to. look. at stuart's time in such easy apic journey of the olympic flame enters its final straight to get the winter games going. u.s. threaten the european companies with sanctions for seeking opportunities in iran is this thing it's still not open for business even though restrictions are being eased. in talks with the taleban it's revealed of ghana stance been trying to secure peace with militants behind closed doors while washington tries to keep some kind of military grip in a way ravaged by ten years of war. which

international coming to live from moscow i'm marina joshie welcome to the program. well before the winter olympics begin one journey has to and after traveling more than sixty thousand kilometers the iconic flame of the games has reached its final destination is the host city of sochi for our team. paul thank you so much for joining us to tell us what's happening in the city and the atmosphere there right now we want to know is how will the torch is journey called minute. well of course it's always an exciting moment when the symbol of the games the olympic torch the olympic flame arrives in the city in the fact it is now here in sochi means that excitement levels increase in the next couple of days around three hundred volunteers are going to carry the torch in the final stages of its journey before it climaxes the big culmination on friday evening with the opening ceremony in the fisht stadium which you can just make out i'm sure behind me now is going to

climax when the olympic cauldron is lit the person who was tossed without their identity at the moment. but with the olympic flame very much attention turning to friday but of course it began its journey across the world's largest country. in october since then sixty five thousand kilometers it's gone to the bottom of the world's deepest lake by college going to the top of europe's highest peak. and it's also going on for a space walk as well aboard the international space station but as i say the fact is here in sochi means excitement levels are on the increase and all eyes are now turning to friday night. and it wasn't more of the athletes how are they are settling in i mean do they like. village given that everything there is brand new. well as the finishing touches are being made up president vladimir putin is remaining in sochi in the region he's actually been to the athletes village which

is just a short walk from the coastal cluster that you can see behind me he seen where the athletes are going to eight train sleep and live basic social life for the next couple of weeks or so he met the russian delegation the russian athlete and of course there's a bit of pressure on those russian athletes they are performing in front of their home crowd their home fans it is their home games of course and they're looking for a much better showing than russia changed in vancouver four years ago when they won just three gold medals i just mentioned a few moments ago the opening ceremony of course a number of world leaders have decided that they won't attend the opening ceremony in what's being seen as a protest against russia's so-called anti-gay law but thomas back he's the president of the international olympic committee he's in sochi at the moment and he says that the union big 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 pics of the athletes. well another issue that has been prevalent in the buildup to the games is of course the issue of security it was our number one issue for the organizers from day one but the twin suicide attacks in volgograd which is just less than a thousand kilometers from here that happened in december and it's heightened tensions it's put the issue firmly in the spotlight and my colleague martin andrews now reports on the security measures in and 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 one 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 can enter without an official pass but it's a case of high visibility and minimal fuss was that you did know many of the athletes have been saying that back home 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 present when it comes to security checks compared to previous game. but it's not just about

tighter controls and manpower place offices are integrating extra training for mounted patrols that have distinct advantages at such events like when the pilots that are were called here ahead of the games mounted police are more effective during mass advance officers tower over the people and have a better view of the crowds. the beefed up security including assistance from the u.s. government is primed to keep a protective i'll know cause of this is more than ever before almost five hundred cossacks warriors of russian law will also be on duty at various olympic locations with their traditional black hats and coats with apple lets they will be on standby to assist the police cossacks have been guarding russian borders for centuries traditionally based in southern russia we know the region and its people very well . because it's job is to offer assistance spread safety culture and peace to various religions and people from different countries because 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 cost x. 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 lympics in history martin andrews r.t. sochi i got containing a live update for you from such a where the olympic flame has arrived plus you can go to our website are here conti revisit the most exciting moments of its journey from ancient greece to the russian black sea resort.

iran is not open for business and that's a stark message from top u.s. negotiators to anyone hoping to take advantage of relaxed trade sanctions the warning was voiced at a senate foreign relations committee hearing the six month window is a concession towards a final deal on iran's nuclear program or just earlier discussed the latest developments with possible earlier discussed the latest developments with we've had a huge french delegation making their way to iran in anticipation of this post sanction iran the oil majors are overlooking forward to knowledge is all mages but car manufacturers including rand are with that telecoms already so the i was talking the biggest delegation in two years and that one was business and of course and this comes after. 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 iran is 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 they evade our sanctions we will sanction them but surely they should have expect that that international companies would start moving in as soon as they announced exactly where it is martin so wouldn't you because we know the reserves in iran are huge incredibly vasa one if not one of the biggest oil and gas reserves in the world are talking about it's sort of 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 grows it's no wonder that they want to drum up business and product to these sanctions a lot of these countries including to tell what active in the region and they want

to get in those oil fields and get them working again i think that that stands to reason so you know it's no surprise that the u.s. too they also want to healthy business relationship with iran because it's going to be. the record with when it's back up and running if these six months go well in the way it's country twenty two for the u.s.p.s. doesn't want to agree to run too much at the moment because then they stand to lose that in the long term anyway but iran's leader. is trying to drum up some publicity and also some investment so you know i was in davos just just the other week he was there he was talking to oil majors include in my brother's bar 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's saying this is because his economy has been crippled by the sanctions we're talking forty percent inflation five percent recession asked if he's undepressed to himself to get relations kickstarted with the oil industry and indeed any other whether it be call pharmaceuticals all materials now it's

emerged down the afghan government has been holding secret talks with taliban officials to try and tackle the country's volatility discussions took place there three weeks ago in dubai but reportedly achieved little although afghan officials remain confident they will eventually bear fruit the u.s. has voiced its support despite washington having spent billions of dollars and ten years fighting taliban militants there and there's the ongoing wrangling over america's role in afghanistan beyond two thousand and fourteen 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 obstacles the u.s. intervention in afghanistan has essentially created a new television movement far more powerful you know 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 the afghan leader cited poet percy 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 put 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 did 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 is a an 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 of people who who is family 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 victory for the us may turn out to mean leaving afghanistan in the same circumstance it was when it was invaded marina porton i am r t new york and for more on america's involvement in afghanistan and reports of it funding

human rights abuses in controlled territory stay with r.t. for abby martin and breaking the set. this is the longest war in u.s. history still going strong ninety percent of 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 i think becomes a little bit more complicated because the u.s. is still occupying never had a sense of 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 cases i mean irrefutable evidence of of torture happening in prisons in afghanistan. and in just a few minutes on our team they can spine but they cannot hide britain's leaders are told to get a grip on american global surveillance after senior parliament say u.s. bases u.k. territory are getting away with taking liberties. plus we'll tell you why it's no

longer glamorous to get out in japan where thousands are finding their sex drive is grinding to a halt that more in just a few moments. is there a new cold war brewing pitting the west against russia what is being called a reset relations of the start of the obama presidency today is in tatters western media and politicians are determined to between russia and the worst possible light even to the point of undermining the sochi games one of these new cold war years old being which she. speaks the language. program she documentaries in arabic it's all here. reporting from the world talks about six of v.o.i.p. interviews intriguing stories to tell you. the troy.

visit or a big old dog called. good news you see good laboratory tim kirby was able to build the world's most sophisticated robot which on fortunately doesn't give a darn about anything tim's mission to teach creation why it should care about humans in the world because this is why you should care watch only on the r g dot com. welcome back you're watching are to international american military bases and britain might come under greater scrutiny and it's haftar a series of allegations that washington has been using them for drone strikes and spying revelations include funneling the german chancellor's 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

as poorly boyko explains. well 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 here well 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 senior peers from 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. baron s. miller 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 bases. where you are 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 or you say. basically become a lauren to themselves within the u.k. when we're really talking particularly about men with pale anyone living in new york should be familiar with it huge goals pulls dozens of people working at the scale of it should have told us that something was going on beyond simply missile defense so parliamentarians like myself have been asking questions over the last couple of decades but we've received a brush off and not very good. 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 but 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. space says should be added herring to british laws. r.t. london. well it turns out that spending millions on cyber security isn't stopping tapper is getting it to u.s. federal agency websites and it's all down to the basics of using computers at its dot com we tell you why staff are on a waiting way holding the door open to online criminals. leave us on our on

