love on the slopes tree it's valentine's day and the libyans and spectators alike palls to admire the darlings of the twenty fourteen winter games with an insistence selection topping the charts. three years old gaspipe songs and torture failed to hold brady for reform activists as they stand defiant artsy looks at what the future could hold for the country. and vibration concerns afflicting several countries not gong norway's store with vast numbers of foreigners lord so it's by living standards the country is increasingly worried about how to control the influx without infuriates and brussels.

coming to you live from the heart of the russian capital this is artsy enter national with me marina costs for about day seven now of the twenty second the winter olympics and we start with our special coverage of the games. the sun is out over song to the weather's great and that's fallen time states a boot but there's a potential sadness in the air on the thursday evening of the legend of russian figure skating you've. pulled out of competition just minutes before his performance that's due to an injury what made it all that much more better for finance was that he was a favorite for a medal our season under former reports. poor old you kenny. that is the end of his

competitive career he was always going to retire after these olympics aged thirty one but he did not want it to end that he had to pull out after landing awkwardly during the warm up of the men's individual competition yesterday he does have a long history of back problems in fact he still has four screws in the back of his after twelve operations but he will be remembered as one of the most decorated figure skaters of all time he has four limping medals he won gold in the team event here in sochi just a few days ago and also fell a figure skater maxine klein called among others has been paying tribute to his glittering if you. we all have great respect for pollution cold she's a legend in our sport and a great example for many worldwide but i think the fact that she came out and helped win the team gold given this condition is a heroic achievement and. i want to take my hat off and tell him that he's the greatest of athletes everything he went through and everything he achieved was

unique she people in history could have equal to him qualities valentine's day and i know it's not going to be much of a consolation for mystifying shanker at the moment but he has been named as one of soft cheese tarts at least in the straw poll i carried out myself of about forty people yesterday also in the forty's this was alexander ovechkin he school for russia yesterday in their fight to win against slovenia and they're getting this competition and also there you might be surprised at the russian women's curling team they really have struck a chord with the russian nation and their beauty has made many people fall in love with the school but also i really enjoy talking to people yesterday intimate they proved that romance and good humor is alive and well behaved he says may want to know who is the sexiest after eight at these olympics. goalkeeper. russian federation of course. joyce just why it's so joe

what's his name sean weiss retainer yes me american it lets us know border yes i think his very good looking who is the most attractive athlete at these olympics. getting beyond life i think we know i know i know nancy ok russians good. curling yes killing of costco. krista version of team germany courage. she was in. so fast these very good looking isn't a little note he would be written this season volunteering one hundred people to go on facebook. sites like everybody happy valentine's poxy all missy's yeah that's nice she's a little be doing anything like this so we all will do it on site say to your wife now to search a site smarty you could like back in the u.k. happy valentine's for tomorrow it's

a sight from sochi we still believe in valentine's as well i know the games i want to work in order can do. so there you are romancing me and i'm going to say happy valentine's to my fiance in moscow too if you are in love with that russian curling think keep watching today because they to night again against the. wall while andrew has been talking to the fans we spoke with a true veteran of the olympic games are men's o'gallagher has won medals in the lows at six consecutive ones for olympic games and he gave us his take on softy. good game for me olympics it's open seventy it's very nice for me to open cell need to take the flak for the valiant guy and the same thing for the guardian team in the world. for the athletes it's really nice. to keep. meanwhile so she's welcome that's new us and by far its most

fierce looking done this and tights on the robots and we've been out to meet him a good twenty four you going through a little breaks or you don't want to drop. the spiders i mean appearance titans really not interested in global domination in fact he's more insidious and st annes for tame and clever contraption spends its time on the streets of song telling jokes dancing and making friends with the locals but it's not everyone's going to trust him. there. will be keeping on top full time as the games progress but of course he's just one of the answer payments around the city children speak and so they need an athlete's

about their experiences and some tricks and held it found the olympic venues but they never just server away the buses expand also such you'll see them on sign up on the mountain village with a pretty good accommodation there's no place on the new zealand team so we just heard one of the buildings but not so comfortable with buses up around the was in new zealand so makes us feel like the temperature bit by bit of a warm so yeah it was getting pretty slushy but we ride in those conditions all the time and so i just tend to try to land on your face in attempting to the. now safely one being is the last thing on the minds of these two guys have a look although what they're doing is not an olympic sport it's fully complies with the slogan faster and higher stronger especially the harder part these are russian their devils managed to climb the shanghai tower almost six hundred fifty meters

