it would have helped if they'd been you know even more money to throw the problem but that's not the root cause is not going to be the solution will be called almost being the next. i think you're already seeing spreads widen out for spain it's not a question of if spain will be next but how europe and the world try and deal with the evolving problem for all europe at the moment of crisis is centered on spain but as we've seen in emerging markets in the past once the markets start focusing on these problems they tend to shift to where those problems are most obvious next

step is not spain is going to be portugal but at the moment the markets are focusing on spain so emerging bric nations are making a strong as a bull contribution russia's committed ten billion dollars which may be raised in return they want more voting power at the i.m.f. how will that change the institution. i think it's part of the necessary changes mean you know you've got europe still remains the richest area in the world today on a per capita basis and yet you've got countries like china india russia lending money there they should get a much bigger say on the international political economic associations and that will reflect much more the way in which the emerging world is becoming the economic powerhouse globally so it reflects the economics that's already taking place and i think it's a necessary step so let's switch to the french presidential election socialist francois long wants to renegotiate the terms of your

a membership if he does become president how will it change attitudes to europe spending cuts. i think you know you've seen a lot of political changes the result of the european crisis and if he was to become president that would be probably the biggest change seen so far so far the germans in particular the french i say with germs in particular have been pushing all stare at sea on a part of the world this space already some very difficult economic years i think it just all becomes president then it will be more of a shift towards less all stare at sea and more spending as a way to get out of the european crisis and what do you think is also there to the right way or should europe be more focused on growth. i don't think that is the solution neither of those are the solution the solution is real change to the way in which europe has been managing its business environment and its and its debt issues its structural structural change it's not whether it's all star it's the or or increase spending in my view is that you're not going to get out of this trial

sterrett see there has to be more than just causing pie in peripheral europe but on its own spending isn't going to solve the problem either i mean you know it's a base issue that we're for europe places all right roland i should have been a couple thank you very much that's all we've got time for more stories for you in fifty minutes time. all right thank you danielle thanks for an update thanks to roland ask their for his analysis we have more coming up on not the french elections for you i'd have crossed the hours to stay with us runs like a short break and i'll be back with the headlines for that.

russia would be so much brighter if you knew more about song from phones to the persian.