this is why you should care only. so it's a law and moves to keep foreigners out as voters now really buy a bill limiting immigration but it puts a free movement deal with the into question. gold on ice russian athletes case away from their rivals in sochi grabbing fast plays in the team figure skating about with a sublime performance from a teenage ruki aussies on standby for all the games highlights and very. plots. there's a lot of us that have been forgotten we're just clare damaged americans living in central arkansas struggling to get their lives back to normal us and all spelled disaster almost a year ago. this

is international coming to life from moscow hello and welcome to the program. seven years after opening its borders to the e.u. switzerland has had enough defying agreements with brussels three countries voted in a referendum to pitch a cap on the number of foreigners in the country. in the swiss capitol. hill and 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 have argued that immigration caps will 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 where there's a big need for skilled workers but despite the very real economic concerns despite the fact that on the one we 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 first what you and 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. in bar for our team captain of. swedes and is not the only country apollo polarized i should say by the problem of immigration in countries like the u.k. and germany the most pressing issue is the lifting of barriers from what gets from belgariad 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 and lean forward a former m.v.p. says there's nothing surprising about the results of the swiss referendum. the swiss are perfectly entitled to pass this legislation. there's absolutely no problem with that as far as the referee needs concerned but of course there's no such thing as a free lunch why have they done it i think it's partly if you want

a reaction to it if you want the media and the fact it was whipped out in switzerland by a party on the extreme right we're seeing that across the european union it's like in the european elections in france and in holland in in the united kingdom least that the far right parties will be either first or second in the european elections so this is a phrase we're going through this is a consequence of the financial crisis russia has scored its first medals of the century olympics placing its force a force in the medal table and blowing spectators away with the performance of its biggest casing team all season isa now i was lucky enough to witness the russian figure skating triumph and reports now from our such a studio. it was the first victory for russia at the sochi games and a spectacular want 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 about was concluded the victory was secured by the veteran skater you gave me a piercing call and teen prodigy half his age fifteen year old. she's become one of the youngest athletes ever to win a gold medal at the winter olympics thanks to her extraordinary but effortless looking performance it was stunning on top of that russian athlete scored two silver medals in the lose and by apple on and a bronze in speed skating farmers following events from the sochi mountain cluster and he says with russia having one team figure skating gold it now has its sights 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 a soviet legend we spoke to believes that any one of six teams can win it.

there are many strong teams at these games canada the u.s. finland sweden in fact all of them are 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. 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 on who might not sound like a russian might be nice because he's actually from south korea and he took up a russian citizenship just over a couple of years ago the coaches from his own country he's a three time olympic champion 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 i like the food the culture it's all very interesting and a lot of. the skipper of the russian ladies team and it's adorable. and 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 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 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. new piece in the competition and i actually did see gold slip from his grasp in full fashion just a few days ago in the spring so he will be desperate to make up for that meanwhile

lawmakers in washington are ensuring security warnings over the winter games one republican congressional leader one as far as claiming he's never seen any greater threat in his life time we spoke to athletes in sochi who don't exactly share the view terrified everything's been amazing it's running like clockwork 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 like to just be careful what you do and really by the uniform when you have you know when you don't need to just be a bit careful but this security is really bad and we thought it would be at a really great time and i have nothing bad to say so far well organized people are really friendly here having a good time and we continue to keep abreast of what's happening in the olympic arena and up on the slopes here in our sochi studio today buy out lead skiers and speed skaters are among those hoping to make the podium. and he's in our reporting from the studio in the heart of the winter games and us curling teams clash on the

eyes battling for the golden sultry some russian funds of the modern olympic sport have been seeking to embrace it while under our own way of course and it turns out a ring is not obligatory here if you're inventive enough you can even curl your bedroom all that's required is a couple of brews and he's flying object of course a true passion for sports. and if you're aware of any other unconventional ways to recreating olympic sports don't hesitate to submit your video on our official facebook page and of course we've got all the objects on the real source for games as well so if you have the chance to share your comments and videos as well as views on the sporting spectacle just go that you can also submit any questions you'd like to hear actually is an answer in the interviews to r.c. go to our team's facebook page and we've got our sports a special coming up in just a couple of hours with all the out dates on this weekend's

a sporting victory so stay with it. the g. twenty four gene promise is the ultimate in exhilarating winter sports and he joins me and he's now a make over now and the rest of our look at news team for sochi twenty four take. on art. coming up later this hour an arty international one crime doesn't necessarily mean a punishment. and. like with the freedom there were things. so we had to know ways the most humane prison with fluffy towels and it sells a pox library and even cooking courses no surprise then that no one's ever tried to escape out of the brain.

the european union likes to think of itself as one of the brighter and fairer parts of the world the european commission report on corruption the first of its kind betrays a very different picture in every single member country there is corruption in some cases on a massive scale so what can the e.u. teach the world a corruption. so. close

. oh. so. you're watching all seeing to national life from moscow it's good to have you with us let's move on now. caught up in the middle of an environmental disaster people in the state of all console finding themselves bowed down and 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 braving toxins on a daily bases if that wasn't enough some are finding it hard to leave the contaminated area as well she is going there to check and 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 on 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 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 to find out something's wrong and they say well why didn't we leave mom when 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 sixty percent but arkansas 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 collateral damage in mayflower i'm going to check on our team. and let's also take a look at sources our team has lined up for you on our website as the deadline for the pullout of american troops from afghanistan fast approaches washington is accused of offering a switch now by pumping some three hundred million dollars into what they're calling the end to war economy had to ask the modis. and also that i would compete is coming under the scrutiny of finnish police has been questioning whether the only line encyclopedia is a niggly collecting money from one stone as long the story is just a click away. right down the street. first street. and i think that you're.

