the egyptian president hosni mubarak has seemingly bowed to pressure at home and abroad as he finally resigns following the brutal unrest seen over the past few weeks also. wiki leaks founder julian assange will have to wait to hear his extradition fate the judgment of the hearing into whether he'll be sent to sweden on sex crime charges. however sweden may be just a short stop for leaked cables uncover an american agenda behind the swedish want topping law might allow washington to press espionage charges on the whistleblower .

from our studios here in central moscow this is with the twenty four hours a day so the egyptian president hosni mubarak has finally stepped down and handed power to them in a tree according to the country's vice president it comes off to more than two weeks of mass uprisings in the country from where we're bringing you live pictures at the moment here on r.t. the uprising has been accompanied by a wave of violent clashes between pro and anti-government protesters western powers including the u.s. have been calling for a transition of power leaving its decades long ally isolated for more on this i'm now joined by our team is going to come out. and you're there in washington d.c. considering the involvement the u.s. has in egypt it's no surprise it's been fairly vocal in the past few weeks so so what's the reaction now from washington. well bill in the u.s. it's presented as a triumph of democracy in egypt this is what the egyptian people want it and that's

our democracy should work that's the official rhetoric the media here to celebrate new and free egypt and we expect president obama to deliver a speech along these lines congratulating the egyptian people it seems the whole world celebrates its government by the way it's reportedly frozen mr mubarak's bank accounts but little is known about what really happened. last night o'barr excited his address that he was not leaving until september and why is it that he's vice president omar suleiman is announcing his departure what also happened the army stepped up the army which is largely funded by the united states the question is who is now in power in egypt and are the egyptians really free washington can hardly be impartial when it comes to power struggle in egypt it's a strategic location for the united states 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 chances are they won't although the official position is

it's up to the egyptian people to choose their next leader. but washington is apparently pulling some strings the man who was sort of in charge during this tumultuous transition and who is seen as a possible turn it to mubarak omar suleiman is a big cia friend he has reportedly orchestrated the brutal interrogation of terror suspects abducted by the cia also we remember that in the run up to the u.s. invasion in iraq in two thousand and three the cia relied on mr sulaiman to beat confession out of a detainee who said that 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 is an old friend not hostile to israel and base but that's basically all the u.s. wants from a future leader of it as you were talking we're bringing you coverage of those celebrations there in colorado and i imagine the pulse of the reason the egyptian people have been so successful is that they haven't stood alone in their protests.

well you know. speaking of us here in statements u.s. officials say demands of the egyptian people are legitimate legitimate and they would want to see a leader who hears his people's grievances but if you watch american t.v. listen to american politicians hear it's all about u.s. interests not really about it gyptian as they all they talk about democracy in egypt what a democracy that will be acceptable for the for the united states will remember what happened with some of the u.s. promoted democratic revolutions in kyrgyzstan or ukraine by the way the shots that we're about to show you right now are not from egypt they're from ukraine two thousand and five people on that square also thought that there came the triumph of democracy and there was a similar uprising in kurdistan very violent by the way people were happy at first but those leaders were later we jacked it by their own people. well thanks very much indeed for that from washington d.c.

going to more from you no doubt a little later. sarah ferguson now looks at the western influence the events unfolding in egypt today the way the situation's developed in the past three weeks . mubarak is history the words of the danish prime minister today and accurate prediction president that barack has resigned seems a celebration mark an end to the leader's thirty year regime and a victory for the egyptian people there all the be able to hear they didn't need mubarak in a more obama say but i. will try to fix the problem here and mubarak country it's mostly because we don't need mubarak with the system it's with right here which insisted we are the little people here we will take some of the western willingness to be say very cool about what amounts to an internal

disk be as being feed is an inappropriate interference and a contradictory one at that the turn in opinion coming from western leaders who until say recently supported his knee in the back as a force for stability in the region my belief that an orderly transition must be meaningful. it must be peaceful and it must begin now perhaps then western policy should have pressed far harder upon existing regimes such as mubarak's that restricted political freedoms damaged economic progress instead the us gave him one and a half billion dollars a year for his armed forces alone and it was largely western support the cabinet back in power the fact that the egyptian people a well aware of they supported getting regime for such a long time but they are they do feel regime where now they are talking about

