the olympic flame is lit in the game's a story birthplace in greece before setting off on an average four months really across russia leading up to sort she twenty fourteen. three attacks in two days leave dozens dead in nigeria as islamist insurgents target universities churches and civilian infrastructure in retaliation for a government offensive. the one general assam boy wraps up with a return to hope and diplomacy world powers agree on a syria resolution and their food finally be wide of the end of the tunnel overruns nuclear crisis.

or be a mockery watching our marina joshie welcome to the program now the olympic flame for the twenty fourteen winter games has been lit in olympia the birthplace of the legendary event it's from there that the torch will travel thousands of kilometers to next year's host city in russia are chosen to farmer was at the ceremony in greece and shared his impressions with me and to ban would say who is in sochi. lympics flame for sorcery twenty fourteen has been lit you will probably be able to see it just behind my left shoulder there and it also we will see here at olympia the birthplace of the games the longest torch relay in elim pick history just a few moments ago the lighting of the flame ceremony took place it was basically a step back in time winding back the clock perhaps two and

a half thousand g.'s you saw a naturist rest as a high priestess light the flame using the powers of the sun and a parabolic mirror which is basically what happened in seven hundred b.c. that flame is then brought here to the ancient stadium which is where i am standing and it is now being used or just was used to light the torch the very first torch bearer he runs off to my right by tradition he's always a great god on this occasion he was an eighteen year old ski called yanis antonio who hopes to compete for his country in sochi next year and he will hand this torch the first russian torch bearer alexander ovechkin the ice hockey star he himself has only been released by his club the washington capitals for forty eight hours to carry out this honor he flies back to the states this evening but he says that this event today was one of the highlights of his career while the torch will go on a tour of greece for the next seven days and that will end in athens next weekend

before it flies to moscow for the russian leg that's the longest in torch relay history but it also has started here as we've been on there in the limpia the birthplace of the olympics now let's cross it to bangor today is in sochi the host city for the twenty eight fourteen olympics so tomorrow how the stuart will get to start well it's definitely going to be an olympic torch relay that's going to break a many records and here's why it's going to take around one hundred days for all of that torch to go through russia it's going to take sixty five thousand kilometers and ford. a thousand torch bearers to bring it right here to the holy city at the fish venue right behind me here under my left hand side in seoul she now is going to day through nine at times earnings in russia eighty three regions of two thousand and nine hundred and cities and settlements across russia and also visit

the north pole also it will go to the top of the europe's our highest mountain in the russia's or north caucuses it will then make a trip outside of earth or to the i.r.s. says away cosmonauts they will take it on a space walk now this has never happened before in the history of the olympics now in terms of traveling the torch around russia it's going to have a conventional ways such as you know the train a plane as well as on foot or through personalities but it's also going to go through unconventional ways or through reindeer sleighs and hot air balloons of course a russia wanted to highlight some of it's a culture it's a history and of course this emerging new younger russia that we're seeing being developed here at the whole city in a sort she. deliberate torch is on it's a big journey to such. one hundred and twenty three days. through two thousand nine hundred towns and cities of russia. really fourteen thousand people

or sixty five thousand killing. in a record setting trip by land air sea and others face. olympic torch relay. special coverage on the. two days of as the most attacks in nigeria have claimed at least fifty one lives and they are believed to be the work of boko her arm continuing a deadly tranche of targeting vulnerable civilian infrastructure by the radical group which says it's in retaliation for government counterinsurgency offensive in the northeast of nigeria well for more on this let's now talk to i johnson who's a founder of the viewpoint africa website mr johnson thank you so much for joining us here and if you talk about this well before as we know boko haram targeted foreigners or the nigerian military why go after civilians now. well i think it's

a desperation acts by the militants and they've been attacked severely by the nigerian government for several months and i think they've been dented in terms of their own all round operations and this is just an extension of his group to make sure it's already propagated before that it was a serious states want sharia law and despite his anything this western and if it does believe that some institutions including education institutions its targets because it's deemed to be worse than well you know we also know that this group is a building international network i mean it's expanding its network and joining other islamist cells including al qaida so why are these groups going international well they've all got their ideology their blueprints and the knowledge on the experience that they do have strictly from al qaeda and the old these groups are all joined together the beat but i'll shut bob in somalia or the why the l.a.

