and the last one. leaving the. monarchy. nine from moscow this is r.t. top stories now breaking economic barriers in the free trade zone in asia pacific dominate discussions at the apec summit in russia vladimir putin outlined a greater role for the country's partnership with china in shaping regional and global affairs. the u.s. sends more agents to the border with syria to train the rebels as france considers sending them heavy artillery meanwhile syrian state t.v. says one of two bomb blasts to have rocked damascus has claimed at least five lives . in the form of the becomes the democrat's presidential candidate with more

promises of change but is a potent say he's failed to deliver on his original pledges from four years ago about to hit back at the republicans and criticize mitt romney for calling russia america's number one enemy. but i'll be back with another summer in fifteen minutes from now the mean time we talk to the author of revolution south american the rise of the new left about the future of the world's most famous whistleblower julian assange and our in-depth interview next for you. i. r t sitting down with nicholas kozlov author journalist and an expert on south america nicholas thank you very much for joining r.t. are it thank you you recently wrote an article in which he said that joining us and has certainly managed to discombobulate and disrupt a larger swath of the geo political system now of course you're referring to the fact that this man is an australian citizen wanted by sweden in many respects by

the u.k. and by the us and now being protected by ecuador in your opinion what was the main reason behind the ecuadorian president's decision to grant joleen assigned to silent well i think that korea probably thinks that julian assange is persecuted and so he's motivated on that score but i also think that rafael correa has his own internal political reasons for wanting to grant asylum to julian assange ecuador holds presidential elections in february of two thousand and thirteen and i think rafael correa seems to be holding pretty solid margin of a pretty positive margin but i think that he might want to shore up some support and and i think that this issue plays to national sentiment in ecuador and wounded a sense of wounded pride because ecuador is

a small country it's pretty impoverished and the united states says intervened on many in over the years in ecuador and on many occasions and in the political sphere in the military sphere and even the cia has launched destabilization in ecuador going back to the early sixty's and so i think korea is playing on this nationalist sentiment because ecuador and still like to be bullied they don't like to be pushed around. what does ecuador have to lose by backing a songe i mean obviously and doing so there's a bit of antagonizing i guess the u.s. even possibly the u.k. well ecuador's stands to lose. economically because it exports a lot of flowers. also mangoes pineapple and most of horton li petroleum products the united states and so these are very vulnerable industries in

the event that washington should retaliate and already there there are business groups in the unit in washington that are lobbying the obama administration to cut off the preferential trade preferences the duty free trade preferences for ecuador and goods and there was one business representative who was actually quoted as saying that this sancia fair plays to our favor and so these efforts seem to be led by the petroleum industry which is upset by korea's nationalistic oil policy this is a actual actually a conflict which predates the songe affair but going back several years. you know chevron has resisted the ecuadorian. while the ecuadorian traditional system which says that it should pay damages for environmental pollution in ecuador and amazon because before it was chevron you know chevron bought up texaco and so this is been

a very tense state of affairs in ecuador going back some time and so according to reports the. chevron is leading this lobbying effort to rescind the or maybe not leading but it's at least participating in efforts to ricin these trade for a which is for for ecuador and in this sense i think the songe affair is. it's like it's like a pawn in this wider geo political game so it's not going to necessarily help korea and it may actually give the oil industry and these other industries an excuse to slap on. trade restriction ecuador's neighbors in latin america have strongly condemned threats coming from the u.k. on the issue of at what door granting julian assange to political asylum how strong do you believe their support is on this and how much weight will it carry when it

comes to the standoff possibly escalating. well i think that the different countries in the region have different agendas and one interesting facet of the story is the falkland islands believe it or not because argentina has been locked in this diplomatic battle with britain over the falklands for some time and cristina fernandez de kitchener as been whipping up diplomatic support for her claims and she's been quite effective in in rounding up support in her corner. argentina want to explore for oil lucrative oil and gas in the falklands and so argentina sees this as an opportunity to whip up support against britain so i don't think that argentina has any particular regard for julia signs per se and in fact a lot of the cables that he leaked were quite unflattering towards argentina because they cast kitchener's in an unflattering light so i think the countries in the region are all playing playing this out for their own political

reasons and they have their own constituencies to appease and so i think that this . argentina wants to appease nationalist sentiment in argentina and ecuador wants to appease nationalist sentiment there i think brazil is a little reluctant for the reasons that i said i said before because brazil is very interested in pursuing this under the radar kind of strategy it probably calculates that it's better to not alienate the u.s. so i think brazil will go up to a point with its rhetoric but not maybe not go so far as to join with the alba countries the more radical countries like venezuela and ecuador so how would act with automatic short range safe passage for signs because after all as soon as he steps out of the embassy. onto the territory of britain he will be arrested well i

don't i don't really see necessarily. way out there's been talk about diplomatic pouch is which is seems really arcane to me but it's to be sure there is this custom of diplomatic pouch is where you can bring that through the airport in they could put him in a bag but it just seems very arcane and far fetched to me if a sound does end up on ecuadorian soil what kind of consequences will it have for the country and ordinary people living there well at first i wasn't really sure how this issue would play for korea politically just because i think a lot of ecuadorians are very poor they confront just a daily battle for survival and so at first i thought this this is a pretty esoteric issue people have more bread and butter concerns and yet in the past few days you've seen protests in front of the british consulate in quiet on the players and the c. and p.

