you're watching our midnight moscow time this morning the mass day and night anti-government protests in ukraine thousands have been gathering in central kiev to support the president too with the two rallies just a few hundred meters apart we've got reported about in this hour also. on the e.u. donuts with the european union flag are now available for sale yet we're also taking a look at how ukraine's businesses are trying to capitalize on the ongoing public unrest. also headlining this hour islamist rebels in syria target the kurdish minority yet again as one hundred twenty civilians reportedly taken hostage near the turkish border. and it's bye bye bailout shackles stoicism and hard work helps our lead to shake loose of the e.u. is financial diktats but there's still

a way to go to get the country debts in check as we report. if you just joined us for watching around the world very good morning for me kevin oh it is just after midnight now here in moscow you're watching r.t. international law top story political battle lines of torn ukraine's capital into while thousand strong crowds keep up their antigovernment protests there you can see earlier on there are plenty of activists as well out gather to support president viktor yushchenko which on saturday as well around sixty thousand i thought for scott reports them from the very heart of the standoff. you can see the close proximity between the two opposing rallies right behind me is independence square which has been the heart of the opposition movement for the last number of weeks now you can see the barricades that have been built by the protesters and

reinforced in the last couple of days but if we pan around to the left hand side now this is european square and this is the scene of a rally in support of the president where you can get a sense of exactly how close the pro and anti government supporters are the line of police separating the two camps just here to my right hand side now if we take you through to the main part of european square where the main pro-government rally is taking place we got to try and show our press corps to walk through this line of police at the moment to main in the main part of european square and as you can see the pro-government rally is in full swing. well here we are in the halls of the pro-government rally in discourage the presence of these pro-government supporters and the fact that they are just a hundred yards away from independence square things are actually quite calm at the moment tensions are quite high but things are peaceful now on friday president. had

a roundtable discussion with members of the opposition here three on an amnesty for prisoners for protesters who were arrested throughout the course of these demonstrations but he refused the key demand of his resignation and an early election another moment we're still left with this standoff. in other developments present in a code which has dismissed the deputy security defense secretary and also the mayor of kiev in the wake of the ongoing investigation into police conduct on november the thirtieth but the past few weeks of unrest have been bad news for everyone is usually the case with some businesses in central kiev capitalizing on the chaos that shows yes he's got that story. the korean capital has been in a protest mode for more than two weeks now it looks completely different than a month ago people are living here they're cooking food. and definitely life has changed when the protests kicked off talking about food underneath the square of the protest you can literally chew on the e.u.

donuts with the european union flag are now available for sale. thank you very much . and the taste delicious local fridge magnet manufacturers were quick to pounce on the idea of the protest and now you can purchase a very peculiar more ability from sending yellow college to prison to localizing international brands. it's no wonder that central kiev is the place of many restaurants and bars and their lives have been affected in one way or another we decided to pay a visit to one of the oldest pubs in the city center to find out. so we lost the pubs manager how the protest affects the life of his restaurant. but also how have the euro my done in the protests affected your pub the number of visitors has increased only slightly since these protests kicked off but now we've got a special offer menu which includes items such as tea and cake and will be open twenty four seventh's for as long as the euro my down protests continue but not all

and seem to be equally happy with the way the protests are going some of the local taxi drivers have complained to me that the barricade makes their life a true traffic nightmare i talk to one of them right now what do you think of the barricades in the center of the city i'm sick and tired of this government but being a taxi driver is my job so those barricades in downtown key that actually make it much harder for me to do my job and feed my family. the further we step away from the my down the more mood change we seeing among the locals some of them have been enraged by particular aspects of this unrest as someone who was born and raised in korea how do you feel built these protests protests are good i'm tired of you look over to because i think his run his course but as a kid resident i'm not sure why monuments needed to be destroyed it seems these demonstrations have been privatized by a bunch of vandals. but just one kilometer from the independence square there are places where the revolution vibe is non-existent

after what has been a turbulent and hard weekly crane people are letting off steam in different nightclubs and bars but then its light goes on despite the some part of the city is still on the revolutionary lockdown alexy recess the party reporting from kiev in ukraine. goes into the night life or following in the footsteps of several european politicians meantime u.s. senator john mccain is arriving here to show solidarity with the opposition protests the u.s. senate spend a resolution calling on washington post sanctions against ukraine if police get tough on any future rallies as would a professor putin to rescue from the national institutes of studies in france he says the unrest in ukraine's been misrepresented by the west. the maturity of ukrainian people is not a manifest is not a manifestation if you look in almost all ukrainian cities they are very quite it's

