so like the syrian people make their choice voting on a new constitution which would herald an end to fifteen years of single party. thousands of people joined hands in a massive flash mob for fair elections by trying to so-called moscow's city center a week before the country chooses its president. and thousands once again march in protest against education cuts in spain as the euro crisis takes greater hold around the med while greece breathes a sigh of relief with the final approval have a much needed bailout.

very good evening from a kevin owen here in moscow tonight it's now just a little after eleven pm moscow time you're watching the weekly roundup of the top stories from the last seven days here at r.t. and first voting has ended in syria tonight where people have been having this say on a new constitution in the most significant poll for decades it's thought turnout was high and the first results were expected on monday the opposition though refused to vote amid a backdrop of violence that's plagued the country since last march. reports from damascus. security has been tightened up and police officers are literally everywhere we've seen many of them today patrolling the streets trying to watch the situation there was issued and has indeed been boycotting the vote but not only that they've been calling actually on all people to go to strive not to go cast ballots and to take to the streets to protest against president bashar assad and to

ask for him to step down the violence is continuing in the country with reports on people dying literally every day we've been able to visit to polling stations here in the capital damascus and people some of them have said that yes we know that there are armed groups in the countries who are trying to make provocations who are trying to prevent us from voting but we hope that this referendum in this constitution as part of big package of democratic reforms promised by bashar al assad and his government will be able to bring peace and stability to our country so we are voting no most of what they say but of course the pressure from the opposition as well as from the international community is very high because they call this vote laughable. ballots instead of bullets mesta mr asians and violent protests have been rolling across syria for almost a year. the syrian government desire calling for the people to shape their future

together it's a completely new era it is good for everybody even opposition can take part it's for all amendments to the country's number one law have been among the key demands of the opposition since the uprising began it starts with eliminating baath party supremacy which have ruled the country for the last fifty years introduces a multi-party system and sets a two term limit on any future president however if these reforms a cause in controversy. jihad that his friend odin flower shop in damascus he says this new document draws a line between him and his muslim business partner. there is a big contradiction article thirty three says all equal rights number three says only move can be a president so what about the other term percent we're not here temporarily we've been living together for ages we want to be counted. now maybe ten percent of the

people this speak about this ok but maybe if we was removing this article from the new constitution the ninety percent would said well why you take this article out clashes and protests almost every day but some hope that the referendum will not only breed and you constitution it might even be able to stop the bloodshed refinishing r.t. damascus syria. one of votes is starting to be counting now and that's going to get some reaction to the latest developments in syria from beirut based political analyst or mona sharp is joining us on the line mr shelley good evening and even as a saying as the syrian votes are being counted dozens were reportedly killed again in homs and across the country what effect will this referendum really have while blood is still being shared. well. this started in syria almost a year ago with actual demands that were made clear that these were demands for

a democratic reform in syria and here we are this is here is president assad and his regime presenting a new constitution with some amendments to the origin of the constitution and i think the constitution is this basic document where all the laws should be based on the constitution and he's presenting this. knowing that the situation in syria in some parts of syria is still very tense yet thinking that perhaps if you if you if you bring it out and have a public referendum and make the people feel that they can participate in this process perhaps this will. this if if the true demands if the demand demands are truly for democratic reform then this is supposed to come things down and this is a practical feel sign from the regime and the president that he is serious

when he's talking about reforms the big question especially since the u.s. is going to say i just want to point. yes please because there is a part of the commandments has to do with the with the president and with the with the austerity of the present and the length of the president's term so and this is very important because this was an. issue and theme in other locations in the arab region where there was a lot of political tension so the president in the new constitution can only have a term for seven years and the whole point of this that at the end of the day is to bring peace is not the big question is will it be the opposition boycotted the vote there for a significant part of the population didn't even take part in that referendum therefore what does that say for the results of it. well if the objectives of the demonstrations. evolved in. some parts of syria for true democratic

reform then this is supposed to contribute to easing up the situation and creating a platform that could open the way for a dialogue and the only solution in syria is a political solution a solution that can be done through dialogue and there is no military solution there is no security solution in syria today was relatively. the other days you know during the week and i think there is a little problem now in almost in the city of homs where the red cross the syrian red crescent and the international red cross are trying to to have access and there are some serious obstacles i have read before i came to the studio that. the french news agency just published that there were some journalists complaining that the that the insurgents from the syrian army and the armed gunmen are the ones who are placing obstacles to the red cross and that person to have access to the to some of

