julian assange says the u.s. must stop prosecuting. i mean to shed light on the crimes of the powerful. hundreds of supporters turn out to witness his statement but the hundreds of police there accompanied by. their attempts to arrest him. and other news on the verdict for punk band pussy riot. in russia's main cathedral is the true years behind bars and the crowds rallying both in support of the women. prominent human rights activist and. jailed for three years while the equal rights movement gains momentum in the gulf states. the un observers mandate for syria runs out later on sunday with

a new peace envoy being confirmed all of the reports suggest u.k. intelligence is helping the rebels to attack the regime. worldwide news live from moscow this is r t with me rule research welcome to the program well just a moment ago julian came to the balcony of the ecuadorian embassy there in london to basically say that thank you to ecuador for granting him asylum and the west for keeping him as a political prisoner in the heart of london making is a long awaited statement on the balcony there in the process of running the risk of being arrested by british police nazis laura smith was standing by right in front of the balcony listen to what he had to say laura certainly had a few points to discuss but every time he made a statement the crowd. and why old what are some of the messages to the he said

cross today. painted there's been a loss of support his head today shouting and chanting some of them is still have to take a group of aqua dorians who are standing opposite the embassy and shouting hands off aquittal really it's been a bit of a con of aatma to head this off this way this can only be described as a rally really that was several people who spoke the full. old in support of him including terry cali who's a renowned socialist and a very long time supporter of doing a song and craig murry he's a former ambassador to was back in town and himself a whistle blower and telling us all she really knows how to work the crowds he came out on to the balcony the crowd as you say went wild and he gave really of a sense banks he thanked ecuador for having what he said what he was opposing the constitution of universal citizenship he thanked the stuff at the very cramped embassy in which he's been staying for the last two months they probably had to put up with quite a lot and he also thanked several other countries in latin america for also having

stood up for the rights of asylum he mentioned a lot i'm not going to say them all but colombia mexico nicaragua crew he said all these countries had come out to defend the rights of asylum he also thanked the people of the u.k. of australia and of sweden he had stood behind him even when the government refused but perhaps one of the most important things that he said was to cool on the u.s. to still persecuting whistleblowers let's just have a listen to that. the united states must renounce its witch hunt against wiki leaks. the united states must assume its f.b.i. investigation. the united states must know that it will not seek to prosecute. or else the court of. the united states must play it before the world that it will not pursue journalists for

siding shining a light on the secret crimes of the powerful. i'm very lucky to be joined now by one of days we're still craig murray who is the former british ambassador to as bad as back a star and a whistleblower himself he blew the whistle on government abuses and. involvement in torture thanks very much for talking to us now what do you think julian assange as this case tells us about the treatment of whistleblowers. i think unfortunately there's a long history of whistleblowers being smeared and charged with crimes under later today because obviously it's quite difficult for states to convict people of telling the truth about state misdemeanors so what you do is you. with other charges very often sexual charges because were destroyed for personal reputation and you yourself were framed with sex related charges right i was indeed i was charged with extorting sexual favors in return for visas when i blew the whistle on

torture and extraordinary rendition and it took me eighteen months of my of my life to clear my name from those charges. and i'm by no means. the only one janice karpinski who blew the whistle on donald rumsfeld sanctioning of torture at abu ghraib was charged with shoplifting for example many many such examples and the foreign office now insists that it didn't mean to say that it would storm the embassy to go in and arrest what do you make of of william hague's comments and of the foreign office attitude in general. officers. here in its attempts to back down because it's found itself so diplomatically isolated it most certainly did say about both in person and in writing to the government of ecuador. at the very moment it was saying about fifty policemen moved into the building but not into the actual plant containing the ecuadorian embassy but moved into the fire scapes so it

was a plain text and i've spoken to people in the foreign office. we were involved in the discussion of whether or not to make but so there's no doubt whatsoever that this was a deliberate to d.h. should be on the convention on behalf of this foreign office and the causes backfired spectacularly because the whole world is at the age by this and what do you say to william hague. william hague bill is major pulled himself he. first time he wants media interview in which he said that as a student to used to fourteen pints of beer a day i think he must have done twenty eight pints of beer before coming up with a threat to storm dorian embassy and what's the future for julian assange is do you think what can happen going forward is. it's difficult because we're in a real standoff where the government of the u.k. have painted themselves into a corner they've said do you negotiate but they are stuck. the obvious

