flexing its muscle al qaida hoist its banners over sways of iraq while washington funnels on to state forces for what's predicted to be a bloody counterattack. the first of syria's chemical weapons i should blog for destruction that is rebel groups turning each other in a merciless turf war with over five hundred fighters killed in clashes over just one week. with a month before the winter olympics stars of the host city is putting a priority on security to make sure the games remain safe and undisturbed. confidence in the leaders has never been called into a new poll at least in the hard hit areas of europe where governments are scrambling for solutions and entrenched economic crisis.

you're watching r t international for this week's top stories as well as today let's take a look at what we have this morning the black flag was this week raced over to iraq's cities which are now under the control of jihad is bent on creating a new islamic nation but the real bloodletting is yet to begin when experts as the iraqi army and tribal militias mobilize and prepare to come to attack our g.'s gun which as you can reports. young little burka with whom you're not integrity they run on chaos emboldened by the fighting in syria these al qaeda linked militants overran parts of iraq including the city of. we have said earlier that the

serious situation will actually go into iraq and this is what we were warning about chaos in neighboring syria deeper than just the u.s. and its allies threaten the syrian government sending the signal to the rebels to fight on to the detriment of a political outcome islamic groups have now taken over the opposition movement there and have even chased the western backed leader of the free syrian army out of the country to beason asked you the relieve it along because if you kick it they're going to come out and bite you and that's what we did when we invaded iraq you know three and it can bite not just somewhere far in a war zone but here in the u.s. american intelligence and counterterrorism officials now say islamic extremist groups in syria with ties talk to a recruiting and training americans who have traveled there to get them to carry out attacks when they return home there are dozens of extremist islamist forces that are operating both inside syria and over the syrian borders walk has been

a breeding ground for extremists since the u.s. invasion now residents of other parts of the country are bracing themselves for the iraqi army's assault as it attempts to drive militants out of seized areas the u.s. is supplying hellfire missiles and other weapons to help the iraqi government in the fight the last thing for needs is more missiles we heard the u.s. government say they decimated al qaeda is leaving but the groups that continue their cause expand and what they thrive on best is chaos the u.s. backed chaos to iraq and in syria washington support for armed opposition has benefited extremists in washington i'm going to check on our quiz. the jihadist groups now said to be in control of illusia and iran mahdi is of the islamic state of iraq and the levant also known as isis is seen as a formidable fighting force and its militants among the most radical self in syria

isis silva dates back to the elie years of the iraq war it was formed in april of two thousand and four by sunni insurgents and soon after pledge allegiance to bin laden two years later it was rebranded as the islamic state of iraq in twenty thirteen its military successes against assad gained strong influence in syria which saw it add love wanted to its name and of course in the latest developments the group has taken control of illusia and other parts of the problems in iraq and proclaimed and islamic state geo political analyst and publisher of the trend journal gerald's the land predicts the situation will only get worse the country is in total turmoil it has not ended since the invasion began and it keeps declining the tribal warfare gets worse and the government is really helpless to do anything then you're hearing from the united states people

like john mccain the senator and lindsey graham say that the american troops should have stayed behind war oh yeah what would have been accomplished the place has been up for grabs since the united states and the coalition of the willing invaded it there's no end in sight it's going to get worse. in syria western nations are watching in horror as their favorite rebel group turn on each other just as last week almost five hundred opposition fighters have died fighting each other in a turf war that appears to demonstrate its of the more hard line islamists running the show elsewhere in syria the first batch of the country's chemical weapons a stockpile has been removed by ship a danish a vessel left port latakia for international waters where its toxic cargo will be destroyed meantime turkey's prime minister everyone is insisting the upcoming peace

talks in geneva she seek the removal of us that something independent political analyst joyed called mean cold upset. it's hardly surprising that arizona would come out with such a ridiculous line has been behaving mostly radically since the very start of the war. talking about regime change is not on the agenda obviously erdogan is himself under the 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 absolutely possible 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 an obviously is not the case and they failed to defeat the

