best way to the heart of. hungry for gold rush and fun spend their hopes on the country's record breaking figure skating duo made worries that the weather may be getting too good for the winter olympic games. a ukrainian judge who ruled against rioters involved in the storming of government buildings is shot dead by unknown assailants police say the murder was most likely connected to his work also. a lot of the purely on the scene. there we have. time. arts he travels to south africa as the nation reels and corruption and crime and poverty after the passing of iconic leader nelson mandela.

live from the russian capital of this is r.t. international with me marina costs are about welcome. five all of the saw she winter olympics and artsy consider news that special coverage from the heart and the heights of the resorts it may be action packed on the slopes tracks of sorcery but for ocean finance it's the figure skating that's in the spotlight now russia isn't looking for a return to be on challenge dominance on the rink that it enjoyed in duckett's past and the given the country's performance so far in these games that dream could be within reach let's go live now to our team's poll scott who is in the coastal for us either paul so tell us more about what the russian fans can look forward to today what is the big hope for team russia. well they're all hopes.

for another gold medal later on wednesday on the result. of go in the final. round of the figure skating pairs event they currently lead the overall standings now they set a world record on tuesday in the free in the short program for themselves firmly in medal contention of course do both have gold medals to their names from these games already after russia won the team event however about omen for the g.a.o. is that in winter olympics history the gold medal has never gone to a routine using the music of lloyd webber and aiming to end. up with a free skate in program will be andrew lloyd webber's musical jesus christ superstar in fact i've been dreaming of making this happen since i was a child i love it very much last year we saw this musical on broadway and now it's time to perform. well elsewhere russia's men's curling team will be looking for

their first ever think the winter olympics they take on canada while the female for them they follow it up two straight victories with two straight defeats the latest one coming to japan eight four while it looks like dennis hughes cough and his teammates like missing out on a medal in the men's one thousand meter speed skating which is just concluding in the arena. paul you've been in sochi for quite a while and you're a very very lucky man over there so tell us what is the mood like over there. well it's nice to finally be talking about sport of course the start of these games were plagued by controversies but here we are well into the first week now and the atmosphere is fantastic around us now there have been some concerns up in the mounting that the weather is simply too good in the mild temperatures a causing some of the ice and snow to melt which is a problematic for some of the skiing courses however the international olympic committee said they are not concerned by the by the standards by the conditions at

the moment meanwhile according to some reports the global audience is watching these winter olympics are up nearly ten percent from vancouver four years ago with an extra twenty five million people tuning in worldwide now of course no impact games would run smoothly in the atmosphere wouldn't be half as good without the unsung heroes who are of course the out the volunteers and my colleague martin andrews has more. they are the unsung and unpaid heroes of the olympics and staging such a gigantic event without volunteers like these would be unthinkable more than one hundred eighty thousand people to join up twenty five thousand of them made the cuts a small army of on hand to help among them thousands of foreigners to bridge the dozens of languages heard here right now hailing from the united states canada and

the u.k. many have already been here for several weeks prepping the black sea resort in what's the most is the first visit to russia personal will come from. coming to such a. great experience and the people are really great and. i like everything here and it feels great knowing that i'm contributing to such a large scale event. from helping out. with crowd control keeping things moving at the security screening areas they are vital to the day to day running of this event running like clockwork and in their bright uniforms such spectators can't miss them like the competing athletes their roles require commitment patience and insurance the love of taking part rather than cash reward. me hello i'm here to see the men's hockey game where do i go so these competitions are how did you vote. and you can

get there by crossing this street then turn to the left and you will see the big building in front of the world to drop it's very big ever beautiful very nice and you speak english russian envoy yes german very good watching how to show thank you very much a part of our. city sickly just under half the help is our women and the average age is twenty five in reality though this giant team has volunteers of all ages city in the global and you think all the older people suva volunteers it's a reference to how advanced a. friendly face and knowledge of foreign languages and knowing how to get from a to b. are just some of the skills these guys will need throughout the games of the paralympics days demanding work but it's a red chance to take part in one of the world's largest sporting events and it has the name to the roster making such a twenty forty something to remember parts of andrews. sochi.