eventual compromise is for both sweden and the united states to declare but they will not under any circumstances extradite julian assange to be united states to face with the leaks related charges and then for. science to go to sweden to answer the sexual allegations but at the moment there's no sign at all that i have united states will sweden or the united kingdom will do that so ok craig we're going to have to leave it there thank you very much as great mary says that there's been no real change and still no idea how or when julian assange might be able to leave this embassy but we do know that this isn't the end of the process and his lawyer earlier said that if he wasn't allowed to leave for ecuador they would be launching a suit with the u.n. international court or lower certainly one of one of the comments of julian assange certainly struck me were describing how lying in bed one night inside the ecuadorian embassy he could hear the police breaking through the internal fire escape corridors coming to get him and you know last second outside his bedroom

door they seem to stand down julian assange certainly he's having a tough. time anyway onto the more smith thanks so much for that. well meantime ecuador's decision to grant a staunch political asylum being closely monitored in the united states washington has not admitted that it's planning to request a saunders extradition but a number of american politicians are not holding back some going so far as to demand that a song is tried and executed. as this from new york julian saunders 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 equally even julian a songe two 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 julian a 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 chilliness anja many do as the publisher similar to the new york times julian assange is the publisher of 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 wiki leaks published instead the u.s. government it is presumed is all to me hoping to go after julian assigns 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. well under house arrest in london the world's top

whistleblower invited prominent activists thinkers and news makers to voice their opinions on things that matter and one of them was the us president rafael correa had never previously even appeared on international television and watch every single episode of julia saunders exclusive on our t.v. program on our website at. www dot com. or with the top stories of today and of the week this is the weekly on friday three women from the russian punk group pussy riot they were jailed for two years each for their and putin stand in the country's main orthodox cathedral the women's performance was ruled to be hooliganism motivated by religious hatred well certainly the decision drew lots of people outside the courthouse some rallying in support others against the pound of the details not on his correspondent peter. regarding prison as you move mr sheen you possibly have enough energy in the seventy division if one would assume that one doesn't bring in the cows on you but

obviously from you tube it is a. chance to their trial had headlines around the world a global audience who is watching as madea i look in a. polyclinic or any company in a somewhat savage found out their fate to their performance the punk rock prayer and rushes main to phaedra outside the courts a large group gathers with both those supporting the women and those opposed to them turning up to voice their opinion was amongst the crowd were prominent members of the anti-government protest movements who had allying the pussy riot cause with their own as the stones massed tempers flared and police announcements to keep calm were ignored as over fifty people from both sides were detained the public order offenses calm damned by some celebrated by others their performance in this cathedral lasted for a little more than

a minute and a half but it's perhaps made pussy riot the most recognizable russian music act in the world. is near so where did they come from under various guises the three women who were jailed on friday have been no strangers to controversy in the past pussy riot grew out of a performance art group which had staged an orgy in a museum filmed a woman performing a sex act on a chicken in a supermarket and kissed on duty female police officers because the job performance though took things to another level church groups burned images of the women and of madonna who had spoken out on the side of pussy riot i think they belong to some sectors which conducts a tannic rituals they use elsewhere a church in russia was daubed with the slogan down with religious fanatics and in ukraine a topless member. group could down across with a chainsaw and also from playboy for a photo shoot pussy riot merchandise deal last has led some to even question was

this all an elaborate quest the thing they achieved their goal of. becoming really world famous by doing what they did when they are released they will in fact travel the world to become famous there were achieved their goal after the two year sentence for hooliganism motivated by religious hatred was handed down the online response heated with many shocked by the length of the jail term my personal opinion is to be honest usually for the thing they call hooliganism you get fifteen days from what i've heard so i really wish they would have gotten fifteen days the more standard punishment but the court didn't agree with my position with lawyers for the jailed women said to appeal the verdict don't expect the debates between supporters of pussy riot in those opposed to fade away any time soon. obviously the hold up pussy riot sentence provoked a massive international reaction number of gatherings backing the band were staged

across the globe including in spain france britain and other countries as well of course our foreign governments also chimed in to have their say with the us calling on authorities to review the case while denouncing the sentence as disproportionate . the managing director of the world congress of families says the coverage of the pussy riot trial was hyped up by the western media. i don't really expect immediate suit necessarily. always report truthfully in the u.s. and western europe we have seen some of the same issues so it's been politicized the issue that made it about objection to it about supposedly a political statement but again. you know we have plenty of opportunities to make political statements and we need to be responsible for our actions there's no question that they were that they were guilty of any group is free to protest.

