the. breaking news dominated this hour nancy international a terrorist attack in the russian city of volgograd kills up to eighteen and injuries dozens more alleged female suicide bomber targeted the city's main railway station. and the week's top headlines this hour mass rallies in turkey to demand the government step down over a wide ranging corruption scandal and that's with a tough police response. also look at the stories the trade twenty thirteen a get that saw cia contract and turned whistleblower edward snowden exposed america's far reaching global surveillance.

this is asking to national coming here live from moscow hello and welcome to the program and we'll start with our breaking news story this hour after eighteen people have been killed in a suicide bomb blast in russia's southern city of volgograd twenty seven more were injured by the blast which was detonated at the city's central right will station that's now cross live to the group is going on for the details there you go so what's the latest do we know about the track. well the explosion happened near the entrance to the central train station in volgograd and was reportedly conducted by a female suicide bomber this is where the security checkpoint is located and we know about eighteen people killed and twenty seven others injured one police officer was killed as well and reportedly he died as he tried stopping the woman from conducting this horrific act. president has been notified about the situation

he said his representative to will go out to control the situation there on the spot the mergence these ministries on standby ready to send planes to all get out to give medical attention and also possibly to evacuate some of the injured who need a more sophisticated medical help to moscow an investigation clearly is underway and the train station is still blocked and witnesses say the blast was so powerful it damaged several stories off the train station building. people on the ground there were. police and rescue working at the site. blast was very powerful. people who were. the people

standing around. it was just a normal day. very common people and tearing into station and leaving was walking around with children i think they were. in and around the station maybe two or three hundred people looking bus explosion people here were quite cheerful considering that it's the season i think people but. unfortunately this is another terrorist attack coming again. witnesses say there were more people inside the train station itself and perhaps if it wasn't for this checkpoint then there could have been much more fatalities and much more damage done and while generally first second and third have already been announced days of mourning in volgograd region right and you board this is the second terror

a time on the say seen in the past several months please remind us more about that well that's right just two months ago in late october a rather female suicide bomber detonated an explosive device inside a public was going herself six others and injuring over thirty people so the situation there is still that you just heard the witness say that everybody is very careful and a word but unfortunately this doesn't help prevent these attacks from taking place . on the line from central moscow thank you very much indeed for that update and we spoke to senior lecturer and research a national relations and security studies at moscow state university. explained what terrorists are trying to achieve you would baton that we've seen several terrorist attacks on trains previously as well as a matter of stations within moscow over the last decade plus i think they calculate

this as it is extremely disruptive to the savard of russian society it creates a true atmosphere of terror when any average citizen can be affected to use for transportation which is the majority of the population and there are reports a policeman was killed trying to stone the suspect just before the bomb was detonated. as a great efforts have put in place to prevent such tragedies surety has been in a heightened condition regarding the threat of terrorist attacks for the last year as we. down to the sochi olympic games the. several services of russia have already announced that they have stopped a large quite a large number of terrorist incidents throughout the last year and are constantly reporting on a number of militants they have killed however and that this obviously it only

takes one to get through and this is what we've seen a most recently in. and now in volgograd. and let's not talk about this terror attack with journalist and political observer sergei is trying ton lie here in the studio mr welcome to see very nice to see it just two months ago. volgograd was targeted as well so why is this. lead the dust settled first and i think probably investigations will give us more details but what is clear already know that if you just look at the map and you see the right of all the ground you will understand the larger goal the terrorists it is not ready for from sochi and probably the reason is sort your only big games the basic idea was just to question the credibility of. their technical security sources but it is not out of the sort you do from my point of view which detachment

volgograd as a target probably few people in the world know but we russians know that progress finding ground this is a sacred place to. just recall the history of the second world war you will see that this was the place which gave to the history books as as as a monument to on corn korbel spirit of soviet russian people and probably terrorists who they were trying just to show. them doesn't exist anymore this was ready very cynical logic but that's what we've seen to be involved in and also the holiday season in russia is about that is right and that's right people out there right right right is that right when you say what about the timing where when you take terrorist acts like this what is important i would think is important not only the number of but we know that terrorists are using these just as a political instrument as a political tool and time is also an important note on your case when you have

