tens of thousands stage mass protests in ukraine's capital kiev the opposition hopes to force the president from power by the government border that has security forces investigate claims of an attempted seizure of power. we stand with the people of ukraine we don't need to those who follow you down the road in. foreign politicians fanned the flames with statements of support for the 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 a gauge in a bitter fight against the fracking site they say will destroy their livelihoods. if you. would you know if you don't see it you know it's 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 a u.k. parliamentary committee. we're watching r t live from our studios in 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 now the opposition calls on supporters to stage more protests early in the morning and block more public offices archies pasko is following the developments from kiev. there's a still ambiguity over the exact figures on this also well no one saw to take 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 tainio slate by giving the government an ultimatum but i have to say despite klitschko schools we can pull this evening the masked men carrying nationalistic flags of our 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 and other key demands include the resignation of president viktor yanukovych and his 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 an attempt to seize power in the country and it's also a much on sunday that the e.u. foreign policy representative catherine ashton is set to visit here later this week to try and find a political solution to the crisis on the whole movement really has been boyd troy supports from european officials as my colleague arena galicia now reports for you 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 europe and the u.s. we have seen a veritable parade of them here on similar running out was with the opposition leaders and even sometimes they can do this for a cause. 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 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 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 a president they can acquire which to admit has been beaten i mean this is clear clear interference in the internal affairs arsalan hodgin don't even hide the more

so this is something that 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 rubles 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 is not the mission early in the week the government survived a no confidence vote in the ukrainian parliament was number one she was 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 see the caucuses as possible what should have been a public debate on the pros and cons of the friendship has descended into a foreign fueled meddling to boost an opposition with

a different axe to grind illegally sco r t t of. journalist no clark explain tarty why he thinks european politicians come to ukraine to support the protesters something they may not do somewhere else on the continent the west they want to bring down the only guy they want to push ukraine away from russia we have the coalition you can go into ukraine saying the government has got to change its course there's going to be fresh elections this is not democracy this is the gershon of democracy because the green people voted in the election of president there be another option q 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 that this was happening in spain this was happening in greece as it has been happening we wouldn't get the might of polish m.e.p. germany piece going out and and show their solidarity with the protesters so the

double standards are absolutely outrageous really willing party officials are urging the protesters to go home they said the blockade of the administrative buildings is preventing the approval of the twenty fourteen budget which could have an impact on state salaries and pensions across the country and so far though there is no sign of the rallies abating thousands of pro-government activists staged rival rallies in kiev and across the east of the country even now poll suggests ukraine is sharply divided along geographic lines in the west more than seventy percent of people favor a trade deal with europe but over in the east less than a third want closer links with the e.u. now analysts say that if they were to forced to choose between the two 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 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 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 attempts at the violent overthrow of the government there would be definitely a very sizable come to force 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. many if all of the political problems rupture in ukraine there are even more pressing economic concerns later on this hour catch on venture capital as she explains just how close

the country is to going under. despite violent clashes between the locals and the authorities operations have restarted any fracking site in northeast romania and the shale gas well was being developed by us energy giant chevron with an army of police there to ensure security the residents were horrified at the prospect of thousands of tons of toxins being pumped into the land which provides them with their livelihood let it happen up 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 the 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 they do from abroad to 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 are vital to 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 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 from the company's drilling site chevron did temporarily suspend its operations but last week the campus raided by the police on the one hand i was punched in the face it was humiliating rumanian but the police treated us like criminals i felt like we were filmed out. 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 villager who's in hospital now because of how hard they had 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 adamant and 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 in to ingest romania for r t m d c. many believe that chemicals used in fracking can accumulate in the soil causing water and even air pollution activists claim there are over if thousands documented cases of contamination near these drilling sites and the health risks of that 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. maybe your children but it's going to be to the people in neighboring plots of land the ones that have to suffer the consequences the huge increase rights of those kinds of programs 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 for the legal battles that sharon kind of food. on top of chemical pollution and water contamination fracking is also blamed for causing 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. reported 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. 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'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 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 terror 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 some of the tactics used by him piece. if you'd known about the enigma code during world war two would you or transmit it does information to the

nazi but the editor strongly defended that reporting insisted the accusations were veg the national security was not breached and the articles were in the public interest rusbridger also pointed out that parliament had failed to provide proper insight of the security services. the catastrophic leak that did happen was dealt with by the n.s.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 given i thought if all three of us are involved in those discussions jim. thank you very much. the 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 campaign to publicly embarrass the guardian. 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 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 downwards that we should have this debate about what all 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 that we shouldn't do that. in europe one country might have found an alternative way to mend it economy the icelandic government plans to write off mortgage that's rather than open a line of international credit but elsewhere on the continent others are getting into more trouble. why job my self-esteem to lose it all before i actually saw ok it's time to. we look at why even gamblers are asking for stricter controls on their so-called fixed all the betting machines in the u.k. that's after the break.

