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expedition approved court rules the man behind the whistle blowing web site wiki leaks should go to sweden for questioning over. the case. joins me for more in just a few. let the people decide their own future that's a message sent by prime minister vladimir putin as he addressed western meddling in international affairs at a meeting in brussels. e.u. agreed to coordinate never going to be economic crises in north africa. italy braces itself for a massive. rescue it from a humanitarian crisis which could see more than a million people flooding the country from the troubled.

this is our team here in the russian capital midnight in moscow and nine pm in london where a court has ruled in favor of extradition the wiki leaks founder is wanted for questioning in connection with sexual assault allegations during a trip he made to sweden last summer his lawyers fear he won't receive a fair trial in sweden and risk being handed over to america charges the u.s. is currently investigating his website which released a swathe of secret diplomatic washington wants him held responsible for leaking. classified information last year and brings us the latest now from the hearing in london. or centrally 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 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 son's 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 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 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 no 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 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 sun that but i wouldn't be surprised if it carried on for much longer than that. or emmett's reporting there from london 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 that's according to prime minister vladimir putin who addressed the media following a meeting with the european commission president jose manual but also daniel bushell has been following 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 shoulder dry on the issue up till 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 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 harass 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 the natural way without any foreign interference to build their future. the islamist. all of north africa was likely 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 prices at one eighteen dollars

a barrel. to double in the short period was very open about the fact during the conference. the e.u. already allowed such gas projects. three to pass through the european union the price for energy would be lower he reminded the e.u. that it would be both floyd's interests to allow maximum corporation between the e.u. and russia. when i return to our top story where a court in london has ruled in favor of the extradition of june in the songs to sweden and for some perspective from the u.s. i'm now joined by sara flounders from the american to this group international action center thanks very much indeed for joining us there's been a lot of speculation that the u.s. is behind all of this if that is the case washington certainly going to a lot of trouble to get this man surely by doing so this will have the adverse

effect by actually provoking leaks and strengthening their cause. well it certainly may it is threat coming directly from the u.s. it's politically motivated it's an effort to shut down wiki leaks to intimidate others from taking action of revealing u.s. secrets which are enormous it's the way the government does business but particularly the threat or the possibility that julian assange could be brought to the u.s. when you consider the terrible conditions under which bradley manning is held. really locked down the isolation in solitary confinement to form of torture but many many it's very much a threat against chile. songe also but many people will argue that june in the sun she leaked a lot of information that could potentially put u.s. national security in danger therefore shouldn't be held accountable for that.

absolutely absolutely not this is information that people of the world's people of the u.s. people in every country have a right to know and all of this material should be in the public domain it is the secrecy. and the way in which political struggle is political conduct is carried with threat of arms with threat of invasions with all sorts of maneuvers and economic pressure and revealing this also the records the logs on afghanistan and on iraq you could see the criminal criminal conduct all of these wars some massacre sort of taken place the impact of the drone attacks the helicopter gunships where reporters reuters journalists were really assassinated this material should be seen by the world and we have

a right to know this information he did a service really a very important service and that's why the pressure of the attacks on him have continued well certainly the u.s. government and many other governments around the world will argue with you saying lots of this information should not be in the public domain do you think in some ways that washington is trying to make an example out of him and is concerned about media outlets criticizing the u.s. government continuing with the calls that we can leaks is set up i mean is there any way really the the u.s. government or indeed any other government can stop these kind of leaks happening. you know there in fact is not so it's intimidation and repression is always an effort to stop what already exists and will continue because people all over the world. the drive to know there is a technology technological ability today to reveal this and so the threat of imprisonment in the u.s. is a one specter that they raise just as around the world they raise secret rendition

kidnappings and torture such as has been used from the grave to. air force space to guantanamo when when the whole international campaign for bradley manning raised that he was held in. solitary lockdown total isolation sensory deprivation conditions in the u.s. . and that caused a real outrage but at that time many of those who do prison advocacy in the u.s. said wait a minute the conditions under which bradley manning are held more than twenty five thousand prisoners in the u.s. are held in similar conditions torture really torture and veiling that to the world is also very important part of the struggle of wiki leaks of showing what are the real conditions whether in afghanistan and in iraq all around

the globe the kind of pressure and then the forms of repression and intimidation that also exist within the u.s. today sara flounders from the american activist group international action center joining us live in new york thanks for your time on. to libya and the country seeing more bloodshed as colonel gadhafi is clinging to the last vestige of a country which only a matter of days ago he presided over in tiny the capital tripoli now reportedly the only parts still under his control gadhafi screwed on thousands of mercenaries to defend his best you know he's faced with more defections the region regime removal death toll for ten days of unrest has been difficult to determine conflicting reports put the number between three hundred and two thousand meanwhile the swiss government is one of the freezer many locally held assets belonging. to the libyan leader. from a conflict analysis think tank believes the crisis we're currently witnessing in the arab world is a consequence of years of wrongful policies in the west but is happening at the

moment and they are. taken everybody by surprise there is definitely an intelligence failure on the part of the worst 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 the people in the street and the arab world and the continuous support of leaders in this part of the world while the readers will continuously losing their legitimacy there was this faulty assumption that it can rely on leaders like 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 the population of course that proved to be a very faulty assumption indeed on behalf of many people in the west. italy france it will be brought to its knees a new wave of immigrants is expected to flood the country thousands of refugees of

