it's our forces that. are striking the world's attention to the place that some. of our. i know. why would. they survive a u.s. drone strike in pakistan but last the grandmother the family testifies before members of congress in the first of a briefing of its kind. written to threaten legal action to stop newspapers from publishing edward snowden's leaks exposing the extent of spying by u.s. and u.k. intelligence agencies. outraged by washington souping it could always president rafael correct has an exclusive interview to a visit to moscow plus. a one hundred day countdown to winter olympics begin this week bringing the latest for the preparations in the host city

and for the record breaking torch relay. good evening it's ten pm here. in this is our top story survivors of a u.s. drone strike testified to members of congress earlier today the family whose grandmother was killed in a missile hit the guard in pakistan a year ago say they've got no idea why they were targeted got to teach account was at that briefing. this was the first time the actual victims of the us storm strikes were in congress and there were only maybe four a members of congress present in the briefing room apart from the congressman who initiated this meeting it's no secret the u.s. congress generally approves of for a strike so it's very difficult to expect the sudden change of heart even the heart was what these drone victims were appealing to on october twenty fourth of last

year a u.s. drone strike left one this one pakistani family devastated a nine year old girl and first thirteen year old brother merely a state of death there sixty seven year old grandmother was killed while picking vegetables in her garden here's what the boy said today at the briefing. on the i no longer logos cards i prefer gray skies drones don't fly when the skies are gray then the sky brightens and few returns. you know the family has never been brought out of their home in north waziristan and the father is said to look at the life around here in d.c. in the short time that he's been here and i met with a lively restaurant there after the screening of a documentary on cross where they were invited and the father said he wished this for children to could walk the streets and not afraid of being bombed at any moment so the family came to washington hoping to get answers to why they live in fear

every day and i had the chance to talk to the little girl to the nine year old girl why do you think you queer mother was killed. i don't know that's one of the reasons why we came here i have no idea why my grandmother was killed when the drone hate i was outside with my grandmother everything became dark i was scared so i started to run then i noticed my hand was bleeding so i tried to clean my hand but not kept coming out but i was very scared so i just kept running independent reports a u.s. drone strikes killed one within seventy four children those are stunning numbers if you put human face to them and the purpose of this briefing was to put a human face to drone strikes and there is a fortress that in congress the tragedy of this family will fall on deaf ears but there is hope that the public will pick you know it's. going to if you can a mission to national recently lost out of washington condemning some of these

drugs drugs as war crimes the rights group called for greater transparency and justice for victims like the riemann family the story was the inspiration for the documentary filmmaker robert greenwald's latest movie indeed culture come spoke with him as well. people want to believe in santa claus and they also want to believe that there's a simple solution to these incredibly complicated problems when we started reading that the drones were killing only high value targets represented an imminent threat it doesn't make sense it's just not possible so i think there was a kind of hopefulness yes finally we found a magic pill which is part of it some of it is the fact that american soldiers warrant there so people said it doesn't matter as important is that you know the family is making to all kinds of americans people who have a mother or have a father and who look at them and can't justify the killing that we've done and then you have this extraordinary militarily industrial electoral complex bipartisan

that agrees that the way to solve problems is by invading occupying and droning we have to change all of it. well the family's lawyer also planned to speak to lawmakers in the meeting but that was denied a u.s. visa he spoke to us a bit earlier about a pakistani region is living in constant fear of drone strikes north waziristan. the area has been completely cordoned off no one can go in and come out over there is fun easy leave the people of whose interest on are just left to be to be living under drugs and there's nothing. which can get them out and they're living under. drones which are hoovering over the head all the time and then there's a huge presence of focus on the military so four hundred fifty thousand population of whole north waziristan is actually living in a concentration camp where they're being picked on the basis of what kind of clothes to wear if someone has

a long beard or someone who's driving. next you he and this is how they're being targeted and at the same time they're not really in a position to leave the. on our website we've got a full breakdown of her uses to some of deaths caused by u.s. drone strikes as well as first hand accounts from survivors is that r.t. dot com. the british government has warded could resort to legal action to silence newspapers seeking to publish edward snowden revelations it's the latest in a string of attempts to block the release of embarrassing documents to syria furthest the latest from a. well it's reported that he said on monday that if newspapers don't demonstrate some social responsibility then it will be difficult for the government to stand back and not to act now he also made reference to injunctions and dean atheists these are measures that the government has to prevent the disclosure of certain types of information by the media particularly if it would impact u.k.