democracy and respect the freedom and right to protest the struggle against the autocratic regime so the fighting against empty promises and weak concessionary comments and not just from the barack. european and world leaders has a proud record in terms of sticking up for democracy and human rights sufficiently . in the past with the facts departure the egyptian people will now be looking for a real political commitment to change both internally and internationally. terrorist square has been the recent at the center of egypt's democratic hopes the stage for the people's revolution and it's there the battle for better governance should be fought western involvement now needs to tread carefully to ensure that they're encouraging genuine and lasting reform as opposed to simply fueling an impassioned revolution that risks replacing one tyrant equation for another sara

fair r.t. . and for more on the developing events in car on joined from paris by author and middle east specialist short break more. why last night did we have mubarak saying he was on until september another twenty four hours later his vice president says he's stepping down how do you completely underestimated the strength of public feeling until he made his speech saying that he will actually stay on. where well first of all thank you for having me at this historic moment it's always a pleasure to speak but it's very difficult to on that i see what's going on in the middle of the action so to speak but i think it's obvious that mubarak did not expect to step down but he was obviously forced to and i think on the general in general. since the beginning of the hiding plan the one of the hardline which would

be to people back home maybe suliman in power and change nothing else so that tells you have created that you cannot gain anything because they don't like what they called yabsley and the hardliners who ability basically said the saudis and south of the united states part of the american. more fearless people here like that mubarak had to go if they wanted to come back to some sort of quite situation and that's what those people have one for the moment but of course it's quite obvious that that's not going to be enough of a concession to the demand created they want the food meaningful elections at the very least and of course an institutional and good situation same work which will be change with respect to the previous one and really lead to major political and social changes and of course one of the main concern of the here least of of the hardliners is what's going to happen with the so-called peace treaty with israel which impacted me about vision of each of the egypt with the deletion and the

blockade of the gezer that's something we're seeing scenes of joy in gaza now that mubarak is gone and of course you do a link and that of course that he does and that's the thing which is in the closet of the skeleton in the closet of the western policy for israel as well as a little bit of interest as well as looking at the implications of what's going to happen in the future can you just talk about how this all happened you said a little earlier where barrett was forced to leave he didn't make a statement and self we're told the military has now taken over our so was it the military then who forced him out there for some people might say this has all the hallmarks of a military coup. yeah it's a yeah i suppose so it's a soft immediately under the pressure from the street so they need to i mean you see there's always been a minute that he has seen my mean that mubarak was not was himself on the military and so was that that bends over us and that's so it was a military regime and the military have decided that these things like sitting was

a tenth of the people interview but it's interesting you also said pressure from the streets was it really pressure from the street or was it more pressure from foreign influence such as the u.s. . yes i think. in the rush hour maybe you tend to see too much of question in. u.s. influence because that's what happened in ukraine and in. eastern europe and so on but you see the big difference is that former soviet bloc of soviet part of the soviet union lots of people are poor american because they come in each other and i question and. that's because the thing that of my enemies and my friends is maybe about. but anyway it doesn't really think but in egypt i think the americans don't have any support you see because of that in the west doesn't have an issue paul because of their support for the theaters and for israel and so they have completely discredited i don't think they can manipulate you see if the united states wanted to get rid of mubarak they some many believe they would have had the

army act before that. and you see the they would not they would not could not possibly have a strategy to launch street protest against mubarak because they don't know where it's going to end but they're just very worried about going to when they don't show just very briefly what is time but in some ways people might say the comparison with those kind of revolutions ukraine kind of this time it's about could be justified in most people power speaking but there are some concerns about maybe the implications in the future political turmoil that we've seen in kurdistan in ukraine happening there in egypt can we absolutely be sure that there will be a stable political situation in the future. of course we can never be sure of the things. he needed to words with all i'm saying is that the uprising in my opinion was genuine and was not. made to we do so.

