hello again this is r t the international news channel from moscow our top stories this friday evening three german copycats of russian punk band pussy riot could face three years in a german prison for their protests from the cathedral this despite burley's condemnation of the shorter prison term handed to the moscow trio. muscular and sane and given twenty one years in prison while his fight against islam was serving to inspire radical groups across you. know fresh nuclear talks between iran and the un's energy watchdog the i.a.e.a. says to run it's not cooperated enough but faces criticism itself for being biased

. ecuador standing by its decision to grant asylum to wiki leaks founder julian assange she was resisting britain's efforts to extradite him to sweden to face sex crime claims in an exclusive interview with r.t. spanish channel president now explains the choice he made and says what he thinks britain's motives really. why did ecuador get involved in all this by standing up for julian assange the country is exposing itself to risk according to the media one of the reasons for the delay in granting him asylum was ecuador's fear the possible u.s. response is this true or not at all we just wanted to address the request in a very thorough and responsible way we look to the motivations for mr sanders asylum bid looked into the charges brought against him in sweden reviewed u.k. law as well as international law and of course we went over our own legislation

then we made a responsible decision just as we promised originally after the olympics specifically because they were taking place in london and not because of fear of reprisals which we knew might follow them we will always be guided by principles and values not to fear what consequences might ecuador face after granting asylum to julian assange which normally such a decision shouldn't have any consequences that is if all countries respect international law which clearly says that the state has the right to grant asylum how many times has sweden granted asylum a lot of people requested asylum in sweden and leave the noun this country is known for its willingness to give asylum what consequences could there be but unfortunately in this particular case we see that some countries are displaying their colonial and imperial ambitions their ethnocentricity it turns out that if ecuador grants asylum to someone it certainly might have consequences what

consequences are we talking about if we're exercising our sovereignty in line with international law. are you afraid of any sanctions that might follow there is definitely no fear but let's face it there might be reprisals which would be terrible if the u.k. for example acts on these threats and invades our embassy to arrest the sound can you imagine how big of a precedent this would set mr president some media have suggested that the decision to grant asylum to julian assange is nothing more than what it was a down to improve the country's international image and what is this international image i don't know anything about it fortunately in our country seventy five to eighty percent of the power belongs to the peoples no matter what some dishonest and immoral media trying to say that certain para groups use them to tell lies about what's going on they say the reason new freedom of speech in ecuador is there

is no freedom of speech how would they be able to communicate besides here they contradict themselves or this will world knows that latin america including ecuador is going through historical changes right now so we are finally witnessing social justice equality sovereignty and dignity there are some power groups that oppose these changes mind you these groups are very influential some of them own media outlets they constantly conduct smear campaigns trying to discredit our government i want to ask you a question how many days have you been in ecuador. no more than three i think have you feel that any of your reports have been banned or censored the time you felt like there was censorship have you been told for example that you cannot publish certain stories as your excess the information being restricted in any way. of course not this is the reality but these power groups both national and international are constantly campaigning against us trying to discredit our government because ecuador in latin america on changing and changing for the better

thing god mr president in your interview with julian assange in his programme on our channel you said he's invited to the club of the persecuted do you feel like you're being persecuted i have prayed as i've said every day wake up and have to guess what lies the media will cook up to do i in ecuador there are six families that own the whole media business and there are several other major businesses that belong to them our new constitutional reform in bend the media from being involved in any other business activities except for being the source of information as they called it infringing on freedom of the press we want to avoid the conflict of interest and that was considered infringing on freedom of speech and whatever is in line with laurent ethics but is at odds with the interests of the media dictatorship that used to exist in ecuador is considered infringing on freedom of speech we would like the world to understand what is really going on in ecuador the things that the needed us here would be unacceptable in such countries as the u.k.

