i'm going to. run. the latest news and a look back at the week's top stories here on r t the olympic torch is lit in the game's ancient birthplace of greece and begins the longest journey in the history of the winter olympics that will take it all the way to soft two thousand and fourteen. a rare note of a chord and hope at the u.n. general assembly that's after the security council passed a unanimous resolution on syria over its chemical weapons and a potentially historic first glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel for us in relation. to british government's health care cuts dr tens of thousands on the streets of manchester just as the leading party prepares for its annual get together. and a russian court orders all the greenpeace activists arrested for trying to scale an oil platform in the arctic to be remanded in custody while their protest is under

investigation. you're watching are to live from moscow i'm lindsey france thanks for joining me. the olympic flame for the twenty fourteen winter games has been lit in an age old ceremony in greece and is now on an epic journey to the host city of softie the torch will travel over fifty thousand kilometers across seas and mountains and will even go to space and your farm or watch the events in olympia and to bag mazzei reports from sochi here in russia. the limpet flame for sorcery twenty fourteen has been late 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 the olympic 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 why not try 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 janice 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 but it all has started here as we've been on the air in the limpia the birthplace of the olympics 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 torture to go through russia it's going to take sixty five thousand kilometers and fourteen thousand torchbearers to bring it right here to the holy city it's going to date through nine times earnings in eighty three regions of two thousand nine hundred and and cities. across russia it also visit the north pole also it'll go to the top although europe's a high it's 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 is never happened before in the history of a lympics now in terms of traveling the tours 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 us 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 whole city. while no one expected it john it's really big journey. one hundred and twenty three days. through to some nine hundred cities of russia. really fourteen thousand people or sixty five million. in a record setting trip by land here see another space.

a little bit george. bush will cover it on a. well known expected it just two weeks ago but this year's u.n. general assembly has proven that there is enough space for consensus between world powers and has seen a historic phone call which raised hopes that a deadlock can be broken in iran's nuclear crisis but the show of unity pigg twenty u.n. security council unanimously voted on a syrian resolution something that seemed to be elusive for more than two years or to the missing now reports from new york. hope 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 opinion 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 there were turning towards a diplomatic solution at 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 conversely be pursued by the united states or will they continue to find as they have the opposition an arm the opposition of silicate that happening and trying to deepen the conflict over there were sided 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 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 and now the alienation of the arab muslims in general against the us is mostly due to the commitment on the government standard the u.s. 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 he sonali r.t. . the resolution adopted by the u.n. demands that both the government in damascus and the opposition comply with the disarmament earlier we spoke to author and historian gerald horne who said that

ensuring the rebels cooperation may be difficult that's the weakness of this peace process recall that just a few days ago the so-called rebels split officially with the more extremist faction basically saying that the less extremist factions to somehow be purged and expelled the extremist faction of course is spearheaded by the al nusra front close to al qaida keep in mind as well that some of the so-called chemical facilities in syria or under the jurisdiction of rebel forces if the rebel forces are not part of this process it's unclear to me how it can be resolved that is to say how can chemical weapons be destroyed not least how can these chemical weapons be found if the rebels are not part of the process. so let's see this our bahraini activists find out that speaking out means getting locked up we'll look at what's behind the government's decision to put fifteen members of one opposition group behind bars.

plus the past two electoral success in austria is paved with europe skeptic sentiment at the preliminary results suggest right wing parties appear to have made a strong showing in the country's parliamentary elections that's later in the program. in the u.k. fifty thousand people stage one of the biggest protests in manchester has ever seen to coincide with the first day of the annual conservative party conference protesters are furious with cuts to social spending and health services brought in by the coalition government that's led by the conservatives we talked to one of the protesters to ask what precisely got the marchers 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 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 bread to britain a 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 begin 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 it this is i'm actually a much bigger movement now time to rethink david cameron more news coming your way after a short break. they would. argue that a somewhat softer approach towards the taliban if you want to have political

solution must create the conditions for reaching such political solution and. conditions that would enable. you to tell a bomb to to please to be a part of political solution. to your life. it's a. pleasure to have you with us here on t.v. today i'm role researcher.

welcome back you're watching are to live from moscow i'm lindsey france thanks for joining me and already court has sentenced. to up to fifteen years behind bars for organizing a clandestine opposition group linked to anti-government militants the february fourteenth coalition was formed in two thousand and eleven and was a major driving force behind a nationwide form uprising doctor not the hafe who chairs the bahrain rehabilitation an anti-violence organization has also spent two months in prison there says the whole trial is a well known top level tactic of demonization. actually it's a quite old propaganda. whole process all the demonization of the pro-democracy orders and to pro democracy is a quite an old fashioned thing that the the authorities the bahraini authorities

they've be using for a while and it's not working anymore i mean at this moment the field absolutely failed to provide any evidence that these groups are involved in any to attacks or any. of its movements two years ago exactly at the same the same judge he convicted doctors almost fifty doctors for sentencing up to fifteen years it's the same thing the repeating. had to our website are to dot com for even more stories just a click away for you now the u.s. federal government could be on the verge of shutting down that's after congress voted to push back obama's controversial health health care reforms by one year something the white house is unlikely to accept i know details on our website plus . find out about the latest unit of the british army that staffed by the i.t. crowd and is designed to defend the country from the threat of cyber warfare this

