joining us on wait for 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 its position on ways to solve the conflict there according to russia's foreign minister in an exclusive interview with r.t. . meanwhile britain the u.s. may give immunity in clemency to syria's president assad if he attends a conference on the transition of power as part of the effort to oust 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 the violence and the post gadhafi stands.

on screen online this is r.t. with international news and comment live from the new center here in moscow the fate of julian assange could be sealed within hours as the president of ecuador is expected to make a decision on the whistle blows request for political asylum that we could take senators spent a second night in the london embassy of the latin american state where he came hoping to avoid extradition to sweden that is british police say they're ready to arrest him as soon as he steps out of the embassy building. as the story. 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 song suchi she's now free and being warmly welcomed by the british government we're talking about a western exponents of freedom of speech no charges of ever being bought 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 atic 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 recchi 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 a son just fights has been a long one eighteen months of legal wrangling in the resulted 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 larger as 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 go through some 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 carried the records rather than we of course these entente founded concerns as a long list of u.s. figures. and he 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 i don't 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. the iraq war logs the afghan war diaries all of this. 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 a ping that the next big release will be julian assange himself so r.t. london. legal experts are now in dispute over what's going to happen if ecuador does grant since there are no guarantees the u.k. will provide him safe passage professor donald ross well from the australian national university college of law explains the complications likely to arise. i

think if it would or is intending to remove mistress sanch with these permission to take him to ecuador 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 seeking to grant her sons will be respected by the u.k. government and the complexity associated with that is of course that science is currently being held in the united kingdom as a result of the swedish arrest warrant he's on bio at the moment our opinion in the finalization of those extradition proceedings to screen 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 will suit your esteem. and while the world is watching where the latest twist in the

sand his legal saga will leave him our team met with a leading figure from the we can exe website that made its founder a household name you can watch our interview with kristinn hrafnsson a close friend of john anderson in the next hour hungry for the full story we've got it first the biggest issues get the human voice face to face with the news makers on r.t. . russia says it has not changed its stance on syria and that's off the british prime minister david cameron claimed let me put it had shifted his view of president assad during international talks and that discussions were now focused on a transition of power in syria russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov set out moscow's position in an exclusive interview with r t's and he said the way she brings us the details 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 asad to

go this is clearly not the case i've seen the statement by prime minister kind of the president put it up which is shifted his position after meeting some of the stuff as if there's no truth to the meetings is that it could there are that because president obama did discuss syria. goes so we're. watching this that you're with us and the british we're seeing this. president asad must go and then the external players must develop for the transition to live for the syrians to agree. we express though position that we can. accept the policy of which would be a good changing regimes for about say this has been though there's no will and that we can. judge for the syrians what the outcome of the political dialogue 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 asad 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 u.s. that russia is sending weapons to the country only a foreign minister said that yes trust is does have contracts with syria their previous contract stance and it's only left for just facts of what we have seen didn't know but those ships to syria we have been saying publicly that we are implementing the call for. which they have to supply arms to syria those are the ones inside the defense of. the most because they mostly can see still for. systems which can be used to gays or fulfill issues which can only be used to respond to an outside the us 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 on 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. well as part of the push to see syria's president assad step down britain and the u.s. and elsewhere to be considering giving him clemency that's if he agrees to attend an international conference on the handover of power in syria well the peace all of it is following the story. well the offer is being seen as a potential sweetener from britain and america to get back 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 attacks which we see continuing in libya following the killing of gadhafi. r t live here in moscow still ahead in the program on ending uncertainty the results of the presidential election in egypt delayed the experts saying egyptians are between a rock and a hard place anyway plus. reservoir. private investment not oil should be the driver economic growth in russia joining in twenty minutes time from this a p the book at the national economic forum. let's return to the story concerning syria the latest developments there will now turn to political analyst lucia told she joins us from beirut to get her assessment on the current developments now what do you think of this potential initiative by washington and london to offer immunity and clemency to sad in exchange for him.

