welcome to russia the olympic flame arrives in moscow as the first torch bearers begin the marathon four month relay through russia before launches of the sochi two thousand and fourteen winter games. celebrations for the fortieth anniversary of egypt's last war with israel turned violent in cairo where fierce clashes between opponents and supporters of mohamed morsi was ousted regime scores killed and wounded. a u.s. operation in libya seize a top terror leader sees a separate raid in somalia proves unsuccessful with special forces unable to capture a wanted al shabaab militant leader. and at least a dozen children are killed in a suicide attack in iraq that targeted an elementary school the most recent assault

in a wave of violence that has hit the nation. live from our studios in moscow this is our team let's get right to our top stories a big day for russia the olympic flame arrived in moscow for the final countdown to the two thousand and fourteen sochi winter olympics. a massive convoy of bikers brought it safely to red square and a cheering crowd before president of the torch on its way you could piece it off watched the festivities by the kremlin walls. 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 knight wharves and biker gang one of the most famous ones in the country many of these guys are athletes themselves and also known for their various charity projects they said 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 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 glenn that the flame will be taken on top of the biggest mountains like the war on the bottom of the biggest. it's also plans that the olympic flame will be taken on board the international space station

and even. 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 in moscow but it's also really the start i guess the final stretch sort of before the actual start of the winds are olympics

which so many people have been waiting for. which is you go to. red square now artie's andrew farmer followed the olympic flame all the way from greece on board a very jet that brought it here to russia he shared his impressions of the journey . 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 olympia 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 europeans 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 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 plane but that's not just any old plane that's a b. i paid plane and i've got a ticket. we're now cruising at thirty thousand feet and tucked into 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 tuna shanker 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 broad very much so because it's once in a word democrats really do for the generations to show. you more than rush to the war with the global war against. 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 in the city of sochi ok we've got a busy time ahead so i will let you get small rest we are g. 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 a back to receive a very warm welcome. well we spoke to a veteran organizer of olympic torch relay is who is a consultant for the search you two thousand and fourteen games he told us about

choosing torchbearers and the logistics for making it all a success for four years 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 forty thousand torch bearers and you can see your problem they are and 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 all the games now you know all their selection processes were different category holders torchbearers so. be selected through campaigns with the percentage partners but they have gone out in public campaigns and people can i applaud or be nominated based on their merits and

their good job here so for communities they apply in or some are nominated but there's there's more than a hundred thousand applications behind these really. the olympic torch is on it's a big journey to such a. one hundred twenty three days. through two hundred cities of russia. relayed by fourteen thousand people or sixty five thousand. in a record setting trip by land air. and others face. a little torch relay. m r t r g. and at least a fifty one people have been killed and scores injured in egypt after violent crap clashes erupted between rivals and supporters of the deposed president mohamed morsy over four hundred protesters have also been arrested according to the country's interior ministry writes and broke out as thousands gathered in the

streets of cairo to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of egypt's last war with israel r.t.l. true brings us the latest from tahrir square. very fierce street battles erupted this afternoon between security forces and supporters of the ousted muslim brotherhood leader mohamed morsi on the fortieth anniversary of the one hundred seventy three arab israeli war this and we also had rival protests with supporters of the military gathering in tahrir square as you can see behind me some people even collecting signatures calling for army chief of defectors he see to be president however just a few kilometers away from where i'm standing here in the giza district and in other locations across the capital there were very bloody scenes and mohamed morsy supporters and the missing brotherhood had attempted to march on this very square where they wanted to hold on to military protests they say they went against necessarily the institution of the army that they were against their generals who they want to see changed as they say they are really leading the country to destruction and targeting them as mother heads and there is calling for mohamed

morsi to be reinstated at the scene it was very chaotic the battles are spilling over into the science streets of what is essentially a residential middle class neighborhoods and security forces were joined by civilians who were throwing tear gas and also firing these protesters with birdshot but it's and i've had reports of mine i mean it's not that i can't confirm that we have heard the interior ministry of said at least two hundred and muslim brotherhood sympathizers or supporters of mohamed morsy have been arrested in mass roundups around the country as the death toll continues to rise however there are a number of people here as on to his square and also the presidential palace who were celebrating what is considered to be one of the greatest military victories in egyptian history and they told me today they are very angry with the mizzen brotherhood and their supporters for staging protests however the brotherhood to that part say they are being treated in a very heavy handed manner and these clashes are no sign of abating we expect them to go on through the night and possibly through the week as this egypt remains

extremely divided. now award winning middle east a journalist hugh miles who says there is a way to break of the cycle of violence. the government could reconcile with the muslim brotherhood. it is possible the egypt could turn around you know 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 there will be a new government and one would expect that they will be motivated to reconcile i mean that was to go beyond the democratically elected i'll be on the national pressure a little 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.

the long anticipated it disarmament process in syria has finally started. after the break we'll bring you the latest updates from the campaign to eliminate syria's chemical arsenal. plus the netherlands has taken legal action against russia for the release of thirty greenpeace activists stories and much more after a short break. we know how to do banking it should be like infrastructure to support the economy it shouldn't be for the benefit of it leads to think they're above the law as we currently have. but. it's no good saying speak. to your military service and you can

expect some of the toughest training. for the rest of the. going on see. you news sigrid laboratory tim curley was able to build the world's most sophisticated robot which on fortunately doesn't give a darn about anything tombs mission to teach creation why it should care about humans and. this is why you should care watch it only on r t dot com. and welcome back you're watching our team the destruction of syria's chemical weapons has begun with some of the arsenal having already been dismantled international inspectors in the country say that warheads chemical mixing installations and rockets are all to be demolished however the process is expected

