framework. antigovernment protests well in the ukrainian capital is the opposition hopes to gather a million man march declaring is the country's leaders last chance to listen. but fanning the flames of foreign politicians with ardent statements supporting the opposition some even coming to kiev despite the anti government moved. remaining villages be back chevron's fracking advances with weeks of violent clashes forcing the oil giant and its police back up to suspend operations for a second time. to save prayer for south africans for their former leader and international symbol of peace nelson mandela we look at how he overcame bitter

derision from countries who are hewing to mourn him. and the scanning scandinavians it emerges that sweden buddied up with america's n.s.a. to listen across russia's leadership a major firms. are welcome it's nice to have your company you're watching international. now tens of thousands have gathered in the ukrainian capital for a major anti-government protests the opposition is calling this the last chance and hope for at least a million people to show up pour scott is there live for us paul they were asking for a million people to show up does it look like they'll get close to that number. one . hundred the rally is enough. full swing and despite the freezing conditions

thousands possibly hundreds of thousands remain on the square behind me now the organizers are saying that the figure is close to one million the police opposing it nearer twenty thousand so there is some ambiguity there but the one thing that is certain is that oprah's asian leaders have addressed the crowd throughout the course of sunday including the daughter of former prime minister and jailed opposition leader junia timashev and heavyweight boxing world champion the tali klitschko now quick to go reiterated the five dumond's of the opposition now these all that. there was the release of the protesters who were arrested last week and that is punishment for those who violently clamp down on the demonstrations on the president viktor yanukovych and his government resign and there is a early election in order to as he calls it reboot the government now these demands have been part of an ultimatum with a general strike a nationwide general strike being called if these demands are met and some

protesters have even made the journey from the square behind me to nearby governmental administrative buildings to blockade those buildings the opposition leaders are edging the protesters for these demonstrations to remain peaceful now there are also reports emerging locally that some of the opposition leaders have even divided up the roles in any possible future into written government although that has yet to be confirmed the opposition being void by further support from european officials as my colleague arena coolish to reports. the rain is not the only one neighbor seeing and government anger on the street but for some reason peeves independence square has captured the minds of not politicians from here up and the u.s. we have seen a veritable parade of them here on some running out was with the opposition leaders and even sometimes they do take a dissuades to speak for the crowds and yet few seem to have made the pass to hear it from both sides from the cunt. players and their supporters. right there from an

assistant secretary of state we stand with the people of ukraine who see their future in europe and want to bring their country back to economic health and unity to former polish president share the supporters of euro integration must remain firm and seize the momentum of the protest this is the only way they can get you know coverage to make concessions and current members of the european parliament which are all civil society and democratic opposition in its claim to have possibility for the nation to express its we are employees which means only election what began as a pro e.u. push descended into an out and out attack on the leadership the usual buzzwords of democracy justice and the will of the people were interspersed with not so subtle calls for the president because going to college to admit has been beaten this is clear where appearances mean john affairs arsalan conscious and they're not even

hiding it anymore so this is something that's should be unacceptable as a democratic standard widely seen as a clear breach of diplomatic conduct it also raised questions in moscow. 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 room 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 a fat commission that the private mission early in the week the government survived a no confidence vote in the ukrainian parliament was immune from. defeated by the democratic process opposition m.p.'s went home to block the stage and stalling parliament. outside protest leaders called on people to take over as many civic offices as possible what should have been a public debate on the pros and cons of. has descended into

a foreign feud meddling to boost in opposition to different axe to grind illegally school r t. a political and financial commentator. patrick young told me earlier that the e.u. politicians in kiev are more concerned about their own image than ukraine or the union's wellbeing m.e.p. its members of the european parliament are terrified that they're about to be outflanked by anti european forces in elections in four or five months time therefore they're doing anything to try and get a tinge of popularity and of course the way they do that in the socialist european superstate of the e.u. is trying to be seen around liberal demonstrators at all times because it kind of inflates their ok credentials of looking like hippy liberals the truth is they have no coherent concept of why or what they could do with ukraine and in fact the worst thing that could happen in many senses is that you korean now signs this economic

