asylum to nowhere ecuador grants joined us on follow the refuge wild west sting britain for using blackmail and threats in its desperation to seize the whistleblower. pound protesters pussy riot get their final day in court as a verdict looms in the trial over the controversial mock prayer in russia's major feed rope grab the global attention. plus the un security council withdraws the international monitoring mission in syria rebels they are pledged to step up their fight ready to join forces with al qaida.

or to not be going to live from moscow i'm going to joshua welcome to the program julian assange has got political asylum in ecuador but now no way of getting there britain's gone out of its way to make abundantly clear it would take drastic action to prevent the whistleblower from taking that asylum from an hour ride in awe of safe passage all the way to threats to raid they could or an embassy and take him by force are his or smith who was at the embassy on a day of drama free four pts. it was the day they'd been waiting for julian assaults holed up in london's ecuadorian embassy for two months and his supporters who turned out to cheer for him rain or shine since his legal battle against extradition to sweden first began more than eighteen months ago also there in large numbers the police who didn't wait long to make their first arrests. when the decision came it was the one they wanted. we decided to grant asylum to

julian a song. called it a significant victory and his mouth was full so it. shining like it will automatically encourage the government. but not everyone was pleased the u.k. foreign and commonwealth office called the decision disappointing and foreign secretary william hague said it changed nothing it does not change the fundamentals of the case we will not allow. safe passage out of the united kingdom nor is there any legal basis for us to do so hague also denied any suggestion that british police would storm the embassy so over in territory under international law to arrest but that's not what ecuador inferred from a letter it says was delivered through the british embassy in quito in response ecuador played hardball. what is no national law could be used in this way in any

intrusive way in any diplomatic facilities any place in the world it shouldn't be used to threaten or blackmail the sovereignty of any other country and they called a summit to try to deal with this threat so that this fact doesn't go unpunished. the scary part the part that i find completely incredible and outrageous is the british threats to actually go. and trying to extract joy in the sun but i must say to see british troops surrounding the british police surrounding that embassy was it an act of intimidation that should not be allowed and is not allowed under saddam or stuck in the middle judy in a solace who has a new home but no way of getting their parts and put him in a big trunk and label him in his diplomatic bag i'm not quite sure whether that would work but otherwise we might see him holed up there for a mixed couple of years who knows until i can reach a solution to this imposter but if he leaves the embassy he's liable to

a rest by the u.k. which insists it must still extradite him to sweden a position that wouldn't accept it or respond to the united kingdom it would mean possibly breaking relations on a regional level if it happened in the bronx and if a guy lives by ecuador it's june enough songs has the spell the end of this tale already full of twists and turns in fact it appears to be the beginning of something else with neither the u.k. no ecuador apparently willing to back down it's developing into an ugly diplomatic spats which could affect relations but some time norris may see outside the ecuadorian embassy and up to britain start to radio door an embassy mad a wave of criticism and the u.k. itself is beefing up security at a number of examples he's brought targeted by protesters in australia a group of demonstrators have occupied a british consulate and grab bar and spokesman for the australian lawyers aligned says their right to be angry. but forget about our policy of diplomatic community

let's forget about the other saw much of a peripheral because that's what the british would be doing but i don't look to me just my ship the british government is relying on the rule of you not in addition. i think the libyans. and i should too were it was a creature is within your inhibitions this is not a matter of national security i think i could you try and i would run to. the minister responsible and act in action action are these past that who i know holding urged happen which is. doing things the right why in the world criticize any of the governments around the world if i do because i'm still here with a discretional action and it would have critically shying when it comes to the united states market strategy when we were trying to deal with. ecuador says a key factor in his decision to offer refuge to join a son was that he may not get

a fair trial if he ended up in the us and packing the whistleblower off to america say he's supporters is the ultimate objective authorities in both britain and sweden are just more important i reports on what could be in it for washington. julian assange his mother is calling this a victory for her son many see this as a small defeat for the u.s. and that is because many believe the u.s. was hoping that julian assange would be extradited to sweden so that sweden would subsequently be able to extradite julian assange to the united states we have heard in recent years it's no secret former and current u.s. government officials quavering julian assange too are terrorists and that was in the aftermath of him releasing cables and memos that were classified that belonged to the u.s. government as a result the integrity of the u.s. government was compromised a lot of secrets were revealed and it painted the u.s.

