straight to this you side bombing which took place at moskos main applet on january twenty fourth he sat that's right he was the special local ration now it's not the first time that though kumar of claims responsibility for similar terrorist attacks oh you know what is remarkable shortly after the bombing at the country's largest airport in a similar video message he said that more attacks would take place in russia and what was remarkable about that particular b.o.b. because it need it sitting next to a man who was recognized by some as the various you side bomb who hocussed straight at the attack at the mighty of the on january twenty fourth the suicide bomber and to the international arrivals area of the outboards and blew himself up amongst the crowd thirty six people were killed among them six foreign citizens will do a cool lot of is wanted not just by apas b. but he's also on the international east of terrorists he has links to the new car

early had claimed responsibility for this between suicide bombing almost goes much for a system in march twenty ten one forty people were killed also he is believed to have mossed a mind to the ball mean all the express train in two thousand and nine the train following from moscow to sept that is part of security has been tightened all across the country today was the important day in terms that they had so pulled three major security agencies up brushed off at least so apis be and all the investigative committee together for a special meeting apis be reported to the duma deputy is the name all the all could be all those of the man who carried out the suicide bombing it hasn't been disclosed to mass media forces investigation is still ongoing the core of the case hasn't yet reached the courts that we also know that that was be believes op to seven people could have. i've been behind the attack on more support the idea that

i have now asked for the address of his claims that he was the one the mastermind of the attack they're quite cautious about it and they say that terrorist cells in russia quite a tournament and is just one of the versions that the investigative committee he's considering and they say that those who organized the attack may not have been directly linked to these terrorist but on monday president had a major meeting with russia's top police officer says we now know that police in russia are undergoing a major reform as part of a reform of the interior ministry in general and the president believes that security should be better taken care of on public transport he believes that reform of russia's police could have how to provide safety on public transport. well let's cross over to london now and discuss the latest developments on this story with a writer on terrorism phil reese thanks for being with us mr reese now the russian

authorities have treated this claim of responsibility from dock with some skepticism why do you think that that is. well his group claims to be the a mirror of the caucasus emirate he is a man who wants to put all the trappings of bin ladin is and if you will a sort of ground. to his actions and therefore it's not always clear how much authority he really has in fact from within his own group there was a rebellion i think of last year when he resigned and then he would make his resignation and the younger members apparently wanted him out so it's not quite clear whether he directly is in charge of a barge number of these militant groups or whether he's simply putting himself in a position of their own mirror in order to gain more authority him so. do you think that there could have been some involvement from outside of russia or. well we've

gradually seen in islam eyes of the section and caucuses where rebellion in a sense you know the first two chechen wars were very much nationalist wars but what's happened is and certainly this is a case of. you know from my understanding he didn't even know how to pray up until quite recently is now taking on the mantle of islam it's leader he had a very long prayers at the beginning of his speech as it were this video that's been broadcast and he's now speaking in the language of al qaida so you know clearly there are links i mean there are several chechen fighters we know of in afghanistan and certainly one guy ilyas kashmiri his name is americans believe it is linked to the emirates caucasus so there are links and i know that the russian authorities of course are trying to block and i've been quite successful in blocking the borders and people coming over but of course it's

a very very mountainous region and it's very difficult to seal it off completely now you mention that the blocking of borders on the part of the russian authorities of course they put forward a number of measures to improve security in the country but have their efforts really been comprehensive enough do you think. well i mean i think that you know it's been quite interesting really that both this bomber and indeed the two suicide bombers in the metro last year they both come from tripoli or both from the neighboring provinces and one of the things that the russians have achieved very much the russian government is to create a kind of peace an interesting i mean grossly is a big capital it's a it's a city that's actually functioning very well now and it's the neighboring provinces where really the conflict and some of the fighters have gone to so the question really is how the russian government to retrieve quite a satisfactory political situation in chechnya will deal with the problems in those

provinces where these fighters have gone to k.m.'s to fill reese many thanks for speaking to us on this issue from london many thanks. or we've got more stories ahead for you this hour including questioning switzerland's neutrality with me they can preserve any other european country now the swiss are wondering if it's time to finally lay down their weapons that fall in just a minute. or two days were not enough for a london court to decide on whether the wiki leaks founder should be handed over to stock a hearings will resume on friday when the closing statement on julian assange just case will be read out meanwhile the defense team doesn't believe that and so on it has a chance on the fair trial as an article or at explaining. this is the second day of a two day extradition hearing for julian our sons' at the end of which swedish prosecutors will be hoping that they can extradite songs to sweden to face questioning over