only in kiev so it's a very little part of the ukrainian society which is many people would stick this menu for stations and there is no proof majority to green young people is on the side of. so-called pro european manifestation and apparently even it's the contrary you look at the course of opinion so it's just a question of you know of many a creation in the west because objectively united states in western country how did you see it in middle east especially in syria and in a certain sense they wanted to change the balance of power the international balance and of power and ukraine is a good playground for them for the moment. in syria al-qaeda linked rebels have reportedly abducted hundred twenty kurds from

a village close to the turkish border that news was reported on friday by the u.k. based observatory for human rights he said all captives were taken to an unknown location i spoke about earlier hours a day one ase a kurdish human rights activist explains why the kurds are being targeted by the islamist rebels. the majority all said they could not it's really ins are from the religion of a terrorist north or nearly pull down a bald sixty one ne or from the areas with jobless and his ass holes on it's going to be people first also are supporters of secularism in syria who reject every religious sectarian or a program that has those of the armed groups or the opposition of the opposition or those of the regimes dummy's their islam its target kurds is secular tendency which is directed toward establishing a multi religious and multi sleek autonomous region in the traditional seeding through this and. coming up it's been years since the end of apartheid in south africa where the still plenty of unresolved anger. it's definitely unsafe because

if you seen a white person around all of south africa mourns nelson mandela racial tensions a deeper than ever in some corners of the nation but later in the program we head to one such area. three years of going capital into international bankers ireland now says it's ready to stand on its own two feet again the country managed to meet all the major targets under the multi-billion euro e.u. bailout program while avoiding serious public unrest of the same time tesser a seller reports than from doubling. arlin will with itself of the quote shackles of the troika on sunday and will wake up on monday as a quote normal european country standing on equal footing a confident claim by prime minister kenny ahead of the country's official exit from its bailout program for eighty five billion euros it cost the irish three years of painful austerity higher taxes slashed minimum wage which has since been raced back high youth unemployment and another wave of irish immigration i'm not sure that the

hard ideological divide of austerity which was coming forth from europe was a good one the irish people would be too nice to see the end of the troika to see the opportunity for a street gang or economic sovereignty to be up to make our own decisions in relation to our future the government here is touting the exit from the bailout program as restoring economic and financial freedom but no one here is under any illusion that that exit would also mean an end to hardships or complete release from austerity now while the idea of possibly having more control over their destiny as a nation is psychologically up lifting people really want is freedom from individual debt that so many here are so heavily burdened with. facing a long term slowdown in our structural growth we still are facing. in other words when you look at the overall economic level of achievement in this bailout it's not

really that significant yet at the same time certain credit which should go to the nation to the government to the nation was. calling. in dublin city center sights and sounds of the festive season are present but it rings hollow for those who feel they've simply been kicked to the curb. celebrate the banner. be happy we're exiting for us will it have any impact or a. the budget for this year or next year no will it read the mortgage arrears figures take a dramatic change next quarter no closer so you are t w. well a recent poll shows that over half of our lives population think the government did a good job in fact in leading the country out of the bailout even so we three quarters are hoping that that means the end to austerity or at least measures will be eased when we get some more opinion on the streets of dublin. i suppose

a positive move would. send it they are still beholden to germany france the bigger economies in europe so. whether in or out of a bailout as we see the make much difference to the holding to you know we've come to a bad time we've closed this summer for sustained sales who likes us or if you like this i think it's good i think they have to stand on their own two feet if you take out yes i do. but it's all over yet the bailout exit relief are somewhat tempered with warnings from irish ministers that austerity does need to continue to drive down the nation's debt political analysts stick in epic thinks the way the e.u. deals with its economic crisis is can't be described as affective. what we actually like to see is more transparency and now it is we are in the situation in which basically the troika. acts like a governor. and visits its colonies and what to do the measures they come out with

are not very effective they also causes terrorists and also the reduction of the economy at the moment the troika is free to do what it wants and that is not right in a democracy the issue basically is how much time do we have when all the economies of greece italy spain portugal signed first growing again now i don't know how long it will take if it is going to be one or two years like in ireland it will be very good but if it going to be ten years it's going to be very long and i'm afraid that many citizens in those countries will not accept this particular not if this. is going to be stagnation for ten years to come i think this will have very serious political consequences. coming up living in a cave in the twenty first century might not be to everyone's taste but.

