top stories not a live picture flames later big games a story birthplace greece before setting off an epic for cross russia leading up to such a twenty four team. three attacks in two days leave seventeenth deadline lists insurgents target universities churches and civilian infrastructure in retaliation for the government offensive. british government's health care cuts drive tens of thousands on the streets of manchester earlier today just as the leading party prepares for its annual get together. and the un general assembly wraps up with a return to home and diplomacy world powers agree on that syria resolution and they could finally be like the end of the tunnel to over iran's nuclear crisis.

over again even if you just joined us just after eleven pm here moscow this is r.t. it's the weekly roundup of the top stories of the last seven days with me kevin oh into night first the flame for the twenty fourteen winter games was literally on a limb here the birthplace of the legendary event it's from there that the top will travel thousands of kilometers to next year's host city here in russia. she spoke to r.t. andrew farm with him at the ceremony in greece and also in sochi russia. lympics flame for sorcery twenty fourteen has been lit 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 years is so we're not trying 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 them 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 it's crossed it to bangor today is in sochi the host city for twenty eight fourteen olympics so tomorrow power the storage will get to sochi 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 now it's going to date through nine at times earnings in russia eighty three regions are two thousand nine hundred and cities and settlements across russia it also visit at the

north pole also it will go to the top of the europe's a highest mountain in the rushes the north caucuses it will then make a trip outside of eartha to the i.r.s. says away cosmonauts they will take it on a space walk now this has never happened to 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 its culture its the history and of course this emerging new younger russia that we're seeing being developed here at the host city in a sort. the olympic torch is on its epic journey to structure. one hundred 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 pays. a living torch relay special coverage monarchy. you have been following her story as you'd expect now a change of next season miss militants in nigeria reportedly went to rue night executing students as they slept in an attack on the university that's killed up to fifty people in total upwards of seventy have died over the weekend in three attacks believed to be the work of boko haram that's increasingly targeting civilian infrastructure johnson is founder of the viewpoint africa website and says the cells ultimately directed by al qaida. and all these groups are all joined together but i'll shut babin somalia or the wider m.l.a.

in in mali or the. across west africa these jihadist cells are all only blueprints on the organizational al-qaeda under very very strict. their focus is the same the ideology is the same and the they also want to do the spectacular in terms of the sort of attacks on it can do and they always keen on grabbing the headlines and they're very strict sometimes you drive away due to you know of the religious divide in specially christians and muslims and in countries like nigeria which is very already splits on ethnic and religious grounds it is that much easier for muslims to be pushed to the edge muslims many of them who are don't have anything to do with to be marginalized and then themselves become. elements for these groups because they are already on the fringes of the society when i hear in these waging a counter-insurgency campaign against boko haram to give some history of pushing its fighters into hiding or across borders let's not stop the militants though if

you can see on the map here just some of the attacks occurred. this year in march suicide bombers detonated a car bomb at a bus station that killed sixty five people mostly christians two months later boko haram organized a complex read an army base in jail fifty five were killed more than one hundred prisoners were free to at the same time then in july it's militants attacked a boarding school to slaughtering forty two students and teachers if more bodies were found but they were so charred that the term they couldn't be identified in august an attack on material troops there thirty five dead including soldiers and militants again these are just some of the attacks but they show the reach and the willingness apparently of boko haram to kill. coming up on the program in bahrain the oppositions find that speaking out means getting locked up as the main force be on the anti-government protesters jailed with members of one opposition group behind bars for supposed links with militants.

no one expected it just two weeks ago but this year's u.n. general assembly programmer there is enough space for consensus between world powers it's seen that historic phone call that raised hopes that the deadlock can be brokered in iran's nuclear crisis but the show of unity really paid when the u.n. security council unanimously voted on a syrian resolution something that seemed to be so elusive for more than two years of his nissen reports from new york hoped for diplomacy progress on two fronts at the united nations a new tone in policy towards iran and the security council resolution on chemical weapons in syria european union we've been hearing increasingly often the argument that the threat or use of force which is directly precipitated by the u.n. charter might be the most efficient way to solve international problems the united states of america is prepared to use all elements or people 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 remain 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 arm the opposition it was still a day that happening and trying to deepen the conflict over there was it 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 but as has our 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 it has to keep from north. relations in the middle east now the nation

of the arab muslims in general are against is mostly due to the commitment to double standard the 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 shut it the first chance they get reporting from new york and eastern hour r.t. well you know spoke his return to syria this last week to probe several more cases of alleged chemical weapons use they'd face sharp criticism for their earlier investigation of the august twenty first gas poisoning the damascus it wasn't further enough according to moscow now a former commander of the british military's chemical defense regiment says he is

