this is why you should care only. gold on ice russian athletes get away from their from their rivals and saatchi grabbing first place in the team figure skating event with a sublime performance from a teenage rocky artes on standby for all the games highlights in our very own softest studio. switzerland moves. voters narrowly back a bill limiting immigration but it puts a free movement deal with the e.u. into question plus. there's a lot of us that have been forgotten we're just collateral damage americans living in central arkansas are struggling to get their lives back to normal after an oil spill disaster which happened nearly a year ago and. they're

watching our to international live from moscow i'm lindsey france thanks for joining me. russia has scored its first medals at the olympics placing it fourth in the medal table and blowing spectators away with the performance of its figure skating team and now handing over to a new son now in our studio at the heart of the winter games and softly and you so very much enough to fit witness the figure skating last night. i was feeling extremely lucky this morning to have witnessed olympic history it was of course the first victory for russia at the sochi games and a spectacular one to say the least russian figure skaters hit the ice with a series of breathtaking performances in fact the gold had already been guaranteed even before the event was concluded the victory was secured by veteran skater you have any piercing call and teen promise gee how for his age fifteen year old. she

became one of the youngest athletes to ever win a gold medal at the winter olympics thanks to her extraordinary but effortless looking performance that wasn't deeds done me on top of that russian athlete scored two silver medals in the losing by author alone and a bronze in speed skating parties and farmers following the events from the sochi mountain cluster and he says with russia having won the team figure skating gold it now has its sights set on hockey and speedskating. some of the biggest names of these games have been arriving in time because n.h.l. hockey stars have touched down in sochi the actual men's competition gets underway in three days' time but to a soviet legend we spoke to believe that any one of six teams can win it there are many strong teams that these games can endure the u.s. finland sweden in fact all of them a very strong it's hard to predict who's going to win the hockey is definitely going to be very interesting and i think we're about to witness one of the best

recent years well today russia will hope to get a medal from a place it's never ground before short track speed skating it's pinning its hopes on a man they call victor own son going to russia and that big moneys because he's actually from the senate. korea and he took up a russian citizenship just a couple of years ago the coaches from using country he did three time olympic champion is actually going to compete in the fifteen hundred meters today and he told us that he's very pleased these new adopted country when i came to russia two years ago for the first three months i missed career but then i met other athletes and things became better i like being here and i like the food the culture it's all very interesting so a lot of eyes will be on the curling and expect to see the risk in the russian ladies team and it's a daughter of a fully clothed when she takes on the days i say that because just before these games actually started she appeared in a rather racy photo shoot she is

a former model but she told us she's more than pleased with her decision to push a career on the us when i was very young i had a choice i was not sure if i wanted to be an athlete or a model i got into a modeling academy for teenagers but after a few classes i realized i liked sport better since then i have never thought about modeling i wanted to exercise practice and when i enjoy an active lifestyle i enjoy travelling to competitions but actually come to think of it the modeling business has a lot of competition as well but back then i just made a choice based on how i felt in my heart we should also look out for the darkly. he's in the competition and i actually did see gold slip from his grasp in painful fashion just a few days ago in the spring so he will be desperate to make up for that meanwhile lawmakers in washington are issuing security warnings over the winter games one republican congressional leader went as far as claiming he's never seen a greater threat in his lifetime he spoke to athletes in sochi we don't exactly

have you. say five or things going to mazing it's running like clockwork and everything's just going really really well there hasn't been any problems as a as up. today my parents have been a little bit worried they just might just just be careful what you do and don't really wear the uniform when you have to you know when you don't need to so we just be a bit careful but the security is really good so it's better than we thought it would be i had a really great time here and i have nothing bad to say so far well organized people are really friendly here and they're having a good time and we continue to keep abreast of what's happening in the olympic arenas and slopes here in our sochi studio today by athletes skiers and speed skaters are among those hoping to make the podium we'll keep you updated but for now back to you in moscow. thanks very much needs an ally there we've got all the latest from saatchi online