and more at r.t. dot com. a russian court in more months has now denied bail to all the greenpeace activists who were arrested for trying to scale a russian oil platform in the arctic all together thirty people have been remanded in custody for two months as the investigation into the protests continues this comes as the polar region gears up for significant changes. 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 so she and i cheered and 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 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 amanda and 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 pole 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. let's take a look at some other news from around the world in brief an explosion in the pakistani city of peshawar has killed thirty three and left at least seventy wounded a car bomb was placed near a police station in the historic market area the blast is the latest in a series of deadly attacks targeting christians and government officials in the city taken together they have killed at least one hundred twenty people and injured scores more. prisoners enjoying luxury conditions behind bars have left these

protesters seeing red and she lay there at the core deal area facility in santiago holds agents of the former military dictatorship for crimes against humanity got access to the internet cable t.v. tennis courts and even a barbecue area but the president ordered the prison to be closed and the inmates moved to another jail in nigeria some fifty students were mask you're massacred while sleeping in their dorms when militants assaulted the college in a rural area of the country witnesses say the attackers went room to room gunning down young men and those who tried to flee the terror group boko haram is believed to be behind the atrocity it comes just a week after the kenyan shopping mall attack when islamists slaughtered at least sixty eight the founder of the viewpoint africa website told us deep social problems have led to the surge of violence on the continent. all this groups are

all joined together. i'll shut bob in somalia or the wider m.l.a. in in mali or the would you across the west africa these jihadist cells are all under the blueprint on the organizational the west has already declared terrorism leads to islam is in islam is in links to fundamentalism and ultimately muslims when you're dealing with an ideology when you're dealing with a mindset and in the case all these groups they believe they can do no wrong because i think they believe they're getting their blueprint from god so it's not extent it becomes very difficult to dislodge them over time and you're looking at the generational problem ultimately the the youth will be the ones who would be that be educated better be mindful of what can go wrong when they join these groups and ultimately when you start addressing the right from course it's a question of jobs addressing social issues automatically we may be able to read these problems from our societies the centrist coalition government appears to have

secured an era when an austrian parliamentary elections but preliminary results suggest right wing parties have done particularly well scoping out more than a quarter of the overall vote that all of our reports who vienna for us. 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 eurozone system while they entrust the

politicians in brussels any more they don't trust our austrian the decision makers what day do there 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 see 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 rights 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 in the 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 ons being addressed they might care less and we should all feel the need to slow down immigration i have nothing against foreigners but enough is enough. yeah e.u. is saying where the money should go to like and all kind poor countries on it should stay in their own country and the e.u. is jordan's be like john dictate everything that actually yes it used to be their own parties put truth interest spruced and the e.u. second now it's only a few. more and i'm not the freedom party of austria have made significant gains it's critics call it xenophobia its leader begs to differ being. i don't hate foreigners. even so the party adopted

a different campaign tactic that 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 message behind was that this is against islam or against muslims also flying the new roof is 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. parameters most of europe's recent elections of the nail biters for politicians desperate to keep their jobs amid libyan economies is different it's doing relatively fine what's happening here is brussels persistence with bailouts and encroachments own sovereignty has given the right. road to beat them with peace or all over the. it's claimed britain squeezing out

most of the population from one of its smallest islands and one of the most remote outposts ascension island in the south atlantic the parent way to make way to the u.s. million u.s. military base but have a look closer look at where we're talking about it's actually this tiny spot on the map right there well over a thousand kilometers from anywhere but it's home to just under one thousand people whose community has thrived for more than a century now they say they're being forcibly cast out for smith reports on how to trick the u.k. is pulled off before the tiny island in the mid atlantic made of volcanic rock and covered in pigeon guano but to eight hundred people it's hope but now the story of attention island has all the hallmarks of big another diego garcia the british owned indian ocean islands whose inhabitants were forced to leave to make way for

a u.s. base by having lived there for generations. good memories. it's not for them. you know when you see them you got this because they are enjoying the. islanders accuse the british government of seeing ascension operating families who have been there for more than a century ten years ago it all so different britain was promising democratic institutions for the islands a legal right to live and to own property it wanted a viable community that but today the populations already decreased by a quarter with communities replaced by contract workers retired or unemployed people over eighteen had to leave and the similarities with diego garcia don't and 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 those now infamous listening posts 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 far from the dreams of a permanent home they had a decade ago where they'll be reduced to paul in the special relationship. i'll be back with you in about half an hour but up next on worlds apart can afghanistan's elections in two thousand and fourteen do anything to quell decades of violence.

recently the ministry of internal affairs of russia declared that they're going to address to increase operations in and around the moscow subway system with a major emphasis on illegal immigration there's an odd paradox when people talk about dealing with illegal immigration in terms of what the police should do people want the police to deal with it but any means of trying to actually do anything are generally taboo any form of asking people to see ideas viewed as an invasion of privacy or racial profiling well i don't know how exactly anyone can prove they are or aren't a citizen without id and if you're looking for people who are forward and thus different then how can you go about looking for illegals without looking for people who are different i.e. profiling if you were looking for a criminal of slavic origin in uganda when the police be wrong to stop me due to standing out from the crowd i don't think so that's not racial profiling it is just common sense obviously it is best to fight the causes of illegal immigration rather than asking for id in moscow subways but they have to do something so i guess id checks are here to stay but there's a big difference between looking at someone's passport and doing stop and frisk or

involuntary blood and urine tests that is what immigration control goes over the line but that's just my opinion. the elusive search for justice should individuals including government officials be legally held to account for starting aggressive force like in iraq is it fair in the bush era officials be given immunity from prosecution if they're not held accountable ultimately responsible. paula welcome to worlds apart afghanistan this late to to hold presidential elections next year and a move that has already been described as being a make or break moment for the country.