it's torch time and song the olympic flame completes its epic journey to get the winter games going. the u.s. warns european companies that are wrong is not open for business after a firm's move to make a fast buck after sanctions against the country were partly lifted. in talks with the taliban it's revealed afghanistan's been trying to secure peace with militants behind closed doors while washington tries to keep some kind of military grip in the land ravaged by ten years of war.

a very warm welcome to you you're watching r t international with me marina. before the winter olympics begin one journey has to end after traveling more than sixty thousand kilometers the iconic flame of the games has reached its final destination and artie's paul scott is in the host city of sochi for us. lympics torches arrival here in sochi is going to be greeted with an increase in excitement levels over the next couple of days or so three hundred volunteers are going to carry the torch as it continues its journey all around this region and then of course it comes to a climax on friday evening during the spectacular opening ceremony where the olympic cauldron will be laid another person who is tasked with that corner at the moment we simply don't know it is a closely guarded secret and of course the olympic torch began its relay across russia the world's largest country back in moscow in october since then it's

traveled sixty five thousand kilometers it's gone to the bottom of the world's deepest lake lake by college going to the top of europe's highest peak mount elgar's and it's also gone on a space walk as well on board the international space station but now it is here in sochi all eyes are turning to friday the international olympic committee they're having their one hundred twenty six session now the president of the i.o.c. is thomas park he is here in sochi as an and has addressed a number of issues around these particular games and in particular he's addressed the issue of a number of political leaders who have decided to boycott the games in an apparent protest against russia's so called in hotly debated anti-gay law back says that the olympic movement should be above and beyond any political point scoring we are grateful to those who respect the fact that sports can only contribute to development and peace if it's not used as

a stage for political dissent or for trying to score points in internal or external political contests to other political leaders we say have the courage to address your disagreements in a peaceful direct political dialogue and not on the backs of the athletes another issue that has been firmly in the spotlight in the lead. up to these games is the issue of security of course december's twin suicide attacks in the city of volgograd which is less than a thousand kilometers from here has heightened tensions and my colleague martin andrews now takes a look at the issue of security around sochi. defense missiles drones sophisticated suttles capable of detecting some of the rains and high speed patrol boats a vast array of high tech gear is being deployed to make such

a foot of the safest places on earth with any global event security is the number one priority and no expense is being spared to achieve that end at the twenty fourteen winter olympics a ring of steel is in place around the city and no one from residents to work is to enter without an official pass but it's a case of high visibility and minimal fuss was that you did not measure the astronauts have been saying that about how long they saw very negative media coverage about the olympic village some are even afraid to come here but monday arrived this started wondering what all the bad press was about and were very impressed by what's going on here they said it is much less hassle and discomfort is specially when it comes to security checks compared to previous games. but it's not just about tighter controls and manpower in place offices are integrating extra training for mounted patrols that have distinct advantages that such events over can apply the sort of work call here ahead of the games mounted police are more

effective during mass the bands as there's now were over the people have a better view of the crowds and the beefed up security including assistance from the u.s. government is primed to keep a protective ilocos and this is more than ever before almost five hundred cossacks warriors of russian law will also be on duty at various of the big locations. with their traditional black hats and coats with applets they will be on standby to assist the police because cossacks have been guarding russian borders for centuries traditionally based in southern russia and we know the region and its people very well. because sex job is to offer assistance spread safety culture and peace to various religions and people from different countries like normally patrols without any weapons they can only stop a crime in progress and they can only call the police and wait for the authorities to arrive so as the population of this black sea resort swells by the thousand

whether it's sniffer dogs or horses patrol boats or cossacks sorties visitors locals are certainly in good hands and with an estimated one hundred thousand police security services and armed troops here the aim is to ensure that these will be the safest a lympics in history martin andrews r.t. sochi and we've got continuing live updates for you from sanchia where the olympic flame has arrived plus you can always go to our website sara visit the most exciting moments of its journey from ancient greece so the russian black sea resort .

