media coverage of legal appeals for the u.s. military to admit the number of hunger strikers. has gone up but it denies more than one hundred starving themselves. washington cuts the final part of its european missile defense shield saying there's not enough cash more interceptors on its pacific coast instead. and veterans and supporters both young and old marched through the capital goes into skull from the locals and tourists witnessing the fascist flashback on top stories this. international news and comment live from our studio here in moscow this is r.t.

with 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 they have gone without food for over a month the captives most of whom were cleared for release years ago reportedly began the protest after prison guards desecrated their qur'an it's a 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 are being force fed and one is in hospital while a lawyer for the inmates told r.t. that reality has been twisted by authorities to downplay the crisis. well 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 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. going to officials claim most of the alleged hunger strike as a refusing regular meals will still snecking but those who bring to the base say they are shocked by the deteriorating condition or of the detainees and despite the outcry the mainstream media continues to show the story with reports. when the us joined the united nations human rights council back in two thousand and nine

president barack obama announced his intention to close the guantanamo bay detention center now as the island prison enters its twelfth year of operation one hundred sixty two teens 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 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 the a legit sacrilegious handling of their kranz during cell searches now the center for constitutional rights says that they've received reports of detainees coughing blood losing consciousness and being hospitalized attorneys say that if the strike

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

fair to alleviate the strains of media and motional mental strain of this uncertainty triggers for the detainees of the one hundred sixty six detainees languishing at get mo more than how eighty six to be exact have been cleared for release now this week the u.n. said that the us is of 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 reporting from new york marina point i am heartsick. when i throw politest dr mark mason says the detainees many of them innocent only being human when taking extreme measures to protest the bearable conditions they're in outrage at being imprisoned in what can be characterized as

nothing less than the american medieval torture chamber is nothing less than that we get from the u.s. government a long list of false terms euphemisms such as detainee and rendition but we have here conditions were applied in sixty six people or imprisoned more than half have been cleared to should be out on the streets free to date maybe six should be in a court of law like tomorrow morning dressing specific charges with appropriate opportunity to access to the defense attorneys right this is the condition we have a medieval torture chamber here. detainees are held at guantanamo indefinitely without charge or trial and some can't leave despite being cleared for release murat kurnaz was once among them held on the ground with allegations and set free without an apology he shared the harrowing details of his ordeal with r.t.

i have been myself tortured and different kind of. the only reason why they brought us to guantanamo was because there's no any human rights existing over there like in prisons. 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 waits to break us. 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 tortured you 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 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 harder to get tortured myself. and on our website we want to know your opinion on the matter every voice counts at r.t. dot com where you can tell us why you think want to know is 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 the detainees or indeed see the nine eleven terror attacks as the main reason that it is still in operation well you can head over to our web site right now have your say and here's how the voting

is going so far the vast majority blame washington for failing to keep its pledges and almost equally small numbers if you think that others are responsible for what is happening at guantanamo bay. where do you cast your vote if you haven't already done so because to hear from me coming up on the program the distribution of defense the u.s. for the phase of its european missile defense shield opting to put more defenses on home soil. plus the cost of living as britain prepares to embrace new housing cuts come april we take a closer look at what the bedroom tax will cost societies worst off all that after the break. technology innovation. developments around. the future.

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 you hear or see some other part of it and realize 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. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. the giant corporations rule the day.

continues here in r.t. washington the script a key phase of its european missile defense shield so adding a lack of phones and development problems the united states will deploy additional ground based missile interceptors on its pacific coast instead in what is said to be a response to pyongyang's recent nuclear threats of easily nicholas 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 mr medvedev 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 his borders and anyway there are still plans to build some facilities in eastern europe though on a smaller scale than originally planned and former agent an emotion believes 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 north korea being a useful idiot a pretext for america to defend a resource rich part of the world and when i was in my five the one thing we were

always taught in terms of assessing a threat from any sort of source or country was one do they have the capability and today they have the intention now of course north korea is very loudly said they have the intention to trial attack america but they certainly don't have the capability at this point and even if they were to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles the near especially 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 iran is 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 missiles that iran might want to launch was just a fake ploy i 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 cyprus has secured a ten billion euro bailout deal from euro zone finance ministers to rescue its failing economy in return for a set of cuts among the most severe measures and forced upon the island state a demand that everyone with cash in cypriot banks hand over ten percent of the savings to boost the national budget. overbuilt editor in chief of trends magazine told me earlier that the measures could have grave consequences. it's a very tough brows because what has been agreed upon now means that on average there will be something like an eight percent tax because there's a difference between small and large in the terms of taxation which is of course a huge shock to the cypriot economy comes out 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 will be gone much worse but let's not

forget that. this also is a message to other countries because what has been applied to cyprus now can eventually 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 prizes countries in the euro zone because it is i think the fear that what has been agreed upon which respect to cyprus now might lead to. an increase again in capital flight from these other countries check out our web site right now for some stunning birth control data from the world's most populated country the number of abortions performed by chinese citizens beijing took up the one child policy four decades ago amounts to four times the population of london. and the blizzards covered eastern europe with monstrous snow drifts in budapest there's no other choice but to turn toward machines to rescue trapped motorists those

