meeting with opposition members is one thing but taking part in rallies that's interference in domestic affairs. russia's prime minister calls for politicians to stop meddling in ukraine's business is police in kiev give protesters a deadline to decamped from government buildings. tributes pouring after the death of nelson mandela we look at his journey from ostracize rebel to a global symbol of compassion and the quality also. children my wife my job my self-esteem to lose it all. the gambling machines that are getting increasing numbers of brits hooked we discover bookies who keep the cash coming in as government regulation.

there it's nice to have you company you're watching r.t. international. protesters in kiev have been given five days to stop disrupting government departments opposition activists have been blocking most canes to choose sions for much of this week meanwhile the country's president viktor unocal which has met his russian counterpart vladimir putin she said let's go live now to our. for more considering the strife is happening in this country at the moment some might be surprised that you nicole richie's insult. yes that is true but if you look at the details of the meeting and the meeting was a short working meeting and the two presidents have discussed largely the economic aspects it really is no surprise economy is something that is widely important not

just when it comes to ties between here and to moscow but to the entire situation in the country meaning ukraine as it is in fact this is what she was a stopover on the way for unocal was from the sheen back to ukraine while in china the ukrainian president has according to him he has actually signed a number of deals with his. chinese colleagues most of them economic and those amounted to roughly to about eight billion dollars now while unocal which was trying to figure out a way for ukraine to solve its financial issues here in independence square it was essentially teeming with foreign dignitaries. european as well as american officials have shown up to take part in the always seem meeting which was taking place in kiev and they lost no time to come by examine the tent city.

essentially talk and mingle with the protesters and meeting with the opposition figures especially with the likes of beachgoers the darling of the ukrainian opposition at the moment and the western politicians it seems that we've had german swedish the. foreign minister of the netherlands all of them were here last night i know that the tension that the western officials are showing to the ukrainian protests has raised a number of vibe browse a russian foreign minister has said has called this tension hysterical and there is quite a few observers who are saying that this type of a ten. from western politicians it to all the protesting ukraine is simply just not quite appropriate in the given circumstances. thank you. live

from kiev there thank you. well some of those concerns have been echoed by russia's prime minister dmitry medvedev during his traditional new year q. and a with russian journalists feel normal but i can imagine how our german partners would have felt if russia's foreign minister decided to attend a rally that was being held against german rule i don't think they would consider it a friendly step meeting with opposition members is one thing but taking part in rallies that's interference in domestic affairs partnership political analyst alexander pavitra told us that some form politicians positioning just doesn't tally with their democratic standards. this is clear. channel there is. even more so this is something that's should be unacceptable. a democratic stand you just have to have call our country to make its own sovereign choice and western

diplomats are just not doing. really concerning themselves about the actual situation or the benefit of the country or the people if you're just looking at it from the economic standpoint you were there was nothing to a. small piece of our democracy human rights. so it's really just a big. game and it's pretty simple actually. the world is mourning the loss of one of the twentieth century's most iconic leaders nelson mandela has died aged ninety five after a long illness south africa's first black president and the man who led the country out of decades of our part i had to democracy he spent his final years being nursed at home in johannesburg crowds gathered in the city to grieve for the man they knew

was moved and celebrate his legacy after a state funeral he's expected to be buried in a private family cemetery in is having been in accordance with his wishes world leaders praised mandela as a hero of our time and to giant for justice some of the most glowing tributes have come from the u.k. as well as smith reports. on almost every single newspaper this morning that is a picture of mandela passed across the front page it happened also thursday night was the premiere in london of a new film of nelson mandela's life in long walks of freedom and that was attended terror in london by nelson mandela's daughter who learned of his. death tolls way through the film it was also attended by the duke and duchess of cambridge said that started the royal tribute to prince william as he was leaving the film called mondello an extraordinary and inspiring man and the queen also paid

