the olympic torch starts the final leg of its historic relays that arrives in the host city of sochi heralding the imminent start of the two thousand and fourteen winter games. the u.s. warns international firms against doing business with iran saying the partial lifting of sanctions doesn't mean the iranian market is up for grabs yet. afghanistan reveals it's been trying to hammer out a deal with the taliban as the u.s. role in the country past twenty fourteen it becomes less.

eight pm in moscow i'm very good to have you with us our top story this hour the olympic flame has arrived in the host city of sochi heralding the final relay stage before the games begin and what a journey it's been thousands of kilometers across the vastness of russia and all the way into orbit and the international space station also arriving in social today the medals under armed guard a creative gold silver and bronze awards were delivered to reveal a big city where they were then shown to the public for the first time welcoming the flame to the city are martin andrews paul scott who told my colleague marina joshie how the day's events and what a journey it's made sixty five thousand kilometers around the largest country in the wild that is russia fourteen thousand until it's bare is over one hundred twenty three cities in russia featuring six feet is going up as you said to the international space station for the first time in history made a space walk event should up to the north pole it's been on the summary visit of the largest freshwater lake in the world. by cal in siberia i'm finally after

months of anticipation here insults if i could live by land but on a yacht very close to the olympic park where the opening ceremony will take place on friday. outspread left at the airport as you could say i had it's way up to the beautiful mountain cluster translate. of course everybody is talking about who were the lucky people to carry the torch over the next few days we have russian comedians sports men and women and of course the main thing on everybody's lips is who will light the torch at the opening ceremony on friday lots of speculation there but in the meantime the lympics flame is here in sochi and everybody is said to be very excited because finally here at the black sea resort well absolutely as you just said the excitement is building up and we can feel that definitely for now though let's cross to paul scott who is also in sochi for us and what we see behind college is the sporting arenas and all of the buildings there were the various i should say where the sporting events will be taking place and also we know that the

olympic committee is there as well what have we heard from them so far. well as the final preparations takes day. and to the final stages into the home straight i can tell you the international olympic committee and president vladimir putin are there remain in the region president putin has visited the athletes' village which you can probably just make out behind me it's a short walk away from the coastal cluster he's visited the athletes village where they're going to eat sleep train live and of course socialize over the next few weeks and he met a number of russian athletes who of course have a lot of pressure on them over the next week or so they're performing in their home olympics in their home games and they are expected as a team to put in a better showing than they did in vancouver four years ago when russia was just three gold medals present and also i witnessed the olympic flag being raised above the olympic village which really does signify that these games are now within touching distance of course it all gets underway as martin said on friday evening

with the opening ceremony but a number of world leaders are political figures have decided they will not attend those games however president of the international olympic committee thomas parks says that the olympic movement in the olympic games should not be used for 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 that's president of the i.o.c. thomas back speaking in sochi just two days now before the start of the games all right paul thanks very much for theirs and as the finishing touches are being added

security of course is one of the big topics are there and martin have you heard of any last minute concerns there and what's being done in terms of security in the city. that's right marina security is obviously the word to everybody is talking about this much media hype surrounding this situation of the the ring of steel which we're standing at the moment personally but i can say is that i've had no trouble at all you can walk the streets i spoke to various foreigners he said actually being here in sochi is really just like any other olympics if not more secure we have six thousand athletes arriving this weekend for having arrived already twenty five thousand volunteers and up to one hundred thousand police members forces army sniffer dogs horses you know i mean it really just feel like such a is one of the safest places to be on the pilots at the moment of course security concerns are vital and are the number one priority here in sochi but then again i suppose you could say that they are in all sporting events the conferences around the world this is what president putin had to say about the subject of security

take a look you know looking at a video with security is always of concern you know the large putting events but also a political one is that we can't forget the terrorist attacks this group in venues the boston bombings for example which happened recently there have been similar attacks at libby games and the bombings suring the g. eight summit in london but i'd like to thank our partners from almost every nation who are actively working to ensure the game security together with our own security specialists there and judy twenty four hours a day i think it's very important mention that even though the security is tight here in sochi it doesn't feel like a blockade or concentration camp everybody is at ease of course when you enter a typical buildings you have to go through the screening into the airport security but there is a very relaxed happy and excited atmosphere like being here in such over the last four or five days and really for my own experience it feels a lot safer than the media hype surrounding it yesterday i met various cossacks and

