u.s. officials in the mainstream media dismiss and ignore allegations of a life threatening crisis at guantanamo where more than one hundred detainees are reportedly on hunger strike for a second month. in syria some western nations are ready to send more arms to the rebels including antitank. weapons. and the once in a decade power shift is complete in china with a new president and prime minister to impose political policies that will shape the world the top stories this hour. international news and comment live from a studio here in moscow this is twenty four hours

a day lawyers for more than one hundred detainees on a hunger strike at guantanamo bay say many of them are close to death the situation has become so desperate representatives of the captives have made a direct appeal to the u.s. defense secretary but u.s. officials deny the allegations and much of the mainstream media remains are moved. reports. guantanamo detainees have been on a hunger strike for more than a month now the facility which is now on strike holds most of the inmates there one hundred thirty people out of one hundred sixty six the total number of prisoners at guantanamo the detainees through their lawyers say most of them are taking part in this we cannot verify exactly how many were left a message with robert do ran the media person from guantanamo very much hope he will get back to us the attorneys for the detainees are saying their health is deteriorating we spoke with. her client there says he lost twenty pounds is the beginning of the strike at the beginning of february said she and

a number of other attorneys had sent a letter with their questions to the authorities at guantanamo copying the justice department she said they hadn't responded. at this point the strike is more than thirty days old and by day forty by we understand from medical experts there are serious health repercussions that start happening things like loss of hearing chancel blindness and in a couple of weeks worse than that ultimately you know substantial as they are for this well it strikes continue for weeks we've just no response to that letter so our parties also say they want to response from the authorities more meaningful than the few remarks by the prison spokesperson in the media robert duran i mentioned him earlier responded to the allegations that the prisoners copies of the koran had been mistreated and that's what presumably triggered the strike he said it was a routine search for contraband and quote the koran is treated with the outmost respect end of quote it may very well be so from the conversations that we had with

the lawyers i got a sense that this act of desperation is not just about the koran the lawyers are saying that these detainees desperately want to get the word out about the situation that they're in not formally accused of anything not knowing whether they're ever going to see their day in court detained indefinitely the u.n. says holding detainees indefinitely at guantanamo bay it amounts to torture four years ago president obama signed an executive order to stop torture there but according to the u.n. indefinite detention itself is also a form of torture it's hard to measure the degree of desperation among the inmates there half of them eighty six to be precise are sitting there with papers from the u.s. government which can clear them for release and yet they're still there are human rights organizations were poured hundreds of suicide attempts at least seven of them were successful a detainee named odd non latif took his own life last september he was cleared for release by both bush and obama administrations and yet never released he had spent

eleven years at one tunnel that gives some idea about the level of hopelessness cause. by indefinite detention so it's somewhat obvious that through this hunger strike the detainees want to make themselves heard and it's not easy we're one of very few channels that congress this story there is a desire to kind of forget about guantanamo it's very much reflected in the mainstream media here and in the scarce where porting that we have seen on the air in washington i'm going to check on human rights activists are some caray she said that a bomb is mounting for impression to shut down guantanamo before his time at the white house is up inside america basically because there is no real. public resentment of what is taking place there most of the pressure that's coming is internationally yes you have some groups so what he very hard to to highlight the issue and to make sure that it stays on the agenda but unfortunately for the

boss of the church of america they're quite happy for these detainees to to continue to be detained without charge or trial basically a one ton numbers over going to close it's going to be within these next four years . obama has the best to do that miss is a second time you cannot have both. you know and where hoping. it might be misplaced hope but basically he will try in use these last years of his presidency in order to do the right thing in a situation where the only thing that has ever happened is the wrong tree. on our website we want to know your opinion on the matter every voice counts at r.t. dot com where you can tell us when and if you think guantanamo bay will eventually close or so far looking at the screen results on screen at the moment most of you believe that get my will always be open because washington has no interest in

closing it down we can see there around the fifth say that the facility will cease to exist when the us runs out of funding slightly less if you reckon it will close after another prison is set up as a replacement and just two percent of you so far think that the painful history of guantanamo will end when the us defeats international terrorism so if you haven't cast your vote already just head to r.t. dot com and have your say we're interested in what you think of. the bloody conflict in syria has reached a third year and yet some european nations want to pour more weapons into the crisis torn country eve foreign ministers will look at the possibility of lifting an arms embargo on syria next week after france and britain made a major push to put more guns into the hands of assad forces the civil war's already claimed an estimated seventy thousand lives well earlier we spoke to who has followed the nation's plight from the beginning. i always compare today's syria

