it is now thought a terror attack in the russian city of volgograd could have been carried out by a man fifteen it were killed by a suicide bomber targeting the city's main railway station. and this week's top news in turkey riot police crackdown on protesters demanding that the government step down after a high ranking corruption scandal. at events in the world in two thousand and thirteen we reviewed the revelations by former n.s.a. contractor edward snowden which exposed america's massive surveillance. the old your organization. branch. we also hear from wiki leaks founder julian assange the state of journalism today and his new media stand a road movie where he and others offer up secret documents to various media outlets

. broadcasting live direct from our studios in moscow this is our john thomas let's get right to our top stories now investigators say they're looking at a number of possibilities of who carried out a suicide bomb attack in the southern russian city of volgograd some evidence now suggests a man that may have been involved in the first reports said it was alone a female suicide bomber it has been confirmed fifteen people were killed in the attack which targeted the city's central weyl railway station. as details. the bomb went off just before one pm on the guards busy train station degeneration ripped through an area around a security checkpoint as in suspecting passengers waited for their luggage to be inspected before i bend down to collect my documents when i saw

a flash of light and there was a blast i was thrown back by the explosion when i came to my senses a man was carrying me only outside was i able to get a breath of air and socket to understand what was happening. and i was inside in the waiting hall i heard an explosion i didn't realized what had happened and i saw the giant engines do was completely ruined and people were coming out with the hair and bodies burned among those to die at the scene was a police officer who was reportedly trying to stop one of the suspected terrorists a woman from carrying out her murderous mission. to god 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 officials say the bomb was equivalent to at least ten kilos of t.n.t. an estimate supported by the scene of devastation only the security checkpoint

prevented this from the much worse and unexploded grenade was founded the soon of the bluster and now investigators are looking at whether a second bomber was involved this is the second time in just a few months that the southern russian city has fallen victim to terrorists a blast in a passenger bus in october is still wrong in the memories of people here back then it was a female suicide bomber she killed six and injured over thirty others the first three days of january have been declared days of mourning in the volgograd region those days are the very heart of russia's new year holiday celebrations but this year authorities have decided perhaps understandably would be for stevie's should be canceled if you were going to go party moscow. now several. people injured in the terror attack on volgograd railway station are on board a plane heading to moscow to undergo medical treatment in the capital's hospitals meanwhile people are crowded in volgograd hospitals as well awaiting news about the

condition of their relatives and friends or even looking for them. she's not on the list my daughter i'm looking for my daughter she wasn't the train station. my son father and niece were inside the train station when the blast went on their own intensive care now they're badly injured they were hadn't fully trained to moscow but never made it. and there has been a lot of reaction to the events in volgograd on social media on twitter i witness is have been posting their reports from the scene let's take a look at some of them photographer who lives nearby tweeted that the blast was so powerful that the doors on the railway station were made of oak or even iron and they were completely torn away another witness reports that immediately arrived at the scene to help victims while the deputy head of the city tweeted that all the drugs top officials are at the site of the incident we spoke to senior lecturer at moscow state university mark sloboda he explained why he believes the city came

under attack. well look this is the principal focus simply because it's easy and close targets to the south of the caucasus. just yesterday there the russian security services reported that a principal aide to the self-styled leader of the caucasus doku umarov was killed in dog astonished by security forces i think we can look at this time today as for more than likely a very rapid reaction presidential attack for the killing of the state of the arms . and i wore activist a don de bar believes that the international community should bring it to account the state actors that enable such terrorist attacks people on the ground who did this perhaps may be you know anonymous players just individuals who are incited one way or another but you do not move weaponized explosives into

a major city without the aid of very powerful forces state actors usually and so i think that the focus should be for the entire international community to take a look already at who are the state actors that are enabling these things saudi arabia comes to mind for example and to make them the international pariah is that they should be and to impose criminal sanctions on those responsible within those governments. now we will be closely following the developments and we'll bring you all the details as soon as we get them you can also log on to our t. dot com forty minute by minute timeline of the events right. now to the week's top stories that with our weekly program we start in turkey which has seen a wave of massive anti-government protests reminiscent of last summer's demonstrations this time public anger was sparked by a corruption scandal and saw twenty officials and businessmen arrested and led to

a major cabinet reshuffle the situation escalated on friday when police launched a violent crackdown on protesters calling on the government to step down artie's reports. it's no sin uncommon sight so this those 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. not just in the streets but from within you saying a policy that turned out for the demonstration was significantly smaller than that it seemed to some of them the last of the clashes break out between police and protest is really been in power for such a long time to maintain control a lot of people said that a lot of good things stirred the country right now the right actually it has become very good for protests throughout. the summer but

that was not the this is an elite rebel to start this speaking publicly out to the protests the prime minister remains. in continued to blame the corruption probe well the foreign conspiracy. a second wave of detentions may still be possible for the time being it's deadlocked for mainz with the police the prosecutor publicly accused of the enforcement being in the government's talk it over. easing a court decision to carry out will raids government officials on the days as the political continues to unfold the biggest test facing the embattled prime minister still lies ahead of him. past. it strewn across you. can see. a.

future. and it could well be that the elections take place with the full impact of the corruption scandals created. would you like to know a secret of course we all do later in the program we look back at the impact of edward snowden security on the world. about his road where he pitched secret cables to media around the world.

down in the final. and the rest. if we. can. you're going to like. this if you don't. like to have you with us here on t.v. today i'm researcher.

and welcome back you're watching our tease a weekly program now two thousand and thirteen is almost in the books and we're looking back at the most important stories of the year. n.s.a. whistleblower edward snowden became one of the world's biggest names this year here's u.s. security leaks revealed just how much everyone is being spied on america says the fugitive former contractor is a traitor and wants to try him for as binoche but as our g.'s h. account reports other whistleblowers have already paid the price for lifting the veil of secrecy 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 call 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 massive alias 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 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 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 us 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 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 carries 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 kerry's. aaron swartz was neither a whistleblower nor a journalist but he was a champion of the free internet fighting against censorship villains and advocating the online going least 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 i must seize out the window but this year will also learn what happens to those who fully

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. snowden's leaks have been released constantly since june now let's take a look at the most important ones the world learned that the national security agency is collecting millions of u.s. phone records daily and it seems that that data from some of the world's biggest internet companies isn't out of the n.s.a.'s reach either british and german intelligence apparently helped the u.s. gather all of this data and even though the u.s. is allies with e.u. states that didn't stop america from wiretapping european leaders either now latin american governments and businesses were also under the watchful eye of the n.s.a. u.s. intelligence actually seems to have most of the globe covered snowden revealed that

they tap data straight from the fiber optic cables which carry most of the world's online traffic former cia officer ray mcgovern thinks those are violating the privacy should face justice and 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 come patriots there it is say as to whether what they were doing was legal whether it was constitutional the question should be why those who are aided and abetted this whether they should be brought to trial for these of gross violations of their solemn oath to support and defend the constitution of the united states now what would media outlets do if they were given some secret documents the media stunt road movie answers that question we will be highlighting it here on r t a team of wiki leaks journalists travels across central asia and

then later to britain and the u.s. offering up classified cables to the press the film's creator julian assange and one of his companions spoke to our teams and he said earlier. what makes this documentary so interesting is that we have different media organizations in different countries but all starting out of the same place. journalists come to them offer them the same type of material the us government diplomatic cables and then we see what the response is publish not publish censor some things and document their thinking as they're doing in most cases. there are very significant significant strains in fact most cases result in publication by the organizations concerned little of it was published some material and. do you feel like the mission you documented in media stan was a success there were

a lot of reactions i remember in tajikistan with people saying you're not going to make a difference nothing will really change if we speak about making a difference or if the mission in itself was a success. obviously when the regards to actually getting the material published in the various medias it's difficult to call your great success because there were actually quite well not that many newspapers neither in central asia or for that matter here in the united states that you actually declared you interested in publishing the full material they got access to some in that respect no it wasn't a success but from a broader respect of course we can see that the leaks releases have made a large impact they can. change the way that we interact with with media since then and i think that if we just look at the. whole affair which is has been going on for the last year or so. they wrecked consequence of that we can

fix releases and that is the fact that it's not what. it is no direct censorship which is feasible by a particularly musicians with replication that happened in different countries in different places where it is possible for them to become in afghanistan obviously the risks are a whole different kind of risk there are you going to continue your work to try to keep revealing the truth. i think this is our responsibility as journalists to reveal what's happening behind the scenes within the government and the regional level as well as international level so i've been working as a journalist since two thousand and six in afghanistan and the risks to be a journalist in afghanistan is so high it sense too since early since early two thousand and thirteen there have been sixteen cases against. journalists violation of violence and many other cases against journalists in afghanistan so that there

are there is a high risk to be a journalist in afghanistan but this is our responsibility not to give up and continue our work as a journalist edward snowden and use the media and not wiki leaks to channel his revelations don't you think that's a good sign but he was able to do it through the media. well i think it's quite sad actually it would snowden didn't go to infect the media he went to someone that's closely associated with us and specific journalist glenn greenwald and another specific journalist laura portress. the most prominently a couple journalists to which you but extensors don't claim greenwald's for his part was then working with the guardian has left the guardian as a result. of the censorship by the guardian all of that material to date less than zero point zero five percent of the snowden i think documents have been published.

