reviewing the week's top stories hunger for justice more than one hundred prisoners in guantanamo bay reportedly fasting for forty days risking their health in a protest over their plight. protesting the police new yorkers take to the streets air raids at the top killing of a black teenager with commemoration rallies descending into arrests and violence in . syria's spiral the country marking two years since the start of its ongoing conflict resulting in tens of thousands of deaths the u.k. and france push to lift an arms embargo to get weapons to the rebels. and for power in china new leadership taking the reins eyeing to boost the growing economy and increasing military spending as the u.s. pushes for greater influence in the region.

nine am in moscow i'm at treasure bring you today's top stories and a look back at the week's news here on our t.v. we begin in guantanamo where the mass hunger strike in the prison there has entered its fortieth day with more than one hundred inmates reportedly staging the act of defiance the strike was launched in protest against the confiscation of their personal belongings and they say rough handling of their korans while the prisoners lawyers are sounding the alarm over their clients condition the camp officials claim allegations are gross exaggerations archies marina portnoy it takes a look. u.s. president barack obama began his first term announcing his intention to close the guantanamo bay detention center now just two months into his second term the prison enters its twelfth year of operation with one hundred sixty six detainees still languishing behind bars and a reported one hundred thirty life threatening hunger strike and their hunger

strikes are the only way they have of even making themselves heard years and years without any hope of a release without any real charges this story has been denied by washington and essentially ignored by mainstream media outlets lawyers for the get more prisoners say the men began the hunger strike on february sixth to protest against the alleged confiscation of personal items such as photographs and mail and the sacrilegious handling of their qur'an during cell searches the center for constitutional rights says they've received reports of detainees coughing up blood i'm losing consciousness dropping more than twenty pounds and being hospitalized by day forty five medical experts say hunger strike participants can experience hearing loss and potential blindness and that's in addition to the psychological suffering they've endured for more than a decade that context where we have individuals incarcerated

are isolated from each other and they don't know if they're going to get out tomorrow or never and that sets up a circumstance for extreme a psychological stress it's really an abominable you know humanitarian situation where you're depriving these people of life liberty and for no really valid basis the director of public affairs for joint task force guantanamo captain robert duran released a statement to our teeth in it he denies all claims of a mass hunger strike. or any mishandling of the koran duran says only fourteen detainees at the detention center are refusing all food our understanding is that based on previous standards the determination of who is a hunger striker is a discretionary determination that one chinaman makes what those standards are what

their criteria are are questions that they need to be at you know how are they defining hunger striker and when are they just terminating that someone needs to be to that and if it is 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 lawyers representing get more prisoners have sent a letter to u.s. defense secretary chuck hagel urging him to help and the protest in the meantime organizations like the red cross have made attempts to check on the inmates welfare here's what a representative told r.t. the current tensions in guantanamo as far as we can see and as far as we understand are really the result of the uncertainty is my detainees in guantanamo don't certainty linked to defeat what's going to happen to them you know there is a lack of clear legal framework for detention many of them don't know most of them

don't know what's going to open and so it's been our position and there needs to be a clear legal framework and a transparent process into the procedural safeguards for those detainees and it's to be transparent and fair to alleviate the strains we need to emotional mental strain that descend certainty triggers for the detainees of the one hundred sixty sixty teenie zakk kuantan i'm obey eighty six 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 bring an end to these illegal practices by either prosecuting prisoners in civilian court or releasing them aborning from your point nine artsy. human rights groups around the globe in campaign to close guantanamo are doing president obama to keep the

pledge he made more than four years ago activists seem caray she says the clock is ticking inside america basically because there is no real. public resentment at all what is taking place there most of the pressure that's coming is internationally yes you have some groups so what he did to highlight the issue and to make sure that it stays on the agenda but unfortunately for the boss of the church of america they're quite happy for these detainees to could continue you know detained without charge or trial basically if the if one time number is ever going to close it's going to be within these next four years. a bomb has the best so pushing to do that miss is a second time you cannot have a. you know and where hoping and it might be misplaced hope but basically that he will try and use these last year is his presidency in order to do the right thing in

a situation where the only thing that has ever happened is the wrong thing while the prisoners are to draw attention to their plight there's been no reaction from the world's foremost human rights group amnesty international which is over three million supporters around the globe has remained silent artie's asked the group's usa 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 operatives 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 detail you 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 some the reporting of. only individual detainee cases and it leads to a time lag because like i say the lawyers themselves are 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 earlier this week a group of lawyers defending the good mohar strikers are expressed concern in a letter to us defense secretary hagel the pentagon said it was aware of it but refused to discuss it political analyst ryan dawson who's been writing on guantanamo says the secrecy surrounding it is leading to violations it's hard to get lower than guantanamo bay a lot of these bands are detained without trial some without even charges it doesn't mean they're innocent but it doesn't mean they're guilty either and the problem is secrecy and you have this level of secrecy you're just creating a environment for abuse because they are basically human beings with no rights and they can defer stronger stragglers over beatings from the i.r.f.

