we. covered. carving up the arctic debate heats up over how the region's vast resources are divided and will be responsible for its fragile ecosystem. territory like dialogue border disputes hundreds are gathering on the international arctic all of these help. russia shelves the supply of missile defense systems to iran falling into in step with the latest u.n. sanctions. and we bring you the latest from the united nations is some. russian nato meeting on missile defense and talks on how to deal with iran all this taking place with you all the latest just ahead where.

i'm broadcasting live from the heart of russia's capital. certainly glad to have you with us the arctic's untapped natural wealth is a source of great temptation for the countries surrounding the icecap it's estimated that billions of barrels of oil lie beneath the sea and the arctic nations are keen to secure their share some of the finest scientific minds have gathered in moscow to make sure a different kind of cold war doesn't break out parties reports fifty billion tons of oil one thousand trillion cubic feet of gas that's enough to supply the internal world for more than a few years and it's just an estimate of what's hidden in the arctic seabed. the underwater riches of the north pole are a temptation for the five arctic states russia the us canada norway and denmark but how does one determine who gets the bigger slice of the pie so we're going to today

we really need a national geography a geography that would help us pursue our national interests. the territorial dispute tottered on the brink of conflict for years but lately they need to fight it out seem to fade away suddenly everybody is talking about the vast amount of riches on the sea floor and and how nations will carve up the region for themselves in the arctic states the coastal states and take particular i've also talked about their stewardship responsibility the stewardship is in the interest of all mankind so at the same time there are expressions of national interest there are expressions of common interest and so really the balance is one of achieving national interests and common interests not just for the kartik states themselves but for the world as a whole the north pole glitters with possibilities and it's not just the arctic states that feel the pull of their region i was in the arctic and you know i was

only five of the two thousand and six in the north pole and then also last year we all met with the arctic of the arctic region represents a very important part of the world in a very fragile. environment a fragile ecosystem that we need to protect the strategic interests in the arctic is global once this northernmost part of the world is better explored there are only a few minor points where there are disputes most of this is undisputed sovereign territory there's a number of countries and i think in europe and i would like germany back you know i think kingdom and china and all those who are also very interested now in the arctic ocean some because of the shipping not because of the resources because of the potential for making a shorter route from a see it through your dipping up the arctic is like walking on thin ice and the chance to tread lightly and work out existing differences is

welcomed by iran. this is as close as most people will ever come to the arctic but its unique nature and vast natural resources are more than enough to entice one and all those attending the forum hope the enticement will help bridge differences keeping everybody on the same pole catherine as r t moscow nikita of the on the coffin arctic expert who's just returned from the region says precautions must be taken to protect its unique wildlife but the situation is that we can just see the changes in the arctic and the weakens the fuel of the skin of the say the changes in the climate changes which are impacting wildlife particularly most vulnerable spaces like. you know if we're careful and if we're mellish it david just properly it's ok by the political will of course when we work in our field would take precautions but that's

a political decision don't make this a rule that nothing is done that could really damage the arctic environment too much damage has already been done by previous exploring of the arctic and we're already destroyed a lot of it we polluted a lot and then we have to invest huge money just to clean. and sticking with this same story the president of iceland for ragnar grimson told r.t. that russia made a positive step to launching negotiations by planting a flag on the arctic sea bed in two thousand and seven. i had been trying for ten years still speak about the arctic issues to people in europe in the united states and elsewhere and there was very little interest but certainly where the russians put the flock of the bottom of the arctic ocean everybody woke up to realize. times had the right so i think when we look back only to east of warsaw well opening

court to the rest of the world now we need to come together and and create successful framework for corporation. and you can watch the full interview with the president of iceland in our spotlight program throughout the day on thursday. president dmitri medvedev has ordered a ban on the supply of russian advanced air defense missile systems to iran moscow says it's shelved the sales because the missiles fall under the latest u.n. sanctions on tehran are to tell you don't cover has the details. bring a bunch of people step russia is not anymore going to sell its ass three hundred and so i missed out defense systems to iran i do to the recently imposed by the un security council sanctions against the country's nuclear program and there was tension as does suggest that any sale of weapons limited to country including

