why you should care only. russia's figure skating team claims that the host nation's first gold as the second day of the winter games wraps up in sochi but aside from the celebration of winter olympic sports the threat of something happening in sochi the western media dishes out an avalanche of criticism raising questions about whether the concerns and panic are justified plus in the week's other headlines. the u.s. assistant secretary of state has apparently been caught on tape trying to direct ukraine's political future and you know. at the same time what's a believed to be victoria nuland comments have also caused outrage in the e.u. with the german chancellor calling them unacceptable. and in switzerland votes narrowly in favor of a controversial plan to put a limit on immigration and

a nationwide referendum. and broadcasting live direct from our studios in moscow recapping the week's top stories with our weekly program this is our t.v. guide have you with us. now the second day of the two thousand and fourteen winter olympics has brought the first gold to the host nation in team figure skating russian athletes delivered impressive performances and other events as well winning silver and bronze medals as a result russia is now tied for fourth place in the medal table with canada our correspondent paul scott who is in sochi now breaks down the day's results for us. his first gold came in the figure skating team event they saw challenges from canada and the united states to take the top spot and they were helped along the way by a foolish display from one of russia's most famous sporting sons if gagne pushing

blowing the competition away in the men's free program a magnificent display when you consider in recent years he's been plagued by injury and has undergone surgery twelve times meanwhile a new star has been born a fifteen year old beauty a late night sky impressed in the ladies' free on short programs with peerless performances i mean the procession has become the youngest ever winner of the winter olympics gold medal she is six days younger than the previous record holder american tara lipinski elsewhere on day two there were three other medal successes for russia forty two year old veteran lucia. competing in a record breaking seven i'm fina winter olympics he missed out on a first ever gold medal but he did claim silva as date olga beluga in the women's biathlon seven and a half case sprint the more they all know for the first medal for russia in the

twenty fourteen winter olympics went to olga graf early on sunday she claimed bronze in the women's three thousand meters speed skating event in the arena so let's take a look at the all important medals table then and you can see that it is norway who still lead the way but the united states in the netherlands not far behind and russia starting to make their way up the leaderboard. well let's go back to the russian team's success in figure skating that left competitors trailing far behind and now he was lucky enough to catch the competition's at the iceberg skating palace earlier she joined kevin owen in our sochi studio to tell us what it was like to watch the performances in person. i think we can say that playing on the home field as they say really benefited russia tonight there were hundreds of russians in the audience we were quite high up and our whole section was it was full of russians and everyone had a good skate but i think this is where we're going to say that russia is. actually better than the soviets. in the huge stadium when it when it kicks off its buzzing

it's buzzing of course the russians when they came on to the ice and i'm sure anyone who is watching it at home felt the advantage of having the home support in the crowd was going wild and i think that helped them mad a lot of confidence. getting to some core course he's a veteran only thirty one one of the old. great show just phenomenal and of course he's been having horrible back trouble and injuries and then young you did you just phenomenal i hadn't seen you fifteen years old i hadn't seen her skate and this is her of course olympic debut i think personally she is a great chance at gold and then the pairs as well they didn't score as high as some of the russians sitting next to me thought they scored because i thought they were quite phenomenal but as a team the russian skating team is just really really strong even in through tomorrow well back in vancouver and so this olympics of course at home is about taking it back on. the russian ice hockey legend vladislav tretiak is

also in sochi now the olympic cauldron along with iconic figure skater you know in the opening ceremony he shared with us his impressions so far about the game. those who ignite the limping flame go down in history for many years to come because it's a task that is only given to the most popular in the most worthy sportsman it means the world to me because i'm representing the team of my youth the hockey team that is an eight time limpy champion i feel honored that out of all the players they chose me it's unbelievably beautiful here to see palm trees and snow i think these are going to be one of the best limpy games that have ever been held in my opinion a very good infrastructure was put together for the athletes here in sochi and everything is very compact the facilities are located conveniently close to each other no public transport is needed it's very aggravating when bus is a late whereas here everything's very well put together and the athletes are

satisfied we were commentated in prisons in the united states staying in not the most favorable conditions you just heard of largess love referring to the one thousand nine hundred eighty winter olympics in lake placid usa indeed a number of athletes were accommodated in the barracks of what became a prison today some of the western media are actually calling the sochi olympics a war zone overflowing with minor problems and have been neglecting the competition itself or he's an associate you're going to look sad why so many news outlets across the atlantic seem to cast a cloud over the event. hundreds of world class competitions involving thousands of top notch athletes sports fans all over the world rejoice it's time for a live big game fun again and some of them are pretty distressed but why feed the excitements word of a possible new terror threat character a terrorist threat terrorist threat and her world champion and multiple gold

