flexing its muscle voice its banners over swathes of iraq while washington funnels arms to state forces for what is predicted to be a bloody counterattack. and syrian rebels turn on each other in merciless turf war with over five hundred fighters killed in islamist clashes in just one week sparking a change of heart among some of their foreign backers. with a month before the winter olympics kicks off the host city is putting a priority on security to make sure the games remain safe and undisturbed. plus confidence in the e.u. leaders has never been lower according to a new poll at least in the hard hit areas of europe where governments are desperate for solutions to an entrenched economic crisis.

you're watching r t live from our moscow studios i'm lindsey france thanks for joining me. the black flag of al qaeda was this week raised over to iraq's cities which are now under the control of jihadists bent on creating a new islamic nation but the real bloodletting is yet to begin warn the experts as the iraqi army and tribal militias mobilize and prepare to counterattack artist got a check on reports. they run on chaos emboldened by the fighting in syria these are all 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 deep does 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 be honest you the rule leave it alone because if you kick it you're going to come out 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 us american intelligence and counterterrorism officials now say islamic extremist groups in syria with ties talk to 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 is 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 qaida is needed 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 quick would you how does a group now said to be in control of fallujah and ramadi is the islamic state of iraq and the levant also known as isis it's seen as a formidable fighting force and its militants are among the most radical cells in syria isis itself dates back to the early years of the iraq war it was formed in. sunni insurgents and soon after pledged allegiance to bin laden two years later it

was rebranded as the islamic state of iraq in two thousand and thirteen its military successes against assad gained its strong influence in syria which saw it add levant to its name and then of course in the latest developments the group is taking control of fallujah and other parts of the unbar province in iraq and proclaimed an islamic state under his care gor a former danish intelligence officer who served in iraq tells us al-qaeda is just itching for a fight in my opinion. has never been on the run it might have been downscaling due to pressure but once this pressure is lifted the organization is back in full force and it uses these. pulses to to regain its strength the fighting ability of the of the isis for instance is very strong but very contained. to localized battles and one thing the isis rebels has is is standing at it they want to continue fighting the iraqi army really hasn't got

a chance to fight these militias. and to or to ready kate them. in syria western nations are watching in horror as their favored rivaled groups turn on each other just this week almost five hundred opposition fighters died fighting each other in a turf war that appears to demonstrate that it's more hardline islamist running the show act is causing quite a scare among the elites and promoting them to change stance former cia director michael hayden said the assad regime is beginning to look like the lesser of all evils the former u.s. ambassador to syria iraq and afghanistan ryan crocker agreed that assad is not as bad as the jihadists russia's foreign minister rather sergey lavrov welcome to the change of stance by well oxon rider a german journalist who has just returned from syria says the moderate opposition is now extinct the term syrian opposition is as strong as it could be this these

groups are neither syrian nor real position so they don't have in their interest the the good the benefit of the people or of the country these groups are very very often influenced by the west by turkey by the goal of states we have to imagine or to see those groups more like militant gangs like a sort of mafioso those groups who claim about themselves that they reproduce and the moderate position of the mob or moderate rebels still into this any influence on the bit which we know in the meanwhile that the fights on the ground are told by slamming extremists. later today russia's foreign minister sergey lavrov meets the head of syria's opposition union to press them to attend the upcoming geneva two peace conference stay tuned to find out how those talks will go. coming up this hour u.s. afghanistan relations are put under more strain stalling negotiations over

a security deal which washington sees as essential are hit after american troops accidentally kill a toddler mistaking him for militants. will see the host city of the two thousand and fourteen winter olympics the scene one of the biggest security operations in the game's history tens of thousands of police officers have been deployed and access to the area strictly monitored with the aim of preventing any disruptions when events begin. takes a look. the twenty second olympic winter games in two thousand and fourteen are war there to this city of sochi i as soon as russia's black sea resort was awarded the game seven years ago sell observed as a question the choice of host city such as close proximity to the volatile caucuses 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 all that money to prepare the special measures to stop them from the screen in all their all 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 bond for the duration of the games there's also a controlled 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 to visit this only there are security details from a number of countries including the u.k. and u.s. working here. and their 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. most of them 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 pull scott altie. the traditional lead torch relay has been a collection of first ever as this time around it's been taken to the north pole underwater and into open space r.t.s. followed it all the way artie's james brown accompanied the torch along some of the

