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extradition approved a london courtroom the man behind the whistle blowing web site wiki leaks should go to sweden for questioning over sex crimes. julian assaulter vows to fight stiff but takes and insists the case is politically motivated join me for more in just a few moments. let the people decide in their own a future that's the message sent by prime minister vladimir putin as he addressed a western meddling in international affairs at a meeting in brussels today. also on the e.u. agreed to coordinate efforts to me on growing political and economic crises in north africa i'll have more in a few moments. it's only braces a cell for a massive flow of migrants sun calls on the e.u. to rescue it from a humanitarian crisis which could see more than

a million people flooding the country from the troubled arab world. worldwide news live from moscow to you with r.t. now a court in london has ruled in favor of julius saunders extradition the wiki leaks founder is wanted for questioning in connection with sexual assault allegations during a trip that he made to sweden last summer a soldier's lawyers fear he won't receive a fair trial in sweden and risks being handed over to america on espionage charges the u.s. is currently investigating its website which released the secret diplomatic wires washington wants him held responsible for leaking classified information that laura met has more from outside the hearing in london. sensually what we saw this morning was the judge knocking down these defense argument out of the water essentially one

by one he said that our sons had not in fact made himself available for questioning whilst he was in sweden and that our soldiers' swedish lawyer had missed led the court when he said that he had. was unco on contactable and avoided interrogation while he was in sweden he also said that the european arrest warrant had been issued for us on might be disproportionate but it was valid and it was definitely issued with a view to prosecuting ourselves for these charges and he also said that certainly one of the charges that is being brought against these allegations that are being made against student ourselves for sexual assault certainly one of them would constitute rape in the u.k. and all four of them were extraditable offenses now a source has always maintained his innocence in this case and in fact he says and his defense team say that this is politically motivated in connection with his work with wiki leaks wiki leaks of course we've seen releasing a series of cables relating to the u.s.

diplomatic service some of which were deeply embarrassing for the u.s. government has always maintained that this is in order to facilitate his extradition on words to the u.s. we have heard in the last couple of days from the justice department in the american justice department in london saying that there are no charges currently against assault in america but that there is an investigation underway into wiki leaks but the judge again said that there was no evidence that our son should be extradited on to america or that he might be tortured all that he could be executed or that he could be sent to guantanamo bay if he indeed. this is very unlikely to finish here the defense team have already said that they're going to appeal they have now have seven days in which to do that they will take the appeal first to the high court and then if that doesn't succeed up to the supreme court here in the u.k. and then if they have to they say that they will go to the european court of human

rights so this is a case that will certainly continue into the summer but i wouldn't be surprised if it carried on for much longer than. usual and reporting more continuing. for russia and the e.u. to coordinate their efforts in terms of foreign policy and economy that's according to prime minister vladimir putin who addressed the media following a meeting with the european commission president jose manuel barroso daniel bushell has now been following the latest events for us in brussels. obviously our question is dominating world affairs at the moment and this was no exception although vladimir putin has kept his powder dry on the issue up until now he has come out with a passion usually for foreign powers to stay out of the conflict in so much as to allow the democratic process and the people to elect their own leaders in that region themselves he gave several examples of how interference has brought the reverse effect it was because of that which is today we say we're concerned about

things happening in libya please note the following the north african cell of al-qaeda is also concerned about what's happening in libya do you think that's a coincidence i would like to go back in history a little the former leader of the iranian revolution where did he live he lived in paris and as a whole he was supported by the western community now the entire western community fights against the iranian nuclear program i remember just recently our partners were very active in supporting democratic elections in the palestinian autonomy and amass one and immediately they declared how mass a terrorist organization and started fighting against it we need to give people a chance to determine their future themselves we need to give them an opportunity to take a natural way without any foreign interference to build their future he also said that the is there is a vacation all of north africa was unlikely in his view if the democratic process was allowed to take its natural course of course this is having an effect on the economy already we're seeing brant oil prices at one eighteen dollars

a barrel analysts say it's set to double in the short period they were pretty much very open about the fact during the conference that had. the e.u. already allowed such gas projects as north and south stream to pass through the european union the prices for energy would be lowered he reminded the e.u. that it was in both sides interests to to allow maximum corporation between e.u. and russia. i don't know what you're reporting there from brussels now let's cross live over to our business that's for more on this issue of north africa and its knock on effect on the world's economy corrino i suppose there's a little bit of good news when it comes to the all prices. well worry could prices have surged to a two and a half year high on the back of supply disruptions from libya as we know and brant is now trading one hundred fourteen dollars a barrel and of course we see russia's energy companies doing exceptionally well in

