headlines from r.t. international volgograd mourning the deaths of thirty two people after two blast ripped through the city's main railway station and trolley bus all in the space of less than twenty four hours. revelations claimed the n.s.a. intercepts computers bought online and bugs them with special software and spying gadgets before they reach their owners. and a look back at the scandals and breakthroughs that shape the global news events of two thousand and thirteen. nine am in moscow i'm good to have you with us here on r t our top story this hour the first funerals are to be held in volgograd after the city was devastated by two

bomb attacks in the space of less than twenty four hours at least thirty three people killed scores more wounded archies margaret howell met some of those in mourning. it's been one more of an easy night for the residents of russia's southern city of welcome the loved ones of the injured in two terror attacks held vigils in hospitals others mourned. he was a good man a good father a good son a good grandson there are not so many of such good ones around the good ones die first they say. with barely contain tears a lot of near nelly vico clutches the memory of his son who was the first victim of sunday's attack in the train station sergei was a security guard here. he had this job for about a year i saw how it all happened on the video footage he was standing by the railing during the security check and then there was this man coming in and he just

barely made it towards him and then there was a blast and it was over and no more footage he stopped that man who was trying to get through the security gate as he had to yes that's what the camera showed i saw him doing his job smiling he did what he had to do that it was his duty. sergei's family mourns bunny night with only the conviction that he carried on his responsibilities to bring them any small comfort for others in boca the night brought frontal relief and the knowledge their loved ones were spared but they woke up and x. morning to a second suicide bomber this time on a city trolley bus. 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 now 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. it is still reeling after two years here attacks within the span of twenty four hours we met the tali in his home just hours after his friend was killed. i was shocked he had a family and a young wife in a small child so it is very sad to realize that a young man died in such a tragic accident and. this is being shared by two strangers who never met a father and a good friend stories like these two are poring over the integrated city limits with the residents there hoping for more time to mourn their families and friends and rebuild their lives. margaret how will our team. one of the victims of sunday's blast involved or as main train station was

a police officer who i witness is say it threw himself at the bomber possibly saving dozens of lives investigators have been have been saying that explosions carried out by mail suicide bombers and sources have named a suspect in sunday's attack as a russian citizen reportedly a member of a dagestan based militant group volgograd is a big transport hub that could be one of the reasons why it was targeted as you can see on the map the city is around one thousand kilometers from moscow but security has been toughened in the capital and across the country geo political analyst at stop imperialism dot com eric draitser so the russian intelligence has extensive experience in dealing with these situations. what we're going to see is certainly a very public crackdown one that's intended to send a message but likely the real machinations are going to happen in private as the russian intelligence services in the various other relevant agencies do their work behind the scenes remember that this is precisely the kind of work that the russian

intelligence services were doing in in the aftermath of the boston bombing here in the united states which according to the narrative also emanates from that very same region so we'll see much of the same and hopefully at least from the perspective of russian society we'll see an improvement in this situation as those services attempt to root out those terrorists. meanwhile the international olympic committee has rejected claims the vulgar out attacks could jeopardize security if you have coming sochi winter games the body issued a statement saying it thinks russia will have no problem in keeping the games to see. it across the latest developments and expert analysis online the timeline of the tragic events in volgograd and much more a click away on our web site r t v dot com. democracy campaigners say freedom of expression is a risk in many countries that profess to be some of its biggest supporters antigovernment protests intensified through the year and often were met with a heavy hand as artie's murray if an ocean reports. from the

u.s. . canada. resume. to his followers thailand. and much of europe basically the large group of protesters that people try tast. distribute in the street to shoo shoo shoo the under. the a few years with us terry t. policies in europe the n.s.a. surveillance and drones in america and a wide range of concerns like freedom of the press and the loss of the secular state in tacky. chanted disagreeing and desperate to be heard. people have their backs against the wall they're being squeezed economically they're seeing all of their dreams collapse around them and when they go through the usual channels of electoral democracy they just have a feeling that the governments aren't representing their interests so they feel

they have no alternative but to take to the streets and express themselves in a way that the governments cannot ignore them and the governments haven't ignored them. is certainly true in many of these places in some so do you still action some sort of gap between popular sheeting and the way governments react many of the protests sparked on different continents and in different countries these here and up these clashes between protesters and authorities the greatest fear the government has is that people will feel protest as fashionable is that people will feel that democracy is fashionable some decided to use the loo to protect themselves from these risks in chicago and come back and in spain and to protest flows of heavy fines or even jail sentences for demonstrating oprah dissipating in allegedly violent protest democracy is not just

