on the olympics but. on our. cities news in the week's top stories on our t.v. international viki calling on turkey for more openness amid a massive corruption probe that triggered an arrest and a major government shakeup. we continue looking back at two thousand and thirteen this time the story of a computer worker who opened up america's extensive global surveillance network this group. and russia's foreign minister talks with r.t. about the years of breakthroughs and challenges from syria to the missile defense route with nato. it's noon in moscow i'm matt treasure bring you today's top stories and a look back at the week's news beginning in turkey where the country needs to

handle its deepening corruption scandal with more transparency according to concerned european officials the progress probe that forced the arrest of twenty four people including the sons of two ministers and a massive government reshuffle is seen as prime minister heir to ones biggest challenge since coming to power more than a decade ago meanwhile some four thousand people gathered again on courage demanding that the pm step down r t sarah firth has more from istanbul. it's not some uncommon sight so they stumble streets in a year that's been marked by widespread protests but this time the rallies taking place in the wake of the corruption crackdown that's what the government the threats to prime minister comes not just from the streets but from within his own posse the turnout for the demonstration was significantly smaller than that seemed to some of them the last of the clashes break out between police and protesters but other times been in power for such a long time has maintained control

a lot of people said that a lot of good things good the country why no one was actually it has become very very. protests for. this family that it's looking for the you know the this is. big enough to still. be to publicly out to the protests the prime minister remains defiant and continue to blame the corruption probe well of foreign conspiracy and a second wave of detentions may still be possible to the time being it's deadlocked for mainz the police the prosecutor publicly she's to the enforcement being in the government's pocket first easing a court decision to carry out will wait to government officials and their families as political drama continues to unfold here the biggest test now facing the battle for that is the two lies ahead of head match. test for.

strewn across. bad. bad the future. may be very difficult. for. and it could well be that when days later the elections take place that the full impact of the corruption scandal created out there is that it's that bird. and rasher relations professor mark allman thinks the ongoing unrest comes as no surprise considering everyone's recent political course. you can go on to buy many of his son his opponents has been great in a secular state or he's off sensibly except in the secular constitution of turkey because you have to do that in the election but as he's been reinforced in politics through successive election rooms you see shifts to wards also seems policies that

are more dorsett all the more islamic policy for instance restrictions on the sale of alcohol is a conference about how we can stick to morality codes the use of those fees and among some groups of money from sensible to house across the room level turkey has be almost immune to the will become a crisis and i do and and those who support was the tos don't seem to be able to produce economic growth to grow to learn and of course without going to geishas of corruption that's what the deputy took to the t.v. so she's now all we have now against is a corruption lawsuits siebel generally the church and it is snowing and. many people who in the past would say well there was one who does better in the battle. for a man made to crusader former oil tycoon throwing his weight behind getting jailed colleagues out to once russia's richest man mikhail khodorkovsky calls his former associates political prisoners and vows to fight for their rights we'll look at how they ended up behind bars to begin. first with just

a few days left in the year two thousand and thirteen we're looking back at the events that shaped this year. person who arguably generated more global headlines than any other this year was a previously unknown i t worker from the states while on a job at the cia he didn't like what he saw so edward snowden went public telling the world just how far and wide the us electronic surveillance really went but the truth had consequences. reports on how the n.s.a. whistleblower joined a long list of those persecuted for exposing government secrets edward snowden says george orwell's fictitious big brother is no match for the u.s. national security agency the types of collection the book microphones and video cameras t.v.'s that watches are nothing compared to what we have today snowden revealed that a secret court rubber stamps warrants for telecommunication companies to hand out

the data of millions of their customers he also leaked the programs that the government uses to track virtually anything anybody does on the internet and also store that information and he showed how the u.s. government had lied about mass surveillance does the n.s.a. collect any type of data and all on millions or hundreds of millions of americans. no sir while most americans think to edward snowden the u.s. government tectum is a spy and a traitor the united states government classified its evidence of its own criminal misconduct its violations of the bill of rights what we're doing is advocating tele tarion procedures which is gathering information about all the individuals in the world. the former intelligence contractor is now in exile knowing for certain that he'd go to jail should he returned to the us like bradley and now chelsea manning

who was sentenced to thirty five years in jail this august so we can be smelling released many thousands of diplomatic cables on video proof of us involved thinking and want to find. another man who found himself in jail this year was john key the first u.s. official to confirm the government's use of waterboarding to interrogate carry suspects i caught up with him shortly before he went to have served his two and a half years sentence i have never believed that my case was about a leak i have always believed that my case is about torture in the hunt for whistleblowers journalists have been targeted as well u.s. authorities secretly tapped the phones of dozens of associated press journeys the partner of glenn greenwald who broke the story about in the states to balan's was detained in london while carrying materials from edward snowden to british authorities so closely cooperate with washington now accuse him of quote terry's.

