tens of thousands stage mass protests in ukraine's capital kiev the opposition hopes to force the president from power by government order that as the authorities investigate claims of an attempt to seize power. in foreign politicians fanned the flames with statements for i've supported from demonstrations some even travel to kiev to spur on the anti-government mood. u.s. oil giant chevron resumes drilling near a village in romania furious locals have engaged in a bitter fight to. be fracking site they say will destroy their livelihoods. if you blow the indigo blue jury would you have gone to. the

editor of the guardian newspaper offers a robust defense of his papers reporting of the n.s.a. surveillance scandal he was being grilled by u.k. parliamentary committee. we're watching our to live from moscow i'm lindsey france thanks for joining me ukraine's security services are looking into an attempted coup by some of the opposition leaders this as tens of thousands of anti-government protesters gathered on sunday in central kiev for a massive rally and the opposition calls on supporters to stage more protest early in the morning and block more public offices archies pos god is following the developments for us from kiev. there's a still ambiguity over the exact figures heavyweight boxing champion batali klitschko taking to the stage behind me and urging the protest and the protesters

to remain peaceful was similar tainio slate giving the government an ultimatum but i have to say despite klitschko schools we can pull this evening the mosque men carry nationalistic flights over pull down a statue a monumental lenin and smashed it with sledgehammers 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 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 that investigating what they are calling an attempt 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 boid by support from european officials as my colleague arena galicia now reports we were saying is not the only one neighbor seeing anti government anger on its streets but for some reason cleaves independence square has captured the minds of politicians from here and the u.s. we have seen a variable parade of them here on similar running out was with the opposition leaders and even sometimes taken to this way to speak for the crowds and yet few seem to have made the pass to hear it from. both sides from the country players and their supporters. plan from an assistant u.s.

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 concessions and current members of the european parliament we support civil society and democratic opposition in its claim to have possibility for the nation to express its will in four days 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 a president they can acquire which to admit has been beaten this is clear where appearances mean tunnel fare is arsalan harsh and they're not even hiding it anymore so this is something that should be unacceptable. about mechanics now

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 was meeting with opposition members is one thing but taking part in rallies that's interference in domestic affairs the mission early in the week the government survived a no confidence vote in the ukrainian parliament was removed 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. when the pros and cons of the friendship has descended into a foreign fueled middling to boost in a position with

a different axe to grind. of. journalist neil clark calls the reaction of european politicians to the protests in ukraine hypocritical there were hundreds of thousands of people protesting not just in the capital but throughout turkey and it was much more national protest this protest in ukraine is very much approaches in the west ukraine we didn't get that we could get going out to istanbul so solidarity where anybody from the e.u. really got the protesters to take people peacefully they would go to great brutality by the police there were no calls for them to be arrested to be to the degree taliban to be sacked is always easy crazy so they're forced on the rest of the glarus each to go on the streets abroad demonstrate here it's fine by the european encourage. turkey no they don't you go to spain they go so the double standards are absolutely outrageous really ruling party officials are urging protesters to go home they say the blockade of administrative buildings is

preventing the approval of the twenty fourteen budget which could have an impact on state salaries and pensions across the country so far though there is no sign of the rallies abating the thousands of pro-government activists staged rival rallies in kiev and across the east of the country just to explain to you how this works in ukraine polls suggest the country is sharply divided along geographic lines now the west with more than seventy percent in favor of a trade deal with the e.u. the east though less than a third want closer links with the e.u. and analysts say that if they were forced to choose they would back 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 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 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 same time 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 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 for. now beneath all the political problems rupturing ukraine there are even more pressing economic concerns catch on venture capital later on r.t. when she explains just how close the country is to going under. despite violent

clashes between locals and the authorities operations have restarted at a fracking site in northeast romania the shale gas well was being developed by us energy giant chevron with an army of police there to ensure security but the residents were horrified at the prospect of thousands of tons of toxins being pumped into the land which provides them with their livelihood with the captain off as their forty. 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 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. people with them they could compute you destroy if 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. i was punched in the face it was humiliating romanian 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 tricked here there was another religion who's in hospital now because of how hard they hit