not a optimistic either of the new mission this is what it states in the week. the irony is the norm is this nation and it doesn't last very long it can remain in saudi oil and other samples for some time but you know i would be surprised if they find souring or don't predation elements of sarin and bases like ours you know three months after the event hopefully what they will find is circumstantial evidence to try and lead us to to work out exactly what happened in those places and i think more importantly to discover if. and into terrorist groups that are going to have an impact are why didn't the region itself and apart from destroying syrian chemical weapons that the russian federation and the united states that a group 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 doesn't happen. the opposition and iran's once again show that president rouhani faces

a very rocky road if he continues to steer the country towards diplomacy with the u.s. and i'm good mob pelted ronnie's car with eggs and shoes as he returned from the u.n. general assembly in new york to test his particular outrage by the storage phone call with barack obama which marked the first direct talks between the country's leaders in three decades norman solomon from the institute of public accuracy thinks it's crucial hardliners are kept at bay for diplomacy to succeed. the u.s. government is under great pressure from the hawks in washington many of whom why 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 achmet din 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 it's what he took over much more analysis on the signs of a full in iran u.s. relations as well as predictions for future nuclear talks. one of britain's biggest cities as we witnessing its largest of a protests is health cuts to a tens of thousands of the streets it's time to catch members of the governing conservative party who descending on lunches to their annual conference we talked to one of sunday's protesters to ask what the crowd so fired up. this government is in fact in real trouble of course it's been very much to do with the national health service today that actually that it's facing twenty billion of cuts by

twenty fifteen it's all but it's also shown that crystallized to so many issues of where the government's unpopular for all the way from mass surveillance to threaten action in syria to legal aid the fact that so many people are willing to speak out and stand up for the n.h.s. and stand up for britain britain really puts pressure on this government now we've seen how the austerity the austerity agenda is damaging the country and that it's also clear that a new network a new movement is really beginning to forge itself it's also i think what's going to really put pressure on the tories is the fact that people are talking together it's not like the left wing in one corner but if this is a much bigger movement now time to rethink david cameron. just ahead of parties getting a large slice of the vote a part of the australian election further early results suggest the centrist coalition will make it back into power by the narrowest of margins we take

a look at that after this break. the island is so small for me it's the center see the center of the universe. on a tiny island the size of a football field in the middle of a lake stands a ruined monastery forty years ago two lovers decided to spend their honeymoon here . they have no idea but the island could change their lives forever and that they would change the fate of the island. never seen anything like this before we're. going to cover the costs. of the fortress of ice is grown in just one hour and it's only the beginning.

mission. critical three times for free. free. free. free. free. videos for your media projects free video done to our teeth dot com. a bahraini court sentenced fifty shiites to fifteen years by bars for organizing a clandestine opposition group linked to anti-government militants the february fourteenth coalition was formed in twenty eleven or was the major driving force behind the nationwide pro-reform uprising though tonight a judge who chairs the bahrain rehabilitation antiviolence organization also spent two months in prison herself there says the whole trial is a well known top level tactic of demonization. actually it's a quite old propaganda the whole process all the demonization of

the pro-democracy corners and pro-democracy groups is a quite an old fashioned thing that's the death or it is the bahamian authorities they be using for a while and it's not working anymore i mean at this moment they failed absolutely failed to provide any evidence that these groups are involved in any to terror attacks or any more of it take movements two years ago exactly at the same date same judge he convicted doctors almost fifty doctors for sentencing up to fifteen years it's the same thing the repeating the service coalition government appears to scrape back into power austria's parliamentary elections right wing parties and particularly well those creeping up in a quarter of the overall vote according to early results says artie's played a role of it in vienna. what it shows is that the social democrats on the people's

party who went into these elections as the coalition government well it looks likely that they'll come out of these elections as the coalition government they've picked up around fifty percent of the vote there over the coming days we should probably hear that they will continue their coalition what is most interesting about these elections is that over one quarter of austrians have voted for parties that want to do away with bailouts for euro zone countries and see in see real changes to the structure of the single currency now to talk a bit more about this and what it means i'm joined by barbara cole who's the director of the austrian economic sense a barber thanks very much for talking to me why have austrians voted in this way and why are they upset with the current two eurozone system well they entrust the politicians in brussels any more they don't trust our austrian the decision makers what they do their they don't believe they find the right solutions i mean after all it's just. a redistribution on

