egypt braces for a fresh wave of protests sparked by people's anger at president mubarak's latest refusal to step down are two looks at why the embattled leader won't go. under fire for its controversial wiretapping law criticized as the most far reaching eavesdropping plan in europe cables suggest america is pulling the strings . and russia's foreign minister says moscow is willing to cooperate with tokyo but slams its claims for the grio islands after talks with his japanese counterpart. and out top story in business british allege of b.p.'s set to get its

fourth quarter dividend from take a beating earlier the russian partners in the joint venture had threatened to block the payout objecting to b.p.'s recent deals with ross that we'll have more on that in twenty minutes. or welcome to you live from our headquarters in central moscow this is our journey with me and he said now way it's two pm here in the russian capital and eight pm in tokyo japan but we begin in egypt this hour where the army has made an official statement promising to lift the state of emergency as soon as the current situation ends and ensure free elections in the near future this comes as thousands of egyptians have begun flooding the streets of cairo as protesters promised an unexpected rally protesters are already gathering at key sites with some reports suggesting crowds plan on marching towards the presidential palace later today this

comes after president hosni mubarak. once again valve to remain in office until september in a televised national address he promised to transfer some power to his vice president omar suleiman but not step down himself the eighty two year old also cited his reluctance to bow to international pressure something many believe he's done on a regular basis are going to have to can has more from washington. the u.s. wants an orderly transition as they say president obama said hosni mubarak statement on the transition of authority was not clear and needs more explanation mubarak basically said in his address that he was not going to run for president in september and egyptians will have the chance to elect whatever leader they choose but in the meantime he said he was not going anywhere we spoke with senator ron paul earlier and he thinks mubarak is following washington's plan we had a lot to do with mubarak being in power and staying in power like we subsidize and

we oh no these are puppet dictator he does what we tell him because he gives so much money he's gotten probably sixty to seventy billion dollars and i understand his family probably has sixty or seventy billion dollars stashed away in swiss accounts and other places around the world washington can hardly be considered to be impartial when it comes to power struggle in egypt it's a strategic location for the u.s. mubarak has been a close ally for thirty years the u.s. has been pumping billions of dollars into the egyptian military and they certainly don't want to lose that whoever is in power there is a great chance that they won't lose that although the position is it's up to the egyptian people to choose their next leader washington is apparently some strings the man who will sort of the charge during this tumultuous transition and who's seen as a possible alternative to mubarak is a big cia friend it's all marsland money he has reportedly orchestrated the brutal interrogation of terror cells suspects abducted by the cia also in the run up to the u.s. invasion of iraq in two thousand and three the cia rule i don't mean to beat

confession out of a detainee who said so. and hussein had connections with al qaeda something that was proven to be false but back in the day was perfect for the americans who desperately needed an excuse to invade iraq so he's an old friend not hostile to israel at that that's basically all the u.s. wants from a future leader of egypt in official statements of course us officially says. the u.s. officials say they want to see a leader who hears his people's responses but they're certainly proper see here just a year ago when asked about human rights violations by the egyptian government i remember obama's response was egypt this hour close schools ally and it's not the job of the united states to a lecture egypt on democracy and human rights rather wait for egypt has changed in recent weeks the u.s. took up its is old the role of democracy preacher but if you watch american t.v. listen to american politicians it's all about u.s. interests not really about egyptians they want democracy for egypt but

a democracy that will be ok with the united states. party's going to check and there from our washington studios well r.t. also spoke with author william and all who says that mubarak's do mines is now a u.s. priority after the longtime washington ally dropped a support for america's middle east policy. mubarak's government realize that the u.s. was preparing a regime change that along the lines of the so-called color revolutions in georgia ukraine and so forth. to the united states sometimes for a seat in the state department sometimes at the national endowment for democracy or freedom house these are all the quote unquote private n.g.o.s that specialize in training for washington and. what's going on is really a major not enough destabilization of the u.s. ally mobarak has been opposed to most of us policy views of e.u.

rather use of the persian gulf nations and the views of eleven. over the last several years so he's become in effect a thorn in the side of washington's greater agenda since two thousand and one. well with people in egypt demanding change peter the value of his gas who dictates what democracy is and the role of those who promote it heated debate in our calls talk show coming up next hour but here's a preview. why don't the world just let the egyptians alone leave the egyptians alone leave the tunisians alone leave the people of palestine alone leave the people of lebanon alone and let them decide their fate and then we can deal with them. yes that would be the best course but that would involve. it would not involve in action it would involve reversing the status quo namely the us would have to cut all those albums knobs and presidents of the united states to which to which you are out there to experience it for you would say that is why you

