day's news in the week's top stories here on r.t. inheriting the revolution a new venezuelan leader will be chosen next month while questions moaned over foreign influence in the oil rich nation following the death of its long time president hugo chavez. call for violent clashes in gulf egypt after the courts confirmed death sentences and announced new penalties for participants in last year's deadly football riots grown unrest highlighting concerns over military rule in the country. and a ballet dancer from the bolshoi theater is facing twelve years behind bars for planning an attack which left his boss nearly blinded party goes behind the scenes to examine the dark side of life in the spotlight.

watching r.t. live from moscow. venezuela has set the date to pick the successor to the late president hugo chavez who died from a heart attack following a two year battle with cancer on tuesday the election will take place on april the fourteenth and will determine whether his revolutionary vision will evolve there's a feeling from artie's video agency is closely watching the political situation in caracas. vice president nicolas maduro was sworn in as the president and so elections take place some voices in the opposition notably the man who is the main opposition and. you have called the swearing in. hugo chavez personally appointed maduro as the man that he wanted to succeed him and of course

hugo chavez the late president has. men's popularity and russian said that he hopes that. continues to deepen the ties between russia. and he's also said that he hopes that russia will respect the outcome. and he hopes that all countries around the world. many outside powers who would like to see and. among many condolences coming from inside and outside venezuela 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 his policies to continue we will respect the choice of the venezuelan people all of the countries that have relations with. and there was no attempt to influence their choice. amongst the crowds you know we've been there quite a lot over the last few days and one of the most popular. is that my daughter the people are saying when he was sworn in in the national assembly that was very emotional crowd support for him and he announced that he has to continue the revolution he was very emotional he was in tears as he took the presidential and he said that the stash that he was taking. well the body of hugo chavez will rest on public display in a crystal casket president nicolas maduro said he is for his people to have him journalist eric margolis he's been writing extensively on venezuela says there are no presidential candidates who have a charisma like. he has an antique charisma at it compared to.

chavez superabundance of charisma he's a very dull quality figure as a former bus driver he really doesn't excite many people nor do the other leaders of the. party so that's not sure an experience tells us that sympathy is a very important factor and i'm not one leader guy who woke up realized thing as far as i know it is mother's apartment in new york city so he's obviously the candidate favored by the u.s. which i think will be putting a lot of effort into trying to get him elected and trying to defeat the socialists in venezuela but again he's not a very popular figure either and he's a governor of small states and his loyalties are suspect by some as well. the opposition needs

a stronger candidate right now they don't have what they do is from around the globe and thousands of venezuela mourners gathered to pay their respects to the late commandante on friday but while there was grief on the streets of caracas there was a different emerging from washington. now reports. millions of people throughout latin america are mourning the death of. the venezuelan leader enjoyed tremendous popular support in his country as well as the whole region he won four presidential elections and had ruled venezuela for fourteen years so you see this liberation process not only on the venezuelan people but also of all the latin american peoples must continue. chavis allowed us to restore faith in latin america region so that a profound transformation in the region can be carried out that's the only guards and the empire will no doubt be happy and celebrating the news empire is the word

a host of south american leaders and used to refer to the united states in washington president obama extended his sympathy to the chavez family and heralded quote a new chapter in the history of latin america but the u.s. congress was not as restrained in their reaction to the death of the venezuelan leader the chairman of the house foreign affairs committee had this to say his death then the lines of anti u.s. leftist leaders in south america good riddance to this dictator in the media a slew of pundits embarked on a search for new opportunities that might now be available for the u.s. in venezuela. so what does this mean now for the united states and all that oil in that country venezuela is a place of enormous opportunity it has by surveys perhaps the largest reserves of oil in the world from the u.s. point of view this has enormous potential implications because a venezuela that moves away from chavez is foreign policy means a venezuela that's less welcoming to iran less friendly to russia less friendly to

castro's cuba less friendly to leftwing regimes around the hemisphere which is financed in their campaigns and and other aspects but before america jumps at the chance to explore those new opportunities it might be useful to look back at what washington's previous efforts led to. what the u.s. now calls leftist populist governments in latin america came to power partly in reaction to decades of the us recklessly meddling in the affairs of the region for years washington had seen many of those countries as its outposts after chavez was elected in one thousand nine hundred nine a host of other leaders in latin america followed his example to varying extents including but not limited to ever morales in bolivia rafael correa in ecuador and daniel ortega in nicaragua charges may not have been as hardened in his views against washington if not for allegations of the tacit support of the bush

administration in the coup against him in two thousand and two he met with bill clinton a couple times they got along just fine it was really only with george bush that when things really were turned sour and especially after the coup attempt within forty eight hours of the start of the coup with the help of the military and vast popular support chavis returned to power by but during that short period when he was deposed some in the u.s. hurried to celebrate the new york times for example ran this article venezuelan democracy is no longer threatened by would be dictator caracas now provides fifteen percent of american oil imports and with signs of policies could provide more for years after the coup chavez said expressed this anger at the bush administration in a variety of fiery metaphors i did it to one of the other the devil came here yesterday. and it still smells of sulfur here george w.