having an elected government it is also being able to accept listen to and incorporate many different voices and it seems that democracies are under threat governments around the world face a crisis of legitimacy what's being passed off as representative democracy but which is actually government by corporatist globalist they make some minor concessions hoping that the protests will dissipate and then they can continue business as usual. but with protests now becoming a more poor pitiful modahl and with authorities it will hardly be uneasy for. do you. think what is different things they protest what they see is a police state if ok forget the persecution of whistleblowers not only know. that you know the fact that it would be a. regional shock. protesters from the occupy movement in the states have been

among those keeping up pressure on the government and big businesses investigative journalist amber lyon says demonstrations managed to bring change against the odds protest is the common denominator for change and has been throughout the history of the us and as a journalist i saw that the mainstream media in the united states is really censoring the protests on the ground we've had many protests we've had a historically high amount of protests on the streets of the united states and many of these protesters are winning and gaining their rights getting higher wages gaining their homes back some some protesters have been protesting against militarized police and they're really having to change on the streets of the u.s. . ally and r t something would be intrigued about the new year hours of phone conversation scores of messages between tony blair and george w. bush just before the bombs went off in iraq could soon become available to the public also on our t.v. what used to be the son north has now fled to become the south of the giant burning

giant really turned itself upside down and what effect it may have on other elements of the solar system including our home planet. it seems the n.s.a. is determined to keep up its surveillance new revelations claim the agency has been intercepting computers bought online to plant spying software on them the article in the german der spiegel magazine also states the agency installs rig monitor cables that allow personnel to see what's displayed on the p.c. monitors of those they're keeping under surveillance this along with multiple disguised bugging devices that send and get data with the use of radio waves journalist david seaman thinks the revelations will backfire on the global tech companies. my understanding of it is that this is extremely widespread but is not so much the companies cooperating with the n.s.a. as it is the n.s.a. pouring tremendous amounts of money and talent into developing these hacks we're talking about complete orwellian control of innocent people's phones that innocent

people's computers and laptops and i think that it undermines basic faith and confidence in american tech companies this is going to lead to a massive loss of revenue technology has the power to lift all of us up to provide more innovation and transparency than ever before in human history and that's the path that the internet was already on you see the explosion in online media and everybody has a voice an opinion in this global society but the n.s.a. has destroyed a lot of that it's undermined basic faith in the internet. so that when we look back at outward snowden's revelations shocked millions of people and that is the n.s.a. spy scandal became arguably the biggest news story of the year we recap details and plenty of the other events of two thousand and thirteen in a couple of minutes. but first taking a look at some other global headlines this hour seven time formula one champion michael schumacher is fighting for his life after a skiing accident in french alps doctors warn they can't predict the outcome as the

research means in a medically induced coma the forty four year old sports legend was skiing with his teenage son off piste when he fell and suffered a head wound that required doctors to perform two operations. three attempts five french chinese and australian ice breaker is to reach a russian ship stuck in the end in the antarctic have failed the vessel the academics you call a ski has been stranded since christmas with its crew set to be evacuated by helicopter an american icebreaker the polar star could still give it a go but that won't be for another week despite this scientists aboard the stranded ship aren't wasting their time and have continued their research and getting to know the local wildlife. more than a kilometer long train carrying crude oil crashed into another into the in the u.s. state of north dakota the collision set off a series of explosions that left at least ten wagons a blaze no one was injured but local authorities evacuated about three hundred people from the surrounding area the incident raised alarms over the safety of the

growing oil by rail traffic following a spike in fracking in north dakota more than two thirds of the state's oil production is currently shipped iraq. u.n. refugee agency says the humanitarian crisis in the central african republic could be eminent many people there seeking shelter from continuing fighting between christian militias and the muslim x. rebels who are now in power around a thousand people killed earlier this month with the number of those displaced now swelling to more than eight hundred thousand french and african soldiers are struggling to contain massacres across the country. as the world counts down the final hours of the year we're looking back at the can news stories that shape two thousand and thirteen well everyone will have some personal things to remember the year some of the year's events i reached out to affect millions in the global spy scandal to diplomatic breakthroughs in the middle east and the early release of russia's most famous prisoner here's how twenty thirteen may go down in the books.

