tonight will to make some few cranes president is voiced in a massive protest in the capital where the opposition hopes to gather a million man march and lay siege to the government quarter. and fanning the flames of foreign politicians with adam statement supporting the opposition some even coming to kiev to spur the anti government move. more the big stories of the week a series of clashes in the shale gas side in romania seize all giant chevron now suspend operations again offering a brief rest by the villagers who say fracking will destroy their livelihoods. a day of prayer for south africans for their leader an international symbol of peace nelson mandela look at how he overcame bitter derision from countries with no queuing to mourn. the scanning scandinavians it emerges that sweden buddied

up with america's n.s.a. to listen across russia's leadership and also some major firms to do. very good even for me kevin i mean if you just joined us is just past the level here in moscow this is r.t. international and you watching the weekly a roundup of the big stories of the last seven days first one ongoing at the moment indeed two at least one hundred thousand people have gathered in ukraine tonight for a major anti-government protest in the capital the opposition's warning that this rally is the last chance for the government and president as they put it pull scots their. there's a still ambiguity over the exact figures but the certainty is that thousands do still remain in the square behind me despite the bitterly cold conditions on this

also i well know one certainty over the key demands of the opposition as well heavyweight boxing champion batali klitschko taking to the stage behind me and urging the protest and the protesters to remain peaceful was similar ten years later 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 or 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 that protesters should be released any protesters who've 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 the 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 and attend to seize power in the country and it's also much 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 void fly support from european officials as my colleague arena galicia now reports we were saying is not the only way your neighbor is seeing anti-government anger on the street but for some reason cleaves independence square has captured the minds of not politicians from here and the u.s. you have. seen a veritable parade of members here once more running out was where the opposition leaders they are and sometimes it'll take you 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 to a 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 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 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 were interspersed with not so subtle calls for the president because you can quote to admit has been beaten this is

clear here it is you mean tunnel 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 rules 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. early in the week the government survived a no confidence vote in the ukrainian parliament. which emerged. defeated by the democratic process opposition m.p.'s. went on to block the stage and stalling parliament. outside protest leaders called on people to take over as many see because this is as possible the a.d.l.

are the process of walking is to show that ukrainians are ready to be part of europe and they can protest a peaceful european natter and 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. well we'll be covering it whatever from analysis of the situation top live to journalist neil clark on the line from the u.k. i merely bring to you and we visited several e.u. officials over the past couple of weeks coming to to kiev to support what they call the democratic aspirations of the people who are much more located there when we saw the anti-government protests for instance in spain in greece where they're more vocal now oh absolutely i mean i was actually in spain kevin in two thousand and twelve where they were. going to straighten the spanish government gets lost everything back in september two thousand and four i was there. i didn't see any your requests coming out there to show their solidarity with the spanish government to change course i didn't see anybody coming out poland or germany so the spanish

government to change its policies did you similar sort of thing where we've got you know even thinking outside the e.u. with turkey all the trouble there again it was much lower care is the concern yet we're seeing constant ashton now coming to kiev again in a couple of days well absolutely kevin there were hundreds of thousands of people protesting not just in the capital but throughout and it was much more national protests this protest in ukraine is very much a protest of the western ukraine and we didn't get that we can get catherine ashton going out to the stand for ankara to show solidarity or anybody from the e.u. really got. the protesters in turkey were peaceful they were going to great brutality by the police there will also lead to the arrest of the big challenge your claim to be sacked as a result in ukraine so the double standards are absolutely glaring it seems to go on the streets of right and. it's fine to have an european in encouraging the inside to be doing turkey no they don't need to do it in spain they don't so the double standards are absolutely outrageous really why isn't there

a stream of people from me is going to the east of ukraine that's where they actually need to be doing the talking isn't it and convincing the plot surely they're in the wrong place absolutely but we see from this kevin some protests are more equal than others the protesters in the ukraine here are good protesters the west supports the because they want to bring down the ukrainian government they want to push ukraine away from russia the protest is under great pressure here what is the real the idea well the real deal here is that we look at the polls and we show no more forty five percent of people who are in the polls actually support the protesters in the ukraine and yet we have the polish and he's going to ukraine saying the government has got to change its course there's going to be fresh elections this is not democracy this is a perversion of democracy that the green people vote in the electorate president there be another option to you and it's a question of observing the democratic process and respecting it but i'm afraid these requests are not respecting democracy here they're trying to incite regime change in ukraine or at least bully the government to change its policies or call early elections it is completely wrong and as i said it was happening in spain it

