the 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 are questions man over foreign influence in the oil rich nation following the death of its long time president hugo chavez. football for violent clashes in gulf egypt after the courts confirmed death sentences and announced new penalties for participants in last year's deadly football riot the growing unrest highlighting concerns over military rule in the country. and the ballet dancer from the bolshoi theatre is facing twelve years behind bars for planning an attack which left his boss nearly blinded r.t. goes behind the scenes to examine the dark side of life in the spotlight.

hello welcome good to have you company watching r.t. coming to you 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 cheese 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 artie's 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 . who have called the swearing in. hugo chavez

personally appointed. the man that he wanted to succeed him and of course hugo chavez the late president has immense popularity and the russian f.m. has 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 elections and he hopes that all countries around the world again referring to the fact that being many outside powers he 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 full of an 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 chavez his policies to continue we will respect the choice of the venezuelan people i hope all the countries that have relations with venezuela do the same 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 chance is with chavez and 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 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 it's for his people to always have him to ration join popular support with many hoping he can preserve chavez's reagan see he also has

a good chance of becoming next president despite being up against the u.s. backed opposition that is according to political analyst adrian. nicolas maduro will be official list candidate and his stance of certainly stands a very good chance for reelection especially with the country's emotional state right now but travis had huge enemies within women and more important outside of venezuela so unfortunately the united states in the first instance of all countries such as israel and other countries in the west in western europe will do all they can to support the opposition candidate for them of release rather than speak and we could have. came in second in the presidential elections and who would definitely have all the financial political media or. of how structures against mr motherhood as the child was counted. meanwhile leaders from around the globe and thousands of venezuela mourners gathered to pay their respects to the

late commandante on friday but while there was great on the streets of caracas there was a different time and the aging from washington. and i 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. chavis allowed us to restore faith in latin america regions 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 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 in 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 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 in 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 u.s. 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 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 but during that short period when he was deposed some in the us hurried to celebrate the new york times for example ran this article venezuelan democracy is no longer threatened by would be dictator caracas name provides fifteen percent of american oil imports and with signs of policies could provide more for years after the coup chavez said expressed his anger at the bush administration in a variety of fiery metaphors yet as to who is 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 check out. another verdict sparking another riot in egypt saturday's court ruling to a poll 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 side by clubs another five life terms were also handed down with the announcement sparking an rest in both cities three people died in ensuring clashes in the capital with angry crowds torching police and football federation buildings us crowds also vented their frustration and portside which had already seen protests leading up to the verdict of altruism following developments . court so i got to the 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 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 draw of the police it won't help us at all the ports are you know. but theirs are supposed to be in the streets 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 minute

you place 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 seven 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 recent clashes on the spicy sound of the green eagles ultras put saeed's football fan club says the police used excessive force against local demonstrators treating them worse than my counterparts in cairo he believes the death sentences are for the proof the city is being targeted towards 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 alley old tribes or 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 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 put saeed. bell is monitoring the situation in egypt on twitter so you can follow her for the latest details on what is happening on the ground remarked to senior police officials also received fifteen year sentences in that latest ruling while certain others walk free that which caused much of the public outcry political activists are good believes 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 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 where the people want is a fair trial for our 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 plan those are 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 loyalists to the mubarak's he's not been doing so on the country 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 that we've got in t's for the political process to resume fairly. all stories ahead for you here not saying pleading the bolshoi theatre. in custody for planning an attack on his boss which he claims was more violent than expected also coming up. to the polls to vote on whether to remain

a british rule territory with argentina viewing it as. we'll bring you the opinion page this spring. choose your language. of choice make it with. someone. choose the consensus you can. choose to get to. choose the stories to. choose the access to.

again the people of the falkland islands are holding a two day referendum on whether to remain a british overseas territory hoping for international backing in its dispute over the audience with argentina should the majority say yes what is aries opposes the power saying it has no. say the u.k.

claims are rooted in its colonial past and are. these are settlers the majority of them were not born on the falklands they have been sent there by the british to establish a colonial claim in the days of the 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 most of them are british and british can not dictate what happens tens of thousands of kilometers away in the south atlantic those days are long gone but britain beating its jest in the echo of its former imperial past just simply refuses to do it and that's not acceptable 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 a poll showing if it's a ballet dancer is facing up to twelve years in prison for masterminding an attack on his boss pavel dmitrichenko is in custody along with two others involved in the insult charged with inflicting grievous bodily harm the artistic director of the bolshoi ballet sergei filin was nearly blinded after having acid splashed in his face in moscow in january he's now in the gang extensive treatment in germany well at the pretrial hearing earlier this week pavel dmitrichenko claimed he did order to sell to though he did not 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 some leading role artie's entertainment reporter martin andrews told my colleague match fraser about the ugliest side of the artistic world. in the front of the theater 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 obviously the rivalries between the companies with the moscow 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 fraught 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's 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 cloud that's absolutely what it's like with the black swan film nothing 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 it's everyday life and 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 rock by remnants of a decommissioned chinese satellite marking the second such space collision in history we report on the cosmic garbage odyssey on our website also online for you stonehenge is history may not be carved in stone

a new theory makes the revolutionary suggestion that the prehistoric monument was originally a graveyard and a venue for mass celebrations that unified the whole of prehistoric britain you can discover more at r.t. dot com. 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 state 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 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 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 gets 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 steering team 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 beefing up support to the opposition which is demanding that the west stop openly arming

them turkey in the gulf states already allegedly arming the rebels and have been doing so for the past two years of the conflict. so into some of today's world news now the italian and greek ministries of foreign affairs both believe that nigerian extremists have indeed murdered 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 italy lebanon and the philippines are all employees of the track oh a lebanese construction group working in the region. protest is another have been caught in an onslaught of rubber bullets and water cannons fired by police as they marched against their belief in the army the protest is one of many sparked by the sudden death of a soldier in january defense ministry initially announced a heart attack was the cause of death before eventually investigations or other

soldiers have been arrested. the afghan president hamid karzai has accused the us of colluding with the taliban in secret talks in 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 in twenty fourteen on saturday two suicide bombs went off as the new american defense secretary arrived in kabul to meet government officials. and crowds gathered across japan to march against atomic power on sunday the of the tsunami disaster the second anniversary tens of thousands turned out at more than one hundred fifty nationwide events demanding that japan turns its back on nuclear power the deadly tidal wave and tremors which struck japan in twenty eleven killed

over fifteen thousand people and caused a meltdown at the fukushima power plant releasing radioactive materials. coming up we'll take you to proselytise to have a look at the political dark side of the capitol. did any of you seen 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're 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 wearing a rainbow wig and thawing while fighting for your rights doesn't seem to send the right message but that's just my opinion. every six months there were some of us on that and every six months that your team it's just a few days before. location and they were kept confidential the booking was made two years and. left behind was a clear message to the following new summit on the heads of governments a few days later. the single market the

monetary union the infrastructure projects the 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 about this i can have all these different interviews but i really want to see the pieces of paper and keith 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 fact but started the process of the single market. the crux of the .