fast approaching the preparation finish line there's just a month until sochi two thousand and fourteen gets going but check how the olympic city will keep visitors moving and say also. when one leaves of bitter taste we'll look at how disputes over resources could spark major conflicts across the world here and what could be done to stop. it as iraqi forces face off with islamic extremists for control the key city the u.s. weighs in by sending drones then missiles to baghdad. has to be a mosque you're watching r t with me marina joshie welcome to the program ready

steady and only a month to go sochi is taking the final boxes and it's winter olympics preparations are scott is there. this is all confident that everything is on track. all the eleven venues have been completed built and tested to international standards on more than one occasion and all the transport networks including the high speed rail service between the coastal cluster and the mounting cluster are also up and running now there is still some work to be done but it's mainly superficial in terms of sprucing the city up so it looks nice come the opening ceremony on february the seventh what you can see behind me is the coastal cluster or the olympic village where six of the venues are housed where six of the venues are based including the fish stadium which is going to host the opening ceremony on february the seventh forty thousand lucky ticket holders will be crammed inside the stadium that you can see behind me enjoying what organizers are promising will be a spectacular spectacle at the moment rehearsals are ongoing but the content of the

show is a very closely guarded secret well with a month to go today is the day that the security operation kicks in in earnest now a controlled zone has been a stop list around all of the venues with a number of checkpoints in the city basically spectators will only be allowed into the venues or to designated areas if they have a ticket and also proof of id now over thirty thousand police and security officers are going to be on patrol in the region and over the course of the weekend president vladimir putin amended saying that demos can take place in designated areas if organizes get private permission so it seems that the games organizers are taking every step that they can to ensure the most expensive games in history passed off peacefully and one man definitely convinced the security is all sorted and sochi is now only is it his hometown he's also president of the sochi twenty fourteen organizing committee. i can see that we are ready. to host the most

innovative games ever all stuff in place that will reduce the beach on the olympic mall to all mean in transportation system including access to the venues and of course of this really calm and friendly environment from the beginning of the construction. security was the paramount importance of the proportion for the games and by being in for all international expert then the. russian as they soared to provide incredible measures and incredible things to very few of the safest and most secure games ever everybody will be everything. but there's one thing still missing the olympic torch which is still on the longest relay in history of the games from spacewalks and diving to the bottom of the world's deepest lake it's now on its way through central russia are just james brown's been following its voyage

which he described earlier to indifference 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 well 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 yes you can have your own training that you no doubt 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 last memorable or important i think for me i've been to several. going to by car was amazing they took the torch down under water into my car so you had the burning flare torches specially made then passed very impressive underwater and then flew

the top back with with a man with a jet on to the on to the shore very good video so it was it was a sight to be seen but there was one amazing moment and a real once in a lifetime moment was going with the torch to the north pole you see on t.v. and you read it and then you think wow that must be really must be very interesting never going to go and then this opportunity came up to go on this nuclear icebreaker this huge ship that was cut through to me to thick ice and it's fueled by two gigantic reactors so your visitors it 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 libby taught in the north pole for the very first time in history. such as undergone

quite a transformation to become the world's winter sports wonderland to balance a takes a look at the massive boost the entire region has been experiencing. bad the caucuses mountains are named to attract 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 lifestyle and a new business saw them using that found in this landscape but did the city win the olympic bid play in 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 well so yes i'd say this bank did have an influence on the on our decision to move here leaving well paid jobs behind and making a living was a number one priority so they turned to soon d.-ma using his head called business

to help his creative like 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 for a gadget looking at a bar of soap as everything else appetizing there's a whole arsenal of bottles and flasks with essential and cosmetic oils and greetings are going to get a 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 doing well this future looks even brighter with plans jasmine an eco friendly hotel for now the magic happens in the kitchen. so you could i got

a post about why the games themselves will add potential clients raw business future hotel i'm proud to say that the most organized this of the olympics is say the new infrastructure created in the city will draw more tourists and help small businesses a place the lympics a home base business source saying the local organic products and materials and herbs from our own soil she as well as the caucasus mountains now if the president saw it she is bubbling with fever for the winter games but it looks like its future the olympic and paralympic games will blossom if you take the example of upcoming businesses like this one with a insult. now that we are into the final month until the games begin we'll continue our special coverage from sochi as a gears up for the winter sporting spectacle stay with our team international for that and more.