was happening in greece as it has been happening we wouldn't get a mix of polish m.e.p. going out there and and show their solidarity with the protesters so how is it as our guest was professor marco what last hour if you go to a rocky road it doesn't bode well for what up with in the in the future for instance within its lead for instance with. what absolutely but it seems weird that you know if you protest in spain you don't really count do you i mean that as a democracy that the bill which hath the spanish people are up in arms about what their government's been doing so the greek government but they're being ignored they're not getting elite support from the western capitals quite the opposite so i think the european union has it's got a massive democratic deficit they're calling policies austerity policies we don't have support they don't have us for majority and you know what your dad. to say to ukrainian government look you've got to change course because there's people in the streets in here it's absolutely outrageous it's one democratic it's unbelievable really it's all well again neil clark broadcast from god of us paper contributor

thank you ever so much for being on the line nice to see you tonight very scary or ruling party officials meantime are urging the protestors to go home saying their blockade of administrative buildings is preventing the approval of the twenty fourteen budget that could have an impact on state salaries and pensions across the country so far there's been no sign of the rallies abating however this is thousands of pro-government activists descended on the capital in towns across the east of the country to make their voices heard recent polls suggest ukraine is sharply divided on the issue of integration e.u. integration as we've just been saying all than seventy percent of people in the west of the country favor a trade deal with europe that figure dropped sharply to a much closer to thirty percent just below it in fact in the east's now analysts believe a revolution is unlikely but if it happened those in the east would be likely to support the government they think. if there is a pro e.u. neo 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 and their industrial goods which are still being exported to russia in increasing quantities would suddenly become thirty five percent more expensive which would price them out of the market in the same time i doubt very much that e.u. countries will suddenly express an interest in buying ukraine real goods so even if there is an attempt at the violent overthrow of the government there would be definitely a very sizable 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.

the political problems rupture in ukraine or even more pressing konami wants to fight next iran r.t. venture capital of k.t. pilbeam reveals just how close the country is to going under right now and the ramifications of its predicament. it's cost them a beating in the past week but protestors of nonetheless managed to again hold work at that fracking site in northeast romania the shale gas well was being developed by us energy giant chevron with an army of police to ensure security but end of the day the locals who make up some of europe's poorest were horrified at the prospect of thousands of tons of toxins being dumped into the very land which provides their only livelihoods you see catherine off is there for us. 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 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 just 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 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 we're going to say 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 vassily. ivanovitch they could compute you destroy if we just want to protect what's important. an island and that's what they've done for more than a month now braving the cold villagers set up makeshift tents across the company's drilling site chevron did temporarily suspend its operations but last week the campus 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 michael going through down there 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 was another religion i was in hospital now because of how hard they had in the stomach. and on saturday more violence would began as a peaceful demonstration was broken up by force another arrest the protests star and but demonstrators continued to get taken away in this car in some ways it's a case of david a 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 clash as the chevron trucks are already here and the work looks set to go on reporting and put in just romania for r.t.e. . top of the chemical pollution on top of the water contamination fracking is also

blamed for causing earthquakes at all to do a comb read how texas tech some communities most recently have been rocked by unexplained tremors the locals are putting that fracking interested read on my. sunday is a day of prayer and reflection in south africa a memory of former president nelson mandela who died thursday paula slater reports next on how is life was a long war crime up one point being labeled a terrorist 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 walks 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 timelessly 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 been leader of the struggle. a radical. someone. embraced 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 sentenced to life in prison south african journalist chris bishop believes the one thousand 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 on 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 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 flowers around your neck one day and a rope the next. r. t. johannesburg south africa. nelson mandela out of mak for inspirational eloquent comments we've put together some of the ones really seen elsewhere at r.t. dot com you can look at the iconic leaders thoughts of america's influence in the world evasion of iraq and the israeli palestinian conflict as well as all that r.t.

