this is r t tonight an ultimatum for ukraine's president is voiced at a massive protest in the capital where the opposition hoped to gather a million man march and lay siege to the government quarter is a live pictures from care right now going to our correspondent there next and fanning the flames of foreign politicians too with added statement supporting the opposition some even coming to. the anti government move. a series of clashes the shale gas side in romania seize oil giant chevron suspend operations again offering a brief respite in the villages who say fracking will destroy their livelihood. a day of prayer for south africans for their former leader an international symbol of peace nelson mandela we look at how we overcame bitter division from countries

who are now queuing to mourn. and the scanning scandinavians it emerges that sweden buddied up with america's n.s.a. to listen across russia's leadership and major for us to. buy new center at nine pm here in moscow this is the weekly roundup of the top stories of the last seven days with me kevin owen tonight first though a story happening right now at least one hundred thousand people have gathered in the ukrainian capital for a major anti-government protest the opposition's warning that this rally is the last chance as they put it for the government and the president live for us hi paul when we last spoke to thousands out on the streets i guess no change are there anymore do you think. yeah well those are still ambiguity over the exact figures

but so are the certainty is that thousands do you still remain in the square behind me despite the bitter. the cold conditions on this also no one certainty over the key demands of the opposition as well heavyweight boxing champion batali klitschko taking to the stage behind me and hurting the protests and the protesters to remain peaceful was a symbol ten years late giving the government an ultimatum but i have to say despite klitschko schools we can pull this evening the masked men carrying nationalistic flyers have a pull down a statue a monumental lenin and smashed it with a sledge hammer as elsewhere today there are a number of key demands being outlined by the opposition as part of that ultimatum these include the fact the protesters should be released any protesters who have been arrested throughout the course of these demonstrations on those that come down violently on the protesters last weekend should be punished and other key demands include the resignation of president viktor yushchenko vagina's government and an

immediate election now on their part the opposition opposition have called for a nationwide general strike and they continue to surround him blockade key governmental departmental ministers have buildings here in the center of kiev for their part the ukrainian security services say they're investigating what they are calling a tend to seize power in the country and it's also emerged on sunday that the e.u. foreign policy representative catherine ashton is set to visit kiev later this week to try and find a political solution to the crisis on the whole movement really has been boyd this weekend life support from european officials as my colleague arena galicia now reports. over the weekend is not the only one neighbor seeing anti government anger on its street but for some reason cleaves 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 small running out was where the opposition. there is a way and sometimes are taken to the states to speak for the crowds and yet few seem to have made the past to hear it from both sides from the country's leaders 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 coach to make decisions and current members of the european parliament with the whole civil society and democratic opposition to its claim to have possibility for the nation to express its will and saudis which means every 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 or interest first with the not so subtle calls for president they can acquire which to admit has been beaten this is clear in the currency meantime if there is a sovereign country and they're not even hiding the more 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 private mission early in the week the government survived a no confidence vote in the ukrainian parliament was to be. defeated by the

democratic process opposition m.p.'s went home to block the stage and stalling parliament yeah maybe. side protest leaders called on people to take over as nice to the caucuses as possible the idea of the whole process of walking is to show that ukrainians are ready to be part of europe and they can protest in peaceful european natters of course majority of the people are trying to keep it civil or keeping it peaceful but what exactly will happen later in the day we have yet to find out if. there's a killing financial commentator patrick young believes that the politicians in care more concerned about their own image than ukraine or the union's well being. any peace members of the european parliament are terrified that they're about to be outflanked by until european forces in elections in four or five months time therefore they're doing anything to try and get a ten inch 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 ukraine knowledge signs this economic do 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. well ruling party officials are urging the protestors to go home saying their blockade of administrative buildings is preventing the approval of the twenty fourteen budget though that could have an impact on state salaries and pensions across the country so far there is no sign of the rallies abating thousands of pro-government activists descended on the capital and in towns across the east of the country to make their voices heard as well in fact recent polls suggest ukraine the sharply divided on the issue of integration as you can see there more than seventy percent of the people in the west of the country favor a trade deal with europe that figure drops closer to thirty percent in the east now

