this is why you should. only. openly waves its black flags over to iraqi cities with thousands of refugees fleeing the impending bloodbath as the u.s. backed army prepares a counterattack on the insurgent forces. all in syria al qaeda linked rebels and other opposition groups and gauging bloody in-fighting the growing divisions among those aimed to topple assad are threatening the upcoming peace talks. plus the backing of leaders to an all time low it's mandatory bailouts and austerity hype set people against governments unable to curb the damaging effects of the debt crisis. and within sick twisted purity being a major concern of the upcoming winter olympics in sochi we take a look at how the host city is making sure athletes and spectators are protected.

they're watching our team live from moscow i'm lindsey france thanks for joining me thousands of iraqis are fleeing their homes in the anbar province which has been turned into a war zone after al qaeda linked militants took control of the two cities there the army has yet failed to retake the occupied territories that have been declared an islamic state by the militants as the iraqi military gathers its forces for a decisive assault artie's gonna to con looks at what's empowering the extremists in the region. young. integrity they run on chaos emboldened by the fighting in syria these al qaeda linked militants overran parts of iraq including the city of fallujah. 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 deepened as the u.s. and its allies threatened 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 snatched 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 iraq has been a breeding ground for extremists since the u.s. invasion now residents of fallujah and 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 syria washington support for armed opposition has benefited extremists in washington i'm going to check on our quiz. their jihad is behind the occupation of fallujah and ramadi is the infamous islamic state of iraq and the levant it's one of the most powerful al qaeda branches estimated to be six thousand men strong with its cells threatening the entire region and the

organization was formed by sunni insurgents in april two thousand and four a year after the us launched its invasion of iraq many members of the group are fighting in syria against assad and their forces rapidly gaining influence among the radical elements in the devastated country even lebanon has suffered from the group's activity with its being behind the latest bombing attack in beirut anders care gorg a former danish intelligence officer who served in iraq believe the country's army won't be able to wipe out the extremist forces 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 is paid in full force and it uses the. pauses true 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 and the

rebels has is is them and it they want to continue fighting the iraqi army really hasn't got a chance to fight these militias. and to all to ready kate them. meanwhile in neighboring syria the strengthening of al qaeda linked groups has led to the growing infighting between once allied rebels fierce clashes between rival opposition factions have killed at least five hundred people this week almost a hundred of them who are believed to be civilians were executed by militants from the islamic state of iraq and levant the outbreak of civil war within a civil war has prompted some western politicians who previously rooted solely for assad's removal to change their stance here are just some of their latest statements are 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 a jihadi as russia has long been warning of the threat some opposition groups in syria pose and foreign minister lavrov has welcomed the realization of this in the west my well option writer a german journalist who has just returned from syria says the moderate opposition there is good as 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 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 rebel still into this any influence on the better we know in the meanwhile that the fights on the ground are told by

slamming extremists infighting within the ranks of syrian rebels is threatening the russia u.s. brokered peace conference that's due in less than two weeks. syrian national council which is the turkey based opposition group has postponed making a final decision on its participation in the talks because of growing divisions russia's foreign minister is heading to paris to meet the group's leader and persuade him to sit down face to face with the syrian government u.s. secretary of state john kerry is also there raising the pressure on the main western backed opposition group we'll keep you updated on what comes out of the two day meeting in the french capital that might just decide the fate of the long awaited syria peace talks. no support for the e.u. and some of the worse austerity hit european countries has plunged drastically in the past five years the data comes from a new regional poll the study suggests tumbling approval ratings are linked directly to the budget cuts and economic woes take spain for instance where public

support is that a record low or ireland which has just successfully exited its bailout program now despite that the aftertaste of the e.u.'s austerity dictate is still driving the numbers way down the euro skeptic the u.k. used to top the critics list with only around a third actually back in brussels now it's even lower than that dropping down to less than thirty percent the rating declined however has not changed the belt tightening policies of struggling countries in fact the governments are putting some of their most valuable assets up for sale just to stay afloat as artie's tests are cilia reports. it's been dubbed the great european fire sale in a bid for cash these are just some of what's been up for grabs but even funds raised from headline grabbing deals might not be enough like six greek island sold for

