success in saw the first winners in the twenty fourteen winter games the slide to the podium to claim their medals off that day one of competition. equipment failure could have ruined the dreams of olympic gold for some german skiers and biathletes already that is if their russian opponents hadn't put a rivalry aside to help them out. seeds of street violence and golfing bosnia herzegovina protesters clashed with police and set government buildings ablaze hole amid soaring unemployment economic stagnation and corruption. plus a suicide bombing reportedly carried out by a british citizen in syria sparking fresh fears that hundreds of western volunteers could pose

a threat when they return home from the war. a very warm welcome to you from all of us here at the moscow m rule receive a with the latest world news so let's head straight down to sochi kevin owen is standing by in our studio there ready for a look at the first official day of competition at the winter olympics. hi again yep as you say officially day one of the winter olympics here in sochi that was incredibly successful day for the norwegians up in the mountains and maybe we should call the flying dutch turn on the black sea coast spoke a bit of correspondent paul scott to find out exactly who has dreams of a limpy goal came true today than. well there are no medals for russia on day one

of the sochi twenty fourteen winter olympics but they are in a good position to pick up their first medal of these games in the figure skating team event after five of eight rounds they currently lead the overall standings meanwhile biathlete ole darling has created history he's become the joint record holder for the most amount of winter olympic medals he now has twelve to his name and seven of them a gold he's also become the oldest individual gold medal winner in winter olympics history this is after he claimed gold in the men's ten k. sprint event there was also a super display from the netherlands in the speed skating in the men's five thousand meters they claim the one two three gold silver and bronze spend kramer successfully defending his title well let's take a look at the medals table then you can see that it's norway that lead the way at the moment but that fantastic display by the netherlands has put them right up amongst the leaders and we've seen the first awarding of the medals to the athletes

it's going to happen daily at eight fourteen pm in the coastal cluster in the medals plaza there of course it happens eight fourteen pm because that's twenty fourteen representing the small talk of a fantastic performance there fantastic show as well as their paulo's already been a display of true lympics spirit. and german athletes were going to be pretty much under prepared for there are events now for the skiers and for the by athletes there's a special machine that prepares their skis it gets them ready for competitions in the german machine it actually broke now the german federation was scratching around looking for support and seeking assistance from other teams here with the winter olympics they approach austria their rivals who refused to help but russia did decide to help they put the rivalry to one side and assisted their opposition to the olympic spirit is shining through and we're all in our pm have never experienced a special three theories. an inside. job fair play the russian friends

were. harassed in the us they gave us handed over the key and so it was possible that our team last night. prepared is now mentioned a few moments ago the medals table let's find out a bit more about those medals here's my colleague andrew farmer. i. think. it's what all ashley says sort of she's a dreamy podium finish and an intake medal around. and if a good enough to get one they'll be taking flying something. these guns reflexive cheese landscape by the jacket he says translated for yana he just sandy beaches of the black sea is designed that movies feed him some power lympics with

a curiously her influence will get movement for the exits take up back here and olympic gold medal weighs an average of five hundred twenty five hundred forty grams paralympic gold medal is about six hundred seventy just six hundred eighty grams but the reason for the weight difference between olympic gold medals it is because the titles of different sport disciplines vary in length they have to be engraved which means that the longer the title of the disappointed the lighter the . similar to what their weight each one takes a staggering eighteen hours to make it starts on the ladies and medals are cut to the right size a special machine creates that icy looking center and the game's trademark patchwork quilt pattern is engraved reflecting russia's cultural diversity all part of twenty five different manufacturing steps recalled thirteen hundred medals have

been minted in this one. at the sochi games where twelve new events will make darien peak debut it's been a big undertaking for a russian jewelry manufacturer adam and. eve needed two tonnes of silver which is the main ingredient and it does mean that when his medals are not worth their weight in gold which is only used as a final casing the fact there are rules only it's just a few hundred dollars although many actually will tell you they are in fact priceless andry farmer r.t. . here make your official station for all the back stories that are here and of course the first medals of the twenty four to the olympics were awarded to most of the get for the slope style snowboarding the twist and turn there the american rider and sporting legend shore white pulled out before the games began he said he was worried about the safety of the course earlier we asked billy morgan about that nothing for team great britain to see what he thinks about the venues here in sochi is taking this. has been amazing considering you

