the week's top stories from r.t. . the date is set to venezuelans to choose their next president the country continues to mourn the late hugo chavez. will call verdicts in the portside football arena massacre leaves attempts at calming egypt's unrest in tatters is fresh violence in the city. and a team of u.n. observers is set free by syrian rebels whose initial claim to have taken them hostage as human shields as highlighted radical motives among some of the opposition.

internationally using comment coming to light from moscow with me andrey pharma. venezuelans will vote on april the fourteenth to decide who will take over from the late hugo chavez the commandant enjoyed a long battle with cancer but is said to have died of a heart attack millions went on a pilgrimage to the military academy in caracas to pay their last respects to the late leader who is lying in state there's a feeling for marty's video agency was also there. vice president nicolas maduro sworn in as the president and so elections take place some voices in the opposition know to believe that man who is this is the main opposition and he got the he would have called the swearing in. hugo chavez personally appointed. as the man that he wanted to succeed him and of course hugo chavez the late president has immense popularity and that is why you know russian f.m. has said that he hopes that. continues to deepen the ties between russia and

venezuela and he's also said that he hopes that russia will respect the outcome of venezuela and that elections and he hopes that all countries around the world again referring to the fact that there have been many outside powers who would like to see and. among many condolences coming from inside and outside venezuela that there was a very good statement coming from chavez's last election opponent and. he said he was mourning this loss and that he had never been his enemy but his rival i think is a very respectful attitude and i hope in the following election battle mourning the loss of venezuela and its friends including russia we have to look forward and i hope chavez's heritage will only help to deepen our partnership the majority in venezuela want to shop with his policies to continue to respect the choice of the venezuelan people i hope all of the countries that have relations with venezuela do

the same and there was no attempt to influence that choice. amongst the crowds you know we've been there quite a lot over the last few days and one of the most popular chance is with chavez and i thought other people are saying when he was sworn in in the national assembly that were very emotional crowd by doing their support for him and he announced that he is to continue the revolution he was very emotional he was in tears as he took the presidential sash and he said that the sash that he was taking belonged to. well for washington the death of its most vocal critic in latin america could mean a shot at kerry at increasing its influence that the professor. says an expert on the region says the u.s. would be better off keeping a low profile during the. washington that would be to not get involved in venezuela the least they can say at this point is the better this is a process we're going to see a very heated election and any intervention on the part of the u.s.

even a misstep on obama would be taken as as as hostility towards venezuela it would play into the into the elections in venezuela in this context but after the election of a new president i think that there are good conditions for an effort to reestablish relationships but i think we should understand that it's not just venezuela that had a has had difficulty with washington also ecuador has no ambassador from the u.s. bolivia has no embassador from the u.s. and the wiki leaks reports really indicate how u.s. attempted to maneuver and to play country against country in latin america and it really provide a revealing look about u.s. foreign policy and how little it has changed either from bush or obama. this week yet again we've seen just kind of vide egypt still is violence erupted on saturday after a court upheld twenty one death sentences given to people blamed for being behind

last year's stadium massacre in port saeed while acquitting others neither side was satisfied by the verdicts and their anger immediately spilled on to the streets three people lost their lives in clashes in cairo as a mob torched and attacked buildings across the capital including police property imports side where the army took charge of security on friday protests were quick to restart including attempts to blockade ferries crossing the su is can now tell true it's all in the crisis. so i got to security headquarters is a powerful reminder of the past five days of bloody clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces in a bid to quell on rest a day ahead of the contentious verdict on last february's football riots the government removed the police and put the city security in the hands of the army activists here say a military takeover will only antagonize the situation and is an example of

president mohamed morsi ignoring their demands this is. the government has been got an army needs or the rights of the people and those who have been killed in port so you do is not going to be more secure with the withdrawal of the police but it won't help us at all the ports are you do officers are supposed to be in the street taking care of the country that's what we asked for with the police leaving there will be chaos now the people will have to secure the city themselves tension between protesters and the police has been high since last year's riots and when the military replace them on the city streets there was an initial optimism but that all changed after the court's decision the atmosphere changed on saturday when the verdict confirmed that twenty one people will face the death penalty and a further five all serving life sentences residents here say. the army will not protect them as the local authorities bowed to pressure from the capital at a funeral for protesters killed during recent clashes and the spicy founder of the

