it's. going to be. fast approaching the preparation finish line there's just a month until sochi twenty fourteen gets going we'll check how the olympic city will keep visitors moving also. a way. it millions of worshippers around the world mark orthodox christmas is a ground service is held in moscow is christ the savior cathedral. and when water leaves a bitter taste we look at how disputes over resources could spark major conflicts across the world but here what can be done to stop them.

welcome you're watching our international with me and he said now a good to have you with us ready set and only a month to go sochi is getting its final place pieces in place i should say for the winter olympics archies paul scott's been taking a look at what will soon be the world's winter sports wonderland. here we are on top of the russian seasons hotel in sochi overlooking the coastal cluster or the olympic village behind me a six of the eleven a brand new state of the venues with the other five in the mountain cluster which is just a short train ride from here now let's take a look at exactly what we've got behind me the fish stadium is going to host the opening and closing ceremony rehearsals are ongoing at the moment for the opening ceremony it's a closely guarded secret at the moment but come february the seventh forty thousand lucky ticket holders will be enjoying what promises to be a spectacle and one of the main attractions during any winter olympics is the ice

hockey competition which is taking place in the bolshoi cost one hundred eighty million dollars they can house twelve thousand fans now with a month ago all these venues have been tested to international standards on more than one occasion and it's difficult to imagine exactly what this area was like seven years ago before such it was awarded the games before then the area behind me was just barren wasteland the whole area looks set to benefit for many years to come and in particular local businesses my colleagues about what say now reports. the caucuses mountains a new days with a love for nature and now they've become an attraction for new opportunities and business one family decided to leave behind the metropolis of moscow for a change of scenery and life's down and a new business saw them using the found in this landscape bad did the city win the

olympic bid to play in the influence to. sochi winning the olympic bid encouraged us to take action as we became more sure that the region will now be developing fast and world so yes i'd say this frank did have an influence on the owner decision to move here. leaving well paid jobs behind meant making a living was their number one priority so they turned to soon d.-ma using his head called business to help his creative white christina at first it was not much more than a pastime but the business blossomed david product line consists of again except shampoos showa gels and creams you might even feel gadgil looking at a bar of soap as everything looks appetizing there's a whole arsenal of bottles and flasks with essential and cosmetic. greetings all going to source locally water from the local mountains is used alongside herbs and

spices which christina picks has cells with no previous experience in the soap making industry and no formal education in chemistry kristina studied up on her own time with the business is doing well this future looks even brighter with plans in an eco friendly hotel for now the magic happens in the kitchen. the games themselves will add potential clients raw business of future hotel and products are the most organizers of the olympics as say the new infrastructure created in the city will draw more tourists and help small businesses a post the olympics a home base business sourcing local organic products and materials and herbs for all sorts she as well as the caucasus mountains now if the president thought she is bubbling with fever for the winter games then it looks like its future of the

olympic and paralympic games will blossom if you take big xampp all of upcoming businesses like this. one with a in sochi our team. the president of the sochi two thousand and fourteen organizing committee to meet their trash says his hometown is fully ready to host one of the world's biggest sporting events but gets to your home you have to prepare the table the good food and of course the atmosphere is the key because we want to reach. the level of excitement of the people who will drive our professional stuff is the place volunteers already have started to arrive from all around to come through the venue for the red do they were the preferred a lot of snow in the mountains where we've been exciting to welcome the wall

but there's still one thing missing the olympic torch which is still on route on the longest relay in the history of the games from space rocks and diving to the bottom of the world's deepest lake it's now on its way through central russia r t s james brown has been following its voyage which he described earlier to lindsay france james brown welcome to the studio what do you have with you here the torch of the olympic games can you give us a look at this as you say this is my. personal torch it's as you can see very one of the color and souvenir let me let me have a look at it i mean this this is not light by any means heavy this respect but yeah it is what two kilos about four actually really yeah you know i'm trained yeah you hold that you hold it out that is heavy quite and this is a better record breaking relay for the olympic torch going places it's never been before you were following it which one of the milestones do you think was the most memorable or important. i've been to several. going to by car was amazing they

