american sporting calendar is drawing ever closer the new england patriots aiming to avenge a two thousand and seven super bowl loss to the new york giants which ruined their perfect season even sikorsky looks now at what's at stake in sunday's american football finale. just about every player and coach in the national football league would trade all of their rewards in accolades for a chance to hold of the lombardi trophy even once the patriots in the giants both live today during the last decade another victory for either club would see the careers of its key contributors skyrocket into new territory the patriots tom brady is one of the n.f.l.'s biggest game three times and the quarterback could join greats terry bradshaw and his own idol joe montana as the only signal callers with four titles while bill belichick could become only the second head coach ever to win as many rings signed the legendary steeler chuck noll. new england's mastermind

understands the significance of each moment full well having been to the big dance many times as an assistant and then the lead coach. assistant coach. special that's what you work for all year call it february march from the start put your team together and training camp and all the meetings and eleven practices here whatever it is but it's you know it's a long haul able to get here is what you work for so it's a great experience each one is different they're all special bellatrix counterpart tom corfu and i said i'm more rocky to new or going from job uncertainty during the two thousand and seven season to the top of the world after the last super bowl meeting between the two teams this year shaped up in similar fashion with the giants catching fire late in the season to seal a playoff spot and then stomping through the postseason coffman could now go from the shame of new york to the hall of fame to the second title i simply walked into our team and said look we've got two games to go we've got to win two games if we

do that we determine our own fate we get to the playoffs and we could be the champions of the season from really from that point it has been one single elimination game after another players of responded very very well eli manning has been in the shadow of his older brother peyton is entire career despite both quarterbacks having one super bowl title apiece the family landscape could shift dramatically if you i was the second a great redemption story to little brothers world wide in the making as for sunday's game plans the giants will likely bet on their defensive line to wreak havoc and force brady a rush through the make poor decisions that front for attack proved the winning strategy four years ago and was also effective when the giants beat their upcoming opponents in the regular season. the patriots do feature one of the league's best on fence of winds though and battles in the trenches could be the match ups to

watch new york receivers a key mix mario manningham and victor cruz also figure to give the patriots shaky pass defense a major fit the top story out of the patriots camp is the status of one of their time playmakers rob growing koski the record setting tight end has been nursing an ankle injury and a less than fully fit grown koski would mean enormous relief for the giants so far linebackers and defensive backs so a grudge rematch for the ages with several legacies a stake in the forty six addition of america's biggest day gorske r.t. . ok we stay stateside to basketball where this week so the bottle of two of the n.b.a. western conference is leading lights miami winning not protect our contest philadelphia a close old country and this right thruout the first time of the heat going in at the break four in front leading fifty one forty seven even closer in the third quarter with the squads netting sixteen points of pace

a significant breakthrough coming in the final period miami certainly not messing around late on storing the seventy six years by sixteen points to dwayne wade and le bron james the main man for the visitors finishing with twenty six and nineteen points respectively in one thousand nine hundred seventy nine victory meaning the heat of smush philadelphia's four game winning streak for tonight. after more than three years sober texas rangers outfielder josh hamilton has admitted he's relapsed that baseball star miss both the two thousand and four and five seasons because of drug and alcohol abuse the thirty year old stating this week he had quote three or four drinks after a weak moment. it was wrong. you know needed to be in a different place. to be response more that moment. i was not responsible. and. those actions are. heard

a lot of people are very close to. the alter shortening on a spanish winning the volvo ocean race for the first time telefonica blitzing their way to the third stage on saturday becoming the first team to win the opening three legs since nineteen ninety skipper i care martinez and his crew best thing the five other teams in the twelve day journey from the mall deaves to the chinese port of sania the leg starting from the maltese after the race was disrupted to to fear pirates might attack in the indian ocean friend squad group obama pushed telefonica all the way but it was despondent who claimed the maximum twenty four points to remain top of the overall standings legs for kicks off in march eighth fifty two hundred nautical mile stretch from sun year to all. and finally russia's greco-roman on freestyle wrestlers have never been shy and having a limp dick silverware to the team's coffers dug a stunning is the country's undisputed center of the sport without plates from all

