there is news of the week's top stories from r.t. inheriting the revolution a new venezuelan leader will be chosen next month while questions mount over foreign influence in the oil rich nation following the death of its longtime president hugo chavez. football for violent clashes in gulf region called confirmed death sentences and announced new penalties for participants in last year's deadly football riots with the growing unrest highlighting concerns that over military rule in the country. a ballet dancer from the bolshoi theater 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 i'm kevin zero in this is the weekly live from moscow with us if you just joined us it's a roundup of the big stories of the last seven days and first venezuela has set a date now to pick the successor to the late president chavez who died from a heart attack after a two year battle with cancer and choose state election will take place on april the fourteenth and is set to determine whether his revolutionary vision will live on there's a feeling for marty's ruptly video agencies closely watching the political situation right now in caracas. vice president nicolas maduro sworn in as the president and elections take place some voices in the opposition notably the man who is the main opposition. who have called the swearing in. for 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 that has said that he hopes that chavez's heritage 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 there has been 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 chavez his policies to continue we will respect the choice of the venezuelan people all of the countries that have relations with venezuela. 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 that my daughter the people are safe when he was sworn in in the national assembly that were 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 in bone body of which i will rest on public display in a glass crystal casket 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 grief on the streets of caracas there was a different tone emerging from washington is not he's going to change you can reports now. 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. to us 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 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 us recklessly meddling in the affairs of the region for years washington had seen many of those countries as its outposts have to 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 you look 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 there 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 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 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 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 it we change using the same old tactics the hostility could be playing in washington i'm kind of chicken. well washington may be hoping the death of its most vocal critic in latin america the moon resulted in an increase of its influence but professedly

gold think is solace is an expert on the region told us the us we better off keeping a low profile right now during the election campaign. washington that would be we will advise 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 us 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 ambassador 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. another verdict another riot sparking off in egypt saturday's call ruling to uphold twenty one death sentences over the prudes side stadium killings led to a further round of violent clashes the death penalty's before last year's deadly football riots. a match between carbon poured side based clubs another five life terms are also handed down with the announcement sparking an outcry on both sides of the city three people died in the ensuing clashes in the capital where angry crowds torched police and football federation buildings destroyed his already been struggling to maintain security in port side which had seen a week of deadly violence leading up to the verdict the army is now taken over responsibility for security from the police there with at least seven people killed during that bout of unrest belt truce following developments on r.t. . 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 in this in the middle the government has got an army 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 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 would place 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 or seven licenses 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 and the spicy sound 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 offer the 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 wide. fred

across the country now there is a risk of everyone being racist towards port saïd 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 ducking saying they were 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. more true situation in egypt on twitter as well you can follow her for the latest details on what's happening on the ground of course now to senior police officials also receive fifteen year sentences in that latest ruling while seven others walk free indeed because much of the public outcry about the political activist within the g.b. told me 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. court proceedings where the people want is a fair trial 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 found 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 being 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. coming up at r t the bolshoi ballet soloist in custody for plotting an attack on his boss which he claims was more violent than expected we follow that up for you also coming up to. his head to the polls to vote on whether to remain a british rule territory with argentina viewing it as

a meaningless publicist east expert opinion but from u.k.i.p. right after this break. as i was the envy of embryos. he never put his trust in anyone and rightly so. his body was found on the floor of his huge. channels. did he die of natural causes. the mystery of stones. on a documentary. least be cool language. programs or documentaries in arabic it's all here on. reporting from the world talks about six of the yard p. interviews intriguing story are you. trying.