in the stomach. and on saturday more violence would began as a peaceful demonstration was broken up by force another arrest the protest 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 input in just romania for r.t.e. i'm lucy catherine. and many believe that chemicals used in fracking could accumulate in the soil calls in water and even air pollution activists claim that there are over a thousand documented cases of contamination near drilling sites just like these that's as the health risks could include sensory and respiratory damage environmental safety campaigner george barda says that even if the fracking victims

go to court they'd be unlikely to win. you know pursue shale gas and gas maybe or poison your children but it's going to be to you that the people in neighboring plots of land don't get paid the ones that have to suffer the consequences the huge increase rates of cancer of all sorts of research are problems thousands of families have been forced to move out of the areas and one of the reasons that we're not hearing more about the specific stories of illness is that in order to get any kind of compensation from these trucking companies they have to settle out of court because they can't begin to fight the legal battles that iran can afford. now on top of chemical pollution and water contamination fracking is also blamed for causing minor earthquakes on r.t. dot com read how texas communities are being rocked by unexplained tremors which locals and says are down to fracking.

it emerged this week that sweden's in on the n.s.a. spying game what's more it's accused of peeking through the kremlin's keyhole swedish t.v. reporter fresh leaks from edward snowden that stockholm 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 the story told r.t. earlier about the findings we have revealed that. very close relationship between the swedish defense radio authority f.r.a. and american counterpart n.s.a. and. according to the documents. if i may 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 intel against us and they're 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 says so that's the only comment we have received so far meanwhile the editor of britain's guardian newspaper was grilled at a tera hearing this week alan rusbridger faced questions after exposing the scale of the global surveillance program in which the u.k. played a major role here are some of the tactics used by the m.p.'s if you know about the enigma code during world war two would you want from some of it does it have a sheet of the notes. at the end it are strongly defended their reporting he

insisted the accusations were veg and national security was not breached and the articles were in the public interest respirator also pointed out that parliament failed to provide proper oversight of the security services. the catastrophic leak that did happen was dealt with by the i.o.c. with the following exchange chairman can we assume you are having discussions with your american colleagues about the hundreds of thousands of people who appear to have existed your information that even i thought if all three of us are involved in those discussions chairman chair thank you very much a lot a hearing sparked concerns both at home and abroad over the issue of free speech in the u.k. journalist glenn moody believes it's all part of a deliberate can the guardian. it's theater because it's actually for internal consumption it's really full 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 john this 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 down was that we should have this debate about what all the limits of surveillance and what kind of oversight should we have and is really only david cameron the u.k. government that's saying that we shouldn't do that. news on fox is recovering from iceland where the government has decided on a definite write off rather than an open line of international credit that's in a few minutes just after the break. for probably the most complex and difficult to.

hold. on. to the phenomenon of friendly fire probably extends back to the invention of gunpowder. a bunch of people don't want their families they're really us people. reading. this some of the shoots my brother in the leg not intentional because it because it was night times four in the morning even the best even the belch shoulders. are going to make mistakes this is this whole idea of brotherhood and order. and camaraderie in this sense it was in this context that has absolutely no place.

welcome back you're watching the weekly here on our to live from our moscow studios on wednesday frank thanks for joining me iceland's economy shows cautious signs of growth after being thrown into recession back in two thousand and eight that's after the government pursued policies some of europe's financial chiefs condemned suicidal now instead of trying to save its bankrupt banks the government let them go to the wall the leadership then decided to reject a last repayment scheme swayed by protesters who said the plan was just simply unfair instead every household in the country will now have twenty four thousand euro's written off their mortgage banking executives accused of causing the crisis in the first place are also being pursued by the state professor of binary economics rodney shakespeare believes that iceland is setting a remarkable example you must rely on your own national bank for your own uses for your own real economy and for the spreading and if you don't do that you'll be trapped into debt in the same way that where you got greece you've

got iceland which you've got every country in the world is being tracked into increasing debt and all that happens is that they increase the levels of the debt and smash the populations down we need a revolt against this global financial system and in its own way iceland is setting a reasonable example thank you iceland the international monetary fund has criticised the icelandic government policies saying there is little space left for additional debt relief measures the fund also claims that by leaving be insolvent banks to fend for themselves the country has already let down its biggest creditor us marty crew went to two of the biggest lenders the u.k. and germany to gauge opinion. great yeah. well just to get rid of you perfect because then obviously you could spend that money on some real. we certainly would help us from these just go over the code so that sort of chunk of