eight point five million euros an italian island sold for two point nine million exclusive rights to use the coliseums image on their products for fifteen years twenty five million euros government debt in the euro zone is greater now than it was a year ago and some of the sales of lead to public anger and frustration bestselling history and culture they're selling beauty things a priceless they've touched the price tag to it i think that's absolutely reprehensible there's absolutely no guarantee that the privatization will help consumers at all and one of the most surprising items recently put on the market was citizenship for a little over a million euros you get a maltese passport and therefore become an e.u. says it a move that's been put on hold as two thirds of the public at opposition leaders cry foul. the same legal gone through these which. meant a huge international dunnit which was uncalled for because more go to date has

one of the lowest rates of unemployment in the whole european union it's a question of principle over citizenship should not be pulled out on say proponents of privatization see it as a necessity for nations that are in dire straits but also warned that by europe at a bargain may not be as much of a jackpot as one might think if i were investor i wouldn't be buying many of these things all of these countries have serious political risks for any kind of foreign investor anybody trying to. buy a house and italy has to reckon with the possibility that ten twenty years down the line a government is just going to nationalize whatever they whatever they want to nationalize but for what it's worth this sale continues tesser sylvia. coming up on r t international water that makes them land boil oil and gas conflicts will take a back seat in the future because experts predict as populations rise it will be blue gold that the fight will be over also. japan becomes

a certain ground for the far right with calls for foreigners to leave and for the army to be ready to go into action that the need arises all the details later on the program. security is being beefed up and saw to the host city of the upcoming winter olympics tens of thousands of police officers have been deployed there and access to the area is strictly monitored artie's pasco takes a look at what else is being done to keep the game safe. the twenty second olympic winter games in two thousand and fourteen. to defeat the search enough. 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. made those to prepare the special measures to stop them from the screening of their own materials checking in all the venue 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 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 with the bulk of the work now complete with all venues and transport networks built and tested sochi. now just waiting for the sporting world to descend pull scott's altie saw. the olympic flame meanwhile continues its journey to the torch relay has been a collection of first ever going as far as the north pole and even outer space are his james brown accompanied the torch along some of the way and chairs experience for 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 underwater and then flew the top back with with a man with a jet pack on to the on to the shore very good video so that it was it 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 there and then this opportunity came up to go on this nuclear icebreaker this huge. ship that can cut through to me to thick ice and is fueled by two gigantic reactors so your visitors it which is a strange feeling in itself you go and stand by. but we were going to go to the north pole with the flame and we made it in less than four half days which was a world record pace and arrived in the middle of the polar nights with the limbic

torch in the north pole for the very first time in history. all the highlights of the olympic torch relay across russia and beyond are on our website r.t. dot com look for the follow the flame section. and we'll be back after a very short break with the story of cooling relations between washington and afghanistan. essential negotiations over a security deal after american soldiers killed a toddler mistaking him for an armed jihadist. i think the fact that these weapons can fly a semi autonomous lead for seven thousand miles to you know the locations we're unfortunately my military and the cia are attacking people in countries with which we are not at war to me is simply horrifying and as many you know already argue

it's a violation of international law it's assassination i do not support the sas summation by my government period. washington's hope of signing a new security agreement with afghanistan before presidential elections there are

likely to be shattered that's according to america's top negotiator the deal if signed would allow a portion of u.s. troops to remain in the country after their official withdrawal later this year otherwise afghanistan may be left to deal with the taliban on its own really. between washington and kabul have been aggravated recently after american soldiers killed a toddler mistaking the child for a militant well former british lieutenant colonel richard williams says it's now crucial how the afghan government copes with internal problems. i believe that what we tried to achieve is to set the conditions whereby an afghan government can deal in a normal way with all the groupings involved including the taleban if those conditions are certain easily. and what we're likely to see be a compromise between what kabul wants and what the taliban wants which will see

afghanistan model along over the next period of time perhaps the next ten years but then it's going to be any great strategic victory if we want to call it that or any great strategic outcome now from on air to online news or we've got the story of fukushima's radiation spreading even further despite efforts to contain the hazardous leaks readings have hit eight times the japanese government's safety standards even at the edges of the contamination. plots tens of thousands of fingerprints of u.k. students are collected in school databases without any consent by their parents causing outrage among civil liberty organizations and parents. learn more online. for the new world are going to walk. all of these people.

