a fair trial. the other line twelve rounds among each on our city. the u.n. says the death toll in libya could be in the thousands as the government steps up the battle against protesters and as the west pushes for democratic change in troubled regions fears grow the interference will only add fuel to the pot. and you guys are accused of got all standards by agreeing to extradite wiki leaks founder julian assange on drove a great claims but refusing to do the same for the international terrorists. plus boosting the russian armed forces government announces a multi-billion dollar program to upgrade its military equipment to topple a modern day threats. from our business desk equity markets around the world have

breathing a sigh of relief at the sharp spike in the oil price moderates are higher prices good or bad for russia germany now business will attempt to find out. a very warm welcome here this is why from moscow. forces have opened fire on the protesters in the libyan capital the last bastion of the embattled leader at least four people are reported killed with the official death toll of the ten days of revolt standing at over two thousand after years of battling to shore up control of the west as demonstrators consolidate gains in eastern parts of the country international momentum is building to punish the libyan leader for his violent response to the protests rushnell president dmitry medvedev has called on the

authorities to prevent tensions from escalating any further and stop the bloodshed and the killing of protesters as a. e.u. is. siddur and sanctions such as travel restrictions and the freezing of gadhafi has assets which switzerland has already done despite supplying it with arms the u.k. and france are pushing for a weapons and baba and i want crimes investigation the u.n. says there could be food supply shortages in the. now as libya follows the revolutionary path middle eastern countries have taken political journalist i'm funny while told me earlier that the democracy those states seek does not represent real change western style democracy in its current state is far from what i would consider to be something that we should want in any of these countries i think i think if there's going to be democracy it should be democracy with a real change and a change that reflects democracy that actually benefits the people today's democracy is nothing more than a mainstream control mechanism through which the vast majority of the public who do

not think are emotionally engaged in in situations that they don't even really realize what it is that they're voting for or approving and if you think that democracy which is supposedly what the u.s. is out there pushing and driving home for these people who we need so much the philosophy of what they've developed and put together in any in the u.s. for example take a look at look at what they're doing in a building bases in hundreds of over one hundred different countries you know basically putting at the end of a gun the word democracy and shoving it down their throats i mean this is not democracy this is abuse this is nothing more than a system that is doomed to failure and as long as central banks continue to stand side by side in a democratic system like we have training endless amounts of money which is devalued by devaluing by the minute we're not going to have anything more here than chaos that is used to mask that evaluation process and hopefully distract people from the overall fraud that's been perpetrated on western societies if that's democracy who'd like. talk about turning our attention to egypt where two weeks off

about popular revolution swept from power president hosni mubarak demonstrations continue with tens of thousands calling for reforms the military is in control right now until elections can be held. later on her reports on the difficult transition from dictatorship. the people of egypt could once again all keep fight central cairo here at the here square the empty sense of the revolution that felled kanzi mubarak the people up by counting in great numbers in order to lend their support to a number of causes some here to show solidarity with libyan people and calling for western governments to do more and only to help the people under the gadhafi regime the majority of the people who have come here want to see not only move product gone they want to see the main figures of this regime who are still in power removed from those seats of power namely omar suleiman and the current prime minister made sure speak to the man for a change that was fulfilled by the president of the food was ninety four stepping

down if only for the fun level but not the entire system the roommate as it is was a symbolic gesture from the part of the corrupt government just removing the bike and if you businessmen escape boats so we get busy with this thinking justice has been served but this is totally symbolic and it's not functioning on all levels the ogunnaike says both these protests a calling for millions of people the millions that we saw at the height of the revolution a month ago to come back to tie a square to go back to the center of cairo the streets of cairo and call for a democratic egypt we can now hear my reports and want a democratic egypt could mean to the people. with a full. they pledged. many. the protesters who took over central cairo had a clear goal the removal of a dictator and establishing a free country he is an activist and one of the organizers of the revolution that toppled and he believes that egypt can make the transition from dictatorship to

a democratic state the thing is we're fighting democracy in our own terms that we're here i mean everyone look at it at it on its own terms but we are going to it our turns there is that we want to see in this country our country there does not want to feel like here there are some way of getting it and we're going get that support for a democratic egypt has come from governments around the world however some of those leaders who have been quick to congratulate the revolutionaries may not be so pleased with the possible future for the country but one basic problem we see in this is. we want democracy but we also want states that will be friendly to us and do what we want but almost certainly our democracy is going through a great deal less comfortable for the rest of the hour potatoes are autocrats are. those dictators have been swept aside by people who after years of injustice finally had enough some of the poorest people in the egyptian capital live in the

area of cairo here many are hopeful that a democratic egypt will help them out of poverty however others expressed concern that they may see the rich get richer while the poor get poorer. i'm worried things could get worse for the poor of democracy is not implemented i pray god will keep egypt safe. while the west may have been convinced egyptians were fighting for a democratic principles they may be in for a nasty shock when they find out that the people simply want to change each other r.t. cairo egypt. and a little bit later here on our to explore nato and why some say it's out of date on a military. lines is being seen as a failure and why the mission is getting more protests in other words. julian assange is preparing to battle to overturn a london court decision to extradite him to sweden the wiki leaks founder insisted

there is no truth to the sex crime allegations against him and that there was not enough evidence to justify the court's decision artie's cared for looks at the cases mystery and intrigue. when julian assange emerged less than a year ago with this video. showing u.s. troops gunning down unarmed civilians and two reuters journalists videogame style he was lighted as a hero of transparency. and antiwar ally a human rights defender r.t. america interview to such on the day of collateral murders release and what keeps people more people. from going through understand how the world actually works so. in the fourth grade to get information out about the real world and they're going

to comment on it and think about it but we need sources who can get. through. a nomadic computer expert with a cache of two hundred fifty thousand classified cables assigned catapulted to the front page of virtually every newspaper in the country within weeks wiki leaks wiki leaks wiki leaks which leads to his photos julius sargent is a cyber terrorist and war time he's guilty of sabotage espionage crimes against humanity he should be killed but to his stance a soft spoken activists with the potential to radically reshape the geo political landscape voted by the people as time's man of the year but our commitment to our sources is not just to protect them and we've never lost it's not just a proper structure it is to get the maximum. possible but it's up to me today it's the political impact of illegal and not the leaks that has gripped headlines.

allegations of sexual misconduct by two swedish women infighting within wiki leaks frozen bank accounts star donations the obama administration and the cia they want to start with the league's their new. all sorts of extraordinary actions stop in pay pal or lean on pay pal master card and other are private corporations that to not allow donations to be made to wiki leaks the once heroic figure now hawking mugs bumper stickers and t. shirts to pay his legal bills who profits from the meaning and meaning truly of us obviously it's the us government which is really getting him makes no bones about it then under the bus by the newspaper that once eagerly used his beaks initial impressions that you're going to. set up some red for some in a list say assigned and wiki leaks have been effectively neutralized consumed by litigation rather then leaks i think what the american government wants is to have

mr assigned in custody so that ultimately he can be extradited to the united states to face charges for the release of those documents or u.k. court ruled that julian assange should be extradited to sweden but his attorneys say the next stop for the thirty nine year old computer programmer could be here in the united states where science could face as you know his charges and even the death penalty as a sound basis jail time the future of wiki leaks hangs in the balance and its ability to be a place for whistleblowers and it beacon of transparency and ford r.t. washington d.c. . julian assange blames the european arrest warrant system for london's for that with international terrorists living in the u.k. so much starting to question great britain's extradition policies. an m.e.p. for the united kingdom independence party says that london's decision shows a flawed system. what mr soundscapes does illustrates the fundamental problems with the european restaurant which i've been talking about now if it was introduced in two thousand and four he's an australian citizen they want to actually go to sweden

but this affects every british citizen and anyone who is a guest in our country and what it does it removes the fundamental rights of the english courts to protect its own citizens and guests in our country because they are not simply not allowed to look at the problem of a. case like this and take into account it's what the lawyer called tip top justice and i would now so i've been saying now for some time that extradition which is now called conditional surrender has been reduced to a bureaucratic formality and now i'm saying that it's actually nothing better than legalized kidnapping allan's it's been going on national finance and i haven't figured out what the charges are yet an interest if i can say about what's going to happen in suite and begin to use a very very rarely used mechanism here to try this case in secret so we won't even be able to hear what's being said what the allegations are what the charges are and all the full evidence because that's it's going to be done in a secret hearing which is absolutely astounding. you with auntie live from moscow of course and i were just about thirteen minutes past the russian army to make over

the next ten years the government has announced that it will allocate about six hundred fifty billion dollars to upgrade its equipment it's bush's plan which fits in with russian president dmitri medvedev this long modernization girls. huge amounts of money these are the large scale spending plans that have been done by the defense ministry and so we needed a main focus of the spending that's going to take this up to twenty twenty five is going to be the development of the strategic nuclear weapons i know among some of the stuff the defense has to gain to be purchasing gains here on one hundred ships a thousand helicopters around six hundred planes and a submarine set again to be equipped with new generation missiles so a huge amount of purchased is that against the make that she's going to be the first time that russia has bought military equipment from the naysay remember it's