russia the us for example the murder case in the u.k. if something similar happened in ecuador and the people responsible were brought to justice this would be called infringing on freedom of speech you have to understand that the median letter in america have always been very corrupt it supported the pinochet regime the dictatorship in argentina and so on conflicting interests when every day occurrence there was even a clear pattern having become a successful businessman he set up your own channel not to keep the population in. and but to protect your business interests now everything is changing and i've become the target of daily criticism of regular smear campaigns no one believes them though when julian assange has mother came to ecuador did you have a chance to talk to her yes of course christine is a wonderful person isn't she we gave her a warm welcome and it was a pleasure to talk to her deter visit to ecuador influence your decision to grant julian assange asylum in any way. no we didn't all decision was made in accordance

with international law and was based on ecuador's traditions of humanism as well as the grounds that mr sanchez presented to support his request for political asylum we met with christine she's a very nice woman but it in no way influenced our decision. mr president it's hard to believe that julian assange had no contact with ecuador in the fischel prior to requesting political asylum because he needed to be certain that there were dorrian embassy would ensure his safety did you discuss this option with him before hand. no we didn't i didn't talk to mr sands personally but if i'm not mistaken at some point the situation became suit hands that he said he was thinking about seeking asylum in an embassy the haps even in ecuador's embassy was sure he would be allowed to stay when he entered the embassy so i think mr sanchez discussed it with the embassy staff since he i believe entered after hours so they

must have been expecting him any person seeking asylum in ecuador as embassies will be safe we will see to their needs but after that we will consider granting them asylum with all due thoroughness if the person in question is a criminal we will never grant asylum to him but why do you think julian assange strolls ecuador and not another country only mr sands can answer that and the fact he did is the best response to this smear campaign and to the people who maintain we have a new freedom of speech the man whose freedom of speech personified requested asylum in ecuador it's the best response to organize how long do you think will julian assange be staying in the embassy in theory indefinitely unless the u.k. goes ahead with its threats to raid our embassy to arrest him as you know the threat is in a written form and the u.k. hasn't revoked it do you think they drill a go as far as that i think it will be pure insanity on the part of the u.k.

after doing so any of their embassies could be raided and what will they say then what kind of repercussions would such development have we would immediately sever our diplomatic ties of chords i think it would lead to a backlash in all the latin american countries but i maintain that the u.k. has more to lose after that how would you prevent the same from happening to the u.k. embassies around the world and i assure you the u.k. has more diplomatic missions than ecuador. if the u.k. doesn't give permission for julian assange just safe passage to aqua door how will he get there in a diplomatic the call no which would be impossible if he leaves the embassy he can be arrested by the you can't police i'm not an expert on this but i would think this even if you are in a car with diplomatic license plates you're still at the mercy of the driver and who knows what you will agree to in any case no one is trying to hide his son from the swedish prosecution which we need guarantees that he would not be extradited to

a third country why do you think sweden refused ecuador's proposal to question a sound at the embassy even via skype as has been done before why this is widely accepted legal in practice it has been done many times before and that's why the ecuadorian embassy proposed this to the swedish prosecution we invited them to come to the embassy and question mr sands in person isn't that what they've been trying to do all along they denied our offer so what are we supposed to think now percent of the so many countries and organizations have supported ecuador's decision to grant asylum to asuncion including nassau and most of the alba nations in what we did they express their backing to support we have enjoyed has been primarily due to britain's diplomatic clumsiness i hope you will excuse my language but i just cannot find another word to put it the british threatened us with storming our embassy to arrest mr sand this is what has united all the nations in south america and other continents in their desire to stand behind ecuador confronted as it was

with such a barbaric prospect such threats are unacceptable have they been carried out this would have constituted a violation of one of the fundamental principles of international law the inviolability of diplomatic premises it was this threats rather than our eventual asylum decision that has prompted such widespread support in our favor from the valley varian alliance of the americas and the union of south american nations and on friday foreign ministers of the member nations have. the organization of american states will meet to discuss this issue what do you think could happen in the short term what are the possible scenarios i'm not in astrologist i'm an economist a lot will now depend on the u.k. in sweden our positions remains the same and we are open to dialogue all we want is a guarantee that mr sanchez looney face those charges that were brought against him in sweden and will not be extradited to third countries or they could give him safe

passage from the ecuadorian embassy in london. will ecuador stand behind astonish no matter what consequences might follow it to me once we granted asylum to mr songe he's under the protection of ecuador but of that will do everything to make sure this protection is effective thank you mr president. if you. try. to leave.

magine assets that that damn phone watches young every single mom. and waiting for you to stumble. i saw a man with a video camera so i moved over and he followed me. here we realized there were following everyone from early in the morning. the only chance to get rid of him. is to reveal him. me devil operation on our cheek.