deal because if it did a live free movement of labor it would be chaos for europe as usual the european union a super state of humbug and hypocrisy where is the anti-government protests in ukrainian capital grow so do the rallies in support of blocking the trade deal with the thousands of pro-government activists descended on the capital in towns across the east of the country to make their voice heard recent polls suggest ukraine's sharply divided on the issue of e.u. integration more than seventy percent of people in the west of the country favor the deal but that figure dropped sharply sharply to thirty in the east and analysts believe a revolution is unlikely but if it did happen those in the east would take action to support the government. if there is a pro e.u. . orange revolution there would be a pro customs union pro russian counter-revolution so it would be the path to the

civil war because let's face it in the industrial base in of the east they know that if they join the e.u. package they would of course they will never join the e.u. itself they would lose customs privileges in russia very industrial goods which are still being exported to russia in increasing quantities would certainly become thirty five percent more expensive which would price them out of the market in the saying i doubt very much that e.u. countries will certainly express an interest in buying ukraine real goods so even if the reason attempt at the violent overthrow of the government there would be there finitely a very sizeable counterforce ready to come onto the streets it is no longer two thousand and four when no one was willing to risk their skin for. me ma there are fears the upcoming so-called million man march could become fertile

ground for a repeat of last weekend's violent unrest both the government and the opposition agree the riots were deliberately instigated but they didn't differ on who is behind them john mcadams is executive director of the wrong paul into a cheap think tank and he says such provocation is part of a pattern often used in care attempts you see a pattern here of escalation in provocation we've seen it before in these previous revolutions i think really the protesters on the ground they had a very large public provocation a few nights ago and they were using chains and tractors and of course the police as police do everywhere reacted with violence the u.s. has counseled nonviolence but what would happen if someone drove a tractor and tried to drive it into the white house lawn you're going to tell me that there wouldn't be violence against the one hundred thousand people trying to break into the white house so everywhere governments would normally protect their buildings. beneath all the political problems rupturing ukraine the reaver more

pressing economic ones later this hour an arty venture capital with katie pilbeam reveals just how close the country is to going under and the ramifications of its predicament. it's cost them a beating but protesters have metal less managed to again hold work at a fracking site in northeast romania the shell gas well was being developed by u.s. energy giant chevron with an army of police to ensure security but the locals who make up some of europe's poorest were horrified at the prospect of fisons of tons of toxins being pumped into the land which provides that only life for the herds you see caffein off is there for r.t. . in a remote part of romania a day of rage and fury. protesters stormed a work site operated by chevron and police responded with full force those who

didn't leave willingly were dragged away so you can see. in what country we are living the police forces are behaving like a private protection company for so wrong. but what the people here want to know is who will protect them from big business this is one of the poorest corners of the european union but it's believed to sit on top of large reserves of valuable natural gas it's the sort of place that's changed little over the centuries and most of the residents still live off the land land which could soon be pumped full of toxic fluid in order to get the fuel underneath it's a simple everyday action drawing water out of the well for the villagers here and put ingest this is really what's at the heart of the matter the environment and the water for them it's not so much about fighting chevron as it is about protecting both their lives and livelihoods you from around the beef all my years i have been

working on the land it is the only live the time now. during the day isn't your typical sort of protester a farmer all her life she and her husband were also some of the first villagers to speak out. against chevron's plans to drill for natural gas in their community we've heard horror stories of water supplies being polluted forests no longer being green we don't want to risk everything for this company to make a profit chevron says it's committed to working with the local community to drill without damaging the environment it insists that it is abiding by all safety rules but that's not reassuring for farmers like the silly. to have a dam they could completely destroy us we just want to protect what's important in our land and that's what they've done for more than a month now braving the cold to villagers set up makeshift tents across from the company's drilling site chevron did temporarily suspend its operations but last