way and shared his experience with me going to by car was amazing they took the torch down under water into my car so you had to be burning flare torches specially made then passed very impressive on the water and then flew the top by it with with a 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. 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. that was cut through to me just. to judge johnson reaction so you're. which is a strange feeling in it so yeah. but we were going to go to the

north pole with the flame and we made a. lesson for hope that it was a world record pace and rowing in the middle of the pole in moments with the liberty torch in the north pole for the very first time in history. we've got all the highlights of the olympic torch is journey across russia on our website check out the follow the flame section. also at r.t. dot com fukushima radiation spreads despite efforts to contain the hazardous leaks readings have hit eight times the japanese government safety standards. even at the edges of the contamination zone more on that online plus. u.k. schools take the fingerprints of over a million students and a third of those without parental consent officials say it's done for the sake of security parents and civil liberties groups questioning the methods and more stories at r.t. dot com. while many europeans blame e.u.

politicians for their difficult economic predicament that's according to a new continent wide poll in economically devastated spain for example more people than ever before think top politicians have done a poor job through the financial crisis strong support for leaders in ireland has been severely hit by the effects of financial hardship there seventy percent of people used to approve but that's dropped to just under half and in euro skeptic u.k. just under a third now think the leadership is doing a good job and if money makes the world go round then so it seems do vouchers refund otieno reports from paris on the system evading the cowboy bankers. these colorful rectangular notes are not just money but they have a real value you can go shopping with these bills in your wallet. at the restaurant . the idea will turn a t.v.

or so-called complimentary currencies that people of businesses agree to use for transactions within a particular area a district quarter with just a street may look like something from a kid's game but the reasons behind it are far from child's play you know his. first product a local currencies stay within the region developed by peaks second the ideological a lack of confidence in official commerce and the people want to have something they understand that they can control and that they can trust not just something that is printed you don't know how with no control and leads to speculation alternative forms of money have a history stretching back decades and appear to be growing in popularity especially tough financial times on the reason enough i think than splay a lot with money and often risky games but advantage of a day ordinary people have to pay for mistakes and losses this is why people want to have a currency that they will be sure will serve them and not go disappear somewhere in

fiscal paradise as global finance system so manx today's maced famous headline grabbing turn to currency is the digital bitcoin but there are dozens of others and he's worldwide in france europe's second largest economy people exchange services and goods via at least twenty different types of complimentary currencies and their numbers are growing. that the slain is behind one such project the one probably outside perry's she says she never considered paying with anything other than euros until the advantages of an alternative became clear. but as with the euro is that it's definitely not just a mode of exchange but it also became. amount of speculation to feed banks local currency and support local projects and develop a real economy on the ground which means it works for us the people. now because restaurant is part of the project and already

a flower shop and ironic supermarket it is on can you. hear. that are people in the world of finance a woman nothing else but to make people who are all for their own benefit why should we allow them to do that this sticker indicates this restaurant accept cash the red wings the fish a no peach in french but also energy and the slogan was over your see is used to express someone is in good health and full of energy which the local currencies hail from was certainly seem to be experts claim complimentary currencies will never replace an official one however if trust is undermined hard enough and conventional money people may start looking for a different type of change. from france. still came coming up for you on our team blue gold rush water becomes a resource sink ties between nations we report on the ongoing myth middle eastern

disputes caused by google talk for short break. drug some of the sixty percent of imports came from movie goofy shit. the european union is ironically taking fish from some of the poorest nations on earth so this is a very serious and very urgent problem that needs immediate international action. on the be entered territorial waters they fish they load this fish into the ships and leave for europe. to do illegal fishing just taking the bread out of our mouths. right. first right. and i would think that you're.

going to. be in the. bad news for washington came out of afghanistan this week in south america negotiator says it was highly unlikely a new security agreement would be reached before the afghan presidential election in april the deal if signed would allow a portion of u.s. troops to remain in the country after their official withdrawal later this year tensions between washington and kabul have been aggravated recently after american soldiers killed a toddler mistaking the child for a militant frank led to a lawyer and former military officer who served in iraq and afghanistan explained

why the u.s. wants the deal so badly. no settlement in my view anyway is likely to have any chance of success and by settlement i mean the sort of political way forward for the american perspective and the support troops there because what'll simply happen is that the insurgency in the south that we call the taliban is likely to take a far greater stake in any political arrangement after the election assuming of course that the elections go well this is an absolutely crucial deal for the americans and they're playing a very dangerous game here the cards are good because our house has all the good has all the good cards for a long time now oil and gas have held the potential to make or break relations between nations but now it's often a much more widespread commodity causing diplomatic disputes water have a look at the map here it's been dubbed blue gold for