syrian army and talk about regime change is really on hopeful at this stage. british m.p.'s who discover a growing gap between the country's military and the public people apparently no longer understand the purpose of the military or what ensued she gave more on this coming up. and the water becomes a resource to sink ties between nations a report on one of the ongoing middle eastern disputes caused by blue gold. sortie the host city of the twenty fourteen winter olympics as seeing one of the biggest security operations in the game's history tens of thousands of police officers have been deployed in access to the area strictly monitored with the aim of preventing any disruption when events begin argues balls god takes a look. the twenty second olympic winter games in two thousand and fourteen. to the city of sochi. as soon as russia's black sea resort was awarded the game

seven years ago. as a question the choice of host city such as close proximity to the volatile caucasus region was they argued a cause for concern. and the recent twin terror attacks in volgograd some seven hundred kilometers from sochi every ignited some of those worries organizers say security has been their main priority since day one from the very beginning of the construction phase the state that sort is made those to prepare the special measures to stop them from the screen of their own materials checking in all the venues and preparing incredible measures of the security to provide this safe environment here with less than a month to go now until the games begin tight security measures are already in place around forty thousand police and security offices are expected to be on

patrol all sales of dangerous hunting equipment a band for the duration of the games there's also a controlled zone stretching sixty kilometers along the coast and twenty five kilometers inland and encompassing all venues. in terms of security so it is a special case because this whole area is authorized visit is only there are security details from a number of countries including the u.k. and u.s. working here. on those security forces will be coming together to protect places like this is the brand new purpose built train station in the olympic village is going to be one of the main transport hubs during the games moving thousands of spectators. who have cameras intercoms that connects you with the engineer and the police present train stations and on the train security is pretty tight. with the bulk of the work now complete with all venues and transport networks built and

tested sochi is now just waiting for the sporting world to descend. altie tsotsi the traditional olympic torch relay has been a collection of firsts ever so this time around it's been taken to the north pole underwater and into apron space and our tea has followed it all the way one of the torches or even ended up in our studio brought to my colleague lindsey france by r.t.s. games. this is my. personal torch it's as you can see very one of the car on souvenir let me let me have a look at it i mean this this is not light by any means heavy this is yeah it is what two kilos about four actually a really yes i'm going to train that is all about 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 think for me i've been to several. going to by car was amazing they took on the water and so you have the burning flare torches specially made them pass very impressive on the water and then blew the top back with with a man with a jet pack on to the. very good video so it was it was a sight to be seen but there was one amazing moment in a real once the last saw a 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 and then this opportunity came up to go on this nuclear icebreaker this huge. ship that was cut through to me to. fuel by two gigantic reaction so you're 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 a. lesson for half that it was a world record pace arrived in the middle of the polar nights with the live picture in the north pole for the very first time in history. we've got the highlights of the olympic torch is journey across russia on our website. follow the flame section while you're there pictures and video and also at r.t. dot com we're going to hear more radiation spread despite efforts to contain the hazardous leak readings have eight times the japanese government safety standards even at the edges are contaminated that online. u.k. schools are take the fingerprints of over eight hundred thousand students a third of those without their parents' consent rachael's they have done for the sake of security parents and civil liberties groups are questioning the methods

that are more stories. many europeans blame each. politicians for their difficult economic predicament that's according to a new continent wide hole the new stats show very low approval ratings for the e.u. leadership in economically devastated spain for example for more than ever people think that the top politicians have done a poor job through the financial crisis ireland has seen a strong believe in the e.u. leadership nought away by increasing financial hardships their seventy percent of people used to approve but that's not a drop to just half and emirs skeptic u.k. just under a third now think that the leadership is doing a good job germany's o'gara a reputation for responsible effective spending but as our g.d.p. to all of our reports serious or seriously over budget projects are forcing taxpayers to take

a second look at the competence of the leaders. if you listen to the politicians germany's ruling in it but if you believe those following the money trail is a different story. the main problem with cost estimates for used wrong data they start building and eventually they run out of money and then taxpayers have to pick up the bill. currently germany has one of the biggest construction sectors in europe but all around the country there's evidence that those in charge of the purse strings on the best to make building decisions this building site will eventually become books premiere concert hall however it's already over ten times its original budget it's set to cost close to a billion euro it's not just the grand artistic projects that have cost the big

money here in default off this tourist information booth has already cost taxpayers around one and a half million euro. for the ultimate in modern german construction white elephants look no further than right here at the brandenburg airport grossly over budget already four years behind schedule it's currently costing nearly one million euro a day to run and that's without any planes or passengers to those a train tunnel in late zigged that ended up five hundred million over budget that had expected in two thousand and five and the german reputation for efficiency to hold up when it comes to construction we know is running for election this year to the e.u. parliament believe those in power don't have the required skills to decide on huge projects it's not their money they can dream they can play they can make.