with the americans we would be beholden now what the americans are trying to do is to go and told a situation that from above not from below not instigating street demonstrations the street demonstration of that one day you take a gun toting home above the goodwill you know. maybe one of the plantations hoping that you know that the confession you know was mubarak and his friends and you know who his friends didn't see that way and that's why you had the last minute what it's really interesting talking to this historic moment what's occurring in egypt and thanks very much indeed for your time that live from paris john joining us life on r.t. thank you for you thank you very much thank you very much what just remind you that peter lavelle will have more on the resignation of the egyptian president in his show cross talk later in the program stay with us for that here's a brief preview for you. a long ways to go this is the beginning of a very long term process and really we've witnessed the first internet revolution

we've seen the first indication in an age of facebook twitter instantaneous communication the internet autocracies are inherently unstable they can't sustain themselves not when the interior does not just want to know what are sure now. go right ahead this is cross talk you can jump anytime you want go here and i'm sorry yeah i wanted to say and this is not a facebook or twitter revolution i think that's a very very oriental is sort of the american way of looking at this is an addiction revelation it was a revolution of the people. this is already coming to light from the russian capital all the news today is the verdict in the high profile case of the we can expand that has been adjourned for two weeks during the song to appear in court in london on friday as he continues his battle against extradition to sweden where he faces questioning of a sex crime on occasions and claims the case was fabricated so the u.s. can use we can to hand him over on espionage charges but also your evidence been

keeping track of developments from outside the court in london. all waiting for now is the verdict and that is due to be delivered we now know on the twenty fourth of february so in a couple of weeks' time we were hearing today the closing statements made by base the defense and the prosecution and now the judge is going to presumably retired to his chambers to two weeks to think about the evidence that he's had and then come out finally with a verdict stay on the twenty fourth of february we're not expecting that to take very you know military everyone will just go ahead and the judge judge will tell us what he saw he says in terms of what we've been hearing on friday morning we essentially had summaries of the evidence from the prosecution and from the defense prosecution has maintained all along and maintained again today that there's no reason why a song shouldn't this weekend to all articles questions following the news about this basement in iceland came out of the court and made a short statement to the media he used that statement to highlight what he called

the injustices of the european arrest warrant under which his extradition is being requested let's hear what he had to say that gives me hope that we can through this particular case. not simply draw attention. to the difficulties and the pressure. that we and other people have been under. but rather. perhaps we have an opportunity. to set a new president. about the abuses of european arrest warrant we had some quite graphic details from the. defense about these alleged assaults was sort of almost making light of the of of these allegations as the prosecution said it's talking about these sexual encounters that took place with two women in august and we also heard an angry statement by the defense solicitor about comments

that the swedish prime minister has made recently about unionist on the defense called that a devastatingly prejudicial attack and said that the swedish pic prime minister had spread malicious lies about you and us are suggesting that he believes that women's rights are worthless and also suggesting that he's already been charged with these this rate which in fact is not the case at all in a any decent country the rule of law is separate from the political process it appears that in sweden age is norms and not the prime minister has i am afraid to say so or to change the legal process just one more example the courts exceptional behavior in the julian a solid case another factor this is also a case that has descended at times into force and today is no exception there's a new book out by a man called daniel dumpsite burke who used to work with student ourselves at wiki leaks and he is essentially written

a book about our sons and his relationship with him and he says that as always has an emperor a complex that he wants to be the king and the old powerful person he meant everything and he also alleges that a song has turned into the sort of man that he used to hate the sort of man that he used to want to bring to justice but the most bizarre thing about the allegations that dumpsite burke has made is something to do with his cat he said that our sons lived with him for a while envy started in germany and. has a cat which julian and sid into a war of suprema see where the senshi attacking the cat and then pulling back saying he would win sometimes the cat one sometimes i saw one and he says that that shows that ourselves is some kind of power hungry maniac we. i haven't heard any more about the espionage charges that the u.s. is said to be preparing against julian our stars but we do know that politicians and other people in the us have come out very much against him in terms of the relationship between sweden and the u.s. which is of course what all this hinges on essentially if you look at it from that perspective we have had access to some wiki leaks cables from the us state

