media coverage and legal appeals forced the u.s. military to admit the number of hunger strikers at guantanamo bay has gone up but it denies more than one hundred a starving themselves. washington cuts the final part of its european missile defense shield say not enough cash and will put more interceptors on its pacific coast instead. of nazi veterans and supporters both young and old march through the capital riga causing discussed among locals and tourists witnessing the fascist flashback on top stories this. international news and comment live from a studio here in moscow this is r t with you twenty four hours a day. the u.s.

military has denied reports of a mass hunger strike at guantanamo bay lawyers for more than one hundred detainees claim their clients have gone without food for over a month the captives most of whom were cleared for release years ago reportedly began the protest off to prison guards desecrated the qur'an it's gone to the most spokesman captain robert duran denied the claims admitting only that the number of detainees refusing all food has risen to fourteen he added that some of being force fed one is in hospital alone for the inmates told r.t. that reality has been twisted by the authorities there to downplay the crisis how they are finding hunger strikers that is the one clear i think that want to know 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 and number of men who are being to. these kinds of things there is

a question about exactly how. yes stories 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 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 going to them if issues claim most of the alleged hunger strike as a knee refusing regular meals while still snecking the laws have been to the base shocked by the deteriorating condition of the detainees and despite the outcry the mainstream media continues to shun the story solti's miniport not reports. when the u.s. joined the united nations human rights council back in two thousand and nine percent iraq obama announced his intention to close the guantanamo bay detention center now

as the island prison enters its 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 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 or use 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. . are really the result of. defeat. so. there needs to be a clear legal framework and a transparent process. of

the one hundred sixty six languishing. have been cleared for release now this week the u.n. said the u.s. is violating international human rights definitely holding prisoners at guantanamo without charge the human rights council is urging washington to bring an end to these illegal practices by either prosecuting prisoners. or releasing. let's get reaction from. now over one hundred. for more than forty just how could they carry on before they reach a life threatening condition. well i'm not a medical doctor but they are indeed threatening their own lives putting their own

lives on the line in this. i would say here roic effort to express a sense of autonomy and express their outrage at being imprisoned in what can be characterized as nothing less than the american media evil torture chamber it's nothing less than that we get from the u.s. government a long list of false terms and euphemisms such as detainees and rendition but we have here conditions where on planet sixty six people are imprisoned more than half have been cleared they should be out on the streets free today maybe six should be in a court of law like tomorrow morning dressing specific charges with appropriate opportunity to access to the defense attorneys and this is the condition we have a medieval torture chamber here so you describe it as

a medieval torture chamber what i mean impacts we're talking about individuals is it the physical. impact or is it really the mental anguish of being incarcerated for a sudden often in solitary confinement what are the effects. well it's both and i frankly cannot describe to you some of the horrific conditions and treatment humiliation that many of the team detainees have reported. they've been stripped required to stand around in cold rooms for hours naked that in itself as use both is a coal a physical stressor but indeed there's this. is just almost unspeakable psychological torture we humans we're not you know eagles in a bag of skin we relate to each other we need human contact and relationships to be

healthy psychologically and physically is solitary confinement is torture we're going to come around to this sooner or later in the united states psaltery confinement itself is torture not at all in the waterboarding and of physical mistreatment that has taken place and one time i'll just briefly you talk about the heroic acts that what's this going to achieve and why do you think that's really not grabbing the attention of the mainstream media we're talking about it but do you think this hunger strike going to actually achieve anything or is it logical to be ignored. it's going to achieve in my opinion a great deal there's a public outcry in the united states and around the plants the united stations it's finally like waking up we live here in the united states in a reality distortion zone we've got people in prison one time alone who should be free on the streets and we have a president a former president vice president bankers in the united states

a lot of street who should be in jail and they're part of just up to mark mason thank you for joining us live from san francisco. well detainees are held at guantanamo indefinitely without charge or trial as we've just been discussing in solemn can't leave despite being cleared for release them or it couldn't as he was once among these people held on groundless allegations and set free without an apology should the harrowing details if you will deal with auntie i have been myself tortured and different kind of. there was. 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 just try to really all kind of break us and i saw. 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 torture to punish you for this i must have got tortured by electroshocks and waterboarding and stuff like that but i have seen also. kids slights nine years to if you 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. and on our website at the moment want to know your opinion on the matter every voice counts and you can tell us why you think it's still open after more

