gold standard russians figure skaters that blow their rivals away in subtle treat winning thanks to a sublime performance from a teenaged debutante with hope of more success on the ice to come live in the olympic host city. switzerland purse is economy at risk by now really approving a proposal to keep foreigners out in defiance of a long held agreement with brussels. there's a lot of us that have been forgotten we just played a role damaged and travels to the you are stage of our can sort of check on the residents of mayflower to say last year's oil spill love them no choice but to leave the area to protect their.

international news and comment live from moscow you're watching r c international with me thanks for joining us russia has its fast models on the board at the sochi olympics it's now equal fourth in the overall standings would be performance of its figure skating team and a very special teenage competitor taking the plaudits and he said now was lucky enough to witness russia's 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 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 touchdown in sochi the actual men's competition gets underway in three days time but 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 tournament in 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 marc not sound like a russian that big moneys because he's actually from south korea and he took up a russian citizenship just over a couple of years ago the coaches from using country he's a 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. i like the food the culture it's all very interesting and we should also look out for the. piece 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. monday be a lympics cakehole for the russian women's curling team who it's probably fair to say i have been getting attention hold out looks as much as that i sweeping scales and our correspondent in song called will be more than half way to tell us more how the pole so how's the russian team doing about fast match. well i can tell you that russia is. in the final stages of their opening match they saw she twenty fourteen winter olympics they covered currently four ends to three and there are three and remaining in that match so it's very very close at the moment the russia do have a very narrow lead on their skipper but i honestly thought about who are some are saying could become the poster girl for the sochi twenty fourteen winter olympics now she turned to the sport after a career in modeling but she told r.t.

that she has absolutely no regrets about the career change. 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 want 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. well curling is one of the more unusual winter sports and it's relatively new in russia this is the first time for example the russia has entered a men's team in the competition but it seems to be a craze that is sweeping the nation if you excuse the pun well hey you can see how much a footage of a number of russians try on. the sports improvising using whatever they can use

your approval and count wells to represent the equipment being used by the professionals so it's early days. in russia but maybe just maybe it is a sport that is here to stay. that's funny paul writes polls caught right here from song paula thank you very much indeed for that. now in washington lawmakers issuing security warnings about the winter games one republican congressional needs i went as far as to claim his never seen any greater threat in his lifetime and was sultry he don't appear to share those concerns say five rethinks 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 don't really wear the uniform when you have to you know when you don't need to just be

a bit careful but the security is really good so it's better than we thought it would be at a really great time here and i have nothing bad to say so far well organized and the people are really friendly here and having a good time. russia's gold winning performance and they figure skating calls the adoring home crowd to blow the roof off the i have eyes bug arena in song but that has been some rumors circling in the media claiming the competition could have been rigged and we caught up with the two thousand and two olympic ice dancing champion frenchman. to get his thoughts on. in figure skating there always be a lot of talking you know people are talking and they believe they can. master marriage where it is happening on the ice but the only thing that matters is how the figure skaters are performing on the ice you can make somebody who has to win

you can change the course everybody has to skate their best to do something those talking those trying to change the course of the competition is just very bad for a sport and i'm sorry that. it's happening again and people are talking about that again because things have been made to change that sort of things so that sports would be more fair and skaters would just perform. and therefore the best is the one we should win. and if you want to share any of your olympic experience with the world don't hesitate to submit to the official facebook page and of course we've got all the our dates and the results as well for you and you can go there to share your comments and gaze on the sporting spectacle that in sochi you can also post any questions you'd like so here are supposed to the athletes were interviewed in such as well and we've got our sports special with kate partridge coming up in just

over an hour with an in-depth look at who has done walton the winter olympics so far. the g twenty four team promise is the ultimate in exhilarating winter sports and keep it here joining me and he's now a make over now and the rest of our located news team for sochi twenty four takes. on art. so is and may have jeopardized its access to the e.u. markets for the sake of curbing the number of immigrants coming into the country the new law which will install quotas for foreign workers goes against long held agreements with brussels conference report. what's real 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 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 were in fact cripple economic growth and experts do say that this was in column e. is. not despite for labor especially when it comes to folks who have skills to work in fields like health care and i tell you where there's a big need for skilled workers but despite the very real economic concerns despite the fact that on the one we fear is just three percent many voters will 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 c catherine. and if it's to deal with the growing discontent of euro skeptics the british immigration minister has resigned revelation that his clean they didn't have permission to walk in the u.k. . hey this kind of only deepens the nationwide debate on the influx of foreign was just weeks off some person lifted restrictions on both gerunds and romania and i've been in for a full a full am a piece as in the wider contacts the outcome of this with

a referendum was predictable. the swiss are perfectly entitled to pass this legislation. there's absolutely no problem with that as far as the european union's concerned but of course there's no such thing as a free lunch why have they done it and i think it's partly if you if you want a reaction to it if you want the media and the fact it was whipped up 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 and in the united kingdom least that the far right parties will be either first or second in the european elections so this is a phase we're going through this is a consequence of the financial crisis coming up later this hour crime and punishment income fades. here. is my cold it's like with the freedom of things. believe it or not this is

a prison whirlpool from inside an experimental facility in norway still very much a part of. there's a scene here when you're in the arctic you have feel entire world at your feet she looks like a fairly simple ship but really she's not symbol of the. handful of people have access to the nuclear icebreakers the real king here is that the polar bear and ice breakers come second not a single complex expedition to the arctic can be conducted without the russian nuclear powered fleet of ice breakers we've undertaken a unique operation. the northern sea route russia's arctic ice breakers.