military or intelligence operations now he did go on to say that his preference was not for heavy handed tactics but it will be worth reminding viewers that back in july we saw u.k. government officials enter the guardian newspaper offices that's the newspaper that's being at the forefront of publishing the edward snowden leaks and destroy hard drives containing some of that sensitive information the u.k. government has also detained journalists and partner of claim greenwald david miranda under terrorist legislation many people would say those are extremely heavy handed tactics indeed responding to the reports of the prime minister's statement glenn greenwald's the journalist that's been primarily reporting these leaks said that this was shocking that this happens in a country that tells itself it has press freedom if the goals were to come or disclose the reporting of snowden's leaks

a damaging national security grown less. i think we've got something rotten in the state of england david cameron is threatening journalists at the same time as he's calling for press freedom and of course what that really means is it's press freedom for his story really i don't think he really wants independent journalism in this country i think if he could close down the guardian he would he really hates these revelations many people may have noticed that his former communications man andy corson is in court in britain today facing the same sorts of phone hacking charges as actually being accused of the g.c. h.q. in the n.s.a. all of these mass data trawls are extremely dangerous and criminal acts has been no evidence whatsoever that any of this is any threat to national security as the guardian and glenn greenwald pointed out time and time again this is really the last refuge of a scoundrel this accusation of threatening national security we need some arrests

of senior people who've been doing criminal acts within the secret services otherwise we are going down that police state pinochet route. but it's not just the guardian of course has been working to make data of mobile snowden's leaks available to the world on line and to secrecy website crypto to put together a map showing the extraordinary reach of u.s. surveillance and take a look at the map according to the website every country the world's had phone calls intercepted from tens of thousands up to tens of billions central asia or the middle east appeared to have been the chief targets were by no means the only ones in europe america's closest allies for themselves under intense surveillance with three hundred sixty one million conversations intercepted in germany alone in total of the united states one of one hundred twenty four billion calls globally just the space of a month earlier this year glenn greenwald the former guardian journalist who first published edward snowden's leaks told r.t. the video agency ruptly that america's snooping will not be scaled back any time soon either. you brazil germany france india

and now speed of course in the united states is going to repeat it's all continuously for the next several weeks or months almost every country around the world be very clear objective view is to not just go out drovers but to keep it for as long as they can so the big any time true view is if you're a citizen of spirit you are asking for everything be doing in terms of giving you. the flood of global indignation over n.s.a. spying to washing no washington no to promise a review of the agency's controversial practices the obama administration's even considering whether to ban all spying on leaders or states but not everyone is happy about the idea of limiting intelligence gathering n.s.a. director general keith alexander is challenge the pending review he believes mass spying is but entirely justified by the security gains got from it some congressmen seem to shows opinions while peter king who's the chairman of the house subcommittee on counterterrorism said the president should stop apologizing as he

put it as the n.s.a. safe thousands of lives not just in the u.s. but also throughout the whole of europe and world as well that stand shared too by several washington hawks with former vice president dick cheney saying that extra knowledge is always an advantage when it comes to security there's a few thoughts there from the high flyers no four or more which in turn has been getting an easy ride over this scandal at least that's the view of ecuador's president rafael career or the socialist leader who's an outspoken critic of course of the u.s. was on an official visit in moscow he spoke exclusively to our sister channel r.t. spanish getting his take on why washington spies on all its allies. but it was this it was necessary for fighting against terrorism and i don't know if it's a terrorist i think it's clear the use of valence programs for economic reasons for helping the transnational companies can you imagine what could happen if the program was carried out by been as we look at cuba or russia or the it could or

argentina they would have called us dictators and criminals and we could be judged in the international court is this what you think about this huge story that's all i ask you online what do you think the impact is going to be of further n.s.a. spying revelations if and when they come out here's how you're voting let's bring that pie chart most of you if you understand this believe the n.s.a. leaks will merely prompt more familiar speeches about privacy but will be no part actually end of the day a quarter of you there are just under just gone down the tide actually last i was twenty five think we're going to see a rise in social resistance and massive demonstrations against n.s.a. surveillance still again the south thirteen percent getting used to these scandals kind of deaden to it almost won't react to any further revelations if it comes out you think it's not going to cause too much of a problem just a small minority of their four percent that's caught up actually and has paid genuine steps to protect privacy head to r.t. dot com to cast your vote if you haven't done so already. this is our take in a couple of minutes a bit take a look at the celebrations marking the start as it is tonight of the one hundred

day countdown to the sochi olympics. his lover in. the. dream. but he couldn't hold on to their. teacher and now she runs her own factory. smoking and even coffee as. they worship the. man versus woman. stories others who refuse to. change.

