olympic fever sweeps saatchi as the game's countdown reaches one day to go the torch relay is now on its final leg to launch the twenty second winter olympic games. and amid the snowy peaks and swaying palms we get the opinions about the it's only human location for the winter games. a british couple accused of money laundering go to court to fight their extradition to the u.s. they tell our t.v. being forced from home would be too much for them to bear. it might put us on the plane and we will take the first opportunity we can. plus the west's recoils as a syrian war reaches the u.s. and the u.k. with returning extremists openly making terrorist threats against their own countries for the first time. and

washington weighs in on the ukrainian political crisis sending its diplomats to mediate for a second time in less than two months. and what you are to international coming to you live from moscow with me marina josh after years of planning construction and anticipation it's all come together in the sochi we are now a day away from the official start of the olympics and thousands of spectators and visitors are flooding the internet was their impressions from meeting the mascot's to posing and sign the olympic rings and it's evident that the spirit of the games is in the air while the city itself is brimming with athletes visitors and tourists and they have been joined now by the olympic flame it's on the final leg of its

having journey that's covered tens of thousands of kilometers from the bottom of the world's deepest laid by call to the top of europe's highest peak to the olympic capital now and r.t.s. falsecard there. well spirits are high in and around sochi right now no doubt for the moment being aided by the fantastic weather conditions you can probably see. glistening in the sunshine behind me temperatures are well in the double figures at the moment and the atmosphere the party atmosphere is also no doubt being boosted by the presence of the olympic torch which is in the final stages of its journey across the region over the next twenty four hours or so is going to be carried by a number of high profile public figures russia's foreign minister sergey lavrov the highly respected diplomat he's taken time out of his busy schedule to pick up the u.n. secretary general ban ki moon he's here for the opening ceremony on friday evening of course it's the climax of a journey that started in moscow. sixty five thousand kilometers the torch has

traveled has been to the bottom of lake to the top of mt it's even been to the north pole and even to space and it's also been in the mountains which is just a short train ride from here and where my colleague. paul yesterday. came up paid to the ninety's into the ski resort of rose a. very only in peak hero the bobsled. was one of the torchbearers now we're in the foothills of the caucasus and despite that we still only have very short tele cabin right away where most of the sporting events are going to take place so everything is very compact and that's also the case down at the black sea in the coastal class today and that's something the math lease i've been impressed with everything is small you noted a village and everything is close. close to do. we can go by wallach and there is not a big security so we feel free and we're fairly confident the russian

tennis star maria sharapova is also in town and she has this part of the world to win in her opinion she says sochi is the perfect place to host. the winter olympics . same black sea same day as you can drive up and out in some slopes world. no one really believe me and i know that every experience. and finally we should note that even though the ceremony is tomorrow some advance have already started the qualification in the men's and women's slopestyle snowboarding has begun and the figure skating team event would also get underway so even though we're still waiting for the cauldron to be late for some athletes sochi twenty fourteen is already up and running. well as he says the sport finally got underway after months if not years of talking although at this early stage nobody knows exactly what the

medals table will look like come the end of the games start for sochi dolphinarium believe that they have one animal you might know they believe that in their midst is a psychic seal. this is the moment his life changed forever abandoned by his mother in russia's far east the seal pup was weak with hunger and vulnerable to predators his chances of survival was slim. fast forward three years and his life is now transformed. is the home of the rather shy seal now stuff say he was abandoned as a pup was rescued and then nurtured back to health care the dolphinarium and for the course of the winter olympics he's going to be one of the animals who are going to be predicting sporting outcomes. he is now fighting fit and hoping to make a splash with spectators during needs winter olympics. he's

already predicted a few football matches however he's not always correct only ninety nine percent of the time. paul the octopus was the first of his kind he made international headlines join his career as a sporting psychic can. predicting a leaven out of thirteen football matches the staff in sochi hope. will have a similar success rate and also believe that after a difficult start in life could become a favorite with the public. probably your boy. alone. isn't a life style fair also had a number of bad dolphins and even alters display psychic tendencies. let's go it's a multi sochi. while not everyone is willing though to embrace the olympic spirit and a number of journalists have been on a mission to highlight the less savory aspects of the city but outlets tell