military planes helicopters tanks in accordance to a missile defense shield now then you shouldn't even going to run the signs back in two thousand and seven when launches we know that have begun to cut to the country now they didn't have the first thought of going to bunch of people doubt whether this one check to be cancelled altogether will depend on iran's actions we're still waiting see here on this decision the launch of the thirty's russia has already once was the delivery or best thing hundred missiles to iran last winter and that the decision was not at all welcomes in iran so it is unlikely that it will come this time putting on what they did here peaceful nuclear energy recently as they built together a nuclear plant the first nuclear front in iran in the physical care so it doesn't

look like there's a somewhat ration between the two countries in that sphere so we still have to get our hear from iranian authorities igor club from the moscow based institute of world economy and international relations says that russia's decision to stop selling missiles to tehran will be a serious blow to your rants defense capabilities. iran is totally dependent on its contract with most call if it wants to provide security for its airspace and there is no other way to get similar missiles but to purchase them from russia russian as three hundred complex it's not only missiles those launch pads it also read our facilities and so on is of a state of the art equipment and international experts all agree to that i guess it will for their relations with current just like the judge regime in iran but i think the iranian authorities have to understand the message the message from international community is they have to change something in the attitude towards

the outer world and they have to think twice before going on with their nuclear program and coming up later in the program some are lovers and some are fighters. but in india others are simply fighting for love find out how a vigilante group is saving young couples from violence and persecution. and this is the view of moscow's streets of the russian capital is marking international carfree day and though it may not look like the organizers hailed it a success see why just a few minutes. nato and russia say they've made real progress towards greater cooperation on missile defense global security and conventional arms limits in europe the two came together on the sidelines of the u.n. millennium goals and summit the u.n. security council has also met to discuss iran's nuclear program are. reports. at

this meeting between nato and russia here in new york several important areas of cooperation we're touched upon among them is the stepping up the fight against drug trafficking and in afghanistan secondly security in europe and of course last but not least missile defense cooperation between russia and nato in the last couple of days we have been hearing a lot from nato secretary general saying he believes the best idea would be for russia and the north atlantic treaty organization to cooperate to try to come up with some sort of joint project to work in missile defense together the areas that nato and russia still disagree on are georgia moldova as we know of course ties between russia and nato started getting somewhat shaky because of the conflicts between georgia and south essentially a back in two thousand and eight and needles eastward expansion so these issues still remain a box of the nato secretary general giving a press conference said he believes russia and nato can find mutual mutual positive

steps for both sides if they cooperate more especially in missile defense take a listen to what he had to say the joint review of the twenty first century common security challenges. more call peroration on afghanistan. more practical cooperation in fighting terrorism all piracy hopefully from my point of view as star control which corporation cherry tauriel defense today corporation with russia in addressing these challenges is no longer just an opportunity to build a better relationship with russia it has become a necessity if we want to be effective in preserving our common security and that is the charlotte from beijing from which we can and will move forward what basically the main message of that meeting was the secretary general saying he believes both nato and russia need each other and he hopes that ties. can warm up

and hopefully develop into a more trusting relationship in terms of overran as of yet a meeting between the five members of the security council plus germany on iraq did take place we are know that there was a draft proposal circulating around the united nations today with members of the security council plus germany really hoping to push the process of trying to make iran cooperate with the international community forward and of course we know that the united states wanted in this meeting to assess exactly what kind of impact the existing sanctions that were dropped in june had on iran while russia earlier said that mr foreign minister sergei lavrov said he believes that further additional unilateral economic sanctions against any developing nation is not a very good idea he didn't really name any specific countries but of course the link was drawn between the united states and iran and of course from iran so far we

have been seeing very mixed messages from saying that iran's doors of cooperation and dialogue are open and we also heard the radian president say that he believes that if the united states tries to launch some sort of attack on iran's uranium facilities that would mean want war. reporting from new york at the u.n. summit there now look at some other stories making headlines around the world at least ten people have been killed in a bomb attack in the iranian town of. about twenty others were injured the bomb detonated during a military parade as the country marked the thirtieth anniversary of the beginning of the war with iraq a provincial governor believes that kurdish separatists are behind the attack. china has demanded that japan release the captain of a fishing boat was detained in the east china sea the country's premier wen jiabao has threatened to take action against japan if the situation is not addressed the

