RT News - February 11, 2018 (12:00 MSK)

In the stories that shaped the week. The 2018 Winter Games kick off in South Korea - but dozens of Russian athletes have their hopes dashed, just hours before the opening ceremony, as their appeals against a doping-related ban are rejected. Air strikes by the U.S.-led coalition hit Syrian pro-government forces, reportedly killing nearly a hundred people. The Pentagon claims it was carried out to defend an American-backed group. Republican lawmakers in the U.S. threaten to cut funding to a global cancer research programme, after it linked America's most widely-used weedkiller, made by Monsanto, to cancer.