with the country i once visited before war and hatred and devastation came to these lands what we see today the country is destroyed. and its heritage is damaged and despair is in the and fight is in the air so it's very painful to look at how the country actually has been changed i've talked wants to father whose son was just killed in a fight in the clashes he was he was so-called process side i was like how you feel about that you just lost your kid and he was like i'm proud to be the father of a martyr because this is this is a fight against forces that. want to destroy our country and i want to protect my country and here's my input to this fight the hardest thing for me and for my crew was to to understand that to digest if you want. peace

and war we're sharing the same reality and gunman killing innocent civilians and children. we had been cutting has of their people and again civilians taking dinners and families walking on the streets in the same place at the same time and me is part of this reality as well there was there was the most difficult thing to understand because they still see the future in syria but not in syria which is right now on the ground but in that syria that they used to leave before it's been a country of an amazing diversity it's been it's been one of the strongest points of assyrians and actually and actually it's it's been eventually turned to this series weakest points and i've been working on these ideas and here's my report about that this part of syria known as mrs. tamia between the tigris and euphrates

rivers is considered a cradle of civilization has been home to many ask nic and religious groups living in peace and harmony for ages people here believe this diversity is serious strong point but some warn it could also be used against the country and that's something to destroy. and the regime slogans in syria have been repeated to the longest of all the arab spring countries but assad didn't step down within weeks like the leaders of to measure and egypt nor did his regime fall within months like colonel gadhafi is in libya opposing sides have gone beyond demonstrations and clashes killings have become an everyday reality those wanting a son to go both at home and abroad have decided to target what hurt the most serious diversity pitting people against each other after every massacre and every

killing rivers of blood have been joined by streams of mutual accusations and hatred. the first blow was dealt to relations between the country's sunni majority and the ruling she had minority some more ignorant position and sometimes. it was never to make a city and it's not the more me once that one again. we should keep our unity we live in all of all of. it gabriel a point from commercially livin in series ne all green sunni dominated turkey and mostly shia iraq says here in about six terran intolerance is something new for syria and very alarming in your. will fill this pressure for months now especially from gulf countries trying to drag us to this perilous share soon again it's a big threat because a tear society from the inside. and some say it's been few from the outside it is

part of the u.s. strategy and some of the western strategy is to destroy syria by syrians and by arabs and this they are doing successfully another blow followed with an explosion at a palestinian refugee camps in syria and the cold blooded murder of palestinian conscripts these drove a wedge between the two arab peoples previously on friendly terms they wanted to both weaken the regime and spread despair among palestinians. with kurdish villages in syria's north east targeted the kurdish syrian peaceful co-existence has also been endangered of a clerk its approval cations appear in very dangerous more syrian kurds want to be integrated into syrian society have rights and be respected some turkish kurds maybe do as early ones killing his own people we've never been treated like that of course when violence targets us it can't not affect relations. and fears that those

who wanted to see the fall of the regime will witness the country's fall instead. refinish from syria. well for more on syria let's now cross to strasburg and political analyst robert hollowness robot how will the syrian conflict change if britain and france do go ahead and bypass the e.u. and supply the rebels with arms what sort of impact could that have well it depends how far they're prepared to go i mean we've already heard some pretty astonishing absurd statements from william hague the british foreign secretary saying they were going to send non-offensive on the cars with blankets to the rebels if britain and france do ignore the european union bad on exporting weapons to syria obviously is going to have an effect and clearly. britain france and probably

behind them america getting pretty panicky about. team of overthrowing. saudis just not working whether that's where something that they really want or whether they just want to neutralize syria by reducing it to chaos we can't really tell but certainly if they start to pour weapons in in a big way obviously it's going to make a difference but on the other hand one third at least and probably a majority of the syrians do not want to be living in a sheria state so there is going to be a desperate fight whatever happens and of course you can be sure that iran on equally will say well if this is the way britain and france are going to behave we shall do as much or they are a lot closer to syria than britain and france all right so that's a response from iran but what about the response from britain and france is neighbors see if they go ahead without a sanction from the e.u. what sort of diplomatic fallout could that lead to. well it's not terribly

