in moscow a very similar atmosphere as the london riots of two thousand and eleven however as you can see protesters throwing smoke grenades and fireworks and clashes with riot police at an anti-government rally with a number of opposition leaders arrested after apparently inciting crowds to defy police orders from the. incumbent nicolas sarkozy and rival francois ally and face off and friends presidential election the end of a bitter battle that could redefine the country's role on the world stage. and a leading human rights activist from block rain is arrested days before r.t.d. is to air his interview with julian assault in which he spoke of the violent

crackdown on protesters in his own country. and breaking news this hour opposition activists have clashed with police in central moscow as demonstrators refused to move to the authorized location for their rally the anti-government protest dubbed the march of millions has been taking place on the eve of bloody mary putin's presidential inauguration let's get more details from our team. who's there for us you got so the official deadline for the protest on by law has passed is the dust settling down i know it. was hard to say how many people are still on board the square at the moment over a thousand definitely according to some reports it could be up to five thousand so there's a heavy police presence here as well they're trying to keep the order on the square

standing mostly or only perimeters of the area and trying to move people out in sort of small portions on for show you some scuffles can also be seen from time. time here and there this rally initially was authorized by the authorities it did start peacefully but at some point one of the organizers and a radical leader said you died so if he called on people to gather at an area which was not agreed upon with the authorities and as scores of protesters began gathering there police tried blocking them due to safety reasons but this did leads to scuffles even the stampede and clashes between the protesters and the of the already some of the most radical activists were seen throwing pieces of concrete at the police also small bombs and. and other types of objects to basically proving. to and to try to and to

to to take up more efforts to restore order in this situation as a result there were injuries on both sides both among the protesters and i'm on the police journalists including six people were hospitalized and around two hundred fifty people were detained including three opposition leaders including sort of. a lawyer i did see in a whiny who's actually currently calling on people to start gathering on a minute in a square which is also right next to the kremlin he's doing that via twitter that area was not authorized by the authorities so i guess it could be viewed by some as more provocations from some of the organizers and it's also fair to say that the police were not preparing for any aggressive behavior from the protesters there were no water cannons no small bombs to be used from the side of the authorities since most of the the previous poultice they did go on peacefully unfortunately

this isn't the case this time but it seems that the majority of the activists who are sort of came here with peace but there were individuals in the crowd who were provoking and basically. to this one all right you're going to screen all thank you for that live update i'm just getting word that twelve riot police were injured in these protests will keep you posted as to what goes on as the day progresses now political analyst believes that the protest movement has shrunk because of disillusionment with its leaders people who came to a lot of square those are no the same people who came off a year ago and in december because in december there were a lot of people who was agenda had nothing to do with policy change in russia those are people scammed by realtors adorable people who are just so just flooded with some absolutely different problems away from social and political agenda and sort

of try to capitalize on them and say here's here because you hold many people are dissatisfied with the regime and less do regime change and elsewhere in moscow supporters of the government and political establishment have been marking the anniversary of the popular front movement created by vladimir putin last year our correspondent was there. listen supporters of course are proper primarily those who are comprising the popular frauds which is liberating as one hears that the first three today the organization was formed in paul minnesota evolvers when puts in an order to bring together all those who are not participating in any political parties were not members of any political parties but still won just at one point maybe to make a sort of a political statement those people were all gathered under the umbrella of the popular front and there they do have flags opposers there's a victory and goods in together you have to remember they are celebrating victory day in russia this is a very large holiday weekend so

a lot of the festivities and these are festivities which are taking place here are also very good it's a victory day of course that we do not see any tension or any of the mayhem or any of the confrontation that is going on in another part of moscow because people here are primarily those who support the government and everything that is happening in the country right now all right we'll be bringing you more live reports from the opposition rally in the russian capital throughout the day and also on our web site r.t. dot com which is streaming live pictures of what's happening there right now and just to let you know too that on monday we're bringing you special coverage of bloody matter putins and on duration from seven thirty g.m.t. in the morning from the magnificent splendor of the kremlin halls.