allegations of rape molestation and unlawful coercion made by two swedish women back in august of last year and julian assange himself has always maintained that these allegations are politically motivated he says that they directly follow on from wiki leaks release of the us embassy cables which were deeply embarrassing to washington and say therefore the us will do anything to get its hands on him a black box has been applied to my war on the outflow of the black box. has been written the word wrote the arguments that the defense will be putting forward are focused around us on his human rights they say that his human your rights will be violated if he's extradited to sweden they also say that if he goes to sweden there's a risk that the u.s. will seek either his extradition or they will try to apply illegal rendition to him

to take him to the u.s. where he may be held in guantanamo bay or a similar detention facility and they also say that he is at risk of being subject to the death penalty if indeed he is extradited on words to america they're also fighting this on the grounds that he hasn't actually been charged with any crime the swedish prosecution wants to question him about these crimes but they haven't charged him yet and they say that the principle of extradition law is that suspicion of having committed a crime is not grounds for extradition you actually have to charge somebody however many say that sweden has an incredibly close friendship with the u.s. and so there would be a lot of political pressure to extradite him onward once he gets to stockholm now with this is the last day of this particular hearing but we're not really expecting a decision to be made today the judge has already said that he may take several weeks to consider this decision and then will be able to appeal if the decision goes against him so we'll have to wait to see how it pans out while as antigovernment protests in egypt and

a third week president mubarak has taken steps to reform the constitution in an attempt to diffuse public anger but thousands of demonstrators remain in cairo's main square keeping up the pressure on the president to resign. the latest from the capital. what we've now entered the third week of and mubarak demonstrations and the numbers on the streets just keep growing and his square still remaining the focal point here in downtown cairo hundreds of thousands of people on the streets as we speak and also the city of alexandria with you off the course of the day tens of thousands of people have been coming to protest the swell started at around midday when government buildings close in the last day also people have received their salaries and just yesterday monday the government announced that it would be giving a fifteen percent increase to the wages of government employees and pensions but that was greeted with a lot of anger at people saying that if the government can do that now why couldn't they do it ages ago when people were campaigning for those kind of changes

organizers of also marked to stay for a day and sunday as million man marches human rights watch has issued a report saying that in the last two weeks of violence two hundred and ninety seven people have been killed haven't had any kind of comprehensive support from the egyptian government itself the vice president almost to them and spoke on egypt and state television on the hoff of president mubarak and he said that the president had issued a presidential decree that would see with needed the fate of the establishment of a working of two committees the first committee would look at implementing constitutional reform the second committee would look at implementing the decisions in the conclusions that have the international dialogue goes with those meetings between six opposition groups and the vice president almost all the men there is a committee that is due to begin working in the next few days it will consist primarily of young people and it will focus primarily on young people it will

investigate the violence of the last few days and also ways of bringing people to book the vice president did reiterate that all these kind of moves were a way for the government to ensure a smooth progress process and a smooth off to free and fair elections and again saying that the government was not planning to persecuted. anyway people who have taken to the streets over the last two weeks now it is interesting that the president is increasing his vice president to speak on his behalf we haven't heard from about it since that first week of violence back in january so the man is somebody who is respected but he's not particularly well liked here in egypt and here's someone that people closely aligned with the american administration as i investigate in this report it's important to support the transition process announced by the egyptian government actually headed by now vice president. omar so a man hardly the words of a neutral burka and worse far removed from the people heard ministration claims to

be listening to. dr meg heads of the human rights organization that teaches each option is about democracy he says he don't like solomon for the very reason americans do almost the man is part of the solution we consider american people in american prisons zero. zero want to keep him. lit mubarak who was still. in the power in those sort of things started last year by the u.k.'s telegraph as the most powerful spook in the region so the man is suave sophisticated and fluent in english but the former head of egypt's intelligence service worked for years as the cia's man in cairo for us so. extraordinary.