in in mali or the. across the west africa these jihadi cells are all under the blueprints on the organizational under very very strict. their focus is the same way i judge this and the they also want to do the spectacular in terms of the sort of attacks on they can do and they always keen on grabbing the headlines and they're very streets in time to drive away to between the religious divide in specially christians and muslims and in countries like nigeria which is very already splits on ethnic and religious grounds it makes it that much easier for muslims to be pushed to the edge muslims many of them who are don't have anything to do with this to be much allies analysis then themselves become. elements for these groups because they're already on the fringes of the society. well you know over the past few years let's say over the past. couple of years or so we have seen

the islamistic to vittie sort of going up there is seems to me in a trance that you know the surge in africa what's behind this i mean what would you attribute to that what's the reason well the the west has already declared terrorism leads to islam is in islam is in links to fundamentalism and ultimately muslims so to that effect the they are all propaganda has been already been determined by the west as the threat yes they are threats there's no doubt i mean there was a significant threat to the world but when you're dealing with an ideology when you're dealing with a mindset and in the case all these groups they believe they could do no wrong because i think they believe they're getting their blueprint from god so it's not the extent it becomes very difficult to dislodge them over time and you're looking at a generational problem alternately it's the next generation they will be the determining factor whether we have a success in this sort of problems that we're facing in the world today or whether

the become a all together ultimately the the use will be the ones who will be there be educated better be mindful of what can go wrong when they join these groups and ultimately when you start addressing the right from courses creating jobs addressing social issues. we may be able to reap these problems from our societies but you know finally what is a soul leading to briefly if you can. well there is no doubt we are it's a religious crossroads among civilizations and if it wasn't one that was chosen by the west but hockey is no less the so-called terrorists are already determined backslaps out and in their actions as we see in kenya currently where most recently the the mall was attacked and muslims were given safe passage and christians were not it just shows you quite clearly that we are moving towards a religious war song description in the medium to long term and that's

a big moving forward it was a johnson founder of the viewpoint africa website i think is so much for sharing your views with us here on r.t. and here no one expected it just two weeks ago but this year's un general assembly has proven that there is enough space for consensus between world powers and has seen in a storage phone call which raise hopes that a deadlock can be broken iran's nuclear crisis but the show of unity peaked when the un security council unanimously voted on a syrian resolution something that seemed to be elusive for more than two years artist neeson our reports from new york post for diplomacy progress on two fronts at the united nations a new tone in policy towards iran and a security council resolution on chemical weapons in syria the opening in we've been hearing increasingly often the argument that the threat or use of force which is directly precipitated by the un charter might be the most efficient way to solve

international problems the united states of america is prepared to use all elements of our power including military force to secure. our core interests of the rich but rare consensus at the u.n. emerged after years of deadlock over how to deal with the syrian crisis the un security council unanimously passed a resolution to secure and eliminate syria's stockpiles of chemical weapons according to the geneva agreement put forward by russia and the u.s. the mandate outlines a legally binding compliance but no threat of automatic sanctions or military action i think it shows they were turning towards a diplomatic solution least on the issue of chemical weapons but the other issue that is still remained outstanding is what will happen outside of the issue of chemical weapons will the promise to be pursued by the united states or will they continue to find as they have the opposition are in the opposition of this still a day that happening and trying to deepen the conflict over there was out in another way it's a u.s.

policy that iran's new president says has no place in the region his debut at the u.n. this week star hassan rouhani reach out but also defend tehran from political attacks iran is an anchor of stability in unstable region the iranian threat is imaginary and is used as an excuse for the misdeeds of others iran poses absolutely no threat to the world or the region ronnie made it clear that iran does not want nuclear weapons and that it wants peace but also to be treated as an equal rainy and u.s. officials praised high level meetings that took place on the sidelines of the general assembly and the country's president spoke over the phone for the first time in over three decades but what would it take for a would be photo op to become a new u.s. approach towards iran obama's has are very tied there his hands are tied that there are people and lobby groups in the united states that do not want to see the united states and iran after thirty four years of demonizing the country to have relations

the u.s. is in a tough spot to keep from north. the relation of the middle east and now the alienation of the arabs and muslims in general against the us is mostly due to the commitment of the double standard the us shows its relations with israel obama said to meet with israeli prime minister netanyahu on monday in washington now is the real test will the u.s. be able to move forward with diplomacy in the middle east both with iran and syria the first week at the u.n. general assembly has opened the door to rethink a failed policy the question is will the obama administration shot it the first chance they get reporting from new york and he sonali r.t. president obama is also facing an enormous pressure at home over his middle east policies especially on syria his approval rating has dropped to

a two year low historian gerald horan told us that politicians there are eagerly awaiting his next misstep you may recall that approximately two weeks ago it seemed as if washington was on the verge of military strikes against syria this would have been disastrous for the obama presidency that is to say given the high level of antiwar feeling in the united states this would have led probably to his impeachment if not his removal from office on the one hand you have the republican party opposition split with one wing pushing for military strikes led by senator john mccain of arizona and another wing basically pushing for the opposite led by senator ted cruz of texas that is to say one wing was pushing mr obama to war the other wing would lead in the pietschmann drive if you were to go to war now with diplomacy taking the lead it is possible that we can have some sort of resolution

