the brazilian president opens this year's u.n. general assembly by lambasting washington for the n.s.a. spy scandal and demanding an apology for being snooped on. russian investigators follow the charges against greenpeace activists saying they may have endangered the region's environment that's after they try to climb onto an offshore oil platform in protest against drilling in the arctic. while the arctic sea is the focus of top officials and ecology experts who flock together in russia's north as countries are beginning to see the oil and gas treasures being revealed by the melting ice.

from our studios and here in moscow which just turned ten pm this is r.t. with international news and comment speaking at the un general assembly in new york barack obama has defended america's foreign military interventions and stressed that washington must remain heavily engaged in the middle east that's after his brazilian counterpart took the chance to criticize the u.s. for the recent global spy scandal let's cross now to report she is in new york to give us more details on this so how did a bomber justify his position on foreign policy that. well centering on syria at the start of his united nations general assembly speech u.s. president barack obama called on the international community to enforce a ban on chemical weapons in syria and he said the best way for that to be done is for the united nations security council to adopt

a stronger resolution what he calls russia u.s. brokered deal on on syria would agree for syria to transfer its chemical weapons stockpile to the international community now he also said that that resolution is necessary to make sure that damascus keeps its word and there needs to be consequences in that resolution in the event that the syrian government does not it is now instead of specifically mentioning military intervention the u.s. leader said that all options are on the table to ensure u.s. national security interests in the middle east he also told the world body that thinking syria could go to a pre-war status quo is something of a fantasy he said that it's time for russia and iran to realize that insisting on the charlotte rule would lead to further extremism now that's that's a part of his speech that deserves some fact checking because. moscow has always

maintained support for the syrian people is always said that it's up to them to decide the fate of their future and the future of bashar al assad's presidency but moscow has also said that this should be done without outside forces now obama's also also went on to tell the international community that he believes america must be engaged in the middle east for its own security and insists that the world benefits when the u.s. is involved he once again alluded to american exceptionalism when saying that the u.s. stands up for the interests of all however the american leader did say that washington . is far more likely to invest energy in countries that that wants to work with the us. regarding iran president obama took a cautiously optimistic tone saying that the united states was ready to engage diplomatically but he said with its long time adversary but said the iranian

president hassan rouhani is a conciliatory words needs to be backed up by transparent and verifiable actions the u.s. leader said that washington is not seeking regime change in iran and respects the right for the iranian people to access peaceful nuclear energy and we also have heard as the days progress of french president francois launch who was due actually to meet with him in his iranian counterpart tuesday afternoon he addressed the international body and he says he expects tehran to display concrete gestures to give up its alleged military nuclear ambitions or program france's leader told the general assembly that he's in favor of dialogue with iran that would hopefully lead to better progress that has been seen clearly in past years now on the topic of syria as the president told the world body that the u.n.

security council that is being drafted right now on syria should include the possibility of military intervention if the syrian government does not abide by its promises to transfer chemical weapons to the international community that sticking point of the possibility of military intervention is something that russia and a few other countries and security council do not support russia maintains that there is a good deal brokered between moscow and washington that is preventing a possible military strike of the u.s. on to syria and that the process should perceive the world. without any. kind of you know threats hovering over. over syria and over this civil war that's been going on for two and a half years so the conversations about syria are far from over world leaders will be could it will continue speaking to the international body and will also be

holding bilateral meetings we know that russian foreign minister sergei lavrov will be meeting with his u.s. counterpart john kerry later on tuesday of course syria will be a main topic of discussion in the arena we call not mention the brazilian president certainly didn't mince words today did she washington for the n.s.c. spy scandal really was told it wasn't but what did she say about. it certainly was and she jumped right into it brazilian president dilma rousseff. that the world has not been happy in the aftermath of finding out the u.s. is pervasive spying programs not only domestically but internationally she criticized the u.s. for meddling in such a manner that she said in the lives and affairs of other countries she said it's a reach of international law and it's affront to the principles that should otherwise govern relations between countries president rousseff also used her

opening speech to announce that brazil would be adopting legislation and technology to protect itself from a legal interception of communications she also called for the establishment of a lateral internet government framework at the un that would prevent that would prevent the type of global spying that america's national security agency has been executing for so many years now we should mention this speech in context because the brazilian leader just recently canceled her scheduled trip to the white house that was supposed to take place in october this as a result after finding out that the n.s.a. . communications as well as the communications of her of her workers and her aides president rousseff said that that there can be no democracy and there could be no freedom of speech as long as these pervasive spying programs that the n.s.a. is conducting prevail and continue to go on so clearly this n.s.a.