two and it's just been a kind of a bizarre and surreal sight to see indigenous people dressed in traditional clothing with a handkerchief of julian a songe which is very surprising to me so maybe this suggests that maybe this issue resonates that maybe korea struck a chord and a lot of ecuadorians are. resent the bullying of the united states and they don't like getting pushed around and so they're going to take the to this issue the u.s. state department has said that it believes that the issue surrounding julian assange is a bilateral issue between ecuador and the united kingdom and that the u.s. has no role to play in the matter and that other countries should not get involved how plausible is that i find it completely implausible that the united states is not involved in this in some way and then the other day the united states said very ridiculously that could or should not bring this matter before the organization of

american. states that this is a matter between ecuador and britain but that's just completely preposterous it's totally legitimate for ecuador to raise an issue of its own sovereignty at the organization of american states and i think this just points to us because the u.s. wants to get its way in the oas and has done so historically and now it's saying no you shouldn't bring this issue before the oh yes international media keep stressing that the u.s. has not made any moves to requests a songes extradition do you believe that washington is actually planning on getting a song or do you believe that they have no interest in bringing america well i think that there's this grand jury that in virginia that's that's empowered to side on it that was a sealed indictment. but well we don't know but i think the state

department and many parties in washington would love to see julian a songe brought to justice and many republicans and even some democrats like dianne feinstein so the power elite in washington will probably stop at nothing to get its hands on julia songe for releasing the cable gate scandal and embarrassing the state department but openly they're not going to say why i don't have it as well i think that they don't want to look bad in the international arena they don't want to look vindictive so they're saying this is a matter for sweden these other countries to work out but i think probably behind the scenes united states is aging on britain i find it rather difficult to believe that britain would not have made these threats without having been pressured by washington given the fact that a number of whistleblowers are being persecuted by the u.s. government as a matter of fact the obama administration is considered to be waging an

unprecedented war on. whistleblower's how do you think that will play in this fight against extradition for julian the songe and impact the entire whistleblowing movement well i think you'd have to say on balance that this exerts a rather chilling effect because who the hell wants to see diplomatic refuge if they can avoid it and i think a lot of people might be interested in whistle blowing but not if it means that you're going to be stateless and you have to seek. protection in a foreign embassy nevertheless i'm interested to see that in september there's a new whistle blowing organization that's being launched in iceland and which has international support so maybe in a sense what goes around comes around people will see that there's been persecution of wiki leaks and then it actually might ricochet and they'll be more

whistleblowers as a result because they'll see that there's this crackdown and so now there's more of a need than ever some experts say that the united kingdom and in fact all the players involved in this circumstance surrounding julian assange have managed to dig themselves into a hole on this issue diplomatically speaking what would you consider to be the smartest way out for all of them well i think. i think that i personally hope that cooler heads will prevail i think that that. it's rather absurd that sweden did not did not. question join us in the ecuadorian embassy to begin with and i think a lot of this crisis could have been avoided if sweden had just gone there and just proceeded with the questioning but now that it's escalated beyond that point i think i hope that cooler heads can prevail and that britain doesn't go invading the territorial sovereignty of another of another country. thank you very much for your

time all right thank you. wealthy british style sun it's time to. look at the. markets why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy in these kinds of reports on . their conduced childhood was a rich shadowed by this tragedy. these two feel the fear and the thing just. remember every second of this nightmare. it will remain in their memories and hearts forever. and it seemed so.

innocent. a little angel on our cheek. top stories this hour on r.t. breaking economic barriers and a free trade zone in asia pacific dominate discussions of the apec summit in russia . and a greater role for the country's partnership with china in shaping regional and global affairs. the u.s. sends more agents to the border with syria to train the rebels as france considers sending them heavy artillery meanwhile syrian state t.v. says one of two bomb blasts through a damascus has claimed at least five lives. full body becomes the democratic presidential candidate with more promises of change but his opponents say he's failed to deliver on his original pledges from four years ago obama hit back at the

republicans and criticized mitt romney purporting russia america's number one enemy . that we used to mourn those stories in fifteen minutes from now in the meantime here is unions next for the sport in russia's football team seeking to give capello winning starts and they certainly are there currently in action and i tell you what well it's not fabulous fabio just yet but he's doing ok we're going to get the latest right now. good to have you with us this is indeed sports day and we have a busy bulletin for you let's get right to. road to rio russia edging towards full time in their first competitive match under fabio capello and it's looking pretty good so far. smooth progress djokovic stays on course defend his