then we hear from. the government has got. to deprive him of the thing that is dearest misho. years ago. these people are suffering the consequences. how much more poison. around. behind there is what we call the bank on which there was a deposit of plutonium left by security test which caused. despite previous

cleaning efforts there remains a deposit of a little less than two kilos of plutonium stuck in the rock and the coral reef about ten metres down. a never ending legacy. again hitting rock bottom modern day cave dwellers in spain are facing eviction from the picture of settlements despite years of pressure from the government orders to leave the families say they're digging in they determined to stay saying there's more they think behind the objection the meets the eye of them was welcomed into one of these really unconventional homes. although the tools used to dig out

the caves of san miguel have changed little over the centuries this home has been modernized and it's been a pain staking labor with one's hands this tunnel was dug out but it's been installed with modern comforts like white for instance now the resident that lives here has taken a lot of work to really try to make this into a home a comfortable for as you can see a hard floor so he can walk around a kitchen area in order to cook to entertain guests and most importantly he says these feeling reinforcements now this is critical because the city council says it's dangerous for the residents to live here where as they say they've put in a lot of work a lot of labor in order to make sure these caves are safe for their residency for a moment specific. studies to build. a bridge in terms that for nothing you take some time to do it but. it's above that the recent determination to do it. now

this is what the boiling looks like from the outside it's certainly not an easy kind of lifestyle there's no running water for instance that has to be carried in by hand from a fountain in a nearby church the residents who have built up these caves are very proud of their work but many simply have no other place to call home the case of san miguel has hosted people in need for centuries from gypsies a religiously prosecuted minority event and other so-called to save their homes they have been abandoned in one thousand six hundred because the flooding wouldn't have been on the crisis getting worse in recent years more and more of man years have converted this is your community they can call home the city wants to victims citing health and safety reasons but the people here say it's about money they believe the government is acting like a corporation for tourism that's supposedly wants to build up this area into something that sea of people could use and enjoy another has been but i mean do you think activity seen in the sixty's. that's why the city council use looking

like a corporation the slave. class fights back up plan social exclusion you know people have always going to leave it there we fear yeah high places. now. reach people are willing to to to get them down the city council isn't likely to abandon its plans to evict the residents but for the people living in the caves of san miguel giving up is simply not an option reporting it we're not a space for our tea i'm lucy catherine of. online right now an offbeat approach to heating in siberia instance a story burning three terms of poppy seeds in fact was enough to keep locals warm for an entire day find out why they were doing this if it were taking up full advantage of a huge haul they had on line from a school store but also explain why a number of u.s.

retailers are planning to place cameras in their mannequins generally holiday shopping peak it's quite creepy and if you want to read it more about that as well as online from us. members of south africa's government are paying their last respects to nelson mandela before sunday's funeral but as the country mourns his death appears to be revealing some sore spots in the still divided state fall asleep reports next from a johannesburg sub where we're live so far from what mandela envisioned for his country. it's definitely unsafe because they have you seen a white person around. this core. is taking us on a drive through the streets of his childhood this was a wealthy white neighborhood in the time of a part eight. is now a very different place a wouldn't carry a camera gary anything. of value i wouldn't wear a watch i wouldn't read anything that could make me vulnerable to be attacked they'll be robbed

a handful of white south africans still live here most are too old or too poor to move out move and stephen is one of the few who still called hillbrow home it's a very very gritty visit no familial is gone because i think with the current government things all the vis is going to. be. twenty three years after the end of apartheid south africa remains plagued with unresolved racial tension some people they still have the opportunity. vaguely familiar maybe to distance themselves to the blokes c'mon over members well we couldn't be on the streets of hue after night at night some black south africans he admits are still angry and maybe they have but good words or something because they nor door wide so with. their being there why they

hate girls and why it's the good of this thing that they have my own little movie they do don't have miley at times south africa seems very far from the country mandela hoped it would be instead of becoming a melting pot of different cultures and colors suburbs like hillbrow are today places where whites are too afraid to go and where the black population remembers very well they once were. the past the present and the future balance put carious least side by side as the nation mourns its most famous son and wonders what comes next policy r.t. johannesburg. and deliberate jobber from economic freedom fighters political party thinks it's not just whites that are feeling the pressure in south africa he says the country needs to go much further in overturning the injustices of the apartheid era. we must first address the social questions and these questions largely i have

