polls close in the first round of egypt's referendum but as the votes are being counted both the muslim brotherhood and opposition are claiming victory. the u.s. more of those shot dead in an elementary school massacre as the gunman targeting children reignites the debate over lax gun laws. dozens of demonstrators have been detained in moscow during a rally marking the one year since some of russia's biggest protests in recent history. in moscow i met thanks very much for joining us here on r t our top story the first

round of egypt's vote on the new draft constitution that's divided the country and sparked weeks of violent anti presidential protests is finally over the muslim brotherhood has released some early numbers claiming the new constitution has passed while the opposition has unveiled results to the contrary reporter bill true has more from cairo. after three weeks if it's go time oil that seen mass rallies against the president bloody scenes in the streets of egypt's major combat cities overnight the minute she apparently beat up security at the polling stations for people to come and they of course have been cooled in by the president to secure the nation during this time of political unrest and the referendum this comes off to violence on friday on xandra egypt's second city which clashes between rival protest groups as opposed to the current situation in those against it including groups wielding machetes. and with around about nineteen

ins it's impossible that we haven't had that confirmed yet. several. weeks worth of buying seats in the streets of cairo the referendum is actually being held across two days is there not a sufficient number of judges to supervise the process this the opposition forces say is a major problem and could open up the referendum to vote rigging in addition civil society groups here questioning how that is possible for them to observe the elections for electoral fraud since the head of the constituent assembly who drafted the constitution is also the head of the national human rights council he will be overseeing the observation of the polling stations the constitution itself is a major point of contention also the opposition forces they have said that it is written by islamist dominated constituent assembly these somebody when this mass will cross by liberal leftist. and therefore it will only in a religious state all say they said would impose

a presidential dictatorship and neglect key rights and freedoms of expression so this constitution they say should be rewritten the constituent somebody should be reforged so we'll have to see with the results of the referendum the feature of egypt's incidence of violence have accompanied the vote in egypt as belcher was reporting on her twitter feed she's saying at least four people have been injured in four different cities across the country since the start of the constitutional referendum you can check out her latest updates on our feet that's r t underscore com. gyptian opposition is already accusing the muslim brotherhood of massive vote rigging during the referendum this together with a lack of unity among the opposition is likely to result in the referendum not reflecting the real will of the people according to journalist and middle east expert. morsi is not showing any signs of flexibility he's not showing any signs of building consensus

a use shown to be a very stubborn person regardless of the outcome of the drift around them. see the need to. right now it's indicative that there is going to be a mass scale. playing with the results there is already reports about money and sustenance is being given to poor people to encourage them to go out and vote favorably with yes for the constitution and on the other side the egyptians are still divided into different groups and zeeshan of the voters are not going as it should have been going so it's not really representative of the nations when or of the consensus that should have been existing. turbulence continues elsewhere in the arab world later this hour while incitement

activists in bahrain where antigovernment protests have been defiant and defeated for almost two years now. police have identified all twenty six people killed in the connecticut elementary school massacre most of them being children between the ages of six and seven according to medical experts the victims were shot multiple times with a rifle artie's got a chicky on has more from washington. there's still lots of questions as to what happened at that elementary school in connecticut the shooter has been identified at this point it was adam lanza twenty year old who went into his mother's kindergarten class she was a teacher at that school and wiped out the entire class twenty children were killed in the carnage eighteen children died at the scene to the hospital the shooter also targeted and killed six adults and unless his mother the teacher was also found dead in her home and leave the school the suspect it's three is the suspected shooter had three guns on him as he went into the school two handguns and one

semiautomatic weapon all reportedly registered to adam lanza's mother a witness said there must have been one hundred rounds fired after killing all these people at unless they reportedly shot himself there has been a number of horrifying shootings at schools in the u.s. in the past but never has there been a rampage that killed this many small children in two thousand and seven a student killed thirty two people at virginia tech we of course remember the columbine massacre in colorado where two students shot and killed thirteen people and injured twenty four but the children killed in connecticut were very very young we heard president obama deliver tearful speech this friday but nevertheless the white house has pretty much dodged questions on its gun policy and those are questions on many people's minds right now but the president does say it's time to take meaningful action to prevent mess occurs like this from happening again but what action he did not specify is the fact of the matter is that getting

a gun is fairly easy in the u.s. adam lanza's mother apparently had no problem purchasing and registering story guns one of them a semi automatic weapon and it's a powerful deadly weapon one of the policy goals of president obama was a ban on assault weapons but is thought to be a losing proposition for any politician in the u.s. to really seriously consider seriously take god. on the issue of attempts to regulate guns inevitably hit a wall and that wall is the second amendment the right of the people to bear arms some states here do have controls over gun possession but again very limited controls the state of illinois for example used to have a ban on concealed weapons but this week a federal court ruling struck down the country's last such poor vision as unconstitutional and ordered the state to craft a law allowing it so much for gun control in the us the state of wisconsin tossed out its ban on concealed weapons last year and it seems there is no way of arguing

against the amendment even despite these absolutely horrifying and recurring incidents. whose latest tragedy is reopen the debate on what many see as we gun control laws in the us are to use lose wall when twenty gun rally in front of the white house. many people are taking their concerns to the front of the white house as you can see about one hundred people are gathered here holding signs holding candles trying to make their voices heard saying that now is the time to talk about gun control and the u.s. we spoke to some of the protesters here's what they had to say today we saw a roomful of kindergartners slaughtered by a guy who never should have gotten a gun. if our president can't talk about it the issue now as a father of two daughters young daughters i think it's time for him for a gut check in it's there's no more and no more excuses anymore this should not have happened we should have measures in place before this to prevent people from

accessing guns who are not fit to hold them also in my opinion i don't think something that is military grade as an assault rifle i don't think that should be in the hands of anybody it's not a toy and we can't keep our teachers in our children and our school administrators safe and very day we can't keep people who are walking down the streets safe then that should be changed and to resign ourselves to the saying that this is a problem that has a solution is defeatist and we should we should take this on and change what we did hear from press secretary jay carney earlier this morning he said today is not the day to be talking about gun control we also heard a very emotional speech from president obama sending his condolences to the victims to the family is in newtown connecticut he did not talk about the issue of guns or gun control but protesters here say if today is not the day in the wake of this very tragic mass shooting they don't know when that time. and washington lives wall . around the marking

a year since some of the biggest anti-government protests in russia's modern history gathered several hundred people in central moscow dozens of activists were detained for taking part in the rally that was on authorized most of them have since been released. reports. the authorities did not sanction any rallies to be held in this place saying that there is usually heavy traffic in the same area and any mass gatherings could cause some additional problems they did hold long ago zeeshan is with the opposition before proposing other routes but fields to reach an agreement as a result today several hundred people gathered in central moscow to mark one year since the start of anti-government protests in the country we have seen some arrests including those of opposition leaders to go there so often on the scene of wiley they say that they were detained or lawfully since they claim that all the people who've gathered here this saturday are not taking part in any rally they're just outside for a walk but all in all what's happening and here today is really of no comparison to

what we've seen a year ago last december when truly tens of thousands of people took to the streets while here we're talking just about a few hundred. tough economic times in the u.k. taking their toll on british diet later this hour we will forte on how soaring food prices in the u.k. are forcing many say no to a healthy meal was. the first time a european court describes cia treatment of terror suspects for sure siding with a german man mistakenly fell victim to the agency's interrogation techniques more after the break. the san bernardino california police force was to shrink by eighty officers this year to cover their budget deficit during a local meeting the chief of police laid out the city's problems the sea is facing

waves of gang violence theft and drug trafficking but with all the prisons completely overcrowded many of these criminals go right back on to the street and there's just nobody to put more police out there to fight them the police chief really only had one solution offer a given situation go home lock your doors and load your gun and you know what actually that's not that bad of a proposition america's always been a country where people been expected to look out for themselves and i appreciate the police chiefs honesty but i know the world we live in and i have a feeling that the second some homeowner shoots a guy who jumps over his fence at night that homeowners are going to go to jail for life you can expect a nineteenth century attitude towards crime we'll be able to work in a twenty first century world where rapists can sue you because they slipped on your slippery kitchen floor if you want people to be able to defend themselves that's great but you have to allow them the legal liberty to do so or else the criminals will just take over but that's just my opinion.

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for staying with us here on r t fifteen minutes past the hour and out tens of thousands of people of march. rains capital my mama as anti-government protests continue in the gulf monarchy the uprising has been going on for almost two years now and it's often met with a brutal response by the country's security forces said yousif from the bahrain center for human rights says authorities are firm in their actions because they think they're backed by the west. they have. to be so that's when they don't want to you want more than one hundred. thousand when. you want to you know how. they're going to find it because they have to because. it was then they don't want to humanize him. we don't have. all you can do we got to be. american. and to which i mean if

you so that's one of the democracy and human rights people and then talk to the people who do. and then the. cia agents illegally abducted a german citizen sodomized him and beat him up these are the findings of the european court of human rights and its first ever ruling that the cia is guilty of torture of a court found in favor of a man who had failed for years to get legal acknowledgement in the u.s. and europe of what he claimed happened to him. when he says he was kidnapped in two thousand and three and abused after being mistaken for a terrorist and u.s. is now being pursued for an apology and compensation offer historian doug valentine thinks that's unlikely to happen because of the agency's clandestine culture and status. no cia officer. will ever be. a prison a prison term even in the united states of convicted. these people are simply above

the law in fact the only thing that the cia does is to conduct illegal activities which is why it's above the law it's business doing things that are illegal so the fact that it's found guilty europe or asia or south america or any place of do it legal things that simply call for gratian of what it. is not a pro bill of. those things without prior authorization from congress the president's national security officers everything that. is policy. many britons are preparing for a scad christmas meal with soaring food prices forcing people to ditch holiday delicacies the cost of food up by a third in just five years leaving many families with slim pickings artie's polly boycott reports. do you know what you're putting in your shopping basket health conscious customers might want to stock up on their fruit and vege but what if not

getting too expensive for families in the u.k. the cost of that weekly shop has gone up by over a thud over the past five years and it's set to get more expensive still among the healthier fresh meat so you can find chicken breast for five ninety nine per kilogram and you'll freeze and process dennis retailing at one twenty nine in some cases now if you're a struggling household with lots of mouths to feed it's a no brainer britain is now in the midst of a nutritional recession to go hand in hand with the financial one over a million children in the u.k. growing without a daily healthy meal now the coalition government provides free free to schools and they supplement those on the lower income but it looks like the cheap meal deals are often more appealing than the government health warnings health campaign to say it's time for the government to seventeen you plan to get britain struggling households to acquire not just the taste but also the means for

a healthier diet. turning now to some other stories making headlines across the globe at least nine people have been killed and dozens injured after a taliban fighters armed with rockets attacked the peshawar airport in northwest pakistan five militants reportedly among the dead the taliban claim the airfields military complex was their target defense facilities are frequently attacked by the terror group as they seek to undermine confidence in the country's army. iran has warned nato of triggering a world war by deploying patriot missiles on turkey's volatile border with syria it called on the military alliance to reverse its decision to station the defense system there nato promised earlier this month to provide men missile batteries in order to shield turkey from possible cross border aggression. he's eighteen people are dead and nine missing after a boat full of immigrants. and off the greek coast near the isle of lesbos the vessel reportedly set sail from turkey but moved into choppy waters tens of thousands of illegal migrants mainly from african asian countries cross into greece

each year before many make their way on to other european nations. thousands of people have taken to the streets of lisbon to protest against next year's budget the new financial plan is one of the harshest in the country's recent history and will take away the equivalent of a month's wages for many workers portugal's government's committed to austerity measures as it struggles to meet the terms of its international creditors. finally in this news block a little more than a week ago till christmas and for many that means the excitement of what's waiting under the tree but while the shopping industry is ready to satisfy your every wish or he's resident new yorker asked locals affected the festive spirit could be turning into a shopaholics nightmare. why have the holidays become such hellish days this week let's talk about that it's a commercial thing now everyone's sent to spend money it's not about what it really

should be about how did that happen is that the media telling us to buy buy buy a absolutely it's everyone with their sales and absolutely i live on what people buy you know and i'm an independent sales rep so i depend on it so you're happy with this christmas i'm happy this christmas i sell luxury goods as long as people keep buying into a happy holiday that's it a way to stop that would be to go back to church to read the bible and to find faith and to remember what the holiday is supposed to be for what about people of other religions and it is there anything for them i said i said to find religion. is there saving for them i believe in christianity but i think it's important that whether it's christiane to be or not that you have morals and values based on religious faith do you think there's a war in christmas oh i don't think there's a war on christmas i just think people shouldn't think that every year has to be the best christmas ever is that what we do we set our expectations too high we do i

think that we should just enjoy it that each year should be a nice christmas with a couple of presents maybe full of press that's right along with the feeling of safety and community with all these holidays also remind people believe or not this is just my opinion holidays remind people of their own mortality that we're not going to be around here very much longer and our lives are very short. because we tend to remember the people who have gone on the holidays as well and that's why we p.c. the holidays we just want to feel safe we want to feel like i'm extending my time here a little bit more and i want you to believe what i believe and maybe if someone other than someone else's believes makes us feel better and that's exactly telling the truth though since i'm approaching the first book it's not as much about. being there here as though the rest of our fifty nine is. going to be a little bit different how you can do it differently. i would say but it was going to be a phrasebook. is what some people make christmas and calling it a day like whether or not the world has lost its holiday spirit the bottom line is

it wouldn't hurt any of us to take a look inside to find our own private reason is that liberate the. coming up we take you want to visit to the peterhof palace also known as the russian verse i wish i was millions of tourists to st petersburg every year this after a short break stay with us. the sun rises over what seems like and last forest but here in the new directions quite hundred kilometers north of life all stopped as in much of the world it's disappearing at a catastrophic rate. mortgages

both illegal and those finding ways to outsmart the system filing down the forests of the put more skewed region for them profit goes well beyond the future of our planet and the result could be an ecological crisis the world wildlife fund for nature makes regular trips to help local rangers do what little they can to stop the logging but it's not easy longer set up trucks making them hard to reach in an already rough terrain and have mastered ways to jump through legal loopholes this is a nature reserve we're only sanitary logging of disease trees is allowed according to law and not a single berry can be picked but loggers like this use their sanitary logging permit to cut down absolutely healthy trees and sell profit the. able to member over the border in china we are on the hunt for illegal loggers and it's not going to be easy the forests or nets and our chances are slim now for now we can stay in our dreams but as soon as we find solid tracks we'll have to drop our wheels and

get out silently in order not to scare the loggers off alexander someone in ca has been a ranger for over twenty five years he can spend weeks at a time tracking a single group of loggers easier to work when snow falls in autumn it's impossible to find human tracks and even transport tracks are hard to see after hours of driving we get sent in the right direction by word of mouth you can see that the ground is soft here which means that the twelve the tractor trails are very fresh which in fact means that we need to be quiet in order to not scare them off as we get closer. this team says they're illegal but have no documents now xander can now call the police to take over his work here is done he is overwhelmingly outnumbered there are too few rangers working in the promote the region and the w w f says the government isn't doing enough to stop it i guess the government now for more. than your forest

and according to. the guys in the forest through this still. doesn't work just. as no one tries to stop them in just five years the force will be gone they'll sell it all to china what will the people who live afterwards do look it's a question more and more people are aware of today climate change in the safety of our environment as a whole are being discussed around the world and perhaps it's those small steps that might be a start to people living in harmony with nature. me all to me the perfect time for a bull elegant ladies and gallants gentleman and even the emperor himself were

ready to waltz but the grand a-k. soon interrupted by terrible news. napoleon's army had invaded russia. this is peterhof home to russia's most beautiful palaces and gardens every autumn a glorious celebration marks the end of the fountain season today's event is dedicated to the war of eighteen twelve zero in this magnificent ensemble of museums and fountains is more than just a remnant of peter the great century russia is also bears the scars of world war two. there are three welcome to peter hall of it is the most visited museum in russia around four point two million tourists come to peterhof every year why do people come here because peterhof boasts one hundred fifty fountains seven palaces and

twenty three museums and of course the most important highlight of peterhof is its fountain system. first fountains go. each day at a live million salesman's of tourist together in the lower gardens of peterhof to see for themselves the fountain stone. takes twelve people to open all the bells and recently has been accompanied by small petersburg's and so. the idea to build best residence struck peter the great during his diplomatic visit to verse. however all of the fountains of the first side were run with the help of

pumps so they could only operate without human assistance for a very short period of time and then they had to be pumped to make the journey. that is why you have a great use the italian gravity system. this means all the gram cascade fountains floats on there are. these fountains spread thousand liters of water per second and in a day the use of almost thirteen inches that's enough to fill twelve olympic sized swimming pool and to date the fountains have never dr. peter laughed what are very much this feature was his brainchild and she wanted to put it into life and see what it would look like and she did. both also cheap.