surprising but the word is that there is going to be a meeting of the this afternoon is that there's going to be a meeting of the e.u. foreign ministers to discuss this and i am quite sure that there will be some modification of the ban to leave a little loophole so that britain and france can actually drive a coach and horses through it and they've already been sending weapons into syria so it's it's childish to pretend that this is a new development but they want to do it more openly and moderately legally and how as how and how is the media portraying the french position there in france. the the french media varies from complicity with the us are just a positively grovelling it it's quite embarrassing i'm. going to interview yesterday are almost out fo and within two minutes he said that it was actually essential that france in mali. crush the terrorists to protect the mali government so then five seconds later he said it was essential that france was

there in syria to protect the resisters against the government. the at the behavior of the government is shameless and the complicity of the french media and very large movement not entirely but in very large measure is fees will change and so i know the german media there reporting of course germany's stance is not supporting arming the rebels but the even there are saying that the u.s. are helping to train the the rebels saying that they're helping them to use anti-tank weapons at a camp in jordan do you think perhaps this is a precursor to washington getting involved more assertively now. well you get into jordan situation it's very interesting a few months ago franks said oh they were terribly worried about poor refugees so they sent a hospital to join it just happened to be a military hospital i'm at the time various people say that i mean there we go this is the that's all i'm now there are several different allied armies in jordan and indeed they are training our rebels there and the idea here is you go from to now

you're going to have the jordan from to distract the syrian government attacks it take them on two planks probably how to slide from france from strikes back thank you very much indeed for your views on this thank you the streets of bahrain in flames again the sheer opposition crosses swords with the regime security forces marking two years since a deadly intervention by saudi troops that's just ahead here in r.t. . and there's now a new player in the quest to find life outside the blue planet find out who is said to rival nasa's curiosity rover on laws that's all to short break stay with us.

played mission free accreditation free kunstler judges free. range month three kids free studio time free. download free broadcast plug in video for your media projects a free medio dog r t dot com. we speak your language another day of. news programs and documentaries in spanish what matters to you breaking news a little tonnage of angles couldn't stories. you hear. that all teach spanish find out more visit eye to our.

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i want to live here most of the news continues now bahrain has been engulfed by clashes between protesters and police on the second anniversary of a saudi intervention which crushed approach democracy uprising security forces fired stun grenades and tear gas at thousands of angry marches it burned tires and hurled stones at police state how do we he's a former m.p. from bahrain's largest opposition party says people are outraged by the government's reluctance to admit that there is a crisis the collective punishment is a. policy of the. security of course and. excessive force. security forces this main problem worse and worse the or thirteen don't want to admit there is

a political problem no all at the local human rights situation which meant that people promised. the people in the state and wrote this for me and to show intention to continue to lead and when the moment common. goal. well you can stamp the speed with the current international news dot com where today we report on an ill fated campaign a report suggests the much anticipated nato from afghanistan in twenty fourteen will leave the country defenseless against militant attacks. also on just days after the inauguration of the new pope the pontiff says francis the first never wanted to head the catholic church.

in china the shift from one generation of leaders to the next one is complete the new prime minister. is now in charge of the world's second largest economy he faces the challenge of boosting economic growth which has slowed in recent years a report from pricewaterhouse coopers says that by twenty seventeen china will be the world's leading economy ahead of the u.s. surging ahead also set to increase is minute treat spending. and we can see that the struggle for regional influence between beijing and washington is longstanding this map shows how the u.s. has increased its military presence source of concern for china's leader. leaders i should say c.c.t.v. correspondent the voice says that the growth of american influence in the region is fueling the speech there used to be

a superstitious belief almost in china about eight percent growth rate of the national g.d.p. for that list number has to slow down to about seven point five percent it has to be a slow down number because china is doing this transition from a growth quantity rose in quality many argue it is extremely important to do reform reform really has been the key word for the new generation of leaders coming into power recently mr leask which outweighs the now the cut chinese premier he's been talking about reform is the largest dividend china can be enjoyed for its course for the progress president mr xi jinping after being elected was calling immediately to all president obama and he advocated it to two countries could have mutual respect and openness to one another things can be better and he's been talking about a new kinds of relations between new powers and that of course the definition is

