tonight not podhoretz but offenders president putin says greenpeace activists broke international law when they tried to climb on board an offshore platform protest against drilling for oil in the arctic. the u.n. chemical weapons team resumes probing syria after criticism that its previous findings were one sided and inconclusive. and residents of a british colonial outpost in the atlantic is saying they're being ousted to make room for a u.s. military base we report. very good even if you just joined us my name is kevin owen here with me with r.t. live from amman q our top story tonight thirty arrested greenpeace activists are in

temporary custody after being questioned by russian authorities a campaign is face charges for trying to storm an oil platform to protest against drilling in the arctic this is one place where some of them are being held russia's northwest imports city of murder manske a criminal case some suspicion of piracy has been opened by investigators but no one's been formally charged yet yeah this could get up to fifteen years in jail if they are convicted president putin brought up the instance of the international opted for something he can offer. environmental security in the arctic is what this forum is all about and it's widely understood that the arctic itself is quite a fragile system and any misuse any accidents there would lead to major consequences and last week's incident with a group of greenpeace activists who tried to board the floating all platform in the north of russian were detained was also talked about your new. to the president

clearly the activists are not pirates but they still violate the law and. it would be better if those greenpeace representative said with us together in this home and told us would be think about the problems we're discussing we could state their complaints demands and concerns no one is trying to brush them aside would gather for meetings like this specifically to discuss such problems it's obvious there aren't pirates but they try to storm the platform our security forces and border troops did not know who exactly was trying to seize the platform under the greenpeace guides it's obvious these people violated international law by coming dangerously close to the platform of the third time that russia is organizing this forum and clearly it's taking place in. the only city located exactly on the arctic circle around four hundred experts have gathered here from across the world we're heard from the presidents of russia finland iceland and

a representative off the arctic council all talking about environmental issues and environmental security off the arctic in general like i said it's widely understood that any misuse or accidents will lead to severe consequences wished future generations will have to deal with that's why according to president putin only companies with experience working in the arctic and the financial resources to do it properly have to be allowed to develop energy there it's a responsibility i would i would say in a cascade globally we have to work together nations have to work within them their own borders and among others in the border all the way down to those of us who live in our own homes i am of the opinion that that we do not have to back up we're going forward there are all kinds of really remarkably new ways of providing energy not only about current energy projects and future energy projects but also about clean up. heritage of the cold war era like abandoned military bases military

hardware tens of thousands of barrels of oil which are still there left not only by the soviet union but by the united states and canada and it's also widely understood here that it's not only the responsibility of one country to clean that up but really the responsibility of the international community but i will post him up to discuss how to better protect the arctic disputes over his massive oil and gas fields are definitely heating up those who include the potential threat of countries increasing their military presence in the region as defense experts subway's been explained to us earlier. to talk about about. their territorial claims they talk about behavior to actually corporates in certain types of search and rescue and those kind of things but it's still that you have areas which are claimed by by two or more countries where both countries or more than two countries are patrolling sending ships or aircraft and when they meet each

other it's always a little bit tricky what are you going to do how much do you take from the other side and something can actually go wrong there is a risk clearly and an increasing trend on the arctic countries to increase their presence to military presence in the arctic. next u.n. inspectors back in syria to investigate more cases of alleged chemical weapons use the team earlier concluded that nerve gas had been used on a large scale last month that report did not assign blame but was still used in the last western powers to build a case against the syrian government russia called the u.n. findings inconclusive a one sided want to fall asleep as the latest. now the team was established by the un secretary general ban ki moon and it is been headed by swedish scientist dr kay

cells from the convoy of supplied united nations cars arrived at a central hotel in damascus shortly before midday on the wings day we understand that there are at least some eight u.n. investigators participating in this investigation the team was in syria last month and in a report that was handed to the united nations on the sixteenth of september it concluded that it had a clear and convincing evidence that sarin gas had been used in an attack on the twenty first of august in the suburbs of damascus in which hundreds of people were killed not up to cells from has said that they're supported was an initial finding it is an initial document and that their purpose now is to look into other allegations we do expected to examine some thirteen to fourteen attacks that took place inside syria during this thirteen month conflict the team does say that it hopes to position to its final findings addressing all of these accusations

