brown heads to the polls in a run of words which will define whether nicolas sarkozy will be the latest e.u. leaders swept from his supposed by the crippling debt crisis. presidential campaign is marred by escalating violence as protests against the military released time from being peaceful and ending deadly clashes. plus an anti-government rally is expected in moscow a day before the limit putin returns to the ground in and to make sure we do that if we leave we take a look at the legacy of the outgoing president. this is our weekly review hello and welcome to the program polls are opening in france

in two hours time as millions choose between the two candidates in the runoff load the defending president nicolas sarkozy has already claimed the election isn't a knife's edge as he closed a known rival nuclear front so our london the final polls. visited the headquarters of but of candidates. as the french prepare to choose a future of their country word on the street here in paris is that they're likely to get a socialist president the first in seventeen years in the form of now here in front of the socialist party's headquarters there's certainly high hopes for that but of course nothing is certain until the french cast their ballots fully agencies are the closest to the public's polls incumbent nicolas sarkozy is still trailing behind along by between four and seven points and when the laws final pitch he presented himself as a president who will unite the country blaming cycle for having been a divisive president alluding to his anti immigration rhetoric for instance poland also says he will be the want to bring back equality to the country narrow the gap

between the rich and the poor essentially by heavily taxing big companies and rich individuals a lot has also been one of the loudest voices calling for more growth in the euro zone criticizing the a sturdy driven measures imposed so far by the e.u. now some say that a vote for a launch is essentially a vote for change but others would point out that only in the sense that they've had enough of nicolas sarkozy now on sarkozy side there's a sense of cautious optimism the president's re-election bid has been an uphill battle but the fight is not over for him yet he's appealed to what he has called the silent majority of people who he says would not want to see france go the direction that greece went on criticizing the socialist plan sarkozy said he does not want to see more spending deficits higher debt and risk and indeed the markets have been jittery at the prospect of a no longer victory especially since there is a potential for a franco german deadlock on the fiscal pact that was agreed upon and what sarkozy is hoping for now is to get the voters of the national friends body depend as well as a centrist a roof finish fifth in the race now at a time when unemployment is

a top priority of french people it's not surprising that foreign policy is taking a back seat however it will be soon enough that the next president will have to deal with these matters so as the french go out and vote and choose the france that they want the rest of the world is watching and waiting to see what kind of france they will have to deal with. tesser cilia r.t. paris. and stay with constant updates from france as millions that choose the next president. shop searchin violence this week as mass rallies again is the military news and in deadly clashes tension between the interim authorities and protesters was intensified less than three weeks before the country's first post revolution presidential election on wednesday at least nine people were killed when a group of conservative islam it's worth time to buy a lens while staging a sit in against a candidate being barred from their race was rushed to blame the military for that

time but some locals and activists said the protesters were on and provide the situation on friday they weakly rallied that this time was predominantly islamist also resulted in deadly clashes and hundreds of arrests police used to can until gas and live ammunition to despise the protesters who try to break through they've bombed while the defense ministry and while the military keep retreating there hung the power after the election many actually is down to the design which. the military wants to crush this revolution in every way possible and they're using every tool they have including the government which is not adhering to any of the demands that have been put forward since the first day of the revolution many believe that even if. this transfer of power the billion government. that won't change anything because in the end of the day i believe that. once through him power the. thing is that they want to hand over power without being

prosecuted for any of the crimes that they have been committed for the they have that they have committed in the past year and a half any outcome that will come out of this presidential process order that even the any election process will only favors. and to another country that has been seeing anti-government protests for more than a gear a prominent bahrain's human rights activist has been arrested and the campus holds airport an incident many say could further escalate unrest the head of bahrain's human rights center now bill read job was detained upon returning to the country has come back for some to court hearing where he faces charges of participating in the protests police have not given a reason for their wrist about that is speculation it could be linked to a recent interview he'd given to the world's most famous whistleblower julian assange and you have a chance to see this latest edition of the weekly legs founder's own show on tuesday right here on r.t. . and speak to two leading revolutionaries one from

