today's news in the week's top stories on r.t. international the e.u. calling on turkey for more transparency amid a massive corruption probe that's triggered an arrest and a major government shakeup. continuing our look back at two thousand and thirteen this time the story of a computer worker who opened up america's expensive global surveillance to exposure . and russia's foreign minister talks with us about the years breakthroughs in challenges from syria to missile defense spots with nato. one in the afternoon moscow time my mattress and 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 probe that forced the arrest of twenty four people including the sons of two ministers and a massive government shake up 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 and demanding the pm step down sara for of has the latest from istanbul. it's not uncommon sight so to stumble streets in a year that's been marked by widespread protests but this time the rallies taking place in the wake of a corruption crackdown that rocked the government the threats to prime minister comes not just from the streets but from within his own party the turnout for the demonstration was significantly smaller than the seen the summer in the last three clashes break out between police and protesters but added i've been in power for such a long time has maintained control a lot of people said and

a lot of good things the country right now the. government actually has become very very poor protests from. this. regime that was not this is a very very well to stop this speaking publicly out of the protests the prime minister remains defiant and continue to blame the corruption probe well the foreign conspiracy and the second wave of detentions may still be possible that the tide being deadlocked for mainz with the police the prosecutor publicly she's to law enforcement being in the government's talk at all refusing a court decision to carry out will wait for government officials and their families as that political drama continues to unfold acutely the biggest test now facing the embattled five minister who lies ahead of head match. test for.

strewn across. bad. the future. may be very difficult. at. that is what they've linked the elections they get the full impact of the corruption scandal. and it's that. breaking news to report to you now three people thought to have been killed in an explosion in the city of volgograd in russia there have been no other details on the incident so far in october a female suicide bomber blew himself blew herself up on a bus in the city killing six people and injuring thirty more people there we'll bring you more details on this latest incident as we get it well it's just

a few days left in the year two thousand and thirteen we're looking back at the events that shaped the year. the person who arguably generated more global headlines than any other this year a previously unknown i.t. worker from the u.s. on a job for the cia he didn't like what he saw so edward snowden went public telling the world just how far and wide the u.s. electronic surveillance network 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 times 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 leave to 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 lie about mass surveillance does the n.s.a. collect any type of data. on millions or hundreds of millions of americans. no sir while most americans think to edward snowden the u.s. government tectum as a spy and a traitor the united states government classified its evidence of its own criminal misconduct its 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 return to the u.s.

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 and video proof of us involved thinking and want to find. another man who found himself in jail this year was john king the first u.s. official to confirm the government's use of waterboarding to interrogate 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. being 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 kerry's.

aaron swartz was neither a whistleblower nor a journalist when he was a champion of the free internet fighting against censorship details and advocating the online police 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 downloading 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 for 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 happens to those who embrace this new age of openness and accessibility of information that 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. it all started june sixth when britain's guardian newspaper published a court ruling demanding american phone company of arise and hand over customer phone records then came the exposure of the government's prism program collecting users' personal data from firms including google and face back flip face book it was later revealed that the n.s.a. had been spying on global leaders along with 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 his come patriots 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 but the question should be why those who are aided and abetted this whether they should be. disposed 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 our t. you are showing media stan a programme about a group of wiki leaks activists who travel across central asia in search of media outlets willing to publish leaked u.s. diplomatic cables also host an extensive discussion later on sunday on the world whistleblowers the challenges and risks they face that's all coming your way on r.t.e. international. st augustine. strategic leadership. an

undercover team of journalists trying to release wiki leaks documents. the united states is trying. to be a local media more pro-american counter to your ignorance pressure. country blocks the way to information freedom. are today. russia's top diplomat says the u.s. and allies are moving closer towards moscow's stance on syria but some key issues with nato still remain sergey lavrov spoke exclusively with r.t. about the years foreign policy achievements of his kind of among those who interviewed the foreign minister. thanks for finding the time to meet with us we have three channels here r.t. spanish r.t. arabic and english. for the whole year to cover there were lots of things to discuss it brought russia several diplomatic victories including the chemical arms