possibly by the end of october now there has been criticism as to the fact that the team can or cannot conclude whether or not chemical gas was used but it's not going to be able to say who was behind these chemical attacks and indeed this is not one of the missions of this particular investigation moscow has also pointed out that u.n. inspectors ignored evidence that was handed to them by syria it was handed to them secretly and that this evidence was ignored as a result of russia saying that this initial report was biased and needs real investigation or at least correspondent will be your report on last ones chemical weapons attack riddled with inconsistencies according to political sharmeen they want to you scrutinize that report machine sums up of funding to more college a bill deliberately. in the human sampling for instance there are inconsistent things with with symptoms. by for victims and survivors that are not atypical and not our conventional understanding of what occurs in

a nerve gas exposure some very stark ones in the environmental sampling it appears that in the west. where the human sampling showed almost one hundred percent positive there are no samples taken by the u.n. team that show seren there are a few samples taken that show degradation of sarin but even these are not consistent in within both the labs there could be false positives i started to write about it i asked questions and then i looked for other and consistencies and found them there to be found i don't think any report is perfect but so what if i don't jump to conclusions ok what about the culture quinces of those in consistencies and what sort of impact could that have on the perception of the situation in the country. i think i don't know there are going to be huge ramifications because of the political level is operating by itself right now they're looking at removing chemical weapons from from from syria so so

a certain part of this process has moved to had the un now as a result of all these holes in its original report needs to then address these and ensure for itself that it has the proper access and time to investigate other areas of alleged chemical weapons attacks. that's one view has got another show away from hey we've gotten a former commander of the british chemical defense regiment joining us live on the line there hi there what's your reaction to claims of the inconsistency is in this report. well i think it's a bunch of mass troops and i'm really not really understanding exactly to pick process here it is true to say that sarin it is pure form wasn't blind in that. place however. and you know which is a don't grow a ship products of sarin was found consistently throughout that area and then the other thing that's important to say is that the rocketry was not discovered and

analyze as it was in the two other locations which positive the sarin and the case are i'm sure that that would have been it but i also agree we need other evidence hasn't the russian dossier on south is not being published and another that pieces so we need to see the whole picture but i think generally the u.n. report was conducted in the right way and he's very conclusive that sarin was used but as you already said he doesn't of course in blame and that's something that really needs to be done as well it wasn't in their remit initially i was should the u.n. team be trying to establish now the. well there still are. looking for evidence . and so you can assert so i understand however that they don't necessarily have the leeway with or to your portion blame i think it's probably for the pure layman

to a layman what can we learn from this show how much further forward are we from when we first started about the the first investigation weeks ago we first started talking about it ok we know that awful attack was carried out ceremonies but we still don't know any further about who did it doing well there are are i are not sure that i agree with that i think the overwhelming compelling evidence is that the regime used it when you look at the the planning that went into this operation which was very sophisticated the quality and the amount of sarin over three hundred fifty kilograms three hundred fifty liters of sarin were used to tension up to a thousand now if there has to be liberation and it's very important i think that the five and the u.n. do identify that because that will have huge of facts globally for russia the u.k. and the usa that we're starting to start as well but as far as the attack on the twenty first of all. there is no other conclusion and all the evidence that i've

seen from the u.n. report previously very firmly points towards the regime a maybe not assertive cell probably within the regime authorized that attack and i wonder i don't buy the conspiracy theories and other things that are really abounded around mon and what about the latest investigations now how long does the evidence lie there if you like we heard initially that sarin traces disappear reason be quickly except what's there for them to potentially find now. well karen you raise a very good point that sarin is non-persistent agent and it doesn't last very long it can remain in soil and other samples for some time but you know i would be surprised if they find sarin or degradation elements of sarin in ace's like. you know three months after the event hopefully what they will find is circumstantial evidence to try and lead us to work out exactly what happened in

those places and i think more importantly to discover if this happened into terrorist groups such as hezbollah of our minister and others that are going to have an impact far wider than the region itself and that apart from destroying syrian chemical weapons that the russian federation and the united states that we agree a good plan on which we must push ahead most importantly for the rest of us in the world is to ensure that politicization of any of those chemical weapons or doesn't happen and how can you stop that i mean the world's chemical weapons watchdog says the syrian government's actively cooperating on the disarmament deal you're checking whether the rebels though have such weapons well i agree you know that that is that is an issue as well the must be investigate it and i'm sure it must be invested sort of everybody but the five and globally but also all those are elements fighting within syria to ensure for that first of all the regimes of rendered. useless in future and if there has been any liberation to any of the

terrorist groups or other groups operation that that is tracked down and destroyed as well so that that should be the wider a. not just reading syria on of the regimes are awesome but anything else that might have filtered out of it all right thanks very much for your thoughts to britain gordon former commander of the british military's chemical defense regiment much prefer it. on the way to the syrian rebels opposition to the opposition thousands of flocking to join al-qaeda affiliate once an islamic state in the country we talk about that in a few minutes. talk to the man mr president this is what some are saying to barack obama as he and his arabian counterpart addressed the united nations well hard liners in both countries particularly the u.s. to ride diplomacy and honestly go she asians there appears to be

a genuine moment for engagement in the u.s. ever take yes for an answer. there's a media leave us so we leave the media. by the same motions to cure. all your party there's a bill. for shoes that no one is asking with the guests that you deserve answers from it's all on politics only on our t.v. . pretty free. free. free. free. free. free. video for your media project free media r.t. dot com.

