and.

a u.k. court ruled the boss of the whistle blowing web site and wiki leaks should be sent to sweden deface sex crimes allegation. julian assault. the verdict and insists the case is politically motivated join me for more in just a few moments. prime minister putin tells a top level e.u. meeting arab countries in the midst of political upheaval should be left to find out both democratic course and free from foreign intervention. russia and the e.u. agreed to everett's in the ongoing believed to be an economic crises in north africa more in a few moments. a to b. is more than a million refugees fleeing b.k. also north africa could just stand on its shores and calls on another use date for system. and space shuttle discovery blasts

from cape canaveral in the u.s. on its final mission after almost three decades of trouble. news from russia and around the world this is the with me thanks for joining us and we go to london first where a court has ruled in favor of julian assange his extradition the wiki leaks founder is wanted for questioning in connection with sexual assault allegations during a trip he made to sweden last summer songes lords fear he won't receive a fair trial in sweden and risk being handed over to america and espionage charges the u.s. is currently investigating his website which released way that secret diplomatic wires washington also him held responsible for leaking classified information on

she is a lawyer and that brings us the latest from the hearing in london in order to century what we saw this morning was the judge not. king down these different saw cubans out of the water essentially one by one he said that our souls 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 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 to 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 underway 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 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. flounders from the american activist group international action center says washington is making an example of a sound so that others don't and he thought that it is a stretch 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 assad could be brought to the us when you consider the terrible conditions under which bradley manning is held of really locked down the isolation of solitary confinement it's

a form of torture intimidation and repression is always an effort to stop what already exists and will continue because people all over the world have a drive to know there is a technology technological ability today to reveal this and so the threat of imprisonment in the u.s. is the one specter that they raise just as around the world they raise secret rendition kidnappings and torture such as has been used from grave to. air force space to guantanamo. there has been more bloodshed as colonel gadhafi is clinging to the last vestige of a country which only a matter of days ago he presided over entirely the capital tripoli now reportedly the only part still under his control could out he has called thousands of masteries to defend his bastin and he's faced with more defections from his. death toll from the ten days of unrest has been difficult to determine conflicting

reports put the number between two three hundred and two thousand and meanwhile the swiss government has ordered a freeze a very locally held assets belonging to the libyan leader ahmed but our way from a basic conflict and i. believe the crisis we're currently witnessing in the arab world is the consequence of years of policies in the west what is happening at the moment in the arab world first taken everybody by surprise there's definitely an intelligence failure on the part of the worst part is actually the outcome of you see failure from the worst in not being able to understand correctly the mood of of the people in the street in the arab world and the continuous support of lead in this part. continuously losing their legitimacy there was this faulty assumption that the tundra. can be an alley and even that there are few recently in

the last few years. by giving weapons and these leaders to the theists 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 worst. so bahrain yemen and algeria all up in arms calling for reforms the anti-government discontent has spread across the arab world with tunisia and egypt leading the charge and sweeping aside a decades old cycle of oppression peter all of that has trouble to cairo to invest . whether the revolt has brought real change to egyptians. more months on from the outbreak of the revolution that so mubarak stepped down from power many protesters who stood. regime they did what they achieved and tell you square. but the moment mubarak stepped down and it was announced like we had on the screens on the square and people just couldn't resist for

a second to get overwhelmed by the joy of like 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 and. these democratic change has to start now. it needs to happen now for greater freedom and democracy in egypt ultimately of the united states can't have sort of the dictate what happens but you know we can 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 cairo and 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 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 that they have a victory is very dangerous because they are heating up of 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 in the chart 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. keek 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 there they hand the upper hand to give 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 make who plays a militaru regime with another. potentially elections could take place in around six months the political sources in the country suggest this could come too soon for a nation emerging from three decades of dictatorship peter oliver r.t. cairo egypt the continuing crisis in north africa have 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 her address the media following

a meeting with the european commission president as m n l they're also daniel bushell has been following the events 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 till now we have come out with a passion clearly 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. 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 a natural way without any foreign interference to build their future he also said that the islam is a vacation all of north africa was on likely in his view if the democratic process was allowed to tell. it's natural course of course this is having an effect on the economy already we're seeing brant prices at one eighteen dollars a barrel set to double in the short period was very open about the fact during the conference that. 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 cooperation between the e.u. and russia. that will be. new wave of immigrants is expected to flood the country thousands of refugees have reached its shores from the unsettled our world the government has called on the european union to help with the predicted invasion of up to one million people. can offer ports now and how locals are dealing with this issue. 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 but for the first time in years the bolts on hold. or drawing. board they're always out 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 just one tiny fishing boat to make the perilous journey to the mediterranean island doesn't have. many of those who needed have nothing to turning. on its head with no money and jobs they have already been cases of vandalism. you know who started leaving the lights on at night they always wonder around none of the locals are used to. there 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're historically a free nation and we want freedom of islam we want to live like

a 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 send four planes yesterday but on average two planes with refugees leave every day to crew tony barry 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 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 people with calm peaceful lives and no one was afraid to leave their doors all the. time something changed and the biggest wave of refugees may still be out there for me for this tiny island but the entire continent you are just a mall parking lot you know about italy. just a few hours ago. journey discovery six has. lost a dog from cape canaveral in florida on his final mission this mission to the international space station comes after almost three decades of which will travel the launch mark the beginning of the end of the u.s. space shuttle program with the remaining two crawled also heading for the scrap heap later this year i. can now report it's a little some americans are finding home after sept one 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't 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 we're 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 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 stop to use the bathroom should have gone before we left. you. 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 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 the fuel as spacecraft after the two thousand and three space shuttle columbia disaster columbia exploded during re-entry into the earth segments 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 accept it. are to washington d.c. . and rick tumlinson so the co-founder of the space frontier foundation says that with private enterprise well into an exciting new era of space science. of. a transition government which. if you get out of the benefits is that it should itself and it's those costs. one never gets to be based on what different countries are different to the country . again you know i think if you're. the launch of multiple states.

it's time for fun because no matter what country. cooperated in. the spirit. and more news in brief for you this sound rescues in new zealand say they have little hope for more than two hundred people still missing and the death toll from tuesday's as quake reaches one hundred thirteen crews are continuing to comb through the rubble in christ church the country's second largest stacie meanwhile thousands have flocked to the city's recently reopened airport and attempts to escape the devastation of one of the worst natural disasters in the country's history. and believe they have declared a state of emergency with massive flooding affecting both nations and believe it is three people were killed and almost seven thousand dollars left homeless after torrential rain back to the country for the past three weeks swollen rivers banks destroying crops and bridges and washing away roads and there were similar scenes in piru with some three and

a whole thousand dollars to her. back with the recount all top stories in about ten minutes time and up next hour she talks to 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.

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 a public with a career stretching across five american administrations 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 fought for

a sensible way or does it have to involve unrest and violence and i think. we have to wait and see so far the egyptian crisis has been managed i think quite well to try me to hate i think very well neither repressing the demonstrations nor encouraging. it. changes coming to the region but that was that was inevitable as the old leaders. pashmina 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 costs 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 being 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 terror is 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 and so i think it's 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 returned the nuclear fuel not insist 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 this the opinion shared in the united states i don't think i'm alone i am i'm 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.