a somewhat personal tribute to mandela saying that she remembered their meetings with great warmth and then of course political tributes came in from europe and from all over the world and here in this country they were led of course by david cameron who called mandela a towering figure a legend in life and now in death a true global hero and said that a great light has gone out in the world and then ordered for the flag to be flown at half mast downing street out on a lot of other official buildings across london but this is all in turn around if we look just at the conservative movement for example in one thousand nine hundred seventy margaret thatcher who slammed him as a terrorist the a.n.c. could never rule south africa anyone who thought it was living in cloud cuckoo land david cameron also around that time made a trip to south africa as a rising star in the conservative movement and they were low being against sanctions on the apartheid movement so most certainly. now it's not clear whether david cameron was personally involved but certainly the organization he belonged to

was and it was a similar picture in the us but actually even more delayed in terms of his rehabilitation if you like. was on the terror list and he and his associates were removed from the database until as late as two thousand and eight nine years after his presidency of south africa was already over my colleague paula steer has been looking at this in more detail mandela's life over in south africa. he's the man who pulled a troubled and divided land back from the brink of civil war the man who after twenty seven tough years behind bars walked free from prison in his heart was not to avenge i think that his greatest legacy to this country is reconciliation but in the last three decades the world titus he polished the image of nelson mandela and image recognized around the world only coca-cola is better known better men who struggle for racial equality again south africa's ruling white minority had

a dark side the world has conveniently forgotten about now someone that i've been leader of a struggle. a radical. someone. in braced for violence and as a necessary political instrument at a particular juncture in our history this house was the secret headquarters of the african national congress it was here in the early sixty's that mandela and his comrades launched the armed struggle it was also here that most of them were wasted put on trial and sentencing to life in prison south african journalist chris bishop believes the one nine hundred sixty four trial that saw mandela and his comrades sentenced to life helped turn the world in their favor during the trial. these gentlemen who are on trial the rivonia trial as they went from being the accused of being people in the dark as slowly transformed they

became the benjamin franklin's of africa they became the freedom fighters they began the man of principle who is standing up merely for the rights of others and it's turned world opinion around from a vile terrorist to one of the greatest freedom fighters to have ever walked the earth the story of nelson mandela is remarkable a man who stood up for the rights of people everywhere but also a familiar tale of governments putting a garland of. flowers around your neck one day and a rope the next point to our t. johannesburg south africa. and you can read more on the fight for fairness which defined nelson mandela's life as well as get reactions to his legacy and that's all it r.t. dot com. they are gambling devices which can drain all your cash in seconds but in britain they are booming however rules to tighten up on fixed odds betting machine is known as the crack cocaine of the high street

affluent drink and as sarah firth reports that means payday for the bookmakers. there are high risk high stakes gaming machines this in the u.k. betting industry more than a billion pounds each year to. shore fix. a machine. and comply. better to one hundred every twenty seconds this is a twenty second repeat cycle every twenty seconds. you could feasibly. three hundred pounds power my children my wife my job my self-esteem. before i actually saw ok it's time to. the government's two thousand and five gambling act limited the number of high street betting shops are allowed to have to four machines now more recently in response to both public

and political concern the association of british bookmakers has released a voluntary code of conduct aimed at encouraging socially responsible behavior but we've seen evidence of among some leading high street folks make is everyone seems to be playing strictly by the rules inside this labrat says a glass petition it enables the store to carry not full but eight for the machines which are the ones that. are. in a statement about the store. this shop was a concept shop and there are no plans to open any further shops of this kind the industry's constantly manipulated response in terms of trying. to responsible behind a completely socially responsible ex army major justin a's well how devastating the

effects of a gambling addiction can be a lowest point was the day when. my mom my dad and my little brother he's actually taller than me. and just said. we've got to get you out of here. and i was just crying and. that's when i lost all my pride. i was completely humiliated but it's great because that was the day. i realized my recovery happened justin's written a book about his experience and is helping others on their raids to recovery but with scant research into the effects of these machines and as the industry seeks to maximize profit campaign is warning that not taking action eva for pity's is one gamble person can't afford to take surf the london we're

going to take a quick break now more news in a couple of minutes. dramas to be ignored. stories others used in the.

