don't. ecuador to decide on his request for political asylum within hours but the chances of him leaving the u.k. without being arrested remain uncertain. moscow is not sending offensive weapons to syria and hasn't changed his position on ways to solve the conflict there this according to russia's foreign minister in an exclusive interview with us here at r.t. . meanwhile britain and the u.s. may give immunity to clemency to syria's president assad if he attends a conference on the transition of power all of this is part of. the syrian leader. and fighting continues in libya with over one hundred killed in a week of tribal clashes as the interim government fails to end violence in the

post gadhafi state. global news around the clock this is with me live in moscow the fate. could be sealed within hours as the president of ecuador is expected to make a decision on the whistle blowers request for political asylum and the wiki leaks editor has spent now a second night in the london embassy of the latin american state very came hoping to avoid extradition to sweden british police say they are ready to arrest him as soon as he steps out of the front door of the embassy building with this story as r.t. sara. 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 a western explain and a freedom of speech the charges of ever being voted against julian assange yet 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 he seeks the latest from i think twist in the case of julian assange has once again caught the eyes of the world's media behind the ecuadorian embassy in a cell and takes that 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 son just fights has been a long one eighteen months of legal wrangling in the case a result in the rejection of his supreme court appeal against extradition to sweden

what this was about was once julian assange gets extradited to sweden he's in prison in sweden the next thing that happens is the u.s. assuming there's an indictment large is 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 browser you'll end up. facing very serious charge probably life in prison if not the death penalty and it will be a stacked against those who are sitting with the bradley manning case united states now has kangaroo records rather than we accords these on time founded concerns as a long list of u.s. biggest. openly calls not only for songes incarceration but even for his death this guy is a traitor treasonous and he has broken every law the united states the guy ought to be and i'm not for the death penalty so 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 cable guy has embarrassed the american british government freedom fighting in the twenty first century is a whole new ball game with new rules new players and unexpected me even first songes legal team this was a complete surprise so we found out about it on twitter and say the man he revolutionized whistleblowing and three wiki leaks released groundbreaking stories has in another twist become the story himself and there are many now heaping that the next big release will be julian assange himself served r.t. london. and our legal experts are now in dispute over what's going to happen if

indeed ecuador does grant asylum to asylum since there are no guarantees the u.k. will provide a safe passage professor donald rothwell from the australian national university college of law explains the complications that are likely to arise. but i think if it would all ease intending to remove mr sanchez with these permission to take a quick all it will be a delicate diplomatic negotiation that will need to take place between ecuador and the u.k. authorities on that matter but the key issue is whether or not the immunity that the ecuadorians will be seen to grant to science will be respected by the u.k. government and the complexity associated with that is of course that assigns is currently being held in the united kingdom as a result of the swedish arrest warrant he's on bio at the moment our pinning the finalization of those extradition proceedings to spleen and of course he's breached by all conditions by actually spending the night there to now the ecuadorian

embassy so he is now wanted by the british police and they have indicated that it will suit your esteem and while the world is watching where the latest twist in assad is legal saga will leave him and we met a leading figure from the wiki leaks website that made its founder a whole household name you can watch our interview with a christian a close friend of julian assange is coming your way next hour here on our hungry for the full story we've got it first the biggest issues get a human voice face to face with the news makers on our t.v. . and it's good to have you with us here on r.t. today russia says it has not changed its stance on syria that's after british prime minister david cameron claimed that vladimir putin had shifted his view of president assad during international talks and the discussions were now focused on a transition of power in syria russia's foreign minister sort of eleven off set out moscow's position in an exclusive interview with artie's in eastern hour and she

brings us the details right now. barn minister sergei lavrov very clearly rebutted those comments by david cameron that russia or more specifically president putin app the g twenty made it quote explicitly clear that russia was ready for president assad to go this is clearly not the case i've seen the statement by prime minister can the world that has the full to the full to shift to just position after the terms of the scope of speech is no truer to the meeting so it is that if there were the president the former i did discuss syria. full so where. was this that here it goes that the british will see this. president gossip must go and then the external players must develop or that's resistant. for the syrians to agree. we express those positions that we can. accept the policy of each