bahrain where the river. was really egypt where the revolution is now in turmoil what makes a revolution and where is the arab spring going to go. to entire attacks rocks russia's republic of kyrgyzstan on thursday night killing thirteen people and injuring more than one hundred two car bombs went off in the capital not within twenty minutes of each other and she's marie a few notional talks to the relatives of some of the victims as they mourn their loved ones. national mourning darkest time under muslim tradition three days after the funerals of family and friends come to the symmetry twice a day to pray and to paris packed to their loved ones over them go. to massive car bombs hit the capital thursday claiming more than a dozen lives this freshly dug grave is the final resting place of twenty nine year

old police officer. back of his name is hendrik and on a wooden last place here. says he feels lost without his brother who'd acted as the head of the family since their dad passed away years ago. when the first blast happened i tried to call him. then he called me back saying he was around it had gone to the scene to help he said all was fine with him but the scene is a mess and he has to help out there i can hear cries and sobbing through the phone he said i'm going to call you in five or ten minutes ok. but he never called back the next time she would see his brother would be in a morgue. piece of metal that had been placed around the bomb entered his chin and came out through his neck. to. the cemeteries keeper says at least this family had

a body many others received only body parts in plastic bags still in the bush are still a book the second explosion was so strong a fire engine is huge and heavy but only a pipe from it is left to the to the bill of course it's a sad fact that the recent attacks on the police and authorities in dagestan a merely the latest incident in a long running history of violence in russia's volatile focuses region but thursday's tragedy has already become the most devastating in months the first explosion took off here when officers from this police post stopped the call for documents checked apparently the driver was this. side bomber minutes later as many police cars and ambulances teams and emergency crews and five brigades reach the area the second last occurred it was much more powerful you can see the crater is huge one some reports say the second last had a force of one hundred kilos into intake will and i don't claim to the most victims

this is a global problem we are seeing links between these terrorist groups in different parts of the world and so the response has also to be global the double attack one more most or another is a tactic commonly used by international terrorist organizations such as al qaeda in places like iraq and afghanistan is designed to kill as many people as possible if you're right you hardly networks around the region is hosting this training is even funding some of the activities of these you know terrorist in russia in an instant lives were snuffed out families left devastated. women again under the rules of islam don't go to cemeteries they grieve at home the mother along with the wife or the deeper say he never liked cameras and they have to console themselves with a few pictures they have removed and left in the morning and then came back you forgot something i told him this is

a bad luck will be fine mom if you try to calm me but. she do this i don't know how long i'm gonna live but i'll leave it for value it. leaves behind two little girls. the way you will i'll tell them to be google's their father is watching us and we'll tell them to proud of him because he was a brave man and he ran to help and died he was the best father in the world i'll tell than. rafe an option r.t. in russia's dagestan. still ahead for you or nancy on his father's day in office u.s. president barack obama made america a promise now in washington to keep away from u.s. soil is set to highlight obama's unfulfilled plan. as u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton praises a recent tweet china relations between the two sides are still clouded in.

the syrian government has granted amnesty to two hundred and sixty five rebels ahead of monday's multi-party parliamentary vote the first such election in decades meanwhile a series of blasts rocked syria's capital damascus and the northern city of aleppo on saturday killing at least three civilians and reports as blood is continuing to bits played by both the regime's forces and the opposition hopes of west on the growing you unobservant mission. in the heart of damascus thousands come out to. the funerals of people killed during clashes in the capital once again drew into focus the very precarious situation the country now finds itself before the bodies of the that they carried through the streets of damascus as the funerals for the people who were killed under the station they just the story you've got the military the security watching and this is the same time as the un observers are supposed to be here overseeing the peace plan and not only in

the day we've joined the u.n. observers one of the daily too is to flash point areas. this have been traveling to some of the areas where the focus is by things being breaking out and you can see on the ground smooth slow steps are being taken in the observers are really going to be one thing over the coming period be fielding on the observers are also based full time in some cities like homs and it led many have felt that their presence there has bought some calm in team or we have little time between stops to speak to the people who live here those we do talk to tell us that the last few days have been quiet they don't know how long that will last long in a situation is much calmer there's not much happening here now because of the story today and yesterday have been fine for ago there was a lot of problems we're here at the checkpoints on the device you know the u.n. has just done a tour through the area it's been

a very very fast trip they've literally driven through stopping at some of the military checkpoints around to speak to some of the people but no more than five ten minutes at a time to give you barely enough time to speak to some of the people in the area and get a feel for exactly what's been happening here was the observers presence here does seem to have made some small in rights situation in the country is far from stable tension in the. to live damascus is palpable explosions here a regular occurrence now and security everywhere tight firefighters rushed to the scene after a demonstration servers themselves have admitted a resolution won't happen even night and it will have to come in large parts of the syrian people themselves but with parliamentary elections next week and with the observer mission under close scrutiny the scenes like this will do anything to raise hopes that this mission will be a success but they also show the very real and urgent need for it to be say so.