soon which brightened if you move about song from miles to impression. from star totty dot com. my name is richard davis i'm an architectural photographer from london and i've been traveling in russia for the last ten years on a project photographs wooden chair choose obviously i fell in love with the trenches they are extraordinary ok it's a beautiful abuse and the church is is a religious monumental obviously but it's also an object of wonder you know it's something that people can look at it opens their eyes that that shows what can be achieved by using your imagination. the world to the true science technology innovation all those developments from

around russia we've got the future covered. so much top stories three german copycats of a russian punk band pussy riot could face three years in a german prison for their protest started to the cathedral this despite berlin's condemnation of the shorter prison term handed to the moscow trio. mass killer anders breivik stick laid say in and given twenty one years in prison while this fight against islam is serving to inspire radical groups across europe. and the results of fresh nuclear talks between iran and the un's energy watchdog the i.a.e.a. says to rats not cooperate are going to face his criticism itself a big biased this is our take.

hello welcome to the latest sports and of the headlines standing down seven time tour de france winner lance armstrong says he'll no longer fight drug charges and could face being stripped of his titles. while advantage and his hearings man have one foot in the first round of the rope a legal they want to know when it's time to eat said alcohol bar to start with in stockholm. and fun during the lightning. blitz in the one hundred meters and you same boat cruise through the two hundred fifty maker a double sprint triumph the diamond league meeting in lower than. that first lance armstrong could be stripped of his seven tour de france titles as the under-fire cyclist has refused to find drug charges from the u.s. and the doping agency the american maintains his innocence but says he's had enough of contesting accusations he calls nonsense and claims he won't get a fair hearing the agency alleges armstrong used banned substances this far back as nine hundred ninety six and intends to ban him from citing for life as well as take

his two accounts from them the forty year old retired in two thousand and five after his last victory but returned between two thousand and nine and two thousand and twelve while on monday he failed in his attempt to block the charges in a u.s. federal court the cancer survivor will now focus on the work done by his own charity while the world anti-doping chief roos the americans decision. to rebut the charges those very serious charges made that is effectively acknowledging that they had substance and that allows use of the rules that he always subjected himself to to impose sanctions which they will do with those sanctions a pretty interesting sions effectively a lifetime ban. now on to football and angie are ninety minutes away from reaching the first round proper of the europa league for the first time off their winning one in a time to dump sideways it out ma alice in a try or a spike five minutes into the second half was enough to give her sittings many

slight advantage to take to the netherlands next week a draw over three in the second leg would then do enough to see the dagestan side least the group stages for the first time while the japanese may feel that basically honda gave tesco a vital away goal need as the common man won one. hundred meantime new boss alone to head coach tito villanova claimed victory in his first meeting with count about joe's a marina the boss came from behind to beat relman streets at the nou camp in the first leg of this i sympathise a year on from the famous clash that's all marino poke a villain either in the eye christiane are now though finally headed way out in front ten minutes into an action packed second half only for boss of the week he was rude to people having their own no doubt group. then ramos trip andres iniesta in the penalty area allowing little messy to boss in front of seventy minutes and iniesta swifty and numbers to make it three one.

but with five minutes to go substitute and jumped on goalkeeper viktor bout this absolute power to pull a go back three to victory for villanova merinos men heading to next thursday's return leg to. live in the heart of what all of it there's a lot it's always better to wait for one than three two but i think we played a very good game do we try to dominate throughout and we achieved that we created a lot of chances and the two goals were teed up for specific players and it's no more of these things happen especially because real ira team of greater equality particularly with three cheeks and having players that i can do the yeah in the end of the game three to the competition stands. no favor will go to the burn about to win it they don't really want to do that and in the meantime full russian youngsters dreams of playing football on the baking stage term step closer to reality after they were given places at barcelona's legendary numbers their academy