their respect like that just forty eight hours before the new year which is the one of the major. holidays here in face to move people up prepare. the suggest the major people came to the station in practical terms probably they were going to their relatives to see their friends so so very will be really dramatic feed because of that vote those who were probably there war should be hard but there are still things behind that and you opinion what i'll be well again will the dust settle let us wait for the investigation investigators just to come up with conclusions about what is already clear now that they was a suicide bomber let me just recall one of the statements which was made by the leader of future and terrorists. if i'm not mistaken last year came up who would be just appeal for terrorists just to come up with that there were stocks

so i think that most probably says the some are the crowd of which is to chant on the ground. these clubs that from the congress and publishing house surrogates many thanks indeed for you and thinking and will be closely following the developments and will bring you all the best forget them and you can also logon to one minute by minute timeline of the events in the balkans granted us to that right now. and now to the week's top stories of thousands gathered in turkish capital ankara to demand the resignation of the country's government that stopped of violent dispersal of protesters and its tumble on friday night where police used tear gas and rubber bullets against the crowds they ronnie's was sponsored by a corruption probe that's led to a major combat was shuffle and arrests of government officials. has been looking at

the events. it's not uncommon sights a list of those 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 as well and now comes not just from the streets but from within his own party 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 editor has been in power for such a long time has maintained control a lot of people said that a lot of good things stirred the country right now the. ones actually it has become very very visible protests. in this very slow going on the result of this is a victory bell to. be to publicly out of the protests the prime minister remains

defiant and continue to blame the corruption probe all of foreign conspiracy and a second wave of detentions may still be possible they say the tide being deadlocked for mains with at least a prosecutor publicly she's to law enforcement being in the government's talk it first easing a court decision to carry out the raids of government officials and their families as that political drama continues to unfold arguably the biggest test now facing the embattled prime minister still lies ahead of him match. test for mr mammograms. extrude new crush. than we can see. grab a pen and. the future of country. may be very difficult. and. and it could well be that when days like the

elections take place the full impact of the corruption scandal really about arafat on the starboard. the view has voiced concern over the corruption scandal in taki urging the government to handle it was more transparency international relations professor hussein bank chief things the corruption probe is not just going to blow . it is the biggest political corruption in our history and if it is the case it is more than one hundred billion euro. as some sources say i think the turkish government is having difficulties to. cover the prime minister is very harmed by this and i think the internal reactions and ever from there will be more strong accusations and the turkish government. will somehow try to

defend lost a lot of credit in the eyes of the electorate and also in the international public opinion. as he's not on a mission to help his jailed associates look at their cases and talk to the witnesses and victims who say they rarely get their voices heard in the western media that's just ahead. of. the. economic downturn the find out. the longer the deal and the rest because i. believe everything we own.

the. drugs some of the sixty percent of imports came from illegal fishing. the european union is ironically taking fish from some of the poorest nations on earth so this is a very serious and very urgent problem that needs immediate international action. on the territorial waters because they fish they load the fish into the ships and leave for europe. to day illegal fishing just taking the bread out of our mouths. this is international welcome back with a new year just around the corner we're looking back at the biggest stories of

twenty. hailed as a hero and condemned as a traitor cia whistleblower edward snowden revealed to the world just how much the u.s. is spying harvesting information and story huge amounts of phone and internet data with every new and i say surveillance appears more and more far reaching he's going to church account looks not how the revelations are changing the wild and the cost of whistleblower. edward snowden says george orwell's fictitious big brother is no match for the u.s. national security agency tiresome collection of book microphones and video 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 we 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 light about mass surveillance does the n.s.a. collect any type of data at 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 its violations of the bill of rights what we're doing is said to caving to tell a 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 could leaks manning released many thousands of diplomatic cables

and video proof of u.s. involvement and i don't 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 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 journalists the partner of glenn greenwald who broke the story about in the states the 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 well it was