aaron swartz was neither a whistleblower nor a journalist when he was a champion of the free internet fighting against censorship villains and advocating the online when the use of as much information as possible on the government on january eleventh the twenty six year old committed suicide. prosecutors wanted to put him in jail for up to thirty five years for download. academic articles from a subscription based research website at his university with the intent to make them available to the public this was somebody who was pushed to the edge by what i think of as a kind of bullying by our government a government that treated him as if he were nine eleven terrorists edward snowden's revelations showed with the kind of surveillance that governments are doing by missy's out the window but this year will also learn what he needs to those who fully embrace this new age of openness and accessibility of information he showed

that while governments in the u.s. government first and foremost won their populations to be open and transparent they themselves become increasingly secretive in washington i'm going to check on our team. has started on june the sixth when britain's guardian paper published a court ruling demanding american phone company of arisan to hand over customer phone records then came the exposure of the government's prism program collecting user data from firms such as google and facebook it was later revealed the n.s.a. had been spying on global leaders followed by claims that a number of countries were also in on the eavesdropping former cia officer ray mcgovern says those behind the surveillance should be brought to justice. i am delighted to hear that ed snowden on his desk in honolulu had a copy of the constitution of the united states of all dog eared because he used it to argue with his and his campaign there it is say as to whether what they were doing was legal whether it was constitutional whether it was

a crime for them to be corrupt to be cooperated in using their technical expertise to violate america's privacy right and left the question should be why those who are aided and abetted this whether they should be. disposed peached in their case and brought to trial for these of gross violations of their solemn oath to. support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies throughout the day on archie were showing media stan a program but a group of wiki leaks activists who travel across central asia in search of will. media outlets willing to be published you are willing to publish the leaked u.s. diplomatic cables also have an extensive discussion later sunday on the world whistleblowers the challenges and arrests that they face that's all r.t. international. street interesting. strategic region.

undercover team of journalists trying to release wiki leaks documents. the united states is trying. to be your local media more pro-american counter to your ignorance pressure. country blocks the way to information freedom. media stuff are today. russia's top diplomat says the u.s. and its allies are moving closer toward moscow's position on syria but some key issues with nato still need ironing out sergei lavrov speaking exclusively with r.t. about the years foreign policy goals and achievements are. among those who interviewed the foreign minister. sergei. lavrov things are finding the time to meet with us we have three channels here r.t. spanish r.t. arabic and english. with

a whole year to cover there were lots of things to discuss it brought russia several diplomatic victories including the chemical arms deal with syria he would do is the next step according to mr elaborate of preconditions from the syrian opposition remain among the key obstacles including the one for president assad to step down something that the west is now moving away from. the threat of jihadists coming to power in setting up the caliphate and the realization is doing that region change is not the way to resolve this problem our western partners are becoming increasingly clear about this. there are also changes in russia's relations with the west and apparently there are signals for more transparent and trustworthy ties on both sides but appalled warming talent is still something that must pass to deal with political so going to need a members have a food be against russia which is really said this leads to some of our european partners still wanting to keep dividing lines within europe and even move these lines east toward the countries that would either be with them or against them in

the comments for the last november's nato drills near russia's western borders the largest in ten years six thousand troops from all member states as well as finland sweden and ukraine practice defending the baltics from an identified flight from the east while president putin is question of what was the point of still planning to build an anti missile defense system in europe without of threat from iran still hasn't been properly answered by washington there aren't any firm guarantees the system want to be aimed at russia either you've got to skim off moscow. our full exclusive interview with russia's foreign minister right now on our team dot com and on our you tube channel and coming up in the second part of the program. to the oil companies their interests have been served and they succeeded in creating a separate independent state called south sudan but this week saw deep cracks appear in what some call a profit driven project to put the new country on the map two years ago will bring you the details for.

the beginning of the loan to. monks in the phases from island life. and the enough temptation. to douglas last for six months. older than people. and it's as easy to hide the rifle as a scooter. because the island is so in the space of the new indigenous people but their own those who do choose this frozen life. this is could be. if your. secret lumbered sure to mccurry was able to build

a new most sophisticated robot which on fortunately doesn't give a donor found anything tombs mission to teach me the creation and why it should care about humans and. this is why you should care only on the dot com. thanks for staying with us quarter past the hour freed former oil mogul mikhail khodorkovsky may still be deciding exactly what to do next but one thing he says he knows for sure that he wants to get former associates out of prison one of them serving a life sentence for organizing several murders he claims he was behind bars unjustly you know all of her husband. after ten years in jail. has now decided will do is need found freedom and some of those plans have caused a few raised eyebrows. some of my comrades remain in jail they are my fellow sufferers for example my friend platon lebedev alexei protrusion says

