the diary of a soviet school on to. dig

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that's. the wiki leaks founder julian up from home towns appeared in the u.k. court is the fine thanks tradition took. over sexual assault allegations which he claims optimistic emotion fades it. the u.s. is accused of protecting a former cia agent who's wanted in latin america the deadly terror attacks as he goes on trial over immigration reform plus. a breakthrough in the rescue mission

to retrieve the ship star of russia's far east coast with the icebreakers now close to achieving that final share. of our womb welcome to you this is live from moscow with me alice has the wiki leaks founder house briefly appeared in along and and of course as he continues his battle against extradition julian assange which is wanted in sweden to face sex crime allegations which he claims have been fabricated in order to eventually prosecute him on espionage charges in the u.s. embassy is keeping a close eye on developments it was essentially what they call a case management hearing today which is when they set the date for the main herring and just check that all the evidence is in course of being prepared in

a timely fashion which we do now know when the full extradition extradition hearing is going to be that's going to take place on the seventh and eighth of february so we've got to wait another sort of three weeks for for the full hearing to happen julian assange has appeared in court on tuesday for this case management hearing after it was over he made a short statement to the media outside let's hear what he had to say we are happy about today's outcome. i have the court to make available to members of the press. skeleton argument which we've had to produce in very short time over christmas what happened before christmas was that julian assange is was released on bail that happened around about the middle of december after after a fight really to be released on bail in the end the bail sum was set at over three hundred thousand dollars and he's been staying at

a friend's house in the east of england ever since then waiting for this extradition to happen and that of course follows the issuing by sweden of a european arrest warrants on sexual assault allegations made by two former wiki leaks supporters and i'm joined to talk more about the details of this case by gerald batten who's a member of the european parliament for the u.k. independence party he's also a valium and opponent of the european arrest warrant which is of course the legality under way students ourselves his extradition to sweden is being requested joe budden thanks very much for talking to us so we now know that the main hearing is going to be on the seventh and eighth of february what what do you expect to happen that will you see if the lawyers on mr sanchez so i try to challenge the evidence against him which i may do and say well it's not sufficient to justify extradition or judicial surrenders it now is all the judge can say is well i'm not allowed to consider the evidence i'm not allowed to take into account the only grounds that you can oppose extradition very narrow you have to be old enough to

commit to the crime it has to be not a distant past you know twenty five years or something and it mustn't be because you're being prosperous acutely on the grounds of your political or sexual orientation very narrow grounds like that which he won't qualify for and of course i have searched for a case where it seemed fairly obvious to the cool and indeed to the judges hearing the appeal that the evidence had been manufactured by the police but of course another important element in this particular case is. this pressure that we understand is coming from the u.s. to eventually extradite us are there to face espionage charges what you think that will bring oh yes i'm sure there's lots of political maneuvering so the powers that be a very difficult position the americans want to get their hands on a song which the authorities now think the game's up people can see what the european arrest warrants are about you know so my guesses are quite know what they're going to do but i'm fairly confident that they're going to come up with come sometime in a cynical fix that will allow him either to go back to australia or possibly to go

back momentarily to sweden if some kind of deal is done about what charges will be laid against him but what we'll want to do i'm sure is put to bed this whole pub media publicity about the european arrest because this is just this there are other legal instruments coming through which remove our freedoms in other areas of life all done in the name of integrating europe's legal systems. member of the european parliament jerad back to the more i met a number of their. now former cia agent alleged to be one of the most notorious terrorists in recent history has gone on trial in the us you are supposed father is wanted in cuba and venezuela for masterminding a number of deadly terror acts including the nine hundred seventy six bombing of a passenger plane which killed over seventy people but in all of these episodes are among the challenges he faces in the west. explaining.

miami florida white sandy beaches miniskirts and bikini. this vacation spot is also home to a convicted international terrorist luis posada could be less coined the bin ladden of the americas the anti castro cuban was the cia's dirty secret in south and central america trained as an explosives expert at the new tory a school of the americas posada's acts of terrorism spanned five decades and impacted half a dozen countries. over seventy people were killed in cuban airliner forty five has gone the one nine hundred seventy six a terrorist act poseidon plans from venice walla and according to cia documents the agency was aware of it before it happened it was a mastermind of the. flight and still he's here