as well just head to our official facebook page there you've got a chance to share your comments and your views on the sporting spectacle and you can also submit any questions you'd like to hear athletes answer in their interviews with r t. now we've also got our sports special coming up in a little over twenty minutes with all the updates on this weekend's sporting victories. the g. twenty fourteen promises we call to meet in the exhilarating winter sports in our team here so join me and you say no way to make seven zero in the rest of our lives take you straight to sochi twenty four takes. on art. so it's voters have narrowly backed proposals to put a cap on the number of immigrants to the country including those from the e.u. the move jeopardises free movement agreements the country has with the block and critics say it could lead to unprecedented economic problems parties lucic half an office in the swiss capital. 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 peoples 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 is undercutting local workers and that is burdening public services no 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 an i.t. where there's a big need for skilled workers but despite the very real economic concerns despite the fact that unemployment here 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 blocks 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. the immigration issue has been polarizing europe with the most wealthy states failing an influx of workers from eastern european countries to the far right parties have been gaining power in france the netherlands and norway in recent years are all supporting tough immigration and immigration policies in countries

like the u.k. and germany the most pressing issue is the lifting of barriers for workers from bulgaria and romania britain's prime minister went as far as threatening to veto any new countries from joining the e.u. unless tight immigration restrictions are put in place coming up one crime doesn't necessarily mean a punishment. here. it's much closer to like the freedom they were. we had to norway's most humane prison with fluffy towels and it's packed library and even cooking courses no surprise then that no one has ever tried to escape coming up after the break. we'll talk about languages what are lovely react to situations i have read the

reports for legal pollution and no i will leave them to the state department to comment on your latter point to say the. least or carry out a car is on the job here no gonna. take you no more weasel words. when you need a direct question be prepared for a change when you when you should be ready for a. critical expat and a little down to freedom to watch. well see british science done. on time. for. the markets why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike scans or the no holds barred look at the global financial

headlines tune in to conjure reports on our. welcome back you're watching our two international live from moscow caught up in the middle of an environmental disaster people in the u.s. state of arkansas are finding themselves bogged down in barrels of trouble nearly a year after a pipeline rupture caused a massive oil spill people are suffering from the long term effects caused by breathing toxins on a daily basis if that weren't enough some are finding it hard to leave the contaminated area as artie's gonna teach a con found out. almost a year after two hundred thousand gallons of heavy crude spilled onto their streets residents of mayflower in arkansas are striving to leave the town here in mayflower for sale signs are everywhere almost every house on the street is on sale before the spill this was a place where people wanted to move in to enjoy the beautiful nature around many

didn't even know there was a pipeline running under their houses and now they just want out many have already left and jerrel one of them i tried to stay here i tried to just be away you know as much as i could but if it rained i could not stay here because it would all see through the. all again you know the where the ground was dry it would kind of i guess in case it and then when it rained all those vapors would come back she says like many other residents of mayflower she started having constant headaches and coughing after the spill i have friends that live just behind me that are still here that don't have a place to go they have just small children you don't have to look at the kids in in twenty years when they get sick or find out something is wrong and they say well why didn't we leave mom what everybody healthfully well some people just aren't able to pick up and leave like that exxon wrote back to us saying that a unified command comprised of exxon representatives as well as officials from the

state and federal environmental services has deemed all areas affected by the mayflower spill now safe to live in but many of the residents don't buy it and their homes are not selling so i would say that the number of homes sold in mayflower has dropped at least fifty to sixty percent but arkansas oil spill is only a fraction of a new oil pipeline leaks it's estimated that between two thousand and eight and two thousand and twelve u.s. pipeline spilled an average of more than three point one million gallons of hazardous liquids per year plans for the keystone x.l. pipeline a massive project that would. from canada soil since two refineries in texas have caused many to worry that they may become collateral damage in the way of big oil like the residents of mayflower arkansas there's a lot of us that have been forgotten we're just platter old damage in mayflower i'm going to check on our team. let's take a look now what our team has lined up for you on our web site as the deadline for

the pullout of american troops in afghanistan fast approaches washington is accused of offering a sweetener by pumping some three hundred million dollars into what they're calling the end of war economy at r.t. dot com for more details. also their wicket pedia is coming under the scrutiny of finnish police who've been and questioning whether the online and encyclopedia is illegally collecting money from its donors or in this story is just a click away. right to see. the first strike. and i think the church. on our reporters with their. instrument. could be in the know.

