look to the. breaking news an aussie international a suicide blast in the russian city of volgograd kills at least fourteen passengers on a trolley bus less than a day after a deadly bombing ripped through the city his train station. russia's president vladimir putin orders times of security across the whole country in the wake of the bombing. some are suggesting that time related to the upcoming winter games in sochi investigates the security situation that while the international olympic committee says it has no concerns about safety.

it will train all she international life from moscow and with start with the breaking news this hour. and for the second time in just three days the russian city of volgograd has been targeted by terrorists today fourteen people have been killed after a suicide bomber blew up on a trolley bus and twenty four hours earlier a similar assault on the city's railway station claimed at least sixteen lives also has moderate howell is following developments in volgograd for us i am here in the marketplace where that troll a bus exploded this morning at eight thirty in the morning causing a massive death bodies everywhere a lot of information that is still coming out about the stroller the attack that happened this morning it has been confirmed that there was a suicide bomber on that troll the bus that claimed these lives we have an eyewitness account of this event. i was in my way from work to the u. turn and then i heard a blast i was already standing in

a queue and one of the other drivers asked if there was an explosion there was no panic but a hurt screen so i drove by to save the children and help people but they told me that only the driver of the bus was injured and so i took the driver surrogate to the hospital sergei told me that the conductor had died he also said that the cabin wasn't completely full but i saw around six corpses myself. at the moment of the explosion i was that hole that's about one hundred fifty meters away from the bus stop the shock wave was really strong so my whole family jumped up from their beds after ten minutes i ran from my place to the bus stop and saw a great number of dead bodies parts of bodies and clothes i could smell t.n.t. immediately draws a van balances arrived police cars and governor's vehicles and the investigation began i just saw bodies lying on both sides near the bus ambulances took a lot of them i don't know which ones were dead or alive. the monster responsible

for this clearly ended clearly wanted a maximum death toll in the way that he went about doing this this morning now we do have investigators that are giving us more information regarding what happened this morning based on preliminary results we can already say that a terrorist suicide bomber activated the bomb it was a male parts of his body were taken from the scene of the blast and sent for d.n.a. testing to determine who he was also we can say that the explosion had the force of no less than four kilograms of t.n.t. just as the device at the train station it contained damage agents and since there were the same damage agents discovered in both cases both attacks were connected they possibly could have even been made in the same place law enforcement officials they are heavy on the ground here and security has obviously been tightened all throughout russia but particularly here in this city as these two attacks have

happened within twenty four hours of each other with the first bombing of the train station a lot of information is still forthcoming but taking a look at what's happened so far the busy train station it was rocked by the blast of a terrorist bomb on sunday afternoon shards of metal ripped through an area around a security checkpoint as passengers waited for their luggage to be inspected officials say the bomb was equivalent to at least ten kilos of t.n.t. and only the security barrier prevented this scene of devastation from becoming much worse but it's impossible to calculate the toll something like this has on its victims many are still reeling. from it i bent 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 who was carrying me only outside was i able to get

a breath of air and saw that the understood. what was happening. my son father and niece were inside the train station when the gloss went off their old intensive care now they're badly injured they were headed for a train to moscow but never made it a second bomb was later discovered it had failed to detonate this is the second time in just a few months that this southern russian city has been the target of extremist october suicide blast on a passenger bus which killed six and entered over thirty others it's still raw in the memories the people here governments around the world are beginning to realize that finding international terror threats can only be done globally as both organized cells and lone terrorist continue to slip through law enforcements nets we're talking about asian harvest movement which is linked to al qaida that is operated 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 attacks that has happened around the world okada t.v. it's against democracies against countries that they want to consider as enemies with a tragedy like this one that hit volgograd just days ahead of the new year's celebrations it's no surprise authorities thought it more appropriate to cancel the festivities and to clear the first three days of twenty fourteen as a period of mourning in volgograd margaret how will r.t. . and us he's moderate howell is following about and on the scene and you can also get regular updates on how twitter says locals in the city are struggling to come to terms with the tragic days while keeping an eye on the investigation that you can follow or not great on and on twitter for the latest. to be in the.