the journalists who are wounded and who and some bodies that are there in the in the area of baba amr now this is very unfortunate i hope now after one year almost one year of demonstrations and trouble inside syria i think it is now clear that there are some foreign forces interfering in syria smuggling weapons into syria smuggling money for these groups to actually shoot at the government institutions assault the government and you know it's clear also from the speeches that we heard in that conference that took place in tunisia that the direction is western politics and the western plan to remove a president assad from office and they don't care at what cost. that's the unfortunate what we still got a minute with you on the line there the u.s. has reportedly begun coordinating with syria's neighbors on how to deal with the country's arsenal as crucially that's the word out of the picture going to be so

confident that his days are numbered. that's the that's highly ironic and i think that really it all comes down to this if one or wants to be. really caring towards the city and people really caring for the basic human rights basic a human preserving human life one should call for dialogue one should call for the . question mark between the different groups within the syrian cultural diversity to come together and bring in a new solution and i think this step that was done today with the vote of the referendum for the constitution the amendments is a step maybe a small step but it is a step forward two words in that direction towards the reconciliation and a true reform true democratic reform that can save syria the destruction that is being prepared for it apparently from some forces in the west thanks for your thoughts on the program live from beirut. in

a few minutes on this channel putting the smart money on nuclear intelligence while the winds atomic agency struggles to reach a conclusion about iran's nuclear weapons america's intelligence agencies have their own evidence and that's not going down too well or sitting well with israel. a ring of solidarity that was the hope of protesters who are calling for free and fair elections here in russia thousands of people took in parts of today's attempt to surround the center of moscow they held hands and they wanted to complete the city's garden ring that's the road that in circles the historic center of his correspondent peter oliver was. the goal of sunday's demonstration was to form a human chain around the garden ring in moscow and i want bodies as a ring road that goes around the downtown area of the russian capital. now the activists who are organizing this event today it called on supporters to come out wear white in support of their cause which is to receive free and fair elections in

russia no they were able to complete that journey around the garden ring that human chain around sixteen kilometers from one end to the other so clearly masses of people coming out and taking part there well there were also some supporters of the blood of mia putin for president who turned out it is a week before that presidential vote and there were some heated exchanges at times between supporters of the various political factions here in russia all of them peaceful but a few raised voices at times all of this coming as i say a week before russians go to the polls to elect the next president and we've seen a a space of political rallies in the last week we've seen supporters of the to be approved for president also supporters of the the leaders of the liberal democratic party and the communists as well as other groups coming out and showing their support for the particular candidate that they want to see take the top job. next sunday's

presidential elections as they hadn't paid all of his report there next sunday russians will pick their next president choosing from a number of candidates who've been hitting the campaign trail but the contender is keeping a relatively low profile here in russia is to run a lot of buzz abroad as artie's laura smith reports now from. russians a used to seeing blood putin in all manner of surroundings not only in top level meetings also out in the wilderness and even singing to a hollywood a list crowd. but there are always new heights to scale and currently find him looming large on a london icon the double decker bus tootin is coming it proclaims some may find the wording of the advert slightly sinister but it's all to do with a new book which analyzes putin the man not the politician the books the result of

a six year collaboration between a british author and russian journalist alexander caught up put in is probably the most interesting political from in the world at the moment and yes the right people who feel and be violent towards putin the rebels who love him or those who do but the most important thing is that sort of more would you can see that they don't. although as it turned out that wasn't quite true. but it might be desperate or russia to name. the philosophical as you probably appreciate was opposing the russian. i don't know that the. prime minister of russia. was. the authors say friday's book release isn't connected to next month's election in russia but it does come hot on the heels of two separate british documentaries involving putin one a look at the controversial political youth group nationally and the other

a critically acclaimed full part counter through relations with the west during his twelve years at the top there will be the world's attention on him again and people want to know is this a man we've seen before or is he changing. can he face the new job jews and how does the recent protest movement affect his politics and his outlook having his face on double decker buses won't help you say this russ is prepared to go to the polls but love him or lose to since reputation is russ's strong man has captured the imagination of documentary make his and all things here in the u.k. and elsewhere whether it's fame or infamy it's an open question. r.t. . coming up in the program this half hour accused of aiding the enemy america's most famous whistleblower gets his first court hearing after nineteen months in custody and just two weeks of being nominated for the nobel peace prize more about

that. next though spain's students are refusing to sit quietly with thousands again turning mainly over planned education cuts but also after police came down hard at the last rally officers were accused of brutality at a protest earlier this week which left several people hurt and over forty arrested r.t. sara first reports from the cost of blank. we all know the problems that face every day students lack of money face competition for jobs adds to that spain has the highest unemployment in food the nine distance the sixteen to twenty four year olds unemployed in the country and factor in that they just had recent spending because it is affected education in fact a badly the some of the students who come to the streets say they haven't even got basic heating in the closings and well this is the result really thousands and thousands of people already out on the streets for to protest some of them that is