in other news now iran is not open for business that's the stark message to european firms from top u.s. negotiators the warning was voiced out a senate foreign relations committee hearing after businesses lined up to take advantage of recently agreed sanctions relief the six month window as a concession soars a final deal on the rons nuclear program let's bring in our to business for. being to discuss this further hi there katie so so much for the last frosty outlook between iran and the u.s. why are the washington lawmakers so wound up well that's the thing i think they're on edge at the moment because this week marina we've had a huge french delegation making their way to iran in anticipation of this post sanction iran the oil majors are all looking forward to not just oil majors but car manufacturers including rand all with that telecoms are into the i was talking the biggest delegation in two years and then one business owner of course and this

comes after some one there from turkey so everyone is trying to get out. alive and it's almost like everyone wants to get in the line now in reaction to this the u.s. is saying whoa hold on a minute ok hold your horses we've got wendy sherman she was quite still in her was as to what she had to say we're going to have a quick listen. not open for business because our sanctions relief is quite temporary quite limited and quite targeted doesn't matter whether the countries are friend or foe if a evade our sanctions we will sanction them. should have expected that international companies would start moving in as soon as they announced exactly as martin so wouldn't you because we know the reserves in iran are huge incredibly vos one if not one of the biggest oil and gas reserves in the world are talking about the top in terms of both oil and gas world exactly right so people want to drum into that and also you go to remember europe is still dealing with stagnate gross

it's no wonder that they want to drum up business and product to these sanctions a lot of these countries including what active in the region and they want to get in those oil fields and get them liking again i think that stands to reason so no it's no surprise but the us too they also want to help the business relationship with iran because it's going to be a force to be reckoned with when it's back up and running if these six months go well in the way it's country twenty two for the us doesn't want to aggravate iran too much at the moment because then they stand to lose. anyway but iran's leader. is trying to drum up some publicity and also some investment. money you know i was in davos just just the other week he was there he was talking to oil majors including my about as well from the u.s. and he basically said iran is i've been for business to go completely different story hit the reason why he sang this is because his economy has been crippled by the sanctions we're talking forty percent inflation five percent recession asked if he's under pressure himself to get relations kickstarted with the oil industry and

indeed any other whether it be call pharmaceuticals all materials and i'm sure here in some interesting deals at the moment only i would like to see which other country will send a delegation in the near future will be of course following that thank you very much kitty pilgrim there. it's emerged that the afghan government has been hold in secret talks with taliban officials to try and tackle the country's volatility the scotians took place three weeks ago and by both reports of the achieve little although afghan officials remain confident they will eventually bear fruit now the u.s. has a voice that supports the spies washington haven't spends billions of dollars and ten years fighting taliban militants there and of course there is the ongoing wrangling over america's role in afghanistan beyond two thousand and fourteen marina portnoy looks at what's been achieved after a decade of war. one of america's longest and most expensive foreign investments is

turning into one of its greatest obstacle the u.s. intervention you know afghanistan. has essentially created a new taliban. far more powerful no comparison really with the taliban that existed before nine eleven or before the u.s. intervention in afghanistan matter of fact as the taliban and afghan president reportedly remain in secret talks about reaching a peace deal washington's future in the country after twenty fourteen remains in limbo president hamid karzai still refuses to sign a long term bilateral agreement with washington last week that the afghan leader cited poet shelley when describing the painfully strained relations with america i believe the best way to summarize this is to put it in the words of shelley the great british port i met murder on the way the whole twelve years was one of

constant pleading with america please treat our civilians respectfully and treat their lives as the lives of people. the u.s. has reportedly spent more than ninety billion dollars on reconstruction and relief in afghanistan i just it for inflation that's more than any european country received after the second world war however journalist gareth porter says in this case no amount of money can buy love what the united states has accomplished in its escalation of the war in afghanistan yes or the exacerbation a tremendous increase in anti-american sentiment and a large part of that of course was the use of night raids of on people's homes knocking down doors in the middle of the night and antagonizing hundreds of thousands. who was travel a friends neighbors were affected by this tactic and it's tremendously antagonized

the afghan population and that is going to be a problem that will affect us national security for many decades to come in the year to come for the u.s. may turn out to mean leaving afghanistan in the same circumstance it was when it was invaded. marina porton r.t. new york. and for more on america's involvement in afghanistan and reports about fun than human rights abuses in controlled territory this they would r.t. because we have abby martin and breaking the set. this is the longest war in u.s. history still going strong ninety percent of the world's heroin is coming out of that country we're still funding billions of dollars in there i mean at the same time bombing the hell out of it i guess afghanistan too becomes a little bit more complicated because the u.s. is still occupying have various and so the u.s. is still running a lot of these a lot of the infrastructure there so we're seeing widespread cases of human rights

abuse widespread abuses i mean irrefutable evidence of of torture happening in prisons in afghanistan he's. also an artsy but in a few minutes they can spy they cannot hide britain's leaders are told to get a grip on american global surveillance after senior parliament figures say u.s. bases on u.k. territory are getting away with taken liberties. plus we'll tell you why it's no longer glamorous to get amorous and japan where thousands are finding their sex drive is grinding to a halt that's and more in a few minutes. the united states has significant technological edge over the rest awhile that it is

now using that that's why on the rest of the wall there was the deal between the u.s. and england where u.s. spy agencies couldn't spy on people in the u.s. but british a spy agencies could spy on people in the u.s. so the two governments said alright each of us will spy on the other's citizens and then we'll trade and that we will be sure veiling our own people so this is what i think of as the scandal.

