a turkish warplane shot down by the syrian military according to local media reports turkey has confirmed its last contact with its jet over the mediterranean. julian assange speaks out for the first time since asking ecuador for political asylum claiming his case is deliberately being slowed down by sweden in the u.k. to give the u.s. time to drop charges against him. and tens of thousands rally on egypt's tahrir square against the military with the muslim brotherhood calling for the announcement of a presidential election results while the ruling generals blamed the movement for stoking tensions.

a.p.m. in moscow i met good to have you with us here on r.t. our top story this hour the syrian military is believed to have shot down a turkish jet which reportedly ventured into syrian air space conflicting accounts about precisely what happened continue to circulate circulate turkish media say that the plane crashed into the mediterranean let's get the details on this from artie's marie if an ocean is standing by live for us in damascus hello maria so what more can you tell us about this instead. well mike we're hearing from local media here in damascus the turkish jad has indeed been shut down in syria not far from the country's military and for the time by syrian led forces t. souces here in the country also saying that the two pilots from these just have been captured. initial media reports have been claiming two two planes actually were called by syrian raiders in this cause over the country and late term one of

their was shot down in a while another is ok so far there hasn't been any immediate reaction from any side and any official confirmation of all these reports by turkey says that he has lost contact with one of its military planes while it was over the mediterranean sea and some media in turkey saying it crashed in syrian territory territorial waters and other unconfirmed reports we are hearing here in damascus also saying that turkish naval forces have a messed in the syrian territory waters and we also know that prime minister of the gone is now preparing the country for the emergency meeting of the country's security council so these reports have haven't been confirmed yet but if confirmed if the proof turkey's unfoldment nato member country will be in its

neighbors conflict but so far we haven't been we haven't been receiving any confirmation. number of these reports are coming up or claims the cia has been covertly steering arms to the syrian opposition in turkey can you tell us more about that. well indeed the use of all of this allegedly turkish plane allegedly show down here in syria has come just days after we've been hearing from arab and american intelligence officials that cia is in turkey right now in the southern part of the country not far from the syrian border to called in a weapons smuggling into the country the reports are saying that the officers have been crossing into syria themselves but they. saw it which call it which groups inside syria to get persons paid for by

khattala turkey and saudi arabia the same time we've been hearing from turkey that the north has been involved in any weapons smuggling from their territory to syria we've also been hearing that here the shows have been in contact with the rebels and they've been helping them avoid. all they need we including the information. on the movement to move the syrian. forces on the wrong c.r.u. . who do these reports don't deny their presence in turkey but they say the are there to ensure no weapons go to al qaida while at the absolute unclear exactly how they intend to do that we've been hearing from nations back in the rebels they read in this about they were in this to provide them with all they need including weapons or recently a lot and america and gulf countries have been expressing their readiness to all of

the rebels and so we what we what we we have right now is that i mean what they've been talking about as well that they have prayed that weapons can fall to roll on hands that with blood should continue in the country and it's come. all of this to you in these reports now unfortunately we can see even further escalation in the near future thank you very much and he's written a lie for us in damascus. and we are hearing now that the turkish prime minister tayyip erdogan has confirmed that two pilots from the missing turkish jet all real live let's get the latest on this now with the situation in syria from brian becker director of the u.s. based anti-war and serco militia so there is still uncertainty over whether the turkish police turkish plane was taken down by syria or whether it crashed from some other perhaps technical malfunction what's your take on the situation well i

think we have to put it every incident in there will be many incidents like this and they'll grow increasingly in number put it into the broader picture i think what we see is syria a small country a government that has been independent sense independence mean while it sometimes collaborates with the west that has not been considered to be a proxy or a client has been targeted by the western powers and by the turkish government which of course is part of nato and by their regional proxies saudi arabia qatar for overthrow and the overthrow is designed not to bring in more humanitarian or more democratic government to syria but to create a client regime in that important strategically important arab country so this incident is heightening the tension but so is every other incident and we could see from the comments of ambassador ford the u.s. ambassador the united states is now encouraging that disaffection and defection from the syrian military part of a strategy to promote civil war in syria that's

a crime. now why do you think the turkish plane would be in syrian air space or do you think it would given the situation there or do you think it was perhaps just a matter of something going off course or perhaps some kind of situation where it was just in the wrong place at the wrong time not necessarily deliberate. well we don't know with certainty about the specifics of this incident but what we do know with certainty as that turkey as a nato power has been ramping up its support for the armed insurgency in syria that that turkey itself and that turkey syria border has become a transit for the flow of weapons that are coming from saudi arabia from qatar being paid for really in coordinated with almost great certainty by the by the united states and the nato powers so i think we see an escalating aggression by the turkish government against syria again as a wedge for nato as part of this larger plan to overthrow the independent government in syria and replace it with a proxy government so you think this could bolster the case for foreign