the picture. to me. again the hundred day there it is to the sochi winter olympics started celebrations of. a couple of hours ago as well as in russia's western most region of kaliningrad which is the current stop of the olympic torch relay routes incidentally but in the host city itself it's making those final touches to the facilities. for scott. the message from the organizers is that she will be ready but it's actually been

a rather low key affair to mark one hundred days until the start of the games the feeling in the city is that the hard work needs to continue the new president of the international olympic committee thomas bach saying that the one hundred days in the build up to the games the start of the games are undoubtedly going to be the busiest for the organizers now park has been on a school of some of the venue over the last twenty four hours or so says that he thinks the venues are impressive and that he's confident that the athletes are going to be delighted with them over the course of the next three months they're going to be one hundred and seventeen different. sporting contest to make sure that. the feeling is right now. the hard work needs to continue to ensure that come february the seventh the city is ready to welcome the sporting world.

she's pretty like a lot of people out of people celebrating the hundred day. because the. on the baltic sea has just arrived. on the. one hundred day down and it really is. a very memorable day. to be plenty of excitement as i found. only days to go the tools is making its way across the living grand right about it's just started here time is of course which is just more to come on which is away from kaliningrad enjoying the day well like is why we're going to this city where it's due to arrive later to see if you can see there's a lot of commotion here but this is. actually the most wesley point hold the relay that's because this russian ag sky high sandwiched between part of the net look

when you're around a bad million people live hand you can say hundreds have turned out today to try and cheer on the toaster also dozens of tools berries and gold one of those those include russia's will chime to life which is not so you can all know it's hard to imagine that this store tourney arrived in russia twenty three days ago from grace joining that time is called up the eyes of kilometers is being up to the north always being carried by far the frost i mean just over a week stand face to to go up to the international space station first by school so i don't get your taste of what's been happening today the last torchbearer incidentally which the governor clinton gracia he'll be a very proud man tonight and in a moment we are due to get a lot of forwards and also a performance from the latvian boy band brainstorm who do their best to give the flying a good send off as will the thousands of people that have gathered here today before that flag was put back inside that tiny lantern and flown off to the arctic circle to moments where this great light will continue iran russia. all right thoughts the

picture included a grad let's go sort of sort of southeast east east kind of go to sochi can millimeters that is the form of whistler one of the main resorts outside one kudos to the twenty ten winter olympics hi there nice to see you tonight you're kind of a veteran of these things now of course you bring a lot of experience a lot of thoughts because what the first question we want to know the question everyone's lips despite what president putin has to say because he's pat what do you think do you think it's up and ready to go or will be ready to go in a hundred days at least. i know that i think i think it will be if that's what they say you know these games people don't realise how much planning goes into this the games are awarded seven years prior and you start working about three years before that so. it's all calculated down to the wire in usually they pull it off i have every confidence they will and i can tell you given i feel the emotion welling up in me as i recall back to our

heady days in our hundred a countdown you're a bit of a changed man they want you because initially you didn't want the olympics to come to vancouver and up to your town up up in the mountains did you want to change your mind. well it was a bit it was a qualified no more because i didn't understand i frankly didn't understand the olympic movement to the wealth of opportunity that came with the games. and i thought you know as a small town and you know just for your listeners whistler hosted fully half of the events during the games we had a huge role to play but we're a very small much smaller than the big city of vancouver so a lot at stake and i was just i wanted to make sure that we got to set the rules in the olympic didn't steam roll over us and as a result you know we had a very healthy relationship lot of support from the i.o.c. i'm happy to be here at this conference and a lot of support as we collaborated with the game. partner's course he will yes i

started out a little reticent. so you don't change when i get you sort of jump it's like delay that you will have to live in a beautiful part of the world so chip in to that over the sea that beautiful part of the world but one of the big worries and i guess that was one of the reasons oh but would you mouth but i guess one of the reasons you were worried was the environmental impact of such a big event coming in i mean how did it affect where you live. we you know there's a one of the biggest differences i noticed today which is that really apples to oranges is we had a fully established ski resort built and pretty much ready to go we had to build an athlete's village we had to do some road approve ments we had to do some modifications you know what's really impressive what going on up the valley is they're building a whole new ski resort from scratch and again another similarity to whistler was so

was a purpose built resort with us press a tenth of becoming a star and the stablish itself is a world class destination so what i saw was very similar and very exciting i'm i'm really blown away by the beauty of the area and the potential for the skiing up at rosa khutor i know it's early to be talking about it to the event as we've started yet still a hundred days off but because we've got you on the lawn we want to talk about the legacy there's an awful lot of money being poured into this but there is a future for it to win the olympics of gold isn't there. there absolutely is you know i have to say we had a fantastic experience i hope that russians and the visitors that come here to sochi will will get caught up in the games and enjoy them the way we did and then absolutely what all the hard work that goes in is not just for the seventeen days of the game but for many many years after we're seeing young athletes getting

involved in sport at. level that they didn't have an opportunity or access to prior to that we now have a fantastic olympic park and some legacies in our village that are going to endure and support was a success for many years into the future love it out here in russia hope you enjoy your stay in sochi circuit my limit there are former mayor whistler where many of those twenty ten winter olympic games as you mention this took place thank you have a good trip. one hundred days remaining. days of sleep. well the day's top stories now the russian investigative committees brought new charges against opposition figurehead alexina veld the along with his brother they're accused of defrauding a cosmetics company to the chewed of nearly two million dollars but the case is