took the torch down under water into by karl so you have the burning flare torches specially made then passed very impressive on the water and then flew the top back with the man with a jet pack on to the on to the shore very good video so that was that was a sight to be seen but there was one amazing moment in a real once in a lifetime moment was going with the torch to the north pole you see on t.v. you read it and then you think wow that must be really must be very interesting never going to go there and then this opportunity came up to go on this nuclear icebreaker this huge. ship that can cut through to me to thick ice and it's fueled by two gigantic reaction so your which is a strange feeling in itself yeah go and stand by. but we were going to go to the north pole with the flame and we made it in less than four half days which was

a world record pace and arrived in the middle of the polar nights with the limbic torch in the north pole for the very first time in history another into the final month until the games began will continue our special coverage from sochi is a gears up for the winter's morning spectacle stay with r.t. international for that. i. know it's christmas day but there's no need to check your calendar because it's orthodox worshippers celebrating the holiday this time here in moscow it began with a ground service in christ the savior cathedral artie's where if an arsenal was there. this is a holy time for all the russian also looks believe that there's around eighty

percent of the country's population but there are also others who live abroad special christmas vigils are held in around ten thousand churches and monasteries all across russia including christ the savior cathedral here in central most russia's main church where the ceremony is led by pay trickle mosco and all russia the real every year around five thousand believers attend the ceremony in this particular cathedral including the country's top officials these here prime minister medvedev attended the ceremony here but president putin celebrates christmas in seoul to this year where he traveled several days ago to monitor preparations for winter olympic games the trasher will soon be hostage in a holy relic a very important one for old also dogs believers. brought here to see christ to save a cathedral from greece's athens mourners three. the magi gave us gold frankincense

and myrrh that according to the bible and christian tradition were given to infant juices when he was born by a group of foreign travelers who covered thousands of kilometers to see the new born and to on to him as a king and starting tuesday morning and for the entire week afterwards all those who want to come here and see them will have this opportunity and just eligibles question that i guess our t.v. audience may still have is why russia's also looks church celebrates the birth of jesus at the beginning of january not in december as most of christians do that is because of the julian calendar the thrushes orthodox church follows and the end which differs from going to go in calendar used by others after christmas we're going to see a week of so-called svelte this is a holy time for all believers as well so christmas is only the beginning of holy

celebrations and we'll see more to come in the days. america's snooping national security agency got backed into a corner by congress when pressed on whether it's been spying on its members but the agency still managed to dodge giving a yes or no answer merely promising to keep lawmakers in the loop on their missions more on the n.s.a. smack of alien maneuvers at our dot com. also learn about the cataclysm including super volcanoes that could erupt at any moment and what scientists discoveries mean for the rest of us. right on the scene. were struck. and i think that you're. on our reporters. in.

the in the. water is life so they say but rivalry over supplies can lead to better conflicts you can see here that since the mid twentieth century the planet has seen nearly a hundred and eighty conflicts connected to water resources these include both small and large scale clashes a lot of them in the middle east and africa so it might surprise you to hear that it's water rather than oil that could be what's fought over in the coming years in the region falsely or reports now from israel. the bible tells us that within a short distance from here jesus turned water into wine two thousand years later the great american might be turning the wine back into water but has been living in the golan heights for over thirty years each day he attends to seventy odd an

orchard keeping his wine in a center that was once a serene bunker he is proud of the wine he produces but knows that in the absence of water none of this would be possible but i know you push me water is important because it's the second main resource that we have other than the land each crop needs water and without it you will destroy all the crops and destroy all of the farming here it can turn the golen heights into a desert and it's not just about the golan heights rainwater from its catchment feeds into the river jordan providing a food of israel's water supply the disputed region was seized from syria after the six day war and residents of the golan remember that water was a key issue in the conflict i mean one of the stands here understands the importance of the work that all the water supply of israel because every door was raining here but it's grown to over three years you got it so we can say that it is