going to be purchasing two helicopter carrier ships from france we have heard the russian government saying it is not planning on buying a huge amount for the broad but what they do you bring it is where they feel the russian military is lacking right now and then they can then take some developments as well this is of course all part of this push by the government to modernize the military of course the start treaty is now in place and that agreement between the u.s. and russia was the last week here also. the would it doesn't say is that the countries are not allowed to upgrade their nuclear arsenal say this is completely within the terms of the treaty it doesn't actually call kicked it. and as you said that's really been the answer is a huge amount of money that is really needed president baiters come out and said that he really wants the military now it's been of a should they're trying to upgrade and steam like that if you will it is not for the spending is all about. surfer putting that well still to come for you

a little bit later in the program here on out c it is a year in review for which brings presidents put under the microscope and completes its first year in office to find out how a booming economy has silenced even his harshest critics. on this day in one nine hundred ninety one members of it was all packed set up as a counterweight to nato voted to dissolve their alliance twenty years on nato is still going strong with its sphere of influence continuing to expand its lower list of reports some say this western alliance no longer has a place in the modern world. it was an alliance warren of fear originally supposed to define defend western europe against the soviet union but the fall of the berlin wall changed all that now decades later the military alliance for and against the soviet threat long deprived of its enemy has been. the

answer fumbling for a clear cut mission the north atlantic treaty organization has been fighting for justifiable reason to be but that hasn't stopped nato from continuing to pursue a global reach it's been twenty years since the warsaw pact formed in response to nato dissolved but even without its main rival nato has continued to aggressively expand and to date it has operations spending several countries with troops and resources in the sudan the mediterranean sea kosovo iraq afghanistan and the horn of africa in november they redefined their goals going forward at the summit in lisbon wanting to tackle everything from nuclear disarmament to terrorism and cyber security. it was all adopted and it's protests on the streets now it's always out of date now out of time we need a world of peace and justice not one of preparing for yet more wars and already nato members have been divided over the near decade long war in afghanistan nato

has not prevailed there calling into question the alliance mission. there's every expectation that with the end of the cold war nato would be disbanded instead what happened in fact and in violation of even the accords in the agreements at that time was nato aggressively expanded critics say it's u.s. defense companies benefiting most from this expansion with the sales of weapons to every new nato member and the building of every new base and that growth allows other tools to be used as it's changed altered militarily to become also this very powerful. political entity that is used to pressure countries to bow down to nader's agenda nader's agenda being primarily a u.s. agenda it's an agenda some countries see as a threat and critics of that agenda right in the u.s. say it's global expansion must be stopped i don't believe there's anything that justifies nato has

a continued existence. in terms of world security and peace but an assault to the peace that nato once pledged with forms to keep lauren mr r.t. new york all right zaki live from moscow let's get to some other international news every day for you this hour on iraq fishel says security forces have killed the top al qaeda leader during a special operation west of but. i've also lehmann was the war minister for the islamic state of iraq and a group responsible for bombings and suicide attacks across the country it has been seriously debilitating since the height of. those militant group is still able to carry out its. afghan investigators say at least sixty two civilians including women and children died during a nato operation last week it's a challenge for you alliance denies president hamid karzai has ordered running quietly for the alleged incident in the coup not province that's where the alliance used to type helicopters in a three day offensive against the taliban but

a nato spokesman says that its own findings have shown that no civilians were killed. so finding a more survivors four days after the devastating earthquake hit new zealand's city of christchurch the hopes and all fading disaster has so far claimed one hundred thirteen lives and it's been more than twenty four hours since anyone alive was found amid the rubble over two hundred people understood as missing and it's thought up to one hundred twenty are inside one building residents have been urged to stay out of the way of rescuers point going shaky instructions. the polls have opened in ireland in its first election since receiving a huge loan package from the e.u. and i.m.f. observers say the ruling if enough for party is expected to stop a shoes losses after dominating the country's politics for almost eighty years the party has been blamed for island's financial crisis which led to a bailout of the country's banks prime minister brian cowen is not standing in the

election which comes a year early his valves are quit falling apart. and he's been in office for a year but opinion remains split on the success of ukraine's president victoriano coverage one thing that has improved is the country's economy which has seen a rapid turnaround from a slump to steady growth artie's alexy going to shift the looks of the reasons for the revival. when viewed through the yellow coverage campaign for the presidency a year ago he pledged to revive ukraine's crippled economy twelve months on some in ukraine accuse him of not keeping his word however the annual economic report paints a different picture in twenty ten ukraine registered a four percent g.d.p. growth one of the highest figures in eastern europe was the year before that the country's economy was devastated by a fourteen percent salon ukraine was among the country's worst affected by the

global recession and while experts say it has not yet fully overcome the low res fuz of the economy saw a double digit growth in twenty ten with the industrial sector being a firm leader even though. we've reduced the thirty percent growth has helped us to avoid financial damages this year exporting our products is what can save our economy now and the credit crisis year our company exports up to eighty percent of what we produce in the russian market is our priority. as ties between kiev and moscow moved from strains to warm demand from the russian market increased and thus for all production and present by more than eleven percent there was an increase in demand for christmas generally from russia that were the major the time and for. very impressive growth in machinery more than thirty percent obese all saw gives us . our business to expect from performance for quantum in the current year the

