it was. welcome to rush out the olympic flame makes it the first torch batteries have begun taking the torch on a bluff and relay for russia until it launches some checkpoint. at least fifteen people die in pitched battle the pascola on the source's anniversary of egypt's last war with these. u.s. special forces are reportedly told to fall behind ensuring a militant raid in somalia to separate over a slew levy is a top priority to see as claims while that washington is especially became its war games and said. plus the netherlands goes to an international tribunal to try and reduce such a greenpeace oxic war activists who russia's taking to court on our citroen.

the latest news on the week's top stories you're watching the weekend here on aussie with me. and it's a big day for russia the olympic flame is a mosco for the final countdown to the twenty fourteen winter olympics. a massive convoy of bike is brought it safely to red square and the cheering crowd before president pierson send the torch on its way. to the services in red square for. well it's truly a historic event for the whole nation and possibly even the history of the olympic games themselves the olympic flame was delivered on board the special flight from

east to. board by the. biker gang one of the most famous ones in the country many of these guys are athletes themselves they're also known for their various charity projects they said that it was a great honor for them to be able to take part in this offense then several thousand people waiting for the flame to arrive the heart of the capital to red square where it was greeted by president putin and celebrities congratulating pretty much the whole nation with the flame finally arriving to moscow and basically laying the foundation ahead of the start official start off the a longest olympic torch relay in the history of the games and all of this was happening of course mishaps are always possible and at some point the olympic torch was being taken inside the kremlin for a brief moment the flame actually went out it had to be real it's good we have

spoken to experts and they say that this is a normal practice and specifically for these reasons they brought several lanterns with the original flame from greece so no worries it is ensured that the flame which is going to end up in sochi on the seventh of february is going to be the original one from greece know like i said this is going to be the longest one in the history of the olympic games we're talking about one thousand nine hundred cities and villages across the whole country it's the flame will be taken on top of the biggest mountains like the or on the bottom of the biggest. it's also plans of that the olympic flame will be taken on board the international space station and even outside into outer space but cosmonauts themselves so far have been hiding the secret hell technically that. going to be possible fourteen thousand people are going to be taking part in this really it's estimated that around one hundred thirty million russian citizens will be at

a reasonable distance to the flame at one point or another to be able to see it with their own eyes or possibly even participate in the relay itself when it comes to the transportation then this flame is going to be transported via all the possible. means of transportation not only airplanes and trains but dogs and reindeer camels even hot air balloons and spaceships so this is truly a historic event what we've seen here today in moscow but it's also really the start of i guess the final stretch sort of before the actual start of the winter olympics which so many people have been waiting for. and. own a dell and to claim all the way from greece on board the very gent that brought it here and he shared his impressions of the journey with. which is going to take you back a week because this flame started its life in a limpia this time last week and the reason it's been increased for the last seven

days is just to remind us about the history of these olympics the birthplace of the olympic games two and a half thousand years ago two and a half thousand years ago and in the limpia there are still the remains of the great temples that were there then and you can also still see the original running track that the in pins used back in seven hundred b.c. so essentially what happened was they used the rays of the sun as they did back then to light the flame that flame is used to light the first torchbearer in olympia and then this torch when they're angry the flame was handed over to the russian olympic committee it's a beautiful stadium it's called the palace and i call stadium in athens and that's where the first modern olympics were held at the end of the nineteenth century and the public were allowed to go in and watch and they did in the hundreds so it was well received there and then the question was what happens to the flame now how will we get it to russia well i found it so the question is how do you take the

flame from sunny athens all the way to moscow well it's quite simple you put it in a small lantern and then you put it on a plate but that's not just any old play that's a b. i paid plane and i've got a ticket. we're now cruising at thirty thousand feet and turks in the seat twenty five billion pick flame you might notice it has been used to light a couple of other lanterns and that's because one of them might go out god forbid so they've got those extra ones just in case now they are in good company because on board among other people is the president of the sort she organized in committee dimitri tunisia and he sat just over here dmitri you spent the last eight years of your life trying to bring this flame to russia you must be pretty excited yes very very much so because it's once in a way democrats really do for the generations. that knew more than russia did the war with the global with girls. with this several billion so you verse during the opening ceremony which will be held on one hundred twenty four days in the very

