and there just wait for joining us on track with our ways up the death threat hanging over the world's number one whistleblower if he is eventually transferred to the u.s. before delivering its verdict on his plea for political asylum. ground forces and home staging a mass offensive against syrian government troops under the cover of a red cross brokered truce and reports that armed gangs are using lethal intimidation to bolster support for the insurgency. the military backed election commission delays a result of a presidential runoff in egypt the move has outraged mannie in the country who see it as part of a coup aimed at keeping the army from the worst in power. say petersburg its national economic forum kicks off with many expected close the search of the shed

light on what will happen with the european and with russia's economy some more of this in twenty minutes time join me live. while it's one pm in the russian capital watching r.t. with me rima joshie ecuador says it will deliver the final word on whether the world's top whistleblower will be taken under its diplomatic umbrella later on thursday join a son who is now in his london embassy seeking asylum to avoid extradition to sweden which could eventually see him falling into u.s. hands british police are also in order to arrest him for breaching bail conditions sara for us has more. held under house arrest and oppressed by the government in an effort to silence a pro-democracy message to the public but we're not talking about famous political dissident suchi she's now free and being warmly welcomed by the british government

we're talking about the western explain and freedom of speech the charges of of imported games julian assange that he still spent more than five hundred days under house arrest fighting extradition to sweden and possibly the u.s. now he's desperately hoping ecuador in the safe haven see the latest dramatic twist in the case of julian assange is once again called the eyes of the world's media behind the ecuadorian embassy those julian assange takes refuge but away from the height and his supporters say that this is a dark a tale of a man who has been abandoned by his own country persecuted by the u.s. and failed by the u.k.'s legal system but he's not looking for consular assistance he's looking for political and diplomatic assistance and he's looking for a stroll in government to stand up for and just fight it's been a long one eighteen months of legal wrangling in the case resulted in the rejection of his seat between cause appeal against extradition to sweden what this was about

was one gets extradited to sweden he's in prison in sweden the next thing that happens is the u.s. assuming there's an indictment largest an extradition warrant in sweden eventually the u.s. gets his hands on him they stick him in a prison in the united states fears of what might await him across the atlantic may well have prompted his latest i think you'll end up actually going through some very serious charge probably life in prison if not the death penalty and it will be a stacked against as are seeing with the bradley manning case united states now has the records rather than we'll of course these on time founded concerns as a long list of u.s. biggest. cool's not only for songes incarceration even for his death this guy is a traitor a treasonous and he has broken every law the united states the guy ought to be and i'm not for the death penalty so if i'm not for the death penalty i want to do it

illegally shoot the son of a and here's why because of his work with wiki leaks this guy has made some powerful enemies you know the collateral murder video shows american helicopter gunships shooting reporters the iraq war logs the afghan war diaries all of this the cable guy leaks has embarrassed the american british government freedom fighting in the twenty first century is a whole new ball game new rules new players and unexpected me even first on his legal team this was a complete surprise so we found out about it on twitter and say the man he revolutionized with and three wiki leaks released ground breaking stories has in another twist become the story himself and there are many now a ping that the next big release will be julian assange himself surf city london. professor don rothwell from the australian national university college of law says that even if

a court or decides to grant asylum to style there's no guarantee he will be respected by britain. i think if it would all ease intending to remove mr sanchez with his permission to take him to acquittal there will be a delicate diplomatic negotiation that will need to type ties between ecuador and the u.k. authorities on that matter but that key issue is whether or not the immunity that the ecuadorians will be seeking to grant his sons will be respected by the u.k. government and the complexity associated with that is of course that assigned is currently being held in the united kingdom as a result of the swedish arrest warrant he's flown by a look at the moment painting they finalize i shouldn all those extradition proceedings to sleeting and of course he's breached his bile conditions by actually spending the night go to now the ecuadorian embassy so he is now wanted by the british police and they have indicated that i will seek to arrest team. and while

the world is watching where the latest twist in the sounders legal saga will leave him our team spoke to a spokesman for the website that made it found a household name christian hardens and admits that the few are over we can exit south has caused more of a stir than the crimes the website was exposing the full entry is coming your way next hour. the first part of the day took part in the collateral murder video. release in april two thousand and ten. i was surprised by the fact that the biggest stories were actually on the leak itself and secondly on julian assange. the fact that this is a video that is exposing. a war crime got much less motivation and it hasn't gotten the attention this works but it is the media for you. the media will decide where the focus is.