which is the end made response force this one again confiscating their items this is the little freedom they have and so this is a really a low point but i don't know if it's a new low point because it's continually low. despite the condemnation that intension camp at guantanamo bay has been up and running for more than eleven years on our t. dot com we're asking who you think is to blame in our online poll so far the majority eighty percent is blaming the u.s. government for not sticking to its pledge to shut down the facility eight percent say it's the fault of the terrorists who attacked the united states less think cuba is to blame for leasing out the base in the first place a minority five percent say it's other countries for refusing to take the guantanamo inmates if you haven't yet click on r.t. dot com and have your say well still ahead for you this hour pope francis approves his name saying he wants a poor church for poor people as well you know to cleanse the catholic church or his reputation and watch the holy see clean of sex abuse scandals also coming up.

a look at the bond between the falkland islands in the u.k. is the territory votes overwhelmingly to remain british about one london comes under fire for being hypocritical in overseas policies. but first the killing of a black teenager by the new york city police has prompted a week of protests in brooklyn leading to clashes and arrests people vented anger at the n.y.p.d. accusing them of systematic racism and brutality. has more. sixteen year old kimani gray was killed by police shot four times in the front and three in the back the n.y.p.d. claimed the team had pointed a gun at them however this remains uncertain that there was a weapon that no one saw and not his friends his family didn't know he had a weapon and there were a lot of witnesses outside who were able to see it that this individual may have a weapon on him as these candles burn in memory of yet another killed youth an

entire community rises up night after night to demand justice and to police brutality for three nights in a row peaceful vigils turned chaotic clashes broke out. leaving one officer hospitalized after reportedly being injured with a brick a total of forty six arrests were made wednesday. but no violence erupted thursday night tensions however still ran high. i mean this is no different than what's going on. you know so it's like it's like another country a lot of people are just tired of the period with solutions to stop the violence nowhere in sight deeply seated issues between the police and the community remain unaddressed leaving many worried children parents and children this absolutely honest party new york this week marked two years since the start of the conflict in syria what began as protests for reform and change inspired by the revolt fever of

the arab spring states turned into a bloody civil war that's killed tens of thousands syria's been torn apart by violence and while some countries abroad have been trying to secure and future they've only helped fan the flames as if an ocean reports. this part of syria known as mesopotamia between the tigris and euphrates rivers is considered a cradle of civilization has been home to many asked nic and religious groups living in peace and harmony for ages people here believe this diversity is serious strong point but some warn it could also be used against the country and that's something to destroy. and the regime slogans in syria have been repeated to the longest of all the arab spring countries but assad didn't step down within weeks like the leaders of to measure and egypt nor did his regime fall within months like colonel gadhafi is in libya opposing sides have gone

beyond demonstrations and clashes killings have become an everyday reality those wanting to go both at home and abroad have decided to target would hurt the most serious diversity pitting people against each other after every massacre and every killing rivers of blood have been joined by streams of mutual accusations and hatred. the first blow was dealt to relations between the country's sunni majority and the ruling she had minority some more ignorant position and sometimes. the group. needed to make a city and it's not the more me once that one again. we should keep our unity in all of all of. it gabriel a point from commercially livin in syria's north east all green sunni dominated turkey and mostly shia iraq says here in about six tarion intolerance is something new for syria and very alarming york. will feel this pressure for months now

especially from gulf countries trying to drag us to this perilous share soon again it's a big threat because a tear society from the inside. and some say it's been few from the outside it is part of the us strategy and some of the western strategy is to destroy syria by syrians and by arabs and this they are doing successfully another blow followed with an explosion at a palestinian refugee camps in syria and the cold blooded murder of palestinian conscripts these drove a wedge between the two arab peoples previously on friendly terms they wanted to both weaken the regime and spread despair among palestinians. with kurdish villages in syria's northeast targeted the kurdish syrian peaceful coexistence has also been endangered but. its approval cations

