and breaking news this hour opposition activists have clashed with police in central moscow as demonstrators refuse 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 latina putin's presidential inauguration let's get more details from our team. was there for us he got so the official deadline for the protest on by all of my has passed is the dust settling down right now. was hard to say how many people are still on square at the moment over a thousand definitely according to some reports it could be up to five thousand there's a heavy police presence here as well they're trying to keep order on the square standing mostly on the perimeters of the area and trying to move people out in sort of small portions unfortunately some scuffles can also be seen from time to time

here and there this rally initially was authorized by the authorities it did start peacefully but at some point one of the organizers of the radical leader said you would add so if he called on people to gather at an area which was not agreed upon would be authorities and as scores of protesters began gathering there police tried blocking them to see if the reasons but this did leads to scuffles even the stampede and clashes between the protesters and the off duty some of the most radical activist were seen throwing pieces of concrete at the police also small. and. and other types of objects to basically proving the authorities to to try to and to to to take up more efforts to restore order in this situation as a result there were injuries on bullets. both among the protesters an animal and

the police the journalists including the six people were hospitalized and around two hundred fifty people were detained including three opposition leaders including city. blogger i can see now why me who's actually currently calling on people to start gathering on the mine years in a square which is also right next to the kremlin he's doing that via twitter that area was not authorized by the. 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 of the whole just gone peacefully unfortunately this isn't the case this time but it seems that the majority of the activists wore sort of came through with these but there were individuals in the crowd who were

provoking and basically leading to this while it's all right here got a full screen all thank you for that live update i'm just getting word that twelve riot police were injured in these protests well 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 buy a lot in a square those are not the same people who came after year in december because in december there were a lot of people who who who was a gender had nothing to do with policy change in russia those are people scammed by realtors a dog or people who are just so just the sum absolutely different problems away from social and political agenda and novolin them 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 probe primarily those who are comprising the popular frauds which is liberating it's one hears that a verse three today the organization was formed paul minnesota evolved lesmond puts in in order to bring together all those who were 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 they do have flags and posters there saying 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 in these are festivities which are taking place here are also getting heated to the victory day of course that we do not see any tension or any of the mayhem or any of the contradiction 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 i will 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 made of putin's inauguration 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 nicolas. his socialist rival francois hollande our correspondents are silly and. 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 noon 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 throughout much of the campaign his lead between four and seven percent or whatever there is still that 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 cyclists he for his part is saying he is a president with a strong leadership scale 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'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 in europe yes indeed he will have a huge impact indeed because as we know for so long 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 who's in 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 she 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 that seems pretty unrealistic because the president will it will take an awful lot of time to to achieve that are we more realistically looking thirteen if not later he also said he would like to pull out of nato to satisfy the left and that includes the far left the men on shore who will be

a major part of his of 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. economist and director of an investment firm as a lot less enthusiastic about the law 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 juvenile 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 elite 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 there 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 have detained the head of the country's center for human rights without explanation now bill or a top known for his firm opposition to the ruling regime was arrested days before an interview with the world's top whistleblower julian assange 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 bahrain for a sunday court hearing the uprising has been ongoing for fourteen months now with the predominantly shiite population protesting against the sunni overruling dynasty mark almond visiting professor of international relations at bill cantlin aversive in turkey says the arrest may ruin the bahrain's rulers are efforts. in a small state to tell a very rich. saudis across central. helps a personal position last year the saudis that are very nice and some of us sympathizers in the states are spending a lot of money on a public relations campaign bringing friendly people could already see how nice it is how with all the walls and so on a sense they're trying to train a critical voices which until now really haven't had much traction in the western media because if you don't how will you know you don't have the sympathy new

government in the west when you know great difficulty really getting into a new you know people 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 nabil over solve on tuesday here on our. speak to two leading revolutionaries one from bahrain where the revolution failed. where the revolution is now in turmoil what makes a revolution and where is the arab spring going to go. the syrian government has granted and 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 u.n. observer mission monitoring the frequently