the majority of the media are still reluctant to challenge the government like you said and speaking of glenn greenwald recently he reprimanded journalists across the globe for not standing up to the government lets out so have a listen to what going greenwald had to say at a recent conference in hamburg what is that we were targeting in the behavior of the media over the past six months is just revelations have emerged almost entirely without and despite the role of the us media and their british counterparts is to be voices for those with the greatest power and to protect their interests and serve them your highness i want to ask you is it as bad as greenwald is saying generally speaking if you just understand that the powerful media institutions are part of part of power rather than being being so to speak mediators of information you just understand the very idea that. you will start looking at

media and consumption of news or information in a different in a different respect so yes of course there is that bet. and if you look at an institution such as the washington post which was one of the first institutions that had access to snowden in the same documents they decided not to publish and. i mean practically didn't publish anything worse. than what we can understand from that is that there is a direct relationship between between the different power institutions in our societies and media is most definitely one of the most important power institutions that we have in our society three. think a look at some other stories making headlines around the world this hour just in schumacher michael schumacher seven time a formula one world champion is in a coma after a skiing accident in france schumacher was skiing with his fourteen year old son in an off piste area between two marked runs he suffered severe head trauma and is now

in critical condition he was taken by helicopter to a hospital. violence continues to rage across sudan and reports indicate that thousands of south sudanese that youths supporters of rebel forces were armed and marching towards one of the country's strategic towns oil rich state has been in turmoil since two thousand and eleven when it gained independence in this month alone at least one thousand people have died in south sudan in fighting . now a recap of our breaking news it has been confirmed that fifteen people have been killed in a bomb blast in russia's southern city of volgograd. dozens of my documents when i saw a flash of light and there was a blast i was thrown back by the explosion when it came to my senses a man was carrying only outside was i able to get a breath of fresh and started to understand what was happening. dozens were injured by the blast at the city's central railway station the explosion was extremely

powerful causing the doors and windows to be blown out completely some evidence now suggests it was a man who carried out the blast initial reports had said that it was a lone female suicide bomber. coming up after the break it's worlds apart with host oksana boyko stay with us watching our two international. basis leaves the reviews economic ups and downs in the final months day for the london deal sang i and the rest because i think the take it will be every week on.

the sochi of the county florida teen olympics what's this boy's life line is is so special as the russian resort prepares to local the world power the game should be the city's present and future ludlow sochi it will bring you this is the moment they're reporting from a very cold and snowy windy mountainous stuff beyond the olympics but come. on our. own welcome to worlds apart in addition to its religious significance christmas is also the most celebrated secular holiday of the year of reflecting a very peculiar place that religion plays somewhat in day lives what is the kind of

state of affairs between the big church and the state well to discuss that i'm now joined by dr gafford probert a member of the international consortium for law and religious studies dr roberts thank you very much. we're having this conversation involves a country that has a very complex i would even say a love hate relationship with religion about a century ago churches and mosques were actively. blown out by the authorities nowadays at the state actively supports their construction but i think one thing that these two historic grounds have in common is that both have been lad by the state and i wonder what does it really tell us that religion is too weak that this is just wrong or rather that the two are not separated as we would like to believe well i believe that the religion the. specific feel and i would not speak in

terms of strength. i would rather speak of what kind of tasks. and what kind of tasks does religion have there are differences there are overlapping fields also and one just has to see whether state and religion do fulfill the tossed probably well at least when it comes to russia leaders here make no secret that they believe that the tasks of the state and the church clearly over lived a wonderful agent to fill that moral void that was created with the collapse of the soviet union and the dissolution of communist ideology as well as the broader national identity so i think that smacks a little bit of social engineering but isn't that ultimately the surest and probably quickest way for the state to ensure some sort of social harmony. i think it's a good task to fulfill for religion to see to the hormone years to of

fruitful peaceful society there is a lot of society building wisdom in religions. and i think it's not wrong but. the secular state does give room for this community building force of religion when we talk about separation of church and state historically we have been talking about limiting the authority of the church and keeping the church from influencing state affairs but i think if you look around the world these days in most cases we have the opposite very strong states or it is the power of the states seems to be much stronger than the pov or. organized religions and. i think if you look at that from a so-so sociological point of view there are many advantages to a recruiting religion because believe it is time to be. you know

law abiding citizens they are more likely to gauge and pro-social behavior so doesn't that make religion's not only a natural ally of a state but to some extent it's age and there are a very many different systems of state church state religion relations in the world . and you describe you describing just about one or two of those but also other religious. ways of life in history towards the state and the secular society. religion overwhelms the state which also is a is a bad thing i think one should see that without overwhelming one of the other one should a system. a religion does fulfill its toss of community building given the people.