the day's news in the week's top stories here on r.t. inheriting the revolution the new venezuelan leader will be chosen next month questions mind over foreign influence in the oil rich nation following the death of its longtime president hugo chavez. violent clashes engulfed egypt after the courts confirmed death sentences and announced new penalties participants in last year's deadly football riot with the growing unrest highlighting concerns over military rule in the country. and that ballet dancer in 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.

so i welcome you watching life 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 choose day the election will take place on april the fourteenth and will determine whether his revolutionary vision will live on there's a feeling from the video agency is closely watching the political situation in caracas. vice president nicolas maduro sworn in as the president and so. take place some voices in the opposition notably the man who is the main opposition peak of the he would have called the swearing in. hugo chavez personally

appointed. the man but he wanted to succeed him and of course hugo chavez the late president has immense popularity and by the way the 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 of venezuela and that elections and he hopes that all countries around the world again referring to the fact that bad many outside powers he would like to see. among many condolences coming from inside venezuela there was a very good statement coming from chavez's last election. he said he was mourning this and that he had never been his enemy but his rival i think is a very respectful attitude and my hope in the following election battle mourning the loss of venezuela and its friends including russia we have to look forward. to

deepen our partnership a majority in venezuela want to show this is honest and to. respect the choice of the venezuelan people while 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. is that my daughter the people are safe 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 sash and he said that the sash that he was taking belonged to. well the embalmed body of hugo chavez will rest on public display in a glass crystal casket acting president nicolas maduro said his for his people to always have him journalist eric margolis he's been writing extensively on venezuela says there are no presidential candidates who have

a charisma like chavez did he is an anti charisma at it compared to come on down 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 and experience tells us that sympathy is a very important factor in elections when leaders guy who woke up realize 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 a small state in his loyalties are suspect by some as well. the

opposition needs a stronger candidate right now we don't have. leaders from around the globe thousands of venezuelan 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 tone emerging from washington as ati's gan h.p.n. reports. communities 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. this allowed us to restore faith in latin america region so that a profound transformation in the region can be carried out this will be only guards at the empire will no doubt be happy and celebrating the new 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 herald it 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 us leftist leaders in south america good riddance to this dictator in the media a slew of hundreds embarked on a search for new opportunities that might now be available for the u.s. in venice well. 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 survey's perhaps the largest reserves of oil in the world from the u.s. point of view this has enormous potential implications because venezuela that moves away from chavez is foreign policy means

a venezuela that's what's welcoming to iran less friendly to russia less friendly to castro's. less friendly to left wing regimes around the hemisphere which is financed in their campaigns in another aspect 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 then a lot there 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 and they got along just fine it was really only with george bush then when things really were turned sour and especially after the coup attempt within forty eight hours of the start of the cool with the help of the military and vast popular support chavis returned to power by 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 years after the chalice it expressed his 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 for latin america washington continues to deal with the region using the same old tactics the hostility could be put in washington i'm going to shut down. another verdict sparking another riot in egypt saturday's court ruling to uphold twenty one death sentences over the portside stadium killings lead to a further round of violent clashes the death penalties were for last year's deadly football riots during a match between car and port side based clubs another five life terms were also handed down the announcement sparking unrest in both cities three people died in ensuring clashes in the capital with angry crowds torching police and football

federation buildings huge crowds also vented their frustration import side which had already seeing protests leading up to the verdict well truth is following developments for our. court so i gutted 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 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 it won't help us at all the ports are you doctor says 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. the police has been high since last year's riots and when the military placed them on the city's 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 will serve nice sentences residents here say that the army will not protect them as the local authorities bowed to pressure from the capital at a funeral for protesters killed during the recent clashes and the spicy founder of the green eagles culture is put 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 were widespread across the country now there is a risk of everyone being racist towards portside 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 military true for r t puts it. is monitoring the situation in egypt on twitter so you can follow him for the latest details on what is happening on the ground. meanwhile two senior police

officials also received fifteen year sentences in the latest ruling while seven others walked free is that which caused much of the public outcry political activists many good police that some interior ministry officials are actually the troublemakers the results are definitely not satisfactory not just for the football fans the ultras but for the entire nation seventy eight young people got killed and yet two of the ministry of interior officials are the ones on trial and president morsi had a couple of months ago appointed a fact finding committee that implicates fifty six other members of the ministry of interior this report was not taken into consideration at court and only two of those officials were scapegoats hence the issue escalates on the streets more because this is nothing but a political fiasco rather than. a real court proceedings the people want is

a fair trial for those who are. implicated not those who actually killed the people with their own hands but those who were behind them supporting them financing them and giving them the fun thirds of the two murders because they continue to be on the streets in key. places such as the ministry of interior the national security and some of them are in the intelligence community the president needs to take very severe measures radical measures in cleansing the state institutions of the lowest to the mubarak's he's not been doing so on the contrary he's promoted some of them he's trying to co-opt them and it's not working and it's only blowing in his face and he needs to present the real guarantees for the political process to resume fairly.

