the life threatening. the life threatening mass hunger strike in the guantanamo detention camp continues but prison officials still deny the threat claiming just fourteen maids are refusing food. on defense washington stopping a key part of its european missile system citing a lack of money and development problems the pentagon's opting to put more miss silencer separate along the u.s. west coast instead. back to earth after one hundred forty two days in orbit a u.s. astronaut and two russian cosmonauts live in kazakhstan after having completed their mission on the international space station.

live from our studio in moscow you're watching r t with me and use the now way this saturday good to have you with us our top story this hour the health and details of the day detainees at the guantanamo bay prison is under serious threat of a mass hunger strike continuing for more than five weeks it's claimed more than one hundred inmates the majority of them jailed without tards are refusing food in a desperate act of defiance struggling to draw attention to their plight the camp's officials however say any talk of this being a mass strike is a gross exaggeration upon a request for information prison spokesman captain robert around responded that the number of day teen refusing detainees i should say refusing all food is fourteen today that's risen from six is the first time the guantanamo officials have admitted the number of hunger strikes has more than doubled following weeks of denial one of the inmates lawyer is keep reality says the authorities are using

questionable definitions to. play down the scale of this fast how they are defining hunger strikers that is also one clear i think that went on a moped 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 that explains how they are able to say that there are no more than a handful of men on hunger strike. the military ad kuantan i'm obey argues the

hunger strikers are only your fusing regular meals while snacking from pantries however the lawyers who've been to the base where shocked by the physical state of their clients as art is real important details u.s. officials and the mainstream media are used to ignoring the alarming reports coming 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 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 the qur'an 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 tensions in as far as we can see. are really the result of.

defeat. to. most of them. it's always been our position there needs to be a clear legal framework and a transparent process. used to be transparent to the streams of emotional mental strain the uncertainty triggers for the duties of the one hundred sixty six detainees languishing get mo more than half 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 them before me from new york marina for nine r.t.

. human rights activists are sounding alert over what they're calling the critical situation in guantanamo however there's been no reaction from one of the most powerful groups amnesty international which boasts more than three million supporters and over one hundred fifty countries are to ask the us a researcher rob freer why. not having access to detainees is a problem for a human rights organization is something we raise with the operative we have access you know when when there is a trial military commission trial we're allowed to go and observe. trials but we have no access to the detainees themselves and yes of course it's a problem so we have to wait until the detainee is released and 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 detention have been in operation. most of the detainees in guantanamo have been held there for years without charge or trial turkish border now residing 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. the only reason why they brought us to go and i was. because there's no any human rights existing over there like in prisons or usa and that's mean they could. 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 to be kept just touching in different kind of face just try to really all kind of break us. so. they tried to psychological ways and physical torture. to break the detainees and the same way with myself. every time if you refuse to do anything they torture to punish you for this i must have got tortured by electroshocks and waterboarding and stuff like that but i have seen also. slights nine years to as you saw the 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 hard to get tortured myself human

rights activists around the globe are campaigning to shut down the notorious detention camp kuantan i'm obey but many are losing hope that it will ever happen on our website we're asking you when will guantanamo bay finally be closed well here's what people think so far the majority sixty three percent say it will never happen that it's not in the u.s. interest to actually close the camp nineteen percent or so say when the u.s. runs out of money to maintain a. detention camp in guantanamo sixteen percent say when the u.s. sets up new prisons elsewhere and the smallest amount say when u.s. defeats terrorism that's just that two percent you can head to our to dot com and let us know when you think if and when one ton of mobile bay detention center will be closed. and still ahead for you here on our t.v. look at washington's plans to scrap the european missile shield also how the u.k.

is making money in the bedroom we investigate just what the u.k. government has in store for brits and their bed starting on april fool's day and it seems many on social housing will not be finding the move all that funny. plus space mission complete outside your spacecraft lands in conflicts and bringing home to russian cosmonauts and an american astronaut after nearly five months in orbit. technology innovation all the developments around russia we've got 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 you thought you

knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture. victims multiply here each day. it's very profitable to invest in colombia. is a very high return on investment. you'll know me and he said but i've been working in this area for thirty years and i've always had to pay the armed groups that made me the best i knew the managers who changed their name and strategy but just till the same murderous. high ranking suspects you know comment pretty upset about that mr president as soon. as the president put in. both the media. i won't give an interview i'm sorry but no.

investigation is a dead. end and he says sick and stop your bullshit and keep quiet or else you'll suffer the consequences. even if they're your bodyguards to watch themselves because the same goes for them. regards from say i've never heard of such a case as ours are so much money and gold has been stolen for so many years. for all the gold in colombia. more news today violence is once again fled. think these are the images group world has been seeing from the streets of canada. trying to operations or rule the day.