this crisis however and his speech in brussels pushing once again stress that spiking oil prices are not in russia's interest although all is the main source of income for russia now he's all in he also said that if he wants prices to be fair he doesn't want them to come out too out of balance and if the world's economic growth slows down this will have a negative effect on russia's economy as well so russia wants to do everything to prevent this from happening now as i've said we're seeing russian energy companies doing very well and we'll look at how the stocks are doing in the program in about twenty minutes from now all right kareen i will see you in about so you know twenty minutes as you were saying i could not well see the precipitous thank you. but actually fears it will be brought to its knees as a new wave of immigrants inspected to flood the country thousands of refugees have reached its shores from the unsettled arab world now the government has called on the european union to help with their predicted invasion of up to a million people are pissed off now reports on how locals are dealing with the

situation. at eighty miles off the coast of north africa the attorney italian island of lampedusa has relied on fishing and tourism for its means sources of income but for the first time in years the boats or the nets or drawing. board there always are here we have been going out to sea for twenty days now since the recent uprising in tunisia the island has been. flooded with refugees over five and a half thousand arrived in just two weeks sometimes up to three hundred refugees but crammed on just one tiny fishing boat to make the perilous journey to the mediterranean island dozens have already drowned many of those who made it have nothing to lose turning local life here on its head with no money and no jobs they have already been cases of and theft you know who started leaving the lights on at

night they always wonder ronde none of the locals ever used to lock their doors now that this people here will feel uncomfortable due to its location lumpy doozies familiar with refugees but never so many in such a short period of time and with many voicing strong beliefs officials say identifying genuine cases is one of the biggest problems. that. we are historically a free nation and we want freedom of islam we want to live like our prophet told us in holy books to live in an islamic state. most are heroes at this refugee center where they're provided with food water clothes and medical aid all financed from the state budget is designed to house only around eight hundred people so under tight security hundreds of refugees are flown to the mainland each day. we send four planes yesterday but on average two planes with refugees leave every

day to crew tony and pollute. with. italy and tunisia used to have an agreement under which most with fiji's were intercepted before even reaching the island but now that the government has been overthrown the floodgates have opened i with violence continuing to spread in both north africa and the middle east issues over. he warned other e.u. states up to three hundred thousand refugees could flee libya alone for decades limpid those are managed to remain a tiny isolated world of its own the locals will hold the line and no one was afraid to leave their doors on the wall while find something changed in the biggest wave of refugees may still be there one this tiny island but the entire continent you got this along for the one you know about it we. are now turning our

attention to libya now where areas still one of the control of colonel gadhafi are shrinking all the time protestors have reportedly taking over the east part of the country the capital tripoli remains heavily guarded by pro khadafi forces with tanks deployed all around it the leader has called on us thousands of. displaced actions on the streets really the revolt is now but it's the. death toll has been difficult for the timing of this point conflicting reports for the number between three hundred under found some twenty four hours for company trouble and now attempting to flee russia has flown most of its citizens out with the remainder being taken to turkey area. let's get some more analysis now and rest with the world we're joined by accident but the co-founder and executive director of the berlin based think tank transform so the question remains among many here what's what's behind the chain of unrest you think is it just popular discontent with the

rules are there deeper rooted factors or that what the west keeps calling for democratization here what are the true motives behind this on resting thing. well i think we need to distinguish between two factors diet of cause and in direct cause is the direct cause of course is what happened initially in tunisia which gave a signal to many others in the arab world that change is possible and then it spread to egypt and egypt has seen a lot of on the wrist since two thousand actually since the start of the palestinian intifada and it has been escalating ever since and then from there it spread to yemen to jordan so these are the causes they indicted of course of course of this content with the existing regimes many of the leaders mubarak ali abdullah saleh they have been in power for a very long time and there has been a gradual erosion of the legitimacy of these regimes so these died of causes and

the indicted causes together created this park which started and we don't know how it's going to end are you talk about direct causes and direct causes here you talk about a study by slow degradation of the leadership in place over many many years but the libyan leader could after he's now told state television that osama bin laden and his followers are to blame for the protests rock in the country what do you take on these claims is he joining the traditional western bandwagon here blaming al qaeda . but there she is a very special person it's a very special case he also said today that the demonstrators are demonstrating because they are under the influence of drugs his son has already blamed egypt for the unrest saying it's an egyptian conspiracy but their fear is not a very stable person you can even see it from his gaze i don't think we should we should pay any attention to such claims the only people who are to blame for the undressed in libya as in the other parts of the arab. in libya it's the bare feet

and the people surrounding him who have to create a sustainable future for the citizens even though they've been getting so much profit out of oil these are the only people to blame for what is going on it's not just a colonel gadhafi is an unstable leader certainly many people in the western powers might agree with you there when when considering his orchestra to calls for violence against the protesters and civilians being killed but as we just heard could have east cling on to power do you think you'll be able to chloris way back you. people of the type of good that figure duffy is different than mubarak and ben ali if we accept the premise that he's a special type of dictator. i think most likely he will try to cling to power for as much as he can and could probably die a while trying to cling to power if not deposed by force what is really worrying is

not what happens to be durfy what is worrying is that before he goes i think he'll eventually have to go. how many libyans will have to suffer. because of this this is really a big question and it calls for some sort of more proactive intervention from the west that man is not on the leadership of concerned libyans as well there as we're getting reports of potentially tens of thousands if not hundreds or thousands of migrants trying to flee the area and to various parts of south here at but today in brussels we heard the russian prime minister vladimir putin calling on western powers to stop meddling in middle east middle eastern affairs this was going down during a speech at an e.u. russia conference do you think there is a major western role the can be blamed for part of this or is that just hearsay. well i think the moment in what is happening at the moment in the arab world. taken everybody by surprise there's definitely an intelligence failure on the part of the

worst. part is actually the outcome of years of policy failure from the west in not being able to understand correctly the mood of the people in the street in the arab world and their continuous support of leaders in this part of the world was the leaders were continuously losing their legitimacy there was this faulty assumption that the can rely on leaders like mubarak and ben ali and even that the few recently in the last few years. by giving weapons and arming these leaders to the teeth thinking that they will be able to control the population of course the truth to be a very faulty assumption indeed on behalf of many people in the west. co-founder of the berlin based think tank transform thank you. all still ahead for you this hour here on out at the end of an era nasa begins or wrapping up its ventures into space as is most troubled shuttle discovery and bounce on its final mission before being

put to bed. and it's got some other world news in brief for you this hour here on r.t. rescuers in new zealand say they have little hope for more than two hundred people still missing as the death toll from tuesday's earthquake reaches ninety eight at one side and up to one hundred twenty people are unaccounted for crews are continuing to comb through the rubble in the country's second largest city meanwhile thousands of flocked to christ church as a recently reopened in an attempt to escape the devastation. and the mexican authorities have paraded six suspects in front of the media arrested for the fatal shooting of an american immigration and customs agent about a week ago they were caught in a raid on a gang safe now. yes it's believed three of them took part in the attack which sparked outrage in the united states a second american agent was also wounded in the incident when they were ambushed as they drove towards mexico city. and periwinkle if you have to clear out of state

of emergency with massive flooding affecting both nations in bolivia three people were killed and most seven thousand left homeless after torrential rain back to the country for the past few weeks while the rivers burst their banks destroying crops bridges and washing away roads there were similar scenes in peru where some three and a half thousand people lost their lives. the controversial islamic cleric. has denied it tara charges as he returned to court in indonesia is accused of setting up a cell that was preparing a series of high profile attacks on western hotels and the seas claims he's the victim of a u.s. conspiracy and that all charges against him are fabricated the a mom has previously escaped terror convictions in the two trials that attempted to link him to the two thousand and two bali bombings. while the world's most journeyed rocket ship discovery is prepared to lift off for the last time its final

mission comes almost after three decades of orbital travel now the launch marks the beginning of the end of the u.s. space shuttle program with the remaining two also headed for the scrap heap later this year and as our guy nature can reports it's a loss that some americans are finding hard to accept. by the end of this year nasa will no longer be able to send humans into space according to obama's plan responsibility will go to private companies which are expected to come up with cheaper ways to ferry astronauts to low earth orbit they know that they have a big step to take when they if they're thinking about putting humans into space and that's going to take a you know the next phase of their development so i have a oh gosh i. can even estimate exactly no one can say for sure when the private american companies will come up with a new spaceship for years to come it will be the russians so use that's going to be the only means for people to reach the international space station which is

