golden ratio on our. breaking news dominates this hour on r.t.e. international i terrorist attack in the russian city of volgograd kills sixteen and injures dozens more in alleged female suicide bomber targets the city's main railway station. also the week's top headlines mass rallies in turkey to demand the government step down over a wide ranging corruption scandal are met with top police response. plus we'll look at the stories that shape twenty thirteen a year that saw cia contractor turned whistleblower edward snowden exposed america's far reaching global surveillance.

it's nine pm in the russian capital you're watching our chief international and we have breaking news this hour for you it has been confirmed that fifteen people were killed in a suicide bomb blast in russia's southern city of volgograd dozens more were injured by the blast which was detonated at the city's central railway station. has the details. well the blast was caused by a female suicide bomber at the checkpoint at the entrance to the central train station and all of this happened q of passengers were standing there waiting for their luggage to be checked right now investigators are working there on the scene the president has sent his representatives to all get out to control the situation on the spot reportedly the blast was very powerful several stories of the train stations were damaged in it and here's how witnesses described what was happening i

was inside in the waiting home i heard an explosion i didn't realized what had happened and i saw the giant engine still was completely ruined and people were coming out with their hair and. i was with a child not far from where the blast happened i saw a blast shot its last flight i pushed the child to the floor and covered him with my body. we were drinking coffee there was an explosion i was lucky to be wearing my hood it saved me from all the shattered glass we heard screams my coat is covered in blood the emergencies ministry has been on standby ready to send planes still get out to provide medical assistance to the injured and possibly to evacuate some of those who need more sophisticated medical help to moscow and it's already been announced that generally first second and third will be days of mourning in the region just around two months ago and we are told another female suicide bomber detonated an explosive device on

a public bus killing herself and six others and wounding over thirty other passengers. well there's been a lot of reaction to the events in volgograd on social media on twitter eyewitnesses were posting their reports from the scene let's take a look at some of them a local for tog referred to we did that the blast was so powerful that it blew the massive doors at the railway station completely off their frame another witness reports that people immediately arrived at the station to help people and the deputy head of the city tweeted that volgograd top officials all came to the scene to also help we spoke to senior lecturer at moscow state university marks the border he explained why he believes the city came under attack although good is the principal focus simply because it's an easy and close target to the south of the caucasus just yesterday there the russian security services

reported that a principal aide to the self-styled amir of the caucasus da who was killed in a dog stand by security forces i think we can look at this attack today as for more than likely a very rapid reaction revenge attack or the killing of the local bars. or let's get some more analysis live to charles hsu bridge joining us from london he is a british counterterrorism and teligent officer who do you think mr sheer bridge could have plotted this attack. well this attack of course it doesn't really even need an expert to say of course that it bears the hallmarks of previous attacks carried out even of course involved in october attacks that were linked very similar in the method of operation similar in that targeting in other words transit hubs against civilians and of course they are linked back to the caucuses in one way or another

we have a situation where there is a long record of similar attacks. ongoing situation of conflict in the caucuses or at least political strife plus of course we have to threats as your previous contributor mentioned from a mile off and other islamist leaders that they would seek to disrupt the olympics and of course this is a very good publicity opportunity for them in any case. on top of any revenge attacks that would be taking prices a matter of course but it's also notable i think that perhaps we shouldn't forget is what it pops back in august when it was widely reported that prince bandar the saudi head of intelligence i legit only made an offer to president putin to rein in these kind of attacks to stop these attacks if of course president putin were to agree more with saudi policy in respect of syria of course president putin has not gone along with assad to do mons and what naturally seen death for that there has

been no effort by saudi arabia to rein in these kind of attacks but it may be that these attacks would take place anyway because of course this is part of a long ongoing situation of strife in relation to the caucasus region why aren't tight security measures and of course ahead of the olympics they are very tight across the country why aren't they enough to stop attacks like this what else can be done. there are a number of factors to consider here first of all one imagines that in such at the moment and increasingly so the security will be very very tight in terms of intelligence assets and fishers of physical security this means that if they are considered a target and they have been declared a target by islamists terrorists in this way that you will get what's called a displacement effect if a lot of security resources are concentrated in one area for example in u.k. we had a similar situation for example in london during the olympics then threats will be

transferred elsewhere where there is less security but it's also the fact and it's really remains a fact always in counterterrorism that if your intelligence systems fail to the extent that a bomb a can get through to its target particular if it's a soft target like a public target like this railway station was there's very little you can do to actually prevent that bomber from that one thousand explosions so far no weapon actually at the scene now a lot's been said about these barriers or these screening devices at the station that prevented a bomber getting further access into the station it's arguable as to whether there's a great value in these devices because what tends to happen again is that over very very may stop the a bomb getting onto the train if that indeed was the target they can cause similar casualties amongst the queues of people who are waiting to be screened and that seems to be what's happened in this case but really this is a question of intelligence why there wasn't sufficient intelligence to stop this attack taking place or if that intelligence did exist why more wasn't done to stop that attack happening indeed authorities there saying that if the suicide bomber

had gotten inside you could have seen many more casualties charles shoot bridge former counterterrorism intelligence officer thanks so much for your analysis this hour. early reports suggest the female suicide bomber who blew herself up at the railway station in volga grad was twenty six years old and came from russia southern republic of dagestan chad been on the police wanted list since twenty twelve and is said to have been a close friend of another suicide bomber who carried out a suicide attack in the same city in just october anti terrorism advisor to the us of how the u.s. house of representatives while the far as thinks the motives behind jihadist attacks like these are always the same wherever they are we're talking about asian harvestable which is linked to al qaida that is. just in russia but also in other countries including in syria as we know now now the direct motive is not different from the previous attacks on moscow on other locations inside russia and i would

say it is not so different from my facts that has happened around the world or i'll guard a t.v. ads against democracies against countries that they want to consider as enemies most of the answers that we had around the world and of course in russia is that the chechen jihad is all those terrorist units had a greater presence and added to the geographical area in pride in this case and therefore they are instructing militants to do the repeat of these attacks. about forty people who were in the waiting hall when the explosion happened were taken to hospital the youngest victim is reported to be a nine year old girl taxi drivers were acting as volunteers to quickly take the wounded for treatment and from the local police academy rushed to donate blood to local hospitals and their pup of a veteran of russia's alfa anti-terrorism unit said the date chosen was not random . of course so the people of volgograd as well as across

russia will be mourning over these holidays apparently the eve of the new year was not chosen accidentally hitting to provoke a public reaction and cause pain in the hearts of mourning citizens. will be closely following developments and we'll bring you all the details and when we get them you can log on to our team dot com for a live minute by minute timeline of the events in volgograd. now to the week's top stories thousands gathered in turkey's capital ankara to demand the resignation of the country's government that's after a violent dispersal of protesters in istanbul on friday night where police used tear gas and rubber bullets against the crowds the rallies were sparked by a corruption probe that's led to a major cabinet reshuffle and arrests of government officials artists are a further is following. it's not uncommon sights a list of those streets

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. not just in the streets but from within his own posse the turnout for the demonstration was significantly smaller than that seemed to some a non the less likely clashes break out between police and protesters as a guy has been in power for such a long time has maintained control a lot of people said that a lot of good things to the country right now the. actually it has become very good for protests. in this. region that is not. a very productive. speaking publicly all to the protests the prime minister remains defiant and continued to blame the corruption probe well the foreign conspiracy a second wave of detentions may still be possible if the tide being

a deadlock for mainz with the police the prosecutor publicly accused the law enforcement being in the government's pocket by refusing a court decision to carry out more raids on government officials and the 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. extremely crucial. battle. rather than assume. that the future. may be very difficult. and. and it could well be that when days later the elections take place that the full impact of the corruption scandal really felt served.

is that both. mourners ahead for you right after this break including a look back at the stories that shaped twenty thirty. six st augustine the strategic reason to try. an undercover team of journalists trying to release wiki leaks documents them out to see how the united states is trying to. give me your local media more pro-american they encounter fear ignorance and pressure. the country blocks the way to information freedom. media stuff on our t.v. . they don't want to tell us on earth have accepted the fact this is our planet and

that we have the right to run it but they're very very concerned that they don't think we're good stewards of our planet we're not we're cutting clear cutting our forests and we're polluting our rivers and lakes and we're dumping sewage in the oceans we're doing all sorts of things which are not what good stewards of their old school should be doing and they don't like that and they've made it very clear as a matter of fact they have given us a warning. as twenty thirteen winds down we're looking back at the biggest stories of the year. how does 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 storing huge amounts of phone and internet data with every new leak n.s.a. surveillance appears more and more far reaching or he's going to check our looks at how the revelations are changing the world and the cost to the whistleblowers 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 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 tech him 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 said to catering 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 through weekly leaks manning released many thousands of diplomatic cables and video proof of u.s. involvement in war crimes. 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 carys

suspects i caught up with him shortly before he went to serve his two and a half year 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 n.s.a. surveillance was detained in london while carrying materials from edward snowden the british authorities so closely cooperate with washington now accuse him of quote terrorism aaron swartz was neither a whistleblower nor a journalist but he was a champion of the free internet fighting against censorship bills and advocating the online release 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. 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 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 shut down our team. let's take a closer look at what snowden exposed about and the say surveillance it's collecting millions of phone records in america every day and it also has access to

internet giants like google facebook and microsoft and it's harvesting online data around the globe on top of that the security agency targets european citizens and even taps leaders but at the same time germany and the u.k. along with australia and canada are actually closely collaborating with american intelligence latin american governments and companies are a major target for u.s. spies plus 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 ray mcgovern believes those violating privacy should face justice not the leakers. i am delighted to hear that ed snowden on his desk in honolulu had a copy of the constitution of the united states all dog eared because he used it to argue with his his compatriots 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 whether they should be in the supposed impeached 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 well they're out the day are to international is showing media stam a road movie about wiki leaks activists on a mission to reveal sensitive u.s. secrets and mine for you right now breaking records in open space on our website there's a breathtaking video of russian cosmonauts on a scheduled space walk cerned out to be the longest in twenty thirteen. was fast and furious hundreds of teenagers storm a new york sopping center crashing windows and putting customers and staff in

a panic find out more about the youth gone wild at r.t. dot com. newly freed me sale of course ski will dedicate himself to helping what he calls political 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 peter oliver reports their cases have little to do with politics. after ten years in jail me how hot it has now decided to do with his newfound freedom and some of its plans have caused a few raised eyebrows but. 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 skis oil company you cos he's currently serving a life sentence for five counts of murder in two thousand and seven a court convicted of ordering the shooting of a law to me a pet you call for the mayor of a town in siberia bet you call four hundred clashed with you can also over his insistence that the oil giant pay taxes due to his town 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. if their combined ucas was registered there so when it came to tax revenues it was answering to the mayor of newark to hugh grant's ready with the whole of 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'd just like a copy to confess and clear his conscience. while on trial for the murder of pair of legs are 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 inner sees the holocaust these comments about political prisoners as self-serving that is all. how to craft a hostage of his own past he can't act differently now if he ever recognizes what his security forces were doing he will automatically become responsible of butter i think now he fears that. 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 how to craft he has no other choice he will continue to insist

people from the security department are political prisoners 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 stole a lot of oil not physically by means of fiscal many police. every kind of businessman in the best who had done the same waterfalls or did in prison of this story is all told in the west. peter all of a r.t. belin. a recap now of our breaking news it has been confirmed that sixteen people have been killed in a suicide bomb blast in russia's southern city of volgograd dozens more were injured by the blast at the city's central railway station it was carried out by a female suicide bomber and she was stopped by

a policeman and detonated herself near the metal detectors at the entrance to the railway terminal the blast was extremely powerful causing the doors and windows of the station to be blown out completely. up next how getting classified documents into the public domain is even trickier than finding them in the first place. although i have gone duck hunting a few times i've never seen the duck dynasty t.v. show but gosh i heard about the scandal involving one of the stars of the show phil robertson who got suspended for making what many consider anti homo sexual comments

in an interview this celebrity 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 the situation were reversed and robertson was fired for making pro l.g. p.t. statements then people who are currently defending any right to hire and fire as they please what all be bashing the t.v. channel for violating the stars freedom of speech they cry that firing him would violate his rights and i'm sure some websites would make him into a hero or demand a boycott a closing of a and a 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. twelve months of change. the moments we treat you find the world we live in.

our gene was there to bring you the full future clash with the police the police are holding and point to close a camp that is a dark spot and there will be barricades once the bodies i take it down on new year's eve to guard little team of reporters and contributors revisit the key events of twenty thirteen and outlining what to expect next join canossa now we and kevin owens for our annual to our news special. sponsor twenty two would be with our cheek. good luck i think the least christmas to you not even me so they didn't bend tristen for us on the trees this is the right place above that they quoted here at the end it was just these particular people we were working with who the fuck all that you know i was i was

do they do anything. why would they work with these chemicals why would they not work with these mold many of them for money yes and this needs to be said they do this for the money yeah but the i am why everybody has one thing well known what a liar it's why did you have doing this here on. the first day that i was judging. and the man you are judging no not even with yours or the ending this movie is judging that it's a fact i'm just saying any should be we need to be concerned that we're not going around places saying we are better than you are because i've had the situation and i fucked off in years to that this is what i don't like seeing this is approaching the one where if you seem out of seeing that you you go to two people you mean nothing there though as you start out with them this earlier we can exam then when they have this is a strong reaction you're like strong reaction when they said they were promised the cables because they didn't only going to the first place it was no no no you have to know all these who are you have you have quarrelled then you get

a slightly different opinion then you don't get that you only get the response they want to get as opposed to show in the audience what they will say about these things do you not think that it is an interesting question to see if media around the world will do this and who will and when i'm still reading on thing well that is an interesting question if it's an interesting question no two they are too scared to pull the u.s. government document in the morning at the risk of knowing or even if they see it there are many other great tears that missoni what walk walk like what criteria are used to of an. interest newsworthiness know now that you can write a script every news organization that has a website has a website developer who can just go. like that and they get free hits in google is very very it is very very profitable to publish cables because you don't have to write cable it's priest or.