of this crisis. you and inspectors return to syria this week to probe several more cases of alleged chemical weapons use they have faced criticism of the earlier investigation of the august twenty first gas poisoning near damascus it was not sorry enough according to moscow but little analyst sean or why any who scrutinize their report believes the whole need patching first thing we have to know is that this was a very rushed investigation there was. very little access available in total the u.n. investigation team was in. for seven and a half hours two hours and one which is in west five and a half hours and time runs amok which is in the school. so there was very little time and the other problem with this investigation one of the week this is according to a chemical weapons expert who i quote in my article is that the medical

team that they met with whether first responders witnesses doctors nurses they were all pre-selected by one or two pro opposition doctors so this was a you know a questionable exercise from the start if you couldn't have proper access random sampling and the time you need in which to conduct a full and thorough investigation what was the point i think what's important here is that the u.n. now as a result of all these holes in its original report needs to address these and ensure for itself that it has the proper access and time to investigate other areas of alleged chemical weapons attacks. now the opposition in iran is once again showdown president rouhani faces a very rocky road if he continues to steer the country towards diplomacy with the u.s. and angry mob pelted to rouhani is car with ads and shoes as he returned from the

u.n. general assembly in new york for tasks or as were particularly outraged by the historic phone call with barack obama which marked the first direct talks between the country's leaders in three decades norman solomon from the institute for public accuracy thinks it's crucial hardliners are kept a base for diplomacy to succeed the u.s. government is under great pressure from the hawks in washington many of whom won the united states to either attack or wink and nod towards israel launching an attack on iran within the next year or so the role of the us i think is now to see what's possible diplomatically and i think it's a combination you know it takes two to dance that was not possible under argument in a job it would not be possible under president romney or president mccain for instance i think that is the very important factor the combination and it's

a matter of timing. but it will be very important for the grassroots leaders as well as the powerful in both iran and the united states to keep this on course so that the hardliners in each country don't gain the upper hand. well i had to argue dot com for much more analysis on the signs of a thaw in iran u.s. relations as well as predict future nuclear talks. weeks of anti-fascist riots and rallies finally yield results for greek protesters police bring in the leaders of the golden dawn party with officials from the extreme right group now facing charges ranging from murder to money laundering warned ahead here on r.t. . and. the people of a tiny remote british outpost in the south atlantic say of the u.k. squeezing them out of their island we'll tell you why in just

a few minutes. the . economic up and downs in the final months they belong to the old saying i and the rest look like it's going to be casey believe everything we told me. do we speak your language anything about the will or not a day in. the music programs is documentaries in spanish more matches to you. a little turned into bangles keep these stories. here.

detroit altie spanish to find out more visit i. play. welcome back here with r.t. the hearings have started for eight of the thirty greenpeace activists arrested after trying to scale a russian oil platform in the arctic a court ordered that the twenty two others should be held in remand for two months they are protests comes as a polar region gears up for significant changes as your pissed off now explains. the pictures that stormed international media greenpeace activists trying to climb

onto a floating platform in russia's north arrested by coast guards was. shocked shocked all thirty activists from eighteen countries were detained and are now awaiting whether they will be officially charged greenpeace claims their actions were peaceful but the authorities say they could have endangered not only the lives of the rig's workers but the environment itself. it's obvious they are not pirates but they tried to storm the platform and these people violated international law by coming dangerously close to the president's common scheme and an international arctic conference organized by russia or here in syria cuts to the only city in the world located exactly on the arctic circle line where the presidents of russia finland iceland other officials along with around four hundred experts have gathered and the arctics environment is what this forum is all about as average temperatures warm up the arctic is opening up new opportunities for trade routes and energy projects moscow says only companies with experience working in the tough

region and enough funds to do it properly and without harming nature must be allowed access and cleaning up the heritage of the cold war era is another issue abandoned military bases equipment and piles of barrels with fuel i know a map of the arctic binary assessment program has been involved in that but russia has really been working on its own to try to claim we have a ways to go and they're not alone there are places around the planet or similar things that happened when people didn't recognize it as something they did had long term negative consequences for the environment the arctic nations seem to be on the same beach looking after the north wall is a responsibility they must carry together so that the mistakes of the past aren't repeated especially when their every move is under such intense scrutiny you've got this going off in the arctic circle. now it may be the beginning of the and for