each and every kind of. drafts because they don't have to paid charge for four years before eight years as long as the project is not finished. they are fighting for the additional costs to increase the national debt so the taxpayer pays twice first for the interest rates of additional debt then extra costs for police planning those familiar with construction business know that if you plan to go it will be more expensive than if you plan in advance she was sworn in as chancellor for a third time late last year and promised five billion to fix up germany's rule adds germans will have no idea how much that promise many eventually cost them peter all of a. germany. and belgian politician you find now old felt us says the anger at poor economic management spreads much further than germany. there are now a lot of people especially in the southern european countries in ireland that have

not only lost jobs but also lost a larger or smaller part of their income so there are a huge amount of people in these crises countries that have a lot to be frustrated about and that is being felt now increasingly on the political level and so may of this year elections for the european parliament too will see a huge increase of the vote for parties that are outright against the european union. for a long time on oil and gas have held the potential to make a break relations between nations but now it's often a much more widespread commodity causing diplomatic disputes water let's take a look at this map here it's been dubbed the blue gold for reason look at those dots all around the world those. aquatic sources have course almost two hundred incidents since the one nine hundred fifty s.

the dispute the range from protests and all the way to deadly confrontation policy or dives into one of the ongoing causes of friction in the 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 but 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 serene bunker he is proud of the wine he produces but knows that in the absence of water none of this would be possible i don't know usually 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 and one of the stands here understands the importance of the work that all the water supply of israel because every drop of water draining on it's grown to the security of god so we can say that it is and must. respect the prisoner to have all over what the fox 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 foreign nations is always the possibility of pressure breaches 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. also 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 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 here r.t. in the golan heights. middle east affairs journalist abdel darwish are things politicians and willingness to share vital resources a push in the world towards new complex as the population grew and going to cultural group is all of those. what it is when dealing probably will reach a board or hardly any fresh water live on the planet that could be averted if the

idea was exploring a while back what we call a water bank i.e. the rivers or water resources shirred among nations if we can quantify the usage of it what you wish for agriculture what you wish for and what do you wish for power generation and compensate each other by sort of making the water dollar or daughter pound or whatever and then we quantify it into more cooperative projects but given the human nature and nature of politicians are probably not very optimistic. japan becomes a fertile ground for the far right as activists going around with their calls for foreigners to leave and well the army to be ready to go into action if the need arises. the british public is becoming disconnected from the country's military and have no idea why it's still needed

that's according to a recent u.k. parliament report religious citizens were mostly opposed to the wars in iraq and afghanistan and there is reportedly a reduced public appetite for overseas interventions also people have questioned the military's leg of a real should teach mission in the world and have to budget cuts are putting the emmy's capabilities to carry out missions at risk despite being one of the world's top defense spenders britons are planning to cut personnel by nearly thirty thousand over the next six years are to stress us all year has more. the army's recruiting but applicant numbers are slow to pick up amid thousands of layoffs there's a massive drive to recruit army reservists but leaked mid year army memos revealed the number of people in the listing and beyond the reserve over a three month period was just three hundred sixty seven barely

a quarter of the target the ministry of defense said that after wrapping up the recruitment drive in september there were more than fifteen hundred applicants in the first four weeks and that it's too early to make a conclusion but this young man says he simply can't be convinced like grandparents were in the air force actually during the second world war of the time enjoyed. idea to be joining forces because they are fighting a war against fascism i don't agree with the way. it's used to be forced. to and this morning it was erected to commemorate the conscientious objectors to military service those who would exercise their right to refuse to kill you at the time of the first world war for instance they faced a restaurant jeers from some a society who view them as cowards but times have indeed changed. a decade of fighting in iraq and afghanistan has made the british war weary a most

