it's only a matter of hours now before the official start of the twenty fourteen when certain games anticipation is growing with the entry surrounding the opening ceremony adding to the excitement plus he says the competition is just about ice and snow not all the athletes of gathered here in sochi will be giving out the fashion gongs at the winter olympics for all the weird and wonderful costumes to the overly bright and just downright bizarre. and embarrass us diplomats try to laugh off on apparently packed explicit phone chats about how they could sailor the next ukrainian government.

this is artsy international with main arena call survivable. well as you can see from the olympic countdown clock in the hearts of moscow there are just a matter of hours to go before the flame of the ones who games as let's at the olympic stadium. just over nine hours to be precise now some of the competitions have already kicked off the world is holding its breath for the official opening ceremony and organizers promise that it will be mind blowing or sees paul scott as the middle of make capital for us. it's been seventy s since so she was awarded the winter olympics in a few hours' time we're going to see the culmination the climax of all that hard work and all doubt planning the opening ceremony gets underway at eight fourteen pm local time in the fish stadium that you can probably make out behind me and i was fortunate enough to get a ticket for the final dress rehearsal on choose david and i can tell you that the forty thousand plus spectators who are going to be inside the stadium are going to

be treated to a high tech pyrotechnic display a condensed journey through russian history and although the ending ceremony hasn't begun in the olympic cauldron hasn't been lit we still don't know the identity of the person tossed with despite those things the sport has started the events began on thursday and the continuing to run throughout friday and also has spoken to a couple of athletes who have tested their venues ahead of their events and they say that such she is ready to welcome the sporting world her suppressions having good we've been putting every day. at. places. like states we don't have this much that's accessible but so easily. right off to live. right in the sun every day. so yeah. i think the russians are very enthusiastic about sport and about the olympics so i expect them to play great hosts of the world and so far what i've seen has been

very impressive and i can't wait to get down to the venues and see the called again well tonight's opening ceremony will also see the climax of the journey for the olympic torch it's on its record breaking sixty five thousand kilometer journey around the world's largest country it's in the final stages of that journey of course has been to the bottom of the world's deepest lake lake by kalas going to the top of the highest peak in europe mt elbrus and has even been into outer space on the north pole and in the last twenty four hours it's been carried by a number of high profile figures as well include. russia's foreign minister he's taken time out of his busy schedule to pick up the baton as has u.n. secretary general ban ki moon who is here for tonight's opening ceremony and organizers say that for the olympic torch relay it is almost a case of mission accomplished it's of course the longest and biggest in time in history so it's been a huge logistical effort to make this happen in russia in winter time but it's been

a fantastic journey and i mean every dream. we had before we started and it's really come three so it's it's been an amazing journey really showing the best of russia everybody over the next few hours the olympic torch is going to snake its way through such a before arriving here in the fish stadium for the opening ceremony and atmosphere is building because the sochi twenty fourteen winter olympics are now just hours away. all they're about nine hours nine minutes and a few seconds still left to go we've got a team of correspondents across the olympic host city now monitoring all of the events for us paul we just saw his report he's actually in the coastal cluster that's where the olympic park is and where the opening ceremony will also take place this evening there are athletes and five different kinds of sports and they will be competing there the rest of will happen up there in the mountains and despite me looking far up it's actually a half an hour away and farmer is there for us. when russia won the right to host

these olympics there wasn't even a paved road leading to the ocean who never mind a telly cabin but now look at it it is a fully fledged european style ski village there are hotel chains here as well as restaurants and cafes there is even a nightclub around the corner but this place is in it for the long haul because long after the olympics have packed up and gone home it's hope that many kinds of tourists will come here for decades to come there's something like sixty kilometers worth of ski runs and three ski areas around this place and that is set to be expanded so this little tour even though it's been sure does show that there's much more to these olympics than just sporting venues it's all about the overhaul and the entire regeneration of the region and before the medal count against let's take a look at some basic numbers determine in these games so these are the twenty second winter olympics and they are definitely record breaking almost three thousand athletes from the largest ever number of countries eighty eight will compete in

tsotsi that's in the record number of sporting events ninety eight and that's competitions more than banku or four years ago another record such as broken as the costs these are specially the most expensive ones are games and. but there is an impact on not just about sportsmanship and council medals there is one more competition and despite an old war it's still going to catch. top designers worldwide have put all their efforts into making the teams the gold standard of olympic fashion artie's want to look at the results. course all the eyes will be on the procession tonight at the opening ceremony and indeed what people are wearing other uniforms are they costumes all day indeed political statements so let's give you a wrap of what you can expect tonight let's go straight to the german team they stand out from the crowd we have them designed by the bug that total coats in what could