over the world using the north caucuses region us home in the run up to major international competitions remind us more. a wrestler's day in dagestan begins at around eight am with a run up the targets our mountain this traditions been going since soviet times and is a vital ingredient in the recipe for success that continues distinguished athletes from this small region on the international freestyle wrestling a reno i just want to live with over the last ten years dagestan's become a world center for wrestling with athletes from all over russia coming in to practice some of the best sparring partners in the world in the last three olympics are wrestlers of one six gold medals and we have potential for more as around thirty thousand children actively practicing freestyle wrestling held by more than eight hundred coaches. wrestling has become a noted export from dagestan just like brazil with its exceptional football players

two thousand and eight olympic champion shaheen is a native of the i guess don but ended up representing turkey and happens to be just one of many locals who went looking for a shot at glory in countries other than russia. first i did not even think of performing for another country but everything changed after my jaw was broken and i lost my place on the russian team a short while later i struck a deal with a turkish club and began to compete after i defeated all of my turkish opponents in the sixty six k. class they decided that i could perform for the turkish national team. uncle is stuck here by haro is the coach of the turkish national team who are also in dagestan training alongside other countries for the upcoming summer games in london . and. far enough that skin immense experience here every year they come from korea mongolia and even cuba dagestan has a great school of wrestling also only have the olympic training center but in any

wrestling center here even the americans would come here they'd videotape everything and then leave. for the wonder. games just around the corner some things finest are right here in russia's republic of dagestan the local school is considered to be one of the best in the world with four national things currently gearing up for the london olympics this summer. a lot of the world's top wrestlers know each other's strengths and weaknesses very well and that's in large part thanks to a combined preparation program offered here in dagestan the fact that athletes know the condition of their opponents before the actual competition is by no means a disadvantage for the russians as the country's olympic heroes try to pass on their fine wrestling traditions around the world. we should not lose what ancestors have left for us freestyle wrestling means a family where you can always find understanding and assistance if we lose those

elements of our culture then our own people will not forgive us for preserving those to dish and. over the last twenty years or so the number of the limbic medals won by russian freestyle wrestlers has been on the up and the republic of dagestan was instrumental in that success on call sort of artsy. russia's republic of dagestan. not wraps up the weather sport i should say for this hour the weather is next that's what i meant to say. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tired heart is a big picture. breaking

news on our t.v. russia and china vetoed the u.n. security council's resolution on syria voting in new york this is live pictures you're looking at it from the security council chambers at the u.n. . more than two hundred thousand people braved russia's bitter subzero cold to ensure their views on national politics are heard. we've seen people out on the streets demanding free elections in support of the code machine government join me for more than a few moments. europeans

demand a free internet as people flood the streets in protest against an anti-piracy act being signed it crossed the continent. nine pm in moscow i mad trezeguet good to have you with us here on r t as we deliver our breaking news russia and china having veto the u.n. security council resolution on syria we're going to get a little later an update from marty's a marine important in new york but first we go to our guest who is standing by the security council meeting comes amid reports of syria from syria of a new crackdown in the city of homes with hundreds reportedly killed for more on this i'm joined by dr ali mohamed editor in chief of the syria tribune website who joins us from dubai thanks for joining us so

a veto has been placed on the resolution what happens next. well a the nations that claimed this resolution will not be in preparation for any military action are now required to prove what they claim the russians were not happy the chinese were not happy about that is of the ija board it and that is something that can solve the problem initiated by the russian government still holds talks between the between the different bike is in syria and i think it is the up to the to those measures to prove that they want the welfare for syria and that and they want this year and people to live in prosperity and therefore they have to push for accepting this negotiation. that activists in syria claim this is the worst of violence since the anti-government protests started damascus says the killings were carried out by terrorists seeking to influence the un's decision which do you think it is. well it is still it's

a bit early to tell which one it is but i think that works not believing the syrian army waited ten months and then just the night before the u.n. security council meeting it decided to start bombarding homes this too which in homs had been difficult for the syrian. regime supporters for such a long time and i don't see why the army would choose such critical timing to just start it's a vicious cracked down and this thrive the key word is what you say it's the art of only cleans and just two weeks ago we had the arab league observers who could have gone there and investigated but unfortunately they were pulled down a total good reason and therefore there are only claims from this i. was it's claims from their side we cannot treat it with what's going on but i don't think that the army what's really mean it's it's not like the syrian army this is number one and claims like that happened before in. just

