a life threatening mass hunger strike and one time in the detention camp continues prison officials still deny the thread claiming just fourteen inmates are refusing food. the government of compromises israeli prime minister netanyahu strikes a coalition deal after seven weeks of deadlock negotiations with his political rivals. back to earth after one hundred forty two days in orbit a u.s. astronaut two russian cosmonauts land in cowes extent after having completed their mission aboard the international space station. ten am in moscow. good to have you with us here on r t our top story the health of detainees of the guantanamo bay prison 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 or refusing food in a desperate act of defiance struggling to draw attention to their plight camp officials however say that any talk of this being a master ike is a gross exaggeration upon a request for information a prison spokesman captain robert de ronde responded that the number of detainees refusing all food is fourteen having risen from six it's the first time the guantanamo officials have admitted that the number of hunger strikers has more than doubled following weeks of denial one of the inmates lawyers part is cabaret says authorities are using questionable definitions though to play down the scale of the fast. how they are defining hunger strikers that is also one clear i think that went on a mo 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 to. 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 that that explains how they are able to say that there are no more than a handful of men on hunger strike. the military guantanamo bay argues hunger strikers are only refusing regular meals while snacking from pantries but lawyers who have been to the base say they were shocked by the physical state of their clients are to sabrina portnoy reports u.s. officials and the media are used to ignoring reports from guantanamo. 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 three 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 the qur'an during cell searches now the center for constitutional rights says that they perceive 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. . 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. to be true. to the

strains really emotional mental strain. triggers for the duties of the one hundred sixty six detainees languishing get mom or the know how eighty six to be exact have been cleared for release now this week the u.n. said that the u.s. is a violating international human rights law 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 them reporting from new york. r.t. . human rights activists are sounding an alert over what they're calling a critical situation in guantanamo but there's been no reaction of one of the most powerful groups amnesty international which boasts more than three million supporters and more than one hundred fifty countries are us a researcher rob freer as to why. not having access to detainees is a problem for

a human rights organization is something we raise with the authorities we have access you know when when there is a trial so-called military commission trial we're allowed to go and observe those trials but we have no access to the detainees themselves and yes of course it's a problem so we have to wait until a detainee 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 law is 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 about tylenol have been held for years without charge or trial turkish born mara colonels who now

lives in germany was among them he was relieved released after being found not guilty in two thousand and six but claims it was only after five years of detention and torture. i have been myself tortured and different kinds of. laws and the only reason why they brought us to guantanamo was because there's no any human rights existing over there like in prisons or us and that's mean they could. do and make with us whatever 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 try to really all kind of waits to break us in i saw. they tried psychological ways and physical torture to break the detainees and the

same way with myself. every time if you refused to do anything they tortured 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 a few sold kids inside the camp and of course it was for me more difficult to to watch of those kids how they get getting beaten up in front of me and it was for me really harder to get tortured myself. human rights activists around the globe campaigning to shut down the detention camp at guantanamo bay many say they're losing hope that it will happen on our website we're asking when you think it will be closed right now the way the votes stacking up right now sixty percent say it won't happen since the u.s. isn't interested in doing so twenty percent say the person will be shut down when the u.s. runs out of money to fund it sixteen percent think that the country needs to set up

a prison elsewhere to be able to close the base two percent think it will happen after the u.s. defeats global terror click on r.t. dot com and share your thoughts well still ahead here on our t.v. how the u.k. is making money in the bedroom we take a look at how the recession is betting brit in the most literal of ways plus. mission complete a spacecraft landing in kazakstan bringing home two russian cosmonauts and a u.s. astronaut after nearly five months in orbit stay with us. technology innovations all the developments around russia. that's huge you're covered. you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so for langley you think you understand it and then you

glimpse something else and 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. more news today violence is once again flared up. saying these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations are old today .

thanks for staying with us eleven minutes past the hour israel's prime minister's finally managed to form a coalition ahead of saturday's deadline but at the cost of some an easy compromise for the first time in a decade ultra-orthodox groups longtime allies of benjamin netanyahu were left out or he's paulus leader has more from tel aviv. 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 secular 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 but 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 has always been a two state solution with with our palestine which is struggling for its right to become a country in the wall art you spoke exclusively with the head of power abbas click all our to dot com to watch the interview and for those who speaks of the long battle for recognition and the horizons it could open. also while our new. drone

strikes in pakistan violate the country's sovereignty according to a u.n. team investigating casualties of the conflict after a secret research trip gathered multiple reports from locals caught in the crossfire of the attacks more on that on r.t. dot com. with syria's conflict now in its third year britain and france are pushing to open the door to directly arming the rebels but the states say they want to lift an e.u. embargo one of war and that even if it isn't they may still supply the weapons moscow says any such a town would be in breach of international law france's president said opposition fighters had given guarantees lethal aid wouldn't fall into the wrong hands which is the syrian rebels claimed hundreds of their men who'd been given weapons training organized by the u.s. and jordan are back in syria washington's boosted its aid to the opposition but has so far restrained from directly arming it political analyst robert horan eyes things the e.u. will eventually find a way to allow more arms to reach the war torn country where i'm quite sure there will be some modification of the fans to lead the league loophole so that britain

and france can actually draw a connection overseas 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 openly and more really neat getting a few months ago from said oh they were terribly worried about poor refugees so they sent a hospital to me just happened to be a military hospital i'm at the time various people sent out every day we go this is the that's all the time now there are several different allied armies and they are training up rebels there on the idea aires you've got to shoot from to now you're going to have the children from to distract the syrian government's attacks it take them on two planks. because found a cheaper way to deal with the housing crisis as of april first it'll either be or get out as the so-called bedroom tax comes into effect or he's probably boyko took stock of the spiraling accommodation situation where some of the victims of the new