posada was convicted in absentia and then a swell of masterminding the bombing however not only did the u.s. government refused to extradite decided to venezuela to serve his term the cia continued to employ him as a key element in the country wars which plane winds of seventy thousand civilians in nicaragua. leading figure in the iran contra affair in the one nine hundred eighty s. had the cia stop assad in his tracks just after my shoes my brother was killed in libya you still most brother fabio would still be alive put yourself in the place of the etc victim of the family victim of terrorism and it's absurd distil know an italian businessman was murdered in one nine hundred ninety seven bombing orchestrated by posidon it was one of a string of hotel and nightclub bombings in cuba and it wasn't the only acts of terrorism pasado was involved in there was the two thousand assassination attempt

on cuban leader fidel. in a series of attacks across latin america after jailing posidon upon entering the u.s. illegally law enforcement agencies warned the justice department a poseidon's terrorist past but he was set free and he was now proceed to is on trial in el paso texas the charges against him not international terrorism but immigration fraud and perjury we unleashed him on the world peter kornbluh of the national security archives obtained dozens of documents pertaining to preside his involvement with the cia he says the case is about whether the united states truly can hold real terrorists although in this case a terrorist who was once our terrorist accountable livio acknowledges the importance of poseidon on trial but insists it's going to be too little too late the legacy of luis posada is that he is a cia created frankenstein and he went out and committed murder and mayhem the cia

once described posada as a reliable asset to the u.s. government a man of good character pro-u.s. who would make an excellent official in a post castro government half a century after post a lot of career less again doing the cia's dirty work in latin america his bloody legacy lives on for the countless victims and as the u.s. government continues to fight the so-called war on terrorism extraditing kidnapping and assassinating suspects in other countries it continues to harbor one of the hemisphere's most notorious terrorists are t. washington d.c. . now around one hundred activists gathered for a symbolic people's tribunals ahead of the trial to hear terrorism charges against her santa and his accomplices through campaign of brian becker was all saying that he believes the wanted man is being protected by american interests the american government has harbored terrorism to finance terrorism luis posada carriles is

there a terrorist who's been protected particularly by the bush family he was imprisoned in venezuela but escaped his imprisonment now venezuela is that million he'll be extradited in yet the united states government won't extradite him to ben as we were because they say they fear that the venezuelan government will torture luis posada carriles if it's nonsense is just shows the absolute hostility towards the venezuelan government towards the cuban revolution and of course showing the world that the united states is above the law above international law there is no good reason moral reason political reason or legal reason not to extradite luis posada carriles to venezuela where he escaped from prison for blowing up a civilian airliner that had cuban athletes on it still ahead this hour on r.t. look at how loyalty comes at a price that afghanistan report on local militia been trained by u.s. forces that put in there i now told well being ahead of any protection here see.

a refrigeration a ship that had been stuck fast and i saw fresh is a far east coast has been transported to safer waters by two ice breakers they're now heading to a supply ship that's been stranded for always a fortnight with more than three hundred crew onboard full auntie's their affair has the details of this rescue operation. certainly the welcome to the crew. to break his. crosses and heading back towards no it's a slight change in strategy that we've seen in the final stages of this rescue operation we saw in the early hours of yesterday morning they'd managed to free up the refrigerator and they started fighting that all of yesterday and today tools. but what happened earlier today was that they mounted a helicopter pick hydrologists from the album marker of ice breaker and they

managed to see the area idolise the ice layer and they managed to find distasteful to leave this refrigerated vessel and that's freed up these two ice breakers to now pay back the same. which means they can avoid having to break free further ice coming back making their way back to last largest supply vessel we had sten a press conference a federal fishing agency say the final part now going of freeing up this large ship is going to be the most difficult. to use a reconnaissance helicopter to send one of the emergencies ministry was observed to the canals which before would regularly freeze and i'm clear unstable because compton's have decided to turn around and come back for the supply ships leaving the refrigerator special for now to try and get the supply ship out the operation has now entered its final and most difficult stage according to our calculations it will conclude within forty eight hours to get both ships. were know the estimate as

to when the final operation is going to be finished still very dependent on these weather conditions that we seeing you know about the whole operation that it's really been very tricky for these icebreakers they've come up against very late incredibly. bit as they've now been able to continue back along the path they do not so it's now entering the final stages and it's. going to. from the frozen waters of russia's far east to the freezing land of eastern siberia where we take you in just a few minutes. we're going around one of the coldest regions of the planet is not everybody turns going sure thomas you know you're good you're coming up we'll show you how it's done. now the twenty two year old suspect in a mass shooting in arizona could face life in prison and all of the death penalty if convicted on monday jared loughner that made his first court appearance on five