foreign policy in a dark light it's no secret that the administration of u.s. president barack obama has been earning a reputation for waging a war on whistleblowers fiercer reputation than any of his predecessors many journalists scholars and activists in the u.s. have signed a letter of support for julie the songe one is including naomi wolf she's a journalist and author first of all this is a white house now to weigh houses obama's and bush's which is systematically overclassifying everything especially wrong doing it specially anything related to what whistleblowers want to release specially you know torture that they even gauged in methods of torture like mafia tactics it's come to this the government same to journalists everywhere in america. we're going to do you and we're going to threaten you and we're we're threatening you with with serious legal penalties like

prison time if you do your job when i was speaking with naomi wolf what she wanted to clarify for me and her position is that she sees julia sanji many do as the publisher similar to the new york times chilliness orange is the publisher the one that made the information available he is not the leaker she noted why isn't the u.s. government going after the new york times for publishing what we can leaks published instead the u.s. government it is presumed is all to me hoping to go after julian songe either way she said that this is this would be a dark day for all journalists in the u.s. if he would be in the custody of america prosecuted held indefinitely or possibly even face capital punishment and if you'd like to hear more of now we will thoughts on julian assange just predicaments or the increasingly belligerent role of government will be showing her full interview here on our t.v. that's coming up at eleven thirty g.m.t. stay with us for that meantime michael prisoner is an iraq war veteran and member

of the act now to stop war and and racism coalition he believes the astonished case is a glaring reminder of government double standards. the release of the collateral murder video and the release of the iraq war logs in the afghanistan war logs really did a lot to shift public opinion against the wars and really expose a lot of the reality that people knew and felt was correct but didn't have that that verification people begin to ask questions you know they see a songe being pursued in such a way and then these people you know they go to ask questions well what about the people who committed the crimes that were exposed in the wiki leaks documents what about this illegal torture illegal rendition or what about this massive demand we killing of innocent civilians all those people when if they've been disciplined one of they've been tried for a crime one of they've been pursued to be put on trial and i think the more that this case is in the public eye the hypocrisy of the u.s. government the british government is on full display for people to see its true colors they were saying are to live from moscow still to come and knock out blow

for bahrain's opposition is a key activist gets a three year sentence for organizing protests find out why some experts think the verdict is a sign of panic and paranoia on countries rulers. to mammary all girl punk band pussy riot finally discover their fate today with a moscow judge set to deliver a verdict and their trial the trio face up to three years behind bars hooliganism charges for the or conversely performance in russia's main cathedral high speed all over is outside the courthouse. we've entered the endgame of a trial which is gripped headlines not only here in russia but around the world the three members of the feminine punk collective pussy riot faced three years in jail each for taking part in a demonstration inside russia's main cathedral demonstration took the form of a so-called punk rock prayer in which they called on the virgin mary to rid russia

of blood i mean it later on friday the judge will deliver a verdict at three pm moscow time and we can also see a sentence handed down as well of the charges of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred so it's worth noting that the judge in this trial has been given bodyguards as a precaution for her own safety you know this goes back to it and incidents in april of this year in which a previous judge there was involved in this case was threatened in her office by a man with an axe saying it's he wanted the three women on trial released so these bodyguards have been assigned to the current judge for us a precautionary measure now this is a. case which has squished opinion so widely here in russia and to find out that more about that my colleague. looked at some of the background on this case it was a pretty hairy directed virgin mary but it was heard all around the world to see

riots performance of the christ the savior procedural outraged some invigorated others and left almost no one indifferent along with the patriarch are russian who condemned the flash mob thousands of orthodox believers especially of the radical kind were just sort of demanding the women be burned at stake the whole question was. it was blasphemy a desecration of a church it was sacrilege i think they belong to some sect which conducts rituals. but their supporters see them differently to the defendants their lawyers and hundreds of supporters to do. dancing and singing was an artistic way to express the women's disagreement with the government particularly with president putin that's why they say the women ended up on trial and on trend. madonna the red hot chili peppers sting franz ferdinand just some of the

celebrities who have voiced their support for punk collective despite a very limited number of seats inside the court house even a member of british parliament managed to get in to observe and make her own judgement. just like. i don't. think they were. as part of the our group by now which translates in russian as war this wasn't the first time pussy riot has attracted attention but is that the work when you have a participated in one of the group's performances in origin moscow's biology museum just four days before giving birth because you know some would say which is said to be the woman seen here performing a sex act with a frozen chicken in a supermarket both incidents were also meant to be forms of political protest but neither were followed up with arrests. the actions of the right immoral initially they were given for their first attempt to disturb the i mean the museum

the incident in the supermarket food now we just want this to end but we don't want to go to jail a proposal from playboy for a cover photo shoot and offer to perform along with bjork for all of the singer herself and a contract with a record company who believe pussy riot are now worth tens of millions of dollars these are just some of the offers which the group has received in the week leading up to the verdict so if their goal was to be heard and to become famous then it's safe to say that with the rise players have been answered in moscow it was go our team. well to have been posi ride copycats protesting in churches across the globe but some demonstrations of support have gone beyond just wearing masks members of ukrainian feminist movement famine show their disapproval of the trial by sawing down a memorial cross in central kiev the book is the tory is for its eye catching bare

