hello and welcome the watching the weekly here on our team with me kevin oh in my name's kevin oh in weekly is the round of the top stories on the headlines the last seven days from us and first is d.-day in france is tightest and most are commodious presidential election in recent history millions accusing of polling stations across the country to decide between incumbent nicolas sarkozy or his socialist rival francois hollande let's go than to paris should we live for a correspondent that's for civil they're keeping a close eye on the voting hi tess give us an idea of just how closely run this vote is expected to be end of the day. well it is a very close or so a lot of variables out there that could swing the results one way or the other i'll just give you some early numbers according to the interior ministry and around nude thirty point six percent of the french voters have already turned out to cast their ballots now that it's two percentage points higher than the first round however it

is still much lower than the outcome of the two thousand and seven presidential elections again a very close a lot has been leading throughout much of the campaign his lead between four and seven percent or whatever there is still the question of who are the voters that have voted for money le pen of the national front or centuries from where they go to choose for this round also the question of how many people in total at the end of the day will come out and cast their ballots now there's one on lawn who was presenting himself as a president who's going to unite france's cycles he for his part is saying he is a president with a strong leadership scale but a lot has been supported by this a wide ante a stared the sentiment sweeping much of europe with ten e.u. governments already swept from power since the crisis had started let's get a bit more analysis on what's going on now from my nabila ramdani she's a journalist as well as political analyst thank you very much for joining us today now if the law and it does win which the polls say he's favored to win he says the first thing is going to do is talk to angela merkel what is your. reading on the

impact this will have on europe yes indeedy will have a huge impact indeed because as we know fossil along has a completely different take on european matters as indeed presidents are cozy who is very close to angela merkel and the two of them so sarkozy and merkel worked extremely hard to negotiate a deal out of the way out of the european crisis and for so long has a completely different take he wants to renegotiate the e.u. pact and introduce a new chapter on the growth creation now that's going to be really difficult to achieve because if he reopens the goshi ations as he promises he will do it will means the twenty seven member states will again engage in a discussion and each state will of course would like to have its priorities taken into account now my take is that possible long might prove to be more pragmatic once elected he's not a firebrand his more consensual and he would like to work hand in hand with angela

merkel and on foreign policy it's taken a backseat during much of the campaign but whoever becomes president will have to deal with the question of afghanistan the troops there of nato all these other issues what's your reading on this front of console launch if indeed he's elected as you said the poll suggests very strongly in fact he has made it abundantly clear that his main priority will be to withdraw the french french troops from afghanistan as early as twenty twelve now that the end of the year that he's now that seems pretty unrealistic because the president will it will take an awful lot of time to to achieve that so we're more realistically looking thirteen if not later he also said he would like to pull out of nato to satisfy the left that includes the far left or the middle show who will be a major part of his of of his parliamentary block and he had like to talk a bit about immigration and try to narrow the lead between a law and then some course the sarkozy a lurch to the right if you will but. the primary concern of french people are

charts so how how much does it resonate really the immigration question and what's the crux of the matter i think for so long made it clear that it shouldn't pit one citizens against each other the other and immigration doesn't explain sarkozy's failure in sorting out the economy unemployment is very high indeed ten percent. plus solarte has explained how he will try to tackle that by creating sixty thousand teaching jobs one hundred fifty thousand jobs for young people especially in the most underprivileged areas he hasn't explained how he's going to fund all that but he's way is to tap to spend his way out of the crises all right just a very quick note are there any surprises that we can expect what can change to turn it in the favor of sarkozy at this point i don't think that is a likely scenario to be perfectly honest perhaps the biggest surprise will be the abstention rates right thank you very much for your thoughts there so there you

have it still again very tight race too early to tell who will actually come out as a winner although the polls you suggest a large might take at this a victory but we will have the early results at eight pm paris time and we'll keep you updated once that comes out absolutely thanks for your correspondence appreciate it. we will bring in coverage from france as the voting progress has plenty of analysis plenty of opinion on the. what it means for the country here on r.t. . or i'd to developing story this afternoon and let's take a look at what's happening right now in the center of moscow look at these live pictures there we go of the center the russian capital where an anti government demonstrations due to start the rally organizers are calling it the march of the millions in studio square the scene of russian first major protests if you recall back in december they took place right after the country's parliamentary elections which the opposition attacked as fraudulent those behind today's march have registered only five thousand. people to take part in it however the demonstration

comes a day before president elect with him or putin's return to the kremlin and we'll catch up with our correspondent in this and now it seems she's in the center of moscow with the latest but just looking at those pictures of the moment it's being billed across the country as the march of millions obviously not that many people there certainly in central moscow at the moment but very much across this developing story the next hour or two and this is now in the thick of it down there will be crossing to her later with our camera crew. the syrian government scranton amnesty to two hundred sixty five rebels ahead of monday's multi-party parliamentary vote the first such election in decades meantime a series of blasts in the capital damascus and also in the northern city of aleppo left at least three civilians dead on saturday and as r.t. sara first reports next people are placing increasing hope then on the u.n. observer mission monitoring the frequently breached cease fire. 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 the funerals of the people who were killed under the station they here's the story you've got the military the security watching this is at the same time as the u.n. observers are supposed to be here overseeing the peace plan early in the day we join the u.n. observers or one of the daily to is to flash point areas. this have been traveling to some of the areas where the this 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 the fielding all night observers 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 speak to the people who