right the way along the main high street here in the city of villains here now some of the signs reading and now our students are battered enough that's mbak friends to the protests we saw at the beginning of the week where the police were condemned for their actions which were seen as being excessively violent scenes of than chasing and hitting some of the protestors despite very fierce reaction from a lot of the public and a lot of anger his guilt about these actions huge number of people joining in this protest and a lot of anger and of course this part of the why did demonstrations we've seen happening in recent days as the all star teenagers that have been voted by the new government have provoked this angry reaction. across about iterating big time greece managed to snatch it so from the jaws of default this week it took months of waiting but your leaders eventually agreed the latest one hundred thirty billion euro bailout but it's of the cost of imposing further cuts i spoke to investment

advisor patrick younger says the greeks are paying the ultimate price. the tragedy of greece is that two three years ago when it first came to light that their financial figures were a complete fiction and we finally knew the truth that we'd all suspected all along they really should have been out of the euro at that moment instead we've got this absolutely psychotic desire by a group of frankly well economically illiterate people in western europe particularly within germany who are desperate to manage to hold this all together then we've got another group of people who are absolutely determined to try and keep greece in the euro zone which are the incredibly highly paid greek politicians and the poor greeks themselves are absolutely stranded why we're throwing good money after bad and why we're beggaring actually the good people of greece on the ground absolutely defines the larger the people are absolutely fed up they see no possibility no end to this. in afghanistan seven u.s.

soldiers have been wounded when angry protesters threw a grenade into their base it comes amid this six day know of anti american riots across the country all sparked by news that copies of the qur'an have been burnt at a u.s. air base washington's apologize for what it called a mistake from the afghan president's urging calm but how many cars i also said the sentiment in this country was a legitimate reaction and called for those who burned the to be punished dozens of people have been killed and rest now since tuesday including two senior u.s. officers. the think tank director in neighboring pakistan who says the americans neither understand nor respect afghan culture. in the decade that the u.s. military has been in a pakistan for the first time even in smaller places and provinces and towns wherever there is a u.s. presence ordinary afghans are laying siege to these places even after ten years it seems the americans don't know who they're dealing with they don't know the of get on very well the u.s. military are increasingly treated into what i would call anti islamism they are

constantly sort of indoctrinated into into into treating islam disrespectfully i sailed to see how the u.s. military personnel and the of east and afghan army personnel would be able to restore the level of trust that existed less if ideas for sixty years ago. around the world are brief a car full of explosives has been rammed into a church in nigeria it's killed at least three people and wounded several others the church was packed with sunday morning worshippers when the suicide attackers struck in the city of joss radical islamist group boko haram is being blamed with a no when she had admitted carrying out the attack the sect killed over three hundred people this year in its quest to impose sharia law. pakistan is more than halfway through demolishing osama bin laden's final hideout the al qaeda leader was shot dead by u.s.

forces at the a bottom bad compound last may after hiding there for several years no official reasons being given for the demolition but it's thought the authorities don't want the site to become a shrine. in yemen army shelling has killed five al qaeda linked militants officials say the strike began in the southern town of jinja bar on saturday night and continued into the early morning a yemeni soldier was also killed when he stepped on a mine in the same area government forces a failed to oust militants from the south of the country you've managed to seize control of several parts of the region in the past twelve months. the standoff over iran's nuclear program is showing no signs of reaching a resolve with the u.n. atomic officials saying to rana's fail to cooperate they visited the islamic state twice this year and say iran has stepped up its uranium enrichment the western allies suspect iran's building a nuclear bomb but iran says it has a right to a civil nuclear program the country is currently struggling under harsh sanctions from the u.s. and the e.u. while israel's threatening military action however u.s.

intelligence is reportedly now said there's no evidence to support accusations that iran is pursuing nuclear weapons reza marashi from the national iranian american council and also former u.s. state department officer told me that new approach he thinks is needed to resolve the issue. going intelligence agencies and for that matter the israeli intelligence agencies and many other foreign governments intelligence agencies are saying that iran has not made the political decision to pursue weaponization and that leaves time for diplomacy to be pursued to find a peaceful solution that's beneficial to all parties involved the primary sticking point the primary tropp problem that we see is that nobody trusts one another people in the p five plus one don't trust each other iran doesn't trust anybody in the p five plus one so in an effort to try and move things forward and shift that paradigm from the negative to the positive you know we need to get creative and international leaders need to find ways to take risks for peace anything from broadening the agenda to discussion issues not just focus on iran's nuclear program