analysts believe a revolution however is unlikely but if it did help those in the east would be likely to support the government if there is a pro e.u. neo orange revolution there would be a pro customs union pro russian counter-revolution so it will 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 will of course they will never join you itself they would lose customs privileges in russia and their 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 same time i doubt very much that countries will certainly express an interest in buying the real goods so

even if the reason attempt the violent overthrow of the government there would be definitely a very sizable counterforce ready to come to the streets it is no longer two thousand and four when no one was willing to risk their skin for. but he thought the political problems rupture in ukraine there are even more pressing economic ones too just about three hours time tonight and r.t. venture capital is on air again with katie pilbeam revealing just how close the country is to going under at the ramifications of its current predicament to. the big story of in covering this week it cost them a beating but protesters have nevertheless managed to again all work at that fracking site in northeast rumania the shale gas well was being developed by u.s. energy giant chevron with an army of police to ensure security for the locals who make up some of europe's poorest were horrified at the prospect of thousands of tons of toxins being pumped into the land which provides their only livelihoods

lucy caffein office covering the story 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. company for a 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 in jest 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 but if you have run 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. little camel they could

compute you destroy us we just want to protect what's important. and that's what they've done for more than a month now braving the cold 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 after one man i was punched in the face it was humiliating rumanian but the police treated us like criminals i felt like we were thrown down. 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 religion 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 and put in just romania for r t. while on top of a chemical pollution of the water contamination fracking is also blamed for causing earthquakes on a website of. texas communities being rocked by unexplained tremors recently which three locals are insisting is. sunday is a day of prayer and reflection in south africa remembering a former president nelson mandela who died on thursday reports next on how is life was a long walk from being labeled a terrorist at one point to becoming the world's most respected freedom fighter.

he's the man who pulled a troubled divided man back on 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 nelson mandela the need are of no struggle. a radical. someone. an embrace violence as a 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 sentenced 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 were 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 that began the man of principle who is standing up merely for the rights of others and it's only to turn 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. was around will make one day and evoke the next point to.

johannesburg south africa. not current spiration one eloquent comments and we put together some of the words rarely seen elsewhere on our website l.t. dot com you can take a look at the iconic leaders thoughts on america's influence in the world the invasion of iraq and indeed also the israeli palestinian conflict as well. still ahead here on r.t. international the u.k.'s ramping up the pressure on journalists working to expose britain's pivotal role in global surveillance. if you. want to do it from so that it doesn't break into the notes it's the editor of the newspaper the forefront of the spying expose a call to a terrorism hearing facing some seemingly far fetched accusations but also some sympathy to. bring up to speed them up story been covering all week the nuns thought kidnapped in syria appeared now on video saying they're being treated well by the rebels but at least watches tell us it's hard to believe that the anti assad

fighters are entirely the good guys here talk about that too right after this quick break. this is the place that has been consecrated to god for almost a thousand years people came here twenty years ago it's very established as to why on this island. and people of the love of christ working. people say you can. come and something happens on this island that makes them return to it again and again they say that saves them. join me james brown on a journey for the soul. only.

right. first strike. and i think. hello again a group of syrian nuns who went missing after rebels captured the christian village of have made contact with the world in the last twenty four hours saying they were not kidnapped but were rescued from a shelling attack now the video statements raised questions they were with many suspect the women were speaking under duress many looks right as a journalist who's been to syria several times he's also met with christians there he doesn't buy the claims of the rebels good intentions. we have to see that.

doesn't have any military strategic well you butted heads a symbolic well you would it's a very old it's an agent christian pilgrimage with a very modest three so when we see now that. the nuns are filmed there when this one is telling that they are treated well and all like this we shouldn't forget that the shelling 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 the it's really all soft kidnapped christians of course they are saying we are treated well we get good food we should look on the facts on the verify facts what we see is that. was protected right now the second time within several weeks.