people join forces to be in the peace business not in the war business because it's a threat to their livelihood nobody wants to be in a war because to be in a war activists have also lashed out at recruitment campaign started at sixteen and seventeen year olds who according to one recent study are more susceptible to post-traumatic stress disorder at the moment we're asking a sixteen year old to read an interesting point to drink a pint of beer in the pub we don't trust to fight in a general election we're asking that person to make a very far reaching legal commitment towards a career like having a baby or in accounts or in the ministry of defeat. the report completely ignores the benefits and opportunities that a military career offers young people but for this young man it's a career path he is a ready to change his mind about it's like track to the job and you are going to have to show people that if you're joining the army no it is you're not going to be brought to shoot people who've done nothing against our coach also so your article

. is a former british soldier who refused to serve a second tour in afghanistan on moral grounds he was later jailed and spent five months in a military prison he believes politicians are trying to counter opposition with an aggressive p.r. campaign because i was without question to be in the military that's just not for them it's nor it's not the oxford debating society obviously you're just told to crack on and politics have nothing to do with you why defense they mean offensive capability and i mean the invasions and the use of drones and special forces which is increasingly the trend clearly people want to be secure. and that's not all people in the public generally have a problem with what they have a problem with repeated. operations along the lines of iraq afghanistan libya nearly syria they were not sympathetic to those in the corridors of power who stop these walls and this is part of the reason why we've seen increasingly because of

the law and eyes are you sure enough of the military and you can call it a hero or a zation to other news and now making headlines around the world this hour human rights activists lawyers and lets us state marches across the us demanding guantanamo bay detention center be shut down the day it was symbolic it was the facilities told under very serene approaches is demanded president obama deliver on his broken promises to shut the prison down calling it a dark mark on america's reckitt. thousands of people have taken to the streets of rome in protest at same sex marriages demonstrators were joined by members of the catholic church and some local politicians italy remains sharply divided over the issue of same sex relationships in december two thousand and thirteen the nation's a democratic party introduced a bill allowing gay couples to register a partnership it's still to be approved. the far right in

japan is on the front foot demanding a tougher stance on immigration and a reinforced army and as always alessio to shift you found out the nationalistic has beating is forcing some difficult questions. it's become a tradition in japan when some foreign officials are subjected to verbal abuse on this particular occasion japanese nationalists made their feelings known loud and clear to russia's foreign minister china and south korea have also been in their crosshairs one for an island dispute the other for sending too many labor migrants to japan and while the latest protests korean workers were described as cockroaches which needed to be exterminated this man is one of those behind the nationalist rallies in japan he says he'd like to see japan a more closer citee one and all they want we've been to open to the world now foreigners come here and commit crimes i want us to return to pre-war period when

we were closed and south sufficient despite criticizing the government for its immigration policies the movement could not be feeling more comfortable since twenty twelve when she was reelected as prime minister such rallies have been on the rise. those are not only foreign nationals and delegations getting their stick from japanese nationalists there are locals who have directly suffered from their country becoming on the far right these school teachers have been protesting because they lost their jobs for not complying with what they call ultranationalist regulations in schools. should be made as an obligation to listen to the national anthem before classes until my pupils spawn of who were not even japanese that it wasn't obligatory to stand up and then i got fired but it's not only about instilling national pride speculation is rife that with all this stronger japan hype is eager to amend the nine hundred forty seven constitution namely article number nine which brave is japan from having any kind of army other than for

defense purposes in the increasingly intertwined world we can ensure the peace of our nation without broad actively taking a role in the peace and security of the world why don't we take some. forward on the issue of constitutional amendment but not everyone is buying it and more far reaching goal could be reshaping the regional balance of power. there has been a talk among high profile politicians including former prime ministers who want to get public debate whether japan should have nuclear weapons if new materialized but it's something the ruling elite has been pondering for years now. and non-pacifist japan let alone a nuclear power would send shock waves across the region say experts but for now even with nationalist voices getting louder polls suggest that such ideas are still some way from becoming reality lexy russia c.r.t. reporting from japan. up ahead next hour.