a reason scarce aquatic sources have caused almost two hundred incidents since the one nine hundred fifty s. the disputes range from protests all the way to deadly confrontations are his policy clear 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 bubby caballo has been living in the golan heights for over thirty years each day he attends to his very 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 oh no question in 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 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 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 stance here understands the importance of the work that all the water supply of israel because every drop of water raining here will be on is prone to the syrian city of getting the food we can say that it is and must. respect the prisoner who have been poured over these 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 souls shared by several sovereign 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 fear r.t. in the golan heights. egypt is also among the countries locked in disputes over water seeds of discontent in cairo were planted by ethiopia's dam project on a key tributary of the nile river raising fears this could affect the amount of water reaching the country cairo based political scientist sayed said dec says resolving this rao is vital to for egypt to stay afloat we have to remember that

has only six to seven percent of its land the land the rest of the egyptian territory is there's a so that can really be a serious effort to national security and that's why immediately when the sylvian raised the issue of the hive then the world some experts here is that the work of about to go in to war was this your beer because if you cut water on us we would be dying eighty five percent of the water. and water comes from and so it's serious in fact that in two thousand and fifteen egypt will be one hundred fifty million people what would happen to egypt in the u. two thousand and fifty if we don't have more water. so other news making headlines now around the world human rights activists lawyers in germany staged marches across the u.s. demanding guantanamo bay detention center be shut down the date was symbolic it was

the facilities twelfth anniversary protesters demanded president obama deliver on his broken promise to shut the prison down calling it a dark mark on america's record. tens of thousands of protesters are gathering in thailand's capital bangkok for a citywide shutdown planned for monday mass protest aimster bring down the government of prime minister sharon wants the sister of another former prime minister ousted for corruption extra medical centers have been set up around bangkok for the rally. to get a small business off the ground you may need the backing of a bank but choose carefully because some are accused of not exactly having entrepreneurial interests at heart or a smith spent to meet two british businessman who found their lender more predatory than protective chris richardson and bernstein used to own this hotel but not anymore three years ago out of the blue they say the bank took it from them not

with the whole hotel this hour it will be on me here because i was always will i think will be coming back if there's justice in this country these goals will be arrested. and 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 his valuable five we have not heard from him since 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 tomlin from is a small business and 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 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 b.s. has it's 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 extensive 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 bank's property company in the hotel moore was but after last year. she sadly. got cancer in march this year and she'd already my. three three goals that one answers and justice determined to fight back chris and cling to the idea that one day they'll walk through these doors of the hotel again laura smith artie kent.

coming up next a look at illegal industrial fishing in west africa. when a country experiences a tragedy like the recent terrorism in volgograd their question is what to do about it i mean we have to do something right let's never let a good tragedy go to waste one do a member recommends getting rid of the moratorium on the death penalty for prayers groups including terrorists because the death penalty is the perfect way to punish a suicide bomber also this duma member failed to mention high level cryptic kratz in the government as those who could possibly face the firing squad perhaps that was just an honest oversight i'm not against the death penalty in some rare instances but punishing terrorists after the fact doesn't bring victims back the

focus needs to be on the source of terrorism soldiers can play around all day with weapons because the government gives them a salary weapons and training some people are recruiting arming and training new terrorists you don't need to usher in a massive surveillance state to stop terrorism or go death penalty crazy which need do is hit the funding and training source hard if you can i mean how many of you guys out there could make a remotely detonated bomb a c four on your own without help almost none of you see for doesn't grow on trees someone pays for it but that's just my opinion. as you need to do because when it has to do with illegal immigration you'd be immediately sent frantics to us see below it is today they control us in a waters as if a new colonization were taking place through a mere experiencing a military gokey patient of the oceans when they want to combat drugs. in america

or asia they find the means to do it and. if they really want to combat illegal fishing they have the means to do it you they have the airplanes to photograph they have the patrols to stop them from fishing in our seas. because they are shrinking our country and what is more serious. they are destroying our fishing resources and marine wealth for. the europeans regulation. which is slowly acquiring a global day bench and a worldwide effect has been implemented only for a year now.