at a dramatic shift from their previous stance britain and the us are said to be considering clemency for syrian president bashar asad the move which is still under discussion is intended to encourage the leader to attend an upcoming peace conference and leave power let's now go to artist has been following the story here now tell us more about this report a proposal well the office being viewed very much as a sweetener from the u.s. in great britain to try and tice bush or al assad to the negotiation table to the peace talks in geneva now clemency is the crucial point in this would mean that while he was in geneva if he did attend those talks he couldn't be whisked off to the international criminal court for trial now the problem of the questions have to be asked should assad step down and take this off what would fill the power vacuum in syria would we see violence similar to which we've seen in libya. there are of

course thousands of tons of weapons on the ground in syria and plenty of factions with disputes within themselves now. also assad will have to look though. who didn't receive the those leaders the arab world is that didn't receive these type of offers from the west you're looking at mubarak who received life in jail in egypt. and tunis is currently in exile in saudi arabia and of course colonel gaddafi was brutally killed by his own people however he will also have to think though what about the assad supporters who haven't received these type of offers could they follow assad into exile if it were without the guarantees of clemency now or would we see the world the reprisals similar again as what we've seen in syria and in tunis the. british prime minister david cameron said that syria was. on the journey towards

a bloody civil war at the moment. all right piers thanks very much indeed for their spear are over there. the syrian rabble have apparently launched a major offensive to retake the district of homs under the cover of red cross procrit ceasefire sources say that dozens of army checkpoints have been struck that's as reports emerge of violent intimidation to force people to join the rebellion often at gunpoint national has this report. every evening cause a man has a spends time with his grandchildren but the story is grandpa tells the kids about bad and good people aren't fairy tales they're real. who's this mohamed where is he he's dead. because he didn't want to bring down president bashar assad. carson is the leader of

a five thousand strong tribe his son and youngest granddaughter were shot dead by terrorists after he refused to join the movement against the syrian regime. when our son here they came to me masked men carrying the al-qaeda flag with kalashnikovs and many other weapons they wanted me to demonstrate and bring my tribesmen with me then they came in the night and started shooting my house is covered in bullet holes from floor to ceiling. later cars and saw them on t.v. once arrested the militants confessed to many crimes and mentioned cars and two. we stormed his us house we were shooting and set fire next day where arranged to meet another victim but when we called him back for final details a stranger picked up when they had what is more hardin what you want. yes i will give you the whole. sorry.

russian agent and mundine will bring you a great head start dog where is my danish bring me bashar like saddam will tell you where. the hell is this you have to be set up among people. sure. you will get kidnapped two we found one he did hours later in hospital fortunately alive he told us he'd been attacked the gunman stopped his car took his money and mobile and shot him in the leg. they came asking to join to go they searched and me and they took my family and loved the city i was told they were following me but what should i do here's a case i don't even know why me was a little while my head dean is wondering why him mahmoud the last of the two matt knows exactly why people with guns visited his home and threatened him in his

restaurants he used to feed syrian army officers and was also delivering center which is to the checkpoints. i cannot feed the army and i now have to see them for free free syrian army they also wanted me to lead an armed group just like many others mahmoud has fled his native the city known as one of the syrian opposition strongholds which has seen several deadly terror attacks and now hiding in neighboring aleppo change in location every ten days and just like others he says he's already lost a lot but his ready to sacrifice the rest if it helps turn this dark page in this country's history while the west continues to pile more pressure on the syrian regime in the hope of the posen president assad it remains unclear what kind of people would take his place with open support for the syrian rebels and

a rise in the use of terror tactics the question many are asking is that what kind of direction would these force take the country. ready for national our team from syria. to coming up for you later in the program just a rap on the knuckles for actions which enraged and nation u.s. troops involved in burning the koran again istana fabby of my get off with fines and a reprimand was furious that mild punishment could spark a further wave of public anger in the country. and a south korea america and japan hold they are. biggest ever joint military exercises there is condemnation from north korea which says their preparation for an attack. and edge of the election committee has postponed the results of the presidential runoff until we can it says it must review complaints presented by both candidates and there's uncertainty too over the condition of the convicted former president hosni mubarak is said to be and

a coma looks at developments in cairo. the latest word now is from state television which is reporting that the election results which were due to be given on thursday have now been delayed and we're talking here about the first post democratic election now those results are results that people here have been waiting for the runnels was quite tight in terms of the two candidates the muslim brotherhood's mohamed morsi and the. fix from the former regime of hosni mubarak we understand that the reason for the delay is that the election commission says it needs to investigate the complaints that have been put forward by the various candidates here we're talking about some four hundred complaints at the same time we're hearing from international monitoring groups who say that they cannot say that these elections have been free and fair largely because they had insufficient access with which they could view the whole election process so certainly there are

