run ago opposition activists hijack a peaceful antigovernment rally in moscow leading to clashes with police and injuries on board signs find out more from me in just a few moments. incumbent nicolas sarkozy and rival francois oman face off in france this presidential election the end of a bitter battle back put to redefine the country's role on the world stage. and a leading human rights on to the us from brain is arrested in days before r.t.d. is to air his interview with julian assange in which he spoke of the violent crackdown on protesters in his home country.

all right if you're just joining our team a very busy sunday here opposition activists have clashed with police in central moscow after defined orders to move the officially agreed location for their rally anti-government protests dubbed the march of millions has been taking place on the eve of latium and putin's presidential inauguration let's get more details from are using the north who is there for us now so the peaceful rally went ugly but is the situation getting back on track. well by this time the police have managed to restore order on bolotnaya square most of the protesters have now left the area but i must say at some points it was pretty ugly itself originally was pretty peaceful until one of the radical leaders of the opposition i said if you will die soft called on the crowd to move away from the authorized area and gather at another

spot not agreed with the authorities the police tried blocking the crowd due to safety reasons but i guess some of the radical activists tried breaking through the very key to leading to scuffles on clashes with the authorities some activists were seen throwing pieces of concrete molotov cocktails even and small going aides at the police and this led to injuries on both sides according to the latest figures that we're getting twenty seven people have been injured including twenty policeman at some points the situation here in moscow really began looking similar to. violence like last year's events in london for example here's what some of the witnesses had to say i'm. not really sure you would you feel that the people who carry out such actions are extremists while people who want to change things though not by way of revolution not by violence but through reforms those

are the kind of people we need that he's going to lose we look to the protests out of control there's nothing good in this we need to try and find peaceful solutions to all problems. jim bug will not die you know everyone sick and tired of that we want peace this is useless. some journalists were injured in the clashes also and in a separate incident one man supposedly a photographer dropped out of the window of the building which is next on a street leading to the square as he was taking pictures. all of the. off the mortgage but the rally like i said it was. peaceful in the beginning and the police were not getting ready for any aggressive behavior from the activists since most of the previous around these were peaceful as well there were no water cannons no dear gas used but unfortunately due to the numerous provocations this particular rally

was not able to and peacefully all right and the unconfirmed numbers we're getting in at the moment twenty seven people injured among them twenty policemen again unconfirmed you're going to school thank you for that update. party's political analyst peter lavelle believes that the organizers of the march needed to provoke the authorities to keep the whole protest alive there been protests here since the start of the russian federation this is nothing new but the same people that these numbers are not growing they're getting smaller gentleman they're getting smaller someone needs a provocation to keep this movement alive because which the gentleman logically speaking this is the last thing but i'm here putin wants the world to see the day before he's inaugurated one of the interesting things is of the protest movement energized the base for the presidential election now we're going to see again energized because people get a look at this and say oh this is not what we bought into with mr putin because

this was the one nine hundred ninety s. this is the one nine hundred ninety s. people don't want to go back there putin will comment on it tomorrow and elsewhere in moscow supporters of the government and political establishment have been marking the anniversary of the popular front movement created by alleging that puts in last year our correspondent you know go scope was there. within supporters of course are pro primarily those who are comprising the popular frauds which is the liberating it's one hears that a verse three today the organization was formed all the initiative all that's been put 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 all of the popular front and a lot of them were here today to have the flags there saying victory and woods in together because people here are primarily those who support the government and everything that is happening in the country right now at the moment. in studio and

francis tightest and most bitter presidential election and recent history the turnout is seventy two percent so far as voting continues across the country but the choice between incumbent nicholas a cozy or his socialist are in trouble francois hollande our correspondents are cilia is covering the election for us in paris. a lot has been leading us throughout much of the campaign has lead between four and seven percent or whatever there is still the question of who are the voters that have voted for money look at 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 is 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 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 alanda does win 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 on 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 cruise who is very close to angela merkel and the two of them so it's all cozy 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 asians as he promises he will do he 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 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 it 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 and that includes defiler lifted who will be a major part of his view of he's a 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 you suggest a lot might it take at this victory but we will have the early results at eight pm paris time and we'll keep you updated once that comes out. patrick young economist and director of an investment firm is a lot less enthusiastic about all and he believes the differences between the