be described as a rainbow childish garish effect with that bright colors of pink yellow blue green a few people have said that it's a nod towards the anti gay attitude and subjects running the controversy of the games but personally i think it's just a throwback to the cab as a my little pony so that's the german team for you expect them to be there tonight said be selling out in the procession let's move on to my opinion and what i think are the most stylish and chic uniforms that will be showing tonight they are of course america some say new york is the fashion capital of the world and the costumes uniforms are designed by ralph lauren they were unveiled last year and of course they are here in the pico says that coat with a slim sweatpants with a floppy hats with a star design in the colors red white and blue so personal thumbs up to the american team now let's go from something quite acceptable to the weird and wonderful let's take

a look at the scandinavian country of norway and the curling team in the zigzag efforts of what you can see now in the colors also is red white and blue they wanted to feel at ease on the ice with what they're wearing and they certainly will be wearing those outfits so fingers crossed that costume will work for them because personally i would not want to wear that outfit living also a great guy he's been in the papers and covered by lots of the media it's the mexican ski championship herbert's von holzen who and he's actually just one eighth mexican he's actually descendant of german royalty people say he's a prince. the people that don't he'll be wearing the lehrer outfit and you certainly won't miss him in his. ruffled succeeded with his red tie and come about and that's the prince hubertus von holding on to the russian bombshell that is arena recently she posed for a glossy magazine wearing just long as you re with curling stone she's got lots of

tongues wagging lots people are looking forward to seeing her tonight of course she isn't just a pretty face but she is a celebrity here and russian of course tonight will also be seeing other teams from around the world including great britain and the rest of the russian team so while three billion people might be watching the opening ceremony for the famous torch bearing other people will see it as a fashion and somewhat political statement regarding what people are wearing what to look forward to in the excitement here is just incredible our season marson andras there was the latest on the fashion trends from salsa it's one hundred fourteen will do stay with us as we begin our special coverage of the games from our lympics studio and salty. twenty fourteen promises we call to make an exhilarating winter and. joining us now a i'm a criminal and i'm the last of our limp news team for some cheap twenty four take.

on. the phone call of washington's behind the scenes casting for ukraine's next leader has calls red faces at the state department so that would be great i think to help blew this thing and have the u.n. help glue it and you know the e.u. and then the parent conversation with the masses or in t.f. they do last us top diplomat for europe victoria nuland outlined a failsafe scheme to forge a new government they've been a very special role to the here's our new york correspondent arena porton iowa with more details on the leak and that role. well what you hear during this four minute conversation is basically two top u.s. officials strategizing about how to form ukraine's new government it sounds like they're playing a game of chess with the opposition leaders as the pieces on that chess board they're trying to determine which opposition leader has the best economic and

governing experience to work inside ukraine's new government and which opposition leaders should remain on the outside it's a bit shocking to actually hear i had to listen to it a few times to really grasp the fact that there are strategizing on how to put together the government of another country instead of paraphrasing everything let's let our viewers actually take a listen for themselves. the piece was obviously that complicated electronics you're. going to miss deputy prime minister and you've seen some of our notes on the troubles in the marriage right now so we're trying to get a read really fast on where he is on this stuff and i'm glad you sort of put him on the spot on where he fits in this scenario so i don't think leetch should go into the government i don't think it's necessary i don't think it's a good idea in terms of going to the government just let him sort of stay out in doofus judical homework and stuff i think he is the guy who's got the economic experience the governing experience he's the he's the guy you know what he needs

his cleats in tiny book on the outside he needs to be talking to them four times a week well clearly this is a highly embarrassing situation for the united states particularly because we've been here u.s. officials insist for so long that they're not involving themselves in ukraine's internal circumstance. for for the spokesperson for the for the u.s. state department she had a pretty difficult day on thursday jen psaki was put in the hot seat journalist one after another reporters kept asking her why u.s. officials are interfering in ukraine's internal problems at one point corresponded said point blank that the leaked converses. list is attempting to construct a new government in a sovereign country and actually bring officials in from the un to seal the deal one thing u.s. officials had not spin their way out of it is the profanity and dismissive tone of the story nuland used when referring to the european union and its involvement in