challenges including attempting to assassinate a u.s. congresswoman well the court ordered her to be held without bail there's accused of barking on a shooting rampage outside a supermarket in ours they are killing six people and injured fourteen elp is democratic gabrielle giffords was shot in the head and remains that a critical condition and he were activists david swanson blames american mass media for promoting violence as the answer to solving society's problems but we do condition people to engage in this kind of violence in our wars and occupations and then we don't on condition them to live again back home but it's it's not just veterans it's americans from all backgrounds we don't we don't have mental health services we don't treat drug abuse as something to be cured we don't provide health care we don't provide job security we don't provide the things people need in terms of education in terms of nonviolent resolution of conflict because largely because

we're driving all of the money into those who have too much of it already and the war machine and through the war machine we're educating people through our criminal justice system and the death penalty we're educating people through everything that our government does to handle problems and everything that hollywood movies tell us solve problems we're teaching people that violence is the answer and of course it isn't. well the shooting spree end there as though that has reignited the u.s. debate on street to government control p.r. consultants t.j. says it would be a very tough toss to cool america's liking for firearms but americans have a passionate love affair and it's basically politically impossible for any politician to try to propose limiting handguns just recently rules are written to let people bring guns into schools in arizona so that is an extraordinarily difficult political challenge because the gun lobby basically controls congress in

america and local legislators as well so afghanistan now where the u.s. army is training local militia to help fight the taliban and while the strategy appears to be working in some areas there are a few significant drop banks to it as jason montblanc found out for all seen. as the southern gateway to kabul and home to a long stretch of afghanistan's national highway has been the focal point of the taliban's comeback in recent years in early two thousand and nine. forces were struggling to hold back some military planners decided to resign local militia to help cover the most dangerous gaps the sides a kia quit a better paying job to join because he was tired of the fighting around his village and the. nickname by u.s. troops the valley of death for its deadly ambushes by our friends. the situation was bad here and i needed to do something for my family before it got worse. there

are hundreds of militiamen like him spread across wardak province now the afghan government and u.s. military are about to launch dozens of new militias in hotspots around the country the minute this outpost will train for three weeks by american special forces units if you kolesnikov rifles and are paid about two hundred dollars a month to keep watch over the community they are approved by the village elders and they work within the district there from which gives them not only do they understand the don't. hammocks and the people that they're working with their stand the community and and the threat in the area two years ago the jailer isabel he was a taliban stronghold where u.s. forces and armored vehicles came under fierce attack nearly every time they tried to drive through it today attacks are rare and afghan local militia travel freely in pickup trucks from the beginning however critics have argued that arming militias in place of government forces could create vigilante groups which are impossible to control militia forces will not be loyal to the government in kabul or to president karzai they will certainly be loyal to those would be able to

replace the united states and temple financing that the former head of the program in wardak a shady ex taliban commander named mohammed has already been replaced some u.s. officials privately suspected he was playing both sides and of the twelve hundred men that began the program nearly four hundred have quit taking their weapons with him it's believed that dozens of join the insurgency these forces if they have not support it and get knocked addicted it is sourced it could be used against the governor it because he would join those groups who can support them elsewhere in afghanistan militias stand accused of murder theft and rape in northern province locals say they are worse than the taliban with support for the war effort flagging the u.s. military is looking for a quick fix of forces can leave but hasty decisions risk making a bad situation worse and as more militias are raised in the year ahead it appears there will be more risks to manage. for tea.

time this tuesday marks a. putting on the u.s. prison in guantanamo bay cuba there's tensions and if a terrorist suspects who is notorious for its use of torture to discuss the controversy surrounding it with human rights record bush full interview with her is coming up next hour but here's a quick clip. methods of interrogation the enhanced interrogation techniques as they're so referred did not happen to the minority they happen to the majority so what happens is you get instructors who are interrogators and guards who are trained in these techniques that are actually used in military training to help army men and women resist interrogation being used on these men in guantanamo bay so the majority of our clients have had at least one of these techniques used on them while they're illegal under the geneva conventions the geneva conventions afford prisoners of war their right to be treated humanely and without degradation

but unfortunately in two thousand and two after the prison first opened george bush declared that these men were not prisoners of war they were enemy combatants and therefore did not fall under the geneva conventions we still hold that this is a legal and if it's not illegal it's completely immoral it anyways. and now let's take a brief look at some other headlines from around the world this hour. little brisbane is bracing itself for its worst flooding in over three decades all the heavy rain swept through the australian date with the brisbane river overflowed being its banks officials warn that the country's third largest city may be inundated in the next few days affecting some fifteen thousand people it follows a violent wave of flash floods that don't use a town in queensland killing at least ten people two thirds of the state has been