we've more stories ahead for you including the bolshoi. in custody for planning an attack on his boss which he claims was more violent than expected also coming up for and on in his head to the polls on whether to remain a british rule territory with argentina viewing it as i mean this. will bring in the opinion of the u.k. and pay off to this bright. least be cool language. programs and documentaries in arabic it's all here on. reporting from the world talks about six of the r.p. interviews intriguing stories for you. in trying. to find out more visit.

more news today violence is once again flared up. and these are the images cold world has been seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations are the day. 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 post saying it has no validity of british m.p. george galloway greece saying it's high time for the u.k. to give up its imperial rhetoric these are settlers the majority of them were not born on the falklands they have been said by the british to establish a colonial claim and the days of that belong in the eighteenth maybe even mid nineteenth centuries not in the twenty first so i'm afraid the sovereignty does not lie with the people of the falkland islands because well most of them are british and the british cannot dictate what happens tens of thousands of kilometers away in the south atlantic those days are long gone but britain beating its chest in the echo of its former imperial past just simply refuses to do it and that's

unacceptable i didn't danger's 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. bolshoi theater ballet dancer is facing up to twelve years in prison for masterminding an attack on his boss' power to me is in custody along with two others involved in the assault charge with inflicting grievous bodily harm the artistic director of the bolshoi theatre sergei filin he 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. claimed he did order the a soulful though he didn't intend it to be an acid attack is thought he'd had a number of disagreements with his boss while his girlfriend

a ballerina complained about being rejected for leading roles artes and martin mandy's told my colleague matt fraser about the ugliest side of the artistic world . in the front of the fifth 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 dancers they were bitter about their faded career it's not an easy world to be in obviously 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 there but other kind of scandals what is this it's called drama for a reason if a year ago stravinsky's rite of spring was postponed i mean fact one of the dances

that. she was actually said that she was threatened by various people and she she actually went over to her 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 cloud that's absolutely what it's like with the black swan film of the portman it really highlights the you know the extremities and the tensions and especially with the with the management with the hiring in the firing its everyday life it's sometimes it can seem like a wonderful place to work but they reality is somewhat different. on a collision course in space a small russian spacecraft made a big bang after that by remnants of a decommissioned chinese satellite marking the second such collision in history we

report on the cosmic garbage odyssey on our website also ninety seven g.'s history may not be carved in stone after all a new theory makes the ventilation we suggest. the prehistoric monument was originally a graveyard and a venue for mass celebrations that unified the whole of prehistoric britain can discover more at our take dot com. syrian rebels have released twenty one un peacekeepers after holding him 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 paulus lee reports the hostage crisis highlights concerns over radical elements in syrian opposition groups who could be benefiting from western and arab states support. the fleas keep has 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 slicer in the area now the un 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 on 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 after 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 security 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 rebels 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 of the full enough support to the opposition which is demanding that the west start openly arming them tookey in the gulf states already allegedly arming the rebels and have been doing so for the past two years of the conflict sewn into some of today's world news now the italian and greek ministries of foreign affairs both believe that nigerian extremists have indeed murdered its seven foreign hostages kidnapped recently in the north of the country according to the group's website the killings were in retaliation to a joint british nigerian military attempt to reclaim the prisoners the seven foreign workers from the u.k. greece lebanon and the philippines are all employees of the track oh a lebanese construction group working in the region. protesters now as a bit young have been caught in an onslaught of rubber bullets and morsi cannons fired by police as they marched against deadly hazing army the protesters one of

many sparked by the sudden death of a soldier in january human rights groups he's 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 and cats are the group officially suspended discussions over a year ago calling american statement shaky and erratic the afghan government has been pushing for the taliban to return to the negotiating table in an attempt to pacify mounting tensions before u.s. nato troops pull out twenty four saying on saturday two suicide bombs went off is the new american defense secretary arrived in kabul to meet government officials. these crowds in japan are marching against atomic power on the eve of the tsunami disaster the second anniversary tens of thousands turned out more than one hundred fifty nationwide events demanding that japan turns its back on nuclear power that

we tidal wave and tremors which struck japan in twenty eleven killed over fifteen thousand people and brought the fukushima power plant to a devastating whole. this week china open this annual national people's congress in beijing this year's gathering is seen as more important than most as it will see the ushering in of the country's leaders for the next five years on the list of priorities economic growth along with the pushing through of a large increase in defense spending china expert professor steve sang from notting university says the new leaders focus on the military is because of washington's policy in the region the new chinese president xi jinping is a much more self confident assertive and nationalistic persecute their call. likely to see a china much more assertive in the next ten years in terms of what is described as the american pivot back to asia the chinese sees these as

a major change in american policy that is directed against china as a less than friendly act and therefore the chinese are trying to. undermine american rebalancing and it is also the reasons for the double digit increase in chartres military spending coming up in a minute we will take you to brussels the have a look at the political dark side of the capitol. 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 when we speak trust me it is very easy to butcher the pronunciation of someplace on earth like coursed a load of all 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's 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 so 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.

people don't understand what the european union is they don't understand how it's governed they don't know who the people who are running it but they know that they would choose the people and so. when they see the results that less than perfect they say who do we blame and they don't know who to blame because they don't know who these people are. when i started out as a young environmental activist i have no idea.