money that would make a difference will speak well i think would be best for the country woman reason the economy. is the public good. thing the country can afford it it will be very great to you everyone could. think of i think it's a good thing we used to have laws in germany where you could get subsidies as a home owner but that's it think of it this is ok. i think for individual people it would be good news but not for the country you never know where the money comes from for such gifts. if you ever wondered how wiki leaks got one over on the united states defense and state department but over tarty dot com when you get the story from the man behind wiki leaks julian assange he's just marked his third year in the ecuadorian embassy in london. a record level of radiation has been recorded at the fukushima nuclear plant in japan experts say that such a level could kill

a human in twenty minutes the full story online. tens of thousands of people including sixty world leaders are expected to attend the funeral of nelson mandela in a week the world has been grieving over the former south african president and legendary anti-apartheid fighter since he died on thursday hala slayer follows mandela's course from an angry young rebel to a global icon quality and compassion. he's the man who pulled it troubled and divided now and 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 and 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 been leader of an on struggle. a radical. someone. an embrace 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 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 they

began the man of principle who was standing up merely for the rights of others and it slowly 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 the dawn into flowers around your neck one day and a vote the next. r. t. johannesburg south africa. a group of syrian nuns who went missing after rebels captured the christian village of model have made contact with the world in a video they emerge they claim they were not kidnapped but were in fact rescued by rebels from a shelling attack their statement has raised questions though with many suspecting the women were speaking under duress now moxon writer a journalist who's been to syria several times has met with christians there doesn't buy the claims of rebels good intentions. we have to see that. doesn't have

a military strategic well you but it has a symbolic well you would it's a very old it's an ancient christian pyramid with a very modest so when we see know where the nuns are filled with this one it's 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 off by so-called rebels who are in reality nothing else then terrorists that's that's the fact so and we saw in the past couple of people sort of 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 taken right now the second time within several weeks. some world news free for you

now the main opposition party in thailand has resigned from parliament in a move likely to deepen the country's political crisis hundreds of thousands of taking to the streets in recent weeks to many of the government resign mass rallies began when the prime minister tried to pass an amnesty bill many feared that would have allowed her brother and ex pm to return to power. a series of bombings across the iraqi capital have left at least thirty people dead and more than eight hundred injured the deadliest attack took place in a shia district of baghdad where a car exploded near a workshop peace activists dark adrian sends believes the situation is worse for many than it was under former dictator saddam hussein. 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 did die because there was no no not enough clean water i'm sure on a lot of diseases gone out of 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 patients eleven years and. there are no basic services. up next a look at the emotional trauma suffered by american families of servicemen who lost their loved ones from a fire. just imagine it for leaders like alexander lukashenko of lattimer putin just showed up at anti e.u. protests and greece are hungry to urge people to leave the e.u. and join up with the eurasian customs union obviously the media would be on fire screaming that this is part of an attempt to usurp democracy and steal the

country's away some sort of imperialist agenda and you know what they might be right about that but the weird thing is that for some reason the mainstream media isn't talking about foreign politicians speaking to and or possibly agitating protesters in ukraine like speaker of the lithuanian parliament loreto. and vice president got sick put to see a bitch and former polish pm jaroslav kaczynski he had the european union brassfield is just fine for their politicians to go to foreign countries and fire up protestors to start a pro e.u. revolution but then all their journalist write about is how russia is trying to put pressure on ukraine to not join the e.u. the obvious hypocrisy of this stinks all the way up to moscow but that's just my opinion. so the lesson we teach to the world is that the best way to defend yourself is to get yourself a nuclear weapon and of course the biggest culprit of using nuclear weapons and

producing nuclear weapons and weapons about struction is my birthplace of the united states and i find it absolutely insane that we sit here and talk about iran suppose of nuclear weapons program where you know the united states is producing every kind of weapon under the sun is spending more than every other military on the planet combined and it's involved in more war and more death and more suffering than every other nation combined and yet it's sitting there on a pedestal talking about other nations developing weapons of mass destruction it is insane that we even allow them to do this the first nation that needs to disarm without question is the united states. 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.