chinese vessel crashed into two japanese coast guard boats near taiwan two weeks ago the crew were arrested causing beijing to suspend contact with tokyo. the commonwealth games in the indian capital new delhi have been hit by further setbacks after more athletes pull out of next month's event over forty officials and competitors from the scottish team have already postponed their journey it comes after questions over safety were raised following the collapse of a foot bridge which injured twenty seven laborers the games take place every four years among mainly former british colonies. the us supreme court has refused to block the state of virginia as a first execution of a woman in nearly a century teresa lewis is convicted of the two hired killings to collect insurance money judges rejected her lawyers appeal that this will be unconstitutional as the woman has a low i.q. the execution is planned for thursday. custom officers have discovered

tons of powerful military explosives hidden on board a container ship in southern italy authorities claim the shipment could have originated in iran and be bound for terrorist organizations police are now examining the ship's log to confirm its planned route and final destination. now job on tram train or bus but leave the automobiles at home international car free day which started in switzerland in one thousand nine hundred four has been held in moscow for the second time this year artie's stacey bivins hit the streets of the russian capital to gauge the day's success. consistency reigned in russia's capital as moscow motorists i build their cars in praise patiently and the bus trading traffic now great luck it's nothing new to moscow motorists in fact people can wait up to two and a half hours just sitting there waiting to move forward and it's even worse in the winter time but if you asked supporters of the international car free day at this

event was a failure they'll say no and that's because all they wanted was to get people talking about what improvements must be made in public education and there was also a push by the bit to get politicians to fill their promises many of them with that yes we are behind the idea of an improved railways the subways trams college buses and regular bathrooms and student leaders lead by example today many of them left their cars that hauled the city also tried to lure more people out of public transportation by cutting some of the road by. that they in no way thought that all motorists would leave their cars at home that's unrealistic and that was the point they want to get people talking and they also want to put pressure on politicians who have made promises to build more roads and to improve the infrastructure so that public transportation could be more comfortable and more

timely for more stories you can certainly head over to our t.v. dot com here's a taste of what's online right now. george street vendors find themselves. saying their country imposed a new ban on street trading. and to be optimistic the russian scientist says you can change the material world around you with a positive attitude find out more authority. couples in india who marry against their parents' wishes it could face violence and even death all in the name of protecting family honor but a group of so-called love commandos aims to shelter such newlyweds from harm archies car and saying it meets the team of volunteers behind a venture. but your life's in danger your girlfriend's been kept captive welcome to the love commandos a newly formed helpline taking calls from distraught couples who have dared to

marry against their family's wishes john because i see that i get that it is whenever we get a call that a couple is being threatened if we can't talk talk commandos and tell them to go there immediately to help them if they face any problem we inform the police our team of lawyers also reach there so that the couple is not attacked and threatened or mysteries or. the love commandos include lawyers and social activists and claims to have attracted one hundred forty thousand volunteers across india they have helped rescue many couples from death by forcing police to intervene. son jay and not the other young couple in love who ran away from their families against their marriage they had nowhere else. we need five complaints to the police but no one to count when i heard of the helpline i felt some who helped us right away and we're seeing in there see if. they're having

a cent with. the help playing started following the recent upsurge in honor killings in northern india in some villages local councils death sentences against couples formatting outside the cost or with the same clan. parents or do you have forgotten that they too were young at some point they were also attracted to people and trying to fall in love if not all were successful of course i think they take their frustration out on today's youngsters . anonyma a priority for the volunteers who have been targeted by angry relatives and the village councils the help lane operates from five secret locations in the capital and visitors are carefully screened. the work we do we have to do it quietly if anyone asks us our address we don't just give it to us we first ask them

to reach a public spot and here our center we check to see whether he's a troublemaker who only wants or sure that he needs help then we take him with. love can sometimes be a dangerous thing in india especially in rural communities but with the love commandos just a phone call away there's at last a glimmer of hope for the many couples endangered by their feelings for each other . r t new delhi. and i'll be back with headlines in ten minutes but first a former u.s. presidential advisor speaks about dangerous times from the past and gives his take on the modern day war on terror that's coming up in just a moment. he's

advised presidents for decades and served as the national security advisor under the carter administration he sits down now with dr brzezinski thank you so much for joining us we do appreciate this opportunity it's very nice to be with you i want to ask in an interview with a french magazine in one thousand nine. prior to the. idea. of the soviet union was to a degree more important. and that you don't stand by that statement now yes our version of the interview was not an interview the interview was an extensive

interview which was supposed to. me never was. sort of amalgamated and published but basically the fact united states decided to provide. resistance. it was big to compete directly. when it. was expanded and continued under republican administrations after the president carter left office. turned the resistance in the direction of the collapse of the soviet union and. removed from the international scene of the horror of the possible nuclear war between the soviet union and america and it has made possible the kind of reconciliation that it's now underway in eurasia but more importantly. a paralyzing.