breast of protest. but that's not well there's another stories are always available on our website r.t. to call here's what's also online for you right now. paralympics yandell disabled parents of athletes are outraged by discriminating rules that stop them sitting with their children in a wheelchair areas. plus terrifying statistics as suicide rates in the u.s. army reach and new peak with an average of more than four thousand people killing themselves every month. the international observer mission in concert tour in syria will be scrapped when its mandate expires in three days the decision by the un security council is a disappointment for russia which sees the mission as key of finding a political way out of the war or just as he reports from new york. regretfully for russia we have to see the united nations security council did in fact decide to not

prolong the mission the mandate of the observer mission in syria of the united nations now there were two conditions for this mandate to keep for them to keep functioning on the ground and these were an end to the violence as well as ending the use of heavy weaponry and of course we know that this unfortunately has not occurred as of yet the united nations will however maintain a presence on the ground in a different format this will be a civil mission that they will put in place the details of which are being discussed now russia's position in all of this is quite simple we're sort of the monday is coming to an end we believe that those members of the council who insisted to. continue the. commitment to ending course still it is. working towards a political settlement in the studio however we're looking forward to reformating a u.n. presence in damascus. doing the job it is supposed to do in the light of the new.

political process in syria it's important to keep in mind that russia of course has been calling for a peaceful political process in solving the syrian crisis and this of course comes as we're hearing armed groups on the ground threaten to combine forces with al qaida if the west does not help them out and this would of course be catastrophic development in the crisis we're hearing from the united nations sources that filling the shoes of kofi anon will be a lot of dark brahimi a seventy eight year old veteran diplomat among his previous titles is the foreign minister of algeria and curiously it's an interesting selection for several reasons first of all we do know that in the past this man has served to as u.n. envoy to iraq and afghanistan where of course as we're well aware the conflicts and the violence continue and also his daughter actually a former employee at c.n.n. . and is married to a family to a royal member of the jordanian royal family and of course this is important in the

in the sense that we know that this is a country that's been accused of supporting the armed groups on the ground so this is quite an interesting twist we're going to out would have to have to wait and see what kind of approach this man takes but we do know that he has already said that he would like a different official title from kofi annan because he doesn't want to be seen as somebody just filling his shoes he believes that kofi annan approach was a failure and he wants a different mandate and a different name so we're going to have to wait and see how this man works in the crisis from now on when he takes the position when the mandate officially expires at the end of this month well russia dividing members of the syria action group to meet in new york on friday the meeting will call in international powers to appeal to all the conflicting sides for an answer to violence moscow also wants new ceasefire deadlines to be seven both for the government and the opposition political analysts dr marcus papadopoulos however doubts the foreign states which

traditionally that the syrian rebels will persuade them to lay down arms and work if you know the history. and islamic extremism though they don't get on with each other they certainly get into bed with each other when there's a common foe let's have a look at the west and islamic extremism in afghanistan in the 1980's against the soviet army let's see how western islamic jihad stream is i'm trying to get through in the one thousand nine hundred ninety s. and the same also in kosovo so this one this one comes a surprise to western politicians their points were over and it will of course come as a surprise to a domestic audience in the west who are lost interest story the assad government is this genocide all mass murdering machine and the youngs and the opposition. bystanders. it won't come as a surprise. why i just correspondent inside syria exxon boyko has more updates

first hand analysis and experience on her twitter stream currently staying in the capital damascus and says the city is highly militarized but with the conflict in syria now lasting for eighteen months people are getting used to it and you can check out our team's general stream for more tweets on the developments in syria from our arabic and spanish correspondents there. bahrain's opposition leader in the village job has reacted to a three year prison sentence by the finally vowing i will never give up his punishment for inciting and taking part in illegal protest was unexpectedly harsh job has already been in prison since july three months for sending critical tweets about the royal family their handling of his case sparked a wave of outrage among human rights groups they have repeatedly criticized the government's crackdown on protesters accusing the modoc he of violating basic freedoms and even torture calling about a former lecturer at university about running things there is no light at the end

of the tunnel for opposition. to what the jail sentence of three to four mr in a bill regard indicates that the bahraini government is increasingly paranoid because three quarters of the bahraini population want the two hundred and twenty nine year monarchy to you know that they want a democratic republic and they're not going to give up on their goal if there is no proof speech in bahrain that the u.s. navy's fifth fleet is based in bahrain and because of their basing rights in the ports of bahrain and also the tarmac right at this shaky the air base where you have no is you. project is able to board project u.s. military might in the entire middle east in order to maintain us hegemony in the region. well let's now take a look at some other stories from around the world. a