to be happy i can't oh i'm very sorry i thought i thought you could can hear me now . yes i can great right the question was quite as likely this latest development concerning washington and london they they've come up with a potential new initiative saying that they would offer immunity in clemency to a sad in exchange for him relinquishing power what do you make of that move. i think both washington london and the rest of europe taking their wishful thinking for realities and they are trying to create this. uncertainty for us in order to doubt russia the russians and sometime they try and the chinese as well by pretending have been

reaching an agreement with. to topple him so i think. the west has lost its bout of again and so you think it's very unlikely then i say i consider this. i think they are trying to. incite him to leave and i think they are a bit worried because they have large and many downs in this battle against us but what about what's happened in yemen this idea a similar scenario to yemen where president saleh was granted immunity and fled the country is that something that perhaps could be in the city of yemen solution as it's been described as. well. in my opinion syria has a much better much better allies in this battle against the west and the plan to dismantle syria and dismantle. the rest of the word and i think some countries with

a lot of interest in the middle east have watched neato and especially the u.s. playing the game and they're not ready to give up their last ally in the because the u.s. are pursuing every option possible hillary clinton not long ago saying that sound should be labeled a war criminal yet now the u.s. is promising it might protect him from prosecution by the international criminal court well no formal charges have been brought against him but nevertheless could that be an incentive for him to cooperate that sort of threat. from what i you know i said will not give up. power right now. the way the west wants him to give it up. pretty sure that he will stick to power until elections in two thousand and thirteen and. you know information clues to us

from the inner circle of. confirming that he was saying powers told and then he's going to offer. a fair election. under international scrutiny and. it's going to be as clear as possible and as open as possible and if he is reluctant by the free will for the majority then he will play if not he would leave but in the meantime there's no more than just in the meantime how many more deaths can be tolerated by the international community until such time as reach. in my opinion it's a political decision. that will force saudi arabia and qatar to stop sending weapons and sending fighters to conduct jihad against the regime i think we have this vicious circle in syria where blood is leading to more blood but not

only is responsible for the blood bloodshed in syria and also some some other factions some of which they call themselves the free syrian army and some of them. like regular fighters under the leadership of some extremist leaders and in qatar and saudi arabia and there is we are in need of a political decision to stop this just briefly do you think there is a chance sad could survive this and if he doesn't what would be the implications if he does go for syria but your own. i think as the president assad still has a lot of. legitimacy within syria he still has. probably fifty two even more percent of the population supporting him for many reasons not because because these people don't want

a form of course they do that one thing is clear what's happening in syria is becoming extremely sectarian. you know like massacres being conducted against the pro assad regime and sometimes against christians and i mean really. regular citizens who are in favor of bashar assad so this this situation yes ok well thanks very much because i just thank you because we are running out of time and we really appreciate your your thoughts on this political analyst and sorry about the difficult communication with the delay there but it's great to hear from you thank you. more than a hundred people have been killed and five hundred injured in week long trouble clashes in libya tensions have been running high since last year's uprising which topple moammar gadhafi with the interim government failing to stop the violence a middle east correspondent has this report. 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 in the corridor between the warring factions that heavy and light with is being used that since monday the situation has been calm but this doesn't attract the family 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 between various tribes and also divided communities coming to the

fore and the government the really the forty's at the moment are just simply unable to impose 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 has already been postponed once due to the just tickle and technical reasons. there and thomas merton an independent journalist who covers africa says the history of libya shows it's a tribal society i'm not used to being any other way. all indications seem to point towards libya being well on its way to being libya never really was a country before the italians came in and italians lost. this tension very similar to what. we had our. time calling the british people see what it came to. was never really a king of the country called libya they don't really have a history. then tribal. leadership it's breaking out and that thing is you know

a green opposition. could after you have people driving the rebels so then the tribes are fighting each other tribes themselves fighting it's like clan who are fearsome in somalia and therefore at each other. get plenty more fiona website at the moment dot com including a case of consumer discrimination in the u.s. an american girl was refused the right to find goods from an apple store by having a radiant ancestry. plus you can sniff a dog's discover explosives near a swedish atomic power plant all the details on dot com right now. in egypt the election committee has postponed the results of the presidential

runoff until the weekend and says it must review complaints presented by both candidates there's uncertainty too over the condition of the convicted former president hosni mubarak who's said to be in a coma site said 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 they don't actually want. those three options now is you will have a confrontation with the and i was generous to feed and that would leave the muslim brotherhood and move on you should know is mobilizing against him and that would leave the country in big chaos and the second scenario is that the military council and the muslim brotherhood would reach an agreement in the pakistani model in which there is the vision of the political party between the military and the muslim brotherhood so the option is clear the muslim brotherhood candidate is a window and in this case there will be this violent reaction in this but there

