a life threatening mass hunger strike in the one town emoted tension camp continues prison officials deny any threat claiming only fourteen inmates are refusing food. a government of compromise israeli prime minister netanyahu is striking a coalition deal after seven weeks of deadlock negotiations with political rivals. back to earth after one hundred forty two days in orbit a u.s. astronaut two russian cosmonauts to land in kauzlarich stand having completed their mission aboard the international space station. now i am in moscow i matter as a good to have you with us here on our team our top story the health of detainees

in the guantanamo bay prison is under serious threat with a mass hunger strike continuing for more than five weeks it's claimed more than one hundred inmates the majority of them jailed without charge refusing food in an act of defiance struggling to draw attention to their plight camp officials though deny this saying any talk of it being a mass trike is an exaggeration on a request for information critics prison spokesman coppinger robert duran responded that the number of detainees refusing all food is fourteen having risen from six today it's the first time the guantanamo officials have admitted the number of hunger strikers has more than doubled following weeks of denial one of the inmates lawyers part is cabarets says the authorities are using questionable definitions though to play down the scale of the fast how they are defining hunger strikers that it is also one clear i think that one ton of no is being very careful in the way that they're they're denying these claims they're saying the number of men who have refused all food the number of men who are being too. these kinds of

things there is a question about exactly how the authorities are defining hunger strikers and determining when when they need to be to that our understanding is that based on previous standards the determination of who is a hunger striker is a discretionary determination that kuantan a moment makes if the definition of hunger striker is entirely in their control and it is a matter of their discretion then i that explains how they are able to say that there are no more than a handful of men on hunger strike the military at guantanamo argues the hunger strikers are only refusing regular meals while snacking from pantries but the lawyers who have been there to the base say they were shocked by the physical state of clients as are his marine important i reports u.s. officials in mainstream media are used to ignoring the alarming reports coming from get him out. when the us joined the united nations human rights council back in two

thousand and nine president barack obama announced his intention to close the guantanamo bay detention center now as the island prison enters its twelfth year of operation one hundred sixty two you are still languishing there and over forty one hundred thirty are on a life threatening hunger strike the story has been denied by washington and essentially ignored by mainstream media now is r t first reported on tuesday lawyers for the get more prisoners say the men began their hunger strike on february sixth to protest the alleged confiscation of their personal items including letters personal photos bed sheets razors and also be a legit sacrilegious handling of their kranz during cell searches now the center for constitutional rights says that they've received reports of detainees coughing blood losing consciousness and being hospitalized attorneys say that if the strike

enters its forty fifth day that participants can experience hearing loss and potential blindness now lawyers for the get more prisoners have sent a letter to u.s. defense secretary chuck hagel urging him to help end the mass hunger strike. in the meantime organizations like the red cross have made attempts to check in on the inmates here's what a representative told r.t. the current. as far as we can see. are really the result of. defeat. it's always been our position there needs to be a clear legal framework and a transparent process. same goes for those detainees that needs to be transparent

in fear to alleviate the strain is really that emotional mental strain that this uncertainty triggers for the detainees of the one hundred sixty six detainee's languishing get mo more than how eighty six to be exact have been cleared for release now this week the un said that the us is a violating international human rights law by indefinitely holding prisoners at guantanamo without charge the human rights council is urging washington to quote bring an end to these illegal practices by either prosecuting prisoners in civilian court or releasing the morning from new york marina point r.t. . human rights activists are sounding alert over what they're calling the critical situation in guantanamo but there's been no reaction from one of the most powerful groups amnesty international which post more than three million supporters and more than one hundred fifty countries r.t. asked its usa researcher rob as to why not having access to detainees is

a problem for human rights organization is something we raise with the authorities we have access you know when when there is a true military commission trial we're allowed to go and observe the trials but we have no access to the detainees themselves and yes of course it's a problem so we have to wait until it is released and so we can speak to this of course leads to yes the reporting of. only individual detainee cases and it leads to a time lag because like i say the lawyers themselves not spent you know they're not there the whole time it requires declassification of information when they do get it so it's a really it's a really problematic situation but it's been problematic the whole time that the guantanamo detentions have been in operation. most of the detainees in guantanamo have been held there for years without charge or trial turkish born morag colonel