from you tube videos suits what's her blog so many athletes are documenting their experiences in song and here's what the been telling r.t. . i'm definitely impressed with the russian did everything is wallace. taking very good care and i think that's all that matters for the games being is so close it feels like just a big family. is very exciting the night of the crowd was there there was some disappear so definitely olympic by before you come over and you're not really sure what to expect and. you know everything's been great so far whether it's you know the food or their commendations or their rooms or you know the village. seems to be . unbelievable just looking from the outside and going in and cracks in and so we have a great sort of you know in the village it's been great so far. we're going to. push the food every day and we get to meet with other assets and it's been

a pretty good sort of. we're putting up all the latest results rumors and happenings in our special section on the website twenty fourteen dollars artsy dot com and right now where reports in there on the how the russian president is entertaining foreign guests in the olympic host city and of course bringing you live updates on all the sporting events. in other news a judge has died in sun show ukraine after being shelled by all known assailants police believe the attack may be linked to his professional activities are to ski told me what those activities could be. the interior minister of ukraine is still koyo on what exactly they meant by professional activities but we do know that the

thirty four year old judge. from the town of claiming to consensually crane was killed by two presumably two gunshot wounds and those believed to be fired from a shotgun it's not the first time of course that a judge is killed in ukraine but given what's happening in ukraine right now with all these riots protests takeover of administrations the fact that he recently dealt with some of these rioters is certainly causing huge attention he dealt with two of those rioters who were part of the attack on the local administration building he placed them under house arrest and have been charged with inciting riots but not yet convicted he also dealt with many civil cases like. returning of debts like inheritance and different property splits it also may have been the reason for his assassination but certainly given the intensity of what's happening in ukraine right now the connection here between the rioters and him is something discussed by the media that has no chance of dying down i spoke to all sides of

this protest and if you talk about the anti-government protest it is split within itself already there is a peaceful part of protesters who believe themselves to be peaceful you are activists as they call themselves and there's the radical part and i read an interview apart from my conversations with the guys at the governmental korda who are completely radical i read an interview recently by the leader of the right wing sector this is the core of the rioting and of the protest and he said that they do not listen to orders from the opposition they are not controlled by anyone they are all on their own and one quote from that interview is particularly concerning that he said that should the authorities use live rounds against them against the rioters against the right wing sector they have something to respond with so this is creating a genuine concern that they have weapons they're storing them in all the buildings they have taken over i haven't seen any weapons with the right to expect with my own eyes but there are numerous pictures proving that they do have weapons on their hands so definitely the situation is still very very much burning despite being

something of a standstill at the moment. we're following the n.c. government in ukraine an art see dot com where you can find all the latest in detail. moving on now the south african opposition has reportedly been struggling to make their voices heard in their protests against corruption soren crime and widespread poverty unrest to see them in the postman dela country as a nation seems to be agence wars a security crisis artie's policy or reports. we were about to enter one of the most dangerous townships in one of the most dangerous cities in the world this is the south africa that mandela left behind there were no what to expect when you go out in the street some days will be quiet some days you just up and down there are a lot of downs in south africa now days away from the cameras all is not well in the land of mandela twenty six year old constable corrode burma later knows it all

too well for five years he's been patrolling the streets of johannesburg to try and instill some sense of order. and now we are entering. there's a large majority of. poverty. a lot of the purely artistic to for a better life for a better way of the. crime here i am right and the few places in south africa today where crime is more rampant or poverty more in demick than alexandra township twelve kilometers northeast of johannesburg it was once the headquarters of the african national congress and the same to of anti-apartheid activism but it's as if time has stood still here many residents feel forgotten by mandela south africa is quite frightening situation for us but if you. really make this effort this borning township is home to nearly a quarter of

a million mostly black south africans sixty percent of them are grindingly poor and unemployed as we drive along the stench of mounds of garbage overwhelms us the stats are sobering each day on average more than fifty people on murdered in south africa another fifty attempted murders take place more rape happens here in a country or fifty two million people than in india a country of one billion the police are struggling to cope with a sense hear hear. can i answer that truthfully. yeah you can say real sufficiently. but it's up to us to. obtain the training the police have. and understaffed and according to a new poll a staggering eighty three percent of south africans believe they're also corrupt which means the good guys like a robber and his partner often put their lives on the line without sufficient