ukraine for that an apology was issued she's been in close contact with representative ashton also let me convey that she has been in contact with her e.u. counterparts and and of course has apologized but. for these reported comments of course you're not confirming that because it's your shoes i'm just not going to speak to a private diplomatic conversation but i'm obviously speaking to the content of the reports. misaki also tried to make somewhat of a joke when she was in damage control mode when she was referring to the use of profanity when it came to victoria nuland the assistant secretary of state let's take a listen you may know the story of how she lived on the russian boat for about eight months when she was twenty three in she learned how to perfect perhaps certain words in a couple of languages so perhaps it speaks to that more than

a pervasive viewpoint you know suggesting that she is a predisposition against russian no i was suggesting that she learned russian curse words and curse words on the diseases of these issues english. i was making an error learning the first words on a fishing boat there you see a us folks person trying to make a joke out of a situation that is quite scandalous quite embarrassing not sure of any high official i officially in ukraine are laughing at this moment after their hearing this leaked conversation on you tube about you know the united states strategizing on how to build a new government in a sovereign country foreign policy expert and both points out that the u.s. may be trying to divert public attention away from a spoke of political critics. we have a situation where a high ranking official of the u.s. government who's even been to kiev an issue of what was distributing cookies to the demonstrators back when they were still relatively peaceful is referring to these

guys as you know glib tiny book i would i would seriously be upset i would i would consider this an insult she's apologized for a comment and she's not admitting she made which is itself a confirmation that the comment was made but will she hasn't apologized for is the plans to midwife a new government in ukraine in other words she's she's apologizing for you but she's not apologizing for trying to overthrow a government in kiev and calling the popular democracy obviously there's more to it than that i don't think anybody in the us establishment to sorry for what they're trying to do i think they're very proud of it and i think they're going to pursue it. and if you want more our web site has got all the lengths of the leak itself as well as the reaction of the u.s. state department it's all there for you at artsy dot com also online and ugly moments for c.n.n. that after its release that's less than the world's ugliest monuments after the broadcaster found space to call an important world war two memorial unsightly

triggering of your. own pronouncing it online for the full story. plus and saudi arabia which counts as a bounce a big hit and. religious police have formed a special task force to find and slack users suspected of being what says all the details that artsy dot com. down. in the final month the london deal sang night and the rest during the case you will be every week on.

one of the new marginalized. face. a pleasure to have you with us here on our t.v. today i'm sure. would creating these sustainable operations focused on making him and from what you are advocating in my term self-interest i'm sure that is what your government which is has always been the case and had. businesses for hundreds of years without using

the label of what i think was what got capitalism do was this notion that economists brought to it which was the idea of profit maximizing. may be yours you don't know if you don't carry chorused response to really. most everyone in my life that i cared about their goal much and then it became a skin. i was a national champion in track and field and also was able to go in qualifying for the olympic games. you know nine hundred eighty eight i started to experiment with that the drugs i had lost all the financial means that i. was really on the street

. black market was. great. welcome back this is artsy international flights where the seer scotland holds a referendum on independence but the politicians in london are going to do whatever they can to prevent a yes vote from happening prime minister david cameron will give a speech today urging scots to remain within the union he will argue a breakaway will undermine the position of brits in size artie's laura smith reports the ranks of the independent supporters are slowly but steadily growing.

keeping up the pressure is the name of the game in the race for the scottish referendum on independence david cameron's speech on fridays the latest perry in the fight and it comes as polls show a jump in support for separation since the scottish national party produced its white paper in november with details of how an independent scotland would work there's been a small number of people who want scotland to break away january poll of more than a thousand respondents twenty nine percent in favor from twenty six percent in november the campaign also appears to be convincing those south of the border support for scottish independence in england and wales has risen to twenty four percent from twenty one in november but it's certainly not all plain sailing for the pro independence campaign dudley chief of b.p.

is the most prominent businessman yet to criticize the thinking behind it dependence but others have the head of a leading north sea investment bank has said separation would be a threat to prosperity both those opinions are pretty important because the economic case for independence rests largely on how much money scotland would be able to get from north sea oil and gas and westminster is sure to use that to its advantage in the next stage of what's being dubbed project. and then some other global names more than one hundred people mostly police officers were injured when a rally against high unemployment and rampant corruption violence and northern. security forces here gas to disperse the crowds of stone foreign protesters who attacked the local government building the protests erupted after four states on companies were privatized filed for bankruptcy.