a different story from admiring the view to praising of what's they say are top notch facilities and here are some of the tweets that visitors have been posting from the capital of the olympic games well around the clock on air and online you can stay with artie's olympic coverage from sochi will be bringing you the highs and lows from the slopes and bring some of the winter games on our to international and our dedicated website two thousand and fourteen daughter t. g twenty fourteen promises the ultimate in exhilarating winter sports and. you see now if i make seven zero on the bus tomorrow let me take you straight to sochi twenty four take. all the. while the spirit of the game is mind off for the warring sides in syria some respite and russia's urged all those involved in conflicts around the world and for sizing syria to sayas so-called olympic truce

and stop the violence at least for the time of the event but the situation in the conflict zone worsens daily and its consequences are felt far and wide as hundreds of europeans who joined the fight in syria return home the alarms are being raised there are bringing jihad back with them and a group of extremists with british citizenship who are fighting in the middle eastern war zone are now threatening to carry out terror attacks in the u.k. and they are already spreading the virus of extremist propaganda issuing posters urging people to join their cause among the targets public transport and financial centers and not just in the u.k. one of the pictures shows and melted in front of the white house in washington laura smith has a story. these are the first direct threats as far as we know that we have seen that have come out of syria death threats to attack public transport to attack financial centers and there's an estimated hundreds of britons of joy jihad just

rebel groups in syria according to a couple of studies that has been done it's not just britons although they are the most numerous there are around three hundred fifty according to these couple of studies that we found but there are also three hundred belgians more than two hundred each from france and germany and around about one hundred fifty fighters who've gone from the netherlands to syria this group that we're talking about in britain is a group called riot how we which is a british to how discreet faction in syria they've got this facebook page and they've issued these threats online mainly if you take a look at their facebook page which is quite a shocking thing actually that the post is that they have posted these motivational posters that we're talking about are accompanied by likes on facebook requests to be tagged by various people now this is causing a. number of other developments for example u.s.

intelligence saying saying that it's received reports that al qaida has set up training camps in syria specifically to train fighters to return home to their own countries to perpetrate terror attacks in their own countries and u.k. intelligence authorities say they're taking these threats very seriously indeed and until we're acting as richard backer believe such groups are in an editable results of washington's program policies in syria. i think that we have to see that it's the the us unrelenting campaign against the syrian government that has led people many people to to go to syria to fight on the side of the opposition and it's not just the united states but it's france and britain and other nato allies that have taken this position and this happens over and over again in regards to the big powers and particularly the united states that while

they feel they can control all situations what really ends up happening is that they cannot and they end up having these kind of. comes that they had not anticipated that all of the mass unrest in ukraine seems to have made the country a popular destination for u.s. diplomats with the latest state department official now in kiev the torino and plans to meet with both the leadership and the opposition to offer washington support in putting together and new government as right up or down our reports this follows a long tradition of u.s. involvement in the politics of honor nations. in less than two months u.s. assistant secretary of state of victoria nuland is making her second visit to ukraine where anti-government protesters have received the full support and backing of washington u.s. officials say this trip is aimed toward words aiding the country in forming a new government and helping ukrainians fulfill their democratic aspirations now

back in december it was the stomachs of protesters that ms nuland helped fill as she walked around teves independence square handing out now now for many this scene put an entirely new twist on international meddling in recent years the u.s. has cemented its reputation in siding with anti government opposition movements taking place in sovereign countries such as tunisia egypt libya and syria. put in the case of ukraine u.s. officials are actually flying over the atlantic to visit and possibly strategize with pro european union protesters a power play that critics say washington would condemn if the roles were reversed china or russia or any other great power or even a regional power like iran came to the u.s. and was encouraging the protesters there would be a hue and cry from the american media like you'd never hear of before they would

say why are these people interfering in our internal affairs but of course the united states sort of has a double standard because it often interferes in the affairs of other countries and thanks nothing about it in all fairness critics say the u.s. does sometimes show restraint when it comes to foreign conflicts for example in bahrain as a rule and deadly crackdowns against peaceful unarmed protesters have taken place the u.s. has in mind its own business america has also respected its right to remain silent as the saudi arabia recently enacted a new law allowing the kingdom to. prosecute in jail anyone who exposes corruption or demands before reporting from new york marina port ny on r.t. well here's one a regular guest at protests around the world john mccain u.s. senator and has been known to be crazy in public since he was first appearance of the so-called orange revolution decade ago and his interest in the post saw spays