horses who will now that we helping the security measures over the next month. defense missiles drones. educated settlers 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 fool 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 didn't 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 and they say that as much as half and discomfort is specially when it comes to security checks compared to previous game. but it's not just about tighter controls and manpower place officers are into growing extra training for mounted patrols that have distinct advantages that such events over can apply with were called here ahead of the games mounted police are more effective during massive burns as there's a 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

when a cossack's job is to offer assistance spread safety culture and peace to various religions and people from different countries like norm. 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 thousands whether it's sniffer dogs or patrol boats or cost tax subsidies this is locals certainly in good hands and with an estimated one hundred thousand police security services and troops here the aim is to ensure that these will be the safest lympics in history today andrews r.t. sochi our producer is caught up with one of the members of russia's bobsled team who told us how surprised he was by the changes in this it. just gets acquitted because it in the midst of i'm stunned. ten years ago i couldn't imagine such as

would host an event of such magnitude and it's very important for russia there have only been positive changes for searchers which is now a world class resort it's a cutting edge training facility for winter athletes one that russia never really had before in the future so if you will host world championships global sporting events it's an amazing p.r. boost for such a city that no one had heard of just ten years ago. continuing live updates for you from sochi where the olympic flame has arrived plus go to our website and revisit the most exciting moments from the journey from ancient greece to the russian black sea resort city.

investment dollars have again started flowing into iran but that has set off alarm bells in washington with some top officials insisting the oil rich nation is still not open for business tehran's prospects have been looking brighter though since sanctions were partially lifted under a nuclear deal my colleague marina kosar ever discussed this with r.t. business presenter katie pilbeam. 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 with that telecoms are into the i was talking the biggest delegation in two years and the one that was missing of course in this comes after the locations where they're from turkey so everyone is trying to get. a life and it's it's almost like everyone wants to get in the line out 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 expected that international companies what she meant as soon as they announced exactly where it is margin so wouldn't you because we know the reserves in iran are huge incredibly vast 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 is that people want to drum into that and also you gotta remember europe is still dealing with stagnate grows it's no wonder that they want to drum up business abroad 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 lucky again i think that stands to reason so you know it's no surprise but the u.s. too they also want to help the business relationship with iran because it's going to be a full three record with when it's back up and running if these six months go well

in the way it's kind of 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 . 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. including some i bought 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 he's under pressure himself to get relations kickstarted with the oil industry and indeed any other whether it be call pharmaceuticals all materials for some live analysis on this i'm joined from tehran by mahmoud morandi professor at the university of tehran the so what's the harm in international groups doing business with iran at this point so long as no sanctions are. violated.

well first we have to keep in mind that there are no international sanctions being violated the sanctions that have been imposed are american sanctions they've sanctioned the iranian central bank and they've threatened other countries to warn other countries from doing business with iran so the united states is basically dictating to. third party third countries as to how to behave and who to trade with and how to trade which is itself a breach of international law but i think that we already see very strong signs that the u.s. imposed sanctions regime is cracking and the fact that delegations from many countries including as was discussed a minute ago a major delegation from france which has been somewhat hostile towards iran over the past few months show that not only are countries in the race to get into iran

but also western countries which have had which are the basically the countries that have had the most difficulty with iran need iran great deal because obviously the iranian economy is facing difficulties because of the american imposed sanctions but france is doing quite poorly itself and france needs countries like iran so the united states is in a very difficult position because because of the agreement that they're in in a bind of sorts and if the united states starts to sanction its sanction its own allies then i think it's going to become even more isolated so do you think that washington's threaten this case will have any influence on businesses who are looking to do business with iran. i think the americans will have great difficulty because there are. teams and groups of. delegations coming from across the globe just recently you've we've had senior delegations both

political and otherwise from china and from all sorts of countries in asia and europe latin america and so on and so forth and all of them want to be more involved with iran and i think that this is something that sort of overwhelms the united states the americans are really playing playing it and realistically if the americans behave more rational actually they. they would be able to move themselves towards greater towards rapprochement with iran and perhaps get a piece of the cake but also by behaving in such an irrational manner towards iran by threatening countries from doing business with iran in the long run they hurt themselves more than they hurt anyone else because as i said the sanctions the sanction regime is already breaking down it's becoming more difficult for the americans and for us and the balance of power is already shifting away from the united states and europe. naturally asia's becoming more powerful the united states

is becoming less powerful and so on and so forth so in the long term the americans know that they cannot hold back iran and really the only realistic way forward is for the united states to become more reasonable and rational towards the country. to university of tehran thanks for your time. thank you the days of sprawling those surveillance sites dotting the british countryside could be numbered coming up find out how senior u.k. politicians are trying to put the american spy genie back in the bottle. the united states. significant technological over the rest it is now using that spy on the rest of the wall there was the deal between the u.s. and england where u.s. spy agencies could spy on people in the u.s. but british spy agencies could spy on people in the u.s.

