it originally started out as a competition between paris and dakar. they found a new venue, south america. >> this year, it is kicking off in peru. one city they will roar through is from where we report. >> is a white knuckle ride through the desert. he could be out of the race. he is the only cyclist from here in the race. >> it is a really tough route. you have to be able to travel 10,000 kilometers. you have to think about your physical stamina. i have trained really hard. hit the gym, ride my bike, swim, and spend hour after hour on my bike. >> riders from the area have the advantage but they have trouble raising funds. >> as a competitor come you have to come up with $300,000 to even take part. even raising $300,000 does not mean you will get to the end, to dakar. it means you can print is a paid and try to get to the end. -- it means you can participate. >> allow participants to gear up for the start, it is not a big deal. we ask the locals if they even knew about it. >> no, said this man. this woman? she hadn't heard of it. >> as residents, we

. >> the seventh stage of the dakar rally was overshadowed by the death of a french motorcyclists. it is the seventh death of a member. >> he was on his way to the seventh stage when he collided with a chilean. it is the third rally debt in three days. -- death in three days. the race continue. d. peter has a 3 minute 14 second lead over his closest rival. a u.s. driver had the best time of the day. -- men's ands man bought championships continue. gemini has modest expectations and a young team -- germany has modest expectations and a young team. >> he is represented germany at the world championships. >> i am really excited. to just focus on the game is something teens learn to do. >> 7 players are making their championship debut this year. the coach hopes the young talent will energize the team. their inexperience poses risks and they are missing some key players. the top hand bollard is missing. he is taking time off-- top handballer is missing. he is taking time off. >> i focus on the player i do have. >> among them, a few veterans. all three were on the championship team in 20

russian track team cameras set out on a two week journey through her room argentina and chile as the dakar rally got underway in south america for the fifth straight year it was the collapse crew are aiming to be dutch hold ahead on the lloyd explains karlsson with his back in action fighting to reclaim his twenty ten crown in the car section and stephanie petter hansel and cyril the play of france is touted to defend his title bikes. and on sunday will number three under nouri defended his brisbane international crown with a hard fought seven six six four victory over twenty one year old beau gary and google dimitrov mari needed just over an hour and a half to clinch his twenty fifth career title and a twenty boost for the reigning us open and unpick champion head of the forthcoming france won in melbourne. let's stay with tennis and as russia aims to produce their first male grand slam winner in eight years we take a look at the breakers not so of as the former wimbledon boys champion gears up for a tough season which example for the reports. as an eighteen year old hundred couldn't solv

on wednesday the gruelling dakar rally became even harder as flash flood shortened stage eleven of the insurance event in argentina after the first checkpoint defending trucks champion sped out the door he was awarded the stage when russia's edouard nikolayev maintained the overall lead and went on to secure his maiden crown as three teams swept the podium while frenchman expectant petter hansel and sitter the play both retained their respective titles in the cars and bikes. thank you. and on thursday after eight years of denial disgraced cyclist lance armstrong admitted to using dope. in all seven of his tour de france wins a revelation that censure uk waves worldwide the americans spoke out for the first time since being stripped of his titles in october however the forty one year old cancer survivor and dad he deserved a lifetime ban from all sports host oprah winfrey described the two part interview as the biggest of her career. thank you. on friday russia produced their first european champion in the women's skeleton as twenty year old elena nikitin up in a sensational performance

. >> well, onto sports now, and the dakar rally in south america. >> after picking up two stage wins, one driver went off the course in stage five, losing ground to the race's overall leader, the defending champion. the frenchman's teammate took the stage win, putting him in fifth place. >> coming up after the break, we will be looking at the still popular hugo chavez. >> and we will be looking at a high-profile visit to north korea. stay with us for that. >> welcome back. we begin by taking a fresh look at venezuela. one of the reasons he got travis has been able to remain in power for so long there is because of the fast money generated by the country's oil reserves -- one of the reasons hugo chavez has been able to remain in power. >> drilling for treasure -- lots of it. 300 billion barrels of oil are hidden under venezuela's soil. it is one of the most oil-rich countries in the world. a natural wealth that president chavez has used to tackle poverty, with success. when he became president, almost half the population lived below the poverty line. today, it is less than 1/3. in poor