minor strike in south africa turned into a bloodbath after police opened fire on a machete wielding ground thirty have been killed in the mayhem as security officers tried to disperse a thousand strong gathering the unauthorized straw and corrupted last friday after wrong drill operators demanded higher salaries and better working conditions. norway's police chief has resigned after a report concluded that the murder of seventy seven people by others spread like last year could have been prevented the in a panic also suggested police spent an acceptable amount of time trying to catch the killer findings of a report contradicts another document presented by the police which concluded security officers showed no hesitation brother carried out a bombing in oslo and a gun attack on an island summer camp. as it has been wrecked off the chilean

coast after huge waves crashed against a toll triggering a risky rescue operation twenty four crew members were airlifted from the vessel by navy helicopters and taken to hospital powerful waves have also wreaked havoc along the coast as the bridge as they breached the seawall spilling into the streets and disrupting traffic. all right straight to the world of business was katie and katie what's happening well to be honest with the marine it's sort of what rose it the most gains across the board all get stilted with europe because that is really will assess in the tone today really from comments that came out this week from the german chancellor angela merkel saying that she dials the european said to brian conditions for helping reduce the boring costs for the indebted countries the peripheral countries saying that germany is. with the e.c.b. zipper. as to defending the year there was some uncertainty over

a few weeks thinking that she wasn't going to support this kind of rhetoric on this but she does so with all the footsie that are out to tell. the behind that if we don't have a common currency then we'll be able to see what that's doing at the moment the trade his favorite path is declining just a fraction there but it's relatively the odds are not much going on it's a trading session us for the ruble it's having a bit of a trade can't decide which direction it wants to go in and at the moment this has got a mixed picture against the basket of cars that is they're using out of the u.s. dollar and it's managed to gain against the common currency out that drops against the u.s. dollar as well the next two markets here in russia that i know that but i will try to break out the holding on to a lot of this point taking a dip as well so that jumping on the optimism trainability coming from asia and the you are u.s. markets as well which they are the main time to see how asia got on this morning

because that was the first one the domino effect very much so today as you can see the eight tenths of a percent japanese exporters were demonstrating their optimism for a week a yeah that really helps them out with also the hang a sign that too modest to finish up and posted territory a lot because of those comments coming from the german chancellor as well of course the biggest economy in europe so really to take the fact that we've also got we'll show you how to cut the horizon because the u.s. we have housing permits they reached the highest level since august two thousand and eight a month before the bankruptcy of lehman brothers now global investors are now looking forward to today the reports on the american consumer confidence that's coming out later on in the sessions we'll keep an eye on that one i mentioned or prizes they also colliding and that's for the first time in four days that's now trimming the weekly gain as we can see in the lot. so speculation that the rise

that we had yesterday the three mile high that we reach was excessive so there's now a bit of a correction going on as they digest is one of the sentiments where does. it move in our ukraine has made the first step to wean itself off of russian gas the country has drawn a consortium led by exxon mobil to develop its own gas shop in the black sea now the ten billion dollar project is expected to provide you with a five bidding cubic meters of gas a year that's the sense of what the country brought from russia last. explains. the biggest gas deal involving foreign investors in the history of silver in ukraine this is how experts have been describing the latest agreement between the ukrainian government and the exxon mobil consortium on development and exploration of the natural gas field in the black sea coast of ukraine the offshore gas field combined with other potential deals which the ukrainian government is now discussing with the british investors within the system i said by john and many

stan could in large the natural gas extraction in ukraine in the next twenty years by four times which would make this country all but independent from the gas imports it's been having from russia currently key it is on a contract with moscow until twenty nineteen buying russian gas in a certain amount is a certain price and it's been looking actively for both the discount and lowering the amount of gas it has been buying but so far when the stand negotiations to not brought any success another way that ukraine is trying to implemented to diversify its natural gas resources is getting a loan from the china investment company and there's already been an agreement on that three point six billion dollars on buy you technologies which would allow ukraine to buy less russian gas certainly this raises many concerns among european consumers whether there would be any more disruptions of the russian supplies into the european continent which go through ukraine but both sides in the negotiations

have been holding over the past several years have been saying that regardless of how much gas ukraine buys from russia the transit of russian gas through ukraine to europe will not be happy but will not suffer in any way besides russia is already building several other pipelines to deliver its gas to europe so this should not be a concern according to both countries' governments and both countries gas monopolies companies. marina back in fifty five yes indeed thanks very much for that and our special report is coming your way we're to have a closer look at a gypsy group that brought their customs and traditions to russia first of the headlines.

wealthy british style. is my time to try to find. the right amount of. markets why not come to. find out.