government still has a lot of issues to address ailing social structure ineffective banking sector and poor agriculture but this political analyst is sure that it's only a matter of time will go up with what is a big previous administration lived in a dream world and he wanted the whole country to live in that world to this regime stands firmly on his feet and deals with the real problems we must give it another year to see how they would fulfill the many projects they've begun with. the opposition is still rigorous in accusing the new power circles of failing us something of a new round of political infighting within this post soviet state experts assure if economy continues to receive record at the same rate calm next year many critics would be silenced by witnessing the promise to better living conditions let's see russia ski r.t. reporting from kia ukraine. hold up on top stories on that much much more just look on to our web site that's coming here's

a taste of some of the items waiting for you online right now we have in-depth coverage of the ongoing protests in the u.s. stated response tens of thousands joined forces to rally against budget cuts and. the imagery about the russian on the political story is coming down moscow in two thousand and six time for commensurate said to be made and could find out more coming quarter online again our colleagues who don't. already know just a few minutes. coursing swords in a heated debate over the ongoing unrest in the middle east and north africa but first the latest from the world of business with coverage.

how a welcome to business with me create a mail account thanks for joining i could in markets around the world seem to be breathing a sigh of relief as the sharp spike in the ore price has not a rate at prices for crude retreated late on thursday from their twenty eight month highs almost friday's session has seen them climb once again news that saudi arabia could pump more oil to compensate for the loss from media has taken some of the heat out of the market like sweet crude is now trading below one hundred dollars a barrel brant crude is well all gone higher than eighteen dollars seen early in the week a very spiky could just be temporary and many analysts predicting the rally will continue. and in the short term high oil prices are good for the russian economy and for energy shares but even older and costly from north capital are ones a negative impact on the global economy in terms of slower growth or ultimately be harmful even for the world's biggest energy exports a one word been there done that we'll know for judging by experience or for two

thousand and eight that the deteriorated effect will take place however it's not going to happen overnight it will take approximately four to six months for the true mental economic impact to happen during this time obviously investment in the energy resources will stay attractive however what's good for russia is not so good for joram and so to say they're for right now the question is how long this euphoria will last for russia it's not going to last for more than three or four months right now will do so there's going to be in flow of foreign funds positive rating bonds there's going to be zero deficit of the budget and obviously will cause more consumption more luxury cars on the streets more exotic traveling however it's not going to last for for a year i am absolutely confident in that. he's meeting with.

all russian partners and thank you b.p. did not go ahead as planned on friday executives from the british well major were due to hold talks with a r about its plans to jointly to develop the arctic with russia's biggest oil company ross sniffed b.p. however did not turn up for the meeting has been postponed until next friday march for the fourth b.p. and concluded a deal in january to swap shares and jointly explore for oil and russia's arctic shelf a.r. has strongly objected to the plan saying it while it's occlusive agreement with p.p. . now let's take a look at the markets wall street rebounds on friday after a week long sell off as prices stabilized from recent highs joe jones is gaining have a percentage on the nasdaq was up over one and a quarter of a percent but actual stocks are gaining bank of america up two point two percent and wells fargo rose three point nine percent in company news for one rose three

percent after the plane maker said it wants thirty billion dollars contract to build one hundred seventy nine u.s. air force refueling planes. now european stocks are gaining in the last few sessions a little relief but also prices have retreated one of the worst performers in london was lloyds banking group down five percent after it warned business would be tough this year as the u.k. economy slowed also airspace and defense. is down almost three percent after losing a key u.s. tank a contract to rival boeing. and here in russia markets closed higher on friday the r.g.s. surged over one and a half percent in the black and m i six again just under two percent energy stocks were struggling as investors took profits after several days of gains other sectors such as banking and retail. and now let's have a look at some individual share moves in russia energy majors were mostly in retreat as investors took profits was down point percent six.

quite. wrong. i think we've seen tremendous volatility in the markets over the over the last week it's not just russia it's everywhere globally people are trying to come to terms with what's happening in the gulf and it's tricky so when you have a sudden shift like we've seen over the last few weeks of the oil price. trade. interview oil sector and that's what we're seeing on the performance of banks in the last week or so global markets but you can go to emerging markets have been suffering since the beginning of the year russia has been really out performer in that process and the fear in the market right now is you know when will russia start acting like all the other emerging markets and start selling off is being held up by the oil price quite frankly if the oil prices to move in the other

direction then you may actually see a correction in the russian market. you're . wealthy british. it's. like.