i. know what you are the international eye from moscow water is life so they say but rivalry over supply askin me to bitter conflict as you see since the mid twentieth century the planet's seen nearly one hundred eighty disputes connected to water resources avi's include both small clashes or protests as well as a large scale conflict 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 polish new reports now from one of the centers of amity over water to middle east. 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 bubby caballo has been living in the golan heights for over thirty years each day he attends to seventy odd in orchards keeping his wine in a center that was once a syrian 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 personally the water is important because it's the second main resource that we have other than the land in each crop needs water and without it you will destroy all the crops and destroy all of the farming here you can turn the golan 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 with seeds from syria after the six day war and residents of the golan remember that water was a key issue in the conflict and one of the stands here understands the importance

of the work that all the water supply of israel because every door was raining here all because it's grown to the security of god so we can say that it is a must will. respect the resolve to have all 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 sovereign nations there's always the possibility of a clash of religious 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 if a country is using the up and now to generate electric power in the dry landscape

of the middle east is a prize more precious than 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. as paul mentioned in her report egypt now locking horns over water supplies with v.o.p. which is building a dam on the nile egyptian relies massively on the river and is worried about being left dry eye when the project goes online in three years political science professor sites of death predicts tension 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 bad and there's a so that can really be a serious affecting national security and that's why immediately when sylvia and raise the issue of hi there the world some. experts here is that the world talk

about military option and go in to a war was this your view because if you cut water we would be buying eighty five percent of the water. and water comes from and so it's serious in fact that in two 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 we need twenty one billion cubic meters of extra food where do we get it in the snow be it now towards. the fifty five point five cubic meters what would happen to egypt in the u. two thousand and fifty if we don't have more water. and middle east affairs journalist out older wish things nations had no choice but to rationally share their common supplies and not politicize their disputes as the population grew and

as agriculture grew and. grew or was all it was. is when doing that probably will reach the hardly any freshwater lives in the plan that would be averted if the idea i was exploring a while back what we call a water bank i.e. the rivers or water resources shirt among the nations if we can quantify the usage of it what you wish for agriculture what you wish for and what do you wish for a party of the nation and complain see each other by sort of making the water dollar or daughter pound or whatever and then be quantify it into more cooperative projects but without giving give a human nature and nature of politicians are probably not very optimistic. and i ask for you shortly here on r t britain's banking bullies are these years claims

that a major high street bank is profiting from small businesses well sleight of hand financing instead of being their safety net one couple tells us how they lost everything also coming up. millions of worshipers around the world market orthodox christmas as a grand service is how the mosque is christ the savior cathedral. he survived war atrocities. to make a final decision. has changed his life and the world around him. by giving up. hope.

and loves to so many children. nikolai the american worker on the trade. dramas that can't be ignored to. stories others refuse to notice. the faces change the world writes never. grow. old pictures of today's leaves no longer from around the globe. look to. welcome back to watching r.t. international live from moscow the u.s. war in iraq may have added more than two years ago by washington's now rushing an

emergency shipment of surveillance drones and missiles to the country the firepower is designed to help the iraqi government to retake the city of fallujah which has been overrun by al qaeda linked militants now earlier extremist forces crossed over from neighboring syria joining up with their allies already in iraq the radicals want to set up an islamic state in their ranks or swelling with thousands of new recruits iraqi leaders have been struggling to control the country in the aftermath of the u.s. withdrawal two years ago now we can talk to the analysts middle east analyst who joins us live here on our t.v. thank you so much mr jenner for joining us now the first question is to what extent do you think will the american shipment of weapons be enough to you tip the scales of the fighting in iraq. first of all to have to clarify. the visit the last visit of mr nouri

maliki the iraqi prime minister to watch from town was very important and this is a he thought that many times that terrorists may threaten their interests you know . americans who did not have. a governmental feedback to build. within ten years started to be interested when they found. military and. started to control all. or to whom it may concern is very important region in the very large the sixteen times the size of lebanon as boards that were just done with syria it's become slotnick you know government or under islamic control a lot about it is very rich in oil and gas and i think that americans are very

interested to have their share and oil and god and the americans started and majesty to deliver weapons to iraq or then this fighting in iraq did this if seventy five missiles hellfire and the middle of september december last month and his promise to have much more missiles hundred of those missiles which used to and that fighting by the iraqi government while just you know the task. i'm not sure if they received. mr generous now is how can i promise to have their arms you're not in a very soon as soon as possible yeah sorry for interrupting you let's not discuss the possible tactics of washington might choose and this particular scenario this particular situation as it has made it clear it will not send troops back to iraq so what sort of tactics well would resort to this time you think.