nothing new for you in english carex planes why. this is the second time that it's you know riley is accused of embezzlement as a matter of fact he already has a five year jail sentence which he has received after being found guilty of fraud while serving as an aide to a regional governor some years ago it's all the more ironic considering the fact that the man has made a name for himself at least in russia positioning himself as this crusade against corruption you know violent nevertheless managed to run for the post on the moscow mayor the elections that took place just earlier this fall and he actually placed second raking in just over a quarter of votes not bad at all considering this scandals that do surround the name of alex you know like a couple stories online now two pilots. on the outskirts of moscow who got the pictures online they have managed to just in time as their experimental military helicopter came crashing down in a forest on our website we've got footage of all the details to speculate what went so badly wrong. there one of the world's largest sources of fresh water is under

threat to mark his officials plan a nuclear waste facility near lake huron only u.s. canadian border got the details. as europe drugs itself out of recession for the first time in years a new crisis could be just around the corner. is rising taxes are prompting businesses to hide below their government's radar reports. for millions of europeans who find themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place in times of the spirit each staying in the shadow is increasingly seen as a viable option to making ends meet far from the tax man and the grip of governments the shadow economy is a blurry area of cash only economic activity deliberately hidden from will forty's such as undeclared work in a way just or under reported business transactions it's not the international organization the only cd predicts that by twenty twenty the shadow economy will employ up to two thirds of the world's workers that sounds rather pocalypse let's

just look at the use data for twenty two well there's about one trillion a year rose in potential tax revenues lost in the total budget deficit for the entire block of five hundred fourteen billion euros and this shadow economy makes up to a fifth of the g.d.p. of the bloc now in times of crises the shadow looms larger in fact most of that activity takes place in some of the largest economies in europe such as france germany italy spain and the u.k. and spain is known to have a very robust underground economy amounting to about twenty nine percent of its g.d.p. the chief has taken money out of the economy state to the going to turn cheese and the constant pick expenditure is an increasingly number of people who are having to work in the black market because the coast of living goes up and living standards go down as a result. i was so related the rise of this phenomenon to crises and it's like calls that governments in turn are trying to play catch up some of tried to limit

the circulation of five hundred two hundred the euro notes or encourage the use of electronic payments but unless the official economy significantly rises from the doldrums the effects if you limit it as more and more europeans get dissolution then all becoming distrusting of their governments lure and appeal of the shadow economy may just be too appealing to turn down. up next the remarks he looks at whether america's homeland security department has declared war on whistleblowers. a spanish language teacher in texas has been fired for posing nude in playboy before she became a teacher parents of found out about this demand that she be fired because her past

was inappropriate and that it was a distraction in the classroom well this was something she did in the past which was legal so this i mean if you pose for playboy you are forbidden to work in the normal world also as a former teenage boy i can tell you that any young attractive teacher will cause a distraction with the boys and wolf you can fire people for being distracting that when they have to fire every teacher with a handicap or abnormal parents on the other hand though teachers are supposed to be people for children to respect and to look up to and when you're spanish teacher is willing to sell the good stuff for money to playboy it is a lot harder respect that sort of person and it sure isn't a good example for my daughter this is actually a very complex issue but i can say is that you should really try to fight the temptation to make quick money with some nude photos it could come back to haunt you but that's just my opinion. deliberate torch is on its epic journey to such. one hundred and twenty three

days. through two hundred two cities of russia. relayed by fourteen thousand people or sixty five thousand killings. in a record setting trip by land air sea and others face. olympic torch relay. on r t v dot com. what is going on guys i'm having martin and this is breaking the set so last week the daily caller broke a story that pretty much a pit in my eyes is this administration's war on journalism a detail the department of homeland security raided back in august on the house of washington times reporter audrey hudson according to the warrant the da just raided hudson's home to search for illegal guns up longer

a husband but naturally agents can pass up that golden opportunity to seize hudson confidential files files related to a series of stories she had written critical of the federal air marshal program and wouldn't you know it the air marshal program falls into the administration of the d.h.s.s. what a coincidence according to hudson the confiscated documents included the names of multiple sources that had blown the whistle on the ineptitude of this program when describing the home invasion hudson said quote this guy basically came in here and took my anonymous sources and turned them over to the agency they were blowing the whistle on and these guys still work there yes that's right whistleblowers that are currently employed by the d.h.s.s. listen good journalists are willing to go to jail in order to protect their sources but hudson wasn't even given that choice this d.h.s.s. raid was meant to send a message anonymous whistleblowing.