i would describe this man as an american hero he's a hero but each node is a hero the whistleblower sent a world wide wake up call with the ultimate revelation of twenty thirteen the former n.s.a. analyst told it all america was spying on citizens world leaders friends and foes alike and the man has broken the laws and i damage the country i think is a traitor snowden quickly became the most wanted man of the year with the us ready to stop and search a president's plane just in case. my first thought when i was forced to land was how can you repeat in countries obey the will of the us i imagine these nations would defenders of democracy snowden made moscow's airport his home for weeks before finding a way out and it was not his plan to end up here there was the united states made him stateless by revoking us passport and russia to its credit actually recognised international law and granted political asylum the whistleblower remains in an

undisclosed location in the russian capital we didn't exist here for just this one you last. night just lying to us and they want to. kill stuck a. person somebody told you the truth snowden promises to keep the leaks coming through twenty fourteen together we can find a better balance and mance surveillance and for a minute the government that if it really wants to know how. we feel asking is always cheaper than spying. the u.s. government can and will shutdown it came to a standstill for over two weeks in what's becoming an annual tradition grand america took a beating here lawmakers couldn't agree on raising the debt ceiling and came very

close to defaulting on some seventeen trillion dollars over in chile the market's going to say we don't want to play this game anymore we're not ulit you money at any price the i.m.f. and world bank warned of dire consequences while china called for the world's d. americanization given the that we see time and time again these political crisis appear in the us i think there would be more calls for sort of trying to reduce dependence in america eventually a deal and thousands of federal employees could go back to work parks and war memorials reopened and protests die down but the shut down side effects lingered on this was really a spectacle following a series of spectacles that has downgraded america's image worldwide to levels i've never seen so low. with a new president a new mood iran's hassan rouhani broke the ice on over thirty years of frozen times

between tehran and washington but rouhani is a. diplomat he will not be the one to back up from diplomacy first a phone call with obama while on his maiden visit to the un then the nuclear deal of the decade the iranians have shown time after time that there is no evidence that he was nuclear program is anything but peaceful is something that has been ignored by the western media and western governments but this despite all that iran's real cillian is has forced these countries ticks. up. enrichment and again the russians and the chinese have played a very constructive role iran agreed to restrict and regulate its nuclear program but maintained the right to peaceful energy in return sanctions and rhetoric eased russia held diplomacy for sealing the deal the west said its harsh sanctions secured the breakthrough. ten years on and iraq still

reels from violence a decade since the us led invasion but twenty thirteen was also one of the bloodiest years. the united states employed a classic divide and rule strategy pitting people of different sects against each other and in inciting violence that is completely unprecedented in that country this is a billion deaths continue to mount. at the time of the occupation the us occupiers favored certain groups in the population against others demolish the state that existed and so they're put in its place we are going to give you something new and better democratic and wonderful. but this is just as good he has the most phenomenal amount of blood on his hands assad didn't go nor did the rebels.

meantime the syrian civil war reached a hundred thousand deaths well it's still not resolved as to who was behind august chemical attack which killed some fifteen hundred people appear on. to our investigation that that was used by opening so neighborly who reads the facts and puts the dots together which is easy to do and they made it easy to do. understand. what those facts mean those facts weren't revealed yet brought obama very close to direct military action against damascus he was committed to launch a bombing campaign but then a breakthrough there is a historic resolution is to force the whole for us on syria in our own time russia and the us let it deal which saw president also agreed to give up syria's chemical weapons the slow disarmament process began but still no sign from the fractured

rebel factions of a willingness to unite for peace. the arab spring is still not blooming it's actually quite shameful to see countries and leaders of western governments who hail themselves because of democracy supporting the slaughter of democracy and it supports isn't into it the only may have pulled the trigger yes but it was the west that loaded the gun mohamed morsi and the muslim brotherhood didn't survive long at the helm of egypt he spent most of twenty thirteen behind bars when he was removed by the military after mass protests hit again we have seen the german. government overthrown. is shameful that the western leaders are around. this is an old sanctioned military coup in tunisia and libya the chaos continues

people are desperate to try and put a cover all of what has been created by the libyan disaster in the fall of gadhafi . one ton and most not going to the guards strap it into down to a chair put a mask over his face so that the detainee can't move bite or spit and the nurse snakes the feeding tube into a nasal cavity a mass hunger strike refocus global attention on the prison at one point most inmates. we're refusing food the prisoners has not met one another and speak different languages keep saying the same thing that we were tortured we were abused they tied. to the chair they shackled our legs to the ground they put a struggle across and they forced in a tube into our noses for said twice daily routine for many at the prison which president obama pledged to close over five years ago. drones

