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extradition approved the london court rules the man behind the whistle blowing web site wiki leaks should go to sweden for questioning over sex crimes. and insists the case is politically motivated joins me for more in just a few made. let the people decide their own future that's the message sent by prime minister vladimir putin as he addressed western meddling in international affairs at a meeting in brussels. the e.u. agreed to coordinate efforts in the ongoing political and economic crises in north africa more in a few moments. and also the city braces itself for a massive flow of migrants and 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. this is. in the russian capital now and five pm in london where a court has ruled in favor of julian assange extradition the we could leaks founder is wanted for questioning in connection with sexual assault allegations during a trip he made to sweden last summer soldiers lawyers for he won't receive a fair trial in sweden and risk being handed over to america on espionage charges u.s. is currently investigating his website which released a swathe of secret diplomatic wants washington wants him help responsible for leaking classified information what is new or emmett's brings us now the latest from the hearing in london. senshi what we saw this morning was the judge knocking down these defense arguments out of the water essentially one by one he said

had not in fact made himself available for questioning whilst he was in sweden and that's. just sweetish go ahead mr 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 our sons' 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 so she's 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 to us and has always maintained that this is in order to facilitate his extradition own 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 new charges currently against assault in america but that there is an investigation under way into wiki leaks but the judge again said that there was no evidence that our son should be extradited on to america all of that he might be tortured all that he could be executed or that he could be sent to guantanamo bay if he indeed was sent to america well this is very unlikely to finish here of the defense team have already said that they're going to launch an 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 that. more on that reporting there from london where we can all talk to. campaigner from the organization justice for sarge she joins us now live from london as well sharon ward thanks indeed for joining us here on r.t. now we know the verdict we know that you're in the sarge is intending to appeal but how is your organization now planning to help him. well bill we're trying to do as much as we can to support him in the stange and wiki leaks and mainly but you know by trying to have as many protesters as possible all the court hearings are obviously we have a lot of hope high profile supporters like john pilger. are also a lot of other people like me who are all high profile well known people here in london who are trying to get their point across and we have a facebook campaign going and we have twitter so we're just trying to garner as much of course we possibly can going forward the reason why i've been extradited from london to sweden is because of a very serious allegation so how can you be sure of his innocence. well i don't

think anyone can be sure of julian assange and his innocence but i think it's only fair that everyone should be assumed presumed innocent until proven guilty and i don't think anything with regards to the julian assange case has shown that so far we do believe that he's been really given a trial by media or not a lot of the evidence has been splayed out all across the needier and we don't think he's been given a fair trial here what do you so everyone should be doing short shorts but what are you most afraid of here is it that he could be found guilty of those sex allegations or extradited to the u.s. . i think what we're really concerned about is the fact that he could be extradited to the us because we think that this is more like a stall in charge of holding charge to get him into sweden which has been known to be quite complicit in helping render people back to the u.s. it's happened in egypt for example to egyptian from the past so we do believe that

this is actually is still in charge and we're much more concerned about what's going to happen with the u.s. so we're very concerned that if he goes sweden he will then be rendered to the u.s. why do you think sweden does have this track record in being cooperative with the u.s. why would they want to play a part in this particular case then. well it's already been well established that wiki leaks has embarrassed the swedish parliament because there have been some cables that have come out recently which have shown that sweden was having some complicit arrangements with the american government with their antiterrorism arrangements that they didn't want the sweetest public to know about and they were trying to keep it under the radar so as so the public in sweden couldn't scrutinize what they were doing so they've already been embarrassed by wiki leaks so i think it is in their best interest to try and shut wiki leaks down. journalism as lawyers say that he could face the death penalty in the u.s.

do you really think that is feasible. i think it's not entirely unfeasible given the fact that a lot of politicians both republican and democrats in the us have been calling for his assassination so i don't think that's a far fetched claim and i think that could be a very valid concern not looking good for him at the moment is it however i was reading today that the european court of human rights said it would intervene if there were any signs of unfair treatment the chance of him getting an unfair trial do you think perhaps there could be any positive intervention from the human court of the european court of human rights here well we would certainly hope that that would be the case or not they will actually do that is another question but we can see this case running and running and running perhaps for the whole year and again i think this is one of the reasons why they're doing that because it's tying up an enormous amount of wiki leaks resources both in time and money. very interesting

here what you have to say sharm ward thanks very much indeed for joining us campaigner from justice for joining us there live in london thank you. the continuing crisis in north africa has highlighted the need for russia and the e.u. to coordinate their efforts in terms of foreign policy and economy one that's according to prime minister vladimir putin who addressed the media following a meeting with the european commission president jose manual but also and daniel bushell has been following the events in brussels for us 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 we have come out with a passion plea 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. as 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 the mass 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 you approved it was very open about the fact you. 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 lower he reminded the e.u. that it was in both sides interests to to allow maximum corporation between a u. and russia. italy fears it will be brought to its knees as a new wave of immigrants is expected to fly out of the country thousands of refugees have reached its shores from the unsettled arab world the government has called on the european union to help with the predicted invasion of up to one million people and not even to reports now on how locals are dealing with the situation. at eighty miles off the coast of north africa the tiny 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 are dry. but. they're always out here we haven't gone 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 would grab on just one tiny fishing boat to make the perilous journey to the mediterranean island dozens have already drowned many of those who meted have nothing to lose turning local life here on its head with no money and nor jobs they have already been cases of vandalism and theft. who started leaving the lights on at night they always wonder around none of the locals are used to lock their doors now that this people here will feel uncomfortable due to its location lumpy doozies

for milieu 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. we are historically a free nation and we want freedom of islam we want to live like our prophet told us and who leave books to live in an islamic state. at this refugee center where they are provided with food water clothes and medical aid. 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 sent four planes yesterday but on average two planes with refugees leave every day to mari and pollute. italy and tunisia used to have an agreement under which most were 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 already warned other e.u. states up to three hundred thousand refugees could flee libya alone for decades lumpy managed to remain a tiny isolated world of its own the bible where. he still lives and no one was afraid to leave thirty. five something changed and the biggest wave of refugees may still be out there. this tiny island but the entire continent he was still on board he wanted to go back. to libya now where areas still under the control of colonel gadhafi a shrinking all the time protestors have reportedly taken over the east of the country the capital tripoli remains heavily guarded by progun daffy forces with

tanks deployed around it the leader has called on thousands of mercenaries to defend his bastion as he's faced with more defections from his own regime revolt has now ended its tense day the overall death toll has been difficult to determine conflicting reports put the number between three hundred and a thousand many foreigners caught up in the trouble or attempting to flee russia has flown most of its citizens out with the remainder being taken to turkey by ferry. from berlin based conflict analysis think tank believes the crisis because. witnessing in the arab world is the consequence of years of wrongful policies in the west. what is happening at the moment in the arab world has taken everybody by surprise there's definitely an intelligence failure on the part of the worst and big part of it is actually the outcome of years of policy failure from the west in not being able to understand correctly the mood of of the people in the street and

the arab world and their continuous support of leaders in this part of the world while the readers will continuously losing their legitimacy there was this faulty assumption that if we can rely on leaders that mubarak and ben ali and even that there are 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 their population of course that proved to be a very faulty assumption indeed on behalf of many people in the west bahrain yemen and algeria all up in arms calling for reforms the anti government could discontent has spread across the arab world with tunisia and egypt leading the charge and sweeping aside decades old cycle of oppression what is paid to all of has traveled to cairo to investigate whether the revolt has brought real change to egyptians. one month on from the outbreak of the revolution and so on the batek stepped down from power many protesters who stood up to the egyptian regime to what they

achieved until you square. the moment more works the guy and it was announced that we had it on the screens on the square and it was just couldn't resist for a second to get overwhelmed by the joy of get rid of that big figure of corruption or the regime western leaders were quick to throw their support behind the popular revolution in a country that spent the last thirty years under mubarak. these democratic change has to start now. it needs to happen now for the growth of freedom and democracy in egypt ultimately of the united states can't have sources dictate what happens but you know we can but what we can do bill is we can say that. the time is now for you to start making a change in that country or however support wasn't the only thing coming from these nations during the uprising western rumors were rife that mubarak had fled tyrone

was headed to germany later british foreign secretary william hague said that colonel gadhafi had left tripoli in the midst of the ongoing crisis there but protesters are now very heated up it's all very hot in each of these countries and the fact that they might be falsely made to believe that they have won but they have a victory is very dangerous because they're heating up the situation opens the door for other countries other power structures to come into egypt and to come into libya into coming to tunisia and all of the other countries to try and take some advantage in some cases might be greater than from what is happening the charge shell of a political party's headquarters in a country policed by the military tardily the image many in the west would associate with a democratic nation however this doesn't stop world leaders from speaking about a newly democratic egypt. the country is now being watched over by the armed forces while a partial curfew is still in place in cairo many key figures of mubarak's regime