a pure and very dangerous more syrian kurds want to be integrated into syrian society have rights and be respected some turkish kurds maybe do as early ones killing his own people we've never been treated like that of course when violence targets us it can not affect relations. and fears that those who wanted to see the fall of the regime weakness the country's fall instead. from syria. after almost six months of captivity and in fear of execution a ukrainian journalist escape to safety from syrian rebels and the assad fighters had repeatedly threatened to kill her demanding a fifteen million dollar ransom for her release on her coach have a share the details of her escape inside the captors mistreated her you know. at some point i realized that either i'd be killed by the army is i was held in a location from where the bandits were firing rockets or i'd be killed by the rebels the treatment was very bad i lost some twenty kilograms and received no

medical attention so i decided to take the situation into my own hands and escape i picked a time when it was possible to escape and one early morning by the guards was sleeping i sneaked out dressed as a civilian i knew i could be beaten up or even killed if captured again but i did have an idea of where to go and some passer by asked me who i was i told him the truth and luckily he didn't turn me in but help me get out thank god he did that i was afraid the territory was mined. news of the escape comes as britain and france made moves to try to directly arm syria's rebels the two states say they want to lift an e.u. in bargo one more and they may still supply weapons despite the bad russia responded saying any such attempt would be in breach of international law r.t. contributor after aton see things that elementary backfire on western states if they arm the anti assad fighters by definition that would be supplied by the french and british governments would be in the wrong hands because they are supplying

rebels in a civil war and therefore they are the wrong hands no matter who the briton overruns and so this is i suppose what's interesting here is that washington is much more nervous about the rebels because they are obviously concerned that the afghanistan scenario is beginning yet again but it is so sad that leaders of countries like france and britain can think of these as the mists because the blowback will be phenomenal. white smoke billowing from the roof of the sistine chapel wednesday signaled the new head of the catholic church pope francis had been elected the seventy six year old argentine cardinals become the first pontiff ever from the americas and the first from beyond europe for more than a thousand years he replaced pope benedict the sixteenth at the vatican who

unexpectedly stepped down in late february but francis certainly has his work cut out for him leading catholics at a time when the church faces a deep crisis a string of child sex abuse cases where the most damaging let's take a look at some of those statistics the largest number of reported cases of children abused by priests in the united states allegations made against more than four thousand priests and deacons there more than a billion dollars paid out to victims and settlements ireland is next in these are the statistics the church had been turning a blind eye to allegations for three decades there in germany two thirds of all dioceses were allegedly involved in a sex abuse scandals and austria an example of how the scandals led people to disillusionment with the church with almost ninety thousand austrians having walked out on it in just one year alone italian journalist franco all the things that needs to be a large spiritual rebranding of the church but it'll be a tough task especially in crisis hit europe. the.

no but a group who comes from south america disagree since. well before the start no progress but the issue is who to freeze the new. terms which will europe for you will be sure very big economic. crises. can be. many people especially in europe they are getting away from the church didn't find their. church in the region. is going to be could be problem if the world did you know they were richer to that through you know. a caravan for artie's arabic sister network in egypt has been attacked while filming activists drawing graffiti on walls click on to see the footage of the incident that happened next to the headquarters of the muslim brotherhood party in cairo. at another click away opinion on the

primary goal of u.s. plans to vote for missile defense in alaska might not just be the threat from north korea i doubt more at r.t. dot com. china's new leader xi jinping is pledged to fight for the great renaissance of his nation he said that in his first speech after assuming the presidency china's been reassigning its top jobs this week in a while to a decade decade shift of power as beijing based correspondent john way reports this comes amid many challenges and promising forecasts to. there used to be a superstitious belief almost in china about the eight percent growth rate of the national g.d.p. for that little number has been slowed down to about seven point five percent it has to be a slow down number because china is doing this transition from growth we want to teach 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 likud child who is the now the cut chinese premier he's been talking about reform is the largest evidence china can enjoy 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 it to two countries could have mutual respect and openness to one another things can be better and he's been talking about a new kinds of relations between new powers and that of course the definition is not being given by the chinese side however it seems that the u.s. has already got its own definition for example people to asia or rebalancing and as a result there has been increasing number of territorial disputes and or disputes in other stores between china and some of the asian neighbors will start coming in the united states might be a backup for them in the region but the china seems always want to have a peaceful neighborhood there seems to be a really believe the chinese have been holding over the history. president xi