spy program bothered brazil as well as it has bothered a lot of latin american countries and i'll be sure surely to bring it up in in the days ahead as the international community discusses the most pressing issues around the world thanks very much indeed for that live from new york. well let's get reaction from antiwar activists brun beck he's joining us here on tino bouma says the u.s. must remain heavily engaged in the middle east because that won't be any will to fill the vacuum if washington pulls out is that a credible claim. well of course the united states is acting in what it perceives to be its own interests and i would have to say views are not the interests of the american people per se who don't have big oil or banking investments in the middle east but there are big banks and there are big oil corporations and they have global interests and they have particular interests in the middle east and the u.s. policy is to protect those interests that's where two thirds of the world's oil is

president obama says we are an exceptional country meaning we we we share our treasure and our blood for the interests of all but not for our own interests i mean that's bogus it's completely a fraud the u.s. wants to dominate and it's been a priority of its foreign policy to dominate this will retreat in for the past fifty years when in defending polls u.s. military interventions he continued to build a case for regime change in syria how is that being received the general assembly. well i think all the countries the world who want to be independent and sovereign countries who realize that president obama when he says sovereignty cannot be a shield for tyrants that means the united states government is arrogating to itself which regimes which governments live in which should be overthrown so i think for those who are independent they all see this as a great threat not only to syria but to all those who who may at some point defy the empire this obama said in his speech we're not an empire it's just useful

propaganda but in fact the u.s. government conducts itself exactly the way an empire does only this time it uses lofty rhetoric and noble causes as is the motivation presumably for its interests let's talk about those developments in syria the world's chemical weapons watchdog it said that it's already cooperating on the chemical disarmament deal so what about this idea of a u.n. security council resolution without actually. well what we have to see what the united states and what france are trying to do at the security council is to bully russia and bully china in order to get wording into that resolution that would authorize them to carry out military action under the rubric of the united nations but clearly the obama administration says it has the authority to act unilaterally but it would like to have some sort of shield or at least mask for that sort of unilateral operation so they want to put in language that says that there must be consequences and president obama in his speech said if

we don't have consequences to enforce syria's compliance which apparently syria is complying then it shows that the united nations has no ability to enforce international laws and its own resolutions we should remind president obama the u.n. passed resolution two forty two that said to israel leave the go on hikes leave the west bank that was forty six years ago no military action against israel and none none is in the future so it's a it's a double standard it's hypocrisy the united states is trying to bully the u.n. security council to do what it really wants to do which is to escalate the conflict in syria to overthrow the ever even if a condition if syria simply doesn't play by the rules and doesn't comply then surely some sort of force is going to be put on it in order to comply it's a fact cool is neat. well i don't think so i mean you know you notice president obama said ninety eight percent of humanity says chemical weapons should be banned the united states principal ally israel refuses to get rid of its chemical weapons

stockpile for biological weapons or nuclear weapons so the administration is in fact quite selective about who can have and who should have chemical weapons but that's not really the point chemical weapons in this instance are a pretext for an escalating intervention the obama administration's can dispense state because of global opposition including massive domestic opposition in the united states and they're trying to come back but they're in a weakened position right now. great to talk to you thank you very much indeed live from the u.s. capitol antiwar activists brought on. thank you thank you this is all to live here in moscow with me twenty four hours a day the news continues in just a minute. she

good leverage or. was able to build the most sophisticated group which all unfortunately doesn't give a darn about anything tombs mission to teach creation and why you should care about humans and. this is why you should want your only on the r.-g. dot com. critic three. three. three. three. three. three brown video for your media project free media r t dot com.