did and they're getting a welcome hog from the president of georgia health saakashvili during its war with russia and here he is at the heart of the arab spring in cairo also lending a helping hands to the levy uprising and most recently visiting a syrian refugee camp in turkey all going to bring in a subjective it shows a writer international affairs and foreign affairs editor for the magazine chronicles thank you so much mr fyshe for joining us here and here national to discuss the situation in ukraine and around as well as we now make sure unowned plans to meet both the government and ukrainian opposition so what's her agenda do you think joining her visit in ukraine. quite clearly her agenda is regime change because the claim that she is coming to ukraine to aid the ukrainians you know overcoming the price of the prices is remain this and of the term fraternal assistance to the socialist bloc that was the essence of the

pression of doctrine back in the one nine hundred sixty s. specifically in one thousand sixty eight with the if you're patient of czechoslovakia but at least with. the border of the socialist bloc marked the end of the doctrine itself the doctrine of limited sovereignty with the united states so-called benevolent global hegemony there is no border you have a new can the cranny of the world every spot of the world is a legitimate target for the newlands of this world to come and intervene she came in december to distribute cookies to the demonstrators and came emerging as your previous interviews said russian foreign ministry official coming to the united states or any other place in the world to do likewise so what time surprised by it

is that the ukrainian government having made all sorts of concessions to the demonstrators and the opposition is allowing this sort of thing to happen while you're on the is up to no good and i also want to ask you here while you were describing the situation there i mean. what we see happening here is that you are up and the u.s. are accusing russia of meddling in the ukrainians affairs but how do you see the situation there i mean is there anything to that claim. well first of all let's face it everybody's interfering in everybody else's affairs in one way or another because any political move whether it is the you offer of association deal which contains the money by the way or the rationale for over fifteen billion rescue package it's some formal pressure because you can influence his decision making but let's face it we didn't see said he'd love to go to ukraine.

whodunits or through the crimean called us to interfere between coverage pro-government protests and in any event russia's role all along seems to have be to indicate clearly what told the boundaries of russia's interest in india fair which is to lead the occurring as they saw it but also to be clear that if the association agreement with the us signed they can no longer be free market or rather customs free access to the russian market which is only fair enough if it is called pressure to offer a fifteen billion rescue package to a near bankrupt country i think there are many companies in the world that would just love to be exposed to that in the press all right said richard courage foreign affairs editor for chronicles magazine thank you so much for your views r.t. international. now the french government is weighing up plans to reform

immigration policies and is meeting a wall of resistance with manny saying the proposals violate key national ideals explore that issue and more after the break to stay with us. no the flames. the olympic spirit travels with the flame from its best place in greece. joined james brown for an elemental and a big journey around russia and beyond. where

are supposed to go. back to watching r t international a british couple are facing a desperate battle to avoid extradition to the us caught in a legal tangle they told her to use test or so is that they'd rather take their own lives and be ripped away from their families. one morning fourteen months ago

a life changing knock on the door with two policeman from scotland yard and i said i was done i'm with come to arrest you and your husband since then they've been out on bail and are fighting extradition to the united states to await trial after claims from the dunham's former company in the us that they have more than one million dollars in illegitimate expense claims something the couple say are without merit showing as evidence that they've gathered that some say they're not afraid of trial but their worst fear being sent to the states is the possibility of being denied bail and spending years behind bars apart from one another simply waiting for their day in court if we were away from this country it's. for a very good chance he would have. we're confident we would win. because we are innocent but we would then be shipped but there's no compensation and. wrongful act

for the ocean. can you imagine coming back to this country you know three or four years later no harm no money no job and you are now in you know sixty to sixty three years. and trying to rebuild your life controversy has long surrounded the u.s. u.k. extradition act of two thousand and three signed in the wake of nine eleven critics claim the agreement is biased against the u.k. if you are a u.s. citizen wanted by the u.k. government you have a higher standard of evidence that you need to provide in the u.s. and also as a u.s. citizen you have the opportunity to go to a u.s. court to plead your case and unfortunate for purchases since there is no such opportunity to have your evidence tested in the u.k. court before you were extradited and that's a basic unfairness to an independent review in two thousand and eleven found at the treaty quote does not operate in an unbalanced manner but this contradicts findings

of the parliament's joint committee in human rights which called for a renegotiation to ensure british citizens get the same protections as americans conservative m.p. who sits on the committee looked at nationalities of those extradited and found at thirty five britons have been sent to the us and steve thousand and four versus just five u.s. nationals who made the opposite journey that seven times more two thousand and twelve david cameron told u.s. president barack obama that he wanted a review of the treaty that is little comfort to the don imus and others like them who teeter on the edge of desperation knowing it's very lives at stake from the moment they put us on the plane. first opportunity rick and. jess are cilia r t london. one the virtual world stamps interior ality a new generation treatment for gunshot wounds. leaving in a couple of seconds with scientists hoping it will replace all known battlefield