live here we do talk to tell us that the last few days have been quiet they don't know how long that will last in a situation is much calmer there's not much happening there now while i'm about people. there are so people shooting a lot of bread away i don't know exactly what was happening we're here at the checkpoints on the device or the dean of the u.n. have 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 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 capital of damascus is palpable explosions here

a regular occurrence now and security everywhere is tight firefighters rushed to the scene after a demonstration preservers themselves have admitted a resolution won't happen the night and it will have to come in large parts in the syrian people themselves but with parliamentary elections next week and with the it's their mission under close scrutiny scenes like this would do anything to raise hate that this mission will be a success but they all say show the very real and urgent need for it to be say sarah. damascus one of the strands of this story the syrian opposition reportedly sending militants to kosovo for training the thought to be heading to guerrilla camps formerly used by the kosovo liberation army which was for years seen as a terrorist force by america britain and france so the trip coverage from u.s. space chronicles magazine told me a little good can come from this the colonel a was singularly unsuccessful in its

rebellion against the serbian security forces until a major bombing and even then they were not engaging in town but they were going to use marauders and quickly cleansing normal brain needs now this should be a huge wakeup call for those syrians who are not supporting. your position especially in the minority it's the syrian rebels. that means there will be a bloodbath 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 role brainier in kosovo or. muslim brotherhood offshoot of syria. but later this hour we speak with all three war correspondent chris hedges these things there's no point in pushing for the ouster of syria's president when there's no organized opposition in the country right now. 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 bases 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's 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 and libya. police in bahrain entertained the head of the country's center for human rights without providing any explanation. who's known for his firm opposition to the ruling regime

was arrested just as iraq the capital monogamous airport he was already facing charges of participating in protests against the government and was returning to bahrain for sunday a court hearing is a rest is probably the great deal of speculation with some suggesting it could be linked to a recent interview that he'd given to the world's top whistleblower julian assange and indeed you can see that show with rajab right here at r.t. on choose day don't miss. a speech to two leading revolutionaries one from bahrain where the revolution failed was the egypt where the revolution is now in turmoil for makes a revolution and where is the arab spring going to go. we'll show you a couple of minutes ago people gathering in central moscow saw afternoon for a demonstration by russian opposition activists is the march of the millions we are going to go to our correspondent and this is now i think we may have some latest

pictures to show you know ok let's go straight to our correspondent in the scene now is there in this despite calls for a million people out today doesn't the size of the crowd which we saw a bit earlier on we showed the pictures the last hour or so show that there's a significant drop in support what is the picture. obviously there's not a million people on the streets of moscow it's a nationwide movement really that calls for people all across the country to come out in the largest numbers they could have but if i start with only fifty people many more people in fact than expected here in moscow official numbers from authorities is around eight thousand it was expected that five thousand or so that's what the official comment is for but it did. ten thousand people have come out for this march of millions just the day before but the mayor putin is inaugurated into into the role as president for a third term after a break as as prime minister here the sentiment it's much less about their elections which is when we saw momentum really gained pace here in boston after the

december to my lectures there was claims of vast fraud and according to a lot of opposition members and experts the movement is losing some of that strike . the opposition is depressed the opposition thinks that. from what i'm getting reading their blogs their twitters is that there is no sense of unification that was this winter right now the left are going to the left the right are going to the right and we don't really see this one big force that me big government. so paranoid back then. a lot of people saying that the numbers of how many people turn out today of course the gathering just getting started they're marching down one of the main avenues here in moscow and will make it here to below last where where i'm standing we're basically waiting for those eight to ten thousand people to arrive here but the number of today

really represents so really what could happen with the opposition in the next few months we heard there from andrea reef jim it seems like the opposition is going in different directions of course if you speak to them they say they have a plan and what their plan is is to kind of move out to the region to try to get involved in politics to try to fix things from the bottom up so we'll be here all day cab with updates with you on the hour from both maya square like i said those protesters making their way towards where i am as we speak absolutely also covering a web site as well and this we have a live stream there was a trying to what's going on in downtown moscow so viewers want to see that just for money use it out see call me can find all the latest coverage there but she later nyssa thanks for the up and also the big day as well going to lot of coverage coming up big day tomorrow as well bring you special coverage of let him if putin's inauguration from seven thirty am g.m.t. from the likeness and splendor of the kremlin holes as well.

