care about you and. this is why you should care only. the latest news and a look back at the week's top stories here on our and see the olympic torch is lit in the game's ancient birthplace in greece and begins in the longest journey in the history of the winter olympics that will take it all the way to stop in two thousand and fourteen. a rare note of a chord and hope at the u.n. general assembly that's up to 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 u.s. iranian relations. a russian court orders all the greenpeace activists arrested trying to scale an oil platform in the arctic to remain in custody while the group is under investigation. and the british city of manchester sees one of its biggest

protests ever with tens of thousands taking to the streets over cuts to health care spending while the military and surveillance budgets continue to grow. we're watching r t 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 and greece is now on an epic journey to the host city. the torch will travel over fifty thousand kilometers across seas and mountains and will even go to space and your farm or watch the event in olympia and to bad mouth say reports from soft here in russia. lympics flame for sore she 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 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 sore not trist stressed as the high priest s 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 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 also 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 host city it's going to date through nine at times earnings in eighty three regions of two thousand nine hundred and cities and so. it's women's across russia and also visit at the north pole also it will go to the top although europe's a highest mountain in the russia's 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 be full in the history of a lympics 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 to through personalities but it's also going to go through unconventional ways us through rain d.s. laze and hot air balloons of course a russia wanted to highlight some of it's a culture it's the history and of course this emerging new younger russia that we're seeing being developed here at the host city. we will of course becoming all the spectacular stops along the way from the olympic torch relay over the next few months here on our table on air and online at our website r.t. dot com. the olympic torch is on its epic journey to show. one hundred and twenty three days. through two thousand nine hundred two cities of

russia. really run fourteen thousand people or sixty five thousand children. in a record setting trip by land air sea and others face. a limb think george. special coverage on our. 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 it's seen a historic phone call which raised hopes that a deadlock can be broken in iran's nuclear crisis but the show of unity peaked when the u.n. security council unanimously voted on a syrian resolution something that seemed to be elusive for more than two years parties and is now reports from new york excellent. progress on two fronts at the united nations a new tone in policy towards iraq and

a security council resolution on chemical weapons in syria the european union 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 or 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 arm the opposition it was 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 rowhani 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 rapprochement the u.s. is in a tough spot. to keep from normal relations in the middle east and now the alienation of the arab muslims in general against the us is mostly due to the commitment. of the shows. 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 said no way r.t. now the resolute 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 has had that ensuring the rebels cooperate may be very difficult. that's the weakness of this peace process recall the 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 extremists faction of course is spearheaded by the old mr 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 the least how can these chemical weapons be found if the rebels are not part of the process. so i had for you this hour about ready activists find out that speaking up could it get you locked up for a look at what's behind the government's decision to put fifty members of one opposition group behind bars plus. the path to electoral success in austria is paved with new euro skeptic sentiment that's preliminary results suggest right wing parties appear to have made a strong showing in the country's parliamentary elections up later in the program. in the u.k. fifty thousand people staged one of the biggest protests 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 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 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 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 the a much bigger movement now time to rethink david cameron more news coming your way

after a short break stay with us. 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 to push their officials be given immunity from prosecution if they're not held accountable and who is ultimately responsible. right to see. first strike. and i think that you're.

on our reporters' twitter. instagram. to be in the. welcome back you're watching our to live from our studios in moscow i'm lindsey france thanks for joining me a russian court in more months has now denied bail to all the greenpeace activists who were arrested after trying to scale a russian oil platform in the arctic altogether 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 or piss going off 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 social and she had no 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 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 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 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 and 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. head to our web site r t 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 over congress voted to push back obama's controversial 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 newest unit of the british army that staffed by the id crowd and is designed to defend the country from the threat of cyber warfare this and more at r.t. dot com. in bahrain fifty shia muslims have been sentenced to up to fifteen years in prison for organizing a clandestine movement linked to anti-government militants the group was formed back in two thousand and eleven and was the major driving force behind the nationwide program form uprising we spoke to dr another day who chairs the bahrain rehabilitation and antiviolence organization and also spent two months in prison there she says the whole trial is