fears here in egypt that the army is trying to hang on to power we're hearing the word coup being bandied about by the muslim brotherhood which is expecting its candidate mohamed morsi to win they of course with the figure of fifty two percent compared to suffix forty eight percent in these africa's that are being supported by most of the media here as well as independent surveys indeed this is not going to be greeted world by the thousands of people who are gathering in tahrir square they are mostly muslim brotherhood supporters and they will do this in the strongest possible terms of remains to be seen though if they turn their anger into wide scale protests it cannot be denied that the former president is probably quite sick and quite unwell we're hearing different reports on the one hand we are hearing from egyptian state media that he is in a critical condition they've gone so far as to actually say that he is clinically dead but then this has been refuted by the authorities they say that he is critical

but that he is not clinically did the skepticism by many egyptians is why is the army always making announcements about his determination in health at the critical times in egypt's political life with the suggestion that there perhaps trying to detract attention from other things that are. pothier is following developments in egypt for us updating our tease twitter feed with the latest her latest tweets quote hosni mubarak's lawyer as saying at the ousted leader is worsening condition comes after a fall in the prison battle for more on the park's health as well as the volatile mood in cairo following his policy years on twitter feeds. site today a professor of political sociology at the american university in cairo thinks the runoff has forced a majority of egyptians to choose between the two evils those three options now is you will have a confrontation when they announce that general and that would leave the muslim brotherhood and the evolution there is mobilizing again this him and that would

leave the country in big chaos the second scenario is that the military council and the muslim brotherhood would reach an agreement in which there is the vision of the political party between the military and the muslim brotherhood. option is clear that the muslim brotherhood can do that is that window and in this case there will be this violent reaction in this to leave but there will be sadness in the country this is the first time in seven thousand years with. the president but this was not the most favorable choice he wanted. was that we don't want. and we do not want a military. now there's more for you on our website article including a case of consumer discrimination in the u.s. . the american teenager who says she was stopped from buying an i pad at an apple store because of her writing ancestry. lost here in france more on the government

claiming to have links with al qaida was finally captured after taking four people hostage in attila's back. south korean japanese and american troops are holding their largest ever joint military exercises near the north korean border around two thousand troops are expected to be involved in the maneuvers can damned by the north which is as near in preparation for an attack author and specialist on asia dr tim beals as the war games are really about winning over a u.s. and south korean voters the americans of the men to the. chinese side really all to do with with elections elections in the united states you know

in south korea. so then they're doing it knowing it will be really caught up with nothing very much going to happen it's just a matter of raising tension in the worst case scenario we might get war this is possible war two in the united states and china with you and south korea being squeezed in the middle hopefully that's not going to happen but we will get this continuing tension and it's really all to do with china it's to do with the containment china and out go to to go on as china goes up in the world tonight and states. this is going to be a continuing source of concern and danger oh well. american soldiers who were involved in burning the koran in afghanistan may get away with a light punishment involving just fines and a written reprimand a u.s. military investigation has reportedly decided not to press criminal charges against up to seven troops and recommended administrative discipline instead several copies

of the koran were thrown into a garbage fire pit in february setting off deadly anti-u.s. riots and forcing morphed into politics dance have been and expecting stricter punishment and it's feared the light ballots could trigger and new wave of anger so as bad as the director of the new international project believes that nato troops have created an environment which fuels violence in the country. the relationship between the us and government in kabul has been very difficult for a long time it certainly isn't only about this question of the burning of the qur'an there's been the killing of civilians and most especially the use of drones that have been responsible for the deaths of so many civilians across afghanistan these troops that are responsible for these outrages should be held accountable and there should be severe punishment there should be severe punishment right up the chain of command to those who have put them in these situations and set up the scenarios that have led to these actions the killing of sixteen. afghan civilians

just a couple of months ago by allegedly one u.s. soldier this kind of activity highlights what is the reality of a longstanding war that from the beginning has been characterized by the deaths of civilians and other violations of international law military occupation breeds outrage by the people who are occupied whether that is palestinians occupied by israel whether it's afghans occupied by the united states iraqis that were occupied by the united states for so long you know that in these situations the incidents the specific incidents that get a certain amount of attention are really only the tip of the iceberg. was over me that's our time now to get a latest from artie's business team and first day of russia's main economic event of the year the same pittsburgh form.