join me on the rest of team tomorrow morning as the live coverage kicks off from seven thirty am g.m.t. now violence surged in egypt this last week with demonstrations against the military rulers ending in yet more bloodshed the country is preparing for its first post revolution presidential election and with intensifying instability under the general's interim regime at least nine people were killed earlier wednesday when

unknown assailants attacked a group of ultra conservative islamist protesting against their candidates disqualification for the fall. many blame the military for staging your soul but others said armed protesters helped provoke it a weekly friday rally with mostly islamist taking part led to hundreds of arrests and one death based used water cannon tear gas and live militia to disperse the protesters who try to break through barbed wire around the defense ministry as part of the benefit of military rule was that they gain from under arrest timed to elections. there are serious doubts within the egyptian public out. even before the clashes have started and currently as collating that the elections might be postponed the same or the same concerns have been voiced recently by political different political groups and parliamentarians who are with even rumors seeing that scout has asked for it to postpone the elections due to the current unrest scouse nonetheless have said that this is indeed these are rumors and the elections

will happen in july it's important to mention in this context that during the previously before the parliamentary elections last november a similar clashes have started in mohamed mahmoud and so it's particularly interesting if we are to compare how certain iraq clashes erupt immediately immediately before elections a couple of months or a couple of weeks before elections are you watching are to you still to come with me covello in the alleged mastermind beyond the nine eleven attacks stay silent or the guantanamo military tribe. you know he really refusing to answer the judge's questions all enter a plea he had four other men appear in court for the first time in three years to be formally charged with planning to cross the. american secretary of state hillary clinton has described relations between the u.s. and china as the most consequential of the century after two days of talks in beijing but despite the upbeat talk her visit was overshadowed by

a number of serious disagreements china accused washington of meddling in its internal affairs after sheltering a chinese dissidents activist briefly in the u.s. embassy but is also wary over american military build up of major pacific in what looks like an apparent effort to contain china's growing plank financial and listen expert on the region france's learn told us the u.s. is slowly things closing in on the basque country. so the u.s. strategy is really trying to encircle china from ordering from japan to. india so three quarters of the u.s. is calling china an expression. is south china sea there you have military exercise somewhere for. these two smaller countries india to challenge china so here strategy is to give enough backing to reduce

neighboring countries to keep china occupied so a dead child there would not have. to do with the geo political feat with the alleged mastermind behind the nine eleven attacks appeared in front of a guantanamo military tribunal on saturday on charges of could see him and his four accomplices face the death penalty khalid shaikh mohammed is one of five men charged with planning the atrocities in which almost three thousand people were killed during the thirteen hour hearing the accused refused to answer questions or enter a plea as some relatives of nine eleven victims watched on it is the second time the u.s. has tried to. prosecute the men after an attempt to try them in america failed for years ago offer a public backlash american lawyer eric one tell the police the timing and planning trial though 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 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 veil and people will be able to see through it does a tremendous injustice to the memory of those victims are not leben 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 sat waste of u.s. resources on a matter that can be resolved in a number of different ways and they're just such not to do so. now if you missed any of our stories you fire the most were on our website our to go com a few others you might not have been up to speed with day but you might like to or check out now online the face of the tourist mass murderer anders breivik of his own and teasing billboard of

a finnish hockey team as those behind the mistakenly included the club's fan list find them on. a mass distribution of free copies of the qur'an in berlin is described as freedom of religious expression by those behind it but others fear the involvement of radical muslim extremists. meantime in russia the threat of islamist terror turned this week into horrific reality double terror blasts just twenty minutes apart on thursday in the republic of dagestan killed thirteen and wounded more than one hundred two vans packed with explosives detonated on the outskirts of the capital. for national talk to the relatives of those who gave their own lives to save others. national mourning. under muslim tradition three days after the funerals family and friends come to the symmetry twice a day to pray and to paris packed to their loved ones. to massive car bombs hit the capital on 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 now 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 but it was very good he called me back saying he was around to go into the sea to help he said all was fine with him but the scene is a mess he has to stay out to help but i could hear cries sobbing through his phone he said i'm going to call you in five to ten minutes ok. but he never called back the next time show me. would see his brother would be in a morgue. a piece of metal that had been placed around the ball into his chin it came out through. the symmetries keeper says

at least this family had a body many others received only body parts in plastic bags 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 caucasus 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 check apparently the driver was a suicide bomber minutes later as many police cars and i'm real ones teens and emergency crews and fire brigades reach the area the second last the courage 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 the double attack one more mortar 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 if their right you have a networks around the region is hosting dreaming 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 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 oh will be fine mom tried to calm me but. i don't know how long i'm gonna live but i'll live for the. ability police behind two little girls. still you will all tell them to be their father is watching us and

we'll tell them to be proud of him because he was a brave man and he wanted help and died he was the best father in the world i'll tell. you refinancing our t. in russia's biggest town. so it's a sad story that in front of our eyes in the way. so they are for sports coming up in their fifteen minutes here on our t.k. partridges in the sauce muso she's got a front to go after in a football she promises me to work for tim scott the coverage for you and away from the sport will also be discovering if it's cash that causes political changes over the world as we speak with war correspondent chris hedges he's a good man to give us the answers is said twenty seven a half minutes past four o'clock pm moscow time that is how the next half hour shapes up here on r.t. .

the official. video. and.

the top story. in france's presidential election. here in moscow opposition. much more throughout the course of the. big story from the. month before the presidential election.