green eagles ultras saeed's football fan club says the police used excessive force against local demonstrators treating them worse than my counterparts and kyra he believes the death sentences are further proof the city is being targeted toward side has been persecuted for the last thirty years and president mohamed morsi is keeping the status quo created by the last regime the president wants to wrong the people of portside and instead satisfy the cairo old tribes who are widespread across the country now there is a risk of everyone being racist towards portside aid the military for their part to maintain they are protective peaceful force and that portside protesters have not been singled out they say police are merely responding to the level of violence from those attacking key government buildings meanwhile on the banks of the suez canal protesters burn tires to prevent boats from ducking saying they will escalate

acts of civil disobedience until there is a fair trial with further violence on the horizon this could be the toughest challenge yet for morsi and his ministry about true for r t put saeed and ramani you can stay up to date on news from egypt with bell's twist of fate new details comments and opinions from locals on the crisis of that and other reaction we've been getting questions i but why egypt's current troubles are getting little attention abroad. the western countries have largely ignored. what the regime has been doing which is cracking down on a lot of freedoms and you know returning to mubarak era style of ruling. now it's just it will come to the forefront and i think there will be a lot of international pressure not to see you know the regime for as a democratic force but rather as what it is so it seems like the whole verdict is

politicized and it's just just a way to manage the country's political crisis rather than to bring about justice. twenty one un peacekeepers have been released by the syrian rebel captors after being held for three days the militants handed the observers over to jordan after a un recovery team stopped short of reaching the captives artie's middle east correspondent paula slater reports the peacekeepers crossed into jordan on saturday afternoon after having been captured back on wednesday the rebels themselves moved the hostages off to a un team inside syria was prevented from doing so because of heavy fire fighting in the area now the un secretary general ban ki moon has welcomed their release by new has said that all sides in the conflict must respect the united nations impartiality what we do know is that the peacekeeping. which is about ten

kilometers north of jordan by a group calling itself the martyrs brigade it is important to point out that those who want an armed they were initially taken hostage as human shields and that is according to the initial statement that was made by the rebel faction that captured them the rebels demanded that syrian government forces pull back from a nearby village and clearly stated that they were holding the u.n. team to ensure that the rebels wouldn't be shelled by government forces it was only off to the united nations international officials the heads of the syrian opposition as well as the free syrian army condemned the hostage taking that the rebel faction backtracked on that statements and said that the peacekeepers were so-called guests they also at that stage dropped all preconditions for they release what this does do is that it highlights the fact that the opposition is becoming increasingly radicalized the armed rebel force consists of numerous groups like the ones that took the securing team hostage and what we see is that these groups are

not coordinated and they don't believe concept to a central rebel political and military command in this case clearly the rebel chiefs had not been warned about this hostage taking in advance and they only intervened after the hostages were taken it is an unprecedented incident it is the first time that u.n. workers have been taken hostage inside syria it is also stoking fears that foreign countries which are supporting the rebels are in fact supporting people who could turn against them as we saw in this case and there are also growing fears that weapons being smuggled to the rebels from abroad could be turned against the united nations or anyone else all of this coming as the united states and its allies are beefing up support to the opposition which is demanding that the west stop openly arming them turkey and the gulf states already allegedly arming the rebels and have been doing so for the past two years of the conflict. coming up later in the

program the drama and infighting out the bolshoi a leading dancer at the historical data is in custody after admitting to masterminding an attack which disfigured the company's artistic director after asif was thriving in his fights plus when having a home becomes a luxury soaring price is a forcing but it is out of their highnesses we take a look at what is behind the real estate they've just a couple of minutes. we speak your language will not advance. the music programs and documentaries and spanish more matters to you breaking news a little turn into bangalore's stories. for you here. in troy altie spanish find out more visit.

is eve. hello welcome back now i talked on the bolshoi theater is in custody right now. after admitting that he was behind the brutal attack on the company's artistic

director a feeling that his pretrial hearing pavel dmitrichenko claimed he didn't order feeling to have acid thrown in his face the same stance that saying man he paid about fifteen hundred dollars to carry out the assault could get up to twelve years in prison for the crime bill in was attacked on january the seventeenth in the center of moscow he was nearly blinded he is now undergoing extensive treatment in germany where it is hoped his eyesight can be restored and we starred as many villains during his career the latest being the role of the terrible is thought he'd had a number of disagreements with his artistic director one reportedly involving the dancers girlfriend a ballerina the bolshoi and the way feeling handed the leading roles at the theatre artie's entertainment reporter martin andrey says that infighting and threats are a sad reality of show business. in the front of the feet you see a beautiful production but really the drama backstage is i think it's everyday life

in a production house and that's what it is it's a factory from from the problems with the understudies from the problems because thing from the problems of of management who were dances they were bitter about their faded career it's not an easy world to be in an obviously the the rivalries between companies within moscow and with the mets and the skull and they all want to be at the top of their game and tensions are always high in fraud and this is the first time we've had these sort of things happen right well this is certainly a very severe but there been other kind of scandals or this is this it's called drama for a reason if a year ago stravinsky's rite of spring was postponed and in fact one of the dances that. she was actually said that she was threatened by various people and she's she actually went over to canada in fear of her life in fear of that it would escalate these tensions between the theatrical ballet world would escalate into violence and obviously as we see with the result. that happened in january it happens and this

may reduce it down to a level of a cliche but we have this blockbuster movie black swan that play out that's absolutely what it's like with the black swan film nothing portman really highlights the you know the extremities and the tensions and especially with the with the management with the hiring in the firing of everyday life and it's sometimes it can seem like a wonderful place to work but they reality is somewhat different. the cia welcomed its new chief this week is president obama's former top counterterrorism adviser to the confirmation came after controversy on capitol hill as republicans stole john brennan's candidacy in fiery exchanges is notorious train program was questioned as lawmakers demanded to know whether americans could be targeted by unmanned aircraft on home soil burnings appointment was eventually allowed to proceed after officials said that trains cannot be used to kill u.s.

citizens not engaged in combat in america but a former guantanamo bay prosecutor says the unmanned attack mandate is t.v. and lacks transparency the way it's worded it's left room for interpretation it clearly is only limited to the u.s. and to american citizens i think we let a lot of wiggle room in the way that they were in the statement and again we're sort of their past history of a. pretty liberal and how they choose to the pie in terms of when it suits their interests and this is. you know the law permits the president to carry out attacks basically whenever and wherever it chooses on anyone but they refuse to release the legal analysis that explains how they interpret the law. north korea's reaction to the u.n. sanctions is to insist it will pass she knew can get weapons anyway the country also officially scrapped the hotline and

a non-aggression pact with the south this week saying washington and so are responsible for remaining nuclear disarmament talks thursday's u.n. vote tightening financial restrictions on the northeast spending asset freeze on companies and sanctioning certain individuals north korea quickly threaten the u.s. with a preemptive nuclear strike to which washington said it's ready rosen posed by the security council following previous sneaky attacks and rocket launches of all fail to to pyongyang he co-founder of the national campaign to end the korean war and he sanctions will only take a toll on citizens. they said they're going to limit money that by eight go toward nuclear technology well that means limiting cash when it means limiting cash for a country that can't feed itself because it doesn't have enough arable land to do so you're talking about taking food out of people's mouths so we have to examine why we use sanctions as something that is in essence

a weapon of war and it cannot be used in this way because we're going to be taking money out of a country that needs the money to feed itself so in the end thank you it's really ends up hurting people in a country who need it but most and i think we have to get over this and see that sanctions haven't worked hasn't worked in cuba and other places for decades in iraq and didn't recall really had to go into a war didn't stop of saddam hussein these sanctions have generally ended up killing people on the ground and really we need to get a lot more creative than that. world news now a russian helicopter carrying at least four people on cargo board is thought to have crashed in the mansion this region of the republic of congo rescue teams have found what they believe to be some wreckage from the aircraft although no bodies have been found contact with the crew was lost ten kilometers from the planned landing site the helicopter was being used for freight services for the u.n.

mission in the country. crowds of ransacked and torched a christian neighborhood in pakistan's eastern city of lahore the ongoing sectarian arrest first erupted on friday night after a christian man was accused of committing blasphemy a crime punishable by death in the country police took the man into custody in an attempt to pacify the mob hundreds of christian families later fled the area fearing for their safety. the people of the falkland islands are holding a two day referendum on whether to remain a british overseas territory the u.k. is hoping for international backing in its dispute over the islands with argentina should the majority say yes when these areas opposes the poll saying it has no validity the rai jurisdiction of rumbled for decades especially since britain repelled an argentine invasion in one nine hundred eighty two. china opens its annual national people's congress in beijing this week ushering in

a new generation of communist party leaders among the amess the continued and still unparalleled economic growth as well as a major boost to military spending james corbet journalist based in the far east says a number of topics were mentioned for the first time. where we saw a couple of the main issues on the table are increasing calls even among the party officials by an increase. in calls for easing of regulations on private capital in china's economy and we're also seeing another big issue right now is the idea of environmental concerns obviously there's been a lot of problems with air quality in china as they snuck into new to develop so that's a huge concern in terms of the foreign relations i think that's something we're going to have to see play out in the coming months but we already have indications that there are more people within the party itself that are calling for china to go its own way in the east china sea so we'll see how that develops with japan china

and the us realize that their economies are intimately linked at this point and i think that in more ways than they'd like to admit they are actually on the same side of this conflict as it were and i don't think china can allow the u.s. economy to sink any more than the u.s. economy can cut its ties with i know so well no matter what the political rhetoric might be i think there's actually more collaboration than there is conflict and and that's underscores what's going on in the political arena. traffic seems to be on the rise in opiates a small russian spacecraft has been struck by remnants of a commission chinese satellite marking second such sites collision in history we reported online about the dangers of that break plus tens of thousands rally in take yeah you saying that a world without nuclear power would be a better place to live. and. that is the german capital but more and more germans are moving active in that

income cancun pace with housing costs a correspondent paper all of the looks at who's forcing them out of their homes. who are both sexy. lin's men lovingly described his city. now some berliners feel this way of life is coming under threat there was in here in the if you keep hearing phrase work we've seen big changes over the past ten years more and more apartment buildings have been built in areas where people traditionally used to rent what we're seeing is people being forced from their homes real estate prices in berlin have shot up by thirty two percent since two thousand and seven well ahead of the german average this is resulted in some tenants of the and victor it as their rented flat says sold from underneath and prompting anger and demonstrations from those who see the city's identity being sold to the highest bidder isn't. our problem here is that berlin is turning into

a city split between the haves and have nots rising prices of forced people who have lived here for years to move out and those who have come makes. this year has seen an increase in the amount of protests against the gentrification of lynn as well as growing resentment towards other germans and foreigners moving into the city for the most part the public image of this still poor but sexy however times are changing the new emerging face of berlin is certainly stylish however it's also becoming increasingly an affordable due to the demand from people wanting to live in a desirable location economically viable and politically secure the lynas becoming the place of choice for southern europeans to invest in during turbulent times in their own countries. can't turn sales and rents property to italians.

the town. one of the main reasons our customers are buying here is that there is no trust in their tail in economy or at the. banks people see an apartment as a good way to preserve the value of their savings. was about the claims that the real estate boom is stealing and sold as they could have been god this is progress berlin is developing sure it presents some challenges but this is just the same as when the wall came down and people moved into more areas if anything this creates the mall and that makes for a what it is the best new housing developments are being built all around the city to try and accommodate demand however with rental prices having risen by ninety percent in the last decade it does seem that the writing is on the wall for the dream of an affordable life in the german capital peter all of a. belin. and next here nazi we take you to brussels to delve into the rarely

exposed them of be a sign of european politics. john kerry made his first major verbal gaffe as secretary of state by mixing the nonexistent country of courage to stand in one of his speeches of course it is funny when politicians misspeak george bush was pretty good at that but i can say that we all make mistakes and i speak trust me it is very easy to butcher the pronunciation of someplace on earth like course to low voltage or walla walla washington the thing is that he didn't just misspeak his speech was written correctly and if you look at his eyes as he said it he wasn't really looking at notes or something he was reading it off of

a teleprompter right now i'm reading off a teleprompter but i put every word there myself which is probably why john kerry is spelled with a q but my question is would kerry and prompter master obama just read anything put in front of them to they even really know the realities of the tiriel they're reading in their speeches and who are deeply versed on some subject and you should need to read word for word from the teleprompter to give a speech just try writing some notes and speaking with your brain and maybe your heart like in the good old days but that's just my opinion. every six months there was in the u.s. and that's and every six months to your team it's just a few days before. the commission and they were kept confidential the booking was made two years and it's. left behind was a clear message to the following you some of the heads of governments a few days later. the single market

monitoring infrastructure projects a flexible labor market deregulation downsize public services austerity measures and so on and so on the whole your liberal agenda for the basically our picture got confirmed by an american scholar stepping into the topic maria green cowles i was interested in doing something about europe and something about the european union i started talking with some of the c.e.o.'s and in particular the corporate affairs managers of these firms to ask them what happened and everybody had a little piece of the story and then i met with keith richardson. keith and i would talk about different things and he would give me some ideas and i'd go and i'd talk with other individuals and then i'd come back with more questions and sometimes tease out the answers and sometimes they didn't and finally i believe it

was on my seventh meeting with keith when i said to keith you know i can write up out there so i can have all these different interviews but i really want to see the pieces of paper he said to me well you know i have a bunch of cardboard boxes in the basement of the we haven't opened them they're from the earlier days we just we just put this material in the boxes and of course and you know in the back of my mind i was very excited thinking this is it. came across or tell x. . it was from visit decker see your philips. december ninety five he wrote to the heads of state just before the signing of the single european facts which started the process of the single market. the crux of the tallackson is as follows you know we don't know what you're.