dot com for you. it's coming up to in fact exactly ninety minutes past eleven at night our moscow time plenty ahead still the u.k. is ramping up the pressure on journalists working to expose britain's pivotal role in global surveillance. if you'd known about the enigma code to rebuild what to would you were transmitted to us information to the nazi it's the editor the newspaper the forefront of the spy expose a call to a terrorism hearing now facing some seemingly farfetched accusations but also outright sympathy to. take so much story been covering all week those nuns thought kidnapped in syria now in the last twenty four hours they have appeared on video saying the big things and well by the rebels but middle east watches tell us it's hard to believe the fighters are entirely the good guys here talk about that and what after the break. quite often countries rich in natural resources are the poorest africa's

a colony it's a colony of the big corporations it's a colony of someone's home leaders who are under the thumbs of the big corporations so they have to beg from the world bank's development of social programs goes to pay back debts whole country is drowning under the amount of debt that they did and so every year they would borrow money. and they would use that same amount of money to pay back o. debts. and all that money really. the wages of debts. dramas that can't be ignored. stories of those who refuse to notice. faces change the world writes now.

the picture of today's leaves no longer from around the globe. well again a group of syrian nuns who went missing after rebels captured the christian village of make contact now with the world in the last twenty four hours they say the word kidnapped but were rescued from a shelling attack the video statements raise questions though with many suspected we were speaking under duress monologues and why the journalist has been to syria several times he's met christians there to just buy claims of the rebels good intentions we have to see that. doesn't have a military strategic well you would but it is a symbolic well you it is a very old it's an ancient christian pilgrimage with a very modest three so when we see no old it we'll wear the one star filled when

this one is telling that they are treated well and all like this we shouldn't forget that the shelling the attack on the monastery wasn't turned on 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 really all sort of kidnapped christians of course they are saying we are treated well we get good food we should look on the facts on that verify it fits what we see is that. was the text right now the second time within several weeks. iraq continues its deadly downward swing dozens of people have been killed as bombs blow to marketplaces and shop across the capital and activist speaks to us and tells us how it compares to life under saddam hussein a bit later this. emerged this week that sweden is in on the n.s.a.

spying game what's more it's accused of peeking through the kremlin this keyhole to swedish t.v. reported freshly made snowden the week that stockholm fed intelligence from russia's leadership and also from energy giants to the united states this is what the chief editor of the news program that broke the story told us earlier about the 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 they talk about classic intelligence and they also mentioning cables the spokesman of f.r.a. didn't give any comments bert. when axed asked about being. seen as a leading partner that's the way they're spell it in these documents for a is the leading partner to n.s.a. then he says. that's flattering he ses so that's the only comment we have received so far. across the north sea meantime the editor of britain's guardian newspaper was grilled to 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 it's really only david cameron the u.k. government that's saying we shouldn't do that tied in with all story we're images as battered as the n.s.a. should think you would want to downplay the dragnet but as we're reporting online this is how the u.s. intelligence community regards its latest secret surveillance mission with the logo of an angry all seeing octopus gobbling up the world you get the story behind that one from. also the whistle blows waiting game it's three years now in britain under house arrest and in embassies political asylum r.t. dot com looks at why julian a son still hasn't been charged. with. a

series of bombings and shootings across the iraqi capital killed at least thirty nine people and wounded ninety the deadliest attack was in the shiite suburb of baghdad or a car bomb went off near a workshop or a catalyst a peace activist gejdenson says the situation's worse for many that it was under former dictator saddam hussein. six months after the bombings in ninety one there was electricity there was telephone again there was a fair distribution. russians so people didn't die of hunger people who did die because there was no no not enough clean water and so on a lot of diseases caught a sanctions imposed by the united states but there were basic services that people have to work and it's not like the situation now where after ten years. your patient eleven years know that there are no basic services the next full news

update with me kevin i just have a half an hour's time next why some of africa's economies are still up against the wall despite years of large scale foreign aid. 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 wow 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 protesters or 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 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. pendant of the world bank and the international monetary fund africa finds itself crippled by foreign debt and remains a coincident of great poverty and inequality is. as long as we are in thrall to and dominated by debt i do even go so far as to say enslavement there is no attention

paid to social affairs like health and education can you imagine if we have to sacrifice congolese children who have to die who cannot study because they have to pay for the debt. and the international community talks about generosity now they are talking about cancelling the debt as an act of generosity by controlling the country's resources. that they say debt is used to keep countries with natural resources under control. it is used to control countries in the southern hemisphere both politically and economically. feeds you.