. > >> one of the most demanding races in the world is the dakar rally. this year it is going through the countries of peru, argentina and chile. one of the stars of the race is robbie gordon. here you see him driving his bright orange hummer, speeding through the wide-open desert. oh! >> but he quickly turns his hum near a lawn dart in the middle of the desert. check out the in-car camera. all the stuff that was on the floor is now on the roof. >> but is that gas? >> fuel leaking everywhere. >> can you see it's not just about getting out of the car, it's about getting out of the car quickly. >> get out, get out! >> robbie says at first, he can't get the driver's door open. so he has to scoot out through the passenger window. and get away from the car. luckily, the car did not catch fire. and luckily they weren't seriously hurt. but this is damaging. >> if this scene looks a little bit familiar to race fans out there, that's because if you check the internet, robbie did pretty much the exact same thing last year. that's why the accident is so frustrating.

. >> well, onto sports now, and the dakar rally in south america. >> after picking up two stage wins, one driver went off the course in stage five, losing ground to the race's overall leader, the defending champion. the frenchman's teammate took the stage win, putting him in fifth place. >> coming up after the break, we will be looking at the still popular hugo chavez. >> and we will be looking at a high-profile visit to north korea. stay with us for that. stay with us for that. >> welcome back. we begin by taking a fresh look at venezuela. one of the reasons he got travis has been able to remain in power for so long there is because of the fast money generated by the country's oil reserves -- one of the reasons hugo chavez has been able to remain in power. >> drilling for treasure -- lots of it. 300 billion barrels of oil are hidden under venezuela's soil. it is one of the most oil-rich countries in the world. a natural wealth that president chavez has used to tackle poverty, with success. when he became president, almost half the population lived below the poverty line. today, it is

. >> well, onto sports now, and the dakar rally in south america. >> after picking up two stage wins, one driver went off the course in stage five, losing ground to the race's overall leader, the defending champion. the frenchman's teammate took the stage win, putting him in fifth place. >> coming up after the break, we will be looking at the still popular hugo chavez. >> and we will be looking at a high-profile visit to north korea. stay with us for that. stay with us for that. >> welcome back. we begin by taking a fresh look at venezuela. one of the reasons he got travis has been able to remain in power for so long there is because of the fast money generated by the country's oil reserves -- one of the reasons hugo chavez has been able to remain in power. >> drilling for treasure -- lots of it. 300 billion barrels of oil are hidden under venezuela's soil. it is one of the most oil-rich countries in the world. a natural wealth that president chavez has used to tackle poverty, with success. when he became president, almost half the population lived below the poverty line. today, it is

a sandstorm rushes dominate the podium at the two thousand and thirteen dakar rally for details on that story and much much more ahead to our dot com to check it out. syria's foreign minister has invited the opposition to lay down arms to start a national dialogue but added that president assad's removal is out of the question for the violence at this week's bloodbath following two massive blasts in the northern city of aleppo on tuesday more than eighty people mostly students were killed and over one hundred injured after explosions devastated the city's university campus the government blamed the rebels for the attacks but opposition fighters say assad's troops launched airstrikes on the area at the time of the blasts for more on this and let us now talk to political analyst. who's on the line for us from virginia in the united states mr zazi thank you very much for being with us now the syrian opposition leaders will reportedly meet in paris later this month to overcome divisions within the new western backed coalition after all of this time do you think that they're even capable of

