this is r t international reporting tonight on the finish line with just a month left now before the russian olympic host city saw the ball rolling we talked. about how the city's going to run the games and keep. the control of its biggest province from key city seized by al qaeda militants flooding in from syria well the u.s. promises to speed up drone and missile delivery. basics scientists warn the water may become a key factor in world conflicts that already fueling tension in the arab middle east. youngest victim of the terror attacks in volgograd we're following the fate of the three month old girl who survived the blast that killed her mother.

just joined us is just past ten pm here in moscow have been our top story that it is now looking at the calendar exactly thirty one days to go until the winter games kick off in russia and all eyes are on sochi is the city gets ready for its big moment pull scotland reports on the culmination of seven long years of preparation all focused on this international sports spectacle. organizes are reiterating that everything is on track and they are ready for the start of the games not each of the eleven venues in the coastal cluster which you can see. just over my shoulder on the mountain cluster have been completed and put to the test hosting international competition on more than one occasion and each of the brand new transport networks including the high speed rail link which is going to connect

the two clusters are also up and running there is still some work to be done in and around the city of sochi in the final months but it's mainly cosmetic it's mainly superficial in terms of sprucing the city up so that it looks nice prepares to welcome the world come february the seventh security has been a top priority for organizes from day one but now with a month to go on tuesday a month ago until the start of the games that's the day that the security operation really began in earnest and what's happening here in sochi what's going to happen throughout the course of the games is really not too dissimilar to what you would find anywhere in the world for any major public event such as this basically a controlled zone has been set up in and around sochi which contains not just the venues but also a number of security checks which really just won't allow any spectators or officials into certain designated areas unless they have a ticket or a proof of. their going to be over thirty thousand police and security personnel patrolling the region throughout the course of the games in the and in the build up

to the. earlier on today i spoke to the chairman of the organizing committee dimitri who told me that every possible step is being taken to secure the games safety. reach the olympic mall from the beginning of the construction. security is the paramount importance of the games and the man all for. all international experts. the russian. provide the incredible measures incredible things to guarantee is a safe. secure. security is clearly a top priority now you can see as i mention the coastal cluster you can probably make out the fish stadium just over my right shoulder that's going to host the opening ceremony come february the seventh forty thousand spectators will be packed

into that stadium forty thousand lucky ticket holders. going at the moment the content of the show is a closely guarded secret it's all set to be unveiled on the big day the day that the game starts a month from now. you know we'll find out soon enough for the only thing missing in sochi is the olympic flame on its way through central russia on its longest relay in the game's history at a distance of fact of over fifty six thousand kilometers its record breaking journey has been full of firsts with the historic space walk one of the most impressive records two russian cosmonauts took it outside the international space station and that's by the way the very top two that will light the olympic flame in sochi next month that is james brown has been following its voyage which he described a little bit colleague from. 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 car and souvenir let me let me have a look at this this is not light by any means heavy this is the ad it is what two kilos about four actually really yeah you could. actually 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 last memorable are important i think for me i've been to several. going to by car was amazing they took the torch on the water into my car so you have the burning flare torches specially made and passed very impressive on the water and then flew the torch back with a man with a jet pack on to the to the very good video so that 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 ice breaker he's huge. chip and that can cut through two meter thick ice. is fueled by two gigantic reactors so your physics is 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 maybe it's the. lesson for a half day it was a world record pace arrived in the middle of the polar nights with the live because in the north pole for the very first time in history. so then the olympic clock is ticking there were closely following such easy gears up for those games on air and online as well because stay tuned to us here at r.t. international.

at least twenty nine people have been killed as iraqi troops continue to fight for the cities of fallujah and ramadi which had been held by al-qaeda militants since last friday america's now pledged to help to for the government to fight the extremist post speeding up deliveries of surveillance drones and missiles and fight down by province where the cities are located of course was a key insurgent stronghold for years following that us us led invasion last week. was rick lain by syria basic stream miss we think who declared an islamic state there let's get some more perspective on this cross live to journalist from the institute for policy studies phyllis bennis is joining us there phyllis i mentioned that we think reports suggest that these people have come from syria's east do you buy that and are they there to stay. i don't think we know exactly who the people

are individually what we do know is that there's been an enormous crossover between iraq and syria in the last two years in particular as the civil war in syria has escalated the war in iraq that is the very direct result of the u.s. war and occupation of iraq has escalated we have seen this year more civilians have been killed in there since two thousand and eight so it's been five years since we've seen this level of fighting and it's only going up it's not going down so it's a very dangerous moment and the the organization that seems to be in control in fallujah an islamist. extremist organization that is functioning both in iraq and syria growing to his own people you did a large. you know i guess. of these forces who have expressed their