would be the changing regimes for both so this has been no position that well and if we can. judge for the serious what the outcome of the political will with the foreign minister lavrov told me that if a transition does take place it should be accompanied by talks that would ensure safety for all sides in this conflict including those supporters of president we also touched on this issue of the media frenzy not just surrounding syria but specifically surrounding rumors and claims of why the west specifically the us that russia is sending weapons to the country only a foreign minister said that yes russia does have contracts with syria their previous contract stance and it's only left for just facts of what we have sending no but those ships to syria we have been saying publicly that we are implementing the calling for. which they have to supply arms to syria those albums inside the defense of. the most because they mostly consist of differ. systems

which going to be used for the gays are both religion which can only be used to respond to the growth the foreign minister also pointed out that a lot of these claims that we're hearing a lot of the media frenzy how seduce which the so-called campaign to push for regime change it's no secret that the west very much wants to see president also go with the foreign minister also you know referred slightly to of course what we heard from the department of state a couple of weeks ago specifically from hillary clinton about helicopters being delivered to syria the foreign minister did confirm again that those were from previous contracts and that russia continues and will continue to push for a solution to this crisis only through diplomacy. and he said now reporting right there was a part of the push to see syrian president assad step down britain and the u.s.

and all thought to be considering giving him clemency that's if he agrees to attend an international conference on a handover of power in syria with this story now to what he's pretty rough. well the offer is being seen as a potential sweetener from britain and america to get basher al assad to the negotiating table for talks in geneva at the end of the month however the offer of clemency which could be contained in the proposal suggests that london and washington are remaining true to their mantra that despite no charges having been brought against him assad is a criminal and must be removed from power clemency offer could be crucial though if assad is to travel to switzerland as it's unlikely that he would attend talks during which he could be packed off to the international criminal court however should assad accept an offer the question has to be asked who and what would fill the power vacuum if he steps down now there are thousands of tons of weapons on the ground in syria and enough factions within the opposition vying for power that we

could see a repeat of the violence which is marred the transition of power in other countries who toppled their leaders during the arab spring. who will have to take into account the fate of those arab leaders who were not offered this kind of deal in egypt mubarak was sentenced to life in prison tunis is ben ali is in exile in saudi arabia and t.v. news audiences around the world witnessed the brutal slaying of colonel gadhafi by his own people well his personal safety aside the syrian leader must also consider what would happen to the sizable portion of the people who still support him they won't receive the same clemency and may be subject to the type of brutal reprisal attacked which we see continuing in libya following the killing of gadhafi. about reporting that there were still ahead of you on the program here on just a rap on the knuckles for actions wisht enraged an entire. u.s. troops involved in burning the koran in afghanistan in february may get off with

just fine. uncertainty results of the presidential election in egypt are delayed with experts saying egyptians are between a rock and a hard place. more than one hundred people have been killed five hundred injured in a week long set of tribal clashes in libya tensions have been running high since last year's uprising which of course toppled moammar gadhafi but with the interim government failing to stop the violence middle east correspondent paula now reports . there are many who say that a nother civil war in libya is on the cards this coming as you say off to the interim government announces that a week of classes southwest of the capital city of tripoli have left one hundred and five people killed and more than five hundred people injured this to happen just days after authorities called for an immediate cease fire and declared civil mountain of cities in the west of the country a military zone now we do know that

a national audience brigade has been recorded between the warring factions there heavy and light with me is being used that since monday the situation has been calm but this doesn't detract from live very real volatility that we're seeing there in the region we hope in this case also reporting that at the same forty two ambulances and dozens of doctors to evacuate people and at the same time to bring in emergency supplies the situation is such because what you have at the moment is a long standing revival between various tribes and also divided communities coming to the fore and the government. at the moment are to simply unable to impose a law and order it's also raising questions over whether or not the election for the national assembly that has been slated for the july the seventh is going to go ahead it has already been postponed once due to the just tickle and technical reasons. more of what's actually going on in post production libya now joined by