a short while in there and the opposition was not able to prove any of these claims over the past and months thanks very much for your insight and perspective we're going to keep talking with you in a little bit but first i'm going to step away now so we can talk with our correspondent in new york marina portnoy who is standing by at the u.n. so moscow has made its position very clear and they have voted against this resolution marina also with china tell us more about this. that's right that's right it took about four minutes after the meeting finally began where the head of this security council how many countries support the draft resolution and how many don't support it and that's when russia and china cast their veto once again this was a repeat circumstance we saw this happen back in october now russia has been saying all week long and raising its concerns over the draft text that was put together on the resolution of syria and russian foreign minister sergei lavrov said that russia

did make some amendments wanted some amendments to be made to this draft resolution being pushed by the west and the arab league and according to russian foreign minister sergei lavrov they were not excessive measures he said that a u.n. resolution on syria would be possible if a constructive approach would be taken now while the text of this resolution over the week has softened a bit to meet russia's demands such as dropping a push for an arms embargo that would still language in the text that according to russian officials could have been interpreted as regime change and pushing for foreign intervention the term consider further measures still in this resolution now russian foreign minister sergei lavrov believes that internal conflicts in sovereign states should not be dealt with this in this way such as using the security council as a tool to intervene in in conflicts on the contrary russia's position on china's

position and other countries believe that the security council should try to be. a peaceful approach not taking sides. also addressed his concerns his specific concerns about the draft resolution saying that it's very one sided it does not indicate that the opposition groups are using arms and also contributing to the violence he made his statement while attending a security conference in munich let's take a listen. to music through. condemnation of the government is completely much the mission of the groups for the intimidation against the state institutions. and their governments received. no demand so. groups except the one of us about the demons the government the much more specific. russia's foreign minister will be i'm heading to

a damascus on tuesday to meet with syrian president bashar al assad in the meantime u.s. president barack obama did issue a statement this morning at the end of the statement he said that it's time for the assad government to go on paraphrasing what he said because it was a page long statement but basically the u.s. is clearly calling for regime change we heard and saw those similar calls being made right before the military intervention took place in libya when the u.s. president said it's time for could duffey to go so clearly this is a narrative that is being repeated but it's a narrative that russia and china are not going along with. all right artie's marine important ally from the united nations with that report thanks for that update. more than two hundred thousand people came onto the streets of moscow on saturday for

a day of protest the largest seen in the capital so far one group was demanding pharaoh actions others rally to support the current leadership our correspondent peter all of our saw both gatherings he reports. well saturday was a day of demonstrations here in the russian capital we saw a march and a rally by opposition supporters a large group of them meeting in the center of the city and marching here to block my a square which block my has really become the central focus point for opposition protesters here in moscow this is the second time that opposition protesters have taken to beloved mayor square for fewer the this time than last but of course the the weather a big deciding factor in cripplingly mo temperatures here in the russian capital in fact the organizers of the protest here shortened the events that were going to be happening just to make it more comfortable for people who had come out in the cold minus twenty times on saturday here in moscow. so they came out to to voice their

opinions you know better than if you were i came here because i'm tired of the government which doesn't do when it promises lies and wants this to carry on for years if they. change their elections and normal life you know it was because you might go through and wanted to come here and and here are some six now talk about some of those groups that we've seen come here they really come from all across the russian political straw answer we've seen far right groups far left groups and everybody in between. all coming out coming here to pull off the square to demonstrate we didn't hear from. the the presidential candidate the independent presidential candidate because he's drawn a lot of support from some of the groups that have come here to protest he said he would attend but he wouldn't give

a speech this wasn't the only demonstration there was taking place on saturday there's also being gatherings of people who are in favor of the government pro-government supporters and. who been campaigning saying that they want a revolution in russia using the example of the the orange revolution in ukraine in the chaos which country found itself in after saying that they don't need not in russia they were stability and not a revolution saying that russia it had its times of instability and they didn't want to return to the dark days of the ninety's now the good news for everybody concerned is just how peacefully everything is being carried off on saturday but the opposition and the pro-government protests going off well relative you without a hitch however one of the pro putin rallies we did see the leader of that rally taken into custody by police now this is because it was a sanctioned rally and it was sanctioned to have