richard shores from the unsettled arab world the government is called on the european union to help with the predicted invasion of up to one million people. reports 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 main sources of income for the first time in years but . the mets are dry. but. there always are 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 crammed on just one tiny fishing boat to make the perilous journey to the mediterranean island dozens have already browned 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 vandalism and theft nothing to me who started leaving the lights on at night they always wonder around none of the locals ever used to lock their doors now that this people here will feel uncomfortable due to its location a lot of people's he's familiar with refugees but never so many in such a short period of time and with many voicing strong beliefs official 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 housed at this refugee center where they are 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 sent four planes yesterday but on average two planes with refugees leave every day to crew tony bari 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 italy's already warned other e.u. states up to three hundred thousand refugees could flee libya alone for decades lumping the mannish to. i mean tiny isolated world it's all about calm peaceful lives and no one was afraid to leave the board on the wall while trying something changed and the biggest new wave of refugees may still be out there. on this tiny

island being prior confident he was going off the lot to do about it. time now for world news in brief for you this hour in our world update in first new zealand where rescuers say they have little hope for more than two hundred people still missing as the death toll from tuesday's earthquake reaches ninety eight but one size alone up 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 churches 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 they were caught in a raid on a gang safe house it's believed three of them took part in the attack which part 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. declared

a state of emergency with massive flooding affecting both nations and to libya three people were killed and almost seven thousand were left homeless after torrential rain battered the country for 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 and a half thousand people lost their homes. and the controversial islamic cleric abu bakar bashir has denied tara 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 embassies russia claims he's the victim of a us conspiracy and all charges against him a fabrication. previously skate terror convictions in two trials that attempted to link him to the two thousand and two bali bombings. the world's most journey in space ship discovery is preparing to lift off for the last time and we're bringing you live pictures now from cape canaveral in florida and this question is expected to lift off in less than an hour from now this final

mission comes after almost three decades of orbital travel in the north 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. there were some live pictures there from florida and as our team is going to come 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 it's so 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 all 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 stopped 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 us 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 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 the two year grounding the few 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 u.s. are saying space is no longer a place for competition it's now a ground for cooperation but the question remains if there weren't here in the was ready to fully accept it. are to washington d.c. . well that brings up to date for the moment. with. stories in about eight minutes from now in the meantime we talked to former u.s. national security adviser brant scowcroft about his views on the current revolts across north africa and the middle east as well as america's relationship with

russia that's our interview next. mr scowcroft thank you very much for joining all t. you belong to the school of foreign policy realists that's what they say. and you're republican with a career stretching across five america next administration is it so i would like to discuss several foreign policy issues with you in your view what are the consequences for the u.s.

middle east policy after the toppling of mubarak in egypt and ben ali in tunisia you know one is always caught off guard by revolutions. because there are a surprise if there were a surprise to president ben ali and to president mubarak it's hardly unusual it would be a surprise to the united states the instabilities in the region are of course obvious and have been for a long time the question is can they be handled can they be dealt with in a thought for sensible way or does it have to involve an arrest environment and i think. we have to wait and see so far the egyptian crisis has been managed i think quite well and the egyptian army has behaved i think very well neither repressing the demonstrations nor encouraging them so it changes coming to

the region but that was that was inevitable as the old leaders. past from the seed so i think we need to be careful but i'm optimistic fundamentally our policy should change in our policy is the development of open societies cooperativeness and progressive development for all the countries of the region and that's always been paul do you think that the nato mission in afghanistan is doomed just like the british failed in the nineteenth century in the soviet union just thirty years ago no i don't think so because i think we are the united states is there for a different reason which is not to control afghanistan but to make sure that there are other terrorist bad don't use afghanistan as a base from which to attack us you anybody else so our goal is much more

limited and i think therefore one can have more optimism than one did at the previous occupants of afghanistan you yourself i think have been saying that the term war on terror. was. compromised it has indeed been compromised how does that marry with the you know with the terrorism threat that is not going anywhere where terrorism threat is one thing a war is another and terrorism is a technique of combat it is not you can't make war on a technique so i think war on terror as was designed to motivate people for a maximum effort terrorist something that we all have to deal with and i'm going to have to for a long period of time it's in part a product of the modern age like television like radio people are now politicized

by issues that they didn't care about before because they didn't know about them and so i think it's a. a long term struggle against extremists who want to destroy a civilization that they can't cope with it seems that there is no progress in stopping the iranian nuclear program in your view what are the chances that the united states may resort to the military option i think there is still the possibility to avoid a confrontation i think iran is a case that's related to the reason that i'm here and that is cooperation between the united states and russia on the whole nuclear fuel cycle iran has every right to have nuclear power it does not have the right to build nuclear weapons and i think the extent to which we can cooperate to induce iran to take the opportunities that are available and that is nuclear fuel from russia return the

nuclear fuel not insist on on enriching its own uranium or doing things like that and i wouldn't rule out that. that we would be successful how much is you know is this the opinion shared in the united states i don't think i'm alone i am not sure but i don't think there's any eagerness. to deal with iran by force and i think the extent the increase in degree of cooperation between the united states and russia on this issue will have a big impact on iran and what it decides to do what is your assessment has the recent with russia and asked by the obama administration two years ago brought any serious results it's not what could be the reasons i was a little disappointed for a year or so i am now encouraged.