economic down in the final. deal and the rest it's going to be a little bit. cleaner . love with a waitress on stage managing that there's an audience you should take drugs and drink like a. little east told me. about the circus but i was such a punk i was like what circus. were circus of. and would break down stereotypes about kids from disadvantaged

backgrounds. welcome back you're watching the weekly here on r t i'm lindsay france 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 up to the government pursued policies some of europe's financial chiefs condemned as suicidal now instead of trying to save its bankrupt banks the government let them go to the wall leadership and decided to reject it last deposit repayment scheme swayed by protesters who actually said the plan was very unfair so instead of now and have a 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 when you got greece you've got iceland but 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. now the international monetary fund has criticized the atlantic government's policies saying there is little space left for additional debt relief measures the fund also claims that by leaving insolvent

banks to fend for themselves the country has already let down its biggest creditors norty crew went to two of the biggest lenders the u.k. and germany to gauge opinion sounds great yeah it was just to get rid of you perfect because then obviously you can spend that money isn't real but certainly would help respond please just go over the code so that so it's a chunk of money that could really make a difference which people well i think would be best for the country when the reason the economy. is the public that just goes up and i don't think the country can afford it it will be very great to you know everyone could. think about us 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 a good thing about this is ok you didn't get 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. and what i want authorities try to ease the debts burden of

their citizens millions in europe up on the edge of poverty many people even in the richest economies are forced to rely on handouts that's coming up in around twenty five minutes here on r.t. . the crack cocaine of gambling high speed high stakes betting terminals are booming in britain however rules to rein in fixed odds betting machines are floundering and as sarah furthur ports that means a big payday for the bookmakers. they're the high risk high stakes gaming machines this is nothing in the u.k. betting industry more than a billion pounds each year for. a short fix of. a machine. and comply. and you can bet up to one hundred every twenty seconds this is a twenty second repeat cycle every twenty seconds.

you could feel. three hundred pounds my children my wife my job my self-esteem. ok. the government's two thousand and five gambling act limited the number of high street betting shops are allowed to have to four machines now more recently in response to both public and political concern the association of british bookmakers has released a voluntary code of conduct aimed at encouraging socially responsible behavior but we've seen evidence of among some leading high street but not everyone seems to be playing strictly by the rules inside this labrat says a glass petition it enables the store to carry not full but eight full p. machines which are the ones. that you.

feel very. very good. in a statement about the store. this shop was a concert show and there are no plans to open any service shops of this kind. in terms of. the responsible behind the completely. ex army major just in these well how devastating the effects of a gambling addiction can be a last point was the day when. my mom. my little brother she taller than me. and just said that we've got to get you out of here. that's what. i was completely humiliated but it's great because that was the day

all realized my recovery justin's written a book about his experience and is helping others to recovery but with scant research into the effects of these machines and as the industry seeks to maximize profits campaign is warning that not taking action. is one gamble person cold to food to take so if the. if you ever wondered how wiki leaks got one over on the united states defense and state departments had to r.t. dot com or you get the story from the man behind wiki leaks julian assange he just marked his third here in the ecuadorian embassy in london what's. 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 get the full story online. a group of

syrian nuns who went missing after a rebel capture the christian village of have made contact with the world in a video that emerged they claimed 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 meanwhile oxon writer a journalist who's been to syria several times and has met with christians there doesn't buy claims of the rebels' good intentions. we have to see that. doesn't have any military strategic well you but it has the symbolic well you it is a very old it's an ancient christian pilgrimage with a very modest three so when we see know where the nun sarsfield 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 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 the couple of the media will sort of kidnap christians of course they are saying we are treated well we get good food we should look on the facts on the verified facts what we see is that. was the text right now for the second time within several weeks. 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 former south african president legendary anti-apartheid fighters died on thursday polish their followers mandela's course from an angry young rebel to a global icon of equality and compassion. he's the man who proved it troubled and divided land 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 needer of no struggle. a radical. someone who. 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 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 gentleman 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 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. up next the financial week in artie's venture capital.