sixty's change the world. to picture. from around the globe. look. again welcome back now france has launched a military operation in the central african republic aimed at curbing a surge in sectarian violence earlier a un security council resolution authorizing french troops to join an african peacekeeping mission the latest clashes between rival militias in the capital bunky have killed over a hundred people muslim rebels who seized power in march of fighting christians who support the president and this has sparked fears the conflict could expand into

a full blown sectarian war. sometimes branded the policeman of africa france has remained active on the continent ever since the colonial era and it a here's a map that shows france's former colonies over the past decade alone france's led interventions in the democratic republic of congo the ivory coast to chad and most recently in mali that's aside from its involvement in libya now perished refused a request from the central african republic for intervention during a rebellion early this year saying it would not back a corrupt regime however the recent bloodshed has prompted france to pledge immediate action so i wanted still foreign affairs columnist that the guardian newspaper thinks the french are taking on a highly dangerous endeavor interventions are very high risk it much easier to get in than to get out there early sending another thousand troops out of

a group of fourteen hundred troops in treetops the french contingent when this deployment is complete for a country which is much bigger than from its round the chances are that you know who was the rest more more men more material on all resources will do so. the conflict will intensify in mali for instance or go and intervention also exposed for sure. the french are still there in quite some numbers but you know it was the militants the armed gangs that came aboard from suit and so on are still not honestly in terms of the suggestions of the french to work with it's not just resume their attempts to go of that country. an r.t. dot com right now from tiffany bling to caribbean cruises a decade long spending spree by dozens of russian diplomats in america and they could now find themselves in the thick of trouble being blamed for defrauding the u.s. medicare system to fund lavish lifestyles you can read more about the allegations

online also there details of how small written schools are seeing classrooms abandoned in eastern china and artificial rain could be used to dilute the country's suffocating pollution. the u.s. energy giant chevron has regimes searching for shale gas in the remaining village that's been the center of anti fracking protests for over two months local newspapers say up to forty demonstrators were beaten by police for setting up next to the fields targeted for drilling shale gas is extracted by pumping toxic fluid into the ground and the fear is that chemicals it contains accumulate in the soil water and even air after evaporating into the atmosphere let's go live now to paul cohen he's a member of the young greens which is a branch of the green party. he joins us at the moment i.

know we've heard paul thank you for coming on to the program we've heard the dangers of fracking they are well known but why is this technique why does it appear that it's still being paraded by world governments. i think the reason that governments are so interested in it is because of the vested interests that so many governments have continued exploitation of fossil fuels and as increasingly conventional sources of these fossil fuels right now governments and companies are desperate to find increasingly radical ways to extract. energy sources that realistically should be left in the ground but given the. such a strong economic argument. that really that is the only way forward many people would say britain's economy is in dire straits at the moment we really do have to look at this. actually the arguments on the economics

of shale gas are fundamentally flawed the u.k. energy market is notoriously for the title and any small reduction in the price of energy will be will disappear within months of appearing and ultimately the only way that we can bring energy prices down for the consumer long term is not by manipulating international markets through small amounts of unconventional energy sources it's through exploiting increasingly flyable wind and solar alternatives. why do you think major companies aren't taking all the precautions they need before they start drilling the argument could be do you think that look if they do take more precautions then it would be safe wouldn't it. i think saying that shale gas could ever be safe relies on companies having standards of ethics that. they clearly have not

shown throughout the industrial period around the globe and if companies can find a short cut that increases their profit margin they're going to take it so we are going to continue to see where fracking takes place contamination of the water supply and other dangers posed by the exploitation of shale gas and probably will see demonstrations that we're seeing at the moment in romania but do you think the authorities will ever listen. i think the authorities will have to listen at some point given that there is an increasing and continued trend of protests here in the u.k. of course we saw earlier this year protests in him where. peaceful demonstrators were arrested including caroline lucas m.p. of the greens and there are protests in the northwest at the moment against the plans to exploit sell gas and as you mentioned peaceful protesters have been

arrested in romania but if these protests continue which i'm sure they will eventually the authorities will have to listen to the weight of public opinion ok well thank you paul for giving us your opinion that support coming from the young greens there live from london thank you. a radical islamist rebel group in syria has given its terms to releasing twelve christian nuns held hostage since monday the extremists want the syrian government to free a thousand women from prison so far there's been no comment from damascus regarding the demand the nuns were seeds from a monastery during an opposition assault on a predominantly christian town and islamic extremists have been increasingly targeting the christian minority in syria the country's ambassador to the un told r.t. that some foreign powers do have influence over the kidnappers we ask the security council members. to act immediately and to shoulder the responsibilities