week the camp was raided by the police for five for one man and i was punched in the face it was humiliating rumanian but the police treated us like criminals i felt like we were found out to do for both of them retired ourselves together to form a human chain they were kicking ass and beating us with their bottoms i was kicked here there's another villager who's in hospital now because of how hard they hit him in the stomach. and on saturday more violence would began as a peaceful demonstration was broken up by force another arrest the protests are at an end but demonstrators continue to get taken away in this car in some ways it's a case of david versus goliath a tiny romanian village fighting to get an energy giant chevron off of its land but despite the arrests despite the protests and despite the clashes the chevron trucks are already here and the work looks set to go on reporting into ingest romania for r.t.e. i'm lucy catherine. on top of chemical pollution and water contamination fracking

is also blamed for causing earthquakes and also you don't call texas communities it being rolled by unexplained tremors which locals insist are done to fracking. sunday is a day of prayer and reflection in south africa remembering a former president nelson mandela who died on thursday poor a sliver polish now in home his life was a long walk from being labeled a terrorist to becoming the world's most respected freedom fighter. 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 revenge but i think that his greatest legacy to this country is reconciliation in

the last three decades the world tirelessly 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 then of a need or a struggle. a radical. someone. an embrace of violence and as a necessary political instrument at a particular juncture in our history this house was the secret hip quarters 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 flour. is around your neck one day and a rope the next point r t johannesburg south africa well nelson mandela had a knack for inspirational and eloquent comments we've put together some of the ones rarely seen elsewhere at r.t. dot com you can look at the iconic leaders thoughts on america's influence in the

world the invasion of iraq and the israeli palestinian conflict still ahead for you this hour the case ramping up the pressure on journalists working to expose britain's pivotal role in global surveillance. from sudan to bridge. the editor of the newspaper the forefront of the spying expose a is called to a terrorism hearing facing some seemingly far fetched accusations but also right simple things and the nuns talk kidnapped in syria here on video say they are saying they are being treated well by the rebels but the middle east watches tell our t.v. it's hard to believe that reality is fighters are entirely the good guys we've got the stories coming up in a couple of minutes. drama

. stories.

from around the. globe to. come back now a group of syrian nuns who went missing after rebels captured the christian village of have made contact with the world saying they were not kidnapped but were in fact rescued from a shelling attack video statement has raised questions though with many suspecting the women were speaking. rice originalist he's been to syria several times and has met with christians that doesn't buy claims of the rebels good intentions. we have to see that. doesn't have a military strategic well you butted heads the symbolic well you would it's a very old it's an ancient christian pilgrimage with

a very modern history so when we see you know where the nonce are filled and when this one is telling that they are treated well and all like this we shouldn't forget that the shelling the tank on the monastery wasn't turned off by the syrian army it was turned on by the so-called rebels who are in reality nothing else then terrorists that's that's the fact so and we saw in the past the couple of books we all saw kidnapped christians of course they are saying we are treated well we get good food we should look on the facts on the verify it fits what we see is that it . was the text right now the second time within several weeks. egyptians are feeling the impact of a new regulation restricting public rallies two leading revolutionaries a standing trial charged with taking part in illegal gatherings we report from cairo later this hour.

it emerged this week this week in on the n.s.a. spying game what's more it's the keys of peeking through the kremlin ski hole swedish t.v. reported fresh leaks from edward snowden that stockholm had fed intelligence from russia's leadership and energy giants to the united states here's what the chief editor of the news program that broke this story told r.t. yearly about their findings we have revealed the. very close relationship between the swedish defense radio authority every. american counterpart n.s.a. and. according to the documents. f.r.a. have spied spying on the russian leadership and they are passing this information on to n.s.a. we got access to these documents thanks to edward snowden so for we have don't have

any details more than the documents are mentioning. that they're talking about unique intelligence they're talking about classic intelligence and they also mentioning cables the spokesman of f.r.a. didn't give any comments but. when axed asked about being. seen as a leading partner that's the way they spell it in these documents for a is a leading partner to n.s.a. then he says ok that's flattering he ses so that's the only comment we have received so far well investigative journalist duncan campbell says sweden has historically helped the u.s. with intelligence betraying privacy of their citizens and neighboring states in the process. sweden always. intelligence relationship with

them where security in the years of the cold war. the term secretly. to the club of the big spies in which they are for the goodies to give to their prime minister in return for betraying we presume security of all of their neighbors and money of foreign citizens sweden was the largest collaborator in europe with the internet tapping program run by the private eyes group of being respecting countries. so it does so because of its. direct access to the baltic then it's no surprise that you see it's few going to say with one half as well as everything else you can take from street. across the north sea the editor of britain's guardian newspaper has grilled terry herring this week for publishing stories exposing the scale of global surveillance which the u.k. is now a small part of the government accuses the paper of encouraging terrorism by revealing

how they are being spied on by journalists be made he believes it's all part of a public flogging campaign. it's theater because it's actually for internal consumption it's really for the united kingdom and david cameron is trying to demonstrate that he's the strong man that he's tough on terrorism that he's not going to let journalists you know tell him what to do and therefore he's coming out with these statements which of the rest of the world thinks pretty crazy because everyone is saying from president obama downwards that we should have this debate about what are the limits of surveillance and what kind of oversight should we have and it's really only david cameron the u.k. government that's saying we shouldn't do that some of today's world news headlines now inspectors from the united nations nuclear agency are touring the heavy water reactor in the iranian town of iraq the facility is significant because if completed it could potentially be used to process plutonium a key step in making nuclear weapons a six month agreement signed a fortnight ago gave to iran a partial lifting of sanctions in exchange for

a freeze of some of its nuclear activity. a series of attacks across the iraqi capital has killed at least thirty three people and wounded ninety three attack strike in two shiite muslim suburbs in the west of baghdad one bomb was hidden in a car and detonated near a crowded market when jet admitted responsibility for the explosions this year has been one of the most deadly in iraq at r.t. dot com we do have an online project documents the civilian cost since the american led intervention. the long arm of the law has reached the leaders of the revolution that toppled hosni mubarak in egypt three years ago they are now standing trial under a new law banning unauthorized protests well true has the details from cairo. two leading secular activists make it drama will be in court today for the first session of their trial they're being targeted legally protesting and for allegedly

assaulting police officers in demonstrations last month too many prominent voices in the january two thousand level revolution among the first to be tried for the offense or. to egypt's new controversial protest though it was in force by the government last month and bans all rallies over ten people from gathering the information from the ministry of interior there was mass aprile when the law was promulgated as people here say most protests are against interior ministry and the brutality of that police force and they will give security forces a copy of the by let me disperse demonstrations this is something we've certainly seen in the last few weeks security forces have used tear gas water cannons and birdshot but it's against protesters attempting to rally without permission of the government backed by the military and defending the legislation saying is essential to restore law and order and also to help it is tied to the economy the trial marks a key turning point in the summer the military in the government had targeted islamist supporters of mohamed morsy. showing that the government is widely as cracked down to include all forms of dissent even people here in egypt as being the

country is returning to a police state. thanks for being with us today up next a look at the emotional trauma suffered by american families of servicemen who lost their loved ones to friendly fire. 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 forcing government ministries to shut down by storming them with human waves one such ministry is the thai 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 protest 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 selective concern for some humans rights and not for the rights of others well it smells a bit fishy to me but that's just my opinion. army grieve the loss of every soldier. his mother father brothers and wife will forever grieve as was. grief that was

compound about the failing of his army. we have a duty to all families of our fallen soldiers give them the truth the best we know it's best we can.