there are still other political prisoners in russia not only those related to the u. cos case i am free now and i'm asking you to think of it as something which symbolizes that the efforts of civil society can lead to the release of some people who no one thought would be able to walk free to chew good and was the head of security for his daughter coasties oil company you cos he's currently serving a life sentence for five counts of murder. in two thousand and seven a court convicted her children of ordering the shooting of blood in me a pet you call of the mayor of a town in siberia. heard clashed with you cos over his insistence that the oil giant paid taxes due to his tone the court found no link between the murders and the head of u. cos however because widow believes this was a crime that went to the top of the american by the us was registered there so when

it came to tax revenues it was answering to the mayor a nifty you guns ready made with the hope they depended on him and that was the only reason why he even matter if only time will solve the mystery surrounding my husband but i just like her because if you can sense and clearly has the conscience . while on trial for the murder of pairs of legs going was already serving twenty years in prison for the attempted murder of former holocaust ski advisor all good course. after quitting her post with you cos she went on to work as the head of p.r. for the mayor of moscow it was then that a bomb was placed in her moscow apartment fortunately it detonated while no one was home because dinner see the holocaust these comments about political prisoners as self-serving. how to craft a hostage of his own party he can't act differently now if he ever recognizes what his security forces were doing and he will automatically become responsible to

whatever i think now he fears that an exuberant you can may start talking like that and what the third ucas case could potentially be is a further investigation into those murders and assaults which the company security forces carried out a lot of crafts he has no other choice he will continue to insist to people from the security department up political prisoners that are and he will pretend to be pushing for release the are being heaped upon mr holocaust years left some of those watching feeling that only half the story is being told. he has stolen a lot of oil not physically or barter by means of fiscal many policemen and every kind of businessman in the best who had done the same would have also ended in prison of this story is i'm told in the west. peter oliver artie belin. had to argy dot com to learn about mass resignations in the world's most

populous country as many as five hundred chinese municipal lawmakers now jobless after gaming the system read about what exactly made them take flight. and this may look just like a tangle of poles and wires but it's actually a cutting edge space rover to be deployed by nasa to send to one of saturn's largest moons in search of new discovery. going now to some other stories making global headlines this hour israel's shelled neighboring lebanon after two rocket rockets northern territories witnesses say more than twenty shells hit the lebanese border areas no injuries or damage reported on either side the frontier between the two countries has largely been peaceful since a short war in two thousand and six but tension heated up earlier this month after lebanese army snipers opened fire across the border and killed an israeli troop and . later on sunday a rescue ship should reach the traffic russian research vessel that's been stuck in antarctic ice since tuesday it's hoped the australian ice breaker will reach the

stranded academic shokalskiy after a failed attempts by french and chinese ships despite being stuck in the ice since christmas the scientists aboard the ship are said to be in good spirits and continuing with their research. activists in syria say government airstrike on a crowded food market in aleppo killed at least twenty five people the barrel bombing campaign comes ahead of a key peace conference planned for next month with the main opposition alliance threatening to withdraw from talks if air raids keep up also international inspectors say they'll likely miss the december thirty first deadline to get rid of syria's most dangerous chemical arsenal calling it a bad weather and shifting battle fronts to blame. antigovernment protesters in bahrain met with tear gas and sound grenades hundreds turned out nationwide after the arrest of the head of the main opposition bloc shaikh ali solomon was reportedly since been released to his part. he is the one of the main drivers of the arab spring inspired protests that started in one eleven opposition campaigners

say about every sliding toward dictatorship with widespread torture and detention and hundreds getting jailed for attending human rights. the world's youngest country is on the brink of collapse only two years after it appeared on the map what started as a power struggle in south sudan between the president and his sacking vice president this week descended toward civil war control over key cities is switching back and forth between the sides the government claims thousands of for rebel use are now marching on a strategic provincial capra ventral capital apparently controlled by pro presidential forces fighting in the oil rich states already claimed more than a thousand lives of this month or he's policy or has more. it is the glutes newest country but it is south sudan already on the brink of its own a full blown divisive conflict you know dealing with a civil war that knows no bounds in terms of how long that's would last and of course it has no determination as to how many people lose their lives not to mention those who will be displaced and alleged coup the vice president forced out