to find out more visit arabic. again watching r t live from moscow and other people filtered on and holding a two day referendum on whether to remain a british overseas. territory the u. case hoping for international backing in its dispute with the islands with argentina should the majority say yes what is are is opposes the poles saying no it's got no validity but the champagne george galloway agrees saying the u.k. claims are rooted in its colonial past and are dated 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 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 most of them are british and 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 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. george galloway of all shows theater ballet dancer is facing up to twelve years in prison for masterminding an attack on his boss. in custody today along with two others involved in the assault charged with inflicting grievous bodily harm the artistic director of the bolshoi ballet sergei filin was nearly blinded after he had acid specially his face here in moscow back in january and was undergoing extensive treatment in germany at the pretrial hearing earlier this week purple to me to chen complained that he did order the u.s. soldier the eases he didn't intend it to be an acid attack it's thought he had a number of disagreements with his boss while his girlfriend a ballerina complained about being rejected for the leading roles artie's entertainment reporter martin andrews in the week told my colleague my treads are about the ugliest side of the artistic world. in 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 of management who were dancers they were bitter about their faded career it's not an easy world to be in and 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 but there been other kind of scandals where 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 the thing 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 sometimes it can seem like a wonderful place to work but they reality is somewhat different. well tensions are up in space as well we're reporting soon about a collision course a small russian spacecraft made a big bang off it was struck by rebels and decommissioned chinese satellite marking the session the second such space collision in history we got a report of a cosmic garbage odyssey live on our web site for to check that one up some live running now and also to stonehenge is history may not be carved in stone now it seems a new theory makes the revolutionary suggestion that the prehistoric monument was originally a graveyard venue for mass celebrations that in its day unify the whole of

prehistoric britain you want to find out more about that. very many of the stories about. 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 our teams paula sleeper found out 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 fighting 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 young 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 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 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 and the gulf states already allegedly arming the rebels and have been doing so for the past two years of the conflict. bring you up to speed now on some

of today's top world news stories first greek british and italian authorities now all say they believe seven international hostages being held in nigeria have been killed they were kidnapped kidnapped by the and sorry extremist group in the north of the country last month workers from the u.k. greece italy lebanon and the philippines were allegedly killed in retaliation to a joint british nigerian military term to rescue the prisoners william hague the british foreign minister has condemned the deaths as cold blooded murder. protesters in azerbaijan of being caught in an onslaught of rubber bullets and water cannons fired by police as they marched against deadly hazing in the army a protest is one of many sparked by the sudden death of a soldier back in january the fence from the st lucia the heart attack was the cause of death before eventually the best to go should be so peaceful since diversity. the afghan president hamid karzai has accused the u.s. of colluding with the taliban in secret talks in qatar the group of fisheries

suspended discussions over a year ago calling american statements shaky and erratic the afghan government's 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. the crowds gathered across japan to march against atomic power on sunday the evil of the tsunami disaster is second anniversary tens of thousands turned more than one hundred fifty nationwide events demanding that japan turns its back on nuclear power a deadly tidal wave and tremors which structure pan in twenty eleven killed over fifteen thousand people there and caused a meltdown at the fukushima nuclear power plant releasing radioactive materials. the u.s. rubbish claims this last week that it was behind february drone strikes in pakistan that killed up to nine people phantom attacks are a problem because it means people are. being killed but no one knows who to blame

this comes as not a tally a pilot told controllers on tuesday that he spotted quote a mysterious unmanned aircraft as he was flying towards new york's j.f.k. airport where globalization expert mark mason thinks the increasing availability of drones is going to make their misuse even greater. the report was made at this point is the information's not available as to it was it a model airplane was it a surveillance drone it was reported to be relatively small three four five six feet didn't really took we small in terms of drones so at this point we don't have the information but what we do know with certainty is that drones the curate's any recording to be billable not only to governments but to individuals and they will diversify in terms of their innocent knows size are going to be made u.s. air force has already announced it's going to be making drones that are the size of

an intercept that can assassinate people so these this technology is here. away every since now investigating mysterious death of the most powerful soviet leader josef stalin it's our next program here in moscow now it's just after twenty seven minutes past nine. did any of you seen darth vader as 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 understand that 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 they're so satisfied with themselves and their costumes and silly gimmicks but if your protest is actually aimed at people in power then how is it going to care 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. sixty years ago there was only one person who could write a delta of the kremlin special gate cis one one five soviet limousine he had

any young girl would envy. this come belongs to the. joseph stalin driving home from work was no simple affair for the leader stalin used to sit on a special converted seat protected by guards on each side he trusted no one. the soviet leader strictly instructed the driver which way to go in the car would often turn abruptly from the white when he was on to moscow's side streets weaving along and confusing. he was ready to kill people and he did kill them and if he could do it they could also act this way and that scared him to death. stalin's limousine eventually reached a narrow and strictly guarded highway. many years ago nobody was allowed here local residents had no clue facility known only.