stories and plenty of others that are to dot com. that veterans who fought alongside german nazis during world war two held their annual march through the capital with a move traditionally intense there are 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 alcide latvia. 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 waffen s.s. veterans marched through the streets of la capital. all of europe fought so hard to eradicate fashion in spain. where it was one state ideology you would now never see which glorify now it's considered shameful what happens here in riga is totally incredible and outrageous. marches by former law. 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 post soviet state for many years this march had been forbidden by the cities of dorothy's a court decision that overturned it and them are 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 is nationalist 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 she is a member of the infamous not for remembrance of the locals and it's very difficult to say it's very easy to non-fans that on one side. of such an evolving organisation to remember what happened seven years ago in order to avoid all children who would be the mistakes of the usually and on the other side those people and to be the first to know because they truly crazy change for the law to be as anti-fascist movement has been fighting these marches for a decade with no success they fear this movement is getting stronger as last year's economy gets weak and strengthening it is a well planned government tactic. it's easy to be. ring up nationalist ideas to

divert attention from economic troubles are parliament wanted to make march sixteenth a national holiday of the latvian army this is they 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 to be where tens of thousands bearish then the nine hundred forty s. is yet another attempt to have their outrage recognized. reporting from riga in law to be. the u.k. is found a cheaper way to deal with the holes in crisis the so-called bedroom tax means many who live in social housing would either lose around fourteen percent of their benefits if they have a spare room or move out. hell the less well off

a trapped in a catch twenty two. brian rider didn't ask for a two bedroom flat 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 more. we've done all the work and we've put the word. we stopped decorating halfway through when we realized 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 by the have to

cough up the cash from their already stretched budgets will move and there is friends bedroom according to the government lets find out 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 brian needs to fix awards 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 room for problems once was about six months ago for moving to a one bedroom every time i've been told we're comparable 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 and 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 so i

have no choice in the matter. is getting even more stressful the closer we've got to the diet 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. step. a cameraman working for all of these arab existed channel in egypt has been attacked with a stick while filming activists drink graffiti on walls having next to the headquarters of the muslim brotherhood party in the capital current release of the pictures of the attack which we got from the syrian body a news channel camera was stolen during the ambush the injured member to be rushed to the nearest hospital where he needed stitches the crew says the attackers may be isn't it egypt is in a state of unrest currently with anti-government protests across. some other world news in brief hundreds have marched on the parliament building in

the afghan capital the demonstrations the bonding the release of several people allegedly detained by the u.s. military and an immediate pullout of american troops from the country's wardak province itself to the afghan president and given us troops two weeks telling. us that locals have been abducted and tortured what province has seen a recent increase in american led anti insurgency operations. clashes broke out in the canadian city of montreal after five hundred people attended an annual rally against police brutality hundreds of officers used pepper spraying kettling tactics to disperse the march declared illegal protest organizers claimed that there were up to two hundred fifty of mass. demonstrations are broken out in the bahraini city of sitra marchers are angry at the deployment of foreign troops in the country military from other gulf states have been stationed there since the outbreak approach reform protests in february two thousand and eleven in that time clashes with security forces have left up to eighty people dead while

dozens of activists have been. well off to bad weather upset plans to return the international space station's crew back to earth on friday two russian cosmonauts and of american astronauts have now landed safe and sound with the team's voyage home is our correspondent tom. 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 they're casual came in today over the caspian and black seas without a hitch to be met by recovery teams on the step in kazakhstan for the first time

ever those teams including three women helping to fish them out of their capsule and get them on the road to a climate izing back to the atmosphere here on earth whilst on the international space station they help the crew up there conduct maintenance on the orbiting platform and also research much of that research focusing on the affects of microgravity both on the human body and on various engineering substances the next manned mission up to the international space station in a couple of weeks time will attempt something novel for a manned mission that is to rapidly and drastically cut the time it takes for those three crewmembers to get up to the space station from the current two days down to just six hours and that mission will carry the next three crewmembers up for their term orbiting earth. well that brings up to date for the moment i'll be back with the news team with more fully in about thirty five minutes from now in the meantime i'll be malton will be coming to the mainstream spin in breaking the

set stay with us for that. a un investigator ben emmerson has decided to not let the sins of the recent past go he's demanding that the u.s. government release documents about the cia's program of addition and secret detention of suspected terrorists everson believes that there is now credible evidence that shows that cia black sites were used to extradite suspected terrorists with neither charges nor access to a lawyer you know nothing says protect a democracy like snagging people in foreign countries without even charging them with a crime this huge investigator may have good intentions but the thing is that no matter how much he and his u.n. pals urge the u.s.

to prosecute officials connected with torture or expose classified information they really have no power to do anything if you haven't noticed the u.n. is very happy to section upon the sudden countries birdie of you out there naive enough to think that they'll sanction the usa or send a peacekeeping mission to stop the human rights violators in washington not a chance the un really has no business meddling in the affairs of sovereign countries but they do it all the time but there is a zero percent chance that the un will stand up to the bad behavior from the us government no matter how much it's investigators whine and plead and beg 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 bad the less bad luck i got so. i mean. i know that i'm sitting in a really nice. and very slow motion. the. worst year for the little. white house of a. radio guy in fort lauderdale minestrone that i want to quote for a politician because you've never seen anything like this until. it's. going on guys i'm having mark and this is breaking the set i hate to start off the show i want to sorrow no but this weekend will mark ten years since the got the twenty three year old.