. reports the hard work starts. many are called few are chosen that is exactly the case with these up and coming players aged sixteen to twenty they're looking to have the jackpot of their dreams all while getting up close and personal with world class coaches and players such as former barcelona manager pep guardiola and player javier mascherano the coach who has won just about every trophy possible knows exactly what qualities can transform raw talent into a world class footballer we don't pay much attention to the players physical build and a flood of citizen because they're all still growing technique however is a vital importance and that's what we look for at barcelona cademy one hundred finalists from fifty five countries able to make the cut for now including four russians from st petersburg cross no dar and moscow it's unlikely that the tree call a call off curial romance curial lopped of or blood just last year nor ever envision doing drills under the watchful eye of my serrano and his teammate thiago alcantara

but that's exactly what happened however just like in professional football nobody spot in the lineup a safe with the organizer said to slash the list almost in half to fifty two only sixteen players will remain in the end though and they'll embark on a tour to play the manchester united football academy select and the united states youth national team among others the winners will be announced on saturday and while simple math suggests that the russians have a slim chance to enter that last sixteen muscovite lopped of in particular has been impressing the scouts with his footballing prowess so a tough pressure filled test for the youngsters in front of the sport's biggest names said to separate the very best from the rest of the gorski are key. now on to tennis and olympic champion andy murray could face wimbledon champion roger federer in the semifinals of the u.s. open after the draw for the first round was made in both the men's and women's competitions but before the world number one comes number three could meet for

a third mouthwatering encounter in two months first has to overcome american donald young in one while mari is up against russia's alex morgan one of them to champion novak djokovic will play italy's talent n.z. and last year's dayton final is rafael nadal has already withdrawn due to any injury. but feel like i'm playing great i mean to be free mentally ready to do sacrifices and work hard and make it happen for me but that other guys are playing well as well get such a great year with so much confidence it was just really hard to stop him marries into conversations well after winning the olympics of course it's a big opportunity and those are all around for many of the players not just the other top three guys. for me while in the first round of the women's draw top seed victoria azarenka faces russian alexander and all the second seed agnes but iran is also up against a russian audio brushed over while the mystery maria sharapova will take on time gary and melinda ching defending champion some stars of australia seeded seventh

and will take on probation spectrum outage. the last couple of weeks have been playing pretty well and obviously you want to absolutely take it at this moment in these couple of weeks so it has been a bit of an up and down a bit you know i feel like doing all the right things i hope there's just a better time. and i want to make as yohan blake blitz the one hundred meters and use same boat cruise through the two hundred on a night when i lympics start showing that the latest diamond league meeting in less than and then the champion bowls decided not to compete in the one hundred meters and silver medalist blake ran a personal best of nine point six nine seconds to win in the joint third fastest time in history bolt has run faster and there you can tyson gay finish second and jamaican nesta carter while both come to be one the wonder to. it reaches a nineteen point five eight seconds in other words joined in latina took silver and is nicole smith pinch bronze champion kirani james of grenada won the men's four

hundred meters in forty four point three seven seconds ahead of the dominican republic so they get in some sauce while there was a photo finish in the women's one hundred meters and american calmly to jetta and drank his shelley and fraser bryce both clocked ten point eight six seconds but jetta was awarded the gold. and we finish where we started with frankly local swiss riders have swept the podium in the world's longest mountain bike race across the outs. has more on this year's grand rattled. the. i was swiss mountain bike race marathon is an event which attracts the sports elite and amateurs from all over the world and this year the twenty third edition of the grantor a day was no exception with around three thousand writers taking part the race consisted of four different routes so that everyone could have chosen the want to their liking or abilities the longest route ran between the villages over here and

agreements and the one hundred twenty five kilometer course from the start to finish also included a five thousand meter climb and without doubt the swiss alps provided a breathtaking background to this sport and drama. i don't put to suppose of the race representing more than twenty nations at the chance to enjoy the splendor of the surrounding landscapes but only if you most of the trade managed to get into the courtyard and the end of the day and all to the delight of the swiss crowd the main rays became a one hundred percent triumph follow co-writers alexander moves who celebrated

a through deserved victory was followed by his countrymen. and calling a loser. departing on it took a lot of work and a lot of sacrifice i was lucky during the first descent the climb went off super two i was in a great mood and the fans were fantastic and then there was the last descent and here i was at the finish. i really admire it but my thought played today there was a really hard race and it was my goal to go on the podium today i have a really. big clock because my chain must say. that i have aggression like jane and then i go to. arrive here and then to finally that i made today my yeah i'm really happy if russia also had a representative from this danger incident and dream alicia and to finish in two hundred seventy fourth in the overall standings still coming home ahead of all the competitors that's only going to see.

wealthy british style. time by. markets. around the. wind on what's really happening to the global economy with max concert for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into cars a report. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture.