as edward snowden is invited to venezuela after it receives his official asylum request we learn why the whistleblower felt compelled to go on a crusade against global surveillance. egypt on the edge the muslim brotherhood plans mass rallies ignited by monday's bloodshed in cairo while the interim leader lays out a post cool road map. and we look at why waves of high spending chinese tourists are splashing their cash across europe but not in britain. thanks for tuning in it's noon here in the russian capital i'm lucy catherine of

and of course you're watching our t.v. well on to our top story now america's most wanted man the n.s.a. the former n.s.a. contractor edward snowden has found himself weighing not one but potentially three asylum offers venezuela nicaragua and bolivia have all spoken favorably of granting him a safe haven this despite threats from the united states but his arteries going to explain getting there won't be easy. edward snowden submitted his request after have been it's well this president indicated been very strong terms that his country was ready to accept him this is what you call a small dual said about snowden he is a young man who in the spirit of her belly and has told the truth about the united states spying on the whole world so we see that snowden will be very much welcome. but the question is how is he going to get there we understand that he is still in the transit zone in a moscow strait of medieval airport there are no direct commercial flights between moscow and caracas and the usual route involves changing planes in havana it is not

clear if the cuban authorities would let him transit besides using european airspace would not be completely risk free for snowden just last week a number of european countries banned believe the president's plane from using their airspace because they were told snowden was aboard one alternative flight plan would involve an ear profit taking off from moscow refueling in velocity of our stock and then continuing east over the pacific to south america but it's really not clear how it's going to happen but he's transit limbo in moscow may come to an end very soon moscow has indicated that they want snowden to chooses this nation and leave russia as soon as possible in the meantime the guardian newspaper has published the second part if it were snowden's video interview from which we learn more about what drove him to sacrifice a seemingly comfortable lifestyle and blow the whistle on u.s. government secret surveillance activities he describes it as a journey of conscience basically remember at one time snowden enlisted in the u.s.

army because he wanted to fight in iraq he thought it was a noble war and then he has worked with a number of government agencies but as he grew familiar with the system from the inside is the use have evolved snowden says he hoped that with a new president things would change but he says instead he witnessed the opposite the growth of the surveillance state take a listen increasingly was exposed. true information that had not been propagandized in the media. that we were actually involved in misleading the public and misleading all publics not just the american public in order to create a certain mindset in the global consciousness and i was actually a victim of that i grew up with the understanding that the world i lived in was one where people enjoyed a sort of freedom to communicate with each other in privacy without of being thought of being measured or analyzed or or or sort of judged by these shadowy

figure systems i think a lot of people of my generation anybody who grew up with the internet that was their understanding the obama administration tries whistleblowers spies snowden is wanted on espionage charges and whistleblowers in the u.s. these days risk the death penalty the u.s. has certainly got a long way from the days of de niro ellsberg and his pentagon papers nowadays paul patients and pundits on television say if snowden were a real whistleblower or a good whistleblower he would have stayed in the west and almost certainly gone to jail so a lot of talking heads on television constantly questioning snowden's motivation and because he fled and is now asking for asylum in all these different countries it's easier to portray him as a traitor undaunted by scandal and a global uproar and the same recruiters are scouring colleges as well as universities for fresh faces but their job is now harder than it was before with students quite aware iop signing up to work in the surveillance industry but even

taught here she's a student who's studying at wisconsin university and she actually went to an n.s.a. recruitment drive last week and told r.t. just how it went. i think they were completely caught off guard they were confused you can hear that on the tape it sounded like they've never had to actually justify or even critically think about the work that they're engaged in and they simply didn't know how to answer the questions and these are very basic questions about the nature of their work that speaks to the bubble i think that the intelligence community lives in that they are so get somebody they think that they actually don't have to answer any questions of that that they can go on recruiting just they have just as they have it they ended up by telling us that the n.s.a. is simply an apolitical organization that fulfills requests that are sent to it by other departments i mean they seem to be taking their in your inbred defense that they were just doing their job which is not a defense at all edward snowden's leaks appear to be eating into support for president barack obama whose approval rating is actually plummeted almost ten percentage points in recent weeks now bad news for him but worse for the government

with a recent poll saying only one in six americans now trust washington to do the right thing when a part i has more on why is sour on what some are calling a litany of lies separating the people and the state. tell the truth or someone might just tell it for you does the n.s.a. collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of americans. no sir. it does not. not wittingly. there are cases where they could inadvertently perhaps collect but not wittingly in america it's a crime of violation of a federal law to lie to congress during testimony i responded in what i thought was the most true for least on truthful manner by saying no the us director of national intelligence james clapper publicly acknowledged his error only after n.s.a.

whistleblower edward snowden spilled the beans on america's clandestine espionage activities the director of national intelligence is now apologizing for what he calls his overall u.s. response to congress over n.s.a. surveillance programs one of those covert programs indiscriminately collects the phone records of hundreds of millions of americans secret surveillance once criticized by a familiar face no more illegal wiretapping of american citizens no more national security letters to spy on citizens who are not suspected of a crime but upon entering the white house u.s. president barack obama seems to have had a change of heart my assessment and my team's assessment. was that they help us prevent terrorist attacks government lies surrounding the n.s.a.'s programs has raised questions about the possibility of additional untruths being

told in the name of national security i have been crystal clear about my position on iran possessing a nuclear weapon that that is a red line for us the fact is u.s. intelligence officials and the united nations have concluded that iran is not. currently building a nuclear weapon but that hasn't stopped washington sanctions if we're throwing accusations that are not true that cloud the domestic debate the political debate and also send negative signals to the other side we make it much more likely that diplomacy can succeed and we end up going into a war that was of avoidable but. in the case of syria's civil war the french and others had already. concluded that he's using this air and gas in small quantities but again here's this is the red line and we alleged they killed between one hundred nine hundred fifty people washington recently began arming the rebels

after independently concluding that damascus used nerve gas against the opposition findings u.n. investigators have not supported i think it's reasonable. here in haiti we haven't been be critical of you know u.s. government under well as for the whistle blowing website that aims to expose the truth the u.s. has listed wiki leaks as an enemy of the state until the obama administration comes forward with a way to roll out open this into the national security debate there's going to be a problem of people trustworthy ministration is up to the american public has witnessed a top u.s. official lie about the nation's pervasive surveillance program and an n.s.a. contractor reveal the truth yet only one of those men is being punished and prosecuted for their actions and if people can't trust not only the executive branch but also don't trust congress and don't trust. federal judges

to make sure that we're biding by the constitution due process and rule of law then we're going to have some problems are. welcome to your problem mr president marina port our team in iraq. the race is on to be the next leader of trouble torn mali but as we soon report the winner of this month's presidential poll won't just have to take the security situation by the scruff of the neck but also have to confront the promised poverty that blights rural areas. egypt is bracing for more violence as the muslim brotherhood calls for a nationwide rallies this a day after a deadly confrontation between its supporters and the army in cairo more than fifty people have died in what's claimed to be a crackdown against a peaceful sit in backing the ousted president mohamed morsi possibly or has more details from cairo. the brotherhood is calling for mass protests today choose day

now this is in response to the killing yesterday of some fifty one morsy supporters in front of the headquarters of the republican building and that is where it is believed that the ousted president mohamed morsy is still being held we are hearing very differing accounts of what transpired during those clashes according to the brotherhood its supporters were knelt in prayer they were holding a peaceful sittin in front of their building when they were fired on and provoked by the military that is their point but the military having a very different story they say that they were fired on a thursday by an armed gunman and they have released video footage showing gunmen on the roofs of buildings in the vicinity hurling molotov cocktails huge stones and firing at the soldiers so the army is response is that they were acting in self-defense nonetheless there's a nationwide call by the muslim brotherhood is not only in response to yesterday's killings but it is also a call for morsy to be reinstated and again we're hearing the same kind of message

coming from the brotherhood and that is that they are not going to beat the street and till morsy is put back in office well the interim president adly mansour has issued a statement in which he says he deeply regrets the killing of fifty one people at the same time he says he has it happen and judicial committee to investigate what transpired he has also given a timetable for a transition to a democratic government here in egypt this has been laid out in a five month roadmap now the first thing that we understand will happen is that there will be a review and an amendment of the current draft constitution then there will be a referendum held which will ratify the new proposed constitution following which they will be parliamentary elections but you need to remember that this country is so deeply divided and the potential for violence is so intense that it really is going to be a tough job trying to pull all the parties together. now the u.s.

which hailed egypt's revolution two years ago doesn't seem to be rushing to take sides this time around and also reluctant to describe the people there as a coup doing so would require washington to cut its military aid to the country now political analyst optometry ghanem explain to our team why he believes the u.s. is waiting this one out the united states is now taking a fine the stand yeah and they want to stand on the fence now they are friends with everyone they are friends with the army and they are friends of the people they say it what what everyone wants to hear they go to the area and say yeah we support you're going to the better team and they go to the people and say we're not sure if it's a military coup or not it's course is a military coup if people came back and change reinstated democracy they would support the people they waiting to see what's going to happen on the ground. to stay with us more world news after short break.

what defines a country's success. faceless figures of economic growth. or a standard of living. i. think.

the chinese are the world's highest spending tourists they shelled out over one hundred billion dollars traveling abroad last year and one country that's not getting a share though is the u k r t is probably boyko explains why. it's one of the top global tourist destinations but according to new research securing a visa to come to the u.k. spreading to be more trouble than it's worth for hundreds of thousands of chinese citizens while getting visa to the european union will cover a visit to up to twenty six countries a visit to britain requires another lengthy and costly visa application process for

would be chinese terrorists my cousin she studied here as well should parents want to come here to visit her which it is always a texas thing you turn all roles and everything is more expensive as in britain always people spend a lot of money. and so on this is a different culture there. are tours so. if you just want to come along it's just so complicated for the you can see here is different i think you know the way. the problem isn't just confined to extra paperwork for chinese citizens britain's economy is suffering as a result in particular the luxury retail sector the average chinese citizen spends over one and a half thousand pounds in the u.k. but not enough are coming over to spend that money the situation's got to

a point where representatives of the u.k. travel and tourism industry calling on the government to drastically reform chinese visa processing they argue that if the rules were relaxed british businesses would be pulling in an extra one point two billion pounds every year we. chinese visitors coming to europe coming to britain if you are the preferred destination would be london would be top the list part because we're marching ashamed and we're not getting anything like the potential that we could have in lumberton the u.k. china visa or alliance argues that easing the process could create up to twenty four thousand jobs that bring. tim is in desperate need of the bahamas small worrying of reports that major chinese tore up aerated is simply cussing britain out of that custom is european travel itineraries and although they might not get to sample the delights of the tower of london or even shopping on bone street because of all that money that chinese tourists aren't spending in london this time

it looks like it's britain's loss. azzi london. it's not just chinese tourists pouring into europe big business is also rushing in to buy assets and prices his country's now our own business correspondent katie pilbeam now on who is cashing in. the chinese are enjoying a shopping spree and rated europe is benefiting chinese investments in the e.u. taters over twelve billion dollars last year a fifth from the year before considering china has plenty of cash to spend with a multi-billion dollar well funded it's disposal it's no wonder the e.u. still stuck in financial strife is keen to drum up even more chinese business interests china is the biggest source of imports someone of the e.u. is fastest growing export markets which means a two economies trade well over one billion dollars a day chinese companies have been snapping up european businesses ranging from

a check cigarette companies to dutch pharmaceuticals to a british word producer and wineries across the region one of the biggest recent european deals was a seven hundred million dollars buy out of france's club med holiday business partly by chinese investment china's focus on international so what's behind china's spending spree well one of the reasons is to diversify the countries over three trillion dollars worth of foreign exchange assets away from the low yielding investments like u.s. treasuries with europe during troubling times china is busy snapping up the bargains. a u.s. district judge has ruled that only president obama has the necessary authority to stop the force feeding at the guantanamo bay detention facility now this is after dismissing a request from a syrian prisoner who had asked for the painful practice to be stopped and the same

was demanded by leading muslim figures in the west who say that guards should respect the religious fast of ramadan which is currently under way now more of the inmates have been refusing food for over five months now in protest against their indefinite detention and harsh conditions allegations of also emerged that guards have been using sleep deprivation against the detainees in order to end the strike even though hooper from the council on american islamic relations believes they won't stop until there are real improvements at the facility our position has always been that it's wrong to force detainees that's a position of the international legal experts it's a position of medical ethicists it's a position i have every right thinking person who doesn't want to see detainees abused in this way and whether you do it during the daylight hours or after sunset it doesn't really matter wrong is wrong the only reason these people are carrying

out this hunger strike is because they feel desperate they feel that nothing will ever change for them you have to give them some hope somehow that the situation is going to change otherwise what do they have left. well a journalist has been shot dead in russia's restive dagestan republic by unidentified gunmen the man who is the political editor for a newspaper in the region was reportedly wanted by militants because of his work well more on this now from artie's paul scott paul what details do we have so far well i can tell you that i. met him to be i have was shot dead fifty meters from his home in russia restive region of dagestan in the north caucuses he was shot several times in the head in his car and died at the scene now as you mentioned his work could be linked to investigators saying his work could have made him a target he was the deputy editor of a local weekly newspaper with

