a suicide blast in the russian city of volgograd kills fourteen passengers on a bus less than a day after a deadly bombing ripped through the city's train station. russia's president vladimir putin orders tighter security across the whole country in the wake of the bombings. and the security situation in the host city of the upcoming winter olympics. our other top stories on our t.v. artificial intelligence u.s. government hackers are routinely bugging computer gadgets purchased online according to fresh n.s.a. leaks published in germany. and syria misses its a year and a deadline for ridding itself of toxic weapons we speak exclusively to the head of the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons find out why.

and broadcasting live from our studios in moscow this is our team i'm sean thomas let's get right to our top story now for the second time in just two days of the russian city of volgograd has been targeted by terrorists on monday morning fourteen people were killed after a suicide bomber blew up on a bus less then twenty four hours earlier a similar assault on the city's railway station claimed at least seventeen lives artie's market howell is following developments in volgograd. i'm here in the city of volgograd in the southern part of russia in the marketplace where that troll a bus exploded this morning at eight thirty in the morning causing a massive death bodies everywhere it has been confirmed that there was a suicide bomber on that trolling 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 surrogates to the hospitals in surrey he told me that the doctor had i also said that the cabin wasn't completely full but i saw around six corpses myself so the residue it was. producing at the moment of the explosion i was at home that's about one hundred fifty meters away from the bus 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 the dead body parts of bodies clothes i could smell t.n.t. immediately droves of ambulances arrived police cars the governor's vehicles and the investigation or again i just saw bodies lying on both sides near the buses

ambulances took a lot of them i don't know which ones were dead or alive. and 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 contains damage agents and since there were the same damage. he says both attacks were connected they possibly could have even been made in the same place gone for some officials there 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 trains to. 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 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 the to understand what was happening to. my son father and niece were inside the train station when the boss went to see they're all in intensive care now they're badly injured they look at it for a train to moscow but never made it the second bomb was later discovered it had failed to detonate this is the second time in just a few months that the southern russian city has been the target of a stream asst october suicide blast on a passenger bus which killed six and injured over thirty others is still raw in the memories of people here governments around the world are beginning to realize that fighting international terror threats can only be done globally as both organized cells and lone terror. continue to slip through law enforcement snouts we're talking about a jihadist 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 c.b.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 four team as a period of mourning well i'm standing here in volgograd regional hospital were several of the injured victims of the blast of sunday and monday were brought to this one which 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 if 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 charlie bus no no doubt any of the people of the southern russian city expected to have two suicide bombers factored into their new year's eve celebration shopping and travel plans now russia's president has met with top government officials and ordered security be put on a high alert following the bombings are to go as the latest. tightening the of the security measures across the entire country that was one of the results of the numerous meetings during which the russian president has conducted throughout monday that particular result was the outcome of his meeting with a national and to terrorist community prior to that president putin has met with the heads of the securities of the federal security service and ministry of the interior who have updated him on the information on the situation in the volgograd region and on the nearby regions as well coming out of that meeting the head of the

federal security service jetted off to volgograd to oversee the situation there personally he has already said that they have enough clues which allow them the investigators to hope that the investigation into the organizers those who have who have been standing behind these terror attacks will be complete soon also of course we have on the ground the ministry of the emergencies who are working day and night in order to alleviate the situation somehow for people who have lost their loved ones and who may be in need of medical care here is how the minister of the emergency situation describes their work. we are putting our forces on high alert in the entire region also as president putin ordered every family that suffered from the huge attacks will be compensated we're also establishing constant communication with volgograd and from there will be transporting to moscow st petersburg and other regions the families of those who died in the terror attacks

will receive one million rubles that's about thirty thousand dollars and those who have been injured in these terror attacks will also receive monetary compensation albeit a slightly lower one now when it comes to international reaction when we know that at this point russian president has spoken on the phone with the president of france and the two leaders have agreed to work together in order to in order to lessen the terrorist activity and danger in both of their countries also the ministry of foreign affairs has come out with the statements. involve the ground as well as terrorist attacks in the us syria iraq libya afghanistan and other countries organized in the same pattern inspired by the same thinking that. this signal from the minister of foreign affairs has also condemned the dividing terrorists into the wrong kind and the right kind depending on the geo political

goals that the person or the entities who are making that judgment are trying to reach a sensually and that is according to their minister of foreign affairs any sort of terrorism is a crime and international leaders are sending their sympathies to those affected by the tragic events in volgograd british prime minister david cameron has sent a letter to vladimir putin offering help in the fight against terrorism or to surf earth has more on the international reaction. well worldwide leaders have expressed condolences and we take a look at some of that international reaction now we've heard from the israeli prime minister netanyahu saying that the attacks serve as a painful reminder of the urgent needs to join forces and the united effort to eradicate the dangerous scourge of terrorism we've heard from german chancellor angela merkel who sent a letter of condolence to president putin expressing her grief over the attacks that took place in volgograd at the u.s. department of state released a statement saying that the u.s. can dance on the strongest terms the attacks and the u.n.