intervention there well certainly you know nato article five in nato says that any member state could also in this article to say if attacked it calls on the other nato members to come in and becomes a trigger whether that will happen in this instance we don't know but we can see the general trend is that the united states is extremely frustrated that they've been unable to overthrow the assad government so far that even though the assad government has a has a big popular base as does the opposition the fact that the regime has been able to hold on and secure international allies and russia and china has made the united states frustrated and is now escalating the military strategy against syria again i think using turkey as a way so what do you think could be the wider consequences of this. we don't really know what the wider consequences are except we do know that what happens in syria will undoubtedly have a big impact on the ethno sectarian strife divide within lebanon lebanon was the

victim of a terrible civil war tens of thousands died we also know that part of a grand design of the united states is to bring down the syrian government as part of an effort to isolate further the iranian government again the big picture the big prize for the united states is the overthrow of the iranian government which has in syria currently and now i have to leave it there brian becker director of u.s. based antiwar answer coalition thanks for time thank you while violence on the ground continues in syria news of another battle can be seen on our web site laura smith reports there on the media and the stories used to drive the headline see for yourself on our team. julian assange has broken his silence for the first time since seeking refuge in ecuador's embassy in london where he still awaits a decision on his request for political asylum and his interview the wiki leaks editor said that even if the plea is unsuccessful the dramatic move has drawn the

world's attention to what he describes as a conspiracy against him orchestrated by the us or he's sorry for of has more from london. escape avoid things that you're going to hear in the media at the moment relating to just decision what he said day is that this is not about avoiding the station that's the allegations against him in fleet and fall from that is that really this is never about sweden it was the fate of what happened to him once he was in sweden and the involvement of the u.s. . fears that. and the announcement was made by discreetly that i would be detained without charge if i meet with your next edition if you the country's prosecutor to come to u.k. for the part where you can run this point for absolutely no new procedure and refuse to offer to explain it in any manner whatsoever to the court. retract.

while the united states and i have prepared it critically so sensory that always leads to the us is maintaining that there is a grand jury deciding at the moment whether there would be charges brought against him in the us remember that in the us as being arjun stealing state secrets carries the death penalty still remember wiki leaks released a huge amount of information at the u.s. diplomatic cables that were released in two thousand and ten worst huge embarrassment to the u.s. government so i mean there is no mistaking the fact the julian assigned is a man he certainly from his actions and from what he said is very fearful of what would happen to him in the u.s. official for his life in fact. very now every forty eight thousand one hundred thirty five if they are filed their statement right in court. and it is the money the subjects point the grand jury. which are now going to count

them and their superiors everywhere there is to comment on public record about how if you are going through grand jury where you know everything you could. believe is mention my name people could be preparing to usa for you to get it by the f.b.i. well this is julian assange just chance really to set the record straight he's just spent his third night in the ecuadorian embassy of course this is the latest in math a twist in the ongoing saga it's been an eighteen month legal battle for him and the end of last month we saw the u.k. supreme court reject his appeal against the extradition to sweden and the legal team in asuncion south running out of options really and so he took this step seeking asylum at the ecuadorian embassy he says he's hopeful that that's going to be except to say with the gates this week that not only is the free trial the

tension in sweden extremely harsh he wouldn't have access that he does right now to the media all the same freedoms remember he's been on house arrest in the case for more than five hundred days now no clear indication of exactly what the outcome will be and the stakes remaining extremely high. interview as sondra again slammed the australian government for a lack of support in his battle against extradition the whistleblower said it's the sense of abandonment by his homeland that made him turn to ecuador for help sydney based journalist mary kosta keita says the australian authorities have never had any interest in providing assistance. why do you say i haven't tried that's the problem the state has an obligation to its citizens to protect their human rights we live in an advanced forest and democracy we expect our government to act in a way that's principled and courageous and to show leadership in the protection of human rights australia has lost all moral authority to literature of the countries

on human rights i think it's a very sad day for our country if the fact is this region has a rather different arrangement with the us to the u.k. so it will be easier to get to the us from sweden but let's not ignore the facts we can has covertly handed over the people to the us handed over saddam seekers to the cia those people would tool cheated and in the end it was a case of mistaken identity so swigs track record is not good a sound has a place in a strange yet he needs to be back here record ourselves before delivering its decision on a sunday after discuss the matter with the other countries involved latin american countries president rafael correa however seems to be sympathetic to wiki leaks cause something he made clear during a recent interview for a side of his own show here on our t.v. and in case you missed it as well as the other editions can always buy them on a special section on our website assan dot argument dot com.