than eleven years where perhaps you think the u.s. is to blame for still not keeping its promise to close the facility or maybe that cuba should never have leased the base to america in the first place perhaps you blame other countries for refusing to repatriate guantanamo detainees or indeed you see the nine eleven terror attacks as the main reason that is still in business let's look at the results on the screen you can head over to the website right now if you haven't done so already and express your point of view here's how the voting is the vast majority blame the washington for failing to keep its pledges and we can see that almost equally small numbers of you think responsible for what is happening at one time and. if you haven't already done so. coming up in the program. distribution of defense the u.s. drops a key phase of its european missile defense shield opting to put more defenses on home soil that's coming your way after the break with plenty of other stories.

technology innovation. developments from around. story. you think you understand it. and realize that everything you. are welcome to the big picture. more news today. these are the images the world has been seeing

from the streets of canada. today. he's continues her naughty washington the scrap to keep its european missile defense shield. and development problems united states were deployed ground based missile interceptors on its pacific coast instead in what is said to be a response to pyongyang's recent nuclear threats. 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 then president richard vedder of in seoul that 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 its borders and anyway there are still plans to build some facilities in eastern europe though on a smaller scale than originally planned and former m i five agent mushroom i spoke

to her a little earlier she believes that washington is using the threats from north korea as a pretext to gain more influence in the pacific region. what we're looking at at this point is creating the useful idiot the pretext for america to defend a resource rich part of the world and when i was in my five one thing we were always taught in terms of assessing a threat from any sort of source or country it was one to have the capability to just have the intention is now of course north korea is very loudly said to have the intention to trial attack america but they certainly don't have the capability to this point and even if they were to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles the nearest place for america they would hit only alaska but north korea's always been much more belligerent i think iran and this is the assessment of the entire u.s. intelligence community which was iran would stop trying to develop any sort of nuclear weapon if they see it in two thousand and three and this has been stood up time and time again since two thousand and seven so we all know it rather it's not

a real threat to america's interests we all know it's not a threat to the west and this fake shield they were trying to provide to eastern europe because they would be in range of any of that iran might want to launch was just a fake ploy or think it was used as an excuse so it's interesting now that the focus is moving to an overtly aggressive but very small and capable country away from iran. so i had a ten billion euro bailout deal from euro zone finance ministers to rescue its failing economy in return for a set of cards among the most severe measures in forced upon the island state a demand that everyone with cash in cypriot banks hand over ten percent of their savings to boost the national budget while for analysis we're now joined by your hand of abilities editor in chief of trends magazine so is cyprus paying a reasonable price to escape bankruptcy. well i think it's a very tough brows because so what has been agreed upon now means there on average

there will be something like an eight percent tax because there's a difference between small and large of the terms of taxation which is of course a huge shock to the cypriot economy in terms of the purchasing power of the people and one of the immediate consequences of this. of this measure will be that a recession which is already quite severe and so will be gone much worse in the coming months but with that we're going to send out the charge on those deposits it's not going to lead to just a run on the banks capital flight everybody getting help well as things are organized now as far as i understand it is that the banks will also be closed on monday and when the banks reopen on the day the taxation will already be levied so there's no point in running with the money when that the excess already been applied unless of course you expect. in the future which is of course

the fear of death one can understand sure that that's because i mean cyprus is a major offshore zone isn't it for international investors if that does happen in the future that could have a serious impact couldn't it. that might lead to huge capital outflows and problems for the cypriot the economy and especially for the government finances. but let's not forget that. this also is a message to other countries because what has been applied to cyprus now can you can actually also be applied to other countries and i am very anxious to see on monday what the reaction will be in other so the european crisis countries in the eurozone because of this i think the fear that what has been agreed upon which you speak to cyprus now might lead to. an increase again in capital flight from these other countries again what about other countries then fearing all that's

happening and actually leaving the euro zone itself a flight from the euro zone itself and greece of course has been talking about getting out of the euro zone. well i think we have to stop go discussion in terms of leaving or not leaving the eurozone we the last month's issue was no longer on the table so it seemed but obviously when you get to a situation where that capital flight from the grass is going to ease increasing again very rapidly you will have the issue on the table again immediately because let's not forget that cyprus is a very small economy greece is a little bit larger but still a small economy but if you get comparable capital flight issues from countries like spain and italy this is a totally different ballgame so i expect in or out of the eurozone discussion to be on the table again in the coming weeks and months cyprus looking at other fields for help from its friends interesting to note that the country's finance minister