and a sandstorm russia has them come as trucks dominate the podium at the two thousand and thirteen dakar rally for details on that story and much more you can head to our dot com. another set of nuclear talks another failure to. breakthrough u.n. inspectors have again come away empty handed from iran unable to revive an investigation into suspected atomic arms research more discussions are scheduled for next month but while they drag on western imposed sanctions are biting iranian citizens as maria for notion and has been finding out. the u.s. maybe serious sanctions against iran are not targeted at the general public but there was barely a single person from the population of around seventy five million who hasn't been affected. i used to buy to make his own boxes then and kilo's now they're selling them in pieces. as booty. iran's all expertise fell by one million barrels a day in the last year following an international embargo has taken sixty percent of the oil revenue the iranian currency lost forty percent of its value against the us dollar causing twenty five percent inflation in

plus a sandstorm russia's kamaz trucks dominate the podium at the twenty third team dakar rally for details on that and much more head to our web site. now a train journey took a bizarre twist in rural russia this week a man survived after falling out of a carriage and that's not it barely dressed for a night in freezing siberian forest earlier artie's time barton told me how he managed to make it out of the words alive. forty two year old valarie malc of who here is a long haul lorry driver was one of the passengers on this train pretty clocking its way through the forest in russia's far east during the nights he goes for a cigarette he goes to the vestibule at the end of the carriage smokes his cigarette and then he goes to to come back to his cabin and he opens the wrong door he say's and rather than going back to another part of the carriage he falls out of the back of the train onto the tracks and into the forest at night and the train speeding away into the distance he then begins to run and when he rapidly realizes he's not just running to try and catch the train he's running for his

and sandstorm russians come on tried to dominate the podium the twenty thirteen dakar rally for details on that story and much more head to our team. and we've got quite a story for you catching up the train took a bizarre twist in the road in rural russia this week a matter survived after falling out of a carriage barely dressed for a night in a freezing siberian faras in winter now to manage to tell us how on earth this happened and how he's doing is tom barton thanks for being with us tom what happened this occurrence of amazing to say well forty two year old valarie melk of who here is a long haul lorry driver was one of the passengers on this train pretty clocking its way through the forest in russia's far east during the noise because for a cigarette he goes to the vestibule at the end of the carriage smokes his cigarette and then he goes to come back to his cabin and while the train is core is nice yes speeding along through the through the forest and he opens the wrong door he ses and rather than going back to the part of the carriage he falls out of the back of the train onto t

that discontent with the previous period has given a lot of grounds for the islamists to sort of play dakar card and build a constituency based around in islamist identity which unfortunately i was being reproduced so you have for example the cops because they feel alienated here have no option but to play that card if they are to build a new sense of meaningful political power and i think we need to move away from the only way to defeat islam is on the platform of ideas and programs and do and you can see already see in such a short period of time the economic incompetence and the political incompetence is showing and that's what you want to target you don't want to make this an existential cultural battle between secularists and islamists and make people need to while the opposition just want to see the current regime fail that's their greatest objective right now they don't want to talk they want to see it fail fair . no i don't think yeah i don't think that this is what they aim for. particularly but the fact of the matter that the current regime is failing and back to the question you

a led military campaign more on this as well as images from the conflict torn country on our team dakar. and later in the program we're telling you about bulgaria's government worries over energy independence a stirring it's best to blog a russian fine and you can call plant a invalidating a national referendum that backed the construction plan. throwing his own government's warnings to the wind a british prime minister david cameron has done in tripoli for a surprise visit he promised to stand by libya as a three bills even as his own foreign office won britain's of a growing threat to its embassies them there andrew pharma has more on what the pm hopes to achieve. did arrive initially made very tight security and then he stressed that he wanted britain to try and beef up security in libya and try and help it improve its own economy there's no doubting that things have deteriorated in this country since twenty eleven when mr cameron last made his visit here just after the overthrow of colonel gadhafi the new libyan government is struggling with a lack of resources it's also struggling