had to do it during a free press of to a string of what is left out in this press and really interest of the united states of america it's not watching out for the interests of the united states of america we are not trying as he was being we're just. trying to say how nice it would be imprudent to try to going to try and use a human being then i just say that we should not be killing innocent people we should not be torturing innocent people opposed to the u.s. government i am an opponent of the u.s. government. domus crosstalk next hour here on our t.v. the extradition hearing for a week you leaks founder julian assange has resumed in london is what didn't sweden for questioning over sexual assault allegations it's the third hearing this week with both sides expected to deliver their final statement let's get more on the high profile case from laura and she joins us live from london laura do you think

we can expect a verdict today are we hearing anything. well this is a case that as you mentioned has already been extended it was supposed to be a two day hearing that took place earlier this week and we're now into the third day and more expecting from friday's proceedings is that closing statements will be made and the judge said originally back at the beginning of the week when this all started that he might need two weeks to come to a decision to go back to his chambers think about this little bit and come back to come come back and deliver his decision so it's still not clear whether we will hear anything today it may be that this delay that they've had in the middle of the week will enable him to then give his verdict today so we're still waiting to hear that but we do know that if the verdict goes against you and i saw he will then be able to make an appeal so this is a case that could still go on essentially for months now what we've been hearing this week is the prosecution saying that there's no reason that julian i saw shouldn't go to sweden to answer questions about these alleged sexual assaults but

what we've been hearing from the defense is a case mainly based on human rights violations they say that it would violate his human rights to send him to sweden to be questioned on charges when he hasn't actually been charged with a crime we also heard at the beginning of the week that the prosecution has had site of one hundred ish text messages from victims say from the these two victims saying variously that they expected to be paid that they wanted revenge on julian assange presumably for having slept with both of them at a very short interval and also that they want to contact newspapers and ruin his his reputation now the defense says that they haven't been given copies of this these text messages and they are arguing that that's wrong now earlier i spoke to go run right playing who's a swedish rate campaigner and he told me about the strange way in which this case is being conducted from the very beginning let's hear what he had to say. according

to the swedish police to the prosecution. they say should be done in a rape case you should video document an interview with the police or if they can't be done it should be tape recorded in these cases with these two accusers it's just summaries it's it's the same type of procedural use when you investigate the bike theft. and i did it how much of what you can see of what's going on behind me but this is a case that's created a media storm every time julian a soldier appears at this court there are hundreds of media representatives filming and and talking to him about his every move but this is a case that's really descending more and more into farsi this is a man who is being extradited to a foreign country when all we really know about him is that he slept with two women back in august last year unclear circumstances today on friday a new book has come out by a man called daniel burke who used to work with julian assange and in fact lived

with him for a short while he makes him allegations about ourselves that are very unfortunate coming at this time he says that he's gotten a complex and that during his time at wiki leaks he has turned into exactly the kind of man that previously he would have wanted to expose and vilify and he also accuses julian a soldier of harassing his cat he says that when a soldier was living with him in germany he he entered into a battle of supremacies with tomcat attacking the cats at every turn and wanting to wanting to make sure that they knew who was boss so this really is a case that is descending more and more into a sort of farcical situation where who would have thought at the beginning of the scandal that eventually a cat would be involved laura what about the possible espionage charges by the u.s. what are we hearing about that. well since we heard that the u.s. were preparing espionage charges we haven't heard any more about that of course the

the defense's main fear in this case is that. following extradition to sweden our son should then be very quickly extradited on to you the u.s. to face these espionage charges relating to his wiki leaks activity to his releasing of u.s. embassy cables and of course he has received death threats from various people in the u.s. including politicians including sara pay and he said that he should be hunted down like al qaida and there is a worry that sweden's close relationship with the u.s. would mean that his eventual extradition there would be much more likely now r.t. has had access to wiki leak wiki leaks cables from the us state department and from them we've learned much more about sweden's close relationship with the us here's a report that i did earlier. bugged and wiretapped at the behest of the u.s. swedish intelligence service the ethyl a has the power to monitor and intercept all internet traffic in the country and thanks to leaked u.s.

