a life threatening mass hunger is striking the guantanamo detention camp continues but prison officials still deny the threat claiming only fourteen inmates are refusing food. decisions on defense washington dropping a key piece of its european missile system citing a lack of money and development problems with the pentagon opting to put more missile interceptors on the u.s. west coast instead of. back to earth after one hundred forty two days in orbit a u.s. astronaut two russian cosmonauts planned in kazakstan after completing their mission aboard the international space station. one pm in moscow matter as a good to have you with us here on our t.v. our top story the health of detainees at guantanamo bay detention center under

serious threat with a mass hunger strike continuing for more than five weeks it's claim more than one hundred inmates the majority of them jailed without charge or refusing food in an act of defiance struggling to draw attention to their plight can't officials though say any talk of this being a mass strike is a gross exaggeration on our requests for information prison spokesman captain robert duran responded that the number of detainees refusing all food is fourteen today having risen from six guantanamo officials have admitted that the number of hunger strikers has more than doubled after weeks of denial one of the inmates lawyers parties cabaret says the authorities are using question will 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 through 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 that our understanding is that based on previous standards the determination of who is a hunger striker is a discretionary determination that guantanamo 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 guantanamo bay argues hunger strikers are only refusing regular meals while snacking from pantries but the lawyers who have been there to visit them say they were shocked by the physical state of their clients. says the u.s. officials and the media are used to ignoring the alarming reports coming from guantanamo. when the u.s. 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 wealthier of operation one hundred sixty three movies 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 as our t.v. first reported on tuesday lawyers for the get more prisoners say the men began their hunger strike on every six to protest the alleged confiscation of their personal items including letters personal photos bed sheets razors and also the alleged sacrilegious handling of their brands 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 saying that if this strike enters its forty fifth day that participants can experience hearing

loss and potential blindness now lawyers for the get most 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 tensions in guantanamo as far as we can. understand are really the result of the. and to defeat. a lack of clear legal framework for detention many of them don't know most of them don't know what's going to happen and it's always been our position there needs to be a clear legal framework and a transparent process in terms of procedural safeguards for those detainees to be transparent to alleviate the strains of really emotional mental strain.

triggers for the detainees of the one hundred sixty six detainees languishing get more than half 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 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 reporting from new york. r.t. . human rights activists are sounding the alert over what they're calling a critical situation it good mo but there has been no reaction from one of the most powerful groups amnesty international that boasts more than three million supporters in one hundred fifty countries it's 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 military commission trial we're allowed to go and observe. those trials but we have no access to the details themselves and yes of course it's a problem so we have to wait until the 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 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 guantanamo detainees have been held there for years without charges or trial turkish born murat current who now lives in germany was among them he was released after being found not guilty in

two thousand and six but it was only after five years of detention. i have been myself tortured and different kind of. their laws. the only reason why they brought us to want i 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 place they just try to really all kind of flakes to break us and . saw in they tried to psychological ways and physical torture to break the detainees and the same way with myself. every time if you

refused to do anything they told most 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 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 campaign to shut down the detention camp at guantanamo bay but many are hope many are losing hope it will happen on our website we're asking when do you think one ton of mobile bay will be closed here is how the respondents are stacking up so far the majority around sixty percent say it won't happen since the u.s. isn't interested in doing so twenty percent say the prison will be shut down when the us runs out of funding for it less sixteen percent think the u.s. needs to set up another prison elsewhere in order for guantanamo to close two

percent think it will happen when the u.s. wins the war on terror let on to our dot com tell us what you think well still ahead this hour we'll look at washington's plans to scrap its european missile shield also how the u.k. is making money in the bedroom take a look at what the u.k. government has in store for brits and their bed starting april fool's day though it seems not everybody gets the joke especially those in social housing plus. mission accomplished to show you a soyuz spacecraft lands and kazakstan bringing home two russian cosmonauts and a u.s. astronaut after nearly five months in orbit stay with us for that. technology innovation all the developments from around russia. the future covered.

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. i'm tom is a big. eleven

minutes past the hour now the u.s. sets and downsizes european missile shield new secretary of defense chuck hagel is announced plans to place interceptors in poland and possibly hungary been scrapped due to a lack of funds the defensive reshuffle said to be in direct response to pyongyang's recent threats and rising tensions on the korean peninsula for now we go live to our teaser rate in the live show. well that's right matt in fact they're changing the plans but they're not scrapping them all together and it does look like the nuclear threat coming from north korea has been deemed far more dangerous by the us than the possible risk coming from iran and at least. this missile threat that the us secretary of defense chuck hagel cited as the prime reason for beefing up missile capacity on an already existing base that was right over there in alaska and also putting up a rater in japan which is significantly closer to north korea than it was before if we think about if we think about missile defense in terms of eastern europe at the