if it's again on a place where they. know they're not violating someone else's rights in this case they certainly violated the rights of the church they trust other vandalised and so you have to expect occurrence of great says. it watching r.t. live from moscow it is good to have you with us today still ahead for you in the program a surprising turn a report on how living in europe changing their minds about its might and wealth and our heading back to their thriving motherland. also as muslims around the world marking the end of the holy month of ramadan we look at how celebrations are going on right here in russia. now a prominent human rights activist has been jailed for three years and back reign nabila at a job was found guilty of inciting anti-government protests through his speeches and online posts for eighteen months protesters in the gulf state of being calling

for democratic reform and an end to what they claim is religious discrimination bahrain's royal family has been accused of brutally suppressing the rallies with police using tear gas and rubber bullets on reportedly protesters and a lot of criticism of the crackdown from the u.s. and its european allies exposes their fear of genuine democratic movements well that's according to journalist and author afshin rattansi. a response to the. this is indicative of a policy that is from some way to argue dying powers because the united states and nato countries deliberately try to see the arab spring and try and put it through their prism the arab spring when it when they don't like it as we all know they will do everything they can to snuff out any type of democracy the united states wanted to export fifty million fifty eight million dollars worth of weapons some of them presumably will be used and some weapons also from european countries used against men women and children in bahrain the nation with the highest number of

political prisoners but kept around the world meanwhile there have been grown pleas in bahrain and the queen of britain personally as some people have said it invited the king of bahrain this ruthless dictator as i said thousands of people hundreds of people out of a tree arrest twenty physicians sentence for trying to heal the people injured and killed by these bahraini cager. now our team is working twenty four hours a day seven days a week to provide you with the best stories and pictures from all around the world there are all waiting for you on our website r.t. dot com let's have a quick look and see we're also standing by for you there right now big brother not only has his eye on you police listening to his legal american police are now allowed to track mobile phones and gather users g.p.s. private data without any need for a court warrant. and the online witch hunt cursing an enemy with a hex or finding a charm to make your lover for the faithful has just become

a bit harder online e-bay just ban the sale of all forms of knowledge. this is are to another u.n. observer mission mandate for syria expires later on sunday a new envoy confirmed earlier this week though is expected to add some fresh impetus to international peace efforts president assad though has made a rare public appearance at a damascus mosque seen performing prayers is out comes amid reports quoting opposition officials that british intelligence is aiding rebels to attack regime forces apparently the turks are being used to pass information and moscow is strongly opposing u.s. calls for a no fly zone over syria saying that could lead to a catastrophe or washington's support of the rebels is being complimented by internet sites taking in donations as he's gone a reporter they are not telling the whole story. ever thought about adopting

someone why not a syrian rebel as this headline says for just one dollar a day you too can help a syrian rebel oust president assad these days you have a good number of organisations which present themselves basically as charities where you can make a donation to the rebels in syria this is the website of one of the rebel groups there saying among other things they are seeking military equipment then there is another organization which collects donation. space day here in washington and supported by the u.s. government they're called syrian support group we try to reach out to them and ask how they plan to distribute that money we never heard from them another web site one called adopt a revolution they also present themselves as a charity but it's organizer admitted that it's hard to see where the money goes as far as who the donors are he said they range from corporations to retired couples and students possibly those mentioned retired couples who've seen videos like this

one where the rebels singing a backstreet boys song oh you'll see only. i. think my a polo but what the pitch for donors does not say is that not all rebel fighters are some romantic backstreet boys fans probably not these ones and this footage shows an apparent mass execution of assault supporters by the rebels in cold blood . reports on the ground show that various experiments groups are doing the fighting including al qaida but it's not to say that all of them are all qaeda either it's a full blown civil war where the degree of hatred is so high that people commit atrocities on all fronts i spoke with one of america's leading experts on counterterrorism and he told me the bloodshed will be even harder to stop as more outside forces get involved it isn't any more simply a question of sunni versus our it's