targeting terrorists but killing more civilians how many people are we going to have to kill before we can finally say ok that's it objective achieved war over we can call this thing of terrorists in yemen and pakistan but also wedding parties and family dinners entire communities being shattered so you may have one or two or three intended targets be killed the bad guys but then you have one hundred two hundred three hundred completely innocent people being killed america does not take strikes to punish individuals we act against terrorists who pose a continuing and imminent threat to the american people. aren't is back nasa probes has returned to kiev almost a decade after the orange revolution because ukraine dropped out of an e.u. trade deal and plenty of politicians from around the world joined in the us in the

e.u. talk a lot about european values and western values but is it a western value to allow a foreign country to come in an influential electoral process to influence politics on the streets of course it's not the east once to go east the west wants to look west and everyone in between wants a say well above all look at the rhetoric that was emanating from brussels in washington when ukraine failed to sign it became clear that it was very much directed against russia and that it was good for the ukrainian people. space rocks pack a punch a flaming meteor streaked across the sky and slammed into two lab and skin central russia with a shockwave equal to twenty nuclear bombs though so many rumors from a jet down to a satellite and even to the start of the end of the world it damaged dozens of buildings injured hundreds of people but took everyone by surprise no one saw it

coming. viral videos of its final moments helped r.t. to a billion views on you tube the first news channel ever to do so. you might have hit or miss an online goldmine because i. absolutely triumphed as a dollar has crashed ninety per cent i guess at bedtime as bitcoin a set to take on the world and root out the banks stirrers the world's most popular digital currency stirred up supporters and cynics cyber criminals love it drug dealers use it terrorists are looking into it the risk. are clear but bitcoin snapping at the dollar's heels and the banks are getting nervous if they were complete with the monetary system if they felt it was then they wouldn't be looking for an option like that point it's a sign of where the society is going but it's old money that troubled greece and

the austerity crowds weary of years of financial life support from abroad or the government crackdown on the rising right shouting the openly fascist golden dawn party which was connected to the killing of an anti rightwing rapper. people are ready to go after go live with chemical companies are feeding us and our families now sort of laugh or eat a table rather than farm to table protest against food giant monsanto peaked in two thousand and thirteen but activists trying to spread awareness about what they say are the dangers of genetically modified foods while sandu has been continuously voted as the most evil company on the planet year after year with stiff competition most media outlets didn't cover this growing global movement nor the one gathering steam to fight the likes of chevron and the energy giants fracking projects. the controversial process to release oil and gas deep underground ignited global

campaigns against its damning environmental potential irrefutable evidence of contamination air pollution water contamination battle between big business and the interests of the people. who can prove hard to predict. the coast recently wrote a petition asking me to pardon him he spent more than ten years in prison this is a serious punishment he saw as humanitarian reasons saying his mother is sick and i believe taking jew account of all the circumstances it's possible to take a respective decision and in the near future i will sign a decree to pardon him. ski was. released along with members of pussy riot and greenpeace activists in a nationwide amnesty international a their relations with the rest of the world have been deteriorating rapidly ever getting worse and worse and perhaps hussein with this is trying to put a stop to that or a marker and to slow down the process but inside russia there are many questions

about how their course ski and the fall of the oil giant yukos the russian people will want to know where is the money all the people who are well russians to of course shakily feel the call of course he got what he deserved the move has been called everything from priya lympics p.r. to simple logic and continues to puzzle many in and outside of russia most are waiting to see what mikhail khodorkovsky will do with his freedom in twenty fourteen and beyond. after a short break a visit to a norwegian island in the arctic ocean for a glimpse at the life they're watching argue national. news secret laboratory to mccurry was able to build a new its most sophisticated robot which on fortunately doesn't give

a darn about anything tim's mission to teach creation why it should care about humans in the world this is why you should care only on the dot com. unexplored antarctica what is it in this icy expanse that attracts the people who come here. now i only go to the dodger. and enter into. a new generation of polar explorers is coming. we have a new group of specialists here now all of them are young how are they going to get along with each other i don't know. who they. are used to be a bureaucrat. seriously. what adventures await in this mysterious land where they live what do they eat and what are they actually doing in antarctica.

the island of spitsbergen is the starting point for expeditions to the north pole a little over a thousand kilometers away. you know early november there's next to no sunlight each day what little light remains continues today. in just ten days the sun will stop rising above the horizon all together. it will begin. in the middle of. the three seasons here.