i don't think the american would send troops and the circumstances nobody is talking about that in washington but send in troops you know we've got some rumors are news from this region but in washington i was there two weeks ago a lot by the north side talking about it i think the american would help the iraqi army in a matter of intelligence and now we're now. one hundred american military personnel and the best the american embassy and baghdad. make in you know daily and paramount and. coordination with the iraqis in a matter of law just stick and also in a matter of intelligence but there are many candidates in baghdad and bessie didn't deny that they have any organization delivered and tactical level it's you know on

their feet but i doubt that because they do have many information on the field and that tactical level is this part of the nation between the americas and there are key government will increase and who that kind of as you know the americans are ready or not permitted to deliver to the iraqis depend to their destination on their free will that escalation of their military operations on the field because as we said that there is no way to lead and i'm on the control of those jihadist organization and i'm out of became a base departure base for the military for terrorism operations. everywhere in syria again they are and also it became the largest. terrorist organization since we are running out of this very great army that is very

important as a remedy is very important for losers very very briefly let me just ask you one more question because we're running out of time well it's syria iraq and lebanon where you're talking to us from are now caught in six terry and strive so how much longer can this continue and how much fathers could stretch. i think it became you know the problem that the guy took advantage from this. and everybody you know that many companies especially in the dog. i said. that's the problem the weather and the you know i can see the. problem with the government. money believe. that it is but. i do a lot of. i've got to have you know. again.

become. right that was a middle east analyst hisham jobber talking to us from barrow thank you so much for your views sir. meanwhile iran has refused to sign the upcoming international peace talks on syria iran has received an official petition to hand to geneva two conference later this month keep our players including russia and the u.n. chief have said they had like to see that radiance at the table but the u.s. wants to iran to accept the cylon role and offer the islamic state rejected calling it a matter of honor. three hundred fifty police officers have reportedly been sacked as part of a crackdown on remaster corruption scandals in addition several high profile officials have been thrown behind bars following an investigation the revelations sparked fears anti-government protests on the streets arrive minister to one claims

the affair is a foreign conspiracy designed to discredit his cabinet. 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 grand service of the christ the savior. 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 with jewels held in around ten thousand churches and monasteries all across russia including tries to save a cathedral here in central most russia's main church where the ceremony is led by paid trickle mosco and all russia the real every year around five thousand delivers 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 here where he traveled several days ago to monitor preparations for winter olympic games but trash there will soon be hostage in a holy relic a very important one for old also works believers. brought here to christ to save a cathedral from greece's atthis mourner street which is paul to all of the magi gave gold frankincense and myrrh that according to the bible and christian tradition were given to jesus when he was born by a group of foreign travelers who covered thousands of kilometers to see the newborn and to own 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 a legitimate question that i guess our t.v.

audience may still have is why iraq is 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 are going to see a week of so-called svelte does it hold it time for all believers as well. now to get a small business off the ground he needs the backing of a bank but choose carefully because not all seem to have your interpreter really interest at heart or isthmus been to meet one couple in britain found their land they're more predatory then protective and discover an air of far from alone. chris richardson and ernie byrnes didn't 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 these hours 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 that 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 learned the bank was saying they'd run out of money despite having one point six million pounds of their agreed loan left now 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 west 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 laurence 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 and we actually see. property company called west register and we're seeing r.b.s. owning those customers property after they've been in. us told linton's report is twenty pages of examples and findings under headings like engineering or defaults 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. west register the banks property company and the hotel more wars but after last year. she sadly. got cancer and march this year and she'd already my. three three girls the one answers and justice determined to fight back chris and ernie cling to the idea that one day they'll walk through these doors as owners of the hotel again laura smith artie kent.