deal with syria geneva two is the next step according to mr lab are off 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 sitting at a 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 of cold war mentality is still something that must pass to deal with. the media members have a phobia against russia which is really said this leads to similar european partners still wanting to keep dividing lines within europe and even move these lines east toward the countries that could 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 practiced 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 this kind of arty moscow fall a source of interview with russia's foreign minister and head on head over to r.t. dot com or youtube channel to find that they're directly coming up in a second part of our program. a reminder of our breaking news three people thought to have died six more injured in an explosion at a railway station in the city of volgograd in southern russia the terminal there evacuated and police on the scene but there are no details yet on what caused the blast in october a female suicide bomber blew herself up on the same bus in the car on

a bus in the same city killing seven and injuring thirty seven others more details on this latest incident at a boulder out a railway station as we get them. unexplored and talk to go what is it in this icy expanse that attracts the people who come here. now i only go to the duchess. and enter into. a new generation of polar explorers is coming. we have a new group of specialists here now all of them are young how are they going to get along with each other and i don't know. how used to be a bureaucrat. seriously. what adventures await in this mysterious. way to live what do they eat and what are they actually doing it until to go.

poor past the hour now the fried former oil mogul mikhail khodorkovsky may still be deciding what are his next moves but one thing he knows for sure he says he wants to get former associates out of prison one of them serving a life sentence for organizing several murders but autopsy claims he was put behind bars unjustly your all over has more after ten years in jail.

has now decided will do is need phone freedom and some of his 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 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 choose good was the head of security for his daughter coasties oil company you cos he's currently serving a life sentence for 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 you call four hundred 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 their combined ucas was registered there so when it came to tax revenues it was answering to the mayor next to hugh grant 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's murder but i just like how to ask you to confess and clear his conscience. while on trial for the murder of pair of legs going with already serving twenty years in prison for the attempted murder of former holocaust good byes are all good cause dinner 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 the seized 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 he will automatically become responsible i think now he fears that and exupery too can may start talking 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 being heaped upon mr holocaust years left some of those watching feeling that only half the story is being told. he was still a little foil not physically above the mean self fiscal many police in every kind of business men in the biased who had done the same old school

ended in prison of this story told in the west. peter all of a billion had come 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 bus and stand alone poles and wires may not look like a cutting edge space or over but that's exactly what it is nasa is planning to send it to explore one of saturn's largest moons with a mind for a new discovery. and an update on our breaking news this hour at least four people now thought to have been killed six wounded in an explosion at a railway station in the city of volgograd in southern russia the blast reportedly went off at the metal detectors near the station entrance the terminal evacuated and police are on the scene no details yet on what caused the blast in october a female suicide bomber blew herself up on

a bus in volgograd killing seven and injuring thirty seven others this josh can video of that incident will bring you more details on what's happening at the volgograd railway station as we get them. the world's youngest country could be on the brink of collapse just two years after it appeared on the map what started as a power struggle in south sudan between the president and his sacked vice president . a war control over key cities switch back and forth between the sides the government claims thousands of provo hughes are now marching on a strategic provincial capital currently controlled by pro presidential forces fighting in the oil rich state already has claimed more than a thousand lives this month or his policy reports it is the boots newest country that is south sudan will be on the brink of its own divisive conflict you know dealing with a civil war that knows no bounds in terms of how long that's would last cause it

has no determination as to how many people would lose their lives not to mention those who would be displaced and the latest coup the vice president for stunt which explains ignited his if you can oil this into a deadly rebellion just two and a half years ago the world rushed to recognize some sudan which washington among the loudest support is south sudan has mining reason 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 goaltimate today we would fill it out the pumps in respect of where you are in the world where you go to flow so prices would go up but there would be panic in the markets. school's ultimate the biggest losers will be the south sudanese people fall and fuel food so pulling stuff out i did many cases winding production down to zero last weekend for american service personnel who did as the military aircraft came under fire doing an attempt to vaccinate u.s. civilians to safety president obama warns that he may take further action to keep american safe i mean south sudan was never you know a country that had a proper infrastructure 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 needs to get some sudan put on the map. on t.v. . right now to some other stories making global headlines this hour israel shelled neighboring lebanon after two rockets struck its 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 largely peaceful since the shore or in two thousand and six but it turned heated up earlier this month after lebanese or these snipers opened fire across the border and killed in israeli troops and. later on sunday a rescue ship should reach