a champion of the free internet fighting against censorship in films and advocating the online police up. 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 but this was somebody who was pushed to. by what i think of as a kind of bullied by our government or government who treated him as if he were nine eleven terrorists edward snowden's revelations showed with the kind of surveillance that governments are doing i would seize out the window but this year will also learn what happens to those who embrace this new age of openness and accessibility of information 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. and let's now take a closer look at snowden expose about n.s.a. surveillance its collection millions of phone records in america every day and it also has access to internet giants like google facebook and microsoft and is harvesting online data around the globe on top of the security agency targets european citizens and even tops e.u. leaders but at the same time germany and the u.k. along with a stranger and kind and actually closely collaboration with american intelligence lashon american governments and companies are a major target for u.s. spines and on top of the n.s.a. is collecting data from fiber optic cables that carry most of the world's internet and phone traffic former cia officer raymond government believes those violating privacy should face justice not been me. 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 compatriots there it is say as to whether what they were doing was illegal 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 in the spose peached in their case and brought to trial for the use of gross violations of their solemn oath to. support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies. throughout the day all seem to national is showing me a road movie about we can make sex if it is on a mission to reveal sensitive u.s. secrets and at seven pm champs he will have

a line discussion about the project with a panel of guests talking about the challenges and dangers whistleblowers are facing as well as the role of the music challenge channeling the revelations that. st augustine. strategic leadership. under cover team of journalists trying to release which leads documents about how the united states is trying. made me your local media more pro-american counter to your ignorance and to pressure. the country blocks the way to information freedom. media stuff are today. online via right now breaking records an open space website and as a break a video of russian cosmonauts on a space walk which turns out to be the longest in twenty thirty.

and furious hundreds of teenagers from a new york shopping center rushing windows and putting customers on a stop in a panic to find out more about the youth and gone wild totty dot com. new freedom. will dedicate himself to helping or he calls and it's called prisoners the man who until very recently was russia's most high profile inmate says he wants to pay back his debts to the people who are still incarcerated but as he is based on are appalled their cases have little to do with politics after ten years in jail . there's no decided to do freedom and some of these plans have caused a few raised only bros. 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 chew good was the head of security for his daughter called these oil company you cos he's currently serving a life sentence for five counts of murder. in two thousand and seven a court convicted ordering the shooting of blood in me a pet you call the mayor of a town in siberia you call four hundred clashed with you can also over his insistence that the oil giant pay taxes due to his tone the court found no link between the murders and the head of you 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 of nifty 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 if you can sense and clear his conscience. while on trial for the murder of pair of legs the picture going was already serving twenty years in prison for the attempted murder of former holocaust ski advisor 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. sees the holocaust these comments about political prisoners as self-serving. how to calfskin is 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 of but

i think now he fears that other exupery too can start talking about it 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 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 i.g. lation being heaped upon miss the holocaust years left some of those watching feeling that only half the story is being told he stole a lot of oil not physically or by the by means of fiscal many pollution. every kind of businessman in the best who had done the same waterfall thought that in prison of this story is told in the west. peter all of a r.t. berlin. the recount now i'll break

a news story up to eighteen people have been killed in a suicide bomb blast in russia's salah city one of the grant twenty seven more were injured by the blast which was detonated at the city's central railway station. i was inside in the waiting call i heard an explosion i didn't realized what had happened to me and i saw the giant engine still was completely ruined but you know people were coming out of the hearings and i spoke with the blindfolds carried on by feet she said to have been stopped by a policeman before passing through metal detectors at the entrance to the railway ten you know the blast was extremely powerful closing the doors and windows of the station to be blown out. of course we'll keep you posted on this developing story and of all the ground scenes work a business venture capital is next with just a. 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 another words to 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 of 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 do. i think liberals are libertarians in america would take too kindly to it and rightly so but the surest piping. that was two thousand and thirteen and what has made it memorable we ask in this edition of crossfire we excelled in who disappointed in what stories captured our attention because of hope or do you despair. welcome to venture capital i hope you had 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 windows on the losers of twenty am we'll be speaking to saxo bank chief economist jacobson the next is outrageous dictions the new publication the always box to buy bust it's been another year of modest success to solve an economic woes for others but the general theme for the majority of the world's major economies has been the still willing of gripe it seems that the recovery road still a financial crises is a long winding one the european debt crisis has managed to avoid collapse but yet there's no resolution that will see us shutdown over money squabbles the 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 but in kiev and central moscow from all twenty thirteen another.