terrorists. are among silliman is accused of having been personally involved in torturing suspects this is the problem now in egypt is this a struggle between not between mubarak and the people but pick between the american cia. the covert operators of u.s. power around the world and the people are having to try to get mubarak replaced with somebody else it's hard to ignore the fact that the very abuses that drove hundreds of thousands of people into the streets had some assistance from the united states people have collected almost with pride these empty tear gas cylinders that have the words made in the usa written on them and so so much for regime change so a man was as much made in america as the dictator who appointed him and who is now being thrown out by the egyptian people wiki leaks cables show the u.s. administration was grooming him for years as far back as two thousand and seven it had a radio identified him as

a possible successor to president mubarak. and many of our contacts believe that solely because of his military background the least have to figure in any succession scenario and so when obama goes on record and says he gyptian is must choose for themselves it is not the world any other country to determine egypt's leaders only the egyptian people can do that people here lost because the secretary of state is admitting to something different but we have to do is to set a consistent message this morning the orderly transition that has the. urging that it be not only transparent is here very free but many egyptians are afraid of and think he's more a dictator than mr mubarak which leaves the united states out in the cold when it has to explain why it's backing him policy r.t. kyra. well the russian foreign ministry says

a person is journalist was denied entry upon arrival to moscow because he broke a series of labor laws concerning foreign correspondents the foreign ministry violated several rules regulating the work of foreign correspondents that are well known to all journalists lead to november last year he left more school for london on personal business he didn't go to foreign correspondents card although he knew he was supposed to well a foreign ministry added that hell face no problem that immigration as soon as all these documents are in order holding he was the guardian's moscow correspondent was sent to london after allegedly being detained for forty five minutes the guardian reported harvick had a valid visa which was a null when he landed in moscow now despite its neutral image switzerland has a strong military tradition it also has europe's highest per capita rate of gun ownership and every male citizen under fifty years of age is

a reserve force now many are questioning why a country that hasn't been seriously involved in any military conflict for two hundred years should have an army at home. that he tells. training for combat preparing for war except these soldiers are from neutral switzerland and are unlikely to ever experience wartime combat. more and more of the centuries old swiss militia is being child in february the longstanding tradition of keeping a government issued weapon at home as part of military obligations will be put to a vote on whether they should go on keeping their guns at home or store them in public arsenals but that's just one of the arguments local activists like to stuff by has been pushing for a complete abolition of the armed forces as normal called war we to be surrounded by the european union which is. militarily speaking totally friendly so we have no

war in the me so the army has no reason of being the enemy just the tradition do you think that's what someone should have an army. for. certainly not a joke you know it makes fun you know. just play a bit more games but we don't. we don't need. a nine hundred eighty nine referendum on the issue revealed that more than a third of the swiss are in favor of dissolution a figure significant enough to pressure the government to take some action to rein in military activity the size of the army and its budget while still a substantial four point five billion dollars have been cut and the option of joining the civil service instead was introduced it's not enough there is a political clout which means that the parliament is made moves a lot of rich people. people want to know me. because they feel insecure there's

still about two hundred thousand army personnel with compulsory military service for swiss males and private gun ownership for all conscripts living up to a local saying switzerland does not have an army it is an army not a pleasant prospect for young draftees like adrian feller who just don't see the point. to who. this was. all. in my opinion an army to some kind of. security. well i saw what the army can do. anything against terrorism can't do anything to social problems and disorder so why should we are about five billion of swiss francs for something that could help us solve the problems we have the arguments are there give the swiss with jordi still cannot imagine

a nation without their men in uniform. only the political left support evolution we're still a minority in this country it's hard to convince the population because it's really a tradition that is deeply rooted in the swiss psyche plus there's the rise of populism and demagoguery it worries me. that many swiss feel that abolishing the armed forces is a kid to letting go of a tradition of losing that sense of security real or imagined so does a neutral country with no enemies really need an army while support for abolition is elusive the question has been asked and the debate is about to continue just are still here are to switzerland. former u.s. secretary of defense donald rumsfeld has lifted the lid on life inside the war on terror by publishing his memoirs in titled known and unknown it charts how he served on the two american presidents gerald ford and george w. bush were brought back here from the antiwar answer coalition says the book is an

attempt to shift the blame from himself and save his own reputation. the bush administration figures starting with bush and now with rumsfeld are trying to create a new history based on a fiction the fiction is that the war in iraq was justified that they did the right thing that they spent these hundreds of billions of dollars perhaps up to two trillion dollars in a war that took the lives of of a million iraqis it's only because he's been given a great big megaphone that he that his voice is even heard at all i mean i think he in particular he was the one who raced to war he was the one who felt that there was no need for a post opposed invasion plan that regime of the bush george w. bush was such a catastrophe all of them were arrogant managers rumsfeld the most arrogant of all a reckless person someone who most people in washington and around the world consider to be nothing but a thug a thug in a pinstripe suit so now that they've had this catastrophe on their hands they're