which exclaimed ignited his loyalists into a deadly rebellion yet just two and a half years ago the world rushed to recognize south sudan which washington among the loudest supporters in south sudan has mining rees reserves and it also has massive oil reserves those are the biggest interests land for oil mining and agricultural production the agents of power that have put in place the government of silva kerr the agent that supported the south sudan sudan people's liberation army would be the government of uganda and powerful factions from the united states including corporate executives from the oil companies to the oil companies have served their interests have been served by bringing deescalate to power which they did and they succeeded in creating a separate independent state called south sudan now though a key oil producing area has fallen into when it gave forces a huge blow to a government that relies on the industry for just about all of its money well i'm

afraid it's going to affect each and every one of us worldwide you will see the tail on a pullback in terms of production levels from the south sudan which will impinge on global world prices of oil and alternately we would fill it out the pumps in respect of where you are in the world where you go to a lot so prices would go up but there would be panic in the markets cause ultimately the biggest losers would be the south sudanese people foreign fuel systems all pulling stuff out and in many cases winding production down to zero last weekend for american service personnel who did as the military aircraft came under fire during an attempt to evacuate u.s. civilians to say. president obama warns that he may take further action to keep americans safe i mean south sudan was never you know a country that had proper infrastructure and the main complaint from from the people is where is the money going why are most south sudanese on the edge of

survival and you know the new government is already driving their said dispense and building these huge houses this fledging nation born out of decades of civil rule is facing the toughest taste of ritual to existence but the population where we'll find seeing and feeling has fallen down the priority list of those championing the moves to get south sudan put on the map police here r.t. . author and historian gerald horan who was a mediator in the sudanese civil war during the eighty's explains why he thinks the us wanted another country on the world map. united states was basically the midwife for south sudanese independence united states in its real world posed to the khartoum base of government not least because it would seem as being anti israel and was perceived as being pro palestinian not only that but there is oil in sudan and the oil is in the south and is pumped out to the nor and then there's the china

question the chinese state oil company is deeply invested in south sudan and for whaling the chinese was also seen as a tool through which could be accomplished through independence a session for south sudan chevron felt that it would be in their best interest itself sudan works a seat because it would be easier to exploit the oil in a divided country as opposed to a united country that was a major reason driving the split do the math we're talking about hundreds of thousands of barrels produced in south sudan and with oil let's say roughly at one hundred dollars a barrel you can see that this is a pretty penny. weekly business show venture capital coming up next stay with us.

summer break a time when all students rejoice and most importantly relax but in russia summer break for male students could change dramatically and involve lots of guns currently male russian citizens have to put a year into the armed forces but the ministry of defense thinks that they can make things easier by having students spend their summer breaks in the military this training would tie in with their future professions such as engineering students being put into military engineering position now the question is does your summer break belong to you or no other words does the government have the right to tell you what to do and make you serve in the army even if just for three summers during your college years i think the answer this really depends on your culture in places which haven't been invaded countless times or have a strong individual ism streak any form of conscription sounds barbaric and oppressive but if you come from a country that is less individualistic and has been attacked invaded by pretty much every country that possibly could like russia then having a draft makes more sense i think this program could work and if i was in college i would be pumped to spend my summer vacation with some heavy artillery but this is

definitely not a universal idea for all countries i don't think liberals or libertarians in america would take too kindly to it and rightly so but that's just my opinion. that was his two thousand and thirteen and what is needed memorable we ask in this edition of crossfire we excelled in who disappointed us what stories captured our attention because a vote or two to dispair. welcome to venture capital you have an amazing christmas and you're enjoying the rest of your holidays in today so we're going to be taking on some of the fun out to when

it is on the loses of twenty team we'll be speaking to saks chief economist stephen jacobsen on next is outrageous. new publications always. been another of modest success to solve and economic woes to a general theme for the majority of the world's major economies has been the stuhlinger of great it seems that the recovery road in a financial crises is a long winding one the european debt crisis has managed to avoid collapse but yet there's no resolution there was the u.s. shut down life of money squabbles through ukraine trade tug of war and russia fell to achieve its big growth so we're going to check in with our correspondents in washington. and sent to moscow from all twenty thirteen another says his first check in with period during his in washington for us a pan tell us twenty thirty well if you will take.

recording is definitely the financial winner in the united states started the year at about thirteen dollars and peaked at twelve hundred additionally congress held hearings on virtual currencies last month were federal regulatory officials recognized the benefits of big coin closing the year on a very positive note anyone invested in the virtual currency did very well in twenty thirteen the biggest loser their share is the middle class this year alone at their quantitative easing the federal reserve spent about a trillion dollars in bond purchases which is devaluing the u.s. dollar and of course it's also hundreds the country's reputation on the world stage and helped lead to the talks of a possible debt default during the partial government shutdown anyone on a fixed income has been negatively affected by the fed's inflationary policies thank you perry in washington for us we're not going to cross the pond and check in with mr peta all of european correspondent to tell us how his twenty thirty entry.