declared designs designing. up to fifty people and are feared dead as riots over high unemployment to new two waves throughout the north african states newsier in the west of the country please fired live ammunition at a crowd of protesters killing of several people and injuring many more the country's president called beyond rest terrorism but vul to create three hundred thousand jobs in response to his years unemployment rate is believed to be around forty percent. trickles being forced to refute claims that it's next in line for an e.u. bailout others economy teeters on the brink the country's a burring rates jump to record levels amid reports germany and france are pushing it to accept outside help portugal's finance minister says the country's taking steps to reduce its massive debt and won't need rescuing like greece and ireland. now the russian province of

the courage of the cages in the east of siberia has the and then vehicle reputation as one of the most hostile environments known to man but the locals and their rather excitable choice of transportation don't seem to mind all that much artie shaw and thomas tell us how they've adapted to life in one of the coldest places in the world. time temperatures for exploring the modes of transportation are fast you are already one of the whole region around acquired it we decided to pick our form of transportation and map three lines. back. and one of. these dogs can live in an extremely harsh environment they can stand easily winter temperatures going up from minus fifty to minus sixty degrees with strong winds and very hot summer temperatures from plus thirty to plus forty degrees celsius they're well adapted to the local climate. perhaps because of their versatility travelling long ago became part of the cuttin tradition i. saw back if you like the

dogs are all are you can like us the equation like is one of the oldest aboriginal groups that exist on this planet these dogs have been used for i don't know how many thousand years a sledge and hunting animals they are endemic to color and the polar area. travelling by dog sled is necessary for those living their lives here but there are many others who come from all over the world for this experience thanks it's just you and the dogs in the forest with the white snow and the snow capped mountains and if dogs aren't your style well you could choose going by reindeer or there's even a special type of course you could hear in a horse specific to this area that can handle the temperatures but no matter what animal you choose you're going to have to pick a sleigh all the way here's your way to your new order because i know my ancestors would be a breed isn't hunters too my grandfather was

a sniper in germany during world war two he was a hero of the soviet union he returned to dia breeding off to coming home from the war in total there have been about ten generations of dia breeders in our family and this is a market here and you are good and it ends the debate of fresh or frozen because here fresh is frozen. just let's you know that even the food around here has something to do with ice. struve is a specially prepared fish dish where the frozen meat is shaved directly from the fish onto the plate here even the milk is sold in frozen blocks and if you're looking for a quick afternoon snack let me know if you feel that the yes but what this is called meet the culture of the committee agreed was slow to the mid autumn and freeze the meat we eat it frozen because frozen meat preserves more vitamins than when you boil it for convenience we mince the meat in a meat grinder then it's easier to pick up the hound dog or and put it in your

mouth like the temperatures in this part of the world are sometimes as low as minus sixty two have shaved every aspect of people's existence from their parents how they get around to the very food they eat life here is on ice. in yakutia shang thomas r t. we've got all the latest that business is on the way now with dignity. welcome to the program we'll start with currencies the ruble has jumped to a twenty two month high against the euro and as its a one year high versus its target basket because it is up more than two percent against the year on what is the first trading day in russia after the long holiday analysts suggest local investors are ring patric waiting money amid concerns that europe's debt crisis will worsen the ruble is little change to get the. mergers and

acquisitions act they would see in russia more than doubled in twenty ten thomson reuters study says sixty seven billion dollars worth of deals were done making the country the everyday leader in eastern europe telecoms chemical and energy sectors where the main drivers the global everday market began this year with new highs with eighty three billion dollars worth of consolidation signed in the first ten days of january that's at. twenty one percent increase from the same period last year. bellary says raising the transit tariff for russian oil by twelve and a half percent starting from next month the increase was agreed upon by both parties at the end of last year following months of talks belarus expects eighteen million tons of oil to be pumped through its territory during twenty eleven that's roughly the same as in twenty. same with the world oil prices hit twenty seven month highs near ninety dollars a barrel at the moment it's alex a cork in senior oil and gas and this from says the rally is partly being driven by speculation or since we can't identify in fundamental drivers

strong enough to cause a rally of this magnitude. or we can do is describe this through financial speculation nonetheless the prices actually translate to end user prices which are. consumers worldwide have to have to pay for fuel. and so this is going to have a real impact. you called a means. for your fly fleet to the market the european stocks in the black in london the foot sea is up more than a percent it's led by financials barclay's is up five and a half percent and lloyds bank is up two percent in frankfurt the back says point eight percent higher shares and siemens are gaining two percent after the electronics engineering group its financial officer said the company would report first.