bush has long left office but suspicion and mistrust remain some argue if during these challenging times black america washington continues to deal with the region using the same old tactics the hostility could be put in washington i'm kind of shaken. another verdict sparking another ride in egypt saturday's court ruling to uphold twenty one death sentences over the portside stadium killings led to a further round of violent clashes the death penalties were for last year's deadly football riots during a match between cairo and port saïd base clubs another five life terms were also handed down with the announcement sparking unrest in both cities three people died in cheering clashes in the capital with angry crowds torching police and football federation buildings furious crowds also vented their frustration import side which

had already seeing protests leading up to the verdict true is following developments. 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 forgotten our main needs the rights of the people and those who have been killed in the port side is not going to be more secure with the withdrawal of the police 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 placed them on the city streets there was an initial optimism but that all changed off 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 or seven nice sentences residents here say that the army will not protect them as the local authorities bowed to pressure from the capital that's 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 their counterparts in cairo 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 or why. spread across the country now there is a risk of everyone being racist towards port saeed the military for their part to maintain they are a 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 docking 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 military true for r t puts. is monitoring the situation in egypt on twitter so you can follow her for the latest details on what is happening on the ground.

more stories ahead for you including the bolshoi theatre ballet soloist in custody for planning an attack on his boss which he claims was more violent than expected also coming up and on and is head to the polls to vote on whether to remain a british ruled territory with argentina viewing it as i mean this publicity stunt will be discussing it live in the u.k. i'm paid but after this price. these children. they are serving

a certain. just like their mother. little ones born in prison. now almost paying for the crimes committed by their parents. kill babies on our t.v. . do we speak your language doesn't follow the law or not at the end of. the music programs and documentaries and spanish what matters to you breaking news a little turn it if angle has hidden stories. for you here. in troy altie spanish find out more visit actuality r t v dot com.

hello welcome back now 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 one is aries opposes the poll saying it has no validity well let's now turn to british m.p. george galloway for his thoughts mr galloway thank you for your time firstly what is the point of this referendum because we all know that they are likely to vote in favor of staying under british rule when it did it's a preposterous exercise in relation to what is a proposed appendage of british colonialism one thousand six hundred people will cast a vote which will then bind the entirety of british foreign policy towards lot of america father massive expenditure of british defense budgets including the deployment of nuclear armed submarines in the south atlantic and our entire

attitude towards latin america and latin america's out of jude towards us is trussed up in our vote the result of which is already known before a single vote has been cast one thousand six hundred people with the entire fleet of this country these islands which are in pretty powerless condition i can tell you in their hands that's the very definition of gilbert and sullivan preposterousness i would say so what is the way forward it sounds like this will inflame the situation the un has asked britain in argentina to to both talk but britain wants the island is involved in those talks argentina says no in your opinion what is the way forward. well the thought your government was prepared to talk to argentina about sovereignty of perhaps a shared sovereignty agreement which seems to me likely to save on or on both sides

and then the joint of the fascist dictatorship of argentina invaded and briefly occupied the islands a bloody war involving the death of thousands of people and the expenditure of vast treasure then took place and nothing has happened since britain has recently upped the ante sending a prince of the royal blood prince william down there to the south atlantic we've deployed this nuclear armed submarine and we are now saying that we're not prepared to talk to argentina about anything it's quite clear that the islanders have rights they have rights to a minority way of life that need to be gotten by international agreement but the territory itself very obviously belongs to argentina if someone came down from mars and saw them up so we are the falkland islands law or the argentinian continental

shelf and track the distance between the falklands and the united kingdom once agreed colonial powers no a small nearly bankrupt country off the southwest coast of europe and was told that the small nearly bankrupt country was continuing to assert that it owned these islands well the man from mars would laugh unfortunately we're not laughing year in britain because we're continuing to foot the bill what a man from mars find it difficult to understand what all the fuss is about given that only three thousand people actually live in these islands i mean a lot of people do suggest it's all about natural resources at least two countries basically being greedy. well there are not gentle resources no discovered off the coast of the falkland islands and certainly raises the stakes i've argued here in the british parliament behind me that we should do a deal for joint sovereignty no with argentina because one day if we don't we'll

have to accept the entirety of sovereignty being in the hands of argentina argentina has a progressive. government pro human rights government a government as far removed from the military do into of gulf area as it's possible to imagine and latin america is fully behind argentina's claim the united nations as you said has told us to talk but britain beating its chest in an echo of its former imperial past just simply refuses to do it and that's unacceptable i didn't dangers our interests in latin america which is one of the few parts of the globe that is economically thrusting ahead and we are prejudicing fatally our interests and our reputation in latin america by continuing to attempt to hold on to this appendage of british colonial rule mr galloway thank you