it's d.-day and fronts the tightest and most presidential election in recent history millions are queuing up polling stations across the country to decide between incumbent. his socialist rival francois hollande our correspondents are silly. there's a lot of variables out there that could swing the the results one way or the other i'll just give you some early numbers according to the interior ministry at around nude thirty point six percent of french voters have already turned out to cast their ballots now that is 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 us 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 look ahead of the national front or centrist francois bayrou who are they going 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 cycle as he for his part is saying he is a president with a strong leadership skill but a lot has been supported by this is a wide and stared the sentiment sweeping much of europe with ten e.u. governments already swept from power since the crisis had started well let's get a bit more analysis on what's going on now from my nabila ramdani she's a journalist as well as a political analyst a thank you very much for joining us today now if the law and it does way in which the polls say he is 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 in europe yes indeedy will have a huge impact indeed because as we know for so long and has

a completely different take on european matters as indeed presidents on cruises who is very close to angela merkel and the two of them so. kohl 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 he has made it abundantly clear that he's 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 it seems pretty unrealistic because the political it will take an awful lot of time to to achieve that so we're more realistically looking at eighteen if not later he also said he would like to pull

out of nato to satisfy the left and that includes the far left to show who will be a major part of his of his parliamentary block indeed all 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 do suggest a large might it take at this a victory but we will have the early results at eight pm paris time and will keep you updated once that comes out patrick young economist and director of an investment firm as a lot less enthusiastic about all and he believes the differences between the candidates are only a static neither can offer a solution to france's financial walls. the economic policies that are being put forward by all of the candidates in the french presidential election even in the first round were all based upon the most jews are not understanding of economics that we've ever seen i mean it's the sort of thing that bloggers love and you always see at the bottom end of the comments pages amongst all of the teenage

people who love to use those sorts of things all the internet but is it realistic of course it isn't and actually i think what we're all whole can he turn wrong and the whole ship of what has been the new the pigmy achievements of the poisoned war for the elites say no of course you can't normally what's going to happen with these european relationship where of course everybody's trying to make it as if it's going to be some sort of huge controversy but let's remember only a couple of years ago mrs merkel and mr sarkozy couldn't stand the sight of each other and therefore you have two politicians neither of whom realistically have got a chance of putting france on the right economic truck and i will be bringing more coverage from france as the voting progresses with plenty of analysis and opinion on the crucial outcome and what it means for the country. police in bahrain how detain the head of the country's center for human rights without explanation now bill or a job known for his firm opposition to the ruling regime was arrested days before

an interview with the world's top whistleblower chilliness sons is due to air on r t a civil rights leader was already facing charges of participating in protests against the government and was returning to baku arrange for a sunday court hearing the uprising has been ongoing for fourteen months now but the predominantly shiite population protesting against the sunni or ruling dynasty mark allman visiting professor of international relations at bill cantlin adversity in turkey says the arrest may ruin the bahrain's rulers our efforts. in a small state to tell the rich will restart. the saudis will send troops. helps a personal position last year the saudis that are very nice and some of the sympathizers in the rich states are spending all their money on a public relations campaign bringing friendly people to bahrain see how nice it is how with all the wars and so on i did

a sense trying to critical voices which until now really haven't had much traction in the western media because if we don't how will. we don't have the sympathy new government in the west when you know great difficulty really getting into a new way this arrest of course could actually ironically be counterproductive. and of course you have a chance to see julian assange has exclusive interview with now building on tuesday here on our team. speak to two leading revolutionaries one from bahrain where the revolution failed was really where the revolution is now in turmoil for makes a revolution and where is the arab spring going to go. the syrian government has granted an amnesty to two hundred sixty five rebels ahead of monday's multi-party parliamentary vote the first such election in decades meanwhile a series of blasts in the capital damascus and the northern city of aleppo killed

at least three civilians on saturday and as sarraf earth reports people are placing increasing hope on the un observer mission monitoring the frequently a breach ceasefire. in the heart of damascus thousands come out to mourn the dead the funerals of people killed during clashes in the capital once again drew into focus the very precarious situation the country now finds itself in before the bodies of the day they carried through the streets of damascus a few rules the people who were killed on demonstration day here's the story you've got the military the security watching and this is at the same time as the u.n. observers are supposed to be here overseeing the peace plan and not only in the day we've joined the u.n. observers on one of the daily to is to flash point areas if service had been traveling to some of the areas where the focus 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 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 car. 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 but they don't know how long that will last in a situation is much calmer there's not much happening here now. people. are still people shooting and i ran away i don't know exactly what was happening we're here at the checkpoints on the device that 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 here 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 rates 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 is 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 from the syrian people themselves but with parliamentary elections next week and with the observer mission under close scrutiny scenes like this won't 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 to be say so r.t. damascus now the syrian opposition is reportedly sending militants to casal for training there thought to be headed for grohl accounts formerly used by the end. of