are happy with us here on t.v. today i wrote a researcher. oil and gas conflicts will be superceded by water wars in the future that's the warning from experts anyway and as the world's population grows access to clean water resources is rising in price let's take a look at the map here now these blue dots mark the places where the conflicts over water disputes have broken out these include small protests as well as more serious large scale clashes there have been one hundred seventy eight disputes since the one nine hundred fifty s. and the number of such hotspots is rising one example is the tension in the middle east where the struggle for water is

a key issue in some ongoing conflicts artie's policy flare reports. 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 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 will never question the 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 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 stands here understands the importance of the work that all the water supply of israel because every door was raining here all but one is prone to the security of the food we can say that it is and must. respect the prisoner who have been poured over these what the phone 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 the souls by several foreign nations there's always the possibility of pressure reaches 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 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 tip the balance here r.t. in the golan heights. middle east affairs journalist at del darwish thinks the unwillingness of politicians to share vital resources is pushing the world toward new conflict as the population grew and as i get a cultural group is all of those. what it is when dealing probably reach board or hardly any freshwater live in the plan that could be averted if the idea was exploring a while back what we call a water bank. the rivers or water resources shirred among nations if we can

quantify the usage of it what you wish for agriculture 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 be quantified into more cooperative projects but given the human nature and nature of politicians are probably not very optimistic. let's take a look now at some other headlines around the world starting to thailand where huge crowds of demonstrators are gathering in the capital bangkok ahead of monday's citywide shutdown protesters are hoping their action will bring in the government of prime minister shinawatra the sister of a former premier who was ousted over planes into six officials have deployed some fourteen thousand troops during clashes between opponents and supporters of the ruling party. and out of control bush fire is raging

in western australia threatening both lives and properties emergency warning has been issued for several areas officials say for many residents it's too late to leave their homes and are urging them to prepare to protect their houses it's thought the blaze could burn for several days. in spain tens of thousands of marched in favor of peace and human rights on officially though the rally was organized in support of jailed members of the separatist group some demonstrators chanted slogans demanding the prisoners be moved to jails closer to their families and is blamed for hundreds of killings during a four decade campaign for an independent boss homeland. senegalese authorities are to provide food water and medical treatment to the crew of a russian fish fish fish in vessel caught up in a weeklong diplomatic spat over the seizure of the trawler the ship with eighty two

crewmembers on board was taken over by force. it was taken by force or reports of illegal fishing with no official explanation from dakar moscow has called it an act of piracy greenpeace stepped in and sided with senegal provoking russia to accuse the african countries government of acting on a tip off from the environmental group for now russian diplomats are trying to steer the crisis towards a diplomatic solution to allow the crew to walk free. nationalism seems to be on the up in japan with far right groups protesting against immigration and demanding it reinforced armey and his artie's alexi your found out the angry rhetoric 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 you know 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 their wants and we've been to open to the world now foreigners come here and commit crimes i want us to return to pre-war period where we were closed and self-sufficient despite criticizing the government for its immigration policies the movement could not be feeling more comfortable since twenty twelve when she and so are there was reelected as prime minister such rallies have been on the rise. those are not only foreign nationals and delegations getting the 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 ultra nationalist regulations in schools. should be made as an obligation to listen to the national anthem before classes i told 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 braves 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 proactively taking a role in the peace and security of the world why don't we take steps forward on the issue of constitution amendment but not everyone is buying it and more far reaching goal could be reshaping the regional balance of power. there's been talk

among high profile politicians including former prime ministers on launching a public debate on whether japan should have nuclear weapons it never materialized but it's something that 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. putting adventure back into money its artie's business show venture capital after next. if you've got nothing no opportunity. to start

to construct your current society. can only mean bad give don't want to meet gangsters you don't want to be drug dealers they don't want that blowing up the time that a kid came be we came to see. you just makes a hundred dollars and i hope i was in the hood and what a care so very good thirty round clip. but i said. i don't want to die i just really do not want to die young young a.