a certain amount of people the amount of people that turned up far exceeded that we saw a lot of police and seized they did say say protesters must remain within the law and they did do that and everything going off very peacefully is stuff today becomes the day of demonstrations. from our perspective on this i'm joined by martin mccauley an expert on russia at the university of london so you've been closely monitoring these protests what's your view of today's rallies. very interesting if you like politics come alive you get you get groups from the far right you could only because you could comment on the left even left the communist liberal and so on. and that is a good sign. they all want to attack you data point of view but nobody wants revolution except perhaps here only because what the vast majority want is a better standard of living and to participate in how the country develops they would like to have a say in the course and direction that russia takes in the near future but may's

gatherings been the largest so far with the presidential election just around the corner new think we're likely to see even more people rallying in the days to come . well the. very large rallies promised for the eleventh of march in other words a week after the presidential election and presumably that would be larger than this one the result of the election of course we are very very important because what these demonstrators want is if you like a clean election an absence of fraud and so on and it's up to the authorities to ensure that there would be cameras there and so on and therefore it's probably will be a very clearly election but what is important is that it seemed to be fair and that these people have no cause to claim that the election on the fourth of march with the president vladimir putin wins of the first round of that has to be seen to be fair and to be clean otherwise would be tremendous protests on the eleventh of

february on the eleventh of march. now the opposition wants and says they're calling for an honest election with thousands of these webcams being installed at every polling station do you think that answers their demands. that's part of it because stalin month said that doesn't matter doesn't matter how you vote it depends on the person who comes to the votes therefore what is needed is in fact an independent monitoring of. a country and as the votes are brought in and so on so they supervised and so people can actually see that the election count is in fact fair and it's not fraudulent that's very very important. now we say the opposition in normally when we refer to them we refer to kind of this gallery of usual suspects the communist party the l.d.p. are the yabloko party and there's a dark horse candidate and do you think any of them is capable of becoming russia's next viable leader. nobody yet has emerged because if you look at the protest you

have the the league of voters who claims the don't want to work with any politician and then you have the citizens of other groups and so on and they are like minded people and so on the opposition will not come together maybe something russian maybe something russian that they don't want because they don't want to. arrive at a single candidate the only way they're going to defeat. it in the for the most just of a single candidate who is accepted by the whole opposition and there's no likelihood of this it looks as if not these are gone that the company is going to do would come up as he always does in the. make up. third or fourth and so on let me go to broker of would bring up the rest because he is there really only to appeal to the middle class voters. all right russia expert at university of london martin mccauley thanks for your insights.

we're going to return to our breaking news this hour russia and china vetoing the u.n. security council resolution on syria and we're going to go back to the guest that we had at the top of the hour dr ali mohamed editor in chief of the syria tribune website discussing the implications of this vote. thanks for staying with us here again so russia says the current draft includes measures against president president assad's government but not against the armed opposition groups in the country why do you think of western countries are falling short of condemning both sides in this conflict. well i think it's difficult to try to guess why you don't believe they are working for the best interest of the syrian people and the libyan example if it hasn't been so long ago the league claim to do were to stand by the libyan people but it turned out that they were supporting one. side that was actually armed and under

a billion against the rest of the people and the same is happening in syria. this question is a very important one that there's a call for. talks why not support this call the clean their president asad lost legitimacy of birth. and months ago a very important service that was done by qatar foundation qatar foundation on which you think the words cut or the show that the president as i see it have the support or i mean i'm a fifty five percent of the syrians why are the glory in this fifty five percent and at the scene times to solve the problem between syrians syrians need to tuck not to support one for one side to be supported against the other. now what do you think we can expect next after this what do you think will finally see a draft that satisfies all sides. because

there was a really good chance this week to do find that their act. let's fight all night but unfortunately this was not supported by the western countries i think what's what will come next. will be decided by the actions of the syrian army in areas such as homs we all we are all waiting for what the syrian government promised to do which is. to take rid of militia man in major cities and i think now the veto that happened i think couldn't be better for the syrian regime to do that i think what would happen in the streets of starts right now or president obama has called for bashar assad to step down immediately with international arrest hardening against the assad regime do you think the security council is getting anywhere near a peaceful solution to the conflict. i don't see this happening anytime soon not not by the security council anyway but we've heard the same calls from washington and it's out.