well again thousands of syrian rebel fighters have disavowed the moderate opposition instead they're filling the ranks of the al qaeda linked extremist camp they've joined a growing chorus of armed voices calling for an islamic state in syria around a hundred thousand opposition fighters are split into three main groups united only in their determination to bring down the syrian government but while president assad's forces push back against the militant onslaught those factions are also fighting among themselves al qaeda linked elements the more moderates a laugh it sand the secular free syrian army don't see idlewild in the country's future. the syrian conflict is also a key focal point of discussions at the ongoing un general assembly the president of neighboring iran stood up to call for a peaceful solution a sign rouhani also took a chance to defend his country's atomic program a former advisor to iran's nuclear negotiations team told me that iran's genuinely seeking a diplomatic breakthrough. he did the process whereby he has received you know a popular mandate as

a result of their elections as well as the green light from the so free media and so on in order to negotiate on the nuclear standoff and you know he said that a lot of the issues are on the table he is willing to negotiate without precondition and so on so i think that you know there's a sense of optimism and in among the reigning in leadership their. unique opportunity right now in order to cause a breakthrough in the nuclear deadlock the u.s. drug fleets just expanded with a new supersonic addition we're talking about their own one and a website out unmanned operations cannot because of the speed of sound or even faster of the engineering upgrade was applied to a retired f. sixteen there it is said online for more details about what they've done to it how it works. and beijing is mulling plans to end its internet censorship pool though only for twenty eight square kilometers of territoriality dot com we tell you what china's tiny way says the web freedom will be.

right see. first for you and i would think that you're. on a recorder's would. be in the. attorney remnants of the british empire in the middle of the atlantic ascension island used to be home to barely a thousand people but even they do in league numbers are now in jeopardy this remote dot is ascension islands coming on the screen there they're. sixteen hundred kilometers from africa twenty two hundred kilometers from brazil to the store a clear is a safe haven for mariners these days though it's dominated by u.s. military base and some residents are crying out for help because of it is the risk

myth picks up the story. the tiny islands in the mid atlantic major volcanic rock couldn't cover i didn't know but to eight hundred people. but now the story of ascension island whole marks the beginning of the diego garcia the british and indian ocean islands whose inhabitants were forced to leave to make way for a u.s. base despite having lived through generations islanders accuse the british government of. rooting families who've been there for more than a century ten years ago when all the difference person was promised democratic institutions for the islands a legal right to live and to own property it wanted a viable community that but today the population's already decreased by. community is replaced by contract because we're tired or unemployed people eighteen to leave and the similarities with. the dominant feature on the island is you guessed it an

american base heavily used during president obama's recent trip to africa there are also satellites and submarine tracking stations and one of the now infamous listening it's run by g c h q the british government now conveniently insists ascension has no indigenous population and many residents believe they intend to evacuate the island completely and abandon it to the americans from the dreams of a permanent home they had a decade ago. to haul in the special relationship. david family originates from. british citizens could be forced out on the whim of the u.s. military. i have been there several times and as i say most most people on ascension out of our sense of indian origin in my family seven years ago i was born there

there is a very very strong sense that ascension out of this being one might almost say starve to death and there is a precarious kind of can of political representation there is the absence of guaranteed property rights or indeed a very much probably rights at all people are born they have people to live their entire working lives their people do wish to retire there but cannot do so may not do so is not to mention the sick if this is because the answer we think is any serious doubt because of pressure from the american base which is largely intelligence related and it is a serious question to be asked about why on british territory british citizens living there these are full british passport holders of why these people are being treated like this for the sake of a station with a base which is almost certain you might know more of the details of this in fact engaged in the activities that have been such a huge global story in terms of spying on pretty much everyone but that is happening on british not an american and