a circulation of around twenty thousand he was also the political editor and was highly critical of thirty's and was known to be investigating corruption now investigators are saying that could have made him a target it wasn't the first assassination attempt on his life he survived one back in january when gunmen opened fire but missed the target and it was the third time that he had been targeted now in two thousand and nine his name was included on the list an enormous list of sixteen journalists human rights activist and lawyer is that it said were targets for assassination because of their work that endangered the lives of dagestan is dr stone is the rest of region at the moment where the recent increase in islamic terrorism and organized crime no one has yet claimed responsibility for the murder but the latest action and the latest developments possibly likely to inflame an already volatile situation in the region well let's hope not paul scott thank you so much for that update for us. the people of

mali will vote in a landmark presidential election in just a few weeks and the state of emergency there has been lifted this in order for the candidates to actually start campaigning now of course running the war torn country will be no easy task as well as shoring up state security the victor also need to find a way to get the basics like food and water to its struggling rural population there are. reports. the west african state of mali unexpectedly entered the spotlight over the winter after france sent its military forces to the country to help battle islam missed fighters backed by international terror groups threatening to take over a secular democratic state of fifteen million people now they've gotten islamic symbols are painted over but the country is facing an enemy of a different kind poor verty the recent crisis only made a bad situation worse over thirty five percent of mali and leave in extreme poverty

that's around six million men women and children which travelled to just outside the capital bamako where weakness these scenes a common side of the country's economically depressed rural areas. it's very difficult to get well here there is no running water we have to buy it it's expensive i have many children i don't have enough money to feed them properly or send them to school. people live in houses built by themselves from handmade mud breaks apart from running water these homes often like electricity. yellow a driver among the few employed residents of this village says the hardest thing is to leave hand to mouth while knowing your country and its people could and should be there each mollies full of diverse national resources with mining formerly significant part of the country's g.d.p. . there are many mineral deposits but we don't see this richness the elite may

be they feel corruption is terrible and revenue distribution is lame on the bus that was. i mean not to believes mostly foreign companies extracting the country's natural resources is as big if not a bigger problem than corruption. international firms exploit our sites but they're not interested in developments on the ground they're afraid that if that happens we'll not need them and we'll get all the benefits. major governmental programs are aimed at attracting more foreign investors with palm and even adopting legislation for their needs. molly has resources but they're not exploited well we need long term development and infrastructure support so that people would feel more comfortable. but many doubt that foreign money will go to improve people's living standards they have a journalist from the north says resources may even bring harm he's among those who

think that it's the country's uranium deposits and mountain to thousands of tons that's really behind the recent french intervention in its former colony. i heard they found uranium and i think they came here to protect us from terrorists but also to protect themselves from risks of losing such a valuable resource apart from uranium the raw diamonds oil copper iran which are role just waiting to be extracted while millions of mali and swung if their countries hidden treasures will ever translate into a better life for them mali one of the world's poorest countries this west african state where people survive on just a few cents per day is now at a crossroads hove global interests businesses and threats how tackles those after months of conflict is far from certain now what especially clear is that it will be many years before ordinary mahler's like these ones can benefit from simple

necessities like regular meals or electricity in their homes. outtake from mali. you're watching r t do stay with us. remember how all of a sudden an afghan card protest group became world famous and and were completely forgotten by the next month yeah i'm talking about the feminist punk rock group pussy riot that performed a vulgar anti prayer and one of moscow's most famous orthodox cathedrals one possible reason for their explosive popularity in the media size was revealed recently by german actress ana tal buck the actress claims a german t.v. channels e.d.f. paid her a large undisclosed amount of money to come out on behalf of the activists band show said on a t.v. discussion that she doesn't even remember what she said except for wishing them

well with dealing with their incarceration it would be very odd for an actress to just make up a bribery scandal especially one she was complicit in but it makes you wonder just how many other people's e.d.f. may have been given a little extra motivation to cry travesty overall i think that most important of what said her public revelation is that she said that you know what it's a bit dumb when actors talk about politics and i couldn't agree with her more but that's just my opinion.

good afternoon welcome to prime interest i'm bob english here in washington d.c. here's a story we're telling today the world is turning or is it looks like we have the slightest inkling of a crack down on wall street but is it too little too late the press have quarter not told though it may be continues against john corazon and ex goldman i gary gensler is being painted as a tough new sheriff even though he abdicated oversight of the entire futures industry one m.f. global ago and its age of whistleblowers today actually yesterday snowden and then today bank of america thanks to two new lawsuits we learned how the two big build giant systematically built homes promising loan modifications who then they proceeded to take out of those homes and you might have heard of the volcker rule that says banks cannot gamble with customer money lloyd blankfein said his goldman sachs doing this but guess what he did it we just learned that the firm found a loophole to keep doing it anyway over a billion dollars worth learned.