this is obviously more for the latest because it's pink. women wanted to avoid rate they really needed to buy guns environ how to use them i'm. sure this is the one that i want to go with them once again it's the fear factor all women are definitely the target of the gun lobby and you don't kill them when you're killing money but if somebody with you would piss with her. i've noticed that more and more and that's really scary marketing tactics which implies that women have some sort of moral obligation to protect their family and young girls shoot out here too so we do have a pink or. more kids young kids choke on food than are killed by firearms if being armed made us safer in america we should be the safest nation on earth were clearly not the safest.

new york london. the whole world is. going to be true of the original one a further one down the end of the to hang up the corner of that building at the end of the street another one the more transparent society gets the money or the public tears become we see military and state run for least falses mobilized against people who blend into the city who inhabit the city the more people trust electronic devices the more new front slows the. fear that it has a thousand on phase. with artsy international thank you for being with us now american military bases in

britain might come on the go. scrutiny after a series of allegations that washington has been using them for drone strikes and spying revelations include them in the german chancellor is phone data the emergence of which caused outrage and berlin last year now senior u.k. politicians want the government to overhaul its current intelligence arrangements. explains why they arrived during world war two and they stayed throughout the cold war and now there are some ten thousand u.s. military servicemen working here in britain in dozens of facilities but what are they still doing while it's alleged that one of the u.s. military bases here in the u.k. was relaying data back from a network of spy posts alleged to have been monitoring the phone calls of german chancellor angela merkel so now three. all three major political parties here in

the u.k. say they want to see greater transparency in relation to u.s. military bases and they want to know exactly what the u.s. military servicemen are getting up to on british soil well to talk about this i'm joined by one of the authors of the proposed amendments to defense legislation lib dems baron s. miller and s. miller thank you very much for joining us the u.s. and the u.k. have a special relationship they're both part of nato what does it matter what they're getting up to on these base says. well you're quite right we do have a special relationship but the global surveillance program that the american national security agency has been up to has gone well beyond what we think is acceptable in terms of security are you saying that these bases have basically become a lauren to themselves within the u.k. what we're really talking particularly about menwith hill anyone living in new york should be familiar with it huge golf balls dozens of people working at the scale of

it should have told us that something was going on beyond simply missile defense so perelman terence like myself have been asking questions over the last couple of decades but we've received a brushoff a not very good answer now either our ministers didn't know what was going on which that would be pretty appalling or they did know what was going on and were quite comfortable with it but either way i think we need now to see these bases become far more accountable to the british parliament that really does need to be something that we do knowingly and not just wandering into what we've got now which is a big brother state run from the states proposed amendments to defense legislation are currently being revised but certainly here in the british government there are those that say while they are on british soil u.s. bases should be added herring to british laws. see london.

it's urns out spending millions on cyber security isn't stopping hackers get into u.s. federal agency websites and it's all down to the basics of using computers that aren't see dot com would tell you why staff on with so many holes in the door open so all i'm criminals. plus on our online envisioned site we've got pictures from i think you're wrong which has endured won over its heaviest snow storms and years. almost everywhere you look at scenes that sex sells t.v. films music but in japan thousands of people are being turned off. planes why the japanese get onboard and the bedroom. thanks but no sex says this japanese woman in her mid thirty's she's now on her second marriage but intimacy with her husband is off the marital menu. after i had

a child with my first husband i lost interest in sex we divorced i remarried but my second husband lost interest in having sex with me so i have actually got used to having no sense at all this is becoming a trend which now has its own name in japan sexless according to recent polls more than sixty percent of a married man and near half of women aged eighteen to thirty four are not in relationships more over forty five percent of women and a quarter of man aged sixteen to twenty four were not interested in having sex at all for the country with one of the world's lowest birth rates this spells huge demographic trouble we used to have a very large population but now we're rapidly shrinking and if things carry on as they are japan's population will be half of what it is now by the year twenty fifty that would be seventy eight million we have indeed struggled to find many couples openly showing their affection in the multi-million capital of tokyo and what makes

the situation even more bizarre is that japan has always been a world heavyweight when it comes to the matters of sex but your show our area in tokyo is one of the old discredit light districts in the world for centuries it has been thriving now its streets are practically empty for almost four hundred years it has been restricted to the locals now with japanese people having less sex the businesses here had to open their doors to foreigners. with a home ok now here. she used to be called queen love and worked in one of those brothels now runs a special course called sex counseling she helps people resuscitate their basic instinct sometimes through hypnosis she even urges men to dress as women to make them understand what the opposite sex feels like she says the government is partly to blame for the situation taking on. the government puts. regulation some sexual radio constant even sixty commercials disappeared from t.v. these first young people to go there show in their sex lives that now they have

more interest in social media and dating becomes annoying to them. not only social networking but also high unemployment among the youth generates this widespread celibacy and sexual reclusion say researchers many simply have no money to date and get married younger managers to help up to one hundred people every month but with growing numbers of those are interested in intimacy import relational one hundred sixty million this is just a drop in the ocean lets us know if the altie reports are going to do your job right. now in other world news bomb blasts near government sites in baghdad's highly secured the green zone have killed at least sixteen people the deadliest attack happened this two cars packed with explosives one off near the foreign ministry blasts were also reports of near restaurants and commercial buildings there is no evidence of who carried out the assaults sunni insurgents have repeatedly carried out similar attacks against civilians and government employees.

a train carrying gas condensates has the rails in central russia calls and twelve of the carriages to explode it's thought faulty wiring is to blame for the train coming off the rails and margin says services have now almost put out the fire no one was injured during the incidents but around seven hundred people had to be evacuated from the area. troops from france and the african union have been unable to stop the looting in muslim neighborhoods in the central african republic peacekeepers on choose they have repelled attacks by radical christian militias on was the rise this spot have so far failed to completely restore safety there the country has suffered months of sectarian all rights that. claimed hundreds of lives and forced tens of thousands to flee their homes. a saudi journalist has been sentenced to twelve years in prison for the supplying the king

and claiming the country in science of terrorism the courts also found him guilty of stare and submission undermining the nation's pristine even after he's for ethiopia banned from traveling abroad for twenty years the move follows a recent ruling about bryant's people as terrorists for insulting the king or defaming the country's reputation. and we have a break next but after value can watch why canada's got its eyes on this royds bargain basement property markets stay with us here on artsy. one going to the wall street superhero jami the tape one done in drug goes wild.

and the other corners the evil no good dick refused to obey hello long-term capital management always dick the gorilla fold to. your immediate the slightest think that i am appalled will the rescue this stage rumble in the wall street jungle with a seven or billion times ouch the audience rakes yes the game is rigged. think. did you know the price is the only industry specifically mentioned in the constitution and. that's because a free and open press is critical to our democracy albus. role. in fact the single biggest threat facing our nation today is the corporate takeover of our government and our craft cynical we've been hijacked why

a handful of transnational corporations will profit by destroying what our founding fathers one school class i'm tom hartman and on this show we reveal the big picture of what's actually going on in the world we go beyond identifying the problem trucks rational debate and a real discussion critical issues facing us to find her job ready to join the movement then walk away from the big picture. dramas the chance to be ignored to. stories others to refuse to notice. the faces change the world writes never. the old picture of today's you know on demand from around the globe.

look to. the. no there are i marinated this is boom bust and these are the stories that we're tracking for you today. coming up a white collar crime expert sam antara joins me live on today's show to discuss financial fraud in all of its forms then debt ceiling drama is that the treasury secretary says we must do something about it but we're asking the question why are we in this position in the first place find out just ahead and finally in today's big deal ed harris and i discussed free trade friend or foe it's all coming up and it all starts right now. with.

our lead story today the debt ceiling or lack thereof secretary treasury secretary jacob lew says after february seventh we'll have to start using emergency measures to avoid a first ever default on national debt and lew says he expects to exhaust those measures very very quickly now congress suspended the debt limit last october as part of a deal to reopen the government after a partial shutdown however the suspension ends on friday and after that it's only a matter of time until we breach the dreaded debt limit now lew has urged congress to quote act without delay and increase the debt ceiling no delays here he says any delay could jeopardize the credibility of the world's largest economy and hurt the global financial markets but here's the question though instead of itself.