continues here in r.t. thirty greenpeace activists are facing charges of piracy after trying to board a russian oil platform in protest against drilling in the arctic both russian and foreign activists are among those being investigated ortiz alexian a chef ski has the details. this could take up to fifteen years in prison and up to a half a million ruble fine now also from the russian investigators that after the boat the arctic sunrise was seized in the waters in the economic waters of the russian federation close to the oil rig. also they found some kind of electronic equipment on board that vessel the equipment which is used according to the investigators for unidentified means and also the biggest irony here according to the investigators is that the activists of the. organization which has always been fighting to prevent any kind of ecological disasters and catastrophes could have created such a catastrophe or

a disaster by breaching the security of this oil rig and thus we could have endangered the ecology of the entire region of course that is yet to be determined whether their actions could have led to such drastic consequences what we do know from the head of the investigative committee of the russian prosecutor general's office. at the moment that the arctic sunrise vessel was told to the bay of the city in the north of russia and the crew is on board as well as the activists are on board the ship and they're not allowed to leave the ship until the all the investigative procedures have been completed now obviously the greenpeace organization is not a stranger to controversy we've seen over the years that sometimes there are peaceful protest involved lawful means actions in two thousand and six the very same ship the arctic sunrise try to ram a japanese fishing boat which. disorganization described as the protest against

it we also have seen several sit ins when the greenpeace activist blocked the entrance to different ministries ecological ministries and different governmental bodies across the planet not letting the employees inside and we've also seen over the years how the greenpeace activists have been breaching the perimeters of different nuclear power stations across the planet if we go back to the year nine hundred eighty six when the chernobyl disaster happened the greenpeace activists infiltrating the area and staging a protest in the cooling bond literally just meters away from the burning reactor of the chernobyl nuclear power plant so obviously this is the latest link in the whole chain of controversial events surrounding the peaceful ecological are going to zation such as the greenpeace. and staying in the region the untouched beauty of the arctic may soon be a thing of the past many nations are craving to get their hands on the vast. resources hidden beneath the ice which is rapidly melting away russia's convened the third international hoping to draw attention to the region's ecological

security or those with the strongest foot in the door of the states with territory in the frozen region the arctic council consists of those eight countries with russia canada and the us boasting the biggest areas. reports on what's being done to protect the ecology and the race for the black gold initially the idea was foot forward by the president and here in the all the city located exactly all of the arctic circle. is definitely the most important issue being discussed we've got over four hundred experts international experts who arrived here to discuss these problems and the general understanding is that the climate in fact has changed temperatures have in general warmed up in the arctic melting the ice caps and opening new opportunities clearly for different countries to develop its vast

natural resources and also trade routes like the northern trade route which is actively now being used by countries like china with the help of russia since. just the figures tell the story by themselves for ships heading say from beijing to rotterdam it takes around two weeks quicker than say if they take the traditional south the routes of the seven hundred participants all together including experts geologists explorers and others all sitting down and a diplomatically deciding how to work out the situation how to deal with the arctic how to preserve its energy resources and the environment as well. the arctic's promise of business opportunities is really what. some of them who are not even close to the area itself. investigate. as the climate in the arctic surges the scramble to secure multi-billion dollar deals and it's no wonder when you consider according to the latest estimates there's enough to supply the

entire world for three years china with a growing energy demand and increasing gas girls in population is the unlikely contender in the race to secure a foothold in the el tick china has been wooing russia providing both snared and trans debt with a twenty five billion dollars to build an oil pipeline from siberia to china as well as paying ross sniffed an additional sixty billion dollars to develop offshore fields in the arctic and china has also struck up a business relationship with iceland and as a result these tactics managed to secure a place on the arctic council for china along with the founding members the likes of norway and canada which of course have a geographical right to the area earlier i talked to world and research journalist edward strategic circumspect about the prospect of oil drilling in the region. if

it's done right i think it can you know it the environment won't be affected but you know that's the that's the big question is that we've never really seen a major spill in arctic waters. we know from what happened in the gulf of mexico that even under ideal conditions clean ups can be very very costly time consuming and there's a loss of confidence among the public we saw with the exxon volt d.s. that the impacts you know from decades ago are still occurring if you have a spill in the high arctic where there's a lot of ice still moving around in that oil gets underneath the ice and starts migrating there's really nothing you can do there's no engineering solution to this you're just simply going to have to watch it go and it's not going to break up easily it's going to be

a big costly mess and here naughtie will be closely watching the forum as it enters its second day so stay with us for that. kenya's president has announced an end to the operation in nairobi westgate mall the site of kenya's worst terrorist attack in fifteen years five members of the islamist group responsible for the assault were killed during the standoff eleven others are in custody meanwhile kenya's foreign minister says at least two americans and a british citizen are among the al qaeda linked insurgents that carried out this atrocity well the reports of the british woman samantha lewthwaite may have spearheaded the attack she converted to islam as a young woman married a man who later became a london seven seven suicide bomber unconfirmed reports say she's among the militants killed at least sixty one people died in the hostage crisis with iran one hundred seventy injured the al shabaab militants said that they carried out the attack in retaliation for kenyan military operations in somalia of more miss i'm now joined live by as