perfectly fine with the leaders of russia and the u.s. but doesn't sit well with many americans how could this how. we could make it to the moon person build this wonderful equipment and then. and now we're were reduced to being passengers on a russian ship and that's that's sort of it's a wounded pride thing wounded pride revealed itself in comments by some american lawmakers astronaut scientists and former nasa officials comedians in the u.s. did not miss out on poking fun at american sense of pride so we pony up the cash then after right on the hope of the backseat of the take the wheel. yes you know they're going to let us touch the radio they will let us eat snacks or stop to use the bathroom should have gone before we left. use but those the nasa who now

actually work with the russians like astronaut sunny williams have different sentiments i couldn't imagine when i was growing up walking through red square or going to a russian company and working hand in hand with my russian colleagues or going to their families homes and having dinner with them and likewise when they come to the u.s. and so i think. maybe we're not competing but we're to working together i think it's more of a time of joint cooperation and learning from one another that's just as healthy as the competition that we had in the past it's not the first time americans have to rely on the russians to take their crew to space they depended on washing rockets during a two year grounding the few s.p.c. crashed after the two thousand and three space shuttle columbia disaster columbia exploded during re-entry into the earth's second here all seven crew members died shuttles track record includes another tragedy in one thousand nine hundred eighty six the space shuttle challenger broke apart seventy three seconds into its flight

. the russians so use proved to be the safest way to deliver people to space and now with the shuttle retiring it will be the only way we're no longer racing against an adversary we're no longer competing to achieve a singular goal like reaching the moon. in fact what was once a global competition is long since become a global collaboration the leaders of both russia and the u.s. are saying space is no longer a place for competition it's now a ground for cooperation but the question remains if ever wanted here in the was ready to fully accept it i'm going to check out our to washington d.c. do bear in mind you can always go to dot com for so much more on the stories we're covering top stories videos blogs analysis here's a taste of some of the items you can find there right now in the world's first robot marathon is underway in just on an indoor track there your ability will be put to the test during the lengthy forty two kilometer distance.

and arguably of france's most successful movie x four. star overlay all the different you could talk to us right here at r.t. the interview about his latest film based on the plight of caribbean jews during the holocaust on line and sinker. all right that's your news update for now but our next it's corrina with the business. how welcome to business have a go straight to our top story this hour world leaders are considering the prospect of an oil shock resulting from the unrest in the middle east and north africa could prices have surged to two and a half year high on the back of supply disruptions from libya shares and russia's

energy companies have done well in the crisis but speaking in brussels prime minister putin has said spiking oil prices are not in russia's interest and that the condition of studios and was a this is a serious threat to economic growth in the world and if this goes on i can tell you that actually the russian economy is not interested we want prices to be sheer you know real or soof economic growth slows down world words this will have a negative effect on our economies will so we will do everything we can with our european partners to prevent this from happening but now russia has limited options to help stabilize oil prices unlike saudi arabia it has little spare capacity and can't simply speed up the pumps but as constantine seem to have explains while russia is in the same economic jeopardy as the rest of the globe it's likely to come out with more political credit. the beginning of the.

global instability of course of can be fitted with these you could because it's like the beginning of the call of. the serious serious. problem for russia but they were speaking about next month. this is the good news and the one more good news is that as a so that when compared with those oil and gas markets now we understand what the real political stability of this regime so that is where we will see the increase a little for us with the supply of oil and gas. take a look at some of the numbers now crude isn't treating in-touch from earlier highs that's after saudi arabia said it was considering stepping up supply to compensate for the loss from libya light sweet crude is just under ninety nine dollars a barrel point eighty percent on the day brant crude is trading at over one hundred thirteen dollars a barrel up nearly two percent turning to equities now both theology has closed in

the black help primarily by the energy sector defensive gold stocks were also doing well retailers banks industrials and miners were all down let's have a look at some individual share moves. to see gas from is among the leaders up more than five percent and we may have percent higher so did look oil held by news it signed a deal with america. to develop offshore oil fields in romania and gold producers gained as prices for the precious metals. gold was up two point four percent. let's cross over to europe versus the oil majors and gold miners are providing the relatively few bright spots the footsies losing half a percent and the footies down now for a fifth day its longest losing streak since july the dax is down over a percent it's heavily weighted with bad. and industrials two sectors that are

struggling most with uncertainty created in the middle east and let's cross over to the u.s. where stocks are mixed this hour investor confidence is lifted by a better than expected unemployment figures and some strong corporate results from priceline and target although general motors felt slightly short with fourth quarter figures. but you can always log on to our website dot com.