many are speculating that they terror attacks in volgograd were specifically plans to target russia ahead of their coming winter games in sochi it's not the first time that's been linked to a limbic offense back in july two thousand and five a series of suicide attacks hit london a day on the chance to host the olympics and for a moment that is we can all talk to james corbett added so dependent a news website corbett a report james welcome to all see very nice to talk to you right now do you are saying that all big international events like the upcoming olympics in sochi for instance are a major attraction to terrorists well of course they do present an attractive target because the eyes of the world really are on whatever city happens to be hosting a big event like that so we have to look at the current bombings in volgograd as a potential spread and spreading and widening of the troubles that have been taking place in the north caucasus region but i think what these back to back blasts

really indicate is a widening of that threat and expansion of it into a city that's beyond the north caucasus region itself where these types of terror attacks are more common at any rate and into the transport hub which really connects russia to the rest of the north caucasus to the rest of russia so i think this has to be seen as implication at least of a widening terror campaign. july two thousand and five that london bombings also targeted the public transport system like a toxin volgograd where witnessing right now what do those similarities tell us. well not all lot in and of themselves because of course there are a lot of different events that we could look at including of course the one nine hundred eighty bologna a train by station bombing back in italy which of course was linked to the operation gladio that was being run by nato forces and in fact it's a rather sad irony of this entire event that the current secretary general of nato

anders fogh rasmussen has just taken to twitter to give his condolences to the people of russia on this tragedy. being a particularly sad irony because of course many of the chechen rebels have been harbored through e.u. political asylum in european nations and in nato countries themselves including france and poland and britain where of course one of the former chechen rebel leaders ackman zacky has been residing for a number of years now so it is it's a kind of ironic that that that's happening but i think this really has to get us to question what the real threat is and where it's really coming from and in that regard we cannot only look at the current chechen rebel leader dr. promised to to cause disturbance ahead of the twenty fourteen sochi olympics and of course at the olympics themselves but also a direct threat that was issued according to a leaked report of a meeting between the current saudi intelligence chief bandar bin sultan better known as bandar bush and vladimir putin back last july where apparently according

to these leaked reports bandar bin sultan directly threatened in and russia with the expanded terror attacks if the attack on syria did not go ahead and as we know of course syrian military intervention by was put off the table earlier this year meaning that potentially this is sourcing back to the saudis it london that tongues were carried out by islamic radicals in your opinion is that the same case handle the ground. well of course the islamic radicals are the ones that tend to carry out these attacks but the ones that are directing funding fostering and training them tend to be elsewhere located elsewhere and of course we have for example the testimony of former f.b.i. whistle blower sabella edmonds talking about operation gladio b. earlier this year she was talking about how this this operation was a nato fund is an ongoing nato funded operation in cooperation with the pentagon to stir up islamic radical terrorism specifically in the north caucasus region and the surrounding area as

a type of threat directed at russia and of course that china is well sitting right there on russia's doorstep so i think we have to see this in that context and as a potential larger geopolitical threat to russia. and expect that anyone will claim responsibility for that any time soon. i don't know if that will be coming but at any rate as we know of course these bombings are linked as we can tell that from the forensic evidence of the bombs themselves and that the types of agents that were added to them so there's no doubt that this is a part of a terror message that's being delivered to russia right now and of course the fact that the sochi olympics are right around the corner is obviously a key component of that message. james holmes and so they depend on websites the colbert report mr corbett thank you very much indeed you're welcome. russia's president has ordered a tightening of security across the entire country following the bombings.

in central moscow also in the reaction from the kremlin that well so far at this point we have information coming in this from the president who has met early in the day with the head of the federal security service in the ministry of the interior and coming out of that meeting during which the president has been debriefed by the. bible's officials about the situation in the volgograd region and in the southern russian republics and regions neighboring it coming out of that meeting the head of the federal security service is actually involved a grad right now overseeing the situation he's expected to have a meeting emergency meeting with the rest of the security officials in the city now also after another meeting with this time with the head of the national into terrorists community russian president has ordered dogs a heightened state of security be implemented throughout the entire country also the ministry of emergencies of course is one that is working day and night in order

to help those in need on the ground in volgograd this is what the minister of emergencies has told us about his work. we are putting our forces on high alert in the entire region also as president putin ordered every family that suffered from these attacks will be compensated we're also establishing constant communication with volgograd and from there will be transporting all the injured to moscow some petersburg and other regions. of course there is also the matter of compensation for those who have for the families of those who have died in the blast and also those who have been wounded and when it comes down to the families of those who were killed get one million rubles that's roughly thirty thousand dollars and those who have been injured in these events receive are also financial compensation although a smaller one you know the state of security has been heightened also in the russian capital there has been information about suspicious objects objects being

found throughout the entire center of the city first there was the red square then there were some metro stations a does look like at this point we are in the clear however of course the mood remains tense as of course there is the mourning days of mourning have been declared in volgograd region starting from today not just the first three days as was initially planned and the communist party of russia among others have actually turned with an official request to the first president to declare a state wide mourning period for the country or the horrible events in volgograd. from central moscow many thanks indeed for that we appreciate it and the reaction to the tragic events in volgograd has been coming in from across the globe international leaders have been offering their sympathy is german chancellor angela merkel said both acts of terror cause a feeling of indignation and disgust the u.s.