candidates are all are only a static and that neither can offer a solution to france's financial woes. 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 about economics that we've ever seen i mean it's the sort of thing that bloggers love and you always see in the baltimore and of the comments pages amongst all of the other 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 town he turned wrong and the whole ship of what has been the new the pigmy achievements of the boys and war for the elites i know of course the hound and alternately 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 control over city 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 i'll be bringing you 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 involved brain detained the head of the country's center for human rights without explanation now bill or as well known for his firm opposition to the ruling regime was arrested days before an interview with the world's top whistleblower julian a son is due to air on r.t. they 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 of protesting against the sunni ruling dynasty more insight now on live from omar to solve the political analyst and senior columnist at the bar newspaper in the lebanese capital beirut now now deal or assad

is seen as a key thing of the bahrain opposition what do you think now waits for him and his movement. well mark anyway first let's say that maybe russia has not committed any crime he was arrested and this arrest can be seen as an arbitrary arrest i mean can you hear me yes that's all right. yes some are we have we have. so i was saying that maybe russia has not committed any crime. was arrested at the airport. as he left beirut and here when the minute he arrived to the airport in manner in behind

he was arrested by the authorities this arrest can be considered as arbitrary because the man has not committed any crime whatsoever he's a human rights activist he's been the protests in bahrain have been peaceful protests they have not resorted to any weapons they have not resorted to any violence. the the attitude of the government in the end of the king has been oppressive has been has been all saw it was a it wasn't truthful because the mr version mr version of himself had actually. called for a kind of a democratic democratic solution to the problem where as well as this wasn't this excuse me hello yes we still have you know i want to ask you something international federation for human rights where our child is deputy secretary general they have condemned his detention do you expect some wide international

resonance. well why the international residence i think it's a it's problematic because there have been a lot of pressure from the western countries on the on the united nations on on international organizations in order not to actually react in a way that would actually consider what's happening in. a democratic movement in bahrain the bahamians are asking for equal rights and they're asking for a proper democracy they are not a group of shiites as they have been portrayed minority group that is asking for all that is asked that has some demands that are sectarian demands these are trainees they are holding up the flag and no other no other sign or symbol they are

asking for democracy and the world is not responding to their demands as and the world is not reacting the same way it's reacting to other in the in other places in the arab world where these rebellions are armed sometimes and the and so therefore there is a clear double standards when it comes to bahrain perhaps because bahrain is a is a kingdom in the gulf and therefore there is a fear that if the if these people will get their rights and and if they then it is a possibility that the kingdom will collapse and it will be the beginning of the collapse of other kingdoms and emirates in the gulf and that's very sensitive for the world because the gulf as we know is in a part of the world that is rich in natural resources more specifically with the with the with with the petrol and gas and therefore this is the delicate situation these people are being deprived of their basic rights for

a democratic. democratic system in the country. the army has been called in but there are two american bases. and i think of that also is gives the king more power to order more incentives to crush the peaceful demonstrators with violence right now i do want to unfortunately we do have a little bit of a delay but i want to very briefly ask you about the fact that mainstream media has not really touched. where unrest has only made the news recently with the staging of the formula one motor race grand prix there why is there such a difference in media approach to bahrain compared to other arab uprisings such as in egypt libya and syria. well i think we both know and many of the viewers probably know that there are some

international forces that control media and the media is controlled by the same international media is predominantly controlled by the same forces that support the western influence that is that is sometimes not really supporting any democratic movement or not truthful towards human rights and democracy i mean if one wants to be truthful to democratic basic democratic principles one would look closer than. this movement has been going on for for forty years now almost and these are basic demands and the rain is have not and i repeat and this is very important they have not taken up weapons they have not used any. any violent aggressions against the government their demands were not for didn't move all of the king. when their demands started when the revolution started it wasn't for the