tax. bride writer 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 stopped decorating halfway through when we realize there are more to have to move because i couldn't afford it and what's the point of decorating when i wanted to uproot but you know it's more home not all of my get mine and it will upset me to move on but brian who suffers from osteoporosis and can't work has little choice the government's so-called bedroom tax comes into effect from april first six hundred forty thousand social housing tenants with at least one spare room i have to cough up the cash from that already stretched budgets will move and there is friends bedroom according to the government let's

fast 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 everytime i've been told her can't move me to 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 fact brian will have to take the financial hit i haven't had any suggestions from any of them about what to do if 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. but you being the hottest plenty play came. to. china's once in a decade power shift over and now with a new prime minister likud shang beginning his job at inheriting the task to run the world's second biggest economy immediate challenge facing the new generation of leaders or to boost economic growth which has slowed in recent years a report from pricewaterhouse coopers proves though the task is within the country's reach it predicts china will match the u.s. as the leading economy by twenty seventeen and then overtake it analysts say these statistics if you look at this map could explain the u.s. current flexing of its military might in china's backyard u.s. efforts to gain a stronger foothold in asia and the struggle for regional influence has put beijing on edge recently and why rapid growth in the country's military spending is among its top priorities for the new leadership correspondent on the way reporting for

t.v. says the u.s. moves are doing little to ensure mutual respect and dialogue between the two. there used to be a superstitious believe almost in china about that 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 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 leak which outweighs the now the cut chinese premier he's been talking about reform is the largest ever the china can enjoy for its course for the progress i knew the president mr xi jinping after being elected was calling him a delay to our president obama and he advocated if the 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 people 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 will start coming in 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. taking a look now at some other stories making headlines across the globe the u.s. new secretary of defense has announced plans to downsize its european missile defense system plans to please enter scepter as in poland and possibly hungary have been scrapped because of a lack of funding instead the money will be diverted to add another fourteen missile interceptors on the west coast is in direct response to pyongyang's recent threats and rising tensions along the korean peninsula. ten days after his death

the body of late venezuelan leader hugo chavez has been laid to rest at the site of his failed one thousand nine hundred crew attempt and bombing the leader was recently ruled out by russian experts thousands fled to the streets for one last march in honor of the president of forty years the first session is headed by nicolas maduro interim president and candidate in next month's election. the vatican has already come under fire for its new choice of pope francis and his links to argentina's dirty war former cardinal jorge mario bergoglio failed to openly confront a decade of dictatorship in his country during which approximately twenty two thousand people disappeared that the first time the vatican has elected a religious leader with a crowd the background he's german predecessor benedict is that steve had been a member of the hitler youth during the second world war. a major anti-government rally has been held in the eastern saudi arabian town of i will meet despite

a warning from the country's rulers that they would firmly deal with any dissent demonstrators called for the release of political prisoners and condemned the government crackdown on protests saudi arabia has seen a string of rallies since the start of the arab spring most of which were held in the country's oil rich east. and a soyuz spacecraft is successfully touched down in kazakstan bringing back to earth two russian cosmonauts and an american astronaut who spent nearly five months of duty aboard the international space station artie's tom barton has the latest. kevin ford oh leg novitsky and you've guinea terril kin are back safely on earth after their five months 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 earth delayed by a day because of bad weather they're casual came in today over the caspian and

black sees 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 effects 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 term orbiting earth. turning over to our washington studios for abby

martin and breaking the set. ah the month before the oscars and what annoys you with their predictions and the most after everyone complains about the results but it isn't being talked about much as the few hundred people who gathered to protest the glamour filled award show why protest the asker's you ask. well although the film life of pi won the oscar for best visual effects effects to you that made the movie look so amazing rhythm and hues has filed for bankruptcy quickly after the film's release you know that seems like a bit of a discrepancy i mean the group that made the best visual effects in the world in two thousand and thirteen is flat broke how can that be this reminds me of how the

lead creators of call of duty modern warfare two were let go directly after the release of the game which to date is the eighth highest grossing video game of all time this was done supposedly to dodge paying them the royalties that they you know earned through hard work the problem is that we live in a world where only the bottom line count making as much profit as you possibly can and damn the consequences it's just good business practice they say well it might be profitable but it's bad for society and it's very bad for visual effects and videogame artists but that's just my opinion.

little. to live on one hundred thirty three bucks a month for food i should try it because you know how fabulous i had lunch i got so . i mean. i know that i'm still really messed up. in the all original actually. that's. the worst you're going to live through the

white house or the. radio guy. what. did you ever seen anything like that i'm still. going on guys i'm having mark and this is breaking the set i hate the start of the show want to sorrow no one but this weekend will mark ten years since the got the twenty three year old american activist rachel corrie in two thousand and three cory tragically met her fate after bravely standing in front of an israeli bulldozer all in an attempt to prevent the demolition of a palestinian home in gaza and ten years later her parents craig and cindy corrie are still fighting for justice in fact i have a chance to speak to them on this show about why they think the u.s. was complicit in her death take a look. that requires on the outside to really work for changes in policy and

to really hold the israeli government accountable for the us that is to i think address the funding cuts we're providing three billion dollars a year thirty billion dollars over a ten year period here up to two thousand and eighteen and craig and i believe that the caterpillar bulldozer. that killed our daughter was paid for with our tax money indeed we're funding this occupation impediment that becomes an even bigger problem when you look at the complete lack of accountability on rachel's case from both the u.s. and israeli governments so let's not forget about rachel corrie and this week and commemorate her legacy because it's up to us to keep her spirit alive a spirit that represents a true commitment to human rights equality and freedom and with rachel in mind let's go break. while it.