olympic fever sweeping sochi is the game's countdown to reaching one day to go the torch relay on its final leg to launch the twenty second winter olympic games. a british couple accused of money laundering to go to court to fight extradition to the u.s. telling are being forced from home would be too much for them to bear. and they put it on the plane. and. the west recoiling is the syrian war could reach u.s. and u.k. sure as with returning extremists openly making threats against their home countries for the first time. washington weighing in on the ukrainian political crisis sending diplomats to mediate for the second time in less than two months.

nine pm in moscow i met as a very good to have you with us after years of planning construction and anticipation it's all coming together in sochi now one day away from the official start of the olympic winter games thousands of spectators and visitors flooding the internet with their impressions from meeting mascots to posing inside the olympic rings it's evident that the spirit of the games is indeed in the air the city itself brimming with athletes visitors and tourists all joined now by the olympic flame on its final leg of the epic journey that's covered tens of thousands of kilometers from the bottom of the world deepest lake to the top of europe's tallest peak to the olympic capital now where our teams martin andrews has more. well off to one hundred and twenty two days the torch is finally here in the sochi area

arrived yesterday. on the black sea which you can see behind me some more of the one hundred twenty three days will be complete at all make its way to the opening ceremony tomorrow night at the time will be fourteen minutes past eight of course to represent twenty fourteen if you go back to two years ago we had the likes of david beckham james bond and queen elizabeth the second he made appearances so everybody is really talking about who will be carrying the torch tomorrow earlier on today we had a lot of rough we had. the i.o.c. president he was also carrying the flame i also a surprise visitor from the likes of ban ki moon the general secretary of state for the united nations as well as famous russian actors and musicians and earlier on we caught up with the french figure skater brains you bet and this is what he had to say about the rising excitement here in the sochi area i feel good and everybody for the french team is good everything is small you know. everything it's close.

we can go by war and there is not this big security so we feel free and we feel confident and also the world famous tennis star maria sharapova added her comments on the excitement surrounding the twenty fourteen winter olympics same in the black sea the same day as you can drive an hour to the mountains in some best slopes in the world. you know and really believe me and i am i know people to experience this on. a course it's quite interesting to the fact that the games actually started today why is that well that's because there are twelve of you have been added since the vancouver games in twenty and of course everybody is talking about carrying the torch and who will win those magnificent medals that were unveiled to the various journalists yesterday. to talk about fortune telling let's speak to paul scott with

a very interesting guest. this is the moment to see 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 were slim. fast forward three years and his life is now transformed. is the home of the rather shy seal now stuff say that 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 supporting outcomes. who is now fighting fit and hoping to make a splash with spectators during needs winter olympics. because 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 during his career as a sporting psychic correctly 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. how do you avoid. a low. isn't a lone star fair also hoping that a number of dolphins and even alters display psychic tendencies. sochi. vitor i would say with a sponsor orange for the sochi twenty four to. share with us where he finds most inspirational about the tradition. believe the most impressive use every kid you see on the rolls every meet people through the plane and see the delight of the torch in their ice and how it can inspire them to do olympic rallies and support

and that's really being able to chris needles in the smallest of the kids here it's been to me sing us a small. little home where i started working at both places i'm very very happy able to do so. not everyone though yet embracing the olympic spirit a number of journalists have been tweeting out highlighting the less savory aspects they have come across in the city but athletes telling a different story from admiring their view to praising what they call top notch facilities we spoke with a number of journalists who are in sochi including canadian broadcaster douglas gallivan who told us that many of the issues he thinks are being overblown anytime you try to do a project this big by throwing a limp to games in a city that really was very very small before before they decided that the olympic games are going to come here there's going to be one or two challenges a few of the hotels i didn't expect them to be finished but everyone in the area is working very very hard to fix these issues and everyone of course is also very very

nice and very very helpful but the problem is when you're not actually in the location when you just see a few photos tweeted perhaps over twitter and there's a few things people start to develop their ideas and when you put those things together kind of paints a picture of negativity but i think honestly from my experience here the negativity is a little bit overblown and of course all the volunteers here have been absolutely fantastic working with us the foreign media and helping us and of course after to morrow when the opening ceremonies happening i think all of that will be behind us all the if attention hopefully will focus on the athletes in the sports as opposed to the living accommodations of journalists which in the end it is a privilege to come here and cover the games. around the clock on air and online you can catch all of the olympic action on our air and on our website that we've dedicated to the games that's twenty fourteen dot r.t. dot com. twenty four