state department cables we now know the controversial law was adopted after pressure from washington and the security services were deliberately kept out of it to reassure swedes there was no funny business force to operate under strict data storage and protection laws for swedish citizens they are concerned that the public may perceive their involvement as an attempt to work around these restrictions by using a foreign intermediary those poisoning any chance for success the u.s. interest is clear eighty percent of all the internet traffic from russia travels through sweden and from there to america but most men from by by government representatives that no no no the purpose is not to spy on swedes it's the morning monitor among other things russian transit traffic but what kind of information they are worth i think the information that is made accessible to special services by this law is of course sensitive and there are ways it can harm russia's

political interests. the law has been slammed by some as the most far reaching eavesdropping plan in europe and prompted widespread protests ahead of its implementation cables also suggest the swedish government was colluding with the u.s. to avoid involving the public at all costs. the agreement may have to be presented to parliament and a vague constitutional requirement for matters of great importance if so the process will take considerably longer and be subject to public scrutiny something the government of sweden will want to avoid as the ministry of justice continues to analyze the proposed text it is also considering how to craft and arrangement that will avoid the need for parliamentary group. there is no parliamentary control over what they are for us. and of course the general public in sweden has even less control much of the pressure coming from the united states and from the corporate

industries it's being in the swedish government the more than happy to to. to to do whatever these american corporations. ask through the american government judging from the date on the leaked cables while sweden was debating whether to pass the bill the americans were already negotiating with the swedish authorities on what kind of information they wanted they see the twenty third meeting has an opportunity to see precise details on the type of information the united states wants and the overall aim of the agreement and it's clear the us ended up getting what it was after at least in terms of information on the eighty percent of russian internet traffic that passes through sweden our intelligence cooperation with sweden on bush is excellent do you direct him live to new general burgess who'll be here next week for exchanges with the swedes on russia and of the topics now it's not just information on russia that the u.s. is off to its reportedly carrying out its own investigation into wiki leaks founder

julian assange still says all this information to see if it can bring espionage charges if it can and applies to sweden first extradition all this close cooperation that we've seen may mean his feet won't touch the ground you're and it's r.t. . president to me that immigrated his personally checking moscow's transport security following the recent terror attack on domodedovo airport which killed thirty six people on friday he made an unplanned inspection of one of the city's transport hubs saying he was satisfied with what he saw but that wasn't the case a day ago when he arrived at one of the capital's train stations unannounced the russian leader managed to find only one policeman up on. site and saw no metal detectors at the building's entrance he promised a tough response to the security measures witnessed. a brief look now at some other stories from around the world millions of be rainy and staging rallies across the

country to mark the third thirty second anniversary of the runts islamic revolution among those on the streets or supporters of the uprising in egypt and tunisia earlier this week the iranian government the pressure on the country's opposition who planned to stage a rival pro-democracy rally on monday the chief prosecutor dismissed the activist calls as a ploy to undermine the regime. and arm an armed teenager who took hostages in a bank robbery in north carolina has been killed after a three hour standoff with police the man who was nineteen was shot dead by snipers as he walked out of the bank with a captive held as a human shield all seven hostages involved in the robbery were reported to be unharmed and official expressed sadness at the outcome but praised the police for their actions. well still to come later today in a special report we reveal the true story behind the hunt for the most wanted man

in the world colombian drug lord pablo escobar. the longest big game hunting history. he was trying to stall and dated. but sprung the traps they laid for him. on the radio we have the the surge brock's around the. always from the always missing. one shot turned to take. out the global drug industry's godfather became the most want to trophy of the world to hunters. the escobar to grace hunt an artist. presents foreign minister says moscow is ready to cooperate with japan but will not tolerate its radical position on the disputed creel islands this comes as the japanese foreign minister entered talks with his counterpart on his visit to the

russian capital r t z corpus going off joins us live now following these players developments here gore what's at the bottom of these talks. while the bottom line is that both sides do seem ready to continue go sheesh and continue working together but the russian foreign minister said you are off did stress that any talks can be successful or meet without preconditions and radicalism. if you pour your full when japan adults are radical approach towards to peace treaty with russia which happens regularly and is shared by the countries' governments he's impossible to negotiate these issues i said to mr million here and that we're still ready to work on the peace treaty but with no preconditions that was a little bit it's a. signal of off made the statement right after meeting with his japanese counterpart and the territorial dispute over the seven grew islands was one of the

most important issues discussed obviously this is quite all. a long running dispute going on for over half a century now japan claims that the islands belong to its territory while russia says that this is a result of the second world war that they are a strategic region of russia and or a russian territory as well just recently india the dispute really flared up during the so-called the day off for northern territories in japan when japanese authorities strongly criticized president meeting read of the visit to these islands last fall and also there were reports of japanese nationalists vandalizing the russian flag there was quite a strong reaction from moscow in fact between the of said that russia will continue developing the creel islands and will. modernize the. forces there are

even reports that two minstrel helicopter carriers currently being purchased from france may be shipped there may be sent there as soon as the are received from france but. here this discussion did seem to go on in a friendly matter in a friendly fashion and both sides said that they are ready to hold negotiations and talks calmly and to with mutual respect they called each other partners in fact at one moment of the media conference we should fold their meeting one of the japanese journalist felt a little bit ill and the russian foreign minister offered to go water perhaps that is a sign that this meeting really was held in a friendly and calm atmosphere moscow also proposed to japan and to create this to involve scientists historians in this dispute because both science claim