damascus. the syrian opposition is reportedly sending its missions to kosovo to be trained to assad regime thought to be going to the same guerrilla camps built for the and his kosovo liberation army and prove that for years as soon as terrorist by the u.k. and france and. the foreign affairs editor for the u.s. based chronicles magazine believes little good can come from this. well first of all i don't think they can learn much from the care only about through. the christians because the carol a was singularly unsuccessful in its rebellion against was the serbian security forces until them into bombing and even then they were not engaging in combat they were acting as marauders quickly cleansing normal bini so the first point is that there is nothing to learn in terms of conduct of fish and

sea and in terms of actually organizing a successful guerrilla war i understand that armada. one of the syrian opposition leaders who came to the united actually spoke to an a.p. reporter so we're here to alert now this should be a huge wake up call for those syrians who are not supportive of the opposition especially the minorities the syrian rebels. from the jail that means there will be a bloodbath product at the end of the fall of assad and there will be no room for anyone but the majority group which subscribes to its extremist credo whether it is there to greater albania in kosovo or. muslim brotherhood offshoot syria and in about fifteen minutes time we speak with also and a war correspondent chris hedges here things there's no point in pushing for the ouster of syria's president when there's no organized opposition in the country. i

don't think anyone in the muslim world thinks that we care much about human rights or democracy we have since the first gulf war planted military base some the size of small cities i think there is at this point absolutely no credibility i'm talking about within the middle east when the united states claims that it would like to bring liberty or democracy to syria my feeling is that everything should be pushed through to create some kind of a ceasefire rather than pass a resolution that calls for assad removal or a resolution. that calls for intervention or anything else there is no real formal opposition you know it's a sort of a mess and they just went through this in libya. president dmitry medvedev has just one little day to enjoy in the kremlin before

handing out putin as russia's need to all of the credited for his liberal views and push for as well as staring a result in relations with the u.s. we dread of presidency also saw some of the largest protests in modern russian history aussies and he said now it takes a look back at his time at the top very easy. to meet. one term in the kremlin was it too little time to make a dent mr medvedev is going to be remembered as someone who had genuine reform intentions and who was impeded on achieving all of those reforms through the political process through the structure of the political system. at the dawn of his presidency georgia attacked south has said here by the media and much of the world community blamed russia destroy those in this case that only but

he did the actions on the georgian side led to deaths among them a russian peacekeepers children women the elderly a dying in south setting most of them are citizens of the russian federation so those responsible for the deaths of our citizens will be punished mr. wright the misconception that russia attacked georgia put serious strain on international ties into an independent council of europe report up held that georgia launched the attack for months madrid of foreign policy was overshadowed by the war but it wasn't long before our warming in u.s. relations something many argue is his foreign policy legacy the words of the russian president at the time the reset button press and u.s. and russian relations devoutly and for over the next few years by twenty ten

medvedev and obama signed a new start and cut both country's nuclear arsenals by a third. as a result of hard work we've created a treaty that fully complies with the interests of both russia and the u.s. back home medvedev wants reforms focusing on the justice system and rule of law you want the less people behind bars. this persecution. business people. just justified persecution. corruption and i think that he has managed to start some cases jump start the process. but little change from high profile cases like me who held her course keep russia's former richest man still serving his sentence for economic crimes madrid has pushed for modernization and diversification could have been

a highlight of his presidency and he still has a chance to if he presses on as prime minister and we can be sure that without modernization the russian economy has no future it may be based on vast natural resources but we cannot rely only on them the job swap with putin was the last straw for medvedev supporters to cope he would run for a second term but the secrecy and surprise of the smart added to the negative sentiment prior to the biggest protests russia has seen hears. her yet in december after claims of vote fraud in the parliamentary election made videos came back online and laid out changes but his response was too little too late yet but if i propose complex reforms to our political system. i don't discuss that i hear the people who are demanding changes and i understand.