tall with no safety gear and no permission the tower is still under construction provides a grand on the last unless you are scared of heights of course their you tube video has almost seventy million hits the watch and that can make you a bit dizzy. and we've got that story in full on our websites arts dot com and i've gone back to your lympics we are hoping to hear from more star performers today and throughout the games in fact and the best part is that you get to ask them your questions by heading to our facebook page the address is facebook dot com slash our seniors. twenty four gene promise is the ultimate in the exhilarating winter and. you see no way to make seven zero in the first of all of these teams for sochi twenty four

take. on. moving on to other news now protests that erupted in the outskirts of capital on friday have been quashed by police using tear gas at least once the nine people have been arrested the activists the marking three years of for reform the sons that has reportedly seen scores killed in the police crackdown artie's a look see at reports on the long run in standoff. it's three years since the arab spring gripped the gulf state of bahrain violence still shakes the streets of its capital mamma as protesters against the sunni led government fire molotov cocktails the police respond with tear gas and flash bang grenades it thing is that the government is using it as a while and a lot are being tortured and house raids just now are living in cities it said i

lived in but. you can hear helicopters armored by shooting at people. throwing it here yes here and there making people thought the key why not even progress outside this street at least eighty nine people have reportedly been killed in the sheol position strife or reforms hundreds of thousands have been injured some lost limbs and eyesight protests have been held on almost daily basis and i witnessed some of those i went to bahrain a little more than a year ago we met with a different government official who told me that despite seeing the protestors as radicals and hardliners they were still looking for some sort of compromise but the most sensational statement came from the country's information minister so i mean that our job i think the bahraini opposition is the main ally of the west the terrorist members of the opposition and their leader has close ties to foreign embassies in bahrain wiki leaks are veiled many documents proving it i talk to the

americans and clearly ask them to speak to their friends in the opposition who should understand that bahrain cannot be ruled by an ethnic sectarian party or bahrain's opposition say the allegations are laughable if that was true they say then why is there no action from the western states the u.s. navy's fifth fleet stationed in bahrain and washington's close ties with saudi arabia may be among the reasons what is happening through in terms of human rights abuses is happening. the whole was all come up with the whole media. because everything in that region. close to saudi arabia they keep quiet about it. i haven't seen for three years one single time that you can then. you want to see these were the scenes of the second anniversary of bahrain's uprising with thousands

protesting peacefully in the streets this time it is already a lot noisier with the opposition planning a three day long protest and the authorities beefing up security. and. we reiterate our main demand secure for rights without any hesitation we are ready to make new sacrifices for this in the name of our homeland we will demand just retribution for all those who killed their sons and those who ordered the killings last month bahrain's crown prince selman called for another round of negotiations to end the violence but with two failed attempts already and the royal family refusing to budge and protesters demands hardly anyone in this gulf state believes there may be any breakthrough soon alexy russia r.t. . human rights groups have repeatedly sounded the alarm over the brutal tactics used by police against. several months behind bars

after helping organize protests here's her experience of me and security forces face to face. it was it was really very bad and it's up today it's very interesting people everywhere present it's not just the women women and men and children everyone who. will be through. nearly everyone everyone will be everyone will be. everyone we. signed we don't go in with what is inside we don't have any access to the. outside world the situation it is really very bad for anyone to be detained and since two thousand and four nothing just for speaking up understanding of the people. for the last three years has been closely following the uprising in books and you can find the big picture of what's going on there on our website artsy dot com.

the british government is casting about for ways citizens gone to syria to fight stay with us for the story on how a forty one year old man left his family behind to fight and die in a foreign war and more ahead. trend zero to vnukovo report your best way to the heart of moscow.

the olympic games is very name means athletic excellence and extravagant showmanship this has been traditionally the case where were the games in sochi have been treated differently western media has attempted to politicize the games at the expense of sports and the host country on this edition of crossfire we explore the true spirit of sochi. is obviously more for the latest because it's pink. women wanted to avoid rape they really need it to buy guns and. this is the one that i want to go with them once again it's the fear factor for all women are definitely the target of the gun lobby one you don't kill them when you're killing money but if somebody with you with this with her. noticing more and more if that's really scary marketing tactics which implies that women have some sort of moral obligation to protect their family and young girls shoot out here to