a trap russian research vessel that's been stuck in fake antarctic ice since tuesday it's hoped the australian ice breaker will reach the stranded academic chicago after a failed attempts by french and chinese ships despite being stuck in the eye since christmas scientists aboard the ship are said to be in good spirits and continuing their research. activists in syria say a government airstrike on a crowded marketplace in aleppo killed at least twenty five people the by. obama campaign coming ahead of a key peace conference planned for lex month next month the main opposition alliance threatening to pull out of talks if the air raids continue also international inspectors say they'll likely miss the december thirty first deadline to get rid of syria's most dangerous chemical arsenal blaming bad weather and shifting battle fronts. 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 his

party's been one of the main drivers though of arab spring inspired protests that cropped up in twenty eleven opposition campaigners say about range sliding towards a dictatorship with widespread torture and detention and hundreds jailed for attending human rights rowdies. the recap of the hour's breaking news at least four people thought to have been killed and up to ten wounded in an explosion at the main railway station in the city of volgograd in southern russia the blast reportedly went off at the metal detectors at the station entrance the terminal has been evacuated and police are on the scene no details yet on the cause of the blast it's the same city that suffered terrorism in october when a female suicide bomber blew herself up aboard a bus killing seven and injuring thirty seven we'll bring you more details on developments in volgograd at the railway station as we get them. up next the story of getting classified documents into public domain proved trickier than attaining them in the first place more on that and.

although i have gone duck hunting a few times i've never seen the duck dynasty t.v. show but gosh if i heard about the scandal involving one of the stars of the show phil robertson who. suspended for making what many consider anti-homosexual comments in an interview this slippery scandal is creating a lot of arguments about freedom of speech on social networks many people who believe that robertson deserved to be booted from the show for what he said argue that freedom of speech means that robertson can't be arrested by the government for what he said but the any t.v. channel has the right to fire whom they like the thing is that if this situation were reversed and robertson was fired for making. statements then people who are currently defending any right to hire and fire as they please would all be bashing

the t.v. channel for violating the stars freedom of speech think cry that firing him would violate his rights and i'm sure some websites would make him into a hero or demand a boycott or closer to a n.d. forever very few people actually believe in freedom of speech for all they just believe in freedom of speech for people who agree with them but that's just my opinion. it was very interesting because all the dropped out of the sky in the rohrbach of the lower shift across a few degrees. do a circle and at a speed which you know just astronomical speeds as you know they travel very very thoughts is it just look like a falling star that falls really quickly and then rises again what does it look like a lot of just look like a star. going

to fire do because. because there was an article above. about the conditions of work since we journalists have known they were here in israel by this time. and the year journalists there they interviewed the very frank with me and they told me about the different things that you couldn't report to calm things than the good and the censorship that you experienced in them. at their workplace when the material was published two of the six journalists that

are there do interview and they retracted their statements so you see the. base you see. that you sometimes do damn orangey things out of a long text or something i think if somebody does an interview with you and then you're. entirely open and frank about it. and then after a while maybe you realize that this is going to be shown on television and your boss is going to see this and your mother is going to see this. you know you start understanding the consequences it's not just a conversation between you and your friends but then we just evolved about it because i think to an extent. i made a very big mistake. with that article and the mistake that i did was that i was. i did a very journalistic very difficult journalistic work. about journalists and the standards for doing

a journalistic work about journalism has to be one hundred times higher because they were. they were immediately you backfired and they will start criticizing what you do in a completely different way than if it's a regular person because regular person doesn't have the power to where. to say no . he's going to say to you. here's a cable marked secret no four and that means that not even allowed states are allowed to read and it's about a meeting between the u.s. ambassador and the curate is foreign minister and it goes like this. the embezzler and the curious foreign minister met that the investors residence midafternoon president bakiev that's the dictator that was kicked out of the revolution a few months ago told him that he was authorized to sign the agreement on the u.s. military base but the agreement must be kept secret for a minute.