in order to make pressure on those states and governments who may have influence over these terrorist groups so that they would be released without any condition if the norms and the autumn's we should make a petition actually on the saudi government and the qatari government as well as security is government is these are three governments are deeply involved in escalating the situation in syria through the operations conducted and undertaken by terrorist groups. sons of fast food and retail workers in the u.s. staged a national strike on thursday calling for an increase to the minimum wage president obama pledged to push for higher salaries in the industry back in february but critics say little has been done since report i was at the protest in new york. what began here in new york city one year ago with just two hundred employees has exploded into arguably the biggest wave of protest in the history of america's fast

food industry thousands of fast food employees in more than one hundred cities throughout this country have walked off the job thursday demanding an increase in minimum wage and the right to unionize now this movement is being spearheaded by an organization called fast food forward and the fast food workers that have joined the strike work at major restaurants like wendy's mcdonald's burger king and k.f.c. now while fast food remains a two hundred billion dollar industry the median wage for the service workers like the cooks and the cashiers in the group nationwide is just eight dollars and ninety four cents an hour here in new york city it's even worse with the minimum wage being seven dollars and twenty five cents an hour now because of the low wages and many of the employees if not most employed at fast food restaurants are living in

poverty i don't know homicide and by the grace of god i am. i am in a shelter trying to get out of there and i can't do it because i don't get paid that much some struggling you know and that's why i'm here to see one of these we will four million dollars they asked for right to take it a family where the single people when asked america away and i believe all fall there's invision a country not full cooperation before the working man about another make way too much money for us to be treated like that where the one will give them the money that they were the one earns and then if they were not earning that because they're the one who takes the money home to make matters worse this problem is only growing low wage jobs have accounted for the bulk of new jobs added during the so-called us . we're covering an addition of retail and fast food are among the fastest growing sectors in the u.s.

economy now what these protesters are demanding is that minimum we raise to fifteen dollars an hour so far only one city in washington state has met those demands this crowd around me they're doing so to fight for a basic a decent living wage an opportunity to step one foot into the worlds of the so called american dream reporting from new york marina r.t. . coming up a special report on the social programs in africa that are actually fueling poverty and that. we often see the middle east as a place of constant turmoil and revolution but people in thailand seem to be very

fired up as well masses of protesters are force a government ministries to shut down by storming them with human waves one such ministry is the time equivalent of the american f.b.i. which has been accused of killing around ninety people in a crackdown on those who support ousted prime minister taksin shinawatra who is the brother of the current leader while people are crying out for democracy with accusations of violence against protesters so where is barack obama john kerry the mainstream media i mean whatever some group of rebels protestors are i mean freedom fighters rise up for democracy are we supposed to arm them like in syria and or bomb their country back into the stone age like in libya serbia iraq some protests explode across the mainstream media with calls for intervention and others are almost totally silent like thailand and bulgaria where there have also been storming of buildings less than a month ago i might be a conspiracy theorist but the selective coverage and so. of concern for some humans rights and off the rights of others well it smells a bit fishy to me but that's just my opinion.

of the continuing inconsistent rise of china to be declaring restrictive fly zones or a critical view on the subject of buying u.s. dollar debt in fact it would appear china is tearing a page from washington's playbook it too will make rules to fit its geo political interests. vent to do last year twenty two million take to go fer tile arab land was stolen from african farmers by see now the woods was handed over to board by a hedge funds and multinational societies we. so when the world bank says yes we have to encourage foreign investment. give this pool exploited african land rights to the fruit farms in ma say. or to new york hedge funds.

your because then they are capable of making this land profitable now that is a moderate argument for the farmers who work locally. sourced process i think for a country to make the best use of those resources that it has in abundance and to. given the limits of its own domestic market of course to export those resources in order to generate wealth and that's a strategy that a number of not just african countries but countries in throughout the world have done very well by. so i wouldn't look at it in the narrow perspective of just been able to reimburse death debt but in fact as a way of generating wealth and generating opportunities for growth and.