know there wasn't much here before before they started building result she is absolutely ridiculous as you know everything you need it doesn't seem like it is miss in the villages the villages goodell works the transports fine they would be so easy to have lots of problems like you know having some and so knew the you know there's always problems but they've got around to the few problems they have had it is right really well i've enjoyed it a lot so far they had problems with with the machinery on the slope which is a common thing if it's too warm you can't get the machines on the slopes but the next day it was cold enough and they got the machines on and it was it was super smooth your problem was they couldn't smooth out properly but that was all gone the next day so we were turned up you know it was a bit scary but it was all fixed and it's been brilliant ever since. russian tradition you see where there's a will there's a way now all the sporting action for see there by the glitz and their gloss of the opening ceremony of the shoulder there the spectacular show gave the audience

a journey through russia's unique and complicated history the culmination of the ceremony was over of course the lighting of the olympic flame the all are going to two of russia's most celebrated our fleet soviet hockey legend various live tragedy i can also legendary figure skater winner rodney we caught up with her she shared with us what it's like to be the final torchbearer in the longest a limp relay ever. yes well it just let it it seems it's my destiny to do everything as a pair but it's a fantastic experience it's so great that we've been entrusted with such an honor i have these games will be extremely exciting it's always exciting at the olympics everything is brand new here the weather is beautiful and it's creating a festive mood for everyone especially athletes and it's very important because the olympics has long been about so much more than just sports. so many famous faces here in the maybe surprising among the olympic hopefuls and

saatchi's a very familiar face from a very different discipline globally renowned violinist vanessa mae is qualified for the women slalom representing thailand she says she's hoping to deliver a virtual ghost of performance on the slopes this time to. i mean so it's my view that me and you live a very days when it's rational right so much to be and by you that you know that every day believe me days when i end up like me and had a certain extent i have to say that if we don't meet anything i mean be a fine coming young age and it was something that i was single minded at that i mean the i am serious minister here it's easy but i got myself on a. chair and the thing might be if you missed one day that nobody's thinking of believe me when i believe it is it. was a talented lady and she well. fair few hours ago now but the action continues i'll

be back in a couple of hours with another update for you will be exclusively covering the whole games here of course in sochi keeping a close eye on everything that's happening both where i am the black sea coast cluster and also up in the mountains as well bringing all the action there for now though. in the studio in moscow i. kevin thanks very much for that indeed and if one can find out what else is happening from our twitter feed has a list section where all the sporting disciplines are sort of in the categories it's the simplest way to keep across all the tweets coming from the very people that are competing for gold and the army of fans willing to share their experience of sochi twenty fourteen for all of us online. the g twenty fourteen promises we told them that in the exhilarating winter sports team here in germany and you say no way to make seven zero and the rest of our

lives take these teams to sochi twenty four take. on arts. all right it's ten minutes past the hour here in moscow this is r.t. international bosnians work up on saturday to streets of broken windows and smoke rising from government buildings of the day before thousands of protesters across the country went on a rampage clashing with police already as a valid to prevent further violence after the worst rioting since the one nine hundred ninety s. . i. have an amazon hundreds of people having been injured in three days of protests this in a state where forty percent of the population is jobless and the capital sarajevo author of these fired rubber bullets water cannons and tear gas to disperse the crowds in other parts of the country protesters hold rocks at security forces and torched local government buildings i don't arrest initially erupted over the closure of several state owned companies that was sold off and then collapsed under

private ownership political analyst dr mark mason says the violence is now growing into a full blown up rise. forty percent of the population of bosnia they are simply employed without any work whatsoever so these conditions are like and not at all surprising that we have a mass popular uprising some of the police may come over and that's one of the back door that has been actually studied by thoughtful scientists when about five percent of the population say they've had it with the government and they get some significant fraction of the police for him to say i'm through with this too i'm joining the protesters and i think pretty much the end of it for the government so we want to watch that very closely. are just ahead for you here on the program on r.t. international an issue of immigration people in switzerland preparing to decide whether the influx of foreign workers should be. all that critics say the economy would be

the area that really suffers the most. the meantime on the program it is damage control in washington this after a leaked recording of a phone conversation apparently involving the u.s. assistant secretary of state now revealing the depth of america's involvement in ukraine's and government unrest so that would be great i think to help glue this thing and have the u.n. help glue it and you know. be you well the use of strong language by victoria nuland was recorded while she was talking to the u.s. ambassador and key have other markets cause the outrage of certainly from the german chancellor angela merkel she called newton's choice of words completely unacceptable international affairs commentator off he says the conversation shows america's overall neglect of the sovereignty of other states. this story would not have gained traction and would not have cheap the exposure it had if that word had not come out i'm afraid that we are obscuring the actual content of the discussion

which is all but you know presenting a blueprint for regime change the least significant word she should dress during the course of the conversation with the u.s. ambassador is the one that has gained the notoriety for better or worse that it has what you're really seeing is just casually and callously the u.s. state department plots political transformation and other countries outside the legitimate which is saving a lot of toral reno oh it in effect engineers' regime change even going down into the most mind my new particulars as to who should and should not be a future prime minister. of the us state department didn't deny the authenticity of the recording saying that nuland has already apologized for her comments and washington's continued claim that it's not involved in ukraine's political process certainly left the state department spokesperson on the back foot it shouldn't be a surprise that there are discussions about events on the ground it's more than discussions this is the u.s.