very much for your time you'll have to leave it at a pretty champagne george galloway. now a bolshoi theater ballet dancer is facing up to twelve years in prison for masterminding an attack on his boss' public domenici cenk uygur is in custody along with two others involved in the assault charge with inflicting grievous bodily harm the artistic director of the bolshoi ballet's sergei filin was nearly blinded after having acid splashed in his face in moscow in january he's now undergoing extensive treatment in germany at the pretrial hearing earlier this week pavel dmitrichenko claimed although he did order the assault he didn't intend to it to be an acid attack the socialist answer allegedly paid about fifteen hundred dollars to carry it out is thought he'd had a number of disagreements with his boss the dancers girlfriend a ballerina at the bolshoi even complained about being rejected for leading roles

at the theater well arty's entertainment reporter martin andrews told my colleague matt trays are about the ugliest side of the artistic world. 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 with cars 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 obviously the rivalries between companies with a mosque and with the mets in the skull and they all want to be at the top of their game and tensions are always high and fraud and this is the first time we've had these sort of things happen right well this is certainly a very severe there but other kind of scandals well there 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 clearly that's absolutely what it's like with the black swan film not important it really highlights the you know the extremities and the tensions and especially with the with the management with the hiring in the firing it's everyday life and sometimes it can seem like a wonderful place to work but they reality is somewhat different. in other news a small russian spacecraft made a big bang after it was struck by remnants of a decommissioned chinese satellite marking the second such space collision in history a report on the cosmic garbage odyssey on our web site also online for you stonehenge

is history may not be carved in stone very makes a revolutionary suggestion that the prehistoric monument was originally a graveyard and a venue for mass celebrations that unified to hold a prehistoric britain to discover more an article called. syrian rebels have released twenty one un peacekeepers after holding them captive for three days in the golan heights the filipino observers were transported to jordan instead of being handed over to a u.n. team and as artie's paul asli reports the hostage crisis highlights concerns over radical elements in syrian opposition groups who could be benefiting from western and arab states support. the peacekeepers crossed into jordan on saturday afternoon after having been captured back on wednesday the rebels themselves moved the hostages off to a u.n. team inside syria was prevented from doing so because of heavy fire fights are in

the area now the u.n. secretary general ban ki moon has welcomed their release but he has said that all sides in the conflict must respect the united nations impartiality what we do know is that the peacekeepers were held in the village of jamila 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 were laws unarmed 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 their

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 sneering to hostage and what we see is that these groups are not coordinated and they don't believe onset 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. could turn against him 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 equal of

support to the opposition which is demanding that the west start 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 turning to some of today's world news now protesters another busy on have been killed in a normally small rubber bullets and mortar fired by police as they marched against deadly high using only army the protesters one of many sparked by the start of the death of the soldier in january the rights groups accuse the president of rigging elections and using police to clamp down on political dissent. the afghan president hamid karzai has accused the u.s. of colluding with the taliban in secret talks in cata the group officially suspended discussions over a year ago warning american statements shaky and erratic afghan government has been pushing for the taliban would return to the negotiating table a new attempt to pacify mounting tensions before u.s. nato troops pull out in two thousand and fourteen which on saturday two suicide

bombs went off as the new american defense secretary arrived in kabul to meet government officials. panama ching against atomic power on the eve of the tsunami disaster the second anniversary tens of thousands to more than one hundred fifty nationwide events demanding that japan turns its back on you create a deadly tiger by trying this which japan in twenty twelve killed over fifteen thousand people and brought me think. to a devastating home. now on the way parenting in prison a look at the lives of young women whose baby spend their kids in a harsh penal colony instead of an issue.

did any of you see darth vader and storm troopers trying to make their way into the ukrainian justice ministry as part of a protest well probably a lot of you saw this fun viral video but how many people remember what exactly they wanted and what their protest demands were all about probably not that many trust me i just did it using wacky protest tactics gets media attention and if you are pushing a cause that media attention is critical but when no one even gets what you want or why you are in that wacky costume it doesn't help there seems to be like almost a protest a culture and language like you see people protesting there so satisfied with themselves in their costumes and silly gimmicks but if your protest is actually aimed at people in power then how is it going to cure cost of goods with the opinion of heartless bureaucrats sitting in some soulless office again media attention is great but if you want to be taken seriously we're a rainbow wig and thought while fighting for your rights doesn't seem to send the

right message but that's just my opinion. well i wouldn't say that his life is difficult that is deprived of something he has everything that he needs he gets medical care and he's given an upbringing he's that well and what's more his mother is with him i haven't robbed him of anything at this do you think being here together with children with your son helps you look for is it difficult for you. are you asking if my child helps me or bothers me how can my shelves bother me he's my life my soul i live only for him.