who now lives in germany was among them he was released after being found not guilty in two thousand and six after five years of detention and torture here's what he says i have been myself tortured and different kinds of. their laws and the only reason why they brought us to guantanamo was because there's no any human rights existing over their life in prison so. and that's mean they could. do and make with us what they would they like to do and. they specially tortured me to force me for signing papers and every time when i refused they kept just touching me in different kind of face they just tried to really all kind of to break us in. so in they try. and physical torture to break the detainees and the same way with myself.

every time if you refused to do anything they told shut you punish you for this i must have got tortured by electroshocks and waterboarding and stuff like that but i have seen also. a kid's life nine years to if you sold kids inside the camp and of course it was for me more difficult to watch those kids how they get getting beaten up in front of me and it was for me really hard it gets tossed up myself. human rights activists around the globe campaigning to shut down the detention camp at guantanamo but many say they're losing hope that it will happen on our website we're asking when will be antonymous obey be closed here's what the spawns are saying right now the majority sixty percent think it won't happen since the u.s. is interested in closing it twenty percent say the prison will be shut down when

the us runs out of funding to maintain it a little less sixteen percent think the u.s. needs to set up a prison elsewhere in order to be able to close gitmo and two percent think it will happen after the u.s. wins the war on terror log on to our g dot com and click your vote. well stay with us here on r t still ahead in the program how the u.k. is making money in the bedroom we take a look at how the recession is betting brits in the most literal of ways plus. mission accomplished a soyuz spacecraft landing in kazakstan bringing home two russian cosmonauts and a u.s. astronaut after nearly five months in orbit stay with us here on r.t. .

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broncos video for your media project a free media. wealthy british. market. can. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike's cancer the no holds barred look at the global financial headlines two kinds of reports. eleven minutes past the hour israel's prime minister is finally managed to form a coalition ahead of saturday's deadline but at a cost of an easy compromise for the first time in a decade ultra-orthodox groups longtime allies of benjamin netanyahu were left out

parties paula slayer has more from television. a new coalition agreement has been signed and this follows weeks of suspicion and mistrust between the various political parties and also turbulent coalition negotiations now there are two newcomers to the israeli political scene the important point to make is that neither has a lot of political experience the first in fact does not mean he is a media personality by the name of yet you elected and he is to be the new finance minister which is a hugely important ministry for someone who has no financial background the second is a guy by the name of nothing to be bennett he represents the second movement and he is to be appointed the minister of economy and trade his number two will also be the minister of construction and housing now the importance of this is that it is going to make it harder for the prime minister netanyahu to freeze or stop settlement construction and as a result of also make it more difficult for him to reach any kind of peace deal

with the palestinians this is also the first time in a decade that the government is going to exclude the ultra orthodox parties not netanyahu has counted on the support of the ultra orthodox parties in the past he would have wanted them in this coalition he would have also wanted a bigger coalition and now moving forward as part of the coalition agreement the government in the next forty five days will have to present a new law on the issue of draw fitting the ultra religious to the army the new coalition partners one thing to serve in the army the ultra religious parties of course do not want to serve there are now who would also need to pass the budget in the next few months so he certainly has his hands full. another challenge rattling the nerves of israel's leaders as always but a two state solution with palestine which is struggling for its right to become a country in law or he spoke exclusively with the head of palestine mahmoud abbas put on r t dot com to watch it unfold as you speak about the long broader battle

for recognition and the horizons it could open. also online u.s. drone strikes in pakistan violate the country's sovereignty that's the conclusion of a u.n. team investigating how digital he's of the conflict after a secret research trip together multiple reports from locals are caught in the crossfire of the attacks. with syria's conflict now into its third year britain and france are pushing to open the door to directly arming the rebels the two states say they want to lift any u.n. bardot in a war and that even if it isn't they may still supply the weapons moscow says any such attempt would be in breach of international law france's president said the opposition fighters had given guarantees that the lethal aid wouldn't fall into the wrong hands is a syrian rebels claim hundreds of their men who've been given weapons training organized by the u.s. in jordan or back in syria washington's boosted its aid to the opposition but has so far restrained from directly arming it political analyst robert horan ice thinks