own allegiance to or or their love for al qaeda others have not but there are a number there are dozens of extremist islamist forces that are operating both inside syria and over the syrian borders in iraq in particular but as well in lebanon there's been some indications that elsewhere as well so these are the kind of extremists that have claimed the franchise name al qaeda it doesn't mean by any stretch of the imagination that they have any direct links to the former leadership of the regional al-qaeda that was responsible for the nine eleven attacks it means they have taken on this franchise of. an extremist view of sunni islam that says we are going to establish a so-called caliph that not only in iraq not only in syria but throughout the region of course the already has on the one hand you've got the united states supporting the rebels so music streamers rebels of. syria have now come over the

border into iraq and we're also hearing this we know the irony is offering drones and military support personnel but military support to fight these very same people before the against it directly exactly it's you know the role of the u.s. is a very tricky one in the region it's clearly the result of the u.s. war in iraq that has given way to the kind of sectarian fighting we're seeing in iraq you know the existence of these sectarian based political parties the the shia led leadership in iraq led by prime minister nouri al maliki was put in power and remains captain powered by the united states who provides the money the arms to keep his government in power that government has been not only incredibly corrupt and not only incredibly incompetent in terms of dealing with the needs. iraq to rebuild from these years of war but also has been incredibly sectarian in terms of

what it makes successor to various communities in iraq so you have this scenario where the sunni population which is the minority but large minority in iraq feel completely disenfranchised disempowered disconnected from their own government and so the u.s. is saying instead of in insisting that the government change its policy of discrimination towards one of egalitarianism any quality for all something that we are in no position to brag about here in this country i should say but what the u.s. claims to withhold as a hold up as a as a model instead of insisting on that the u.s. says well we'll send you told missiles so you can send more missiles and kill more people into look at the last thing for me it is more missiles will really quickly words it's going to go. to straight spring started is it going to kick off mall is it going to stay is isolated like that what's going to happen in the next couple of

weeks do you think i'm afraid that we risk the possibility of the extension of this militarization that we're seeing in iraq right now we're seeing it already in syria where a civil war has expanded to a regional war and it's now spilling over into iraq the increasing militarization by the united states to the iraqi government is only going to make that worse not better reduce for the better so thanks for your thoughts on the program for institute for policy studies that appreciated thank you. in syria the first part of the country's chemical weapons stockpile meantime has been removed by ship a danish vessel with the port of latakia for international waters where it talks of cargo said to be destroyed this is turkey's prime minister or two and insisting we are coming peace talks in geneva should seek the removal of assad no i spoke earlier to independent political analyst go to coleman he believes that request is quite absurd. it's hardly surprising that arizona would come out with such

a ridiculous line he's been behaving mostly radically since the very start of the war. talking about regime change is not on the agenda obviously though in this himself under threat of regime change in turkey so he's probably the last man in the region who would want to talk about regime change at this stage of course you can't have political negotiations if one side say it's ridiculous preconditions and of course regime change is never really been an option in syria to be absolutely impossible to stage a regime the only way you can have regime change in syria is if the regime is overthrown as it were that has and that obviously is not the case and they failed to defeat the syrian army and talk about regime change is really on helpful at this stage. just after the break britain's predatory banks so still a couple of entrepreneurs who say they've lost everything after a high street bank decided to cash in on them with sly divide financing they say

instead a big mistake that got the story very shortly. her it was a. very hard to take a. look at that that would take care.

of. the youngest victim of the volgograd terrorist attacks in southern russia at the end of december is now showing some signs of recovery three months old had been in a medically induced coma for over a week. at the hospital with the latest. we have received some good news from the russian health minister and the father of the youngest injured infant in the volgograd terror attack she's only three and a half months old. still in hospital while her condition is no longer life

threatening she is no longer in a medical and medically induced coma her father told me that she even started breathing by herself and now response to all objects by moving her eyes but her father was kind enough to provide us with some family food for some home footage of the glorious baptism and here is what else he told me. there is still a long way to fool rehabilitation we hope it will soon be able to read of all who choose to wear hoping for because we know she has had a neurological examination and everything is fine. as you know. the condition of another girl another injured in the volgograd terror attack on nine year old olga is also positive she is no longer in a life threatening condition she's showing very good signs of recovery and we also know that sixty more people more than sixty people are still in hospitals all across the country after the volgograd bombing thirty eight of them are still in volgograd and twenty two in moscow and one more in st petersburg and certainly we

are keeping track and following all the details and developments on that story. absolutely now online controversial cryptocurrency bitcoin more news on that it's gone up again it's hitting new highs the virtual money value swung past one thousand dollars mark after online gaming company said now would accept big conference customers goes up because you can track it at r.t. dot com also the pretty pictures here four months old giant panda cub well a baby giant in the u.s. has made its debut before the media got the footage from the meteor in motions action. to get a business off the ground most of us would need help from a bank but choose carefully it seems because not all of them seem to have your best interests at heart next laura smith speaks to two business men in britain who claim they found their lender was bullying them rather than protecting them and she discovered they were far from alone either chris richardson and ernie bernstein