a supranational level it's austrian tax euro's that go to other countries and are just washed down the drain now austria is one of the four eurozone economies this century underpins bailouts what would this vote over a quarter as they say people voting for parties that want to change things what does this mean for the future of the single currency well i think it does set a couple of politicians thinking and overlook their past solutions that after all it has only prolong the problems this is definitely what the people feed and it has not come up to any solutions as a matter of fact that that's grew bigger and bigger and higher so the next generations will suffer and this is what those twenty five percent obviously have in mind so austrians voting in increasing numbers for parties they want changes to the eurozone and also voting for right wing party something that we have seen spreading across europe as my report shows. the political. it is on the rise 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 i guess a politicized them 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 gaining support from people who feel it the main issues important to them on to being addressed they might care less i mean it's all fien we need to slow down immigration i have nothing against foreign us

but enough is enough. to e.u. is saying where the money should go to like and all kind of poor countries as well on which of their own country and the e.u. is to wouldn't be like john dictate everything that actually goes it used to be their own parties put troops interest spruced and the e.u. second now it's only a few. want and. the freedom party of austria have made significant gains it's critics call it xenophobia its leader thanks to differ. i love australia i don't hate foreigners. even so the party adopted a different campaign tactic than it had done in previous elections their issue hidden in the message about religious values and a sense of talking about love your neighbors which is a very catholic way of talking about issues. of course the hidden masses behind us

that this is against islam are against us things also flying the anti you roofline is a stroke canadian billionaire frank straw you come dems the single currency is the road to rack and ruin. we need to stop creating every housewife knows that if she spends more money than she earns all london rapper arrives most of europe's recent elections have been nail biters for politicians desperate to keep their jobs amid libyan economies austria is different it's doing relatively fine what's happening here is brussels assistance with bailouts and encroachments on sovereignty is given the far right to come didn't sing brought to beat them with peace or all over on t.v. the end of. world news a brief tonight is suicide attackers struck a shia mosque in baghdad it's killed at least forty the blast caused the mosque roof to collapse on to the congregation at the time was mourning

a man killed by militants on saturday dozens of people have been injured many more are still trapped but earlier deadly violence erupted in the normally peaceful kurdistan province in northern iraq at least four target explosions kill four local security forces members of the kurdish capital erbil further shootings then injured thirty six when the attacks come a day after local elections for the main opposition group president taliban his party in the third place. prisoners enjoying a luxury conditions behind bars have left these protesters seeing red in chile the kordell a facility in santiago holds agents of the former military dictator for crimes against humanity but they've got access to the internet cable t.v. tennis courts and even a barbecue area the president ordered the prison to be closed to the inmates moved to another jail. hearings have started for eight of thirty greenpeace activists arrested after trying to scale a russian oil platform in the arctic a court order that the twenty two other should be held on remand for two months

their protests comes as the polar region gears up for significant changes as they can offer ports next. 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 there 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 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 city huts 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 arctic environment is what this forum is all about as average temperatures warm up and 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 the arctic binary assessment program has been involved in that that 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 happen 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. thanks accompanies a lot of us if we have another back in thirty three minutes with more. till the experience life in a lonely monastery in a far away island of his time to a lot of the programs on i right after this break. i bet anyone who lives in the united states knows a few people or just dismal geography a certain small percentage of the country just can't get it that canada is above us but how important is knowing geography anyways well one author on the washington post blogs recently wrote that knowing geography really doesn't matter that much he was writing in response to the game where is damascus which challenges people to find syria's capital on a blank map he said that whether americans can find syrian

a map doesn't affect the wisdom of a punitive strike meant to uphold international orms against the use of chemical weapons and often disasters draw our attention to places we've never heard of before like pearl harbor or columbine or syria but let's look at this way i don't exactly know where persons kidneys are or how exactly they work so by all normal logic that means i'm not qualified to have an opinion about whether we should remove john doe's kidneys my opinion doesn't count because i am kidney ignorant so if you know so little about syria that you can't even find it on a map then you are more likely to believe from a guy in a suit on t.v. that there must be an intervention to save the people there you have no idea who they are or why they are suffering or how to save them but gosh darn it that intervention sounds nice knowing at least where a country is on the map is the first step in building informed opinion but that's just my opinion.

i want to live here when i grow up. this place so sacred. they say the church was built here in the twelfth century it was destroyed in the 1930's. people constantly chose this place to pray and by doing so they created an atmosphere of holiness you can't commit a sin here even if you want to. i do want to come here one tyrant what would i do there but they came and stayed. with them until it changes every one little by little bit in the lake and in the sea of life. most of the the island are so small but firm is the center.