midwife in the process there is a difference between private discussions that happen and the interagency process in the building and what we convey publicly as a u.s. government that's what you do as as a i'm somebody may if you're saying privately behind the scenes that you're cooking up a deal and then you're saying publicly that this isn't for you creating incentives side those are two totally different things are also new still to come in a way that will be a very short break. this is a media lead us so we need to be. bush and secure the place your party physical . questions that no one is asking with the guests that you deserve answers from it's all on politics only on our t.v. .

speak your language. programs and documentaries in arabic it's all here on. reporting from the world of interviews intriguing stories for you. to find out visit. if you are just joining us welcome to the program here on our international the un

brokered cease fire in the syrian city of homs has been broken with both sides of the conflict blaming each other it has delayed the international aid convoys on the way to help civilians red crescent truck is being fired upon several people reportedly injured as well now dozens of homes residents were evacuated on friday as part of agreements reached at the geneva two conference and the syrian government says it is ready to continue talks with the opposition at the un mediated summit though the rebel not enjoy popular support back home in syria a radical islamists and the fight against assad and the militant have been bolstered by hundreds of european volunteers sparking fears they could bring back home with them as. a british you had is known as. tommy is believed to be the first brit to have carried out a suicide attack in syria after a vehicle packed with explosives was taken to a prison allowing some three hundred prisoners to escape now british citizens.

along with other europeans that traveling to syria as young as sixteen and fighting alongside jihad as groups of long been a concern for authorities it's believed now that there are about three hundred fifty britons over there making up the largest contingent of some one thousand westerners and this is a new development reinforces the urgency expressed by a governments here and having to deal with this specific group of jihad is scary they are contrails passport. information is finally come out they were seeing this actually happen in syria however given the trends that we've seen in syria over the past few years it's not surprising that we're seeing british individuals or foreign individuals more generally becoming involved in suicide operations on the ground i think if we compare this particular conflict in syria with the jihadist battlefields that we've seen around the world need the rapidity with which we've seen the large numbers of foreigners be drawn to the battlefield is from my perspective i'm president of the numbers that were being they were hearing created

about our news for british intelligence and it presents a very difficult picture for them to manage in sounding the alarm over this phenomenon authorities are regreasing be worried about what happens with these individuals return home group of britain sub already threatened to carry out terrorist attacks in the u.k. and this is believed to be the first direct threats to come out of syria reporting from london i'm tests are cilia. for you briefly into the aussie world update now to tokyo we go for riot police fire water cannons tear council hundreds of demonstrators in istanbul's main square crowds of people who hold firecrackers and star supreme protesting legislation which critics able to type of government control of the internet all those who are calling on the leaders to resign twitter on facebook are widely used by antigovernment protesters during demonstrations. a russian woman has been killed along with another post in a train derailment in the french alps it was travelling from the city of nice

officials say a boulder smashed into one of her colleagues injuring nine others. now the swiss are preparing for a referendum on whether to cap immigration polls do show increasing support for the plan to limit the number of foreigners moving to switzerland though some warning it's only going to backfire on the economy as lucy caffein off found out. welcome to switzerland breathtaking views plentiful jobs and low taxes it's no surprise that the streets here are growing more crowded some eighty thousand new residents arrive each year a significant number for a country of just eight million our industry our economy meets immigration to a certain point but everybody under mr underestimated the situation the number of people coming is much much higher than anywhere else in the world on sunday

switzerland will ask its citizens whether to reintroduce quotas for immigration from abroad including e.u. members although itself not a part of the blog switzerland has signed on to the e.u. rules on freedom of movement if passed the initiative would pit the swiss against an angry brussels but supporters aren't worried the swiss parties the swiss and the political elite they were very enthusiastic about joining the european union ten years ago. but people changed they saw the disadvantages they saw the immigration is tremendous much bigger than we thought and so there's also a change of thinking and anti immigration slogans are gaining more traction here in switzerland at first about a third of voters supported the initiative now that favors over forty percent so what's behind this push to keep outsiders out of switzerland will some experts say and motions a lot to do with that. there is competition in the housing market competition. in