on our reporters' twitter. instagram. to be in the know. there's a story here when you're in the arctic you have a few internal world at your feet. she looks like a fairly simple ship but really she's not simple little. 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 a tree a unique operation in. the northern sea route russia's arctic ice breakers. this is

obviously more for the ladies because it's paying. women wanted to avoid rape they really need to buy guns in america how to use them. this is the one that i want to go with them once again it's the fear of. women definitely the target of the gun lobby you don't kill them when you kill anybody but if somebody would you would just prefer. i noticed more and more if that's really scary marketing tactics which implies that women have some sort of moral obligation to protect their families 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.

survey or. the location of a voice still remember. how to do it well there's of the low high tech and said you would stop this storm we might think you know my people will die. in no ways some criminals may lose their rights to freedom but not to jogging trails some in stakes and flat screen televisions two hundred fifty two million dollars in the making one jail resting in a tranquil forest plays host to no breakers in conditions many would consider

a blessing rather than a punishment. for. and here. it's michael that like with the freedom of 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 week up in the morning talk show thank you brooke first go to drop old school. to school you have. relaxed like normal life just we are back ward 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 that houses cook for themselves and for staff members with beef soundman and deer 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 all together. some of them to question her literature history math chemistry physics you name it all are taught to the inmates . room and that play is on the stove. to continue to. 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. didn't have a system in this life there was looser in the screw loose in the working life never thing didn't. come in here and learned 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 what was going off r t reporting from norway the european commission recently unveiled its first russian report which pointed to hear each problems for

the entire block russell's estimated the losses caused by shady deals amounts to billions of euros and later today on his gas to put the issue in the spotlight. i mean the european union itself is a corrupt institution from beginning to end but they haven't added to their books for some. years every failed politician in any european country when he's finished making a mess of its 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's certainly ceased 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 commission but the figure one hundred twenty is what they're going to try to suppress into countries that did know that it has to corruption in do you countries

while they suppress that's not the direction and deliberate do you notice the 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 no news in brief making headlines around the world thousands of people have been on high alert in london and across great britain after the last floods in a decade worth forecast for monday riverside home owners received emergency phone calls telling to be ready to flee their homes as they throw hands over each dangerous levels hundreds of soldiers were put on standby to protect it threatens communities by building up defenses that. in syria thousands have staged

a peaceful rally in support of the country's leader bashar al assad the huge crowd waved see red flags and banners of the president while don't sit in a child table demonstration took place in the key to the city of latakia from where the country's chemical arsenal is being taken away for destruction. and attack in pakistan's whole city of karachi a skilled people and injured more than a dozen gunmen threw grenades at a religious gathering and then opened fire on praying sufi muslims it's not have nerd who carried out their sold their taliban and rival muslim groups or suspected last month militants killed six people at a sawfish shrine in the same city. twenty two people have drowned after a boat carrying more than one hundred passengers capsized near a dominant india's eastern state of a research the holiday makers had hired the vessel for a trip but it signed on its return due to overloading rescue crews managed to save dozens of people using underwater flashlights to find victims trapped in the hole

nine people are still missing. hundreds are back in the streets of bulls year this time calling for the release of people detained during wired's on friday and saturday officials denies the protesters claims of police brutality and added that ten of those arrested have been released on to government rallies have been fueled by high unemployment corruption and poor living conditions across the country. a snowstorm described as the worst in decades is still battering japan with another people reported dead in the weather related accidents and more than a thousand injured the fatalities were mostly caused by drivers crushing up to losing control on icy roads hundreds of flights have been cancelled roads have been closed and some train service is suspended across the country. and up next as promised corruption within the e.u.

is at the center of debate in crosstalk. 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 twenty eleven when they were all closed putting the burden of alcohol abusers health and 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 drunk tanks work no no they won't let's think

about it what is business motivated by money big government contracts and 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.

i marinate join me. in part and. very concerned. only. hello and welcome to cross talk we're all things are considered on peter lavelle

the european union likes to think of itself as one of the brighter and fairer parts of the world but european commission report on corruption the first of its kind betrays a very different picture in every single member country there is corruption in some cases on a massive scale and businesses complain but to do business government connections are often necessary so what can the e.u. teach the world about corruption. to cross-talk corruption in the e.u. i'm joined by my guest broken are in berlin he is a political analyst and a professor for european studies in london we have david coburn he is a u.k. independence party regional chairman and here in moscow we cross to john hello big he is a managing partner at the group all right gentlemen cross talk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want and i very much encourage it david if i go to you first in london let me just read some of the high points eight out of ten.

believe the close links between business and politics lead to corruption almost all firms in greece spain italy believe corruption is widespread four out of ten firms surveyed describe corruption as an obstacle to doing business sixty four percent of british respondents said they believe that corruption is widespread in the u.k. and the top it off the cost of corruption it is estimated to the e.u. economy is equivalent to the blocks entire annual budget i think the term was breathtaking what's your reaction. well yes i mean the european union itself is a corrupt institution from beginning to end but they haven't added to their books for some was eighteen or nineteen years so. they're not exactly a good example to set to business or to politics it is quite a dreadful organization every failed politician in any european country when he's finished making a mess.