world s poorest countries. riot police crackdown on gang violence in brazil the on grass is the first test of new president charcoals an arms hardline law and order policies. i m soo nice to have you with us the newly founded ukrainian orthodox church is holding its first christmas mass in the capital of the service comes just hours after church leaders formally received a decree of independence at a ceremony in istanbul ending more than three centuries of russian influence and ukraine s president petro poroshenko had campaigned for the split which as a provoked anger in moscow. let s bring in matthew cook for a journalist with the kiev post he joins us from the ukrainian capital for more on the story matthew thank you very much for joining us now this is a pretty significant day of the first mass of an independent ukrainian orthodox
instead of favoring something that was closer economic ties with russia, moscow. diana magnay walked among the protesters in the hours after the riot police crackdown. reporter: these barricades were torn down buy riot police in early hours of wednesday morning but now they are back, possibly bigger than ever. protesters using anything they can get their hands on. a lot of snow, which they ve packed into these white bags. now, it s a symbol, if you will, of their resilience, determination to keep protesting until their demands are met. ukrainian president says that he is now prepared to talk. that he won t use force against peaceful gatherings. also, the opposition say, fine, as long as talks follow an agreed road map, not this vague roundtable notion that the president is suggesting. one of them saying to me, you can t fit a roundtable into a square prison cell. ultimately, their demands remain the resignation of the government and fresh elections.