medalist for buzz kill the western mainstream media and the olympics is a wonderful time for a contrast to get together in order to despise each other and in order to treat each other like crap it's only happens once every two or four years you know there's not a lot of time you've got to come together and hate each other and not a second has gone to waste from picking any little thing that might be off to fifty toilets but not one that could be flushed to toilets i by that i miss you toilets right next to each other just spells party that doesn't spell bad conditions three millionaires to be exact traps one very tiny room left a five paint they're trashing things the problems that that come up in every olympic games as them these were unique to sochi olympic stadium has always been accused of being an overpriced boondoggle that was constructed shoddily not ready until the very last second every single one that i can remember

a media war against the saatchi olympics taken to a ridiculous extreme but my impression of fox news is that they're just sitting around the office and they go hey it looks like no one's russian to get to sochi and i write i'm going to go eat lunch. there that was fine there's definitely quirks spinning tiny flaws into viral sensations facts or actual sports reporting be damned. it's really kind of unpleasant to watch more to the point it's pretty counterfactual as well going so far as to say that the games are being held in a war zone. as opposed to what's really a black sea resort. even though plenty of work went into security hysteria reigns the airwaves the threat of something bad happening in sochi well it's increasing by the day taking the fear of yes toothpaste to an extreme toothpaste containing explosive material it is terrifying all right did you hear all the tooth paste is

going to explode it was even staging tests on hiding explosives and tubes were c.n.n. commissioned this changed stop rushing mighty stop loss and i think that might help solve the problem no matter how much the media act as the doomsayers of the games toothpaste will be toothpaste and nonsense will be nonsense in the end the olympics will celebrate joy excitement and victory there will be winners and there will be losers hopefully able to move on with at least some snippets of dignity you're not concerned at all now you're really not really truly can we piece about why and especially if you're going to r.t. new york well we asked some of the athletes in sochi what they think about the alleged security issues as well as the overall atmosphere of the games. everything's been amazing it's running like and everything's just going really really well there hasn't been any problems as of as of today my parents have been

a little bit worried they just might just just be kept away doing really by the uniform when you have. to just be a bit half of his time. than we thought it would be i had a really great time here and i am nothing bad to say so far well organized and people are really friendly here and having a good time. well we have our team in sochi following the competition at all times and if you want to get an even closer look at the winter olympics well you can go to our instagram page there you can find an assortment of photos from the very onset of the games that is at instagram dot com slash. the g twenty fourteen promises in the exhilarating winter sports in our. social media and use in our way to make seven zero in on the rest of our lives take justina for sochi twenty four take. on. well this

week a major gaffe by one of america's top officials has left washington red faced a scandal erupted after recording was leaked apparently involving the u.s. assistant secretary of state comments caught on tape revealed the depth of america's meddling in ukraine's anti-government unrest artie's marina porton i reports in ukraine we stand for the principle that all people have the right to express themselves freely in peaceful way. and they have a say in their country's future as it turns out washington isn't just cheering from the sidelines. in this video posted anonymously on you tube my understanding from that u.s. assistant secretary of state victoria nuland and the u.s. ambassador in the kieve are heard orchestrating ukraine's political future playing a game of verbal chess with ukraine's opposition leaders i think you know the guy who's got the economic experience the governing experience he's the he's the guy

you know what he needs is clear on a book on the outside he needs to be talking to them four times a week the embarrassingly conversation goes from bad to worse when washington senior diplomat drops the f. bomb dismissing the european union's role in ukraine so that would be great i think to help glue this thing and have the u.n. help glue it and you know the e.u. the state department has shifted into damage control refusing to confirm the authenticity of the audio while admitting that victoria nuland has apologized to her european allies for the profanity she's apologized for a comment to she's not admitting she made which is itself a confirmation that the comment wasn't indeed made but will she hasn't apologized for the plans to midwifery new government in ukraine you know the way she's she's apologizing for you but she's not apologizing for trying to overthrow a government in kiev and calling it popular democracy the diplomatic scandal here as nuland arrived in ukraine for her second visit in less than two months back in

december she was walking around kiev's independence square handing out snacks to protesters this time around the assistant secretary of state promised to feed the country with financial support if necessary political reforms are implemented at a press conference nuland refused to comment on what she called a private diplomatic conversation this is a devastating revelation and a very important revelation because it show. that washington is not only manipulating the washington is dictating who shall be in the government and they have taken the power away from the people. bring up or naive party. victoria nuland use of strong language was sharply criticized by germany's chancellor angela merkel who called of the current unacceptable load the newest former deputy speaker of the belgian parliament says the conversation is a clear demonstration of how america really regards other states looking to do real