not being given by the chinese side however it seems that the u.s. has already got its own definition for example cuba to asia or rebalancing and as a result there has been increasing number of turturro disputes and or disputes in other stores between china and some of the asian neighbors with the coming in the united states might be a backup for them in the region but the chinese seems always want to have a peaceful neighborhood that's seems to be a really believe the chinese have been holding over the history. some other world news in brief we now thousands of students gathered in the streets of spain's capital madrid on the day the south of the country's government slashed education funding in a bid to spain's crushing debt burden the demonstrators are outraged over soaring childish and fees at spanish universities while tens of thousands of teaching staff are being laid off meanwhile spain faces record unemployment with fifty five percent young people currently out of work. bomb attack targeting a television network has left three people dead and five injured in pakistan's

largest city according to officials an explosive device was planted at the gates to the network's headquarters and detonated remotely it's the latest in the recent string of terrorist attacks in karachi as tensions simmer ahead of the country's main general election scaring the red planet for traces of life means rising up to some daunting technical challenges and one of the toughest is digging deep into its soil and that's the goal of a brand new mission that's just been agreed by the european and russian space agencies. to be sent to mars and twenty eight will drill thirty times further below the surface in the currently operating curiosity vehicle with more on the ambitious plans he has even to scale. the search for the past or present life on mars screen to news and this time scientists are digging deep the mars project is based on to freeze exploration first in two thousand and sixteen russian proton heavy rocket to

usually used for delivering satellites and space station components should blast off from lack of a cosmodrome in kazakhstan sending a european orbital pool and a stationary test lander to the red planet to his plan for two thousand and eighteen one a second proton rocket will deliver a rover a named pastor after landing it will then begin tracing the life on mars this includes drilling two meters deep into the ground that's around six and a half feet to collect samples the mission's other objective is to study mars a surface to find out what dangers there may be for future manned missions powerful dust storms extreme temperatures radiation and so on are not exactly your ideal working conditions the european space agency has already invested over four hundred million euro into the project which was initially supposed to be conducted with nasa but it backed out due to financial constraints russia on the other hand was

happy to jump in and the science providing delivery vehicles including the landing pad will also develop some of these scientific equipment so far the red planet has only been visited by u.s. vehicles eggs on mars will be europe's first visit to the red planet this kind of arty. that's it for me the news team will be back with morphine about thirty five minutes from now in the meantime the people of illinois guess clash in heated debate in crystal of the brain. a u.n. investigator ben emmerson has decided to not let the sins of the recent past go he's demanding that the u.s. government release documents about the cia's program over addition and secret

detention of suspected terrorists everson believes that there is now credible evidence that shows that cia black sites were used to extradite suspected terrorists with neither charges nor access to a lawyer you know nothing says protect a democracy like snagging people in foreign countries without even charging them with a crime this year investigator may have good intentions but the thing is that no matter how much he and his u.n. pals urge the u.s. to prosecute officials connected with torture or expose classified information they really have no power to do anything if you haven't noticed the u.n. is very happy to section and punish certain countries birdie if you out there i even have to think that they will sanction the usa or send a peacekeeping mission to stop the human rights violators in washington not a chance the un really has no business meddling in the affairs of sovereign countries but they do it all the time but there is a zero percent chance that the un will stand up to the bad behavior from the us government no matter how much it's investigators whine and plead and beg but that's

just my opinion. hello and welcome to cross talk where all things are considered on peter lavelle the catholic church has a new leader of pope francis from argentina and it jesuit you've seen as a dramatic even bold departure from the past can this simple man of humble origins reverse the fortunes of a church in crisis and what can the world expect from a pope hate when from the global south. cross not the recent election i'm joined by sister my report in london she is

a religious sister and a founding member of catholic woman's ordination in atlanta we have di and audrey she is an ordained minister in the association of roman catholic women priests and in our well we cross to john henry weston he is the co-founder and editor in chief of life site news dot com all right folks crosstalk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want sister myra we have a new pope is he the right man at the right time with the right message i don't know much about sorry i don't know much about him but he seems a rather crude choice at the moment but we're find out ok diane you want to die and you want to answer the same question. one of the things i'm excited about is that he's a jesuit which means he's lived a community life and also he lives in an apartment he brags the bus well he won't do any more for him so why don't more he won't be doing that anymore etc. but what you're saying he's a man of the people.