but things that iran is also interested in regional security energy security things of that nature jostle bringing in some outside actors who the p five plus one and iran do have trust within turkey and brazil being two key samples of the parties that are played a kind of mediating role if positive inducements are not offered to iran and if the west doesn't seriously consider whether or not offering those positive inducements to iran are in america's interests europe's interests i'm negotiating will fail because iran will not like. israel's been repeating its threat of military action on iran's nuclear side saying that slapping sanctions on the country is not working the u.s. and britain though warned against that move saying would be disastrous for the region as it is a regular school reports now and to run offensive it seems is already underway. israel's leaders are actively drumming up the military rhetoric. iran is the biggest terror exporter in the world the israeli government and its security forces

will continue to act forcefully systematically and calmly against international terrorism dating from iran. a potential israeli rocket clash looks more likely than never there is speculation a preemptive strike against iran's nuclear sites could happen as early as spring or summer although that's not causing undue concern in israel i think possibly people you know they make their plans for a vacation you know pass or a vacation summer vacation possibly people are beginning to wonder well is there going to be a war is something going to mess it up or i think they're probably going ahead with it with sort of a thought we're back it would be nice if we could get a flight that we could cancel you know you know it's that sort of thing israel has previous experience when it comes to putting an end to nuclear ambitions which pose a potential threat in one thousand nine hundred one is just wiped out reactors in iraq they struck again in two thousand and seven hitting sites in syria but with

iran's nuclear program things may not be so simple if israel attacks iran it will not stop iran forever from getting nuclear weapons the only postpone it for a relatively brief amount of time the. installations are too diverse and far far to destroy affectively israel does not have u.s. poured the white house secretary adviser was in israel warning against a move on iran saying it was better to wait for tougher sanctions to take effect in the coming months but mines may already be made up i think one of the things to create this aura of inevitability is to shut them up to shut up opposition at home and of course to convince the united states and europe that this is an inevitability it's going to happen daughter posed in fact why don't you help us out there is a question mark however over whether israel has what it takes to carry out the mission i dog with the we have the capability. of creating damage is to

the extent of the mediating the program and even if israel's military prowess will allow it to carry out a strike on underground facilities in iran chances are it won't end there as you know saddam hussein and bashar assad by the time they knew what was happening was over and could just you know grumble without having to fight back you imagine iran sitting still you know all day after day day after day what israel does it is trickle it back i think any any sane person realizes that they're all almost guaranteed the missiles falling on israel and considering iran for one of the twentieth century's longest wars against iraq in the one nine hundred eighty s. the consequences could be far reaching and destructive. israel has been suffering some bad weather as of late but it's unlikely that even the strongest winds will blow the country's foreign policy after its course and when it comes to israel's forecast for iran the storm clouds seem to be growing every darker in tel aviv r.t.

. the american soldier accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of secret military files to wiki leaks chose not to enter a plea during his first court hearing on thursday bradley manning who faces twenty two charges also passed on deciding whether he wanted to be tried by a military jury or a single judge if he is convicted of aiding the enemy could be given a life sentence with no chance of parole but it's course considered a hero by many americans indeed has also been nominated for the nobel peace prize. over whether the whistleblower can get a fair trial to after president obama publicly stated that we've that he broke the law we spoke to u.s. attorney kevin zeese in the week who says manning is standing trial merely for telling the truth. well this is a case of a very low level classified documents in fact there's questions as to whether they should have been classified at all we have to also realize that when. we released

the pentagon papers those are very high level secrets and even those we're not releasing any national security information that should have been kept secret all we're finding out from even the highest level secret the pentagon papers in the lowest level secrets that meetings accused of is crimes and ethical behavior misbehavior by the u.s. far by u.s. foreign policy were showing how corporations and the government were closely together the support corporate profit rather the public interest were showing all sorts of inappropriate behavior by people as i like secretary say clinton who ordered us to mass to spy on u.n. officials and they came to meetings in the united nations that's illegal yet she's not being prosecuted manning who is accused of the century telling the truth is being prosecuted facing life in prison while people who commit war crimes and other crimes are not being prosecuted. great programs coming up put tonight in a few minutes one of them we travel to one of russia's largest cities mission

success and preserving its almost eight hundred year history of a venture coming up then but i'll recap the a week's top stories for you before that after this quick break. well into the future to the peaks of the looking glass at what will be the homes of

the future where the walls might just be smarter than the residents every day trash protects you from the elements outside and the whole system works to save you money to shine the spotlight on the latest building projects all around russia technology i'm doing here on r.g.p. you've got the church. more news today violence has once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations are on the day.