will be sadness in the country this is the first time projections in seven thousand years would make the president but this was not the most favorable choice he wanted . to give was that we don't want. and we do not want a military state brief look now at the major news stories from across the world and indeed an air force plane crashed into a residential area in the country's capital jakarta killing at least nine people and yet hit a housing complex setting a number of buildings on fire it was on a routine training flight at the time. norwegian prosecutors in the trial of under the believe it believed him to be insane and have recommended that the mass murderer be sent to a psychiatric hospital rather than prison judges will take that statement to a cart before the issue a final verdict in july or august two previous evaluations of mental health produce different results he admitted to killing seventy seven people in norway last year

saying the attacks were necessary to stop the islam and zation in the country. and the rest warrant has been issued for the man who's just been nominated as prime minister of pakistan mark duma shahabuddin is facing allegations over imports of an illegal drug when he was health minister he's currently the country's textiles minister but had just been nominated by the incumbent president to take over from you several hours ago learned he was fired after being convicted of contempt of court two months ago for freezing to reopen an old corruption case against the president. time now for some business news merino the petersburg economic forum it's in full swing day one is just about over now so what can we look forward to today to what all the official partners are about the informal meetings will still be taking place over the next two days or have more of the eels more round table discussions of course the eurozone crisis will be on everyone's minds and that's what they'll be talking about suggesting ways how countries can

safeguard their economies but i want to talk about what was achieved today in particular because again as i said everyone was discussing the euro zone issues and how to make sure to boost growth in the our the vulnerable situation that everyone is finding themselves in and lattimer putin also made a speech there the fact that was his first major speech after winning his third term in the office and meet him it was a cause there for us that he has all the highlights. well present in a person's been basically running the show here in st petersburg and when addressing participants at the forum when talking about the russian economy. basically from a macro economic point of view although the country does look even better in many aspects then it did even before the crisis it's extremely important in order to maintain growth levels that like the ones we saw last year four point three percent of g.d.p. russia needs to base its growth not on oil and gas revenues but on

a private capital. we must increase investment into the economy to the level of twenty seven percent of g.d.p. by twenty eighteen this is a realistic goal given the fact now 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 russia. furthermore the doom of the noted the importance of the privatization program that it plays a key role not only in liberalizing the economy but also attracting foreign capital and he said that even during the sale of stakes of key energy companies it will be open to foreign capital and echoing basically the statement we've seen several agreements signed during the forum with rosneft its head. signed to

agreements with norway stats oil is a lease and he to create joint ventures in the exploration of russia's arctic shelf and this is also a very important step for rosneft in establishing itself as a global company now among other key deals we saw russia's trans aero signing a deal to buy six super jet one hundred planes with an option to vote just ten more all together this deal could be worth around six hundred million dollars and it's extremely important for aviation industry and furthermore we are of course expecting many other deals to be signed worth around one hundred billion rubles or around three billion dollars notably in the pharmaceutical sector and in row two. now our let's take a look at some enter national markets where it's

a sea of red across the board less whether us which is the only one trader right now as you can see the dow's lucent over one percent and as i was already over one and a half percent in the red and all this is due to economic data that supported the u.s. federal reserve's knew that the economy is one of oil and that the jobs market is quite disappointing also of course losses on the european markets then help the secular as well as of course always drive the next market that all phones are as you can see the for the last almost one percent and the german dax us. over half a percent and investors there were not only reacting to their own troubles out window in the euro zone they were also reacting to weak manufacturing data that came out of china as well as disappointing news from the u.s. the day before as i said it's a domino effect for the markets and let's take a look at how russia performed and here it was a sea of red as well they are almost two percent and the mindset of almost one percent slowly heading there and here we have also oil prices affect and always

a major factor for the russian economy they are heading south as you can see with a vengeance as you can see there on the screen losing seven almost two dollars for the light sweet and more than two dollars for the trading at around ninety dollars a barrel and they're in fact trading at eight month lows currently and a quick look at currencies the euro still losing against the dollar i want to go through the ruble lost again of both major currencies on the thursday but that's how the business of day looks this hour for now back to you bill thanks very much indeed now in just a few moments here. with the headlines for stay with us live in the russian capital .

with. its technology innovation all the latest developments from around russia we've got. a very. i.