state department stressed its solidarity with the russian people against terrorism of any kind the u.n. secretary general ban ki-moon expressed his deepest sympathies to the families of russia while the president of israel shimon peres said his heart is with the victims of the latest a horrific acts and he spoke about the international sympathy with. who's ever century in russian affairs for the british east and west center and he called terrorism the chiro of the world which should be hailed by working together . we've got lots of successes we keep hearing from m i five in the u.k. we're doing really well and in russia we're actually thinking well there are lots of success at this point these can. take a bent to keep happening i mean there are those who believe that they have sympathy because they see. independents moving secessionist movement.

is just warm but sadly it's caught on their sleeves and there isn't a lot of cynthy anymore the recent events and willage recent even nine eleven and already been. bombings on our underground following the announcement of the olympic wind and increasingly they're always going to be a minority who will see that there's some sort of justification there is so some sort of reasoning for such actions we need to fight for them shares the label of. a closely following the developments and you can always i had to r.t. dot com plan minute by minute timeline of the back and volcom iraq. continue with coverage of these terror attacks after a short break. it's

. this is a so we believe that maybe. the same person security place your party years ago. is that no one is asking with the guests that you deserve answers from. politic only on r t.

this is asking to national and we're staying with the suicide attacks in volgograd and being speculated that the timing is linked to the upcoming winter olympic games in sochi that start in less than six weeks both volgograd and sorcery are in the same region but if you take a look at this map the distance between them is more than six hundred and fifty kilometers a spokesperson from the international olympic committee expressed condolences and rather confidence that the russian authorities will be able to keep the games safe

let's not cross live to our correspondent not say who is in the assault right now how that target so has there been any reaction to those bombings in the twenty four c. in the winter olympic host city. well the news have been received with shock no doubt and condolences also going out to those who've lost loved ones in of all the rides now we know that the russian a limpy comedy has made sure that the security is top of their priorities and they've even gone as far as spending money on getting the latest security technology now into adler train station which is going to be one of the transport hubs outcome of the olympic games or thirteen thousand people a day or even an hour go through the gates of the train station and go in through the security measures it really felt like everybody there knew what they were doing

they were in control of things that the public commuters were saying that it's really good to have those measures in place the scanning the checks because it makes us all feel rather safe early on we spoke to former a former member of the alpha and anti terra special forces unit who also shed confidence about sochi security come the olympics more photos but. all the attacks in volgograd are part of the same chain the terrorists are trying to incite fear ahead of the winter olympics so that people become scared to go to saudi no wonder they've chosen the holiday season for this to make it even more painful for the people and to draw plenty of world attention but i believe this won't have any effect on the olympics and the people who are planning to come will still do so they can be sure of their safety because almost two billion dollars have been allocated to security measures that's even more than the sum for the london olympics. now in terms of the russian

olympic security. plan for the olympics we know that twenty three thousand police officers will be deployed up to ten thousand military troops who will dig deep deep to be deployed as well including twenty eight three thousand. the emergency services also will be out here during the olympic time as well everybody else within the city we've been seeing already police officers patrolling around the cities particularly at those special places that we see the vents of the twenty fourteen olympics and also the people been working on the construction there who've all come to sochi during that time building this city up will be also to leave the city come the end of december and then in terms of the transport hubs vehicles with the limited on the roads starting a from at the end of december only people with special passes will be allowed to go on the roads now of course of those numbers i'm you know we're looking forward in

the next couple of days to see if indeed officials will want to extend the amount of those numbers that we've heard from the special police services that will be here for the olympic time. she's about will say live from that impacts on toddy thank you very much indeed for bringing us up to speed. and the host of all she's going on the ground as she returns you told us why if things that break of terror in volgograd is not connected with the winter olympics on their black sea cost it's hundreds of miles away so i don't say that there's a particular relevance of the sochi olympics of course journalists will be very keen to draw. draw. relations between these two things it's notable that with some western leaders aren't coming to the winter olympics their western leaders don't tend to go into winter olympics it has to be said so the connection with sochi maybe over eggs what's crucial here is that international