a breach ceasefire. 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 big guys through the streets of damascus as heroes the people who were killed on demonstration day here's the story you've got the military the security watching this is at the same time as the un observers are supposed to be here overseeing the peace plan but in our early in the day we've joined the un observers on one of the daily to is to flash point areas. this have been troubling to some of the areas where the fiercest by things been breaking out and you can see on the ground small slow steps are being taken in the observers are really going to be one thing over the coming period the building all night 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 those we do talk to tell us that the last few days have been quiet but they do. how long that will last in a situation is much calmer there's not much happening you know. people. are still people shooting in a way 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 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 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 service 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. damascus now the syrian opposition is reportedly sending militants to casal for training there thought to be headed for grower camps formerly used by the end. liberation army which was for years seen as a terrorist force by america britain france. from the us space chronicles

magazine told me little good can come from all of this. colonel a singularly unsuccessful inmates rebellion against the serbian security forces on two main trouble me. and even then they were not engaging in town but they were acting as marauders weekly cleansing not obey any now this should be a huge wake up call for those syrians who are not supportive of the opposition especially at the minorities the syrian rebels around the jail that means there will be a bloodbath 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 creed or 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 all three 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. that calls for intervention already feels there is no real formal opposition you know it's a sort of a mess and they just went through this in libya. right

ninety minutes past the hour and the a legit mastermind behind the nine eleven attacks appeared on the front of a guantanamo military tribunals on saturday on charges that could see him and his four accomplices face the death penalty khalid shaikh mohammad 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 more eric montoya believes the timing and planning of the trial is questionable. as 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 the out of lebanon 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 that and they've just such 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 lalas protesting against their candidates this qualification from the polls many blamed the military for staging the assault but others said armed protesters helped provoke it a weekly friday rally with mostly islamize 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 . unrest timed to elections. there are serious doubts within the egyptian public. even before the clashes have started and currently. the elections might be pushed forward the same the same concerns have been voiced recently by. different political groups and parliamentarians doing 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 and it's important to mention in this context that during the previously before the parliamentary elections last november similar clashes that 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. norwegian all nervous but iraq currently on trial for killing over seventy people somehow appears on a finnish eighteen billboard apparently because he was mistakenly included in the

clubs let's find out how that happened online. and amass a distribution of free copies of the koran and berlin is just crime does freedom of religious expression mind it but others fear the involvement of radical muslim extremists. and in russia the threat of islamic 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 of family and friends come to the symmetry twice a day to pray and to pair respect to their loved ones. two

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 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 but it was very tricky when he called me back saying he was around to go into the sea he said all was fine with him but the scene is a mess 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 it to his children it came 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 douglas town 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 ambulances teens and emergency crews and fire brigades reach the area the second last the current 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 coolant and it claimed the most victims of the double attack one walmart 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 if you have a networks around the region is hosting dreaming is even funding so. you know terrorist in russia in the 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 their move left in the morning and then came back you forgot something i told him this is a bad luck will be fine he tried to calm me but. she do that i don't know how long i'm going to live but i'll live for valley. ability police behind two

little girls. the when you tell them to be the father is watching us i will 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 . 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 kremlin to a place is hidden from the tourists you going to meet some real credible insiders although they may not be the usual news makers you see on t.v. .

sigrid lumber tour. was able to build the most sophisticated rowboat which. doesn't give a dollar amount anything mission to teach the creation why it should care about humans in bringing this is why you should care only.

here with our team with me at half past the hour and i have your headlines protesters throw smoke grenades and fireworks in clashes with riot police in moscow an anti-government rally with a number of opposition leaders arrested parenting and signing crowds to defy police orders to hold. incumbent nicolas sarkozy and rival francois in face off in france's presidential election the end of a pair of battle that could really define the country's role on the world stage. and a leading human rights activist from bahrain is arrested days before our team is to air his interview with chilling of solace when she spoke of the vote.