heart of my immediate city of sochi ok we've got a busy time ahead so i will let you get small rest we are g.'s to touch down in moscow in a bank two hours time. and we have just landed in moscow it is in this story moment and if you look out of the door you will see the olympic flame for sochi twenty fourteen is about to receive a very warm welcome. and we also spoke to a veteran organizer lympics or sri laze as a consultant for twenty four teams and he told us about choosing torchbearers and the logistics in making it a success for four years called team had been planning this and like i said over the last two years is thirty to forty people with the organizing committee and with the operational agencies in addition and presenting partners there's a hundred people who've been working on this over the last over the last year and when when we go in there all there will be be thousands every day involved it's

a fantastic story behind the forty thousand torch bearers and you can see your problem they are on. and it's really building the excitement for the game so basically the celebrations start now everybody will realize what with your four months till the games and we are carrying this message of the games now you know all their selection processes were different category holders. number have been selected through campaigns with the percentage partners where they have gone out in public campaigns and people can apply or be nominated based on their merits and their good job local communities they apply in or some are nominated but there's there's more than a hundred thousand applications behind these really. the relay launch is not over yet a fireworks display is plans to count off to day celebrations of the olympic flames arrival and of course we'll bring you the pictures live next hour so be with us.

is on a epic journey to such live. one hundred twenty three days. through to some other cities of russia. relate fourteen thousand people or sixty five thousand killin a record setting trip by land air sea and others face lifts like a large tree limb on our. lives. turning to developments in egypt this sunday fierce clashes have broken out between muslim brotherhood supporters and anti morsi protesters across the country leaving at least fifteen people dead fish the battles have broken out in several areas of cairo after people gathered for the fortieth anniversary of the young war which was a ship's last conflict with israel and let's go live to his belcher in

a square ball nice to see so i spoke to just a couple of days ago and sadly go or predicting what's going on there right now please tell us how this latest deadly violence erupted. absolutely has been very chaotic kid in the capital as violence erupted in monthly billing patients and cross post kyra i was actually in the clashes and piece of it basically happened was amazing brotherhood supporters and it was a very see want to oust the president morsi to attend some of this very tempting to march on to respond where i am right now and the intervention by security forces to show to gas and birdshot but it took them right in the very severe march they tried to from here on this strand right now here as you can hear in the background is an extremely boisterous a celebration of the one nine hundred seventy three war with israel by supporters of the military and this is something that the minute she wanted to protect the

president himself i mean and so on she called people to come to street and celebrate what he said was a national day of pride and they didn't want to see mr brotherhood people here full support from him and morsy causing trouble simply i mean he was basically there on the streets and extremely bloody there were lots of people being dragged to the frontlines with point severe injuries in addition to being beaten quite heavily by people who were i mean dealing with the security forces and supporters of the military so what we're seeing at the moment is extremely divided egypt as these clashes continue to go into the ring to trust the different parts of the country is there you see them moving. if you support the ministry vowed to come to the streets in celebration and that if you want one hundred more seats come back into power to saying they're not going to back down we're going to see how this progresses the next few days are supposed to have a new constitution in the next week we're supposed to have elections how might the possibly happen when this violence continues and as great as yet to be seen. through we live in cairo well thank you very much indeed for that update thank you

appreciate it. the government's chemical stockpiles have started to be destroyed but will the process continue smoothly today without saying as the report on the risks from the rebel promises to gets in the way to fears that president assad might hide some of his ops know. there's a nine story building i noticed the standing of the troops was a man in civilian clothes holding a sniper rifle. to say something that offends so they delayed to the news blanco would in shells by the building was burning grim how much time it took to restore it. reloaded for yeltsin in the

referendum or to deputies of the supreme soviet didn't appeal to us out of all we have to support yeltsin otherwise it would have been civil war. right to see. first street. and i would think that you're. on a reformist twitter. instrument. to be in. your washing the weekly one else here with me here dash apollo let's move on down the destruction of syria's chemical arsenal has begun international inspectors in