treasury. and there is competition in the legal market so distance and it's populist politics bloody this. in this field but as elsewhere in europe anti immigration messages seem to be resonating and pollster say even voters without political affiliation may vent their frustration comes sunday voters like this. swiss businessman who owns a cosmetics factory. name as a manufacturer i profit from this the more people i sell my products to the better but i'm also a swiss citizen i don't want to live like a sardine in my country switzerland is tiny and we simply can't accommodate all the immigrants the country can't take anymore. but the proposed curbs also take aim at highly skilled workers there is no way to run the hells or education system. because there's no way to do modern business in particular financial services

franking without foreigners in there's no way to run to receive this out wages and cooks from other countries switzerland is highly dependent on this work force four in ten companies in switzerland including nestle are founded by foreigners last year they created around thirty thousand new jobs thought it's a bit weird that no they are against the foibles because they need them i mean we're not stealing the jobs we're just taking the job they don't want to do so that's why i figured so this this potentially lou i don't understand how this sunday's vote is likely to strain ties with brussels but the fear is that it could have more economic consequences than the country bargained for reporting for r t in switzerland and lucy catherine of. the latest edward snowden leaks detail how you can tell agents stops nothing when trying to get the information it so desperately needs and reports accuse british agents of using sex cyber attacks and propaganda

to get to that targets the full story and all the gory details right now on our website. i want you this story as well the maas rover curiosity capturing an image of planet earth taken directly from the surface of the red planet you can look at the pictures right now at odyssey dawn. well thanks for joining us here on r.t. international i'm up next travel to the cracked streets of downtown l.a. neighborhood some referred to was only a black hole of society though if you're watching us in the u.k. you're going on the ground with. the first recreational marijuana shops are now open in colorado finally the

question of what effect legal marijuana will have on the american public can be answered with real world experience you know there are a lot of people out there with strong arguments as to why we should legalize this controversial play it firstly there are plenty of things just as bad for us as marijuana or worse like beer cigarettes anti-depressants and mystery fast food meats which are totally legal secondly young men are often thrown in jail for the absolutely victimless crime of smoking marijuana i can see punishing someone for drugs like crystal meth which can and do turn people into maniacs but have any of you out there ever heard of someone breaking into people's houses on a we ramp age no no you haven't the downside to all of this is that across america while the world people are looking for change and they want the massive storm rise but when the masses are stoned out of their minds it makes things in life that we shouldn't tolerate become very tolerable we now call allow us to make it through another day of our miserable lives so that we can live without going through all that effort of trying to make things better or challenge the system legalizing weed

will just pacify the masses even more but that's just my opinion. skid row is a neighborhood of fifty plaques which does not appear on any map of los angeles.

you. know. you need new. mood. on. this new rule basically. and there still. is is good and bad clashing things here that you've been experiencing shit that there is just no way i mean it's no movie it is no book this

dish is a real life experience to see people get beat up every night people get robbed at bus ticket because. i seen people get hit by a car you don't pay b.o.'s you don't know if you don't pay the car noticed your new responsibilities are not here because where homeless just less of a home baby my reality was that i was there you know skid row is the last house on the block at g.o.p. we're just in my neighborhood you know i. basically almost slept on every street down here at one time or another i think i would never ever live in a way else you know skid row is my home. as many as eleven thousand men and women make their home in l.a. scattered around. about two thirds struggle with mental illness track addiction or both but it wasn't always this way. i came to skid row it was more like skid

row's we identify old drunks and old drunks on the street. it used to look terrible he's old chris incarnation of drunks. and when it was really safe because they were not very aggressive now we have young strong crack addicts who are many times are willing to take a chance at rolling stone to get their money to get some work crack it's a different addition. there's always been efforts to get rid of skid row it was a war and for people who are unable to live in the world and they were given the tried to move through again and again but just moved into a different area when big money developers began to revitalize downtown the flop houses got new neighbors and penned houses and high end lofts. there are not many places where the gap between rich and poor is a striking as it is here. literally there is just a block or troops operating those two things and i'm cruising where there's muscles

operating it was too tight so i was chucked for to enjoy going over to. skid row this is a newer through my stilts. back here we would have been robbed if people didn't come down to see into downtown just well the air would add three if you know all this is dirt fields and burn barrels and they will cut your throat down to your people to come past main street you doing dishes call the pit spec down. to people are told a different side of the whole generation. just see potential real estate it's really the ground for it's fear that people are interested in not much interest on the people who are on the ground everyone who lands on skid row has a story to tell about how they got there for many it's the last stop after losing everything for some the fall especially turn magic my life you know prior.