dilemma a paralyzing danger but hovered over the entire international community let's talk about the future implications of that decision that was made all those years ago. what did you expect the dean what your calling the afghan resistance to do with the weaponry that the u.s. and other countries provided to them after the soviet union fell did you expect this weaponry to be given. back the civil war which insinuate after to lead to the formation of what we have now which is the taliban but i think the problem you know has to be looked at closer historical perspective the war lasted almost a decade it was a terrible brutal war for the soviet union the way it is now going to be killed close to a million guns they drove about forty five million guns in their country. so the process of consolidation the rehabilitation of the understand was bombed to be put . on the west unfortunately roughly ten years after the attack started

and then the soviets left did very little to rehabilitate afghanistan and the taliban phenomenon i wrote was several years after the soviet union departed. the taliban it was not involved in fighting. against the soviets to drive the foreigners from other towns to capitalize on the opportunity to develop in afghanistan after the end of the war when it was largely ignored by everyone knows the weapons you know the. tradition of being armed individual the weapons are provided mostly very simple weapons mostly there with few exceptions the current most guns could handle without difficulty so you don't believe that the funding of the mujahideen led to the formation of the taliban today no i mean i look look look what the osama bin laden himself said. osama bin laden described the reasons why he engaged in terrorism against. west and in fact that so it was not.

international terrorism the taliban wasn't involved in imposing enough to understand him a deep concept of society but unfortunately it gave a haven to al qaeda osama bin laden and al-qaeda had global aspirations and engage in global terrorism we'd be having this conversation now if we didn't expect the soviet union to the former soviet union to invade prior to our funding the mujahideen so i knew it was already involved directly through the years by the time to funding started the funding started at a time when the soviet union was already making preparations to invade afghanistan did you think that that would provoke the so far i have no way of knowing but i was assuming the good that would go in because they were going in you know approach that was evident there was an escalation of soviet involvement and by the time the

funding started the soviet union was already involved quayside militarily with guns there i want to switch gears to another region that were influential on the middle east with the israeli palestinian conflict now you helped draft a letter with with lee hamilton that suggested that hamas should be part of this equation what do you make of the current day peace process the one that's taking place right now hamas is not part of that equation how far do you think they'll get in finding a solution to the problem a two state solution ultimately i think it would be very difficult to settle this problem totally the more extremist parties on both sides. i don't. think i would ever come. close on both sides you know people who are against this if so at some stage maybe not right away but at some story the sort of extremists will have to be drawn into the dialogue because otherwise don't undermine it do you predict that. the obama administration before the next election

cycle comes that they will engage mosques in this discussion and i'll take it as such prediction because that would be a wonderful headline there is no basis for making such a protection because how can read it and dissipate so precisely a specific historical event but in some fashion if there is going to case we don't know this everyone involved knows it that hamas will have to be involved in some fashion syria and israel will have to be involved in a joint direct dialogue in some fashion that hezbollah will have to be fitted into the process so we're dealing here with more or less known pieces that will have to be at different stages drawn into a process if it is to be a lasting one but in present circumstances for the negotiations to begin by the most moderately inclined participants on both sides makes sense i'm wondering if we

could also now switch to iran since that's then a very big topic now for actually decades. iran has seemed defiant despite sanctions and despite their threats coming from outside forces including some of their allies they've remained defiant do you think that it will eventually lead to airstrikes on their nuclear facilities well i certainly hope not. because i don't think a wider war in the region is to be desired and the u.s. should not support israel if they choose to do that independently i think a wider war in the region is not desirable but we have to be conscious of the fact that it is avoidable would a possible war on iran if it is launched the threat and america's. standing in europe asia i think a war in the region will spread and of all of america whoever starts it and i think that's not in america's interest i don't think it's in the region's interest i don't think it's in the interest of the international community dr brzezinski thank you so much thank you very greatly. state it nice to talk to you as the talk to.

her. mum. mum. on the morning coming up. this is tree still keeps its secrets but now it's time to reveal the hidden in the soviet files house on the embankment.