jinping said the economic development will be the top priority of the ruling communist party there and he may be thanking his stars according to some forecasts a report from pricewaterhouse coopers proves that the task to boost g.d.p. within the country is growth in the country is within reach and predicts china now the world's second economy will match the u.s. the current leader by two thousand and seventeen and then over take it one of the top spending priorities announced by the new leadership is defense this comes amid the u.s. flexing its own military bustles 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 china expert martin jakes thinks the more china grows as a power the more concerned the u.s. may become that's the whole way now in which the chinese leadership is confronted i mean if it's going to shift it's not a shift now it will shift you know several years down the road i think what it means for nations for the united states i mean relations with the united states

have to be getting more complicated and i think the reason for that is because the fool you know china was very much still a developing country a much weaker global power down the united states but china of course has been growing like crazy is more and more prisons around the world in different continents and different countries so. interests are larval to be in conflict areas that was previously the case and i think this is the reason why it's getting more complicated. turning now to some other stories making global headlines this hour in tunisia thousands marched against islam as government the use of assassinating truck ribault laid a prominent secular politician was the biggest rally organized since believe was shot dead forty days ago as a spectator political motivations of his murder sparked public outcry and force the country's prime minister to resign friday although the ruling party denies any

involvement in the crowd yesterday's rally was the biggest to shake tunisia since its jasmine revolution two years ago. in egypt hundreds of hardcore football fans rallied in cairo for the release of their recently detained comrades known as ultras thirty eight were arrested and charged last week after trying to set fire to a courthouse where one of their fellow members was being tried tensions have been running high in the country since twenty one people were given the death penalty for their role in the two thousand and twelve football riots during which seventy four died. by only in the news bloc falkland islanders voted overwhelmingly to remain a british territory only three votes going against the idea in a two day referendum you case prime minister david cameron is called on argentina to respect the landslide result of buenos aires maintains britain stole the islands from it two centuries ago the continuing dispute see some critics questioning britain's overseas policies r t sorry for as more. this is the story of an

island a crowd inspirited people displaced and the government he puts it devastatingly high price paradise so many it will be the third time at the beach. both the happiness that we were leaving to each other and the way we've been treating here. we discover meant. degrassi is a british colony in the indian nation and the largest of the chaebol silence has a population of roughly two thousand people about the same as the folk and. good memories. there you go it's a home a real paradise today they da gusty is one of america's biggest military at the aces because we it's our land. it's not for them.

you know when you see them you got this anger because they are enjoying the island . we are suffering back in the one nine hundred sixty s. and it is shrouded in secrecy bush cynically to learn the islands to the us but there was a problem the island had for generations been inhabited by the chikezie and people they'd built schools hospitals a whole life and what did the british government they simply pretended none of this existed by fixing the entire population from their homes secrets lies deception dishonesty always rooted in facts in one thousand nine hundred eighty s. britain went to war protecting the folks and islanders from argentina in training first sums of money and costing precious lives the exact same time it was also using expensive resources preventing the people of the take a silence from returning home the falkland living in the homeland and

they have a choice to stay where they they wanted to stay under. the rule of the british or if they wanted to go to the fork. time rules they have a city. would not have the city. give me the impression that there's not just this event a british government is the one like you every now and then used you hear in the news talking about human rights justice social justice and so on but they are the one that many people in the justice that she can see in community have been fighting for their right to return to the island ever since they winning some of their court cases pushed. government continually appealed blocking the progress every step of the way how differently the chicle see him people have been treated there's been a government balloting all knocking on doors on their behalf well being what they

want the h word comes to mind for hypocrisy for how long are you going to punish us for how long we're going to leave this life we don't want to be here we don't want this life. we want to go back home. where we belong that's all we're trying to send us back home perhaps the most shocking thing about this story if this isn't simply something that happened decades ago this pos injustices have been compounded by successive british governments right up to the coalition of today he continued to fight against the chuckle since returning to their island and say their stories remained largely consigned to the shadows and yet you close in people continue to pray for the fight to return to their home. says. sarah.

after a short break a look at the syrian conflict are to bring you personal experiences of recollections of a journalist who spent seven months in the war torn city. known for. its technology innovations all the developments from around russia we've got the future covered.