used to own a hotel but not anymore three years ago out of the blue they say their bank took it from them nat west stole our hotel this hotel beyond me here these hours always will and it will be coming back if there's justice in this country these guys will be arrested. we will be giving this october 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. we have not heard from later the owners know 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 timing is a small business by the 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 today 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 b.s. has its own property company called west register and we're seeing r.b.s. owning those customers property after they've been in distress tomlinson's report

is twenty pages of examples and findings under headings like engineering and defaults and it's the 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. recent 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. from a very wealthy man back on tax credits. more family suffered heavily through this. west register of banks property company and the hotel more was last year. she sadly. got cancer in 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 r.t. kent. the world's resources have always been a cause for a bitter dispute among nations but for many it may be a surprise to hear that water rather than all a guess could be the reason for coming conflicts you see this map here the world's witness close to one hundred eighty disputes and work across the board there over water resources since the one nine hundred fifty s. they include small clashes and protests as well as more serious large scale conflicts to one example of course the tensions in the middle east with the struggle for water is a key issue in some ongoing conflicts is artie's paulus leah. 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 carballo has been living in the golan heights for over thirty years each day he attends to his

many arden 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 don't know usually water is important because it's the second main resource that we have other than the land. needs water and without it you will destroy all the crops and destroy all the farming here you can turn the golan heights into exaggerated 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 and one of the stands here understands the importance of the work that all the water supply of israel because every door was very mean and it's prone to the security of the food we can say that it is and must.

respect the resolve to have all over the 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 water sold by several sovereign nation there's always the possibility of a clash of religious conflicts that should be manageable was spread 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. also recently expressed concern over countries using the upper nile to generate electric power in the dry landscape of the middle east water 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 tipped the balance for this year r.t. in the golan heights. was poor mentioned in a report there egypt's mckeown increasingly concerned over a construction project on the upper nile the country relies greatly on the river where upstream ethiopia is currently building a massive dam political science professor said so they told me egypt may face serious consequences when a project completed in twenty seventeen and they try and fill it. we have to remember that. only six to seven percent of its land will land the rest of the egyptian territory is there's a so that can really be a serious affecting national security and that's why i immediately went to the o.b. and raise the issue of the high then the world's experts here is that the work of about go in to a war was this your view because if you cut water we would be dying eighty five

percent of the water. and water comes from and so it's in fact in two thousand and fifty egypt will be one hundred fifty million people and we would be needing in addition to the fifty five point five billion cubic meter when q one billion cubic meter extra what would happen to egypt in. two thousand and fifty if we don't have more water. in turkey three hundred fifty police officers reported to be sacked overnight as part of a crackdown over massive corruption scandal in addition several high profile officials been thrown behind bars following an investigation revelations by fierce anti-government protests on the street for prime minister erdogan claims the affair is a quote foreign conspiracy as he put it designed to discredit his cabinet. in thailand and to give the protesters marched to drum up support for operation shut down bangkok demonstrators applying to blockade major roads in the capital to for government work and they continue their calls for the prime minister to quit should

also really yielded to pressure from the streets and announced new elections for february but protesters say that's not enough to push interest citizens' councils to carry it was almost before any new elections are held. coming up oscar winning director oliver stone shares the untold history of the united states without the martin breaking the set on and a couple of minutes here on r.t. international. there are many internal battles in society liberals and conservatives will never agree on gun rights or abortion but there is one battle that is often more generational than anything the battle for school uniforms teachers argue that uniforms eliminate a big distraction in the classroom and break up the caste systems that can evolve

at school between the cool fashionable kids and the ones who can barely afford lunch like me in my younger years but teenagers will scream uniforms course they're free. right to express who they are their individuality who has the right to dictate to them what to wear the thing they don't realize is that if the school doesn't tell them what to wear that big corporations and m.t.v. will all the cool individuals who dress alike and blindly follow all the trends are just obeying corporate marketing instead of their parents yeah for some reason it is bad if the school punishes you for dressing improperly but if the cool kids make your life a living hell for not wearing the right brand of shoes well that's all well and good for some reason i look at it this way school uniforms are cheap which leaves more money for parents to buy you video games being individual in your actions and not a fake individual in trendy clothes but that's just my opinion. the

serial killers are a. very hard to take. to get. what you get back with senator rick perry looking. for that. particular. curiously. clean. cut to say. hey guys i'm having martin and this is breaking the set november twenty second of this year will mark the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of u.s. president john f. kennedy it's an incident still surrounded by questions that many americans are

trying to answer one filmmaker has made the best attempt to put the disparate pieces together for a time academy award. when director oliver stone now he's commemorating the canby anniversary by rereleasing has epic film j.f.k. and an ultimate director's cut the collector's edition also includes a segment from oliver stone's showtime series the untold history of the united states a film adaptation of the joint book authored by stone and historian her cousin that take a look. if the word go forth from this time and place to friend and foe alike. that the torch has been asked to a new generation of americans. with his murder the torch was passed back to an old generation the generation of johnson nixon ford and reagan leaders who would systematically destroyed the.