good diplomacy behind closed doors this confirms a long stance of the united states and the e.u. budget way towards alou conscious diddy's danger to. democracy. this once more undermines the whole cleam of transparency and democracy building and but to do building of political institutions these are all ideological efforts to influence politics in. that also by the way shows how casual these people can talk about the do politics of another country. coming up later in the program are pushed to the edge of desperation. and they put us on a plane we will take the chance to make and. a british couple tells r.t. about how a u.s. extradition request shattered their lives as they begin

a legal fight at the high court in london plus. we investigate why the land of the rising sun is seeing a decline in internet relationships which could cause the population to dwindle. switzerland by a narrow margin has voted in favor of putting a ceiling on foreign migrants including e.u. citizens the result of a nationwide referendum could have virtually affect the nation's ties with the bloc baronet now has to renegotiate treaties on the free movement of workers adopted over a decade ago the decision is also likely to hurt to the country's economy as artie's lucy cuffing off reports. voted to shut the door to european union workers setting up a showdown with brussels as well as a potential exit from the single european market now the so-called stop mass immigration initiative was the brainchild of the right wing swiss people's party which wants strict quotas on foreigners for switzerland to essentially abandon its

free movement of people treaty with the e.u. and supporters the we've talked to say that they're worried immigration is driving up rents that it's undercutting local workers and that is burdening public services now opponents had argued that immigration caps would in fact cripple economic growth and experts do say that the swiss in column e. is. not despite foreign labor especially when it comes to folks who have skills to work in fields like health care and i.t. where there's a big need for skilled workers but despite the very real economic concerns despite the fact that on the one we care is just three percent many voters were ultimately swayed by the argument that switzerland simply cannot take in any more people now in order to understand why you really do have to look at the numbers about a quarter of the country's eight million residents aren't swiss there's been a huge uptick in immigration in fact about eighty thousand new immigrants came to switzerland last year alone the vote will likely mean severe repercussions with

brussels you have to remember that switzerland isn't a member of the e.u. but it has signed on to a lot of the blocs policies in order to gain access to the european markets for switzerland sells more than half of everything that it produces and with five hundred million customers there's a lot of money at stake here a historic vote that is likely to have a significant impact on the swiss economy as well as on relations with the country's european neighbors reporting in burn for r t m d c catherine. and the turkish government is pushing through new internet laws that would allow authorities to block websites without a court decision internet providers would also be asked to store data on what people are looking at online. the measures sparked clashes between protesters and riot police on saturday crowds of demonstrators hurled firecrackers and rocks at security forces police responded firing water cannons and tear gas at hundreds of protesters in istanbul's main square a car based journalist yusuf conley says that in reality it forty's are losing the

battle. into turkey's olinda district two thousand is a sizable lead to bad. you tube struggled for bugs to get close to business as you. know of the government is getting from an element to clamp down will ensure that the datta khel truly al-kindi this to people free access to it ted that. they may buy the sites new sites will be open they may cools them other mentors going to develop the government it is realized that it's getting more and more isolate the releases last week showed up the compere bows out anyhow but a belated by the government there is all eyes in the media devil we have today to see what the original of couple of this bottle that the government is closing after this so far. shooting has occurred on the russian island of lean

a gunman burst into a cathedral and opened fire killing two people and wounding six the suspect was apprehended on side. dot com for the full story. plus the u.s. is ready to accept refugees who may have terrorist links or could have given limited support to terror groups on our website we've got all of the details on washington relaxing its rules for potential asylum seekers. the european commission has unveiled its first e.u. anti-corruption report this week which pointed to a wave of graft sweeping through the block brussels estimated that the losses caused by shady deals amounted to billions of euros their estimation that corruption costs in the european union is no one that's that a one hundred twenty billion euros each year and that is the equivalent of an annual budget so it's a lot of money we're talking about the chief of the e.u.'s home affairs commission

has called the problem breathtaking and warned it's a roading trust in democracy earlier r.t. spoke to karl dolan e.u. office of director for transparency international he thinks that all governments should have the capacity to assess corruption risks in its own institutions. in many of the newer member states of the e.u. there's still a lot of corruption that citizens paying small drives for access to basic services like health care. but in other countries the the the main corruption which so to do with political corruption that's the kind of conflicts of interests that are in the dealings that politicians have with business the commission says that it. self assessment would not be credible. we don't think that's the case we think any government should have the capacity to assess corruption. risks its own