right to see. her street. and i think you're. on our reporters but. this is an international coming to life for most co welcome bach nearly a year after a pipeline rupture caused a massive oil spill in the u.s. state of a console locals are still suffering dizziness headaches and nausea the cleanup began almost immediately but that didn't stop people moving out to safer areas and then check on visited the site. 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 of the where the ground was dry it would kind of i guess in case it in when it rained all those vapors would come in 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 why 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 annual 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. stretch 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 teeth with a deadline for the pullout of american troops from afghanistan washington pays its recreate with money pumping some three hundred million dollars into war that calling the end of what we call me had to answer dot com for more details. and also online at wikipedia it comes under the scrutiny of police in finland who say the online encyclopedia had been illegally collecting money from its turn as well this story just a click away. right to see. first street view and i think that you're.

on our reporters were very. inspiring. to be in the. mob. was no death penalty. maximum prison sentence of twenty one days norway's penitentiary system as among the most humane in the wild and now the country is growing a step further with an experimental jail giving convicts access to pretty much everything except freedom oh she's a girl is going off reports and very. smart. 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 bertha's go to joe old to school. to school you have dinner relaxed

with you 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 gear stakes among the items on the menu take walks in the park pray and make art do outdoor and indoor sports we're going to like you see here the bed and. we can. make a place for maybe a wall of all of this 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 so yeah you can have some of them to question her

literature history math chemistry physics you name it all are taught to the inmates . in a room and that's been a thank you for the next ten years to continue to see. inmates also have access to the photo shop cameras 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 that was looser in the screw loose in the working life never think. nothing. and they come in here 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 say how effective this new penitentiary format is you what is going off r t reporting from norway. the european commission recently unveiled its fast and say corruption report which pointed to massive violations fallout he rustles estimates the losses caused by shady deals amounts to billions of euros and they say the problem here on our senior national european corruption is up for debate in cross talk with detail about. the european union itself as a corrupt institution from beginning to end but they haven't added to their books for some. years about 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 state's credit you have the european commission to motivate people like us to sleep 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 commission but the figure one hundred twenty is what they're going to try to suppress in the country it did know that it used to corruption in do you countries while those who press 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. and let's now take a look at some other international news in brief the syrian government and rebels are holding a new round of talks in switzerland with the formation of a transitional authority and an end of violence among the key topics the first face to face meeting was adjourned ten days ago having achieved a little beyond getting the conflicting finds in the same room an agreement which saw six hundred people in. curated from the besieged city of homs as a result was ruined after trunks carrying supplies came under fire. type police have made the fast arrest of a senior antigovernment protests leader for violating the country's imagine so new arrest warrants have been issued for nineteen others it came just hours after six street cleaners were injured by a small explosion at one of the prophesied thailand's have three months of social and west with people demanding their government step down on grounds of corruption

. twenty two people have drowned after a boat carrying more than one hundred passengers sunk near a dam and india's eastern state of reset the holidaymakers had hired the vessel for a trip but it capsized on its way behind due to overloading rescue crews managed to save dozens of people using underwater flashlights to find victims trapped in the hull nine people are still missing. hundreds came out on the streets of bulls again this time calling for the release of other people detained during riots on friday and saturday officials have denied claims of police brutality and added that ten of those arrested hunting released over three hundred were injured last week during clashes fueled by unemployment corruption and poor living conditions. coming up next he takes you on a cruise to the bone chilling oxic frontier aboard one of russia's nuclear powered

icebreaker. this is obviously more for the ladies because it's pink. when they wanted to avoid rate they really needed to buy guns and burn out against them. this is the one that i want to go away from once again it's the fear factor for women definitely a tarzan of the gun lobby and you don't kill them when you're killing money but if somebody would you would piss with her. i'm noticing more and more and that's really scary marketing tactics which implies that women have some sort of moral obligation to 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.

and. the head of the sober russia program wants to bring back russia's sobering stations

which are like a hybrid hospital and police station in america we call these. 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 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.

twenty fourteen plus is the ultimate in exhilarating winter sports enough. to. make heaven and the rest of our lives take us to the sochi twenty four take. on. the for. the folks.

in early september. is a busy maritime highway. russia's nuclear. power it seems clearing a path for shipping. the crews here. when you're in the arctic you have the whole world your feet. follows russia's northern boundary offering the shortest passage between europe and asia. through seven seas. the few.

the nuclear. believes. judge will. spend four months patrolling the northern sea route despite passing through ten times owns the crew will never adjust the ship's clock it's quite likely they'll never pull into a bullet either and nor will the crew jealous. morning good morning yes it's lana you're beautiful close down and don't forget your hat. sukhamoy has ruined my hair now.