u.s. open title after a straight sets quarter final win for juan martin del potro. remembering one year on since a plane crash claimed the lives of the entire lock on the t.v. ice hockey squad r.t. commemorates those who lost their lives. football first where european qualifying for the twenty fourteen world cup finals is underway russia coming close to the end of their much with northern ireland right here in moscow a mix for decent reading this stage for the home side around eighty nine minutes in the locker motif stadium of these. new monitor fabio capello with a fully fit squad to choose from tonight on the favorites certainly made their presence felt against the irish dominating throughout and must be said is any man in the. netting for the two nil scoreline so he's. also in group half on friday portugal make the trip to look some well as by john and israel are approaching half time in their clash it is nil nil at the moment and not one

elsewhere twenty ten world cup finalists the netherlands host turkey four time winners in bulgaria germany their overwhelming favorites of course at home to the furrow islands england are in moldova big three of us there as well all fronts trouble. in tennis all four u.s. open men's semifinalists are no known tell us the murray joined by defending champion novak djokovic and dolphin for on thursday joke which needing only. three cents to send one matson del potro packing the second seeded serve easily taking the opener six to work much harder though in the second set on eight c. on the set so i. stuck with it which is down to be far better than epic five set in country the per on court for four and a half hours with the fourth seeded sponsored claiming the first set six three he would lose the next two before storming back in the fourth to force of the side or

for showing his result to clamber back from a four one deficit in the final set and force a tie break which he would win seven. while the women semifinals feature three players who have already won a grand slam this year twenty twelve french open champion maria sharapova she's one of them and she's gearing up for a buffalo it really is truly an open champion in the world number one victoria azarenka the twenty mins on the first u.s. open title since two thousand and six avenge the st open final loss to the russian pair also finding out they were among the first women to qualify for the season ending w t h l n chips in istanbul twelve wimbledon champion serina williams will be in action after the match against so early in the arsenal. to go for the european challenge tour has touched on once again here in moscow it's one of the country's biggest events with total prize money reaching a quarter of a million euro cross the fairways and he sent us this report. it's traditionally an old sport but russia is still pretty new to it there are

a few russian professional golfers and even fewer professional golf courses but that's a live a golf club just outside moscow has made sure it stands out not only in russia but internationally and it's attracting professional golfers from all over the world obviously. and this could be a good for russian people to come over here and what's been people paying off professional and going. to. russian people to stop playing golf but of course it's more than just a jack nicklaus designed golf course it's part of the european challenge tour which is naturally up the stakes and attracted a whole bunch of pro golfers to the event to challenge for and that's pretty high level in europe. and i think everyone wants to get the chance to play as many tournament you want and this one is a good week for a lot of guys and i think the guys are. probably struggle but otherwise

i think it's really good field this week of the few russian golfers participating in this year's cup there's one that people would be forgiven for thinking he's on the wrong court tennis legend guinea kafelnikov is surprising one of russia's brightest golfing enthusiastic so much so that he won the russian cup in twenty eleven he's an avid supporter of further investment into the sport and previously has been the spokesman for the cup. this tournament is without doubt the great russian gold i want to see more and more of such tournaments happening in the country but for now we have to make do with what we have you know maybe russia's biggest problem is the fact that there are still so few professional golfers in the country is the only recognizable player is a former tennis great there's obviously room for improvement and with immaculate eighteen hole courses like that to leave a golf course it must only be a matter of time so the players are in unison that russia still has a way to go before it can realistically challenge some of the more established

golfing destinations around the world but with state of the art courses like this the sport will only benefit in the next three days some of the world's best golfers will duke it out to see just who will take the bulk of the two hundred fifty thousand euro prize money and with my handicap it certainly ain't going to be me like a trunk or. region work in progress there that's they were called for when i three weeks away from the biggest team event of the year team usa seeking to wrestle the ryder cup back from europe when the competition tees off on september twentieth in chicago european skipper jose maria olazabal well aware that the home fans will also bring their a game to the medina country club. they're going to be variable but we know how. it's you go cross-country they love sports if you're going to go on for them right it could be sick you cheap it used to be going to bed they're going to be hosting. and i was there a year ago and then people knew about what was to come. in that regard i don't have

any doubt that they're going to be allowed. it's a somber day all across russian indeed the entire sporting world with the country commemorating one year since the earth plane crash which killed the entire lock on the t.v. office level ice hockey team friends and families of the forty four victims along with qantas fans paying their respects in the central russian city a morning church service was followed by a flower laying ceremony on friday the families of the six then travel to the side of the crash where a commemorative monument has been built ice hockey fans from across the globe have also been busy arriving in the city jerseys of all the victims will later be raised to the rafters of the squads arena only the flight engineer survived the tragedy with memory still overwhelmingly rule for the victims' families and for those who knew the pictures we just hope that in time they find strength. and they find peace and then they are able to. have

you know to take with some. of those good strong what would you say that. the your. husbands and fathers. r t pays tribute to those who lost their lives on that tragic september night last year.

live.

the. was born. is your sport for this hour do joy make and just under two hours for more 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. they were young and high flying. their careers were on takeoff. that flight for them was one of many. and the last one. leaving the ice one archie.