is coming to russia very shortly russia is talking about perhaps lending a helping hand but can cyprus still actually count on moscow mean russians now of course will be fairing that ten percent taxation is in effect won't they so what can they expect from moscow well i think you have to list english here between what a private citizen from russia and the relation in their relations with cyprus is all about and then on the other end. because clearly when you look at it from a geopolitical point of view and especially the mediterranean situation with the crisis in syria and all those things there is of course in terms of military and geopolitical presence a special interest to russia in cyprus and as we all know at one point in buying these issues i mean geopolitical financial economic issues start to interact and it will be interesting to follow in the coming days and weeks whether that mix of interests will lead to

a new aid package from russia or not yeah and really interesting to talk to you on this thank you very much indeed your hand over the editor in chief of trends magazine joining us live here on r.t. thank you. veterans who fought alongside german nazis during world war two they have held their annual march through the capital with the mood traditionally intense there were a number of arrests after the leader of a local anti fascist group was beaten up the parade's distinct nationalist tone and clear nazi references also raise concern outside latvia and that he had a chef he was there. it was born in a prison in franco's fascists he and his parents were repressed by that regime so he was hurt when he learned that says veterans marched through the streets of lobbyist capital riga. all of europe fought so hard to eradicate fashion in spain and italy where it was one state ideology you would now never see even if

the stations which glorify now it's considered shameful what happens here in riga is totally incredible and outrageous. marches by former lothian s.s. legionnaires in riga are nothing out of the ordinary since lotty became independent they've been held every year the men who once fought on the side of nazi germany are seen as freedom fighters by some here a view which divides society in this state for many years this march had been forbidden by the city's of a court decision that overturned it and the market still so place this year the high court decided to strike first even before the mayor had to say the court said that the march must take place and force the mayor to apologize for all the yes he had been banning this march the masterminds of this march lot because nationalists say they want the younger generation to embrace their history and recognize their heroes. you know what i'm especially proud to see so many young people today this

is proof that we're living in a free country which had been under occupation for many years. but many in europe simply cannot understand what appreciation of freedom has to do with three year olds walking alongside former nazi troops especially given that is a member of the e.u. which has no second opinion on fascism. as a member of the infamous and more remembrance of the locals and it's very difficult to say it's very easy to non-fans that on one side you are a member of such an evil. an organization to remember what happened seventy years ago in order to avoid old children to repeat the mistakes of the easterlies and on the other side those people who mocked and who read the diversity because it's pretty crazy change for the law to be as anti-fascist movement has been fighting these marches for a decade with no success because they fear this movement is getting stronger as

last year's economy gets weak and strengthening it is a well planned government tactic for the chicago but it's easy to bring up nationalist ideas to divert attention from economic troubles our parliament even wanted to make march sixteenth a national holiday of the latvian army this day had nothing to do with our army but in nazi germany march sixteenth it was called a day of heroes praising the army this speaks volumes to what our government does about this lot is anti-fascist have sent petitions to the european commission many times to help get these marches outlawed with no response so far putting pictures of nazi camps and lot of where tens of thousands bearish then the nine hundred forty s. is yet another attempt to have their outrage recognized. reporting from riga in lot. after bad weather upset plans to return the international space station's crew back to earth on friday two russian cosmonauts and an american

astronaut have now landed safe and sound with all the teams voyager has a correspondent tom bond. kevin ford oh leg novitsky and you have guinea terror in our 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 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. more news in thirty minutes from now with me in the team in the meantime coming away abby martin is cutting through the mainstream spin in breaking a sense that it's off to the break stay with us. the

month before the oscars and what annoys you with their predictions and the month after everyone complains about the results but it is a big talked about much as the few hundred people who gathered to protest the glamour filled award show but 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 were them and hughes 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 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. to live on one hundred thirty three bucks a month for food i should try it because you know how fabulous and like i don't. i mean. i know that i'm. really not. very

closely. worst chip or the. white house or the. radio guy minutes from a click. away what we're about to do it because you never seen anything like this i'm cold. going on guys i'm having mark 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 death of twenty three year old american activist rachel corrie in two thousand and three 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 had the chance to speak to them on this show about why they think the u.s. was complicit.