secretary general banky me also expressing his sympathies in calling for the perpetrators to be brought to justice and around the world in the aftermath of those attacks i think that's a very much what we've heard kate is the calls for a unified approach to addressing the issue of terrorism worldwide and a host of r.t.u. cases show going underground afshin rattansi says apart from offering cooperation western governments should review the way they fight global terror. it's laughable that western politicians should want cooperation when they themselves are being given special training to silat fists who have then gone on to commit murders against their own people in libya in syria time and time again it's as if the lessons of afghanistan in the one nine hundred eighty s. have not been learned there needs to be international cooperation but first we need to know where are britain's m i six agents where is the american cia when it comes

to these to laugh it's movements there needs to be that kind of cooperation with the moment it seems that there is a burgeoning cold war perhaps it'll take another atrocity in a european or american capital or a big city for them to realize that they must talk with the russians over security because the terrorists only have to be right once. we are closely following the developments and you can also head to our dot com for a minute by minute timeline of the events in volgograd. after a short break we will continue our coverage of the terror attacks and what it means for security at the two thousand and fourteen sochi winter olympics. that was two thousand and thirteen what is needed we ask in this edition of.

disappointing what stories captured our attention because of. the despair. unexplored. what is it in this icy expanse that attracts the people who come here. i only go to the doctor. and antarctica. a new generation of polar explorers is coming. to specialists here now all of them are young they going to get along with each other i don't know. i used to be a bureaucrat. seriously. what adventures await this mysterious lend. what do they eat and what are they actually doing to go.

and welcome back live from moscow you're watching r t international now we are staying within the suicide attacks in volgograd it is being speculated that the timing is linked to the upcoming winter olympic games in sochi that opens in less than six weeks volgograd and sochi are in the same region as you can see but they're around six hundred fifty kilometers separated between the two cities a spokesman from the international olympic committee expressed confidence that the russian authorities will be able to keep the games safe artes to say reports from sochi. the news no doubt have been received with shock and condolences are going out to those who have lost loved ones in a ball go to the international olympic committee has said that they trust that russia will provide a safe haven come the winter olympics in twenty forty in terms of russia's olympic committee they have always had

a plan for security even going as far as spending money when it comes to security technology i want to add learn station to actually witness some of the technology in the use and when you go in there there's certainly a sense of calmness within the station you go through the scanners at the check ins and commuters alike that that those scanners and checks make us all feel safe and they're needed we spoke to a former member of the alpha and anti terror special forces unit and he said some of the confidence that the a limp committee shades 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 saatchi 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 of 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 will be hosting the events of the twenty fourteen lympics and also the people who've been working on the construction there who've all come to sochi during that time building this it will be awesome to leave this city come the end of december and then in terms of the transport hogs vehicles with the limited on the roads starting

a from at the end of december only people with special processes will be allowed to go on the roads now of course the days numbered i mean you know we're looking forward in the next couple of days to see if indeed officials will want to extend to the amount of those numbers that we've heard from the special police services that will be here for their limpid time artes to say for us there now this is not the first time public transport has been attacked in russia you may remember the moscow metro bombings from a few years back it has actually been a frequent target for terrorists also internationally as well in one thousand nine hundred five thirteen people were killed in tokyo and over four thousand injured by a serin gas attack on the subway there in march two thousand and four accorded bombings hit the train system in madrid and one hundred ninety one people died in that attack and over a thousand were wounded five saw a series of suicide attacks in london targeting the metro and buses fifty two people were killed and around seven hundred injured and of course the nine eleven

tragedy also involved transport for passenger planes were hijacked by al-qaeda terrorists and flown into a number of targets including the world trade center in new york almost three thousand people died and thousands more were injured journalist neil clark thinks western governments action to tackle terror are inconsistent despite the global nature of the 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 it's a scorcher of humanity etc and yet on the other hand we have the west lining up with radical islamic terrorists in syria. backing on the same side as al-qaeda trying to topple a secular government now the west has got to i think will 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 realise 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 saudi

arabia and israel who both want that region and 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 there is closer cooperation we saw that with the boston bombings in we went we had the russian warnings about the south sarina brothers were ignored by the americans because their game there was this tendency so it's russian warnings taken with a pinch of salt 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. well online for you right now we are providing in-depth coverage of events in volgograd you can log on to our dot com for live updates images and analysis of the attacks. plus the in the motion section of our website has graphic video showing the aftermath of the blast from our video agency ruptly.

now in syria the western backed militants have severely disrupted work to rid the country of its chemical weapons the latest a deadline which is just a day away will be missed in this edition of worlds apart oksana boyko speaks exclusively to the director general of the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons she asked him how much has been achieved in two thousand and thirteen spider these successes that you just mentioned the dad line for the removal of category one agency that deadline is going to be missed i wonder whose responsibility do you think that is the russian federation for this there is the other course for sort of the process at the united states to unite stations have been very active in the past weeks. the necessary equipment for. most of the equipment made a little and we expect this story to stick soon so i wouldn't blame anyone for it

but it's still a so there were some object resistant as far as i understand your inspectors on the ground are not planning to accompany these convoys your role it will delimited to their refining their loading process in damascus and the offloading in let's talk air and i wonder why not because obviously some members of the international community. distrust the assad government very much so why not go all the way in verifying become pliant of the syrian regime. we have eighty six rules all fifty patients that we have been applying over the years so it's a sixteen years and our experts have determined that the very. on sites where the chemical weapons will be a lot to anthrax as well as some verification. mechanism in place in that ikea before loading on ships it would be adequate and that's what we have to do.

if you are considering buying a new laptop online you might want to think twice u.s. intelligence agencies are reportedly planting bugs on them before they reach their destinations german news magazine der spiegel says there is a special n.s.a. unit dedicated to the task or to spread all over as details. the latest revelations that have come out from edward snowden that have been reported and beagle seem to show that the n.s.a. spying snooping capabilities are far beyond what we previously thought not only can they listen to our phone calls listen to our e-mails but that in fact anything you would you buy may already come fully equipped with n.s.a. hardware now never mind scientists workshop they talk about a secret workshop that would install chips into computers that may be sold in

certain areas that the n.s.a. deems to be worth looking into. so that means that anybody that received a computer for christmas have a look inside it may well be something you didn't quite expect in there now as well as that it also the latest revelations that were reported and also go into the fact that the underwater cables that connect us all around the world have also been hacked by the n.s.a. and yes we're all being split on and they all they know everything what we're looking at and not only can they access what we are sending over the internet but in case it may well be that the hardware that we send those messages with has already being tampered with or to use peter oliver for us there now the n.s.a. is operations to intercept laptops to implant malware also involved cia and f.b.i. agents kill out from the open rights group says the most tricky issue here is the

lack of legal oversight on such missions. it is possible to sometimes make an argument that if somebody is a really serious dangerous criminal that maybe that person should have their computer hacked but what what i think we'll probably find is that this is why didn't that certainly when we talk about governments it's necessarily white that will probably point at the supervision about those choices is not very sophisticated and doesn't deal with individual cases it's probably blanket permission and that is where you get a lot of danger i think it's really quite dangerous and problematic because again the government the n.s.a. appears to be making its own decisions about how other democratic governments should be operating their policies and not trusting them to do their job. passengers on a ship are trapped in ice in the antarctic will be evacuated by the chinese

helicopter the stranded academic shokalskiy which is carrying an australian scientific expedition has been stuck since christmas blizzard winds had pushed the vessel into ice which then froze it in place the majority of passengers and crew will now be removed after chinese french and australian ice breakers failed to free the ship it is not in danger of sinking but as a precautionary measure weeks of supplies are left for those onboard meanwhile scientists have been continuing their work up till now. now we are closely watching the latest developments in the wake of the bombings in volgograd on air and online as well in a suicide blast has killed fourteen people on a bus injuring over forty including three children the blast went off as the bus was approaching a market and during monday morning's rush hour investigators say the attack was carried out by a male suicide bomber it came at less than twenty four hours after

a similar bombing targeted the city's a railway station claiming seventeen lives and injuring over sixty. coming up on r t international is cross talk with host peter lavelle and his guests if you're watching us in the u.k. going underground with host. right after a short break stay with us. i'm an old 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 british 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 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 are 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 but fashion just my opinion. right

see. first. and i would think that your. orders would. be in the. low end welcome to crossfire 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 pink and author of drone warfare and we also have cable williams she's author of the book love my rifle more than you young and female in the u.s. army and she is also a truman national security project fellow all right welcome ladies to cross talk are you doing review kelly i guess i'll take a. surprise you and hopefully not your viewers because i'm an avid reader of antiwar dot com your favorite story is let it snowden tell me why yes well i think edward snowden has he's assured and new era of independent journalism along with taking.