about ten meters down. the never ending legacy. tens of thousands stage mass protests in ukraine is capital kiev opposition hopes to force the president from power by besieging the government border that as security services investigate claims of an attempted seizure of power. we stand with the people of ukraine. to move. forward politicians fanned the flames with statements of support from the demonstrations some even traveled to here to swear on the anti-government mood. u.s. oil giant chevron resumes drilling near a village in romania furious locals have engaged getting better fight against the fracking sites they say will destroy their livelihoods. it's. going to break. 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. you're watching are to live from moscow i'm lindsey france thanks for joining me here crane security services are looking into an attempted coup by some of the opposition leaders this is tens of thousands of anti-government protesters gathered on sunday in central kiev for a massive rally the opposition calls on supporters to stage more protests early in the morning and block more public offices paul scott is following the developments from kiev. there's a still ambiguity over the exact figures on this also our no one search 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 a symbol ten years late giving the government an ultimatum but i have to say despite klitschko schools we can report this evening that masked men carrying 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 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 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 keep 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 and attend 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 why support from european officials as my colleague arena galicia now reports the only way in 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 not 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 just what they just. 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 here 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 early elections 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 if they can quote to admit his been beaten i mean this is clear interference in the internal affairs arsalan hodge 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 of this meeting with opposition members is one thing but taking part in rallies that's interference in domestic offense was that the initial early in the week the government survived a no confidence vote in the ukrainian parliament was younger 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. takeover as many see because 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 in the goalies go r t of. journalist neil clark explain to r.t. why he thinks european politicians come to ukraine to support the protesters something they wouldn't do elsewhere on the continent so when they want to bring down the ukrainian government 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 it's going to be fresh elections this is not democracy this is a democracy it is the green people vote in the election going to present that they're going to refuse to 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 that this was happening in spain this was happening in greece as it has been happening we wouldn't get the mix of polish m.e.p. germany peace going out and and show their solidarity with the protesters so the double standards are absolutely outrageous really ruling party officials are urging

the protesters to go home they say they 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 thousands of pro-government activists staged rallies in kiev and also across the east of the country paul suggest ukraine is sharply divided along geographic lines in the west more than seventy percent of people favor a trade deal with europe while in the east less than a third want closer links with the e.u. analysts say that if they were forced to choose they would back the government. if there is a pro e.u. . orange revolution there would be a pro customs union pro russian counter-revolution so it would be the path to the civil war because let's face it in the industrial base in of the east they

know that if they join the e.u. package they would of course they will never join the e.u. itself they would lose customs privileges in russia 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 we 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. despite violent clashes between locals and the authorities operations have

restarted any fracking site in northeast romania the shale gas well was being developed by us energy giant chevron with their army of police and onsite to ensure security the residents though are horrified at the prospect of thousands of tons of toxins being pumped into the land which provides them with their livelihood lucic have been off as their property. 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 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 of water supplies being polluted forests no longer being green

we don't want to risk everything for this company to make a profit chevron says it's committed to working with the local community to drill without damaging the environment it insists that it is abiding by all safety rules but that's not reassuring for farmers like the silly. to have a 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 camp was 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 protester adam but demonstrators continued 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. many believe that chemicals used in fracking could accumulate in the soil causing water and even air pollution activists claim there are over a thousand documented cases on contamination near drilling sites the health risks could include sensory and respiratory damage environmental campaigner george barter says that even if the fracking victims go to court they'd be unlikely to with. you

know. maybe it would poison your children but it's going to be to the people in neighboring plots of land don't the ones that have to suffer the consequences so huge increase rights of services whispered through 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. this is that in order to get any kind of compensation from these trucking companies they have to settle out of school because they can't afford 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 about how texas communities are being rocked by unexplained tremors which locals incest are down to fracking. and emerged this week the sweden's in on the n.s.a. spying game what's more it's accused of picking through the kremlin's keyhole swedish to be reported fresh legs from edward snowden that stockholm fed intelligence from russia's leadership in 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. intelligence they're talking about classic intel against 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 say's so that's the only comment we have received so far meanwhile the editor of britain's guardian newspaper was grilled at a terra 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 m.p.'s if you know about the enigma code during world war two would you or transmit it does information to the nazi. but the editor strongly defended his reporting he insisted the accusations were veg that national security was not breached and the articles were in the public interest rusbridger also pointed out that elements had failed to provide proper

oversight of the security services that. 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 that a very much if all three of us are involved in those discussions jim. thank you very much i love. the hearing sparked concerns both at home and abroad over the issue of free speech in the u.k. journalist glenn moody believes all part of a deliberate campaign to publicly embarrass the guardian. says it's a 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 all 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 that we shouldn't do that. hot new crisis recovery from iceland where the government has decided on a debt write off rather than open a line of international credit that's just after the break. i was thinking somehow i have to come back because mom was waiting for me. and i just knew that everything would be fine for some reason really were so confident because we were going to get married officially after he came back. how could he not come back because the mere thought of it never crossed her mind. the militants decided to try and break through to her new guinea epic screaming