playing the blame game colin powell will blame rumsfeld rumsfeld will blame everybody else but himself and of course i think this only makes the administration look what it really is as as a bunch of fools arrogant part of an imperial empire thinking that military supremacy and it alone could dominate world events when the rest of the world is unwilling to go back into a nineteenth century mode except being themselves as nothing but pawns in a geo strategic chess board led by an american empire so rumsfeld has a problem i think it's the blame game i think it will fail. ok a brief check on some of the wild headlines now this hour and this is two koreas have sounds on the talks following months of tension on the peninsula film yang in seoul their relations late last year after an exchange of on twitter a phone in november the north responded to stomp on a tunks near the territory by shelling a found korean island it's hoped the discussions will lead to higher level dialogue

between the two countries. on its highly in-flight tunku with twenty two crew on board has been seized by pirates in the indian ocean the news says five hijackers followed alms and several rocket grenades as they captured the vessel the frigate on route from the sudan to malaysia was carrying crude oil its current and sailing west towards the somali coast. four trucks carrying oil to nato forces in afghanistan fired pakistan it's believed they were the target of a bomb explosion hit one a fuel truck before the fire spread to three alba's police say it's still unclear whether there are any casualties when they say convoys in pakistan carrying supplies across the border with afghanistan are frequently told by militants. that is the way the news it's all ahead on r.t. up next the latest business with dmitri.

and welcome to business r.t. with me dimitri medvedev a russian energy major gas promise reportedly in talks with royal dutch shell to widen their global alliance sources close to the negotiations cited on bloomberg say europe's biggest oil company may offer gazprom assets in asia in return show wants to expand liquefied gas plant at the twenty two billion dollar sakhalin to project to win markets in china and india however alexander knows out of from metropole doubts the plans will come to anything at least for the moment. on one hand there are good very good perspectives for gas point of view of gas for

expansion. but at the same time current situation in the global energy market is not so favorable for a you know making the new energy plants and the current trend is that the major global energy producers are postponing or canceling its new capacities production get us to. projects saw basically i don't think the timing for expansion of island . is the best time right now. for the markets the saudi picture hasn't changed much since last hour and seeing stand near two and a half year highs barely change of course and you can see that this is as investors are assessing the impact of the interest rate hike in china which could slow down global economy in europe the markets ended in positive territory up around half of the cent miners were fooling after that rate hike in china engineering and science my group inmarsat we'll see was up more than frayne

a half percent after an upgrade of merrill lynch and in russia markets ended today's session in the red correcting as crude continued his decline to well below eighty seven dollars a barrel right now and also our flow of capital is quite significant in russia. and some of the stocks norilsk nickel is adding to monday's sharp losses a day after a suspended stock buyback and to shareholders who down two percent of the vote while the week crude price was pulling down the energy sector all in one point eight percent the first drop in three days between the world's biggest loser down four point six percent as investors were dropping the stock due to uncertainty over the upcoming second very public offering price john oliver from citi bank says there's a number of issues giving the market a pause for thought a moment. first of all we had crude continue to slide from night. last week it touched ninety dollars plus per barrel brand was even higher above one hundred

dollars second we have chinese raising interest rates today which is not taken well by the market and third we have a number of stock place was going out of russia right now. it's difficult to say how the how they're going. losses trade surplus screw quarter last year is a one hundred sixty eight billion dollars this surging prices for oil and gas would exports china overtook the netherlands and germany to become russia's largest trading partner in twenty ten as turnover rose by fifty percent in the year to fifty nine billion dollars. so for now more on our website. dot com forward slash business that's the address forgot for a moment there headlines are next on c without.

this is nature and discover it's. the. communicate with the why don't. test yourself and become free. see what nature can give you. more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world

has been seeing from the streets of canada. china corporations are all today. this is russia's most wanted man in charge and terrorist model says he's responsible for the. death of the airport which killed thirty six people last month who models close ties with al qaida have landed him on the list of the world's most dangerous kidlets. wiki leaks founder julian also in despising extraditions of sweden in a london court for a second day asylum his lawyers say fielding did not like justice five hundred eight to the west the theater persecution poor of the big secret american

diplomatic documents to the. club president mubarak attempts to a position with even more concessions but demonstrators in clay would remain defiant the man being tipped to replace him but it could linger with the cia fueling fears that washington is pulling the strings vice president obama did in the lives of one of the head of the egyptian intelligence which has been widely criticized for its systematic. next is the special report about the silent council the environment. sometimes we think that it's easier to make war than to work to prevent it or to clean up after it the military is a major player in terms of environmental outcomes.