a british population there is being mistreated. in the world do you see a brief very powerful seven point seven magnitude quake in southwest pass no two killed more than three hundred twenty people it struck in a remote mountainous area causing hundreds of houses to collapse there thousands of people of the night in the open tremors were even for hundreds of kilometers to the east in the indian capital of new delhi. kenya's one of the victims of the westgate mall hostage crisis the country's worst terrorist attack in fifteen years president kenyatta says sixty seven people have died but i was expected to rise as troops continue to search the shopping center five members of the ocean extremist children stand off eleven others are in custody authorities are looking into unconfirmed reports that several americans and a british citizen wrongly al-qaeda linked insurgents behind the atrocity. drenching rains caused by typhoon a soggy it hit central china now after really slamming into the southern coast at least twenty nine people have died well over half a million others have been relocated to safety temporarily that storm cut off water

electricity supplies to eastern parts of the country where the estimated to have caused damage with around three billion dollars of. beer lympics or choose who gets a gentle jog around the events latest host country before those games stop a facade she in russia it's going to into hyper drive for a world wide spread more than twenty eight thousand kilometers an hour how well paul scott reports from outside the baikonur cosmodrome to spend a bit more. russian cosmonauts coach of and. along with american astronaut mike hopkins the trio are about to embark on the thirty seventh expedition to the international space station but along with carrying out the usual array of hundreds of scientific and medical experiments resound skin culture of have one more unusual task to perform in november now become the first people in history to carry the olympic torch into

open space. at the caress you as a community will make it as beautiful and spectacular as we can we want to make it memorable millions of people around the world will be able to see us at work and see what we do you'll be able to see the outside of the eye assess with earth in the background we aim to make it a visual spectacle but we don't want to give you all the details just yet the torch will follow the crew to the i assess on a specially branded rocket once the russians have taken it on its unprecedented space walk it will head back to earth with returning crewmembers ready to continue its relay across russia. starting in moscow in early october the torch is to travel sixty five thousand kilometers around the country and will be carried by fourteen thousand berries two of which will be on the i assess although it won't be late twenty's and skiing cultural got their hands on it the very same torch will be used to light the cauldron during the games opening ceremony in february the crew of

expedition thirty seven a relatively inexperienced only commander cult of has been to space before and he's providing a reassuring presence for the newest members of the space community but i'd also like to say feel very competent and part of that comes from our commander who's obviously very experienced in the space craft but as you can see here in the press conferences as well always has a calming presence after launch the soyuz spacecraft is set to orbit the earth four times before docking with the i s s the entire journey taking just around six hours the crew set to remain on board until mid march michael fossum who returned from the i s s two years ago and one day hopes to go back and explains what they can expect i'm very excited for my concern again is that as they look forward to their first flight they have dreamed about this like all of us really from the time of childhood and now they're preparing to live that dream they're a little nervous they're

a little excited and they're professionals they're looking forward to doing the job for which they've trained for many years while following the final preparations in the testing center behind me the rocket has now embarked on its journey to the launch pad and although this train track is only five kilometers long the journey is taken around two hours it has done a walking pace as not to damage the technical equipment inside and although all does look set there's plenty more final preparations to be done in the few hours ahead of launch. some of those preparations include cooling the rocket with nitrogen to minus two hundred seventy degrees to stabilize and keep the four hundred tons of fuel cool so that come the early hours of thursday morning this rocket can deliver the i assess its recruits got by colonel. well let's go live with these latest live pictures from baikonur looking at the top

show the latest pictures partly very recent ones torchbearers getting ready to enter the craft that will take me to space in less than two hours guys of these latest all live these are latest so i just want to get that straight this is the soyuz rocket i can tell you that currently the only provider of transport for cosmonauts and astronauts of course to the international space station we've got live coverage here on our. launch in about an hour and a half's time but you can choose back to us for that. our programs continue up next people of elvis guest discuss the chances that iran and the u.s. have an opening any sort of dialogue any time soon it's our next program. choose your language. with.

the consensus. choose. the great. choose the stories but if you. choose. to.

hello and welcome to crossfire all things are considered i'm peter lavelle talked to the man mr president this is what some are saying to barack obama as he and his iranian counterpart addressed the united nations well hard liners in both countries particularly the u.s. to ride diplomacy in on its negotiations there appears to be a genuine moment for engagement can the u.s. ever take yes for an answer. to cross talk around u.s. relations i'm joined by jenny in washington she is a fellow at the stimson center at the brookings institution we also have berry he is the washington d.c. director of code pink and irvine we cross to soraya separate she is an independent researcher and writer on cross-talk roles in fact folks i mean she can jump in anytime you want if i go to you first in washington and politics and diplomacy have always been told.