the e.u. will eventually find a way to allow more arms to reach the war torn country. i'm quite sure there will be some modification of the fan to lead the league loophole so that britain and france can actually draw the coach and horses through it 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 open than a and truly need a few months ago from 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 every day we go this is the that's all the time now there are several different allied armies in jordan and they are training up rebels there and the idea here is you go from to now you're going to have the children from to distract the syrian government attacks it take them on two planks. the u.k. has found a cheaper way to deal with its housing crisis as of april first it'll be either

cough up or get out as a so-called bedroom tax comes into effect our kids polly boycott took stock of the spiralling accommodation situation with some of the victims of the new tax. brian rider didn't ask for a two bedroom flats when he applied for emergency accommodation it was what the council gave him it was meant to be temporary and he's now live to fourteen year is it's my home of my dad my home we've done all the work and we've put the wood paneling on the wall. we stop decorating halfway through when we're lawyers there are more to have to move because i couldn't afford it and what's the point of decorating when i want her to appreciate it but yeah it's more home not all of my get mine it will upset me to move on but bryan who suffers from osteoporosis and can't work has little choice the government's so-called bedroom tax comes into effect from april fast six hundred forty thousand social housing tenants with at

least one spare room i have to cough up the cash from their already stretched budgets will move and there is friends bedroom according to the government lets find is now officially under occupied that's because he's also got this bad bad dream. and as a result he's going to have to fork out fifty pounds from his housing benefit every month in order to pay for it that's money that bryan needs to put towards food and heating so he's willing to downsize in order to avoid losing the money he so desperately needs but he's been told that there are no available properties i asked them for problems one was about six months ago for moving to a one bedroom every time i've been told but can't move me into one but nevertheless westminster says the twenty three billion pound housing benefit bill needs to be slashed people are being told they should move to a smaller flat but in my constituency there are fewer than

a hundred places people could move to a much fairly typical across the country as a whole if you can't move to a smaller property you can't avoid it you just have to pay the money and you're left with very very little i'm not just does seem very unfair the government is saying they won't have a tax on big mansions but they are having a bedroom tax on the poorest people in the country the department for work and pensions declined to comment on the controversial policy the impending changes of course such widespread concern that the government announced the parents of those serving in the armed forces foster carers and parents of severely disabled children will now be exempt from the changes as for the rest of the body in this situation is being blocked into a corner and until the council finds him a smaller flat brian will have to take the financial hit i haven't had any suggestions from any of them about what to do if and when you do run out and i find it hard to do which i would now realise is happening coming closer. i have no

choice in the matter it has been getting even more stressful the closer we get to the day because i just don't know what i'm going to do with what many are calling black april fast approaching critics say it's those with the least that is being hit the hardest. artsy kidderminster. china's once in a decade power shift is finished with a new prime minister likud shang beginning his job inheriting the task to run the world's second biggest economy the immediate challenge facing the new generation of the country's leaders is now to boost economic growth which has slowed in recent years well a report from pricewaterhouse coopers proves that the task is within the country's reach it predicts china will match the u.s. as the world's leading economy in two thousand and seventeen and then overtake it how to live say the statistics if we look at this map could explain the us current flexing of its military might in china's backyard u.s.

efforts to gain a stronger foothold in asia and for then the struggle for regional influence has put beijing on edge in recent months that's why rapid growth in the country's military spending is placed among the top priorities of the new leadership team on way correspondent reporting especially for r t says the u.s. moves are doing little to ensure mutual respect and dialogue between the two. there used to be a superstitious belief almost in china about eight percent growth rate of the national g.d.p. for that little number has been slowed down to about seven point five percent it has to be a slow down number because china is doing this transition from a growth in quantity to a growth 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 legal challenge who is the now the cut chinese premier he's been talking about reform is the largest dividend china can enjoy for its post for the progress president mr xi jinping after being elected was calling him