promises the ultimate in exhilarating to. join us in our way to make the best of. the sochi twenty four take. on. the olympic spirit could offer warring sides in syria some respite rusher urging all those involved in global conflicts emphasizing syria to call for an olympic truce and stop the violence at least during the event but this situation in the conflict zone seems to worsen daily its consequences being felt far and wide as hundreds of europeans who joined the fight in syria are set to return home alarm is being raised that they are bringing jihad with them a group of extremists with british citizenship fighting in the middle eastern war zone now threaten to carry out terror attacks back in the u.k. they're already spreading the virus of extremist propaganda issuing posters urging people to join their cause among the targets public transport networks and

financial centers and not just in the u.k. one of the pictures of the militants showing the front of the white house lawn in d.c. laura smith has that 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 center. and there's an estimated hundreds of britons that have joined the hottest rebel groups in syria according to a couple of studies that have 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 how we'd which is a british to have this group 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. 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 is 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 geo political commentator john white things britain's policy missteps may have contributed to the rise of extremism in syria. the tunnel events is entirely predictable and i think they have to be taken seriously this is the fruits of

a disastrous policy followed by the british government which they got to city over the last two years which has done nothing except so instability throw the region with an instability has grew and and the ideology of al qaeda the interests of the british and sitting governments are not antigun is take the actually the same and that is to defeat this malign ideology because it is a clear and present danger not only to the sitting government and to the entire region but increasingly to the west and to people in the west. masan arrest in ukraine seems to have made the country a popular destination for diplomats with the latest us state department official now when he have been toria nuland plans to meet with both the leadership and the opposition to offer washington support in putting together a new government marina porton i reports. in less than two months u.s. assistant secretary of state and 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 he's independence square handing out now now for many this seemed to put an entirely new twist on international meddling you see 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 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 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 brutal and deadly crackdowns against peaceful unarmed protesters have taken place the u.s. has a mind of 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 reform reporting from new york marina portland r.t.

. one regular guest at some world protest john mccain the u.s. senator known to ukrainian public since his first appearance at the so-called orange revolution a decade ago his interest in the post soviet space it didn't end there getting a welcoming hug from the president of georgia during its war with russia he's at the heart of the arab spring in cairo lending a helping hand in the libya uprising and most recently visiting a syrian refugee camp in turkey very true if give it your foreign affairs editor for chronicles magazine tells us how he sees the u.s. role in the situations with the united states so-called benevolent global hegemony there is no bold yeah but 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 lead to the russian foreign ministry official coming to the united states or any other place in the world to do likewise so what time surprised by 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 the violent extremists in the street controlling. the decision making matrix the decision making calculus of the opposition leaders and that is a very warring development it means that the violent in the street is waving the political dog. french government weighing reform plans to reform its immigration policies and something meeting a wall of resistance with many saying the proposals violate key national ideals we take a look at that and more after a short break. the united states has significant technological over the rest of it while it is now using that is why on the rest of the wall then there was the deal between the u.s.

and england where us 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 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. language. we can do with oh if you're going to. choose good it's because since you. choose to use the degree to. choose the stories that if you. choose the accent often.

seventeen minutes past the hour a british couple facing a battle to avoid extradition to the u.s. caught an illegal tangle. they'd rather take their own lives than be taken away from their families. one morning fourteen months ago a life changing knock on the door with two policemen from scotland yard and i said where i was sorting was done and we've 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 u.s. 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 the dumb say they're not afraid of trial but their worst fears be sent to the states as the possibility of being denied bail and spending here is behind bars apart from one another simply waiting for their day in court if we were away from

this country is. 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 the u.k. is no compensation and. wrongful act for tyshan. can you imagine coming back to this country you know three or four years later no harm no money no job and you're now in you know sixty two sixty three years by 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're 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 think your case and unfortunate for british that 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 and twenty eleven found at the treaty quote does not operate in an unbalanced manner but this contradicts findings of the parliament's joint committee and 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 but for every argument on this side of the atlantic a counter is thrown back the united states has never denied a request under the treaty whereas the united kingdom has denied multiple requests from the united states if the relationship is imbalanced i would say it's imbalanced against the united states but that is little comfort to the dunham's 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 we can and. does are cilia r t london. when the virtual world steps into reality a new generation treatment for gunshot wounds stops the bleeding in seconds with scientists hoping to replace all known battlefield treatments in the future head to our website for more details on that plus. if you thought it was a force for world peace you're in good company the president of euro why nominated for a nobel prize for making his country the first to fully legalize pot find out more of our. france playing to overhaul its immigration policies after the prime minister admitted the system is failing a government report says the state should become more arab oriented but that's drawing fire from the opposition which feels it could put an end to the french