a kiwi he's the editor of the pan african news wire. so as i just said the attack was said to be carried out retaliation for kenya's military activity in somalia what could the consequences be not just for kenya but for the wider region. well i believe there's going to be. a more vigorous political debate inside of kenya itself around their involvement in somalia which has been going on now for nearly two years this is a occupation that was inherited by the current government of a president who can yada and of course it was started it largely at the aegis of the united states which is financing and providing a lot of military a lot just from the system to the african union mission to somalia which has approximately seventeen thousand five hundred troops occupying somalia actually propping up the somali federal government in mogadishu but there's still

a lot of instability inside somalia particularly in the south and al-shabaab is still a formidable military threat as far as the u.s. and the somalia federal government is concerned i believe that this incident will cause the existing government in kenya as well as the legislature there. perhaps have a more rigorous discussion around what it actually means to have a two thousand five hundred troops in neighboring somalia so should the u.s. somalia and kenya now do about al-shabaab you say a discussion but what should the approach be to that organization. historically over the last four or five years the al-shabaab organization has been carrying out a lot of military operations inside of somalia they controlled a large sections of the capital up until about a year and

a half ago but they still exist and they still have formidable support but the strategy so far has been to isolate them and not to attempt to bring them into this somalia federal government i mean they are fundamental political differences between al shabaab and their supporters and the current government that's in power right now in somalia but at the same time some of the forces there were previously allied with for example the islamic courts union which alice above al-shabaab emerged from did in fact go into a coalition the transitional federal government but they were not able to bring in a lot of other forces and they're going to have to are we open dialogue with not only al shabaab but other groups particularly those in the southern part of somalia . thank you very much in deed abayomi azikiwe editor of pan african news live here nazi great to hear your perspective on this. time now for some other international

news in brief the eastern part of pakistan has been struck by a powerful seven point eight magnitude earthquake forty five people have been killed according to local authorities the deaths occurred in a district near the epicenter where almost a third of the buildings are said to have collapsed tremors have been reported all around the region as far as india's capital new delhi hundreds of kilometers away. a fourth day of nationwide protests in bangladesh turned violent as police clash with clothes factory workers demonstrators threw stones at security forces responded with rubber bullets and tear gas hundred fifty people injured in the rest of protest to set fire to several factories demanding higher wages some employees claim that they have to endure hour shifts and locked in their place of work bangladesh government has been under pressure to reform the industry after the collapse of a factory building in april which killed up to one thousand people. a car bomb blast has been reported in damascus by syrian t.v.

state media says at least three people have lost their lives in what was described as a terrorist attack the opposition currently puts the death toll at seven an explosion hit the capital city of an item on the street in a fierce battle ground between the rebel forces and the army for months. the french appeals court may have stripped nicolas sarkozy of the chance of a political comeback it's ruled an investigation should proceed into accusations the former president the heiress of the l'oreal cosmetics. vetting koren to follow because election campaign back in two thousand and seven its leader allegedly used the mental facility approaches which is what if you're suffering from dementia the court's decision made to the trial in the long running scandal in which it was he denies any misconduct. we've got with a news team offering just over half an hour from now the meantime u.s. lawmakers slashed the food stamp program while keeping the bloated military sector intact this and other stories missing in mainstream headlines and breaking the set that's coming your way shortly.

the. economic downturn the final. deal sank i and the rest because i think it will be everything.

crosstalk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want to. leave. the but.

what's up guys i'm out in london this is breaking the set so apple's new operating system and the new i phone five as apple fans geeking out some of the news upgrades deal with security there's an activation lock that requires an id and password before a thief has a chance to turn off the find my phone security feature and the new i phones even a host of fingerprint reader biometrics for the when now i phone theft or apple picking is so prevalent it's causing an uptick in big cities which brings us to the big apple c m i p v as been busy on the streets of new york cops are actually promoting the new security features as if they're apple's new spokespeople were talking memos to families tweets even handing out flyers on street corners yes i'm sure new yorkers are thrilled that their tax dollars are going towards cops moonlighting as apple geniuses before everyone goes and scoops up the latest i phone there's already been a major security breach just two days after the new phones went on sale a german group of hackers managed to be.