treatments in future head to our website for more details and also online if you thought we'd was a force for world peace you're in good company the president of your guai has been nominated for a nobel prize in making his country first before we legalize marijuana find out more. now france is planning to overhaul its immigration policies after the prime minister admits the system is failing a government report says the state should become more arab orientated but that's drawing fire from the opposition which believes it could put an end to french culture as we know it you were just going off reports from paris on what could be a seismic shift for society. debar saloon has been living in pairs for new you three decades step by step she's gone from getting a worker's permit to building a family business she changed her life to become a part of french society a long time ago but agrees that the time for it to change has now come as well

maybe this is normal it's the evolution of society the french prime minister recently published a government report proposing a shift in the country's migration policy specifically only to grecian cancelling the two thousand and four ban on muslims wearing veils in state schools proposing to start teaching immigrant children their language of origin and other measures that many find controversial the. report has parts about of holding people's roots and promoting the values of the republic not only is it contradictory but it undermines the secular nature of french society. the report has sparked a wave of criticism with political rivals accusing the prime minister of undermining national values instead of promoting them or calling it a dangerous provocation that threatens the country's decades long migration policies it's estimated france officially received around two million immigrants over the past ten years and what around two hundred thousand. the figures are

continuing to grow with despite this things like immigration and integration for a long time weren't always something for a society found tough to discuss they were almost. anyone with a french passport no matter where they came from originally is a citizen of the republic and even mentioning someone's foreign roots could be enough for discrimination case in court friendship or break. doesn't like groups of cultural minorities we're not in the same prison at the. u.s. they are used to deal with cultural at knit communities in france we don't like this we want every citizen to be a part of the friendship or make another part of his community. it will trigger a lot of debate before even the portals are put into action such strong opposition it's possible none of them will make it into legal but the report may be opening

a pandora's box with signs of a growing design to be changed migration policy that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago we got this one off. now sequel to some other stories from around the world at least thirteen people have been killed and twenty two others injured in a string of car bombings across baghdad police say the explosives were concealed in parked vehicles in busy commercial areas of the iraqi capital on wednesday multiple blast claimed thirty four lives in the cities have only forty five green zone no groups have admitted to the strikes which come at a time of rising sunni militant activity. transport chaos is sweeping britain's capital for a second day running with millions of people facing huge delays due to workers' strike on the london underground with most stations out of action commuters have had to stay at home or face massive queues for buses and overground trains unions declared the strike over plans to close ticket offices and cut jobs. a

warehouse fire in argentina has killed nine firefighters and civil to fans workers when a seven metre wall collapsed into them as they battle the flames seven others were injured in the incident at a storage facility for banking documents and data in buenos aires the cause of the fire is being investigated but authorities say that arson might have taken place. and we're just a day away from seeing the olympic flame herald the launch of the winter games now though let's look back at the globe spanning journey the torch made to reach.

recently at online poll by the liberal dozhd t.v. channel that's rain in english has caused quite a storm of rage across the country how could a stupid online. polkas russia white anger well they posed the question was defending leningrad from the nazis worth it because retreat in their opinion could have saved hundreds of thousands of lives what is offensive from culture to culture differs a lot but from a russian perspective fighting to the bitter end to stop the german genocide machine was worth it this is basically like if a somewhat popular news outlet had a poll on martin luther king's birthday asking was slavery really that bad it was a poem for the economy but why would someone create this poll is because the people who wrote it are sick with the disease are types total self infatuation egoism and greed in other words we're a generation me. these people could never imagine sacrificing to great and wonderful me for any cause sacrifice me to. me i'd rather kiss the boots and learn german but it wasn't for millions of russians put their self-interest as

a distant second then all of those great and wonderful me would have been worked to death and shot a nazi death camp it pays to make a few sacrifices for society the fascist my opinion. is that so we leave the. oceans secure. for the physical. issues that no one is asking with to get that you deserve answers from. politics. we speak your language. news programs and documentaries in spanish what matters to you breaking news a little turn to angles keaton's stories. for you here.

altie spanish find out more visit. it was supposed to be just another news or of course although admittedly for a special occasion it was one hundred twenty three days before the start of the winter olympic games in sochi and i was in greece for the lighting of the olympic flame the ruins of the limpia one of the most famous monuments of ancient greece the site of the very first olympic games where stones like this would have been part of the temple. the temple temple .