egyptians are feeling the impact of a new regulation restricting public rallies two leading revolutionaries are standing fell the charge of taking part in a legal gatherings we got a report on that little bit later from cairo. but next it's emerged this week the sweden's in on the n.s.a. spying game what's more it's accused of peeking through the kremlin is keyhole to swedish t.v. reported fresh legs from edward snowden that stockholm had fed intelligence from russia's leadership and energy giants to the united states is what the chief editor of the news program the broke the story had a tell us earlier about their findings. we have revealed that. the very close relationship between the swedish defense radio authority f.r.a. and their 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 by 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 that 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 but also thoughts reverse journals duncan campbell who says sweden is a storage lee helped the u.s. with intelligence betraying privacy of the citizens and neighboring states in the process. sweden norway does have a lot of

a covert intelligence relationship with where still in the years of cold war. being tempted to secretly. to go to the club with a big spy suit which they are offered to give to their prime minister in return for betraying we receive in security of all of their neighbors and money forever and citizens sweden was the largest collaborator in your free internet program run by the private eyes group of being respected in countries. and so it does so because of its direct access to the baltic then it's no surprise that you see it few and they say we want that as well as everything else you can take from street. across the north sea meantime the editor of britain's guardian newspaper was grilled of the terror hearing this week for publishing stories exposing the scale of global surveillance which the u.k.

is no small part of the government accuses the paper of encouraging terrorism by revealing how they're being spied on but journalist glenn moody believes it's all part of a public flogging campaign it's theatre 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 for 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 is really only david cameron and the u.k. government that's saying we shouldn't do that. well when your image is as bad as the n.s.a. as you think wouldn't you want to downplay the dragnet seems not this is how the u.s. intelligence community guards its latest secret surveillance mission here is it an angry love of an angry all seeing octopus gobbling up the world. also

whistleblowers waiting game we talk about that too often talking of three years now in britain under house arrest and an embassies political asylum to boot r.t. dot com looks at why julian assange still hasn't been charged. a series of bombings and shootings across the iraqi capital has killed at least thirty nine people and wounded ninety the deadliest attack was in the shiite suburb of baghdad where a car bomb went off near work shot iraqi journalist and peace activist says the situation is worse for many than it was under former dictator saddam hussein now six months after the bombings in ninety one there was the electricity there was a lot for me. there a distribution. russians so people didn't die of hunger people who did die because there was no no love left clean water and so on a lot of diseases goddess actions imposed by the united states but there were race

experiences of people who are and it's not like the situation now where after ten years or rationed eleven years and. there are no basic services the long arm of the law is reached the leaders of the revolution that toppled hosni mubarak in egypt three years ago then i was standing trial under a new law banning unauthorized protests truth got the latest from cairo about that . two leading secular activists mehan they're being charged with illegally protesting and for allegedly assaulting police offices in demonstrations last month and two men who were prominent voices in the january two thousand level revolution among the first to be tried for the offense related to egypt's new controversial protest it was in force by the government last month and bans all rallies to ten people from gathering information in 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 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 it's 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 with measure and trial is showing that the government is widely is cracked down to include all forms of dissent even people here in egypt being the country is returning to a police state. true reporting for us to look at the news teams that you service twenty four seven are. just about thirty three minutes time after the break though often our adventures again we visit the russian orthodox churches one of the most holy an isolated site some pretty pictures coming out a good story to right after the break.

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 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 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 strong winds 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 off the rights of others well it smells a bit fishy to me but that's just my opinion. the windswept journey to can be an act of penance in itself. doesn't know for excitement or adventure yet many come here for months at a time some never leave it's all they say that the the saves. this is one of the holiest sites of the

russian orthodox church home to a thriving ministry the lay community that would exclude it and groups of volunteers that come and go throughout the year for the face full this is a journey for the soul the pilgrimage. this is the plays that has been consecrated to god for almost a thousand of years. people came here twenty some years ago and so reestablished the monastic life on this island. they were in that believing that . christ is their only source of true joy and.