removal of the king it was for basic equal rights between all behind their knees and you can see in the pictures there on your screen that all the symbols they're carrying are just about any flag they are the citizens who want to have the same rights as any western citizen has in their country and they are being deprived of that basic right and they're not even receiving the proper media coverage in international media networks. political analyst and senior columnist at the bar newspaper thank you. and you have a chance to see julian assange has exclusive interview with nabil over on tuesday here on our. i speak to two leading revolutionaries one from bahrain where the revolution failed once of egypt 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 an amnesty to two hundred sixty five ahead of monday's multi-party parliamentary vote the first such election decades meanwhile a series of blasts and the capital damascus and the northern city of aleppo killed at least three civilians on saturday and sara firth reports people are placing increasing hope on the un observer mission monitoring the frequently 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 in before the bodies of the that they carried through the streets of damascus the rules the people who were killed under the station they 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 indeed 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 don't know how long that will last long in a situation is much calmer there's not much happening here now while i'm about i saw people running similar saw people shooting and i ran away i don't know exactly what was happening we're here at the checkpoints on the device because the dean of

the u.n. have just done a tour through the air. 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 the observers presence here does seem to have made some small in rights situation in the country is unstable tension in the capital of damascus is palpable explosions here a regular occurrence now and security everywhere as night firefighters rush to the scene after a demonstration services themselves have admitted a resolution happened even night and it will have to come in large parts of the syrian people themselves but with parliamentary elections next week and with the if the mission under close scrutiny seems like this would 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 and coming up in the next hour our interview with 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 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. they allege and mastermind behind the nine eleven attacks appear at and front of a kuantan a military tribunal on saturday entendres that could see him and his four accomplices face the death penalty khalid shaikh mohammad is one l. five men charged with planning the atrocities and what 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 that's the second time the u.s. has tried to prosecute the men after an attempt to try them in america failed to three years ago because of a public backlash american lawyer eric montoya believes the timing and 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 just as three years later on that you've got another election i think what they're trying to do is take that issue off the table and say well we're at least trying to proceed in an orderly fashion but i think it's a fairly thin veil and people will be able to see through it does a tremendous injustice to the memory of those victims are not a little bit and i think it does a tremendous injustice to the thing that we call the justice system in america they have no plan and it's taken three years to get to this particular point and this is going to be another tremendous and sad waste of us resources on a matter that can be resolved in a number of different ways and they just certain not to do so. and we've got

extensive coverage of this story on our web site at r.t. dot com but there are plenty of others too such as how an arab using the face of a mass killer leads to red faces all around norwegian i wonder if the brake currently on trial for killing over seventy people somehow appears on a finnish teen billboard apparently because he was mistakenly included in the family let's find out how that happened online. and a mass distribution all for free copies of the koran in berlin is described as freedom of religious expression by those behind it but others fear the involvement of radical muslim extremists and in russia the threat of islam is terror terms of this week into a horrific reality double tarra blast just twenty minutes apart on thursday in 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. artie's

murtha motion up talk to the relatives of those who gave their own lives to save others. national mourning dagestan 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 were due. 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 hendry can hear. me he 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 vague that 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 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 have been placed around the bar into his chair and came out through his day. at 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 i'm 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 i'm real and stains and emergency crews and fire brigades reach the area the second last occurred it was

much more powerful you can. the crater is huge one some reports say the second last had a force of one hundred kilos into intake will and i don't claim to the most victims 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 their right jihadi 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 the mother long with the wife or the teapot say he never liked cameras and they have to console themselves with a few pictures they have. left in the morning and then came back you forgot

something i told him this is a bad luck all will be fine mom could try to calm me but. i don't know how long i'm gonna live but i'll live for the. leaves behind two little girls stay where you will i'll tell them to be google's is their father is watching us and will tell them to be 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. tea in russia's dagestan well that's all we have for you at this hour but just to remind you that on monday we're bringing you special coverage of leisure matter putin's inauguration from seven thirty g.m.t. in the morning and the stunning splendor of the kremlin halls.

thank. you.