it's. the u.n. says the death toll in libya could be in the thousands as the government steps up the battle against protesters as the west pushes for democratic change in troubled regions fears grow their interference will add fuel to the fire. the u.k. is accused of double standards by green to extradite wiki leaks founder julian assange overrate claims of refusing to do the same for international terrorists. plus boosting the russian armed forces the government announces a multi billion dollar program to upgrade its military equipment to tackle modern threats.

this is r t here in moscow just after eight pm now in the russian capital and seven pm in tripoli where gadhafi forces have opened fire on the protesters in the libyan capital the last bastion of the embattled leader at least four people have reportedly been killed with the unofficial death toll of the ten days of revolt standing over two thousand it off is battling to shore up control of the west as demonstrators consolidate gangs in the east of the country international momentum is building to punish the libyan leader for his violent response to the protests russian president dmitri medvedev has called on your sources to prevent tensions from escalating any further and stop the bloodshed meanwhile in iraq at least eleven people were killed as people took to the streets protesting against the government and calling for reforms the. journalist anthony while total to the west

is advocating the spread of democracy across the region to control the politics of the arab world. 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 peoples 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 need so much the philosophy of what they've developed and put together in a in the in the u.s. for example take a look at what they're doing any 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 it's 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 printing 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 want to. to egypt now where two weeks after the popular revolution swept from power president hosni mubarak demonstrations continue with tens of thousands calling for reforms and ministries in control there until elections can be held and auntie's peter all of our reports on the difficult transition from dictatorship. the people of egypt have once again occupied central cairo here at the here square the at the center of the revolution the bells kanzi mubarak the people up back out 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 in order 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 major feat was a symbolic gesture from the part of the corrupt government just removing the bike and if you businessman a scapegoats 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 demand for change that was fulfilled by the president being sort of resigning for stepping down if only for that one level but not the entire system made as it is the ogunnaike says of 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 come back to the center of cairo the streets of cairo and call for

a democratic egypt and we can now hear my reports and what a democratic egypt could mean to the people. with a force. 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 toppled he believes that egypt can make the transition from dictatorship to a democratic state the thing is defining democracy no on terms that were here i mean everyone look at it and it and its own terms we are going to it our terms that we want to see in this country our country there does stuff that we want to feel like here there are some way of getting it and we're going to 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. or for the worse we want democracy but we also want states that will be friendly to us and do what we want for almost certainly arab democracy. less comfortable for the west the arab dictators. those dictators have been swept aside by people who after years of injustice finally had enough some of the poorest people in egypt capital live in the area of cairo here many are hopeful that a democratic egypt will help them out of poverty others expressed concern they may see the rich get richer while the full get poorer. i'm worried things can get worse for the poor of democracy is not implemented pretty god will keep egypt safe. while the west may have become institutions were fighting fit democratic principles they may be in for a nasty shock when they find out that the people simply have to change beach all

over cairo egypt. where a little later we explore nato and why some say it's out of date find out why the. military alliances being seen as a failure why their mission is getting more protests than applause. during the sodgers preparing to battle to overturn a london court's decision to extradite him to sweden if we can use founder insisted there is no truth to the sex crime allegations against him and that that was not enough evidence to justify the court's decision will not is kayleen ford looks at the cases mystery and intrigue. when julian assange emerged less than a year ago with this video. showing u.s. troops going down unarmed civilians into reuters journalist video games he was lighted as a hero of transparency. in anti war ally and human rights

defender r.t. america interview to stanch on the day of collateral murders release what keeps people in war keeps the civilization growing as we understand how the world actually works so. in the fourth grade used to get information out about the real world and if they're going to comment i don't think about it but sources can't get. out of the public eye nomadic computer expert with a cache of two hundred fifty thousand classified cables is so much catapulted to the front page of virtually every newspaper in the country when he leaves wiki leaks wiki leaks wiki leaks wiki leaks to his photos julius is a cyber terrorist and work time he's guilty of sabotage espionage crimes against humanity he should be killed but to his fans

a soft spoken activist with the potential to radically reshape the geo political landscape voted by the people as time's man of the year our commitment to our sources is not just to protect. it's not just to publish material used to get the maximum political impact possible but it's a city it's a political impact of the leaker and not the leaks that has gripped have been. allegations of sexual misconduct by two swedish women infighting within wiki leaks frozen bank accounts stalled donations the obama administration and the cia they want to start wiki leaks they're doing all. sorts of extraordinary actions stopping a paper or leaning on paper master card and other private corporations to to allow donations to be made to wiki leaks the once heroic figure now hawking bumper stickers and t. shirts to pay his legal bills who profits from the meaning of meaning.