pakistan has. launched long awaited negotiations with the taliban that's aimed at boosting dialogue to strike a peace deal with it as long as movement this follows recent taliban attacks on military convoys checkpoints and civilians which have claimed thousands of lives taliban factions in pakistan have been battling the country's government for years in a bid to establish an islamic state in the region. clashes have erupted in the brazilian city of rio de janeiro that's following a rally against recent price hikes and transportation things reports say at least twenty people have been over us that train station in the city sun so it was closed after police battled mass rioters there security forces also used tear gas against protesters as well as continued and nearby streets. there is light relief for inhabitants of the syrian city of homes that's after the

government's troops in agreements with a vacuum where thousands of civilians from the besieged city now there will be joined in the stream of refugees driven out of their homes by the civil war now that number is already been estimated that when a half million people are or has the story of one sort family to hybrid mark leave is a refugee in her own country forced from a home by civil war she and her daughters are hiding from two hundred meters from the village in a three room apartment they share with another family very crime supporting president bush on a side. the terrorists want to kill me they broke into my house to find me they looted everything they kidnapped six members of my family all because they're looking for me. a lot has been said about the desperate situation facing refugees who fled across the border to neighboring countries but most of those forced from their homes by the spiraling violence are displaced within syria itself these

internally displaced people remain extremely vulnerable and their numbers continue to swell. i've been told many times to stop supporting assad and everything will be fine but i won't change my principles and they'll win we will fight has first got hold of through high birth she was eight months pregnant they kicked her so badly she lost the baby but she refused to change her politics. i ran away with my children my mother is very dear to me it is now the second age faster all that has passed without me being with her my mother has god by her side he will not abandon her. they are kidnapping young people sixteen year olds and they're cutting them into pieces when asked if she'll give herself up for family sake through high bank in fact he pieces no. if i die i want my daughters to continue in the same way everybody is going to die my mother may die

but she won't be their last victim i may die to. syria's death toll stands at more than one hundred thousand with no sign of fighting a base for many internal refugees home remains a distant dream for those like through high back it's only their ideals that gives him the strength to carry on. the r.t. damascus syria. more news for you in about thirty five minutes from now coming up the opinions alive over its hot political issues.

recently and on line poll by the liberal dawlish 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 living grad 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 bone for the economy but why would someone create this poll is because the people who wrote it are sick with the disease. types total self infatuation egoism and greed in other words were a generation mean mean mean these people could never imagine sacrificing the great and wonderful me for any cause sacrificed me to the last 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 would have been worked to death and shot the nazi death camp it pays to make a few sacrifices for society a fascist my opinion. hello and welcome to cross talk we're all things are considered i'm peter lavelle at the tender age of ten facebook has by any estimation truly changed the world it

has made it a little smaller and closer facebook also has demonstrated it can be used as a weapon for political change and this social network has shown itself to be a smart investment on the downside there are transparency issues and whether it can survive another decade. to cross-talk facebook's anniversary i'm joined by my guest clive thompson in new york he is a technology journalist for wired and the new york times magazine and author of smarter than you think how technology is changing our minds for the better also in new york we have he is an associate editor at reason twenty four seven and in washington we call. to austin peterson he is the c.e.o. of stone gate in editor of the libertarian republican dot com hi gentlemen crosstalk rules and that means you can jump in anytime you want clive you know i think over the last few days celebrating and remembering the startup of facebook we all know a lot about its accomplishments and there are many of them in

a couple of stumbles here but will you go into your crystal ball for me can they repeat the same thing during the next the course of the next decade. here i don't think they're ever going to be as big as they were maybe a year or two ago they're sort of they're almost like a like a utility for the internet now everyone sort of has to use it to get certain things done you know party organizing whatnot but i don't think people find it an exciting thing to use anymore it's not fresh and new all the the action is starting to move over to these chat services like snap chat or what's app or what not that's where kids are going these days so i think it sort of established itself as this kind of extremely useful tool it will hang around for those useful purposes but i think the air will slowly leak out of the balloon over the next ten years what do you think about that because i think it's also getting it's very it's a reliable let's put it that way but it's not nearly as exciting and and you know i think i've more or less met all my old friends from the past i mean it's trickled

off quite a bit tapered off quite a bit. well personally i am a facebook bull i do see a positive future for facebook and the reason is because it's such a great tool for businesses my small business actually runs mostly on facebook where you eighty percent of our profits do come from derived from facebook traffic and princeton university actually did a study recently that showed compared facebook to a disease like a virus and how it spreads and then it dies but i actually disagreed with it because facebook then turned around and slapped down princeton showing a study that showed that princeton's numbers are declining according to their own formula and they used it to show that the growth of facebook will continue and consider this only two billion of the five billion people in the world are actually on the internet right now so as the internet continues to grow and we have more people in the world who will be on the internet i think facebook will continue to grow as more people are getting connected that's a very good point and if i can go to you i kind i use facebook very much like austin does i use it to promote myself in this program and you know what it is.