liberation army which was for years seen as a terrorist force by america britain france. from the us based chronicles magazine told me a little good can come from all of this. the colonel a was singularly unsuccessful inmates rebellion against the serbian security forces until a major bombing and even then they were not engaging they were not going to give us marauders and complete cleansing normal brain needs now this should be a huge wake up call those syrians who are not simple to. your position especially the minorities the syrian rebels. low. that means there will be a bloodbath of the fall of us and there will be no room for any one but the majority group which obscure. its extremist creed whether it is there to greet her

old brainier in costs of a dollar or muslim brotherhood offshoot in syria. and in about fifteen minutes from now our interview with alter and war correspondent chris hedges who thinks there is no point in pushing for the toppling of syria's president assad 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 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 removal or resolution. 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. all right nineteen minutes past the hour and the a legit mastermind behind the nine eleven attacks appeared on the front of the guantanamo military tribunals on saturday on charges that could see him and his four accomplices face the death penalty khalid shaikh muhammad is one of five men charged with planning the atrocities in which almost three thousand people were killed during the thirteen hour hearing of the accused refused to answer questions or enter a plea all while some relatives of nine eleven victims watched on it's the second time the u.s. has tried to prosecute the man after an attempt to try them in america failed three years ago because of a public backlash american boy or eric montoya believes the timing and planning of the trial is questionable but it 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 on nine eleven 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 us resources on a matter that can be resolved in a number of different ways and they just sudden not to do so. bylane surged in

egypt this week with demonstrations acting the against rather the acting military rulers and more bloodshed the country is preparing for its first post revolution presidential election amid intensifying instability under the general's interim regime at least nine people were killed early on wednesday when unknown assailants attacked a group of ultraconservatives protesting against their anger that's disqualification from the polls many blame to the military for staging the assault but others said armed protesters helped provoke it a weekly friday rally with mostly islamists taking part led to hundreds of arrests and police used water cannon tear gas. to disperse the protesters who tried to break through barbed wire around the defense ministry analysts point to the benefit . to the election. there are serious doubts within the egyptian public. even before the clashes have started and

currently as the elections might be push pull in the same the same concerns have been voiced recently by political different political groups and parliamentarians with even rumors seeing that god has asked for it to postpone the elections due to the current unrest. nonetheless have said that this is 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 similar clashes have started in mohamed mahmoud and so it's particularly interesting if we are to compare how. we needed immediately before elections a couple of months or a couple of weeks before elections and we have extensive coverage of the story on our website at www dot com there are plenty of others too such as how. using the face of a mass killer of leads to red faces all round norwegian aldous but i am currently

on trial for killing over seventy people and somehow appears on a finnish company team billboard apparently because he was mistakenly included in the clubs let's find out how that happened online. and the mass distribution of free copies of the koran and berlin as described as freedom of religious expression mind it but others fear the involvement of radical muslim extremists. and in russia the threat of islamised terror turned this week into a horrific reality double terror blast just twenty minutes apart on thursday and the republic of dagestan killed thirteen people and wounded more than one hundred two vans packed with explosives detonated in the outskirts of the capital. talk to the relatives of those who gave their own lives to save other. national mourning. under muslim tradition three days after the funerals family and friends

come to the symmetry twice a day to pray and to pair respect to their loved ones we're going. to massive car bombs hit the capital. claiming more than a dozen lives these freshly dug grave is the final resting place of twenty nine year old police officer. beck of his name is hendry can you hear. me he 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 then he called me back saying he was around to go into the sea did help he said all was fine with him but the scene is a mess and he has to stay out to help i could hear cries and 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 she would see his brother would be in

a morgue. a piece of metal that had been placed around the edge of his chair and 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 checked apparently the driver was a suicide bomber minutes later as many police cars and ambulances teens 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 the double attack one bomb after 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 they arrive jihadi networks around the region is hosting dreaming is even funding some of the activities of you know terrorists 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 and the mother 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 left in the morning and then came back you forgot something i told him this is a bad luck will be fine if you try to come with me but. i don't know how

long i'm going to live but i'll live for valueless. ability pleats behind two little girls. actually when you really. father is watching us tell them to be proud of him because he was a brave man when he ran to help and died he was the best father in the world alltel than. in russia just on. the scores from the panel tonight round of the russian football primarily with the second european champions league place at stake coming up in about twenty minutes in our sport update but first i'll be back with the headlines in just a few minutes.

join me on a journey to the heart of the problem to a place is hidden from the tourists you're going to meet some real criminal insiders although they may not be the usual news makers you see on t.v. .

you know his secret laboratory here mukherjee was able to build on its most sophisticated.