obviously it's the us government which is really out to get him makes no bones about it then under the basket by the newspaper that once eagerly used his beak special impressions of. some words 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 he and i started just any 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. button to d.c. . we're going to solve claims the european arrest warrant system for london's for

with international terrorists living in the u.k. some are starting to question great britain's extradition policies and europe button and n.e.p. for the united kingdom independence party says london's decision shows a flawed system. what mr science cries does illustrates the fundamental problems with the european restaurant which i've been talking about no decision was introduced in two thousand and four he's an australian citizen i want to actually go to sweden but this effects every british citizen and anyone who's 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. case like this and taking into account it's what a lawyer called justice and i would now start i've been signed now for some time the nation which is now called judicial surrender has been reduced to a bureaucratic formality i don't and now i'm saying that it's actually nothing that

has been legalised kidnapping alison going on that's going to come not from i haven't figured out what charges are you an interesting thought to say about what's going to happen in sweden they're going 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 your location is are the charges are and all the full evidence because it's going to be done in a secret hearing which is absolutely astounding. the russian army will get a make over in the next ten years the government has announced that it will allocate six hundred fifty billion dollars to upgrade its equipment an ambitious plan which fits in with russian president dmitry medvedev long term modernization goals as sort of the report's huge amounts of money these are the large scale spending plans that are paid by the defense ministry and so we need a main focus of the spending that's going to take this up to twenty twenty five is going to be the development if the strategic nuclear weapons and now among some of the stuff that the defense is to going to be purchasing again here on

a hundred ships a thousand helicopters around six hundred planes and eight submarines and again to be equipped with new generation missiles a huge amount of touch this is again to be made that she going to be the first time that russia has bought military equipment from a nato member is going to be purchasing two helicopter carrier ships from france we have heard the russian government say that it's not planning on buying a huge amount for the broad but what they did bring it is where they feel the russian military is lacking right now and then they can then take some development 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 this last week here also by. the would it doesn't say if the countries are not allowed to grade the nuclear arsenal say this is completely within the terms of the treaty doesn't actually called you take that tool and as you said

that's really been the answer is a huge amounts of money if this really needed president has come out and said that he really wants the military now to be a source of innovation and they're trying to upgrade and streamline the military forces not so this spending's all about. sarah furthur porting there will still to come later in the program here in r.t. it's a year in review for victory in a code which ukraine's president put on by the microscope as he completes his first year in office you can find out how a booming economy has silenced his harshest critics. and russia's credibility take on international all stars and what's promising to be a show stopping events at all the details on the rhythmic gymnastics grand prix and our sports update in about thirty minutes from now. but first on this day in one thousand nine hundred one members of the warsaw pact 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 and as artie's moralist to report some say this western alliance no longer has a place in the modern world. it was an alliance war and 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 formed against the soviet threat longer privative 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 its of date it has operations spanning 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 amidst protests on the streets and nato is out of date now out of time we need a world of peace and justice not one of preparing for yet wars and already nato members have been divided over the near decade long war in afghanistan nato is 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 and the agreements at the 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 contributed systems. in terms of security and it's an assault see that peace the nato wants pledge that was formed to keep lauren mr r.t. new york time now for some other international news in brief for you this hour and first to afghanistan with afghan investigators say at least sixty two civilians including women and children died during a nato operation last week a charge the alliance denies present honey karzai has ordered an inquiry into the

alleged incident in could our province where you know it's used attack helicopters in a three day offensive against the taliban and the nato spokesman says its findings are showing that no civilians were killed. hopes of finding more survivors four days after the devastating earthquake hit haiti earthquake hits new zealand city of christchurch a fading the disaster so far claimed one hundred thirteen lives and it's been more than twenty four hours since anyone alive has been found amid the rubble over two hundred people understood is missing and it's thought that up to one hundred twenty are inside one collapsed building residents are being urged to stay out of the way of rescuers and avoid going into town since. holes of opened in on and in its first election since receiving a huge loan package from the e.u. and i.m.f. observers say the ruling fall party is expected to suffer huge losses after been eating the country's politics for almost eighty years the party's been blamed for 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 and is about to quit following the ban it. fashion house christian dior suspended chief designer john galliano after he was briefly detained by police in paris he's accused of hurling anti-semitic written insults at a couple in a restaurant on thursday night and he said designer also exchanged slaps with the couple has been creative director of the company for fourteen years. but he's been in office for a year but opinion remains split on the success of ukraine's president. and one thing that has improved though is the country's economy which has seen a rapid turnaround from a steady growth things are actually just good looks now at the reasons for the revival. when we've campaigned 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 slide. ukraine was among the country's worst affected by the global recession and while experts say it has not yet fully overcome that blow means fears of the economy saw a double digit growth in tweet with the industrial sector being a firm leader. we registered a thirty percent growth has helped us to avoid financial damages this year exporting our products is what conserve our economy now and the post-crisis year our company exports up to eighty percent of what we produce and 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 real production increase by more than