a well known top level tactic demonization. actually it's quite all the propaganda the whole process all the demonization of the pro-democracy corners and to pro-democracy groups is a quite an old fashioned thing that's the death or it is the bahamian authorities may be using for a while and it's not working anymore i mean at this moment they feel absolutely failed to provide any evidence that these groups are involved in any. terror attacks or any more of it take 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. let's take a look at some of our other world news now first to nigeria where some fifty

students were massacred while sleeping in their dorms when militants assaulted their college in a rural area of the country witnesses say the attackers one room to room gunning down young men and those trying to flee the terror group boko haram is believed to be behind this atrocity and comes just a week after the kenyan shopping mall attack on islamic slaughtered at least sixty eight the founder of the viewpoint africa website told us deep social problems have led to a surge of violence on the continent all these groups are all joined together but i'll shut babin somalia or why the and. in mali or the we're joined across west africa these jihadi cells are all on the blueprints on the organizational chart 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 of mind states and in the case all these

groups they believe they can do no wrong because as far as their. from god so choose not to extent it becomes very difficult to dislodge difficult time. generational alternately the the use would be the ones who would be there be educated be mindful of what can go wrong when they join these groups and ultimately when you start to address and the margin calls you screech your shorts addressing social issues. we may be able to read these forums from our small societies and another story around the globe an explosion in the pakistani city of peshawar has killed thirty three and left at least seventy wounded a car bomb this place 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 injuring scores more. prisoners enjoying luxury conditions behind bars have left

these protesters seeing red in chile recorder lera facility in santiago holds the agents of the former military dictatorship for crimes against humanity the president ordered the prison to be closed and the inmates moved to another jail that's news apparently triggered the suicide of a former intelligence chief under pinochet according to his lawyer the ex general was upset at being moved to a regular facility. as suicide attackers struck a shia mosque in baghdad killing at least forty people the blast caused the mosque roof to collapse onto the congregation which was mourning a man killed by militants on saturday dozens of people were injured and more may still be trapped. the centrist coalition government appears to have security narrow win in austria's parliamentary elections but preliminary results suggest right wing parties have done particularly well skipping

out more than a quarter of the overall vote peter oliver reports for us from 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 eurozone system while there trusts 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 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 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 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 ons being addressed it they might care less and it's often we 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. else it used to be their own parties put troops interest spruced and the e.u. second now it's only a few. more and you have the freedom party of austria have made significant gains its critics call it xenophobia its leader thanks to differ being out of australia i don't have 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 mess is behind us that this is against islam or against muslims also flying the roofline is a straight canadian billionaire frank strong who come dems the single currency is the road to rack and ruin. we need to stop creating it every housewife knows that if she spends more money than she earns. most of europe's recent elections have been nailed by it is for politicians desperate to keep their jobs of midnight being economies austria is different it's doing relatively fine what's happening here is brussels assistance with bailouts and encroachments own sovereignty has given the right didn't seem broad to beat them with peace or all of it auntie vienna. and up next we continue our look at how guantanamo bay indelibly changes lives

coming right up. 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 is 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 or 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 profiling if you were looking for a criminal of slavic origin in uganda when the police be wrong to stop me do the 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. sympathize with you see the uprising but we do not train and we do not smuggle weapons or send. we do not do any of these things. in a blow to the u.s. government the super rule today that the prison is it going to move to legally

challenge their detention in us schools. and what we want is an immediate cessation of conditions that are cruel inhuman or degrading or that constitute torture by growing chain scale human rights law enforcement taking the money most ruling is now demanding the release of food to the names so that they can include the government has so far refused to release the names why do you know how many reasons you sure. know. not today well it seems like a perfectly reasonable request that gee why don't you just give us all the names it may not be. that is what i asked. i never heard of her knew of her until guantanamo you have to have our story tomorrow i took part or see.

that's what i. was like a wake up call i mean as i could i would have been submerged in the stone walling efforts of my government of my colleagues there get no. one going along with that stonewalling and do placing these obstacles in the way. of these attorneys who are trying to get that information. nearing the end of my tour there. are some things going to be done that's going to be done by me and as they have a short amount of time to do it. barbour of sense he wants the next i know is where i get the next. inspect your bags they look at your things and you have something like that. they're going to prosecute you and i knew i made a list of names they're not calling me a felon with that. this so figured out a way you know how am i getting it.