culture as we know it. has more from paris. the bar salute has been living in pairs for new you three decades step by step she's gone from getting a worker's sperm 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 on integration 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 that undermines the secular nature of french society. the report has sparked a wave of criticism of political rivals accusing the prime minister of undermining

national values instead of promoting them calling it a dangerous provocation that threatens the country's decades long migration policies it's estimated for us officially received around two million immigrants over the past ten years and one of two hundred thousand. 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 as a citizen of the republic and even mentioning someone's foreign roots could be enough for discrimination case in court french republic. doesn't like groups of it is we are not in the simplicity of the. us they are used to deal with cultural at nick communities in france we don't like

this we want every citizen to be a part of the friendship of another part of his community. will trickle out of. the proposals are put into action and with such strong opposition it's possible none of them will make it into legal cool but the report may be opening a pandora's box with signs of a growing design to meet changes to migration policy that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago you go to school of. turning out of some other stories making international headlines at least twenty two people killed forty five others wounded in a string of car bombings across baghdad police explosives concealed in park vehicles and busy commercial parts of the capital on wednesday multiple blast claimed forty seven lives across iraq no groups have admitted to the strikes which come at a time of rising sunni militant activity. transport chaos sweeping britain's capital for a second day with millions of people facing delays due to a workers' strike in the london underground most stations out of action commuters

about to stay home or face massive lines from buses and underground trains means to clear the strike over plans to close ticket offices and cut jobs. next on worlds apart so i want to go meet an activist fighting to set computer software free stay with us. recently an 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 poll cause russia wide anger while they pose 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 well slavery really that bad it was a bone 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 mean mean mean these people could never imagine sacrificing the great and wonderful mean for any cause sacrificed me to the dog seems a plus for me i'd rather kiss their boots and learn german but it wasn't for millions of russians put their self-interest as a distant second then all those great and wonderful me s. would have been worked to death and shot a nazi death camp it pays to make a few sacrifices for society but fascist my opinion. to think great thing about saatchi is that it was the unique city that was most

listed here we are at this see story here it's always really warm but in krasnaya polyana which is just forty six kilometers from. here there's plenty of fresh powder to be steam so the thought of she's going to move out of this is very convenient will be deployed plenty of snow in the end everybody's comfortable. athletes are comfortable fans are comfortable well that's what makes you so choose so unique. because why it's it this perfect at least for the winter olympics. i mean where else do you have this. hello welcome to the wilds of part it's one of the sweetest and most toxic wars in

any language the one that can be used to both save and kill people in large numbers freedom what does it mean in today's world doesn't the quest for freedom often result in the worst form of tyranny to discuss that i'm knowledge joined by famous technologist and philosopher richard stallman dr spellman thank you very much for your time i know that you've been a very vocal advocate of freedom for many many years and you define freedom as having control and know having control of your own life exactly and i think that whenever we speak about the use of software or even about governance having control presupposes some sort of knowledge some sort of expertise and my question to you whether that makes a privilege something that you have to actually work for something that you have to earn and deserve rather than you know you know i disagree totally first of all we

need to distinguish freedom from power freedom is having control of your own life but when but power is when one person has control over another person's life and freedom it's certainly not a privilege everyone's entitled to freedom. to the extent it is at all possible you just said everyone is entitled to freedom but my question to you is whether everyone can really use freedom of course you know even if you don't know all the details about how a computer system is implemented you can still exercise control over what that computer system does now this is an interesting point because when you're using a program freedom means having control over what that program does now there can be individual control one user at

a time and then there's collective control groups of users up to the size of the whole world exercising control over that program but all of those are the opposite of power power is what happens with a non free program where there's an entity that's the owner and that owner controls the program and the program controls the users so this is the injustice when there isn't freedom if you can transfer it see the political aspect of things i know that you've been involved in politics as well it's almost anathema in the western political thought to suggest that certain countries or people may not be qualified for freedom but i think it's very interesting idea to ponder and let's let's take the example of libya and know that it caught your attention back in two thousand and eleven the year for a very vocal critic of alfie you called him a butcher and. i think by now it's been well established that the extent of that

office pitcher was exaggerated greatly and maybe even purposefully i've not convinced i don't know if i've seen the estimates but i've certainly seen the gadhafi is was quite a butcher of course western countries such as the u.k. and maybe the u.s. as well delivered people up to his his. his dissidents dissidents from libya who had fled they were delivered up to get out feet to torture and punish so i'm not i don't at all regret that gaddafi was kicked out of power now bad things have happened in libya since then i don't know if it was possible to predict i didn't but my question to you is you know those people who sought to oust gadhafi and by no means. condone his.