institutions luckily transparency international is conducting its own assessment of integrity problems integrity risks in the new institutions and will be publishing that shortly. a british couple fighting extradition to america has accused the u.k. government of kowtow ing to washington the dunham's face life behind bars in the u.s. on charges of fraud which they vehemently reject the pair claim british officials are now refusing to stand up for their rights as artie's tests are silly reports one morning fourteen months ago a life changing knock on the door with two policeman from scotland yard and i said where i was sorting this 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 dumbest former company in the us that they have more than one billion 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 fear is being sent to the states as 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 needs is. for a very good chance he would have why 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're 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'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 plead your case and unfortunate for british citizens there is no such opportunity to have your evidence tested in the u.k. court before you were expected 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 it thirty five britons have been sent to the us and steve thousand four versus just five u.s. nationals who made the opposite journey that's 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 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. more tests are cilia r t london. let's take a look at some other stories making headlines around the world for you this hour eight people have been killed and over a dozen wounded in an attack in pakistan's port city of karachi gunmen threw grenades at a religious gathering and then opened fire on praying sofi muslims it is not yet known who carried out the assault although the taliban and rival muslim groups are suspected last month militants killed six people at a shrine in the same city. three spectators have been injured in

a shooting outside a world cup stadium in brazil supporters of local club america dana tall were leaving the venue and were shot at by two gunmen on motorcycles found violence has been on the rise as the country prepares to host the world cup in june. hundreds have gathered again in bosnia this time calling for the release of about forty people detained during friday and saturday as riots officials denied protestors claims of police brutality and added that all but ten of those arrested had been released anti-government rallies in bosnia have been fueled by high unemployment corruption and poor living conditions across the country. sex sells but not in japan where a growing number of people are opting out of physical intimacy the trend has sparked fears of a demographic crisis in a country which already has one of the lowest birth rates in the world some japanese are blaming their government for the sexless phenomenon as artie's alexy

airshaft reports. thanks but no sacks says this japanese woman in her mid thirty's she's now on her second marriage but intimacy with her husband is off the marital menu. after i had a child with my first husband i lost interest in sex we divorced i remarried but my second husband lost interest in having sex with me so i have actually got used to having no sense at home this is becoming a trend which now has its own name in japan sexless according to recent polls more than sixty percent of unmarried man and near half of women aged eighteen to thirty four are not in a relationship more over forty five percent of women and a quarter of man aged sixteen to twenty four were not interested in having sex at all for the country with one of the world's lowest birth rates this spells huge demographic trouble we used to have a very large population but now we're. at least shrinking if things carry on as they are japan's population will be half of what it is now by the year twenty fifty

that would be seventy eight million we have indeed struggled to find many couples openly showing their affection in the multi-million capital of tokyo and what makes the situation even more bizarre is that japan has always been a world heavyweight when it comes to the matters of sex but your show our area in tokyo is one of the oldest red light districts in the world for centuries it has been thriving now its streets are practically empty for almost four hundred years it has been restricted to the locals now with japanese people having less sex the businesses here had to open their doors to foreigners. here she used to be called queen love and worked in one of those brothers now runs a special course called sex counseling she helps people resuscitate their basic instinct sometimes through hypnosis she even urges men to dress as women to make them understand what the opposite sex feels like she says the government is partly to blame for the situation taking on. the government's put stricter regulations on

sexual content even sixty commercials disappeared from. young people to go there show in their sex life now they have more interest in social media and dating becomes annoying to them. not only social networking but also high unemployment among the youth generates this widespread celibacy and sexual reclusion say researchers many simply have no money to date and get married alyona manages to help up to one hundred people every month but with growing numbers of those are interested in intimacy in population of one hundred sixty million this is just a drop in the ocean lets us s.t.a.r.t. reporting from tokyo in japan. or coming up after the break it's worlds apart with host oksana boyko you watch marta international stay with us.

you know there's for example a very good intelligence unit attached to u.k. and london. whole range of different opportunities to information they get it from the media. people can give them information to give information across the board it's actually quite complicated what we do as an

agency intelligence. to use a range of sort of independent information we have relationships for example with interpol helps us find out where that is junk trafficking going on. hello and welcome to the part of the collapse of the soviet union seem to be or for capitalism as the only viable economic system only to see a major crisis a few decades later as the whole world still struggles to recover from the downturn brought about by the green and excess if you count capitalism really trusted to reform itself.