to do with the exclusion of the black majority so there is no political instability south africa what we have is a missing a crisis all social classes for black people and this find expression in education in health care in quality in unemployment and the general state of hopelessness as we see these added here let us change the economy transform it in the interest of the black majority in schools where people will benefit if they want a society based on a different what i did that is the only time we can end the social mess of social dislocation and happiness which is in our country our political system up to now has not been able to address these questions because they are willing party has avoided antagonizing white interests and white privileges at the expense of the black majority now twenty years later if we don't change things drastically and fundamentally we landed this off any broken in society. you should prefer smalling

forty one years since the last u.s. astronauts set foot on the moon other countries noaimi to come to the lunar surface china says it successfully landed a remotely controlled rover says the vehicles mission is to search for natural resources but china's next step is to prepare for a manned mission which is planned for around twenty twenty five. and clinton is holding a british spy and it's pretty want trial officials say they captured only six agents admitted to being in contact with other u.k. operatives inside iran the british foreign office has refused to comment on the allegations it comes despite efforts to revive diplomatic relations between the two countries after the u.k. shut down its embassy in tehran back in two thousand and eleven. but this is a ruptured in venice italy where scores of near fascist caring anti government posters have clashed with police it comes amid massive protests that have been gripping anything for six days now they were spearheaded by the so-called pitchfork movements. by farmers of the south of the country employed the government's putting

the interests of the u. of the union head of them. in place investigating what drove eighteen year old coal piston to open fire in a school in colorado critically injuring one girl armed with a shotgun the high school senior entered the building looking for a teacher apparently and then to got himself after firing a series of shots the tragedy occurred just a day before the anniversary of the sandy hook elementary school massacre in connecticut which killed twenty young children six adults you'll start is a former us presidential candidate for the green party shared with us what she believes is fueling this nationwide rising gun violence. we have about one hundred times the rate of gun homicides and violent gun crimes relative to many countries of western europe and we should not be in the business of normalizing violence it's clear there is a relationship between gun violence and economic crimes and poverty

and racial disparities and economic disparities we become an unjust society are the more we are at risk for continuing gun violence and potentially growing gun violence. it's thirty five minutes past midnight here in moscow now a very good morning for me then kevin over near moscow the next news update thirty five minutes time here on out international we've got the story of two islands ravaged by nearly two hundred nuclear test explosions off the break meantime to watch i guess in the u.k. evenings you i'll show going underground with host afshin rattansi after the break as well for you. just imagine a foreign leaders like alexander lukashenko or vladimir putin to shoot up an anti e.u. protest and all garia greece are hungry to urge people to leave the e.u.

and join up with the eurasian customs union obviously the big 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 grows in india and vice president got sick put to sea of each and former polish pm jaroslav kaczynski yeah 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 the moscow but that's just my opinion.

i think. i would like to know that you know the price is the only industry specifically mention in the constitution because it's right that's because a free and open process is critical to our democracy albus. role. in fact the single biggest threat facing our nation today is the corporate takeover of our government and our crusted like oh we've been hijacked like handful of transnational corporations that will profit by destroying what our founding fathers once it's all just my job market and on this show we reveal the big picture of what's actually going on in the world we go beyond identifying trying to fix rational debate and a real discussion critical issues facing their five go ready to join the movement then walk a little bit but it's. not

good it's in the land the islands say they are the mother that feeds us.

on the fourteenth then they put a dirty bomb in the city like a rotten bomb in my mother's womb. that's that's what exploded for what nothing i mean what she's dead and what she's dead on a limb and my eyes smile and is dead now. on this january after noon under the magnificent dome of the senate the debate begins a debate which is not exactly popular maybe because it's about polynesia a country some eighteen thousand kilometers away with a different world yet this is

a day that could go down in history nearly as you deny the environmental damage throughout the oceanic in particular in french polynesia is to deny a part of every polynesians identity depriving them of their land their environment is to deprive them of part of themselves the guy who this stone comes from or. sits and this is exactly what all of this is about this afternoon nothing else this is more. to it is all that's visualize the forty one flashes in the thermonuclear explosions in the middle of the sky should move above more money shagnasty said some of your predecessors minister. visualize again.