department they told us some very interesting things about the relationship exists cozy relationship between the u.s. and sweden i prepared this report on the subject about and wiretapped at the behest of the u.s. swedish intelligence service the end of 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 of the citizens concerned that the public may perceive their involvement as an attempt to work around these restrictions by using a foreign intermediary knows 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 no no no the purpose. is to mourn and monitor among other things. traffic but what kind of information are they are. i think the information that is made excess will special services by this law is of course sensitive and there are ways it can harm russia's political interests. the new or 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. swedish government was colluding with the us to avoid involving the public at all costs. the agreements 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 parliament tree review very soon no parliamentary control of 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 been in the swedish government the more than happy to to. to to do whatever the 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 over the twenty third meeting has an opportunity to seek precise details on the type of information the united states wants and overall a movie 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 brusha is excellent do you need a director left ten or general burgess who will 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 us is after it's 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 his extradition all this close co-op. racing that we've seen may mean his feet won't touch the ground your and it's r.t. . for more on this let's cross live now to the leader of sweden's pirate party rick fox at bingo he joins us now from stockholm thanks very much indeed for joining us now our son says the the swedish government's trying to damage his reputation by portraying him as public enemy number one is that really true. well i think the law

has done tremendous damage to sweden's reputation as an arc holder of human rights it's quite potentially the most what the most egregious. violation of human rights in western europe in terms of wiretapping i mean it's said that every human being have human rights and here comes the swiss government saying no no no no we're not going to wiretap any swedes well it so happens that all humans have human rights including particularly for some reason the government says the target of those is going to be russia primarily like swedes wouldn't care about well let's talk about the actual case that is taking place at the moment he his supporters in the defense say that the prosecutors are actually fabricating this case against him so where is the evidence of this fabrication then because clearly there are people who say there is a valid case women's rights are being abused here and they deserve

a fair hearing so where's this evidence. right i don't think there is a fabrication of the case itself it might be misunderstanding it might be a culture clash but at the end of the day think the prosecution authority has handled this case with abysmal professionalism and. i don't see the being i don't see it being a political set up if it were it would have been how the professionally in your questioning the professionalism in terms of saying the prosecutor in sweden has been biased in what way because that's what i understand you are saying and many of the followers of us are just saying where where is this person's come from. not just miers i mean if you look at the history of this case first assad was wanted for rape then he was wanted for the station and then for basically harassment that he was wanted for anything at all for a couple of weeks and then all of that then all of sudden prosecutor in

a completely different district decides takes a look at the at this case after a phone call and decides that i think we're going to charge this man with rape anyway only he's not charged yet he's only wanted for extradition to determine if he's going to be charged with anything at all. this isn't really professionally handled ok just briefly and finally if he does go to sweden is there really a chance that he could end up going to the u.s. and being tried there. are thing i think that's very remote speculation the extradition. extradition treaties when there's a third party involved in this case extradition from the u.k. and then to the u.s. when there isn't even a charge of the earth's that's a very very long shot i wouldn't bet money on that in any case all right well let's see what happens we'll leave it there for the moment thank you very much indeed rick wagner from the swedish pirate party joining us live there in stockton thank

you. well lot that brings up to date now for the moment coming up to twenty six minutes past the hour i'll be back with some of our main news points in just a moment that's the latest business with dmitri stay with us after a short break. welcome to business so it seems good to have your company norsk nickel is trying once again to resolve the shareholder dispute that's dogging the company russia's largest miners made an improved offer to buy twenty percent of its shares from anybody in giant roussel for twelve point eight billion dollars in december the miner offered to buy all twenty five percent sell shares for twelve billion which was promptly

rejected resells says it is considering the new of nichols other major shareholder interests has been fighting with yourself for control of the company since june and a further blow to the ambitions of russo on friday the company lost a court case filed in siberia to councillors nichols' election of interest backed board member. quick look at the russian stock markets and they recovered a little after three days of losses and that was helped by a strong world price early in the session following the equity market close boils needs one percent as egypt's president mubarak stepped down too late for shares here to react. more cynical rally the most in five weeks trading after the company increased its offer to buy back shares from sell over tech shares closed up one percent on the news that gasper almost sold its ten percent stake in the gas producer for a thirty percent discount but gazprom came under pressure as investors showed their displeasure with the deal and although shares recovered towards the end of friday's

such. of course that's a very negative and it was taken by the markets very negative. so i think the markets actually are on friday punished for this news but again as i said before. very big story so this year we expect. still the stock is seriously underweight by international investors and we're seeing then two thousand and twelve will be changing me here in the sense that n.p.v. negative cup which will be changed by and be positive complex and i think already this year the market move the markets will be reacting only to it will direct impose its will it. that's all for now the headlines are next on the to do stay with us.

more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada ashu for showing up for a.