thomas melton an independent journalist who covers africa good to see you today thank you for coming on our trio it's been several months since gadhafi was killed and yet libyans continue to fight each other why is that happening all. over syria. why libya has got to this point i think we need to take a brief history of the last year and a half i mean that according to amnesty international human rights watch an independent un investigators who were no rapes in libya there were a lot of african mercenaries in india and they were low helicopter gunship aircraft attacks on civilians in other words libya war lies are worse than iraq was a complete fabrication this middle warmly being made all carried out over ten thousand bombing raids on libya dropping something like forty thousand bombs on libya if two people people were cheering the bomb attack it was really close and

did libya hundreds of thousands maybe of being pretty much destroyed by this little war now or it is a tribal society. the problem is you have an interest tribal and into trouble war breaking out it's very similar to what i see is happening in somalia where you have a longtime strong leader all peoples internal an extreme force and the country breaking up into travel concepts now libya is back to. percent of the world did before the war story that i'm talking a. million girls of the old days something like two hundred dollars a day coming into libya that's sixty dollars to pay ten thousand dollars a year or more for every man woman and child in libya and in libya remains an economic disaster people are suffering there are as you say as you said all this money all this oil money that is coming back into libya where where is it going that's the need that's the hundred dollar question when the some questions about

this little transparency more words it may be that like the cases like jury were the worst of all computers and little you just wouldn't have it wasn't the perils of the ships and i think it may be going to. the right to repay that what the intestine industry will be able to enable the libyan people are getting is the libyan medical system or education system. before this war logs it's pretty much a disaster so on i think we. also you see this travel violence breaking or between the people there and i think all this interesting scenarios that are very very well respected just moments ago just moments ago you raise an issue about a tribal rival tribal factions i think a few minutes ago you were alluding to perhaps how iraq was before before the u.s. invasion there the saddam hussein was able to essentially pacify or at least to keep the violence down to a minimum between shias and sunni ultimately putting the blame now with libya with the nato intervention then what is next for libya there are some of the using the

good old cliche would be the sensationalized would of civil war is that what libya is looking at now yes i think that it's more like what's going on in somalia intertribal conflict where their country see libya never really was a country before the italians came in the italians lost the british ministry this country libya's very similar to what the in somalia they had our own italian colony the british people on the sea where it came to power was never really a king of a country called libya so they don't really have a history will be other than tribal and will take away their leadership it's breaking out and the thing is you have green opposition red people within what will swallow could after you have people we tried that were the rebels so then the tribes are fighting each other and then all the other tribes themselves fighting it's like clan who are fearsome in somalia we're fighting each other. for one of the flowers of the. lord in africa this guy's very powerful figure into

really he's very closely connected to the militias in sin. and guess who are saying well islam is being held. who arranged to get out of prison in the first place safe islam back in two thousand and ten people in the transition for all national terms. actually it is because they're the ones charged. they're actually. going to go i think so i do apologize i do apologize. i do apologize but we are we looking at reports when we're looking at reports use me crazy as. well as we've been reporting here on out see the one hundred one hundred dead five hundred injured five hundred injured in a bloody week of violence there in libya certainly this is not the last we're going to hear of the violence as many many of the analysts are saying will continue told

us miles and i'm so sorry if we have more time here on out so we could continue this independent journalist working in africa thank you for joining us today. now a u.s. military investigation into the february qur'an burning by american troops in afghanistan has reportedly ruled against criminal charges instead it recommended administrative discipline for up to seven soldiers which could mean fines or letters of reprimand several copies of the koran were set ablaze prompting deadly u.s. riots washington has apologized for the incident there was fear light penalties could lead to a new wave of anger among afghans phyllis bennis director of the new internet internationalism project believes this decision shows a lack of accountability. the relationship between the u.s. 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 allegedly one u.s. soldier this kind of activity highlights what is the reality of a long standing 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 of the atrocity that is military occupation that's what has to be brought to an end. now don't forget we've always got a plenty more for you on our website at r.t. dot com including a case of consumer discrimination in the u.s. an american girl refused the right to buy goods from an apple store for having iranian ancestry. plus nuclear alert sniffer dogs discover explosives near a swedish atomic power plant all those details also on our website. live from moscow this is r.t. in egypt the election committee has postponed the results of the presidential runoff until the weekend it says it must review complaints presented by both