a must. expect a prisoner to have been poured over what the fall says it's a worldwide rule that whoever controls the water controls the land but the problem is in some places there's very little water to go around bring you have the common waterfalls shared by several foreign nations there's always the possibility of a clash of riches conflicts that should be manageable was put out of control and examples of possible conflicts are plentiful syria's major water sources travel through turkey and iraq making it vulnerable while jordan is reliant on a river with syria bill today egypt. recently expressed concern of a countries using the upper now to generate electric power in the dry landscape of the middle east water is a prize most precious thing diamonds in its absence famine and drought are quick to follow but this is a region that very seldom needs an excuse for war and water shortages might just

tip the balance police here r.t. in the golan heights. well as paula mentioned in her report egypt is now locking horns over water supplies with ethiopia which is building a dam on the nile but egypt which is massively dependent on the same supplies is worried the project might leave its entire population with no water when it begins working in three years political science professor safe side predicts tensions will boil over we have to remember that egypt has only six to seven percent of its land land the rest of the egyptian territory is there's a bevin there's a so that can really be a serious affecting national security and that's why i immediately went to still be and raise the issue of the high then the world some. experts here is that the world talk about military option and go in to war was this your view of because if you

cut water on us we would be buying eighty five percent of the water. and water comes from israel and so it's serious in fact the inclusive thousand and fifty egypt would be one hundred fifty million people and we would be needing in addition to the fifty five point five billion cubic meter i mean we need twenty one billion cubic meters of extra food we're going to get it in the snow be have no tools. to go fifty five point five cubic meters what would happen to egypt in the year two thousand and fifty if we don't have more water. and middle east affairs journalist adel darwish thinks nations have no choice but to rationally share their common supplies and not politicize their disputes as the population grew and as agriculture grew and. buz grew or was all it was.

what it is when doing that probably will reach a point or hardly any freshwater lives in the plan that could be averted if the idea i was exploring a while back what we call a water bank the rivers or water resources shirred among nations if we can quantify the usage of it what you wish for agriculture or what you wish for and what do you wish for power generation and complain see each other by sort of making the water dollar all the water pound or whatever and then we quantify it into more cooperative projects but given the human nature and nature of politicians i probably not very optimistic. i had for you shortly here on r t britain's banking boley r g eight years claims that a major high street bank is profiting from small businesses with plate of hand financing instead of being their safety net one couple tells us how they lost everything.

please. please. play. a. little. cross-talk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want to. play. you cannot preemptively restrict your freedoms because of the fear of what something or how something might be used everything that has ever been developed has been used for

a bad purpose baseball bats which are fun for you know for baseball players to hit balls you know they've also been used to beat people today i mean we just cannot restrict ourselves because something might be used in a way in the wrong way. in iraq government forces are preparing to storm the city of fallujah which has been overrun by al qaeda linked militants the prime minister is even urging civilians there to rise up and help drive out insurgents well earlier extremists forces crossed in from neighboring syria joining up with their allies already fighting in iraq the radicals want to set up an islamic state and their ranks are swelling with thousands of new recruits iraqi leaders have been struggling to control the country in the aftermath of u.s. withdrawal two years ago some analysts now expect neighboring iran to weigh in and

how backed at. but we have seen in this town and washington for the past three years been so the some sort of a disinterest in iraq you know like iraq does not exist there it's off their radar screen so. really it's a volatile situation the military would never prepared it was always predicated on sectarian lines unfortunately it is does not have the kind of weapon that it needs to fight this by it doesn't have combat airplanes it does not have combat helicopters brands ally in the area its biggest ally is maliki so they are not going to stand by idly and see the country break up all going to war or being indeed maliki overthrown by al qaeda type so they i suspect that they would come to the aid or at least with in terms of arms and supplying arms and so on because the u.s. so far has fallen short of doing their jobs. meanwhile iran has refused to sideline role that the upcoming international peace talks on syria tehran has received an

official invitation to attend the geneva two conference later this month keep power players including russia and the u.n. chief have said they'd like to see the iranians at the table but the u.s. wants to iran to accept a sideline role and offer the islamic state rejected calling it a matter of honor. in other news moscow is demanding an explanation from some and all over the detention of a russian trawler the ship and its eighty two crew members were seized at the weekend over the call off the coast of guinea bissau in western africa senegalese officials claim it was fishing illegally but have failed to produce evidence to support the accusations sixty two russians are still trapped on the ship with their passports confiscated. and washington is pressuring kabul to sign a bilateral security pact within weeks the treaty would allow thousands of american soldiers to remain in afghanistan after the nato withdrawal in twenty eight twenty fourteen i was unhappy with some parts of the deal which would grant u.s.