there's a story here when you're in the arctic you have the entire world at your feet she looks like a fairly simple shit but really she's not simply. handful of people able to have access to the nuclear icebreakers the real king here is the polar bear and ice breakers come second not a single complex expedition to the arctic can be conducted with the russian nuclear powered fleet of ice breakers we under three a unique operation in. the northern sea route russia's arctic ice breakers. well if you're going to come on in a lot of these policies i think you're right. pleasure

to have you with us here on our t.v. today i roll researcher. is obviously more for the ladies because it's pink. women wanted to avoid rape they really needed to buy guns and learn how to use them. this is the one that i'm going to go with them once again it's the fear for. women are definitely the target of the gun lobby in the morning you don't kill them when you're killing money but if somebody would you would just prefer. i'm noticing more and more if that's really scary marketing tactics which implies that women have some sort of moral obligation to own guns to protect their family and young girls shoot out here too so we do have a pink or. more kids young kids choke on food than are killed by firearms if

being armed made us safer in america we should be the safest nation on earth. were clearly not the safest. in norway some criminals may lose their right to freedom but not to jogging trails salmon steaks and flat screen televisions two hundred fifty two million dollars in the making one jail resting in a tranquil forest plays host to lob records and conditions many would consider a blessing rather than a punishment. piskun all reports and there. is my clothes. like with the freedom thing. has been living here for nearly four years getting an education working as a car mechanic and serving his fifteen and

a half year long sentence in jail we caught up in the morning talk show taking a berth as you go to drop old to school. to school you have. relaxed it with you more like normal life just we are back war this is holden one of the most humane prisons in the world bills in two thousand and ten it's an example of norway's new experimental approach to penitentiary facilities. i hear the roughly two hundred fifty prisoners it houses cook for themselves and for staff members with beef sound and beer steaks among the items on the menu take walks in the park pray and make art do outdoor and indoor sports like and how like you see here the betterment we can make a place for for maybe one or both of us is going to be a good place to call just to relax. get out from their cells you know hold on has

a library and a school for those who want to either to continue the education they were getting before going to jail or getting a new one altogether yeah you have some of them to russian. literature history math chemistry physics you name it all are taught to the inmates . room and that they are going to thank for the next ten years to continue to see. inmates also have access to the photo shop a grocery store workshop and a mechanic's shop and even. my personal favorite a sound studio look at the didn't have a system in this life that was loose when the screw moved in and the working life and everything the important nothing. and they come in there and learn it so

far the prison hasn't seen one riot or an attempt to break out and when we were inside i couldn't really see why anyone would ever want to frankly i'm stunned it's going to take time for me to process what we've seen here today but what's clear is that even though this is one of the most humane prisons in the wall it still is a place to punish criminals with strict rules security and limitations and since it's been operating only for a few years right now it's too early to see how effective this new penitentiary format is you've got us going off forty reporting from norway the european commission recently unveiled its first corruption report which pointed to huge problems throughout the entire block brussels estimated the losses caused by shady deals not to billions of euros later today peter lavelle and his gas but the issue in the spotlight. the european union itself is a corrupt institution from beginning to end but they haven't added to their books

or somebody to you know my nine years every failed politician in any european country when he's finished making a mess of his own country then she was who often get a job with the european union the fact that we now have a number as part of the sales strategy of the european commission to motivate people like us to sit in studios and to reflect how we can deal with an urgent problem of corruption that certainly exist but it's not out of the nature of the european union it has been existed for centuries the report is done by the year a commission but the figure one hundred twenty is what they're going to destroy just the president of countries did know that it has to corruption in do you countries while they suppress that's not the direction deliberate do you notice a corruption in europe itself that's misdirection like anybody any good magician you don't watch that he's presenting to you you should be watching the other hand you don't see and that's what you're trying to do at the moment they're trying to

give a certain amount of dismissed erection so you don't see the corruption at the heart of europe itself. so more news making headlines around the world and attack in pakistan's port city of karachi has killed eight people and injured more than a dozen gunman threw grenades at a religious gathering and then opened fire on muslims it's not yet known who carried out the assault though the taliban and rival muslim groups are suspected last month militants killed six people at a trial in the same city. hundreds are back in the streets of bosnia this time calling for the release of about forty people detained during my absence friday and saturday officials denied there were protesters claims of police brutality and added that all those but ten of those arrested had been released. anti-government rallies have been fueled by high unemployment corruption and poor living conditions across the country. in syria thousands

have staged a peaceful rally in support of the country's leader of the charlotte assad huge crowd syrian flags and banners of the president are dancing and chanting the demonstration took place in the key port city of la to kenya where the country's chemical weapons arsenal is being taken away for destruction. is snow storm described as the worst in decades is still battering japan with eleven people reported dead in weather related accidents and more than a thousand injured the fatalities were mostly caused by drivers crashing after losing control on icy roads hundreds of flights have been cancelled roads have been closed and some train service is suspended across the country up next kate partridge is here with our two sports olympic special.

