time as millions choose between the two candidates in the run of the defending president nicolas sarkozy has already claimed the election isn't a knife's edge as he close to a known rival nicolai of france are london the final polls. visited the headquarters of both candidates. as the french prepare to choose the 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 gauge of the public's polls incumbent nicolas sarkozy is still trailing behind a long by between four and seven points and we lost 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 to 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 be 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 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 has 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 has taken

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 aussie for constant updates from francaise millions that choose the next president . shop surge in violence this week as mass rallies against the military news and in deadly clashes tension between the interim authorities and protesters has 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 limits were a time to buy a lens while staging a sit in against a candidate being barred from the race was rushed to blame the military for that time but some locals and activists said the protesters were armed and provokes the

situation on friday weekly rally that this time was predominantly islamist also resulted in deadly clashes and hundreds of arrests police used water cannon take gas and live ammunition to despise the protesters who tried 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 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 forth since the first day of the revolution many believe that even if. this transfer of power to 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 that 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 favor scout. and to another country that has been saying antigovernment protests for more than a year a prominent bahrain's human rights activist has been arrested and the compas old airport an incident many say could further escalate unrest the head of bahrain's human rights center now bill read job was detained appoint 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 the speculation it can 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 we can make found his own show on tuesday right here on aussie. speak to two leading revolutionaries one from bahrain where the river. once of egypt where the

revolution is now in turmoil what makes a revolution and where is the arab spring going to go. twin tower attacks rocks russia's republic of dagestan on thursday night killing thirteen people and injuring more than one hundred two car bombs went off in the capital within twenty minutes of each other very a few notional talks to the relatives of some of the victims as they mourn their loved ones. national mourning. 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 the year of. two massive car bombs hit the capital. 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 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 could 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. been placed around the bar 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. the

second explosion was so strong the fire engine is huge and heavy but only a pipe from it is left to the liquid. 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 a history of violence in russia's volatile pusses 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 car for documents apparently the driver was a suicide bomber minutes later as many police cars and i'm real ones teams and emergency crews and fire 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 roland and it claimed 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 to double attack one more most or another is a tactic commonly used by international terrorist organizations such as and qaeda in places like iraq and afghanistan is designed to kill as many people as possible variety of jihadi networks around the region is hosting training is even funding some of the activities of 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 in the modern along with the wife or the t.p.o. say he never liked cameras and they have to console themselves with a few pictures they have been. in left in the morning and then came back you forgot something i told him this is a bad luck will be fine mom he tried to calm me but. she too there's i don't know

how long i'm gonna live but i'll leave it for value it. leaves behind two little girls. still we will all tell them to be good girls as their father is watching us and will tell them to proud of him because he was a brave man he ran to help and died he was the best father in the world i'll tell than. see much color in russia's dagestan. and still ahead for you or nancy on his first 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 to china relations between the two sides are still clouded in doubt . the syrian government has granted amnesty to two hundred and sixty five

rebels ahead of monday's multi-party parliamentary vote the first such action into caves 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 in west on the growing you unobservant mission. in the heart of damascus thousands come out to the world that 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 of the people who were killed under the station they just the story you've got the military the security watching over there this is at the same time as the u.n. observers are supposed to be here overseeing the peace plan but in our early in the day we've joined the un observers or one of the daily to is to flash point areas

service have been traveling to some of the areas where the this is by things being breaking out and you can see on the ground small slow steps are being taken in the observers are really going to be wanting over the coming period of the building 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. we have little time between stops to to speak. people who live here. tell us that the last few days to be quiet they don't know how long that will last. is not much happening. today have been fine there was a lot of problems we're here at the checkpoints on the device. the un have just done. 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 well steve service presence does seem to have made. the situation in the country is far from stable tension in the capital of damascus is palpable explosions here a regular occurrence now and security everywhere tight firefighters rushed to the scene after a demonstration service themselves admitted a resolution of the night and it will have to come in large parts of the syrian people. 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 will say show the very real and urgent need for it. so.

the syrian opposition is reportedly sending its missions to kosovo to be trained to assad regime to be going to the same goal real accountability for the and his cause of the liberation army and prove that. 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 persians because the charolais 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 not contiguous marauders peepli cleansing not open any 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 guerilla war so i understand it. one of the

syrian opposition leaders who came to the united actually spoke to an a.p. reporter 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 that anyone but the majority group which subscribes to its extremist creed or whether it is there to greet or old raynier in kosovo all are on the muslim brotherhood offshoot syria and in about fifteen minutes time we spoke with also and a wall correspondent chris hedges hear 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 resolution. that calls for intervention or anything else there's 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 more day to enjoy in the kremlin before handing out

putin as russia's need to all of their credit and for his liberal views and push for as well as staring a reception of relations with the u.s. we dread of presidency also saw some of the largest protests in modern russian history and now it takes a look back at the top. 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 is said here by the media and much of the world community blamed russia. who was in this case that only but even

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. them the misconception that russia attacked georgia put serious strain on international ties into an independent council of europe report op out that georgia launched the attack for months madrid of foreign policy was overshadowed by the war but it wasn't long before a 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 dramatically improved 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. with the year as a result of hard work we've created a treaty that fully complies with the interests of both russia and the us back home medvedev wants reforms focusing on the justice system and rule of law you want the less people behind bars. less persecution. businesspeople. just justified persecution. corruption and i think that he has managed to start some cases jump start the process. but little changed on high profile cases like me. precious 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 the secrecy and surprise of the smart added to the negative sentiment prior to the biggest protests russia has seen in years. in december after claims of vote fraud in the parliamentary election medvedev came back on line in 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 i can with you. he 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. to continue. all initiatives all the strategists discuss. hume here you proved all the things the government was a key vehicle to implement all the initiatives put forth by the by present need to be different but good acts aren't convinced debates are buzzing over what made that 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 he might do that's why me and he's now

a our team moscow. and the day before the gym in 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 john is fond special coverage of the presidential inauguration from seven says it jim t. and the morning.

has been how did a gun tanabe 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 gun time to us and attempts to try the man in the throughout it's failed three years ago because of a public backlash and american lawyer eric montalvo 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 of the sort of three years later on the eve of 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 bill 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 there's just certain not to do so. don't forget the stories we're covering are also lined up on our web site also you don't call on 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 who will interest it will be consequences of the designs to maybe own mind. in . the world witnesses the dawning of this super moon and about which these 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 sheltering 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 fact dr kahn hallinan from the foreign policy in focus think tank believes the u.s. china corporation is being forced upon them. its very bipolar kind of relationship because in many ways well china is our number one trade partner. and they hold the 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 two to 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 john as far as special interview that's after i remind our our top story.

to a substantial degree and one form or another socialism has spread the shadow of the regimentation over most of the nations of europe and the shadow is encroaching upon the for. the early twenty first century military bases the 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 power 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 bases of. the noises i would know it's in those ball the us i don't because they're all bases but

for other people it's almost like a cancer here for the speed. since the into world war two spaces i've been. working here to provide safe and secure environment for everybody. the questions you know thing else you get everything you needed. to the. audience technology innovation all the latest developments from around russia we've got the future. harbored.

welcome bang this is on she's weekly the headline. franz heads to polls in a runoff vote which will define whether nicolas sarkozy will get the latest e.u. leaders and what he's opposed by the crippling debt crisis. there gyptian presidential campaign is marred by escalating violence as protests against the miniature rulers turn from being peaceful and in deadly clashes. plus anti-government rallies expected in moscow a day before pledging a putin take so that from dmitri medvedev as russia's president. and up next it were explored the connection between big banks and the revolutionary drive across the globe as the talks are also on the war correspondent chris.