candidates now there's uncertainty too over the condition of the convicted former president hosni mubarak who said to be in a coma. the professor of political sociology at the american university in cairo thinks the run off has forced the majority of egyptians to choose between options that they actually don't want to hear those three options now you will have a confrontation with. the fear and that with the muslim brotherhood and move. against him and that would lead the country in. the second scenario is the military council and the muslim brotherhood would reach an agreement in the pakistani model which is the vision of the political party between the military own the muslim brotherhood. the muslim brotherhood candidate is. the will be this violent reaction in this but there will be. sadness in the country

this is the first time in seven thousand years. but this was not the most favorable choices. we wanted. to give was that we don't want the. exterior and we do not want the military is the. update on the main news here on r.t. though now it's time to delve into the business news russia's main economic vent of the year st petersburg form under way in russia's northern capital. and that business out here has been bringing us up to date with the latest developments with the team covering the forum on location the right here in moscow those were the business desk what have been some of the key points of the forum so tired of all yes this is the lucky have said and here is the skull but it's ok well

basically one of the main concerns of course is that europe's debt crisis and a lot of people their exports they policymakers were discuss away so overcome that and of course lattimer putin was also there and he made this a forest major speech after winning his third term in office and he said that economic reform is the country's top priority and that the government has mapped out an entire program of large scale reform particularly mention that russia should possession itself as an exporter of innovative goods and services it should also capitalize on the natural competitive advantages available in the countries that haven't step he also commented admitted that russia shouldn't depend on its natural resources soley the aim here is of course to diversify the economy and move away from their reliance on crude oil and he actually promised to tackle that issue head on and most warningly here reiterated their fortunes of making the russian economy more appealing to foreign investors but you know. we must increase investment into

the economy to the level of twenty seven percent of g.d.p. by twenty this is a realistic goal given the fact now at this level stands at twenty percent of course it's private investment we're talking about here we do understand that we need to offer investors exclusive terms that's why it's the government's turn to improve the investment sentiment towards russian. of course on the hot topic as how the debt crisis could affect the russian economy well many analysts fear that it could weigh heavily on the russia's reform agenda we've been talking to people you see managing partner david gray and he said that's not the case. troubles in europe and the uncertainty that that generates does give you pause for thought in terms of exactly when you toil in the process of reducing the role of the state privatizing some of the businesses reducing the role of the state more generally in terms of its share of the g.d.p. but i don't think that should distract us i think it's very important that we see a government that's committed to that as a process because i will send

a very positive signal to the markets of arab reform in general in russia and about their for the long term economic prospects of the country. and our colleagues in sing petersburg we're also talking about spain when other the country has recently asked for one hundred billion euro bailout to support the country's banking system and while some said it's too much we spoke to k p m g international chairman there michael andretti he said it's actually not enough. what's not well understood some time which is the european banking system is probably three or four times the size of the us banking system secondly markets have to be convinced that the reason actually sold fund the why she supported guarantee these people being so you need to be always on the upside no one knows frankly with one hundred billion euros will be enough. to bring completed when that happens the market by your judgment as to whether it's sufficient or a lot over the more funds will be required but this is the right for the moment very large very big it could reach the markets peculiar to support the european

banking system. well you just have markets so let's take a look at how european the markets are doing been see them extraction that gets a pause there as you can see of remains this almost the same footsie is losing over a half a percent of the german dax is that i'm just annoyed investors are reacting to weak manufacturing data coming out from china and also the support by the federal reserve because they didn't mention any measures of regarding once the easing now here in russia the markets are now closely about to see how they had to trade in session as you can see it was pretty much a negative day the arts has lost almost super signs the my sense was a slowly heading towards a one percent and the red in here one major factor is the climb in the oil prices let's take a look at those in there and our brain at eight month lows we can sell lights which is trading at exactly eighty dollars per barrel and the brant blend is at around ninety one dollars per barrel and our quick look at currencies the euro is still losing against the dollar and the closing picture for the ruble at last against

both major currencies on this thursday eve then all right that's it from us for right now back to you rory always a pleasure thanks very much. the headlines in just a moment and then are we stepping aside for more talk of numbers on the dark and gloomy side of banking keyser board interest.

more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. trying to corporations are on the day.