law enforcement authorities get to the bottom of this what we need is much closer collaboration. authorities rather than the n.s.a. spying on every country resident not knowing it people actually finding out about what's going on. and journalist and broadcaster neil clark things western governments should what closer with russia to tackle the global threat western approach to terrorism has been very consistent because we're told on the one hand that the west implacably opposed to radical islamic terrorism and that it's the biggest is the school should humanity etc and yet on the other hand we have the west lining up with radical islamic terrorists in syria you know back on the same side as al qaeda trying to topple a secular government the west has got to i think change its relationship with saudi arabia which is a major sponsor of a lot of these radical islamic groups around the world the west has got to realize its foreign policy the trouble is if you look at syria for example the west is actually on the same side as

a terrorist because it's because of its relationships with large between we're saudi arabia and israel who both want that region in syria to be removed so i think we need a shift in the western capitals i think we need to get to work closer with russia because when they reach closer cooperation we saw that with the boston bombings that we went we had the russian warnings about this out sarina brothers were ignored by the americans because there again there was this tendency so it's russian warnings taken with pictures sold and so unless the west does work cooperate more seriously with russia as equal partners in this battle against the radical terrorist groups you know that's the product that met that's the major shift that's got to happen. on the line here right now where providing in-depth coverage of events involve a grant program to ulti dot com for live updates images and analysis on that time and. the emotions sectional our website has a graphic video showing the aftermath of the blast and from the our video agency

around me. and we asked dr your own carty from the international institute for counter-terrorism what can be done to prevent the tragedies like these ones happening. well such attacks are not always not always easy to prevent it and there's you know it takes place in other parts of the world and just to mention that it was several months ago in boston in america again by people originally came from chechnya for this it up to be or subject talks to be prevented must be a very good intelligence and they did it just could be with the hands of the country concerned or the services that they have they have of course go through a should be between countries because sometimes an attack is being planned in one place and expressing the different part of the world completely we're closely watching the latest developments in the wake of the bombings in volgograd on air and online as well a suicide blast has killed at least fourteen people on

a trolley bus injuring over forty including three children he went to a local hospital to talk to the wounded. and this was i can't remember anything i was deafened by the blast we had almost reached the bus stop when the explosion went off it was like an electric shock all over my body i can't remember i didn't see anyone i was sitting and looking out of the window when it happened i think i was the last to be carried out of the trolley bus. the blast went off as the trolley bus was approaching a market during the morning rush hour investigators say that time course carried on by a male suicide bomber is k. less than twenty four hours after a similar bombing targeted this is his railway station claiming at least seventeen lives and injuring over forty people the nation. shows they were connected investigators say security is being stepped up across russia in the wake of the blasts. and half an hour's time we'll have more on tape something to say

assigned bombings that have rocked long ago out in southern russia over the pasta days in the meantime peace in the balance hand would be made as close to home. i middle school kind of guy i like tradition and heritage and all that stuff when i look to the past i see that there's a lot that we could learn from our ancestors however one thing we don't need from them are debtors prisons which according to a fox news report are somehow on the rise in the united states in the twenty first century the a.c.l.u. and the britain center for justice claim that the local courts have been sending individuals with unpaid fines and fees jail which the courts may not even realize is illegal these courts are locking up people with fines that have exploded in size due to interest imposed on the initial amount and for the representation they had

when they were in court which i always thought was supposed to be free but worst of all some are still in prison for fees they occurred while being in prison like having the audacity to use toilet paper hey that's taxpayer money down the toilet the kicker to this all is that throwing people in prison for their public debts costs more than the debts the prisoners have to pay off that's right the local governments lose money doing this someone please resurrect the founding fathers america is running out of time if you aren't worried about this comeback of debtors' prisons or you think those rednecks deserve it so let me ask you something how's it going with paying off all your loans and bills i hope for your sake you don't miss a payment a fascist my van. hello

and welcome to cross talk where all things are considered on peter lavelle the year that was two thousand and thirteen and what has made it memorable we ask in this edition of crossfire who excelled in who disappointed us what stories captured our attention because of hope or do you despair. to cross-talk the year two thousand and thirteen i'm joined by my guest in washington kelly vlahos she's a journalist at antiwar dot com we also have medea benjamin she is a co-founder of code.