a delay to our 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 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 pivot to asia or rebalancing and as a result there has been increasing number of territorial disputes and or disputes in other stores between china and some of the asian neighbors with the coming in of the united states might be a backup for them in the region but the china seems always want to have a peaceful neighborhood that seems to be a really believe the chinese have been holding over the history. after a short break a back with the feet on solid ground catch up with three intrepid space explorers stay with us. actually our image of iraq after

a facial. twenty day taxi trip through the country. the roads full of dangerous. clear evidence from north to south. the route of iraqi tragedy. after the war waiting for peace. taxi on r.t.e. . to some people extreme cold isn't a chilling threat to life or imminent death it's a calling if you look you can see that the water in the rates in my body feels really warm now and this is good for you. they plunge into icy water to make themselves stronger you can't get used to the cold but you can tolerate it and you can struggle with. people of snow and ice picks as a frost. surviving the cold it's a. science

technology innovation all the list i'm elements from around russia we've got the future covered. r d she is a freedom fighter. and. you're ready to clean up a new store. if you liberty any time. soon lewdly tree. to be treated this way. syrian diary an archie.

thanks for staying with us here on r t let's take a look now at some other stories making global headlines this hour the u.s. new secretary of defense announces plans to downsize its european missile defense system plans to replace took place interceptors in poland and possibly hungry have been scrapped because of lack of funding instead the cash will be diverted to add another fourteen missile interceptors in the west coast in direct response to pyongyang's recent threats and rising tensions on the korean peninsula. ten days after its death the body of the late venezuelan leader hugo chavez has been laid to rest at the site of his failed one thousand nine hundred ninety two coup attempt the embalmed leader idiom involving the leader rather was recently ruled out by russian experts thousands flooded the streets for one last march in honor of the president of fourteen years the procession was headed by nicolas maduro interim president and candidate in next month's elections. the vatican is already under

fire for its choice of a new pope francis and his links to argentina's dirty war before more cardinal jorge mario bergoglio failed to openly confront the decade of dictatorship in his country which approximately twenty two thousand people disappear now. the first time the vatican selected a religious leader with a cloudy background his german predecessor benedict the sixteenth had been a member of hitler's youth during the second world war. a major anti-government rally has been held in the eastern saudi arabian town of i will media despite a warning from the country's leaders. that it would firmly deal with any dissent demonstrators called for the release of political prisoners and condemned the government's crackdown on protests saudi arabia has seen a string of rallies since the start of the arab spring most of which held in the country's oil rich. but only in the news block a soyuz spacecraft has exactly touchdown in kazakstan it brought back to earth two

russian cosmonauts and a u.s. astronaut who spent nearly five months of duty aboard the international space station artie's tom barton as mine. kevin ford oh leg novitsky and you have guinea terril kin are back safely on earth after their five month stint up on the international space station on the video screen here at mission control in moscow we can see them being fished out of their soyuz capsule and kept warm after that rough descent through earth's atmosphere and down on to the step in kazakstan their return to worth delayed by a day because of bad weather they're casual came in today over the caspian and black seas without a hitch to be met by recovery teams on the step in kazakhstan for the first time ever those teams including three women helping to fish them out of their capsule and get them on the road to a climate izing back to the atmosphere here on earth whilst on the international space station they help the crew up there conduct maintenance on the orbiting

platform and also research much of that research focusing on the affects of microgravity both on the human body and on various engineering substances the next manned mission up to the international space station in a couple of weeks time will attempt something novel for a manned mission that is to rapidly and drastically cut the time it takes for those three crewmembers to get up to the space station from the current two days down to just six hours and that mission will carry the next three crewmembers up for their turn orbiting earth. and coming up after a break we continue our look at the syrian conflict we bring you personal experiences and recollections of a journalist spent seven months in the war torn state his name is.

so. these are decent faces of freedom fighter. and. cod cause they're ready to clean up a new sort of. that. and bring

you liberty anytime absolutely free fall off up. not cut off or like to be treated this way. cherian diary on archie. he is easy to. see.