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. city gridlock or a tourist to mccurry was able to build a new most sophisticated robot which fortunately doesn't give a dollar amount anything tunes mission to teach music creation why it should care about humans in the world this is why you should care only. welcome back to artsy ensor national wilkinson new with other news now the free

movement of people may be one of the pillars of a common markets but the issue is driving a wedge between the e.u. member states calls for tougher regulations are spreading wider draw in the condemnation of brussels now of course switzerland as we know has just voted in favor of curbs on the e.u. of migrants and almost half of germans want to follow and that's footsteps in france seventy percent of the population believe there are just too many foreigners in the country and when it comes to britain the vast majority support that line as well they want to see immigration reduced in norway a record number of illegal immigrants were deported last year and those artes are going to school for ports calls for stricter measures are growing louder. this used to be a quiet suburban town in the outskirts of oslo where money is spent fourteen years of his life until he says along with most of his norwegian friends they had to move out because of constant attacks by teenage immigrant again he's. been in the

ambulance five times or something so it came to the point where i didn't have the time to be robbed all the time and go to the hospital today three out of four students at the local school are foreign descent that's energy exports brought norway's some of the highest living standards in europe and made it very attractive for immigrants over the last thirty years their population has grown tenfold but high living standards mean high cost which not all newcomers are contributing towards many immigrants who are coming from asia and africa they are low skilled and know they don't have a labor market for them to offer jobs for them so many and. to be depended on social benefits benefits include free housing a two year old integration course and an allowance also paid by the state during this time with n.g.o.s warning the spending may be too much even for the norwegian

budget to swallow talks about cutting down the numbers have now reached parliament we want to improve the. immigration system in europe and not get rid of it by closing the borders we have wanted to discuss now how to sort of get a more work a good working immigration system how to respect the system but solving one problem may create new ones which one has just held a nationwide referendum in which over half of its citizens decided to limit the amount of immigrants living and working there causing outrage from brussels and threatening trade ties with the e.u. it's going to of r.t. . and don't forget there are always more stories lined up for you on our websites including real. for some one debate for authors becomes the first ever country to allow youth in asia for terminally ill children the ruling immediately unites in christians muslims and jews in the wave of condemnation. and

gender you korea american facebook users don't have to be just boys or girls anymore as the social network introduces about gender identity options story and more artsy dot com. all forces in the u.k. are scrambling to come up with a solution so prevents young britons from becoming radicalized and taken up arms in syria boyko looks now at the troubling story of one man who reportedly blew himself up in the war torn city of aleppo. facts are sometimes stranger than fiction this is the street where abdul wahid the first suspected british suicide bomber in syria is alleged to have lived it's called martyrs haven't you the forty one year old man that lived is suspected of carrying out a suicide bombing in a truck in the city of aleppo last week after joining the al qaida linked to al

nusra front the father of three is said to have quit his day job six months ago and joined a convoy running aid into syria he was reportedly in contact with his wife and children up until last week if his identity is confirmed it will be the first known attack by a briton in syria according to the center for the study of radicalization in king's college in london hundreds of u.k. citizens have traveled to syria to fight with jihadi groups recent posts on social media suggest that some of the brits fighting there have been involved in b.c. and execution of fellow rebels while residents of moscow's adding you come to terms with a reported neighbor suicide attack security services in the u.k. of becoming increasingly concerned about the potential threats fighting in syria could return and stage attacks on u.k. soil. west sussex and this launch as british citizens who have

been heading to syria to take up arms recent studies suggest that hundreds of citizens from belgium france germany and several other states have joined the jihad this governments are now concerned about the threat that these radicalized fighters might polls when they return home now the call to war is being the heavily publicized by one group of british nationals forcing in syria they're spreading propaganda like this across social media platforms threatening terrorist attacks in britain and the u.s. on public transport. business censors the captions on these images urged people to join the holy war and become martyrs for the cause rosemary davis is a u.k. government spokeswoman in the middle east and she says the authorities are under no illusion about how dangerous these fighters are but we are very concerned and.