to take months historian and a middle east expert tariq ali believes there still may 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 fix the country and then fight each other like it's happening in libya but that hasn't happened whether 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. artie's middle east

correspondent arrived in damascus to find out more about the described destruction of syria's chemical weapons here's the report artie's palace lior center says she crossed the border from lebanon 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 fifty people everybody staying in and 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 number of taxis that also some buses and

inside those buses on mostly women and small 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 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 as you can well imagine is still very sensitive here colas they are on the lebanese syrian border. plenty of stories online for you including at least eight people have died after a vehicle ran over spectators during a monster truck show in mexico on the motion page of our website we've got shocking

footage for you. plus a boston engineering company has released a video of a robot capable of rising turning and running at a speed of twenty five kilometers per hour you can head to our to dot com for all of the details. u.s. secretary of state john kerry has declared that america will hold those responsible for conducting acts of terror accountable that's after american troops carried out two separate operations aimed at seizing senior terrorist figures in somalia special forces raided a villa of a suspected al shabaab leader but were unable to find their target while in libya they captured a suspect from the one nine hundred ninety eight u.s. embassy bombings in kenya and tanzania later he was taken to a u.s. navy ship and is now undergoing questioning however activist ryan dawson says that 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're supporting a dictator like hadi in yemen who want to election because it's the only name on the ballot or they're supporting al qaida or getting mercenaries in syria or whether it's in the 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. al-qaeda in syria as well as and many other terrorist groups all over the world. suicide attack on a primary school in iraq has left at least twelve children dead as another string of blasts hit the war torn country police and shia pilgrims were targeted in two other attacks bringing sunday's death toll to over thirty people and after dozens

were killed in a wave of bombings just a day before they send jason dead to excuse me a news editor at antiwar dot com says that iraqi authorities are failing to curb the sectarian violence that is threatening to push the country into civil war is really a question here it's fair to ask is whether or not iraq is already in a new sectarian civil war in our midst calls all through the summer and i think the reality is the current government doesn't have a. reasonable policy to respond to that there is just an enormous amount of sectarian tension above and beyond what we saw. during the u.s. occupation. supposedly coalition government arose from the last direct election has ended up being a disaster it's really the disastrous way that democracy has sort of

failed and interact is a lot of why we're seeing all of this fighting us it's definitely a problem for the whole region we're seeing a lot of spill over violence back and forth with syria especially sooner or later if it's going to be something that's dealt with region wide. the netherlands started legal action against russia this week and it has filed a claim with the international maritime court to win the release of thirty greenpeace activists arrested after trying to scale a russian article oil rig nearly three weeks ago the protesters were traveling on board the dutch registered arctic sunrise they face up to fifteen years in prison on charges of piracy and are currently in custody awaiting trial russia says it is well within its rights to defend its assets under international law saturday saw demonstrations calling for their release in dozens of countries former greenpeace leader patrick moore believes the activists should have found a better way to get their 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 towed away from the site i do tend to agree with president putin that they are not pirates it's that 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 zines specifically to withstand ice the intention is to make it a safer way of extracting oil. former warlords controversial politicians as well as the brother of president karzai are among those who submitted applications to run in the election for the top post in afghanistan the vote which will be held in

april will mark the first democratic transition of power in afghan history but whoever wins it will be left with the tough task of dealing with taliban insurgents after nato troops withdraw from the country by the end of two thousand and fourteen afghanistan expert johnny van dyke who was kidnapped and held by the militant group explains why they won't recognize the vote they consider democracy western religion for them islam of course which is submission to god which should be the rule of god which is what they want and democracy meaning the rule of men 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 at all to 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 take over 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 that 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. now on to some other world news making headlines around the world for you this. powerful. has hit eastern china forcing the evacuation of thousands of people earlier the nation issued a top level red alert. is expected to bring. to five provinces over the next three days. at least one thousand people have been killed and

fifteen wounded after a bus drove off a country road in the southeastern region of the country the vehicle was traveling through winding roads in the andes and fell eighty meters the driver is believed to be at fault for the crash. in tunisia the ruling islam is the party has begun talks with the secular opposition aimed at resolving the political deadlock in the country earlier the sides agreed on the creation of a cabinet of independent would be in power until elections are held the nation which has been hit by political turmoil since the two thousand and eleven uprising has seen a fresh spike of tension after the assassination of a prominent opposition leader in july. that's the news for this hour with a few moments to look back at a day of excitement here in moscow the sochi two thousand and fourteen winter olympics has begun its epic four month tour of russia.

the olympic torch relay has it been touring in the capital after a colorful welcome ceremony several hours ago let's take another look at the highlights of the flames arrival.

global daily beast gabbling the fish is delicious.

well coming up we report on how medicine in india has been made more affordable for those living in poverty that's after a short break you're watching r.t. . i recently read headlines all over the russian internet screaming in full paranoia mode that china has just bought five percent of ukraine now they're writing that china will lease five percent of ukraine over ukrainian officials themselves claim that china won't be getting either and if this is a deal about some drip irrigation system this situation didn't explode onto the internet to the fantasies of bloggers the south china morning post reported that one company does have a crop and pig farming plan design utilized nine percent of ukraine's territory

also last year the ban on foreigners buying land of ukraine. been lifted although i am the distrustful pro sovereignty type getting a rich foreign country to pay to develop your nation's agriculture might not be too bad of a deal it would definitely take a lot of money to restore ukraine's farming to its former glory they see that ukraine used to be the bread basket of europe agree that status spec could really help the country but selling off or even just leasing nine percent of the nation's territory is absolutely unacceptable doing a large project with the chinese that is mutually beneficial is one thing but selling or leasing off your country is another and by another i mean treason but that's just my opinion.

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