the country have confirmed that warheads chemical mixing installations and rockets are wrong on the going dismantling and eradication the process is expected to take months but historian and middle east specialist tariq on it says that may yet be provocations ahead. the opposition is very disturbed because they were banking and this applies to all sections of the opposition even those sections like the more religious extremist groups who loathe the united states who are hoping for an invasion which which they could then use to take the concrete and then fight each other like it's happening in libya but that hasn't happened where the sections of the opposition are going to disrupt the inspectors from taking off disarming doing whatever they're doing to the chemical weapons i don't know what totally surprised me of some section from within but tried to create of procreation and

then blame it on the government because they were very upset when no war happened and our middle east correspondent is right now henri to damascus to report on the destruction of syria's chemical weapons traveling from lebanon by car and his they were pulled point to clear centers across the border that. we've just driven through the lebanon syrian border and aside from a couple of bureaucratic delays the whole process was relatively smooth it took only about twenty minutes for our passport to be checked and stamped on the lebanese side and there in the departures war they were around two hundred two hundred fifty people everybody staying in increase in a queue everything or to be the lebanese army managing and controlling everything the situation is really stable here at the border post it took us around an hour and a half to drive from beirut to the border at this time in the morning it's around

ten o'clock the traffic is mostly in the direction we are going which is from beirut to damascus and here there are a number of mostly civilian cars there are a number of taxis that also some buses i mean side those buses on mostly women and some with children i managed to speak to some of the taxi drivers and they say that business is still good between beirut and damascus you still have a number of lebanese gangs that are working inside syria at the same time you have a number of businessmen while being based in beirut are still having to come through to damascus on a fairly regular basis i tried to speak to some of the passengers particularly the women that no one would speak on camera of course they're afraid of any kind of retribution that the situation as you can well imagine is still very sensitive here paula slee our team on the lebanese syrian border. roger cohen moms controversial politicians and even hardened warlords all submitted applications to run in

afghanistan's presidential election next year and already fears of ballot rigging violence and corruption all that pales in comparison to worry over a possible return of the taliban let's now get the thoughts of dyke an expert on afghanistan who was kidnapped and held by the militant group that mr van dyck well to welcome to good to have you with us we are seeing a very diverse list of candidates that to say the least. can we say that this is democracy in action that. is democracy and democracy in action we don't know yet i think we are seeing the beginnings of what we hope will be democracy but we will not know until the election is over and we will find out then for the first time in afghanistan's history if there will be an actual transition no kings no no men with rifles necessarily and an actual voting by the people were

democratically elected president president hamid karzai will step down without being assassinated and just about all previous presidents of afghanistan have been killed in one form or another if he can step down without being assassinated and live in peace and another person elected democratically yes then we will see the beginnings of what we call democracy right but that can only be one president right how are the other countries going to take losing as many of them are so powerful that. that's right it's very very complex here and for those people on the outside trying to figure out how in the world can we decipher who should be the best person now ultimately the afghans of course are going to have to decide what the west once to say in this case nato or the united states wants someone who speaks english well one who is present of all one with whom they can work now the

number two person before it was second to president karzai in the two thousand and nine election is abdul abdula he has a pashtoon father and a tajik mother posh toons are the most powerful group the largest ethnic group in afghanistan they're also the taliban so but at the same time his mother is tajik so that dilutes somewhat his power president karzai will have a say and he wants his present foreign ministers school to be the person who will be the next president he speaks english he is urbane therefore he would seem to be acceptable however the wild card here the most dangerous the most volatile the one that frightens the west is a man named abdul aziz who was very close to osama bin laden very close to saudi arabia during the one nine hundred eighty s. and even in the one nine hundred ninety s. is alleged to have trained him in in his camps in the shower along the afghan pakistani border who were involved in such things as the ball the bombing in two

thousand and two were a number of australians were killed in australia as had soldiers in afghanistan with the west therefore except someone who is seen in the eyes of many people as a terrorist so what if he wins what we will find out down the road right now of course the elephant in the room is the time to see them. respecting the results of the election. so a very very interesting point you just raised they consider democracy a western religion for them islam of course which is. submission to god which would be the rule of god which is what they want in democracy meaning the rule of men is an estimate to them this is they are diametrically opposed to this so for them to see in their eyes a western religion come to power truly by having a democratically elected president stepped on a new and going forward is not something they're going to want now they have

