welcome to russia the olympic flame arrives in moscow as the first. bring begin. for months at relay for russia before it launches their two thousand and fourteen sochi winter games. celebrations for the fortieth anniversary of egypt's a last war with israel turned violent in cairo where fierce clashes between opponents and supporters of mohamed morsi was ousted regime lead scores killed and wounded. a u.s. operation in libya seizing top terror leader seized 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 were targeted in elementary school the most recent assault

in a wave of violence that hit the nation. and you're watching r t direct from our studios in moscow glad to have you with us a big day for russia the olympic flame has arrived in moscow for the final countdown to the two thousand and fourteen a sochi winter olympics. a massive convoy of bikers brought it safely into red square and a cheering crowd before president of the torch on its way are you going to be sent off watch the festivities by the kremlin walls. 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 then was a scored by the knight wharves 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 were waiting for the flame to arrive to the heart of the capital to red square where 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 really 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 of 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. 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 winter olympics

which so many people have been waiting for. reporting for us the. farmer followed the olympic flame all the way from greece on board the very jet that brought him here to russia he shared his impressions of his 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 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 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 top twenty 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 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 pay play 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 she just over here dimitri 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 way of them opportunity for the generations. of the new more than russia to the war with the global with us. 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 in the city of sochi ok we've got a busy time ahead so i will let you get small rest we are g.'s to touchdown 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. but we spoke to a veteran organizer of the olympic torch relay so who is a consultant for the sochi two thousand and fourteen games he told us about

choosing torchbearers and of the logistics for making it all 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 and 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 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 here's a local communities they apply in or some are nominated but there's there's more than a hundred thousand applications behind these really. torch is on it's a big journey to such. 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. torch relay. m r t. at least fifty one people have been killed and scores injured in egypt after violent 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 riots broke out as thousands gathered in the streets of

cairo to commemorate of the fortieth anniversary of egypt's last war with israel r.t.l. true brings us the latest from tahrir square. 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 very fierce street battles erupted tween security forces and supporters of the ousted muslim brotherhood leader mohamed morsi on the fortieth anniversary of the nine hundred seventy three arab israeli war this and we also have 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 their sisi to be president 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 but 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 those 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 there are a number of people here as on to her 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 who are staging protests now over the brotherhood to their part saying they are being treated in a very heavy handed manner and these clashes are no sign of abating we expect them to go on possibly through the week as this egypt remains extremely divided. award winning the middle east a journalist hugh miles. away to break the cycle of violence in the country. government could reconcile with the muslim brotherhood. it is possible that egypt

could turn it around in a short space of time probably not this current government because this is pretty just feel me running the country at the moment but in a few months when elections take place that will be a new government and one would expect that they will be motivated to reconcile i mean that was you know beyond the democratically elected. 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 the netherlands has taken legal action against russia. for the release of thirty greenpeace activists arrested after trying to scale a russian arctic oil rig nearly three weeks ago this story much more still ahead.

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 to recall the believes there may still 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 where the sections of the opposition are going to destruct 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 a procreation and then blame it on the government because they were very upset when no war happened artie's middle east correspondent has arrived in damascus to find out more about the destruction of syria's chemical weapons here's what the report policy are sent us has 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 stepped on the lebanese side and there in the departures war 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 a number of taxis that also some buses i mean side those buses are 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 closely are on the lebanese syrian border. we've got plenty more stories for you

online including at least eight people killed after a vehicle ran over spectators during a monster truck show in mexico on the motion page of our website we've got the shocking footage for you. also a boston engineering company has released video of a robot capable of turning and running at a speed of twenty five kilometers per hour you can head over 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 foreign fighter commander for al shabaab 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 is the only name on the ballot or they're supporting al qaida or getting mercenaries in syria or whether it's in the scene 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. a 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 that's after dozens were killed in a wave of bombings just a day before jason did say 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 there's really a question here it's fair to ask is whether or not iraq is already in a new sectarian civil war we're seeing an armistice 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 the staff it's really the disastrous way that democracy has sort of failed in iraq is a lot of why we're seeing all of this fighting. it's definitely a problem for the whole region we're seeing a lot of spillover violence back and forth with syria especially sooner or later in the it's going to be something that's i never dealt with region wide. the netherlands started a 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 of the dutch registered arctic sunrise to 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. that'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 mung 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 a democratic transition of power in afghan history but whoever wins will be left with the tough task of dealing with taliban insurgents after nato troops withdraw from the country i mean to two thousand and fourteen afghanistan expert jerry 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 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 and you wouldn't come forward is not something they're going to want at 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 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 a did 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. take a look at some other news making headlines around the world the. powerful typhoon has hit eastern china forcing the evacuation of thousands of people earlier the nation issued

a top level red alert the typhoon is expected to bring torrential rains to five provinces over the next three days in peru at least scuse me. jump the gun a bit there but in peru now at least one thousand people have been killed and fifteen wounded after a bus drove off a road in the country's southeastern region the vehicle was traveling through the winding roads in the andes and felt eighty meters the driver is believed to be at fault for the crash. and attack in the capital's district where foreign diplomatic missions are located has left a german embassy employee dead the victim is believed to be the bodyguard of the country's ambassador in a separate assault kidnappers seized the unicef employee at gunpoint from a vehicle in northern sanaa no group has claimed responsibility as of yet. in tunisia the ruling islamist 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 independence that 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 this hour let's take a few moments to look back at a day of excitement here in moscow two thousand and fourteen winter olympics flame has begun its epic four month tour of russia. the olympic torch relay has been touring the capital after a colorful welcome ceremony on sunday let's take another look at the highlights of the flames arrival.

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a lot of welcome to worlds apart ten a half years ago egypt and much of the arab world where 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 seemed within reach what happened to those trains well to discuss that i'm now joined by a prominent egyptian actor and activist. mr breckon 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 spend days on task or square alongside other protesters calling for president hosni mubarak to step down and eventually thanks to your efforts and the efforts of thousands of other dedicated patrick activists he eventually did and in one of the interviews you gave back then

you said that that made you feel very proud of the egyptian people i wonder if you still hold on to that 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 wrong things that were happening in our country and when they happened again we just took to the streets again very quickly and very effectively took us three days instead of eighteen days and the second time so i'm still us proud but i remember that one of the main slogans that you could hear on tap for square back down it was brad freedom and human dignity and if you take those as as a yardstick of. success or progress the picture is not really here brive because your economy is much worse than it used to be more people have

been arrested or killed since the ouster of mubarak than prior to that and when it comes to human rights and human dignity the progress is very limited to say the least so isn't egypt pretty much back to where it was before the arab spring only much worse i think what's happening now in egypt is a retaliation to to the actions that were taken by people in power and their supporters to humiliate human dignity and basically want to break. see shooting at people who have had certainly on the street the trying to object to the majority of the egyptian people and i think eventually when you do that if you want to keep your dignity you have to retaliate the question is of course how do you retaliate because back then you were inspired .