troops immunity from afghan law washington is now threatening to pull all of its forces out of the country unless the deal is sealed. but to get a small business off the ground you need the backing of a bank but truth carefully because not all seem to have your entrepreneurial interests at heart or assume it's been to meet one couple in britain who found their lender more predatory than protective and discover they're far from alone. chris richardson and ernie bernstein used to own this hotel but not anymore three years ago out of the blue they say their bank took it from them nat west style hotel this hotel beyond me here is ours always will be and it will be coming back if there's justice in this country these guys will be arrested. and we will be giving this back in two thousand and ten chris and ernie had

a loan from now west to do up the coniston hotel and conference center in north kent they were just eleven days from opening when their bank manager told them there was a problem releasing the latest tranche of their loan he said no worries don't worry about it. and that is the last we've ever heard of his value we have not heard from him since later the owners learnt the bank was saying they'd run out of money despite having one point six million pounds of their agreed loan left that west then revalue to the hotel at just over a third of its original price so the hotel found itself in administration from where it was snapped up by western register the bank's property. the kicker r.b.s. and its subsidiary now west are majority owned by the taxpayer but it's a ruse r.b.s. has been accused of many times over lawrence tomlinson is a small business advisor to the government his recent report exposes the seemingly

duplicitous nature of banking operations my report focuses on r.b.s. and what we're saying is that restructuring division georgi acted in a way that the businesses that they were supposed to be helping get back to health were taken put into distress for the benefit of the bank we actually see. property company called west register and we're seeing r.b.s. owning those customers property after they've been in. stress told linton's report is twenty pages of examples and findings under headings like engineering a default and excessive fees in response r.b.s. said in a statement no evidence had been provided to support the allegation that the bank had systematically profited on the backs of their customers and they'd be looking into it fully christened ernie's hotel is now a thriving business fitted out exactly as they left it but it belongs to the bank

and their lives have been destroyed which put me from a very wealthy man back on tax credits. more family suffered heavily through this. bank's property company and the hotel maid was but after last year. she sadly. got cancer and march this year and she thought in my. life for three three goals that one answers and justice determined to fight back chris and ernie cling to the idea that one day they'll walk through these doors owners of the hotel again laura smith artie kent of next a man with a big heart an even bigger family meet nicholai father to seventy after a short break.

well i'm all over my language as well but i will only react to situations i have read the reports and like to put a no i will leave them to the state department to comment on your latter point the muslims. are carryin a car is all your talk is now going to. do no more weasel words

when you made a direct question are you prepared for a change when you run should be ready for a. result of speeds a little down the freedom to cross. i think. i would like to know that you know the price is the only industry specifically mentioned in the constitution and. that's because a free and open process is critical to our democracy albus. role. in fact the single biggest threat facing our nation today is the corporate takeover of our government and our craft semi-colons we've been hijacked lying handful of transnational corporations that will profit by destroying what our founding fathers once told us i'm sorry mark and on this show we reveal the big picture of what's actually going on in the world we go beyond identifying the problem trucks rational

debate and a real discussion critical issues facing are not there by the front door ready to join the movement then walk away from the big picture. dramas that can't be ignored to. stories other is refused to notice. the faces change the world lights never. grow. old pictures of today's you know i told you from around the globe. look to. the.

i know c.n.n. and the m s n b c news have taken some slightly but the fact is i admire their commitment to cover all sides of the story just in case one of them happens to be accurate. that was funny but it's close and for the truth from the right think. it's because one whole attention and the mainstream media works side by side with you is actually on the we're going to be coming back. at our teen years we have a different pretty. good because the news of the world just is not this funny i'm not laughing dammit i'm not.