line in a vision section and we've got pictures from ice iran which has endured one of the ten years snowstorms in years. one of the new drama at least a new policies i deserve you. pleasure to have you with us here on t.v. today i roll researcher. welcome back to what you know national an almost everywhere you look it seems that sex sells t.v. films music but in japan sounds of people are being turned off i was here to ask it explains why the japanese are getting bored in 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 unmarried 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 men 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 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 point 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 oldest read 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 mostly the whole market here she used to be called queen love and worked in one of those brothers 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. the regulations on

sexual. even sex the commercials disappeared from t.v. these first young people to go there show in their sex lives 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 oh yeah amount of just to help up to one hundred people every month but with growing numbers of those are interested in intimacy in population of a hundred and sixty million this is just a drop in the ocean lets us see altie reporting from tokyo. and hong blasts near a government sides in baghdad's highly secured green zone have killed at least twenty two people the deadliest attack happened as two cars packed with explosives went off near the foreign ministry last were also reported near

a restaurant and commercial buildings there's no evidence of who carried out the assaults but sunni insurgents have repeatedly carried out similar attacks against civilians and government employees. a train carrying gas condensate has derailed in central russia causing fourteen of the carriages to explode it's thought faulty wiring is to blame for the train coming off the rails emergency services have put out the fire and no one was injured during the incident but around seven hundred people have 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 tuesday repelled attacks by radical christian militias muslim residents but so far failed to completely restore safety their country has suffered months of sectarian unrest that has claimed hundreds of lives force of thousands to flee their homes.

and a saudi journal. west has been sentenced to twelve years in prison for disobeying the king and claiming the country inside a terrorism court also found him guilty of stirring titian and undermining the nation's pristine even after he was freed will be banned from traveling abroad or twenty years the move follows a recent ruling that brands people as terrorists for insulting the king or defaming the country's reputation. and next crosstalk on whether we are at the precipice of a new cold war took away. my

marinates join me on the team that impartial and financial reporting commentary interviews and much much. only on going bust and only. one going to the wall street superhero jami the table of diamond drug goes wild. and the other borders the evil no good dick refused to ho bellow long-term capital management always dick the gorilla fall to. your immediate the slightest think that paulson will be rescued this stage rumble in the wall street jungle with a seven or billion times out the audience shrinks yes the game is rigged.

it's a problem it was a terrible mistake now i'm very sorry to take out a letter to get along here there's a plug that never had sex with her that there's no lens let's play. lists le may limit. the.

this. is. a low and welcome to cross talk we're all things are considered i'm peter lobo is there a new cold war brewing pitting the west against russia what is being called a reset to me leighton's at the start of the obama presidency today is in tatters western media and politicians are determined to betray russia and the worst possible light even to the point of undermining the sochi games what are these new cold warriors hoping to achieve. to cross whether there is a new cold war i'm joined by my guest stephen cohen in new york he is a professor emeritus of russian studies at new york university and author of soviet fates in last alternatives that currently is out in paperback from columbia

university press also in new york we have eric draitser he is a geo political analyst and founder of stop imperialism dot org and in london we cross to mark and he is a modern history lecturer at the university of oxford right gentlemen cross-talk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want stephen cohen if i go to you first in new york when you hear the term new cold war because it's part of your title of your most recent book what does it mean to you and what should it mean to our viewers. what it means i don't know whether we're in a new cold war or a continuation of the old cold war and it doesn't really matter whether we call it a cold war or not but the conflicts the dangers the issues the confrontations that characterize the forty year cold war between the united states and russia and russia in the west are back and in some ways it's different and in some ways it's even more dangerous just to bring this right into this week's moos this new cold war. or may now be drawing the dividing line which was in berlin right on russia's

borders in ukraine but this is a process that's been going on since the end of the soviet union nearly twenty two years now eric in new york how do you reflect upon that because i want to talk about ukraine a little bit later in the program but if you read western media right now i mean it's gotten to the point of stereo absolute hysteria the the economist the washington post never friends of russia but in this week alone this is getting to the point of going to proportions that i've never ever seen even during the cold war i would say well i think that the timing is instructive of course the sochi games the the triumphal sort of per session for russia on the world stage is they're attempting to undermine that of course as we all know the olympics is not merely an athletic event it's not merely a two week extravaganza it's also a corporate event it is an attempt for any country in this case russia to.