backers some of them in pakistan and we will find out as the election proceeds and the election really is not going to begin till february the all the candidates have to file by october nineteenth the election itself or the campaigning as we know it in the west does not begin until february the election will be in april however everybody will start their campaigns as soon as they can and again what's going to happen is recognition name recognition is going to account for a lot but what we have to watch for very closely is if the taliban start to attack then we're going to trouble sunni. vandyke also and expert on afghanistan. thank you very much indeed for time thank you but it welcome u.s. special forces in somalia have reportedly had to pull back off the head of resistance from militants during a navy seal attempts to capture their leader but another tirade of a full thousand kilometers away nearly b.s. was more productive as the military count should suspect from been one thousand

nine hundred ninety eight u.s. embassy bombings in kenya and tanzania peace activists and also says washington is very selective when it comes to fighting terror. the war on terrorism has really replaced the cold war to justify massive military spending and so when they are supporting a dictator like hadi in yemen who want an election because it is the only name on the ballot or they are supporting al-qaeda or getting mercenaries in syria or whether it's the mujahideen in afghanistan or any of these terrorist groups or drug cartels and so on if they are supporting u.s. policy in the region then it's not terrorism it's not spoken of if they're opposing neocolonialism in us and they're terrorists it's not about how the actor who they kill us has no problem supporting terrorists all over the rest of the world so for them to be fighting terrorists in somalia sounds a little disingenuous when they're supporting. in the al qaeda in syria as well as and many other terrorist groups all over the world. the netherlands started legal

action against russia this week it's filing a claim with the international maritime court to win the release of greenpeace activists arrested after trying to scale a russian oil rig nearly three weeks ago they protesters were traveling on board the dutch registered to summarize it face up to fifteen years in prison on charges of piracy currently in custody awaiting trial russia says it's well within its rights to defend its assets until international norm day international norm rather than today so demonstrations calling for the release of the activists and dozens of countries for my greenpeace and me that patrick morgan needs to accept his should have found a better way to get such a cross. you can't expect to have people allow you to continue to storm their oil rigs oil rigs are a very serious operation with really big safety issues and you start scaling the rig and then people have to come and try to get you off it puts them in danger and

so i can certainly understand why they were apprehended and finally told away from the site i do tend to agree with president putin that they are not pirates it's pretty obvious i think their intentions were not to loot the rig or anything like that but they're still putting people in danger and it is a serious situation it's my understanding that this is the first oil platform that is done designed specifically to withstand the intention is to make it a safer way of extracting oil of the news this hour let's now take a few moments to look back at the day of flights maintain moscow the sochi twenty fourteen winter olympics flame has begun its epic four month tour of russia. so the olympic torch relay has been touring the capital after a colorful welcome ceremony

a few hours ago let's take another look at the highlights of the flames arrival. lift. lift.

daily beast dot fish is still which. is on its epic journey to such a. one hundred twenty three days. through two thousand nine hundred ninety cities

of russia. relayed by fourteen thousand. people for six of those killings. in a record setting trip by land air sea and others the. olympic torch relay. you know i'm old enough to remember a reruns when gomer pyle used to cry citizen's arrest when he saw something wrong in mayberry and a new law in russia could allow our city average to do the same thing by helping to enforce law in the country this low allows citizens to protect public order by becoming volunteer workers deputy policeman and even forming people's militias which will in theory prevent crime or at least allow the police to be informed more

quickly and accurately of course this like any project which sounds nice on paper is all about the implementation so we'll see how these deputies and militias will work overall i think this won't have much of an effect on crime but it could have a huge impact on non-criminal bad public behavior you know i am not the bravest guy on the planet and it's hard to confront a group of five drunk guys who are just as big as you who are acting like idiots on the street but doing so with ten stone sober militiaman buddies could provide a much more convincing argument for the drunkard's this could be a big step forward for democracy when you actually have at least a scrap of power or control over the events in your neighborhood then you're sure feel like people actually have a lot of power and this could be good for the country but that's just my opinion.

the white house. building at the very heart of the city. government. to the supremes. the main in the country. hundred ninety three. the brink of civil. two days of street fighting hundreds.