welcome to russia very big flayed makes it to moscow the first torchbearers have started them are on a relay through russia until at the launchers sultry twenty. pitched battles across cairo see twenty eight people died during gatherings for the forces anniversary of egypt's lost war with israel. u.s. special forces are reportedly pushed beyond journey a militant raid in somalia but a separate operation in libya is a top terror leaders seized as claimed swallow that washington is to specially take it in its war against terror. and the netherlands goes to an international tribunal to try and free this thirty greenpeace oil activist who

russia's taking to court on piracy charters. the latest news on the week's top stories we're watching the weekly now see with me thanks for joining us and it's a big day for russia that lympics play with no scope for the final countdown to the twenty fourteen winter olympics. a massive convoy of bikers brought it safely to a red square and a cheering crowd before president president signs the torch on its way and as he's a group is going to wash the festivities in red square for us that's how they look

. well it's truly a historic event for the whole nation and possibly even for the history of the olympic games themselves the olympic flame was first delivered on board the special flight from greece to. the supported 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 event then several thousand people waiting for the flame to arrive to the heart of the capital right square where was greeted by president putin and celebrities congratulating pretty much the whole nation when 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 we're talking about one thousand nine hundred cities and villages across the whole country it's gland the flame will be taken on top of the

biggest mountains like the war on the bottom of the biggest lake. 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's 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 reachable a 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 had been waiting for. and. all the way from greece on board the very gent that brought it here and he shot his impressions of the twenty. which is going to take you back a week because this flame started its life in a limp 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 he was in

olympia and then this torch went around greece the flame was handed over to the russian olympic committee it's a beautiful stadium it's called the palace and i called 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 while 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 pay play and i've got a ticket. we're now cruising at thirty thousand feet and tucked 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 organizing 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 brode very much so because it's once in a word democrat you do for the generations to show. you more than russia to the war with the global war against. with this several billion so viewers you're in 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. 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 a bank to receive a very warm welcome and i also spoke to

a veteran organizer of the olympic torch relay zz who is a consultant for social twenty four scene and he told us about choosing torchbearers and the logistics in making it a success for four years called team have 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 fourteen thousand torchbearers and you can see your problem they are and. it's really building the excitement for the game so basically the celebrations start now everybody will realize wow 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. communities they apply in or some are nominated but there's there's more than a hundred thousand applications behind these really. philip the torch is on its epic journey to. one hundred twenty three days. through to. relate. to people who are sixty clinton or record setting trip by land air and sea another space. olympic torch relay. on. turning to egypt now where twenty eight people are now known to have died in deadly clashes between muslim brotherhood supporters and anti moved to morsi protesters

across the country makes the battles have broken out in several areas of cairo after people gathered for the fortieth anniversary of the cape or war which was a chips last contact with israel is still around two hundred brotherhood supporters have been arrested his about her reports now from the higher squad. i was actually in the clashes and piece of it basically happened was the missing brotherhood supporters it was a very see once ousted president morsi to attend office were attempting to march on to his prayer where i am right now at that intervention by security forces to show tear gas and birdshot but it took them right in the very different march they tried to from get on this square 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 the monks who were actually called to be able to come to st and celebrate what he said was a national day of pride and they didn't want to see

a mix of brotherhood people here for support from ahmed morsi causing trouble he said well i mean i was basically there on the streets and to extremely bloody there were lots of people being dragged to the front lines and we're going to 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 crush the different parts of the country is there you see them you basically support the military vowed to come to the streets in celebration and that if you want mohamed morsi to come back into power in saying they're not going to back down you're going to see how this progresses the next few days was a person have a new constitution in the next week was supposed to have elections come back a possibly happen when this violence continues and things has yet to be seen. and we're now joined live by a cold winning journalist here miles who specializes in the middle east mr miles welcome to all seems good to have you where there's so the government called for

all egyptians to come out onto the streets to celebrate the young people at about three all together don't you think it was a bit naive. well the government wants a part of the mandate this difficult time they offer at the moment very confident the government because they are backed by. the gulf they don't need to worry about their finances anymore that don't necessarily in a very reconcile mood anymore. are you writing it is that no even the sense of it is provocative and also into trouble. but the government hasn't shied away from that there's been a very tough crackdown there is a muslim brotherhood and they have used every possible means to break it was a she said she said this is very much in the pattern of what we've been seeing in the last few weeks from right and always seeing now and to say simply people. dead

just twenty eight to be precise the violence shows no sign of slowing down is that i missing the current government can do to stop these clashes. show the government could reconcile with the muslim brotherhood. it is possible the egypt could turn around in a short space of time probably not this current government because this is really just the only running the country at the moment but in a few months when elections have taken place that will be a new government and one would expect that they will be motivated to reconcile i mean that was beyond the democratically elected i'll be on the national pressure local pressure inside egypt and also international pressure to reconcile with the brotherhood and of course the brotherhood is a force to be reckoned with in egypt it's going to be very difficult for them to run the country without without having the reconciliation with the brotherhood.

they might one would expect that they would try to reach out to the brotherhood of the stage and then it's possible that could be a kind of nelson mandela moment and everything. be quickly fixed in egypt but you know it is this is just one possibility and unfortunately there's a whole spectrum of scenarios at the moment out that because egypt is in a very volatile stakes and. reconciliation it is not the most likely result that this is actually an actual i want to ask you almost all the deaths today have been in cairo is that arrest a nationwide problem or is it largely limited to the capital. well i mean there are problems around the country they haven't affected the tourist resorts some option. but i mean there are demonstrations and tried muslim brotherhood rallies throughout the country the sympathy for them everywhere egypt is a very divided country and don't forget that there is a war raging in sinai

a very bloody war between the egyptian army and islam rests and what happens if not war could overshadow the political developments in the rest of the country it's quite possible that whatever happens with the muslim brotherhood a genocide start a war could spread into egypt in the coming weeks and months. and say this is it just another complicating factor in this already extremely complicated situation. right here miles medleys john list thank you very much indeed for that thank you. the latest edition of walls upon later this hour looks at why peace remains so for the revolution torn a trip to the land they weapons inspectors and see where it's a big government chemical stockpiles have started to be destroyed but will the process continue smoothly stay with c.n.n. so we're told on the wrists from rebel promises to get in the way to fears the

president assad might hide some of his arms. if you look at the videos we get from syria these days you know people chaplet chopping off eating these intestines this is probably far warns them something that you play being that hollywood movie lies the united states of america to stop supporting people who have ideologies that can crush humanity in the name of religion in the name of interest in the name of any political. drama is to try to be ignored. stories others to fuse

to notice. the faces change the world writes no. food picture of today's. children from around the globe. broke to. you're watching the only here on r.t. with the latest news on the week's top stories the destruction of syria's chemical arsenal has begun international inspectors in the country have confirmed that warheads chemical mixing installations and rockets are all undergoing dismantling and eradication the process is expected to take months but historian and middle east specialist tariq ali says there 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 keep the country 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 wouldn't totally surprise me of some sections from within but tried to create a procreation and then blame it on the government because they were very upset when no war. and our middle east correspondent is right now on route to damascus to report on the destruction of syria's chemical weapons traveling from lebanon by car has they reported poorness lear centers across the border. 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 who are they were around two hundred two hundred and fifty people everybody staying in 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 were a number of taxis that also some buses i mean side those busses 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 who 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 is you can well imagine is still very sensitive here . on the lebanese syrian border. radical in moms controversial politicians and even hardened warlords of all submitted applications to run in afghanistan's presidential election next year and there are already fears of ballot rigging violence and corruption all that pales in comparison to warry of a possible return of the tonopah afghanistan expert van dyke who was kidnapped and held by the minute and

a group that explains why the taliban won't recognize. they consider democracy a western religion for them islam of course which is submission to god which should be the rule of god which is what they want in democracy meaning the rule of law is anathema 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 step down a new one come forward is not something they're going to want all you have right now nato the united states depending upon the afghan national army and the police force which number three hundred fifty two thousand to takeover you have the taliban who number approximately twenty to thirty thousand at the most and you have the taliban on the upswing they killed four american soldiers today you have the you have a desertion rate of up to thirty percent in the afghan national army can they stand up to the taliban there are many people and i am one of them who question whether

they can the united states and its allies may pull out in total about two thousand and fourteen but can they afford that because that will mean twelve years perhaps have gone to waste u.s. special forces in somalia have reportedly had to pull back after a heavy resistance from militants during a navy seal attempt to capture a man need to but another time a raid of a full thousand kilometers away need was more productive as the military counted a suspect from bin one thousand nine hundred eighty u.s. embassy bombings in kenya and tanzania peace activists 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 going to areas 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 to money then 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 any k. in the al qaeda in syria as well as our nursery and many other terrorist groups all over the world. the netherlands started legal action against russia this week it's finding a claim with the international maritime court to win the release of thirty greenpeace activists arrested after trying to scale a russian oil rig nearly three weeks ago the protesters were traveling on board the dutch registered sunrise they face up to fifteen days in prison on charges of piracy and are currently in custody awaiting trial russia says it's well but then it's wise to defend its international norm saturday so demonstrations calling for

the release of the activists and dozens of countries former greenpeace leader patrick moore believes the activists should have found a better way to get that message across. 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 i use the intention is to make it

a safer way of extracting oil and that's the news this hour let's take a few moments to look back at a day of excitement hane moscow this such the sochi twenty four scene when telling picks flame has begun its epic four month tour of russia. the olympic torch relay has been touring the capital of her colorful welcome ceremony a few hours ago let's now take another look at the highlights of the flames arrival here.

daily beast gabbling the fish is delicious.

recently the ministry of internal affairs of russia declared that they're going to dress 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 they're generally taboo and 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 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.

alone of welcome to well that part can happen years ago egypt and much of the arab brawled going through dramatic changes that even the most creative screenwriter couldn't imagine and hopes were high the futurists and bride and the happy ending within reach what happened to those trains. well to discuss that i'm now joined by a prominent egyptian actor and activist. mr because i really appreciate your being on the show thank you very much thank you thank you very much for inviting me now i remember that back in two thousand and eleven the you spent days on tucker square alongside all the protesters calling for president hosni mubarak to step down and eventually thanks to your aphorism the after itself thousands of other dedicated patric activists he eventually did and in one of the interviews you gave back then you said that that's made you feel very proud of the egyptian people i wonder if

you still hold on to dive pride are you proud of what is happening in your country now yes i'm definitely proud we went down two thousand and eleven to object to a number of rome things that were happening in our country and when they happened again we just took to the streets again very quickly and very effectively because three days instead of eighteen days the second time so i'm still less proud but i remember that one of the main slogans that you could hear on tax risk we're back down to was brad freedom and human dignity and if you take those as a yardstick of chips success or progress the picture is not really a bribe because your economy is much worse than it used to be more people have been a rush to all killed since the ouster of mubarak.