i really. really. really. really. really. feel for you the media. really are cheap dot com. here with r t the us is said to downsize its european missile shield washington's plans to place interceptors in poland and possibly hungary have been scrapped due to a lack of funds the defense free software was said to be in direct response to recent threats and rising tensions on the korean peninsula are geezer in a delusion has the details looks like the nuclear threat coming from north korea is

now considered far more dangerous by the us than any potential risk coming from iran at least it was pyongyang as missile threat that u.s. secretary of defense chuck hagel cited as the prime reason for beefing up missile capacity as an already existing base in alaska and placing an additional rater in japan at the same time washington officials announced plans to scrap the final phase of a defense shield in eastern europe which would have seen interceptors capable of destroying most of russia's nuclear missiles and that has been a huge point of contention between moscow and washington for quite some time now in fact going back to march of last year the infamous exchange between obama and the president mr medvedev in seoul of the nuclear security summit with the american president saying he will have more flexibility on the issue after the elections so we could speculate this could very well be the u.s. president sticking to his promises but this doesn't mean russia now has nothing to

worry about after all japan and alaska aren't exactly far from his borders and anyway there are still plans to build some facilities in eastern europe though on a smaller scale than originally planned. the israeli prime minister has finally managed to form a coalition ahead of saturday's deadline but at a cost of some of these it compromises for the first time in a decade ultra ultra orthodox groups longtime allies of benjamin netanyahu are left out in the cold are just policy or has more now from tel aviv a new coalition agreement has been signed in 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 you're 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 weave 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 law and r.t. is spoken exclusively to the head of palestine want to click along to r.t. dot com to watch in full as he speaks of the long form battle for recognition and the horizons it could open. also online for you american drone strikes in pakistan violate the country's sovereignty bats the conclusion of a u.n. team investigating the casualties of conflict after a secret research trip gathered multiple reports from locals caught in crossfire terrifying attacks more on that plus much more at 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 the two sates say they want to live to you e.u. embargo and have warned that even if it isn't they may still supply the weapons moscow says any such attempt would be in breach of international law the french president said the opposition fighters had given guarantees that the lethal aid would not fall into the wrong hands this is 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 has boosted its aid to the opposition but it's so far restrained from directly arming it political analyst robert harneys believes the e.u. will eventually find a way to allow more arms to reach those war torn country. i'm quite sure there will be some modification of the fact to lead the league loophole so that britain and france can actually draw the coach and horses through they've already been sending weapons into syria so it's childish to pretend that this is

a new development but they want to do it more openly and more. two months ago strong said oh they were terribly worried about poor refugees so they sent a hospital. we just happen to be a military hospital i'm at the time various people say that already there we go this is the quote that's all the time now there are several different allied all news in jordan and indeed they are training our rebels there and the idea here is you've got the turkish wrong to now you're going to have the jordan from to distract the syrian government attacks it take them on two planks later this hour we'll bring you a report about the human cost of the syrian conflict in the scale of violence in the war torn country if i witness this sharing their stories. these are decent faces of freedom like. they're ready to clean up

a new story. and bring you liberty any time because there was absolutely free love of. nothing. like to be reduced to a. syrian diary on our t.v. . the u.k. has found a cheaper way to deal with the housing crisis as of april first it will either be cough up or get out as a so-called bedroom tax comes into a fact our correspondent polly boycott took stock of the spiralling a common 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 the 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. we stopped decorating halfway through when we realized there are more i have 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 mind 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 either have to cough up the cash from their already stretched budgets will move or there is friend's bedroom according to the government let's fast is now officially under occupied that's because he's also got this 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 him for problems once was about six months ago for moving to a one bedroom every time i've been told her can't move me to one bedroom 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 will do now realizes how it's 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 being hit the hardest. china's

once in a decade power shift is over now with the new prime minister likud chang beginning his job in inheriting the task to run the world's second largest economy the immediate challenge facing the new generation of leaders is to boost economic growth which is slowed in recent years in fact according to a report from pricewaterhouse coopers it proves the task is within the country's reach and it predicts china will match the u.s. as the world's leading economies in twenty seventeen before then overtaking it in fact analysts say these statistics if we now look at this could explain america's current intense flexing of its military muscle in china's backyard take a look at this all the way up from south korea down to australia practically circling china there u.s. efforts to gain a stronger foothold in asia are very evident the struggle for regional influence has been put has put beijing on the edge in recent months that's why rapid growth

in the country's military spending is place among the top priorities of the new leadership correspondent ted way reporting specially for r.t. says america's moves are doing little to ensure mutual respect and dialogue between the two countries there used to be a superstitious belief almost in china about eight per cent growth rate of the national g.d.p. number has just slowed down to about seven point five percent it has to be a slowdown never because china is doing this transition from a growth in quantity to growth in college 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 dick which outweighs the now the chinese premier he's been talking about reform is the largest dividend child that can be enjoyed for his or further progress by its president mr xi jinping. after being elected was calling immediately to our president obama and he advocated 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 pivot to asia or rebalancing as a result there has been increasing number of turturro disputes or disputes in other stores between china and some of the asian neighbors the coming in the united states by be a backup for them in the region but the chinese as you always want to have a peaceful neighborhood does seems to be a really believe the chinese have been holding over the history let's take a brief look now at some other news from around the globe ten days after his 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 and bombing the leader was recently ruled out by russian experts thousands flooded the streets for one

last march in honor of the president fourteen here's the procession was headed by nicolas maduro the interim president and candidate in next month's election. a major major anti-government rally has been held in the eastern saudi arabian town . despite morning from the countries who were that they would firmly deal with any percent 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 beginning of the arab spring most of which were held in the country's oil rich east. spacecraft has successfully landed in concert stam it brought back to earth two russian cosmonauts and an american astronaut who spent nearly five months of duty aboard the international space station artist tom bart has to 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 worth delayed by a day because of bad weather there 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 their ears 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 and 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. on the way our takes you through the two turbulent years of ongoing conflict in syria with locals revealing the painful realities of life in the syrian diary stay with us. the month before the oscars and what annoys you with their predictions.