the head of the sober russia program wants to bring back russia's sobering stations which are like a hybrid hospital and police station and american we call these a good old fashioned drunk tank and in russia their history dates back to the early years of the twentieth century to two thousand and eleven when they were all closed putting the burden of alcohol abusers health on local hospitals despite the amount of alcohol consumed per person in russia steadily declining over the last few years alcoholism remains a big problem but will privatized drug tanks work no no they won't let's think about it what is business motivated by money big government contracts in countries around the world are often abused and if you get paid per alcoholic served then pretty soon companies are going to incentivize the police to round up as many people with a hint of booze in their blood as they can or look at it this way what is more

profitable helping cure an alcoholic or treating him with fat government contract money every week for the rest of his life there are some things the private sector is not suited for and this is one of them but that's just my opinion. twenty four. exhilarated when. i make heaven and the rest of. the sochi twenty four take. on.

hello welcome to the first altie sport lympics special all the latest news from the twenty second winter games in sochi plus the rest of the global sports coming up with me on trade and here are the top stories. ice queen at u.t. at midnight sky at lights up the iceberg carlos as the fifteen year old leads russia to a first gold medal in the team figure skating at the sochi olympics. plus made in gong speed skating although golf makes history by winning russia's first

medal at the winter games taking wrongs in the women's three thousand meters. and in other news record run by munich stretch that unbeaten tally to forty five matches and stay thirteen points clear at the top of the bundesliga with a two nil win at the end. but first to the olympics in sochi where our correspondent richard van portrayed has all the latest news from the twenty second winter games and i richard so day two it was a great day for the whole nation. there's certainly was wait for medals is finally over there have been a few nerves after russia had managed to pick up a medal on day one and we had to wait until quite late on day two really for the medals to flow in but there were four in all and obviously the gold going into her team combined figure skating wherever you get me pushing courier lists needs pairs team full of sunshine and trying because i'm the only stands team of elin need some

power of well really all the headlines are about. this needs of a fifteen year old i think she was the youngest gold medal winner in a winter olympics in something like nine hundred thirty six and she really is a talent and we'll see a lot more of her games develop in the women's individual figure skating i mean i remember seeing her at the russian national championships just before the new year she didn't win but of and but it was just clear for everyone to see just how much talent she has and also return to form of you getting he's had quite a few problems over last year's worth of injuries but he seems to be back to his bear stearns' certainly will be very interesting to see later in the competition he battles with the like to patrick chan in the men's individual gold of course her other medals. winning a silver for the russians in the women's sprint biathlon was she was quite a way behind eventually to ana's to seek wisdom in our because we know it's an

interesting story really she's actually from russia and she's the sister in law. of entente to pull in who won so close on day one to getting a medal a bronze medal in the men's sprint but was just point seven seconds from a podium finish but some delighted obviously for her she pulled in a household way of course men are defending her title which she also won in vancouver four years ago but things are looking good so far for russia in the by our floor and also of course there was the legendary albert dymchurch forty two years old. he was completing an illusion again unfortunately he was only able to get silver this time behind felix law remember of course dinging in two thousand and six and sure it also managed to get a silver medal of those in because of course he was actually training on the track he built himself a lack of facilities in russia ten years ago and the first medal of course which russia picked up that went to olga graf in the three hundred meter. speedskating

she said r p b and to be honest it really wasn't unexpected medal and a great performance by a russian who really defied the odds to get on the podium finishing behind it in voice no problem of our vote because it was really as one of the world's best competitors in the speed skating arena. well let's stay on the ice then richard because the final event of the olympics is the gold medal match in the ice hockey russia haven't won the gold medal as russia the last call was a nine hundred ninety two with the unified team what are the chances of gold on home ice. while i think of you did a straw poll of russians. anywhere in the country really which medal means for most pretty i'm pretty sure about ninety five percent would say we want to win hockey gold and to be honest i mean russia their favorites were the bookmakers birds.