same time washington officials have announced their plans to scrap the final phase of a defense shield in eastern europe that one would have seen interceptors capable of destroying most of russia's nuclear missiles which has been a huge point of contention between moscow and washington in fact let's go back to march of last year almost exactly a year ago there was an infamous exchange between obama and the then president dmitry medvedev with the american president famously saying during the open mike fay that he'll have more flexibility on the issue after the elections there they are right there and we could speculate that this could very well be that the u.s. president is sticking to his promises but this doesn't mean that russia has nothing to worry about like we said alaska japan aren't exactly far from russia's borders and anyway there is still plans to build some facilities in eastern europe though on a smaller scale than originally planned so we are looking at the situation which is

changing but not changing too much. israeli prime minister has finally managed to form a coalition ahead of saturday's deadline but at a cost of some amusing compromise for the first time in a decade or two orthodox groups longtime allies of benjamin netanyahu were left out in the cold or his policy as 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 then it represents the secular movement and he has to be appointed the minister of economy and trade his number two would 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 palestine which is struggling for its right to become a country in the law r.t. spoke exclusively with the head of. click on r t dot com to watch it in full as he speaks of the long fought 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 taking a look at how to appease of conflict after a secret research trip gathered multiple reports from locals caught in the crossfire of the terrifying attacks more on r t dot com. with syria's conflict now into its third year britain and france are pushing to open the door to directly arming the rebels two states say they want to lift anyone bardot one of 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 opposition fighters had given guarantees that lethal aid wouldn't fall into the wrong hands is of syrian rebels claim hundreds of their men who'd been given weapons training

organized by the u.s. and jordan are back to syria washington's boosted its aid to the opposition but has so far restrained from directly arming it. robert horan ice thinks the e.u. will eventually find a way to allow more are mr reach the war torn country. i'm quite sure there will be some modification of the fans to lead the league lupo's said that britain france can actually drop a 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 openly and more directly 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 sent out every day we go this is the foot in the door i'm now there are several different allied armies 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. in the next hour report about the human cost of the syrian conflict on the scale of violence in the country with eyewitnesses sharing their stories. hard d.c. faces freedom like. you're ready to clean up a new sewer. and bring new liberty. to salute later. to be reduced to a. syrian diary an archie. new case found a cheaper way to deal with the housing crisis as of april first the life of me

cough up or get out as a so-called bedroom tax comes into effect our kids polly boyko took stock of the accommodation situation with some of the victims of the new tax. and. 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 as it's my home of my dad my home we've done all the work and we've put the wood paneling on. we in fact stop decorating halfway through when we're large there are more to move because i couldn't afford it and what's the point of decorating when i want to uproot but it's more harm not all of my good morning 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 their 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 brian needs to fix or wards 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 once was about six months ago for moving to a one bedroom every time or have been told but can't remember 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 and when they do is run out and i find it hard to do which i will do now realise it's happening it's coming closer so

i have no choice in the matter it has been getting even more stressful for closer we've got 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 are being hit the hardest. artsy kidderminster. china's once in a decade power shift is finished with the new prime minister likud chang beginning his job and herring the task of running the world's second biggest economy immediate challenge facing the new generation of the country's leaders how to boost economic growth which is slow to recent years a report from pricewaterhouse coopers proves 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 over take it out of the say this is a sticks if we look at the map could explain the us current intense flexing of its military muscles 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 is why the rapid growth in the country's military spending is placed among its top priorities of the new leadership correspondent on way reporting for arts he 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 much 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 liko chow who is 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 i need 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 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. take a look now at some other stories making headlines across the globe 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 two who attempt and bombing the leader recently ruled out by russian experts thousands flooded the streets for one

last march in honor of the president of fourteen years recession was headed by nicolas maduro interim president and candidate in next month's elections. major antigovernment rallies been held in eastern saudi arabian town of media despite a warning from the country's rulers they 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. only a soyuz spacecraft has excelled as successfully landed in kazakhstan bringing 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 has the latest. kevin ford oh leg novitsky and you have guinea terror in our 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 earth 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 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 turn orbiting earth. up next from our washington studios abby martin and breaking the set stay with us here on r.t. .

wealthy british style it's time to. market why not. come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to cons a report. you live on one hundred thirty three bucks a month for food i should try it because you know how fabulous i had lunch. i mean

. i know that i've seen a really messed up. in the prairie so closely. it's. worse for the. white house to give it to a radio guy. well there's you never seen anything like that i'm still. going on guys i'm out of money and this is breaking the set i hate to start off 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 bulldozers 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. it 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 that's 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 the rachel's case from both the u.s. and israeli governments so let's not forget about rachel corrie and this weekend commemorate her legacy because it's up to us to keep her spirit alive a spear.