a led military campaign more on this as well as images from the conflict torn country on our team dakar. and later in the program we're telling you about bulgaria's government worries over energy independence a stirring it's best to blog a russian fine and u.k. power plant after invalidating a national referendum that backed the construction plan. throwing his own government's warnings to the wind a british prime minister david cameron has done in tripoli for a surprise visit he promised to stand by libya as it rebuilds even as his own foreign office one britain's of a growing threat to its embassies them all untrue pharma has more on what the pm hopes to achieve. did arrive initially made very tight security and then he stressed that he wanted britain to try and beef up security in libya and try and help it improve its own economy there's no doubting that things have deteriorated in this country since twenty eleven when mr cameron last made his visit here just after the overthrow of colonel gadhafi new libyan government is struggling with a lack of resources it's also struggling to its

this content with the previous period has given a lot of grounds for the islamists to sort of play dakar card and build a constituency based around in islamist identity which unfortunately i was being reproduced so you have for example the cops because they feel alienated have no option but to play that card if they are to build a new sense of meaningful political power and i think we need to move away from the only way to defeat islam is on the platform of ideas and programs and do and you can see already see in such a short period of time the economic incompetence and the political incompetence is showing and that's what you want to target you don't want to make this an existential cultural battle between secularists and islamists and make people need to while the opposition just want to see the current regime fail that's their greatest objective right now they don't want to talk they want to see it fail fair . no i don't think yeah i don't think that this is what they aim for. particularly but the fact of the matter that the current regime is failing and back to the question you asked

and a storm of russia's kamaz truck to dominate the podium at the two thousand and thirteen dakar rallyfor details on that story and much more head to our website are two dot com. catching the train took a bizarre twist in rural russia this week a man who survived after falling out of a carriage barely dressed for a night in a freezing siberian forest in the winter no less really artie's tom barton told me how the man managed to make it out of the woods alive. if we picture the scene we've got forty two year old valarie malkoff a lorry driver in this train clickety clack ing its way through the forests in the a more region in russia's far east at night they decide to go for a cigarette but nothing special so he goes to the vestibule at the end of the carriage smokes his cigarette and then as he stays went to open the door to go back to his carriage except it was the wrong door and he falls out the back of the train so he rapidly realizes that he is not just running to catch up with the train but for his very life we managed to talk to him earlier he was a little bit embarrassed about th

and a sandstorm russia's kamaz trucks dominate the podium at the twenty third team dakar rally for details on that story and much more ahead on our web site. israel will elect its part of the moment in two days' time and prime minister benjamin netanyahu is predicted to come out on top yet many israelis today don't think he's being radical enough policy or reports why many of netanyahu is right wing allies are changing their minds he's the surprise success story in campaign one twin millionaire who says a palestinian state would be suicide for israel enough to be bennett used to work for prime minister netanyahu but now he's working at taking supporters away from him like this man who used to be a diehard supporter of netanyahu so he could party until these elections world around the likud is. a bus full of right wing members of knesset with a lift wing person driving the bus. as far as being i mean. even though i am opposed to it. i would say most members of the likud obviously is for it the irony is that while the world sees netanyahu as a white leader at home he's losing face among supp

he's joining us from dakar in senegal. andrew, thanks for coming in.errorists in algeria right now. what exactly is their connection to al qaeda? >> well these terrorists were operating under a man named mokhtar belmokhtar. he was part of al qaeda and the islamic maghreb which formally merged with al qaeda in 2006 and took the new name in 2007. he was reportedly stripped of his command by aqim, though i think the circumstances are probably a bit more complex than that and he's still been operating in northern mali and now, of course, back in algeria. >> and he's a one-eyed algerian terrorist and he's got a group, among other things, called the brigade of the masked ones. mokhtar belmokhtar. does he take orders from the number one leader of al qaeda, zawihiri, or are they independently inspired by al qaeda? >> well aqim and belmokhtar in particular has been very careful in public statements before and in interviews to pay hom marriage to al qaeda and be clear that he takes his orders from al qaeda central. the extent to which he does or doesn't is not a