BBC Words in the News 13/16 with transcript video

The Silk Road is a website that exists in a hidden part of the internet known as Tor, which allows people anonymous access by hiding their computer’s identity and location.

For two and a half years the site has featured thousands of adverts for illegal drugs, services to hack into people’s computers, counterfeiters and even hitmen for hire. Buyers pay using Bitcoin, an online currency not tied to any government,­ rather than credit cards,­ to protect their identity and make transactions untraceable.

The FBI has closed the site down and arrested the owner, named as Ross William Ulbricht, who is 29 and also known as Dread Pirate Roberts, in San Francsco.

The FBI said undercover officers used the Silk Road to buy illegal narcotics and services, and have charged Ulbricht with conspiracy to traffic drugs and conspiracy to hack and to launder money. More than $3.5m of Bitcoin currency was also seized.

The criminal papers, issued in New York, described the Silk Road as the most sophisticated and extensive criminal marketplace on the internet today.

Dressed in cream-coloured, shoulderless, pleated dresses, 21 high priestesses perform an elaborate dance routine. The actresses were surrounded by the ruins of the Temple of Hera in Olympia – the site of the ancient Olympics.

As they moved in carefully choreographed routines, the torch for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi was lit.

Tall construction cranes still hang over Sochi’s Olympic stadium. There are concerns over whether the venues will be ready for February. Despite recent backing from a leading IOC official, locals are split.

By the time the Olympic flame arrives at Sochi’s opening ceremony, it will have taken its first ever trip to space and visited nearly 3,000 different places in Russia. But questions remain as to whether it can truly inspire equality for all.