greece's extreme right golden dawn party with its leader and top members now charged in court they are accused of running a criminal gang as well as resorting to murder violence and extortion it all began after the murder of a prominent anti-fascist by an alleged member of golden dawn more than twenty of the party's officials have been arrested with special police squads looking for a dozen more the authorities are said to have found guns ammunition and tens of thousands of euros of the home of golden dawn but as r.t. heard earlier it is unlikely the party itself will be shut down for fear of driving the group on the ground lucic often it has more. fury on the streets of athens clashes erupted following a protest against the murder of pablo's physis the anti-fascist rapper was stabbed to death last week by an alleged supporter of the far right golden dawn party allegations the group firmly denies. kill a p as a young man was known may not have been the first to die at the hands of greek neo

nazi groups but he was the first non migrant golden dawn has also been said to be targeting anarchists and communists renewing political tensions between the extreme left right and the greek government they have acquired a fear. i don't phrases they have collaborated with the nazis maybe. they have blood on their hands this is why we say go with this government with the golden dome the group is trying to keep a low profile in the wake of the killing and wouldn't speak to us on camera this man however was keen to talk george says he's one of the group's oldest members and he blames journalists for giving golden dawn a bad rep is the only party that has spent poor people and desperate greeks who are suffering the crisis we're not extremists and we aren't against anyone yet georges also wanted to make sure i noticed people in the neighborhood he claimed this man was an egyptian immigrant who lived on handouts at the expense of greeks like

himself as for the nazi symbolism the fascist salutes that the group has been known for all a misunderstanding he says. what's wrong with this there's nothing wrong with a salute just a way of saying hello i did myself it's a greeting that still terrifies this greek resident he believes that golden dawn was to blame for his recent assault but he also points to another factor behind the growing divisions and the violence. this i didn't used to be afraid but agrees has changed everyone is suffering financially and some are looking to blame others immigrants and. target despite the public shows of anger against it golden dawn is greece's third largest party and at least until now its fastest growing political force it gained ground against the backdrop of unrest linked to the economic crisis and a country burdened by debt soaring unemployment and deep cuts to social spending. it's the vein that it's when your life changes totally like ours has in the past

few years and when you lose your job and can't provide for your family you grab whatever helping hand you can get and golden dawn has helped as we'll fight to the end. spiros a shop owner who's had to shut down one of his stores because of the recession blames the influx of immigrants for straining scarce resources and he says golden dawn keeps order in his neighborhood when the government fails. we don't want to use violence but when golden dawn kicks out immigrants who were squatting illegally . doing and forces peace and order of course to support them as a government does nothing. the financial crisis has done more than simply cripple greece's economy it's changing society too when asked to describe how local say that the writing is on the wall in this neighborhood it literally is in the red it says out with foreigners signed golden dawn in the black fashion arcus logo it's evidence of a growing ideological divide and with the greek economy still in trouble that

divide is unlikely to heal anytime soon lucie county of r t athens. alexander has a me as has a specialist in greek politics as reining in gold dog won't be easy given his extensive connections and resources. it is clear that there are ties between golden dawn and certain parts of the greek state operators and these are been going on for decades they did not just take place recently it is clear for example that golden dawn have had close ties with the greek police there have been arrests of two prominent policemen so far there are also members of golden dawn in the greek security services greek. security service official who was in charge all monitoring the movements of the party turned out to be in fact because i'm an m.p. of the party and most probably an informant of the party inside the greek

intelligence so far. not battling golden dawn because they want to avoid a situation whereby the movement or the the organization rather goes on the ground and becomes a more threatening force in greek politics at the same time however they're arresting its members and they're going for something like a de facto ban without a proper legal battle. while the extreme a riot is making its mark in crisis hit green spot it's also gaining ground elsewhere even in a canonically stable austria a parliamentary elections underway there and the right wing freedom party is projected to win more than a fifth of the vote that's almost five percent more of balance last shelling has put all reports and so your pain and emigration parties are swaying voters across the continent. the political right is on the right seat in europe and it's drawing some surprising support a lot of people from the working class blue collar workers lower educated people

are voting for the extreme right of the radical right because of the policies staying put forward like immigration and european integration corruption against the political system as such so these are the topics that are now days important for those people voting for the radical right across europe there's a time that's turning right ukip is being talked about as the legitimate third party in britain while alternative for germany just missed out on a place in the bundestag norway's conservative government came to power with tough immigration promises and in sweden and finland there's also been gains here in australia euro skeptic right wing parties are gaining support from people who feel that the main issues important to them on to being addressed didn't carry us and we still feel we need to slow down immigration i have nothing against foreign us but enough is enough. there.