egypt's military rulers say the claims of victory in the country's presidential election before the official results were announced are behind the growing political divisions in the country it's seen as an attempt to pin the blame for the turmoil on the muslim brotherhood which declared their candidate the winner meanwhile tens of thousands of egyptians are rallying again on cairo's tahrir square artie's polis leader as more. as it hit the highway to the polling on the ruling military to step down and at the same time they declaring he was a brotherhood candidate mohamed morsi the winner now on friday the military issued a statement in which it was decided it was the ground of the full weight intention by declaring they kind of the winner of last weekend's presidential election at the same time it's if i calling friends of thousands of people to the streets to celebrate his victory is only going to potentially lead to the violence the army is

edging closer to the main common it justifies its recent grab our power by saying that this is necessary to build egypt last week the army issued an interim constitution which effectively i don't mind the powers of the would be president now most of the people here in traffic today are muslim brotherhood supporters they've called for a million people at this stage it looks like we have several tens of thousands but the crowd continues to arrive keeping away are supporters of a half which they quote was the context of the muslim brotherhood but essentially we are expecting these people to remain having to ask you until sunday when those official election results are issued the protesters have found that if indeed a candidate mohamed morsi is not elected then they will be violent so that is why the army as well as many in the international community many people here in egypt are afraid that we could be looking at a showdown with the shafiq chen is insisting exactly the same what the morsy camp

is insisting and that is that their candidate has won they are also concerned that the muslim brotherhood which are nonstop violence in decades ago will take up arms should they candidates not come forward there's a pro shop pick newspaper today that's running an editorial and i'm quoting to you that they say the muslim brotherhood plans to arm the young men and position snipers and gunmen on top of the buildings. time to meet people who have stayed away from tapping is a very key thing the muslim brotherhood of checking these demonstrations and they see that the muslim brotherhood if you intend to send it again i mean she didn't have to be venetian i think she has been and that will stay with us here on r t still ahead this hour on mars dozens dead but the muslim minority trying to escape the violence in vain we've got expert opinion right away plus. all the details from they sue in the st petersburg economic forum and putting all the multibillion

dollar deals that's coming up in the business update shortly. but first moody's has slashed the ratings of fifteen of the biggest banks in europe and the u.s. in the latest slap in the face of the ailing financial sector you those hit include goldman sachs morgan stanley royal bank of scotland and delete your bank financial powerhouses domestically and internationally who could make it more expensive for the banks to attract funds it's also fear the downgrades could trigger a fresh market panic and a new exodus to goal natural expert max kaiser says politicians might try to exploit the downgrade to push through their own plan. they of course will use this opportunity to put forward more global governance more centralized government more commanding control more state run operations a less democracy less market activity less free competition so all of those things are being displaced by state controlled command and control bank and fascist

relationship with governments and that's growing to the detriment of people in greece who are now suffering the real consequences people are dying in the street they can't afford health care they can't afford food but i would sometimes we're going to hear this hijacking scenario where some of them technocrats like mario monti put a gun to the people said and say either give us all your money you're going to take all your assets going to do it anyway so i want to form some kind of resistance against this global occupation by bankers you know the people have to stand. but realize that no one's going to help them but themselves they need to push out the kleptocrats of the banking terrorist as i call them and stand up for themselves until they do something for themselves no money to do anything for them. saving the euro was the priority for leaders of the eurozone for biggest economies who held a meeting in rome where there is enough time to rescue the single currency is also a topic for debate with peter lavelle and his guest and cross talk that's coming your way later here's a preview. just the other ways out but there's the costs of difficulties that attach to each way out so i think what you have is the one at this moment is

they're trying to calculate these costs as this is a ten and they will choose the lower cost so i personally think greece or any country is going to be hurting the zone and the code is immense the water that's either resident has been sent if they're exactly as if you know you get is that a lawyer you cut it out you're no going to be able to avoid the who's next question that's number one because people will say the markets will say at least if pieces out wise they why is portugal then why is it is so these weak links will always be questions. stick a look now at some other stories making headlines across the globe twenty people including twelve civilians dead after a taliban attack on a lakeside hotel north of kabul dozens of hostages were freed i think and security forces and several hotel guests jumped into the lake to escape gunfire president hamid karzai has warned that the attacks were increasing in the run up to nato troops leaving in twenty fourteen he made the comments after twenty one people were

killed in an assault on an afghan checkpoint earlier this week. defense lawyers for anders breivik have tried to paint him as an extremist driven by political ideas rather than an insane killer responsible for the deaths of seventy seven people in norway last year on the final day of his trial his lawyer says he is sane despite office explained by prosecutors yesterday who said he should be placed in psychiatric care instead of prison the judges will consider his sanity before the issue the finals articulates the families of the victims walked out of the court in protest at breivik the thames to justify the massacre. so terry infighting in western myanmar has left more than eighty did this month alone buddhists have been clashing with the muslim minority who've been trying to flee to be under arrest in neighboring bangladesh but that country has turned the refugees back has their deemed illegal immigrants eric draitser and analyst for stop imperialism dot com thinks there is

a wider geo political agenda behind the conflict many of the conflicts that we see in myanmar and elsewhere in the world but in particular in that country are the product of a proxy war an economic proxy war that the united states and the western powers are waging to prevent chinese economic development in myanmar we see the presence of a u.s. funded n.g.o.s that is not to say that everything that they do is negative that everything that they do foment chaos but rather that the presence that they have in the country indicates the presence of u.s. the u.s. government and the u.s. intelligence community in an attempt to block the chinese. returning to our top story now reports of turkish warplane has been shot down over syrian airspace r.t. sources in syria have provided this image of the plane that local media claims was taken down by syrian forces we can't verify this picture though according to turkish news agencies the jet crash during its flight over the mediterranean has confirmed its last contact with one of its military aircraft after it took off from

an eastern province bordering syria turkish prime minister tayyip erdogan says it's to be said it is said to be meeting the country's military officials and due to comment on the incident shortly we're following developments and we'll bring you further updates as we get them. time now to turn to our tease business news in the annual meeting of economic heavy hitters the st petersburg forum in full swing in russia's northern capital. marina joining us live from the forum it's in full swing so. you're either yes i am here if you can see we our other me here at the business that we have our correspondent daniel bushell he is in same petersburg but unfortunately we just lost connection with him but we'll try to get back some a little bit later but for now we do of course also have all of the of days from

the same petersburg economic forum and of course one of the main topics was the european crisis and also vladimir putin made his key address there on thursday me said that russia is ready to be come one of the most important trading partners of europe and also he said that he called for an active and joint measures to cope with the global meltdown one of them is reforming the i.m.f. to give more voting rights to emerging economies and this one of course to help to ease the euro area crisis which many economists at the forum believe has now reached a critical stage this came a halt on news that moody's investor service downgraded fifteen european and u.s. banks and we've discussed the issue with the head of russia's top levels for. the downgrade decisions were not unexpected in the markets didn't react to them i don't think these actions will have any additional impact while a readings don't have a single reason to be downgraded we are currently in

a very stable situation which could be the envy of many western partners. and of course the former as the perfect platform for top businessman in the country to sign deals where the billions of dollars in fact this year they signed see billion worth of the us but one that the russians will most excited about has to do with the investment firm russian basic elements and we spoke to the deputy chairman of the company in this what he had to say about what the deal is all about. we have been will be you know here board division is one of those to change it all to just the troops in basic element in this group. by the boards on the operations in the cells over a ship all these words you know have been all for it or two for you since they're both in terms you know we've we've got form to get with them a new joint venture we're basic element to keep fifty plus one trying to have thirty percent and. we have twenty minus one percent of the shares change you would

bring in the operational that's spent. financial investor then all together we hold that this is joint venture with green. we will be completely level. by the time not second look at how the markets are performing will start with a u.s. which is the only one trying to right now and surprisingly enough the figures out point in all points us despite the fact that we've heard about the downgrade all fifteen months simply do or p. and an american one can see the dow is at an almost half a percent and as like has gone beyond that already and what investors a focus in there is the fact that the european central bank said that it would take further steps to ease collateral on loans for banks and also of the we know about technology firms are there particularly well given a boost to shares overall with facebook at an almost three percent this hour moving on say europe markets are closed and basically this follow the general mood across the board other than wall street which was passing those and we saw the footsie

dropping almost one percent there and the german dax dropping over one percent spot the downgrade investors are also reacting to the fact that business sentiment has a poland and germany all right when it comes to currencies the euro is now gaining against the dollar as you can see there but it's pretty much flat as you can see by the screen and when it comes to the ruble a loss again suppose major currencies on this friday a second look at how the russian markets performed as a side. pessimism of the rhondda throughout the war there was the r.c. has dropped almost two percent of my sex laws while point supercenter and investors here are not only reacting to negative news coming out from europe but also the fact that we had more capital outflow from father's investments of option shares for the past week that amounted to sixty two million dollars the previous week was only thirty three so that's a significant increase there and of course none of that has a major factor on the russian economy our food prices and as you can see there are heading higher but there is still slowly trying to escape from eight month lows

never a good thing or a brush investors or the economy as i said and for now that's all we have see in the city amat all right thank you very much marina for that update and i'll be back with the headlines and if you moments stay with us here on r.t. . all.

you need is it sigrid laboratory to mccurry was able to build a new its most sophisticated robot which on fortunately doesn't give a darn about anything tim's mission to teach music creation why it should care about humans. this is why you should care only on the dot com. more news today violence has once again flared up the film these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. shot.