the outlined a series of measures including the easy registration for political parties and direct polls for regional leaders maybe it is administration continues to strasse how much work is left as he prepares to step aside as president and take over as prime minister i have. all initiatives. discussed. hume here you proved all the things here the government was a key vehicle to implement all the initiatives put forth by the by president need to be different the critics aren't convinced debates are buzzing over what mit with its legacy will be and how his policies might be implemented with putin back in the kremlin but the fact remains betrayed if moved as president would have only seen real results during or even after a second term in office even the question of how do you draw the line between what

my day did as president what you might do. and he's now a r t moscow. and a day before the german person returns to the kremlin antigovernment protesters will take to moscow streets opposition activists initially promised a march of millions but how the latest said they expect around five thousand people to turn up and then bring you live reports from that rally and on monday join as fos pesher coverage of the presidential inauguration from seven says it g.m.t. and the morning.

as in how did a gun tunneled a sense to thousand and six and yet he stood in front of a military tribunals for the first time in three years only yesterday they confessed mastermind of the nine eleven attacks khalid shaikh mohammed and his fellow accomplices refuse to answer questions or enter a plea during the seven hour hearing charged with almost three thousand counts of murder and could be sentenced to death the trial is being held by military tribunals to guntown about also an attempt to try the man in the two outs failed three years ago because of a public backlash and american lawyer eric multilevel believes the timing and the planning of the trial is questionable. one has to wonder why now you know within twenty four hours of president obama taking office issued an executive order

to close guantanamo bay as the most powerful leader in the world and that did not occur for what reason i have no idea how this of three years later on that you've got another election i think what they're trying to do is take that issue off the table and say well we're at least trying to proceed in an orderly fashion but i think it's a fairly thin veil and people will be able to see through it does a tremendous injustice to the memory of those victims are not a little bit and i think it does a tremendous injustice to the thing that we call the justice system in america they have no plan and it's taken three years to get to this particular point and this is going to be another tremendous and sad waste of us resources on a matter that can be resolved in a number of different ways and they just said not to do so. don't forget any of the stories we're covering are also lined up on our web site also you don't call and there's always plenty more online for you. huge oil spill in russia siberia has

been branded an ecological catastrophe with thousands left without clean water find out a new interest of all because occurrences of the disaster may be own line. in. the world witness is the dawning of this super moon and a band which sees hours left children a bit bigger and brighter to discover the details on a website. the relations between china and the u.s. two nations many see as rivals have been described as the most consequential of the century by hillary clinton the remarks came after the u.s. secretary of states today high stakes talks in beijing but despite the praise the visit was overshadowed by a number of disagreements china accused washington of meddling in its internal affairs by shouting

a chinese dissident activist later beijing has agreed to let him go and it's also wary of the u.s. military buildup in asia pacific what looks like an apparent effort to curtail china's growing regional pact dr kahn harlan from the foreign policy in focus think tank believes the u.s. china corporation is being thought step on that. it's very bipolar kind of relationship because in many ways not china is our number one trade partner. and they a whole trillions of dollars in u.s. bonds we are all kind of locked into an international market so on one level the cooperation is kind of forced on us by the fact that we're so interlinked at the same time you get this growing military tension and chinese are also very uncomfortable about the fact that about eighty percent of their energy suppliers arrive by sea generally through the yellow sea those to the energy

supplies are basically controlled those waters are controlled by the u.s. fifth fleet and the u.s. seventh fleet and that makes the chinese nervous. and in about three minutes time german as far as special interview that's now to remind our top story.

to a substantial degree and one form or another socialism has spread the shadow of human regimentation over most of the nations of europe. and the shadow is encroaching upon our own liberty. to leave early twenty first century military bases a network of military bases all around the world for misleading the empire that the united states is trying to build it's astonishing most americans have no idea there are more than a quarter of a million or more than two hundred fifty thousand u.s. troops stationed on these bases all around the world. we don't have fallen bases in america we don't have any british base we don't have any korean base we don't have any french bases or you know we just all american bases in our bases are fine there

are the noises our north is it doesn't bother us at all because they're all bases but for other people it's almost like a cancer here for these people. since the into world war two the spaces i've been. working here to provide a safe and secure environment for everybody. the questions you know thing else you get everything you needed. the world the. audience.