a question of saudi arabia versus iran and it's a question of turkey's increasing role in the middle east all these things make this more and more complicated and make it less and less likely that we're going to have a peaceful resolution instead we're going to have a winner take all solution one could say the danger is in simplifying things putting them black and white supporting people who kill can be called anything but charity in washington i'm going to check on. all right straight to the libyan capital now to open up the r.t. world update it's where two people have been killed and several injured by a twin car bombing there in tripoli the attack comes a year since the fall of the city to rebel forces loyalists of former leader moammar gadhafi are being blamed meanwhile libya's general national congress declared the toppled leader's son saif gadhafi will stand trial next month on charges of ordering the killing of dissenters. thousands of protesters rallied in

china and hong kong japan's claim to a contested island the demonstration sparked after japanese activists raised their flag on the disputed tokyo controlled territory which china claims protesters shouted and the japanese slogans burn flags and japanese restaurants and i. was limbs all around the world are celebrating the end of ramadan it's a day to break their fast go to mosques visiting congratulate their relatives and friends and give to charity for the past month has been a time of spiritual reflection and meant achieved through fasting and devoting more time to prayers and reciting the koran. i of course it's also a big day for millions of muslims here in russia. looks at how the holiday here is being celebrated. millions of muslims around russia have been waking up very early

indeed before sunrise putting all some of their best clothes as is tradition on this holy day also the flocking to nearby mosques and the graces mosque in moscow is the one just behind me which is currently being referred to seen tens of thousands of people normal less lining the surrounding streets here to listen servants and also be giving praise to god this is coming on the end on the back of the holy month of ramadan known for fasting and this specialist day shelf theater now actually translates as the breaking of the fast so we can expect many theses to be taking place in moscow and around russia with friends and family members have been somewhat marred by watch transpired late saturday evening in the russian republic of dagestan there two masked gunmen stormed a local mosque they shot and injured eight people in total also there was a bomb this is found containing forty kilograms of t.n.t.

of explosives it took some time but the moment so those have managed to fuse that bomb threats. but a criminal case has been opened in the nearby republic of where a suicide bomber carried out an attack killing at least seven policeman and the last struck as a group of officers arrived at the funeral of their colleague shot dead in an assault on saturday they were offering their condolences when an attacker entered the courtyard of a private home exploded over a dozen locals winded in the last. twenty five minutes past the hour moscow time for over two decades turkey's been trying to join the e.u. embarking on a set of western style economic and political reforms but now with the euro crisis turkey is thriving on its own as aussies tester australia now reports turkish migrants in europe i think about heading back home. what about five and

a half million turks living in the european union their presence is certainly felt in societies in europe but as the e.u. continues to be deep in the red the lure of their original country's economic promise is getting harder to resist and the residents living on this street known as little anatolia say that more and more of their compatriots are thinking of cutting their losses and heading back home like the owner of this snack bar belgian born has been finalizing his plans and is set on relocating his family back to turkey. europe is finished the crisis is getting worse every year is going to continue first greece then spain italy right now belgium there is a lot of stress lots of taxes bills to pay while in turkey every year. life is good you can live well why would you want in belgium it's no longer like this and the numbers say it all the e.u. managed one point six percent growth in two thousand and eleven while turkey was at about seven point five percent gaining recognition as last year's fastest growing

economy in europe while it is expecting a slowdown this year the gras. still looks greener on their side and dependence on europe is not quite as it used to be the trade volume used to be very high with the e.u. countries percentage wise that used to be around fifty percent now it has gone down to just over forty percent that means we're diversifying our trade more and more trade with african countries asian countries all around the world and this of course has spurred a lot of growth so we need people to be able to manage this we need qualified people personnel so we see that a lot of people are now coming you know second third generation immigrants are coming back home for this purpose but there's another reason why a growing number of turks want out of the e.u. . now with the crisis what's the result we're rejecting foreigners obviously now that there are fewer jobs less money what happens is priority is first given to the belgians and after the foreigners the turks the moroccans the russians my decision

to go back to turkey is economic but also because when there's a crisis there is discrimination you know for these communities and yet as this migration trend rises turkey is still officially knocking on the e.u. store it's candidacy for membership hanging in the balance for the last twenty five years thanks to a long list of requirements to fulfill and political opposition from some e.u. countries people are afraid that the new will come up with more and more excuses even if we do overcome them people say that they'll be other excuses not that it matters any longer for some turks. turkey doesn't need your look it's europe needs turkey in a few years you would see that i mean against turkey becoming part of the e.u. and right now turkey doesn't seem to be in much of a hurry either does or sylvia r.t. brussels and i'm back with a recap of the week's top stories in just a moment. wealthy

british style but it's not either very gratifying. margetts why not.