that this is historically their territory japan so far hasn't replied. on that issue and so talk you replied on moscow's proposals for a joint business project in the region but both the foreign minister said that they are ready to continue working together in developing relations especially business ties which are growing quite rapidly developing relations was something said by believe it or so both countries by the russian president and the japanese prime minister at one the met last fall and the foreign minister seen now that they are ready to continue this course in fact the japanese foreign minister is now going to meet with russia's. industry minister after that he's going to discuss the various business projects that russia and japan are currently involved in. but you've got this kind of live from moscow we're going to discuss this issue further with fred we are from the christian science monitor he joins us in the studio the

foreign minister said that russia is ready to work on a peace treaty but with no preconditions do you think japan will agree to that. well look this is this is really the last loose in from world war two it's been simmering on the back burner for well over sixty years now and it's pretty hard to understand why it's flaring up right now i really cannot. see the specific reasons the thing in the picture basic picture is changed. so it may have something to do with things we don't know a book like that may be natural resources or or things that. japan has it has taken an interest in extending its economic zone and that's why they want the islands now or maybe that russia has reasons we don't know about but otherwise the basic issue was settled in one thousand nine hundred fifty six which there were there was a deal struck which was never followed through on under which the two will sell

denials would be given back to japan russia agreed to the soviet union agreed to that and as far as i understand they say that that deal is still on the table so i guess that if the japanese were to take a different approach rather than this fairly militant angry approach. that he that we are hearing. that maybe maybe that that deal certainly could be negotiated at least all the russian experts i talked to say so. now russia has been proposing creating a free economic zone on the disputed islands perhaps that's the reason that it's coming up once again but japan still one says that it's their land do you think it's more of an emotional approach especially considering like you said i mean sixty years have gone by it's totally emotional approach and it's on both sides i mean really these islands are little scraps of land at the end of nowhere. certainly for russia's point of view. you wouldn't think they'd be hard to let go

of really russia has a hell of a lot of land but so the it's a nationalist issue it's something that brings forth you know ringing declarations of sovereignty and what law and the japanese are the same about it but that should not impede sensible diplomacy. or some other factors at work here which i don't understand and i don't frankly understand why. president medvedev went there last last year. he was the first soviet or russian leader to do so and i don't understand why they're now also talking about installing new armaments on the islands this is escalating and some of the escalation is coming from the russian side although the rhetoric on the japanese side is pretty intense all right fred we'll have to interrupt you there from the christian science monitor thanks for being with us. right business is next here on our to stay with us.

hello and welcome to our business update good to have you with us and we go straight to our top story british all major b.p. looks it set to get its dividend from tain k v p a r the russian partner in a joint venture had promised to block an estimated one point eight billion dollars payout for the fourth quarter that was up to b.p. and russian oil john ralston have announced an asset swap and arctic exploration deal are claimed the deal compromised the competitiveness of tanking b.p. and ran counter to the terms of the alliance now according to the newspaper under its shareholder agreement tanky b.p. is obliged to allocate at least forty percent of net income towards dividends meanwhile the court injunction put forward by a large to block b.p.'s proposed alliance has been extended to march pending a final hearing. a wave of consolidation is sweeping through the world's leading

stock exchanges the london stock exchanges to merge with toronto's and frankfurt bourses planning to link up with new york stock exchange you are next now with my xix in r.t.s. also planning to unite david buick from b.b.c. partners in london says russia will play a significant role in the future. russia is a massive country with huge influence in the world of energy and mining with plenty of money and i think the sense of goodwill that would be seen by russia taking a stake and a significant stake in a bull say like l.s.e. . would be absolutely super for all huge cultural differences at the moment as we know and also regulatory differences in corporate governance differences but these are not things that couldn't be easily. and if i was a passive investor in terms of wanting to get involved. a combination of my sexuality to do that i think the rest of the world would see that is very very

positive indeed if we believe that markets are global and certainly in this country we don't think anything else than russia has to play a very significant role you've had many of your i.p.o.'s in london or in hong kong and there's no reason why they can't be on an international basis going forward. direction on friday with mobile phone giant nokia posting heavy losses agreed to form a software partnership with microsoft. twelve percent. getting over half a percentage. point four percent. and here in russia three days of losses as oil climbed boosting the outlook for producers. and the. biggest. happening at the moment but i'll be back with more and less than one.

her. mum. mum. mum. mum on. this street still keeps its secrets but now it's time to move feelin the soviet firearms nikita khrushchev's a life long obsolete.