by chance we were going from britain to syria to fight and. we are concerned also to see if. we do all the events and go into syria. are constantly still here. in which we can prevent the displayed from go in and we're also looking in what we can do but those that do decide to travel. rush other uys and other members of the u.n. security council are set to thrash out their differences on a draft text to hold the violence in syria bonsa u.n. mediator lakhdar brahimi has warned the talks are close to collapse russia's foreign minister says the west's one sided approach to the conflict is holding back the peace efforts. we get the impression that when those who brought the opposition into the talks everyone to focus in fulfilling the geneva communiqué

what they were really after was regime change the only thing that the syrian opposition want to talk about is establishing a transitional government only after that will they be willing to discuss the problem of terrorism as things stand most of those fighting against the government stream mist and terrorist groups. some more global headlines for you now hundreds of people have again protested against the rise in the price of public transport in the brazilian city of rio de janeiro blocking the city's censor demonstrators say the nine percent hike in bus fares was unfair at a time when the cost of living is going up every silly and cameraman who was hit by a flare while filming in all the protests in the city a week ago has died of his injuries. two people have died and more than seventy thousand have been forced to flee after a volcano on the indonesian island of java erupted the victims were at home when

their roof collapsed under the weight of irish catholic layer also covered the nearest major cities to obama one hundred and thirty kilometers away three major airports have been forced to close. in thailand i'd say government protesters have clashed with police as they cleared camps of demonstrators from the streets of bangkok authorities managed to open some major roads that had been closed for three months protests are still off several areas of the capital as they call for the governments of the replaced by and on the elected people's council. more news for you in about half an hour coming up though here on artsy international a clash of opinions and cross talk with peter lavelle. he

turned a group wants to erect a statue to the lord of darkness in oklahoma city which is the logical capital of oklahoma the sickness was. to build the monument of a goat had a devil in or despite a monument to the ten commandments that was put up in two thousand and twelve yet they maybe should have put up of honor into the ten commandments on public property but does that mean that satanists nazis the other wackos have the right to put up their own twisted monuments well that is it depends on how you look at things technically it was true liberalism everyone's beliefs by law are equal even if ninety nine people are christian and they cannot impose on that one poor c. honest which sounds nice but in reality that means that those ninety nine christians have to tolerate a monument to the infernal master and defiler of the innocent on their way to work every morning part of having a culture means having a group of people of common beliefs and values if you just include anything into

the culture than you longer have a culture all that remains are scattered individuals all i'm trying to say is that it's ok to rebuke the devil guy's professional opinion. to what extent being held the success of the arab spring depends on the people in their region on the arabs and to what extent it still depends on b. . c. you perceive that the influence of the outside powers phase is getting stronger now because of the absence of a major country like egypt but i assure you. decided by by turkey over by russia by america. in the absence of very potent this which is the out of world.

hello and welcome to crossfire all things considered on peter lavelle the olympic games is very name means athletic excellence and extravagant showmanship this has been traditionally the case however the games in sochi have been treated differently western media has attempted to politicize the games at the expense of sports and the host country on this edition of crossfire we explore the true spirit of sochi. cross-talk media coverage of sochi i'm joined by my guest martin andrews he is our

correspondent in sochi right now in london we have john good body he is a journalist for the sunday times who has been covering the olympics since one thousand nine hundred eighty eight and in watching we crossed a week camp he is a comedian and an author i gently and cry. rules in effect and you can jump in anytime you want and i very much encourage it martin you're in sochi right now you've been there since the start here i would ask you a very simple question what's it like and i know you were aware of what was being said about the games weeks and months before they opened up so please compared to me what you read in western media and what you've experienced to date in sochi go ahead well as you can see we've got the olympic park behind us at the moment just behind you it's in vision you can see the olympic flame you can see them playing but the entire part is on fire such is on fire at the moment the atmosphere is just incredible and take my word for every single person i've asked from all around the world who's witnessing this sensational sporting event really says it's one of the

best olympics they've ever had. in us your question regarding the media. of this olympic mess shambles ridicule i think it's personally horrific and the answer to that is that in my opinion it's just the old cold war mentality of you know going back centuries ago decades ago i got a taxi to heathrow airport and the taxi guy as they do they say to me oh where are you off to on holiday or on work and the minute i say moscow the minute i say russia they say they have to apologize for it it has a negative attitude in the west and hopefully that the thousands and thousands of people who are here they've realized that sochi is a beautiful place the money you can see in the facilities in the mounting cluster in the in the in the transport that they've built here of course there's going to be issues with new hotels that haven't been built that happens at every single live . in every single city center of course is.