grenade. go the explosion blew him will run his back you will. lose it all and it was all over all. we know that our comrades on our commander won't leave us no matter how tough it gets we're team. your boy is getting it was a senior in his military trio. and because he knew that if he didn't smother that grenade with his body more of his comrades would die he gave his own life to save his friends. welcome back you're watching our to live from moscow i'm lindsey france thanks for joining me are something kami shows cautious signs of growth after being thrown into recession back in two thousand and eight that's after the government pursued

policy some of europe's financial chiefs condemned a suicidal and said of trying to save its bankrupt banks the government let them go to the wall and leadership and decided to reject a last deposit repayments came swayed by protesters who said the plan was unfair instead every household in the country will now have twenty four thousand euros 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 we 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 to 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's 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 creditors and r.t. crew went to two of the biggest lenders the u.k. and germany to gauge opinion. it was great yeah it was just to get rid of you perfect because then obviously you can spend that money was a real. treat certainly would help us families just get over that hurdle that that sort of chunk of money that could really make a difference which people well i think would be better for the country woman in the economy. because the public good just goes up and i don't think the country can

afford it it would be very great to you know everyone could. think about 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 thing of the past and 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. if you ever wondered how wiki leaks got one over on the united states defense and state departments at the r.t. dot com when you get the story from the man behind wiki leaks julian assange is just marked his third year in the ecuadorian embassy in london plus. a record level of radiation has been recorded at the fukushima nuclear plant in japan experts say the federal level could kill a human in twenty minutes at 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 march as policy player follows mandela's course from an angry young rebel to a global icon of equality and compassion. is the man who traveled a divided land back from the brink of civil war the man who after twenty seven tough years behind bars walked free from prison in his heart was not revenge but i think that his greatest legacy to this country is reconciliation. in the last three decades the world timelessly polished the. image of nelson mandela and image recognized around the world only coca-cola is based on 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 hip quarters of the african national congress it was here in the early sixty's that mandela and his comrades launched be armed struggle it was also here that most of them were wasted put on trial and sentencing to life in prison south african journalist chris bishop believes the one nine hundred sixty four trial that saw mandela and his comrades sentenced to life helped turn the world in their favor during the trial. these gentlemen who are on trial the rivonia trial as they went from being the accused of being people in the dark as slowly transformed they became the benjamin franklin's of africa they became the freedom fighters they began the man of principle who is standing up merely for the rights of others and it's 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 evoke the next. r t johannesburg south africa. some world leaders in grief for you now thailand's prime minister has dissolved parliament and called for elections the move comes after the opposition resigned and amid weeks of sustained protests and violence hundreds of thousands took to the streets to demand the country's leaders step down the crisis was triggered by an amnesty deal that could have seen the x. pm return to power. violent clashes have erupted in brazil between rival football fans during a match one person was reportedly killed and several other seriously injured police fired rubber bullets to break up the fight found violence has become common in the

country raising security concerns ahead of next year's world cup. a series of bombings across the iraqi capital have left at least thirty nine people dead and more than a hundred injured the deadliest attack took place in a shia district of baghdad where a car exploded near a workshop peace activists dark adrian sen's believes the situation is worse for many than it ever was under former dictator saddam hussein. six months after the bombings in ninety one there was electricity there was telephone again there was the ferry distribute. russians people didn't die of hunger people died because there was no you know and not enough clean water until one of the local diseases go by the 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 the. occupation eleven years know that there are no basic

services up next oksana boyko investigates the role of hamas in the peace process with israel and worlds apart. leg. length.

wealthy british soil it's time to write for. the. market. find out what's really happening to the global economy for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines. cancer reports on our. hello and welcome to worlds apart for years israel has used the villager and

rhetoric over tammy's to justify its own military actions a policy that was recently dealt a blow when iran's switch from accusations to negotiations securing a lot of market nuclear deal isn't it time for hamas and not their sworn enemy of israel to do the same in hopes of kicking these really palestinian conflict all out of its rob well to discuss that i'm now joined by the spokeswoman of the palestinian government in gaza. miss almost all of you really appreciate your being here on the show i know that you were appointed as the first female spokesperson for the. a senior government in gaza just a few months ago as part of the major p.r. make over how much do you seeing your gender played into that decision well actually it's a really. good for the palestinian issues and for the government to. this position we are trying to send

a message from the ground of gaza from the reality and the facts which bring. people and the issues and in what's going on. in media and foreign media in general now before we started this program you made a point that you represent not the hamas but the palestinian government which is primarily now comprised of hamas representatives and when people in europe or the united states think about gaza and when they think about how much as they usually have this image of kara looking bearded man of with rifle soul one that negative stereotype is countered by somebody like you are a young agitated independent woman i think that certainly helps to challenge the the western narrative not only about gaza but also about how mosque as a terrorist organization isn't that ultimately the.