remain in the current cabinet including prime minister ahmed. a figure of hate for the revolutionaries who met with david cameron during the british leaders visit a visit that was termed in some circles as cameron was on his way to the gulf states to hawk the u.k. arms industry political groups in egypt are calling for a million man march to demand a new cabinet so how do those who helped remove barack feel about the future the army is in charge they're taking they're taking action they are the hand the upper hand to get everyone everything under control so yes and we're getting more and more to figured that out and hated and think about how we're going to deal with it we don't want to be like who plays a military regime with another. potentially elections could take place in around six months however political sources in the country suggest this could come too soon for a nation emerging from three decades of dictatorship peter oliver cairo egypt.

well more world news in brief for you this hour in our world update. 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 site alone 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 christchurch is recently reopened airport in an attempt to escape the devastation. mexican authorities are paraded six suspects in front of the media arrested for the fatal shooting of an american immigration and customs agent a week ago caught in a raid on a gang safe house and it's believed that 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. have declared a state of emergency with massive flooding affecting both nations and bolivia three

people were killed and almost seven thousand were left homeless after to wrench will rain battered the country the past few weeks swollen rivers burst their banks destroying crops bridges and washing away roads it was similar scenes in peru where some three hundred thousand people lost their homes. and the controversial islamic cleric abu bakar bashir has denied terror charges as he returned to court in indonesia he's accused of setting up a cell that was preparing a series of high profile attacks on western hotels and buses but she claims he is the victim of a us conspiracy charges against him were fabricated moments previously escaped terror convictions and two trials that attempted to move him to the two thousand and two. the world's most journeyed space ship. gov re is preparing to lift off for the last time its final mission comes after almost three decades of orbital travel but launch marks the beginning of the end of the u.s. space shuttle program with the remaining two also heading for the scrap heap later this year and as our team is going to go reports it's

a loss 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 first 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 a ride on the hope of the backseat of the take the wheel. yes you know they're not going to let us touch the radio they won't 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 were 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 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 the two year grounding of u.s. spacecraft after the two thousand and three space shuttle columbia disaster columbia exploded during re-entry into the earth's atmosphere 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 us are saying space is no longer a place for competition it's now a ground for cooperation but the question remains if ever wants here in the was ready to accept it i'm going to take an art to washington d.c. . well that's your news update for the moment just turning twenty four minutes past the hour had russian capital kareen is next with the business update stay with us. to business thanks for joining me world leaders are considering the prospect of an all shock resulting from the unrest in the middle east and north africa could prices have surged to a two and a half year high on the back of supply disruption from libya shares in russia's energy companies have done well in the crisis but speaking in brussels prime minister putin has said spiking all prices are not in russia's interest and that

they can use the city of new good reason this is a serious threat to economic growth in the world if and if this goes on i can tell you're dead actually the russian economy is not interested we want this to be severe really really economic growth slows down this will have a negative effect on our economies will so we need to do everything we can do it with our european partners to prevent this from happening but. russia has limited options to help stabilize oil prices unlike saudi arabia it has little spare capacity and can simply speed up the pumps but as constantine sealing off 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. big global instability of course of can be averted with news for russia's strategic review because it's. the beginning of the call of so far with global. of course

the serious serious strategic problem for russia but they were speaking about next month. this is a good use for us and one more good news is that as a so that when compared with those on oil and gas markets now we understand what the real political stability of this regime so that is where we will see the increase of the role of russia as a supplier for them just first of all to you. now let's take a look at some of the numbers now crude is retreating a 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 over ninety nine dollars a barrel one point seven percent on the day brant crude is trading at over one hundred fourteen dollars a barrel up nearly three percent and turning to equities now both the r.t.s. and closed in the black helped primarily by the energy sector defensive gold stocks

were also doing well for retailers banks industrials and miners were all down let's have a look at some individual share moves gas problems among the lead is up more than five percent rawson have ended three and a half percent higher so did lukoil that helped by news sign a deal with american banco international to develop two offshore oil fields in romania and a gold produces gained as prices for the precious metal surge high of porto's gold was up two and a half percent. now on europe's bourses all majors and gold miners are providing the relatively few bright spots to food see last half a percent down for a fifth day its longest losing streak since july the dax was down over a percent of its heavy leeway to. buy banks and industrials to sectors that are struggling most with certainty created middle east and the e.u. u.s. stocks are losing on thursday afternoon with worries about unrest in libya and a further decline in shares of hewitt packard contributing to a.