so the government said all right each of us will spy on the other citizens and then we'll trade and that way we'll be sure veiling our own people so this is what i think of as the scandal. eighteen minutes past the hour afghanistan's government has admitted to holding

secret talks with the taliban behind the u.s. back as president karzai steps up his own efforts to make peace with the militant group although negotiations have been largely fruitless so far the u.s. says it supports the push for reconciliation artie's marina porton i reports. 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 tell about it 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 that 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 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 is 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 who was channel 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 picture a for the u.s. 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 pryke ledwidge a former british army officer who served in afghanistan says this is the perfect sign that the u.s. a decade long war achieved little all this is testament to the total strategic illiteracy of the whole campaign from the start we've had a military campaign really quite some big groups county over the last twelve years completely on the good stuff and i'm going back to any political process. now the

taliban very very conversant with the need to link to mash and to memory hole it takes with military action they play this game an extremely well know what time it is but right to him to become pay the balance of power is already tipping the butt of a bit taliban particularly in the south where of course most of the combat has taken place we say the time of the ready. by the british and american forces extortion is being applied political pressure making deals with the local drug cartels they've done bounces already to ignore. russia opening its arms to syrian refugees granting asylum for more than a thousand displaced people fleeing the country torn apart by nearly three years of civil conflict those details on our website. fire raging from wagons of a train that derailed new near all mountains in russia forcing four hundred people

to be evacuated from a nearby town. u.s. military installations dotted across the british isles and senior u.k. politicians are now calling for an overhaul of the rules governing the network and some of the shots may have relayed some of the sites may have relayed secret information to control drone strikes in yemen and to carry out a dragnet spying polly boyko reports. 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 all of the proposed amendments to defense legislation lib dems baron s. miller barnett 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 bases. what 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. well we're really talking particularly about menwith hill 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

perelman terrence 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 didn't know what was going on and were quite comfortable with it but either way i think we need. no to see these bases become more accountable to the british parliament it really does need to be something that we do knowingly and not just wandering into what we've got now which is a big 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. azzi london taking a look at some more international headlines this hour forty eight hour strike of two workers has

a gun in london disrupting the underground journey of millions of riders so a major central station is closed forcing people into overcrowded trains and buses the strike triggered by government plans to modernize the underground which would include almost a thousand job cuts and the closure of all ticket offices. and venezuela's late leader chavez has been more realized in caracas where thousands gathered to mark twenty two years since the attempted coup that brought him to prominence back then a socialist revolutionary along with military officers who rose up against an unpopular regime took another seventy years for chavez to claim the presidency but the event is seen as a key breakthrough in the country's so-called bowl of already in a revolution. breaking this coming up next stay with us.

for london. the whole world is. the future of the original one the one on the end. of the point about building at the end of the street another one of the more transparent signs. did you know the price is the only industry specifically mentioned in the constitution and. that's because a free and open process is critical to our democracy. will. in

fact the single biggest threat facing our nation today is the corporate takeover of our government and across difficult we've been hijacked lying handful of transnational corporations that will profit by destroying what our founding fathers one school class i'm job market and on this show we reveal the big picture of what's actually going on in the world if we go beyond identifying the problem try rational debate and a real discussion of critical issues facing us to find a job ready to join the movement and welcome the big picture. the united states has significant technological agile for the rest of their wild and it is now using that absolute spy on the rest of the wall then 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 way we'll be sure veiling our own people so this is what i think of as the scandal. the significance. of the that. because. how do you go i'm not a martin and this is breaking the set so yesterday marked the start of the jury selection in the case of jonathan jordan. excuse me davis seventeen year old black teenager who was shot and killed by michael dunn a forty seven year old white man in jacksonville florida so according to authorities davis and dunn got into an argument over the loud hip hop music coming

from the teen's car dunn said he felt threatened by davis pulled a concealed handgun from his glove compartment and shot at a teenager's s.u.v. multiple times davis was unarmed i got to be seen it is likely that dunn's attorney will employ a stand your ground defense because we all know how much it helped in jurors consideration when it came to trayvon martin and george zimmerman so if you don't want to see dunn go free for claiming that an unarmed teenager is music threaten his life anough to take the young teenagers then join me and that's great stuff but . the police. it was a very very hard to take a. picture of that he ever had sex with that hurt their little.