backup do you think it's good or make any difference that you ration. can only hope. for to those days but. the residents of alexander though are too busy battling the daily reality to worry about what life without mandela will bring twenty years after he came to power they still waiting on promises of jobs and economic prosperity policy r.t. and xander township south africa and their limbs to tom are who's from an opposition party in south africa things this country is the longer the same problems it had two decades ago. these protests in south africa about very basic things i don't think that the protests that happened after the death of nelson mandela south africa has been the world capital of protests but it does a last few months we've seen

a heightened. militancy of those protests because it's a response to a government which basically is policies at deep in poverty and it is unable to respond to today needs of the people and he discovered that increasingly the government is using the old up out of date of racist methods in dealing with legitimate demands of people twenty years later the ruling party has not been able to dismantle about it that you know words that are racism that keeps our people apart where black people are poor and white people are taken care of. still to come for you this hour an upcoming trade pact between the e.u. and the us could see the biggest unified business zone ever created but critics say it's all at the mercy of mega corporations that could so i governments hands and expand their profit focused interests that's ahead for you. also out of the shadows the brits are spy agency g c hate stands accused of sending fake

messages on social networks and using honey traps to get its hands on information that's coming up for you in a few moments. transit . your best way to the heart of moscow.

senior u.s. state department official victoria nuland and the american ambassador to ukraine said on tape with many have claimed all along washington's plans to overthrow the elected government in kiev on this edition of crossfire we call this embarrassing week changes the political battlefield in ukraine. welcome back now the e.u. and the u.s. are mauling what could become the world's biggest for trade agreements looking for more economic power ups the sides are discussing the deal on the transatlantic trade and investment partnership treaty but as marina puerto nile found out the document could lead to two governments falling into corp's pockets the night i'm

announcing that we will launch talks on a comprehensive transatlantic trade and investment partnership with the european union because trade that is fair and free across the atlantic supports millions of good paying american jobs. grand promises minus any explanation it's been one year since the us president announced the establishment of a transatlantic free trade agreement known as taft they had been negotiated in total secrecy away from the congress and the people. the bit about six hundred corporate executives corporate lobbyists. negotiating and the deal with the united states trade representative and with the other countries sweeping u.s. surveillance has cast a cloud over negotiations as germany threatened to pull out outraged over washington snooping on its european partners but if the free trade treaty actually

goes through it promises both sides of the atlantic massive gains of up to one hundred fifty nine billion dollars as more exports are expected to create more jobs but the profits could come at a cost to citizens critics say the treaty would get rid of policies put in place to protect the people the danger here is that this will amount to deregulation that basically will be a race to the bottom and health and safety standards will be diminished in an attempt to create some kind of huge market with the same standards for example genetically modified foods are not labeled in the u.s. while in europe it's mandatory but in the name of free transatlantic trade any regulations against those is an impediment to trade and therefore. simply no longer coal they're simply removed by the trade agreements so then europe is ordinarily good to g.m.

. regardless of what the european people walk under the treaty cars and pharmaceutical drugs could reportedly eyed up being tested only one spy the exporting country instead of the current standard of dual testing be it fracking banking or flying taft critics argue will leave governments with no choice but to change policies that better suit the business needs of private corporate power what their hope is is to have to find the lowest common denominator between the u.s. and and and standards that then make it more easy for there to be quote unquote trade they call our regulations and our standards that hurts. health and safety trade irritants they're called as opposed to barriers and and we believe that those many of those standards are there for very good reason public support for safety standards and regulation may be the very reason american and european citizens have

been kept in the dark about what may turn out to be the world's largest free trade agreement. new york. on line kids are not all riots according to belgium protesters the country is set to remove any age restrictions on euthanasia and allow the controversial practice with children find out more on our websites. than the cyborg future how strong a little closer as scientists manage to put microscopic motors inside human cells find out what came out of it on the artsy dot com. using beautiful women as honey trap so extract secret information could be just one of the dirty tricks g c h q has up its sleeve new leaks from edward snowden so drafts the brits are surveillance agency is going far beyond its remit and forge in the lives of legality or as he's probably boyko reports. the

list of g.c.a. latest antics reads a bit like a cartoon villains manual edward snowden has revealed that a covert unit within the agency is messing with target social media accounts so that changing their profile pictures on facebook posting and deleting status says and they're sending cryptic messages to their friends and family containing dissent from ation about them now g c h q's joint intelligence threat research group even uses unwitting journalists to funnel information about potential targets and they're also into honey traps they pose as attractive women online in order to get potential targets to meet with them in person i think what's unique in this area it's the first public proof that we've seen that serious issues of illegality have been brought forward the interference with other people's communications the violation of the privacy of hundreds of thousands if not millions of people if the