eleven percent there was an increase in demand for increase machinery from russia that were the major the terminal for the very impressive growth of machinery more than thirty percent apiece all saw. raises 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 with order to the previous administration lived in a dream world and he wanted the whole country to live in that world to his regime stands firmly on its feet in deals with the real problems we must give it another year to see how they would fulfill the many projects need to go on 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 with experts assure if a corner me continues to receive or act at the same great context here many critics would be silenced by witnessing that promised better living conditions they see russia ascii art see and fourteen from kia ukraine. well for all our top stories and much more you can always log on to our website and our t.v. dot com here's a taste of what's on the line there right now we have in-depth coverage of the ongoing protests in the u.s. state of wisconsin as tens of thousands join forces to rally against budget cuts. and a documentary about the russian journalist anna politkovskaya who was gunned down in moscow in two thousand and six is to be made you can find out more about that upcoming projects online and r.t. dot com.

oriental flavors are coming your way courtesy of our very own guide of all things moscow and you can watch that in this time less than ten minutes from now that'll be after the business update with kareen. kareen it looks like oil has has retreated slightly from the from the earlier highs that's very good see you bill that equity markets around the world seem to be breathing a sigh of relief as well prices to moderate slightly now prices for crude retreat late on thursday from their twenty eight month although friday's session has seen them climb once again knew that saudi arabia could pump more oil to compensate for the loss from believe yet has taken some of the heat out of the market light sweet crude is now trading below one hundred dollars a barrel brant crude is well off the one hundred eighteen dollars earlier in the week but there is the rest by it could just be temporary with many analysts predicting the rally will continue. now in the short term high oil prices are good

for the russian economy and for energy shares unquote ski from north capital was a negative impact on the global economy in terms of slow growth will ultimately be harmful even for the world's biggest energy exporter. a one word deal they're down that we know for a judging by experience of third two thousand and eight that is the deteriorated effect will take place however it's not going to happen overnight it will take approximately four to six months for the economic impact to happen during this time obviously investment in the energy resources will stay a truck to what's good for russia is not so good for germans so to say therefore 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 be as the biz going

to be in flaw or foreign funds positive freedom bones there's going to be zero deficit of the budget and obviously will cause more consumption more luxury cars on the streets more exotic troubling however it's not going to last for for a year i am. confident of that. now b.p. is meeting with axis renault as russian partners in thinking a v.p. did not go ahead as planned on friday executives from the british were major were due to hold talks with they are about its plans to jointly develop the arctic with russia's biggest oil company ross now after b.p. however did not turn up for the meeting which has now been postponed until next friday march the fourth b.p. and russia have concluded a deal in january to swap shares and jointly explore for oil in russia's arctic shelf they are has strongly objected to the plan saying it while it's exclusive agreement with b.p. . now is have a look at the markets wall street with downs on friday after

a week long sell off as well prices stabilized from recent highs jones is gaining point three percent and the nasdaq is up one reporter sam financial stocks are gaining bank of america is up over two percent and wells fargo rose almost four percent in company news. boeing rose three percent after would want a thirty billion dollar contract to build one hundred seventy nine u.s. air force refueling planes. now european stocks are gaining in the last few sessions and they're relieved that prices have retreated one of the worst performers in london was lloyds banking group down five percent approved warned business will be tough here as the u.k. economy slowed also airspace and defense. is down almost three percent absolutely a key u.s. tanker contract to rattle boeing. and here in russia markets have closed higher friday the r.t.s. surged over one and a half percent and in my eyes it's going to under two percent energy stocks were struggling as investors took profit after several days of gains other sectors such

as banking and retail climbed now let's have a look at some individual share moves in russia here gazprom was down point six percent on the r.t.s. ross they have lost three quarters of a percent and russia second biggest bank b.c.b. was up almost four percent helped by news it has acquired them blocking stake in bank of moscow brawn dash from very real capital some soft but weak parts. i think we've seen tremendous volatility in the over the over the last week there is no 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 you have a sudden shift like we've seen over the last few weeks of the oil price and the obvious trade to make is to sell down the banks and buy into the interview oil sector and that's what we saw yesterday on the performance of banks in the last week or so global markets which 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. so for now i mean just wonder why don't more here on r t. it's.

not going to come aboard. if. he. gets to. see.