is there for us today so what are the highlights of the high profile gathering likely to be this year. well the highlight is obviously going to be within the next hour we're expecting the plenary session to be kicked off by russia's president vladimir putin is going to give his address and they expected to shed some light on his views of what's going on in the global economy notably in europe because of the situation with the debt crisis in the peripheral europe notably and of course russia's position on this how it's going to participate in the e.u. bailout is going to participate all together and of course the the background the changing financial environment and this crisis this year is the is the focal point of all the roundtable discussions is the so-called elephant in the room whether the euro will remain the same let's talk more about this with only on the managing director for the world bank thank you very much for being with us today what do you

think should be done to boost up confidence in the euro but it's been two years and i think a lot of the time has been. lost by the european authorities in this case i think it's up to the level in which the conclusion is that if you want to maintain euro that means you have to also address this issue of banking and carhart a banking union is there you have then that that consequence this fiscal union and then it's going to be also the political union so that is the three feel that we just i think all becoming that even if it so you think further integration is basically needed within the euro zone in order to to maintain the euro well the chinese is now becoming even more clear because you cannot be may and the option is actually quite that i mean the market you know the people know so that's why every new good news is on the very sharply like the bailout of the spain bank are the

outcome of the greece you know action it cannot satisfy before those three issues will be addressed don't you think that basically tensions are so high right now in europe within the. peripheral economies where unemployment is very high and in the in the more well off countries like germany they're not happy that people are not happy that they're bailing out basically other countries do you think they'll agree to more integration in that respect this is going to be a very difficult as well as fundamental part of the current choice for the people i think this see that in the past decade that this see the benefit of having europe together in the one you know the and that's why from the currency bill maher had a deal in the nation then the choice of the future is going to support it if they don't see the benefit of feeds then they are going to do otherwise i mean there are quite a lot of benefit because if it's not on the stabilising util that i think they can work in the market that if they get the alst this economy as well as the part of

the car is going to create marched have to feed not only for the region but also globally we've already had seven countries asking for bailouts from from the e.u. do you think any more will come and which ones would you do name as having the highest risk of the need for for international help now i mean this problem crisis is going to affect many other companies not only within the euro in this case and i think this is going to be like the collective responsibility that needs to be done i mean in the world ben we know that many different big company is going to suffer because of this uncertainty as well as the weakening global economic prospects because of this. crisis. next year say the next st petersburg economic forum do you think by that time we will be in a totally different economic environment than now i think the possibility to have a build that any different economy and part of the landscape is very real at this time i mean everybody now have to work with all those two extreme scenario this

scenario which is you are going to bed stay together and that the company is going to be still quite. no because this is not going to guess the politics of this isn't this just a starting point but if it is not going to happen that is also another severe out to not be so for the next year is going to be quite important in addressing whatever the consequences are. i'll be all right thank you very much that was the managing director of the world bank she will be on the indrawati speaking to us at the st petersburg economic forum meanwhile european markets are still monitoring what's going on in spain borrowing costs are going down but at the same time we need to wait the results of the austerity of the stress tests for food banks but at the same time right now markets are depressed on the fed's initiatives to continue with its twist program but with no signs of q.e. coming up so therefore the markets are down in russia there's pretty much the same

trend all those m i six is more supportive than the obvious because of a weaker ruble and indeed it's the pulling against the basket of currencies right now on the we could well price well the euro is also descending versus the dollar so that's the way the markets look at this hour but do join us next hour for the latest update from the st petersburg economic forum we absolutely will dmitry near the end thanks very much indeed for bringing us what's happening there at the st petersburg economic forum and in just a few moments i'll be back with headlines followed by a special report on the fate of women in war torn afghanistan.

we have a lot of war lords war criminals we have a lot of illegal call groups of the called citizens who says all our views in the home or right enough against my marriage was like many other marriage that wasn't forced marriage it's just money when i was fourteen years so you can liberate other women and you certainly can't do it through the barrel of a gun only effective social changes can be the afghans themselves afghan men and women we believe i'm going to stun them not to across power wait out

the part of the patient it's chemical for the shop and get a construction up and stop people in the obama administration talking about how much they care about the women of afghanistan it's not true they don't care about the women of afghanistan. business meeting on a global scale. hundreds of deals billions in investment. the international economic forum in st petersburg own party. wealthy british style is not. the time to write. market.