government knows everything about true information is power and then they have enormous power over you which we always say something interesting here with all these revelations what does the blackmail start do you see h.q. isn't a spy agency like m i five or m i six it's a government agency tosca with collecting and analyzing data and yet these most recent revelations show that they're awesome no includes sending viruses and launching denial of service attacks against websites the attempt to do denial of service attacks organizations they don't like are deliberate attempts to obstruct to deceive i think was the phrase they use they say they call it deny disrupt degrade and deceive i mean it's like a james bond movie but these are this is the stuff they're doing and have been doing for years but this is the first proof that anybody's had that they've actually done it and yet how kids who don't work for g c h q. you face prison if

they do the same and they campaigning for civil liberties here in britain say they want to know why. they ought to see london g c h q may have its hands dirty but when it comes to the sheer scale of its operations it's still playing catch up to america's national security agency now an answer that freedom campaigner told us that mass online surveillance has a stifling effect on people speaking their mind don't see anybody advocating for the removal of curtains in everybody's house because we have nothing to hide i think that there's an expectation of privacy here in the u.s. and around the world that's not being respected and when when the expectation is not respected free speech suffers we are much less willing to speak our minds online or offline if we know we're being watched and recorded and tracked are much more less willing to engage in political activism to assemble to organize ourselves

for whatever causes we believe in and if we feel like the authorities are watching our every move and even if the authorities right now might not necessarily be antithetical to the things that we believe in maybe the next president or the next congress or the next government will be and they'll be able to use all of this data that they're collecting against us. some more international headlines for you now the un has restarted its aid mission to homes in syria helped by aid agencies given out food supplies and getting people out of the city meanwhile the syrian opposition has put forward a proposal for a transitional government so they u.n. mediator lakhdar brahimi talks in geneva it says any such ball the must have the power to expel foreign fighters from the country. castaway from el salvador has returned home after spending more than a year adrift at sea jose alvarez was found badly the hydrates had washed up on the marshall islands in the pacific ocean he says he managed to stay alive on the diets

of fish birds and rainwater his friend who set off on the boats with him from mexico diets are on the journey. crosstalk takes a long hard look at the turmoil in ukraine and for those of you in london and sky and on the ground. transit. your best way to the heart of most.

i marinate join me. for india impartial and financial commentary for news and much much. only on bombast and. you know the united states has as many think tanks as the next ten countries combined yes one thousand eight hundred twenty eight takes to tell three hundred million people how to think.

but. the location of boys still remember. how to do it well there's of the row height ten thousand said you would stop this storm we might be more my people will die. alone and welcome the cross for all things are considered i'm peter lobo a leaf conversation of two american officials the f bomb and an agenda revealed a senior u.s. state department official because he knew him and the american ambassador to

ukraine said on tape what many have claimed all along washington's plans to overthrow the elected government in kiev on this edition of crossfire we ask how this embarrassing leak changes the political battlefield in ukraine. crosstalk developments in ukraine i'm joined by my guests no voice ma which in washington he is director of the rice institute for serbian studies in new york we have taurus he is a research associate at the canadian institute for ukrainian studies at the university of alberta and in london we crossed to alexander we curious he is an analyst and writer on legal affairs for a journal in cross talk rules in effect means you can jump in anytime you want and i encourage it alexander i go to you first in london this week with victoria nuland were you surprised by it all because for a lot of circles and particularly in this part of the world it confirmed a lot of what people thought all along that this is a not so covert overthrow of

a legitimately elected government in care of saluki that's exactly what it is let's be absolutely clear about this what nuland and the ambassador would call talking about was who is to be the prime minister of the ukraine miss nuland wants. to be the prime minister of the ukraine not mystically who is the other opposition leader who is currently more popular and she wants to. do this in two way that is contrary to the actual government of the ukraine which is led by mr rich so we have a situation where the united states through missing you newland is actually maneuvering to put its position it's person in charge of the ukraine against the government there and in ways that do not conform to the constitution or the laws of the ukraine.