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

noon in moscow i met reza good to have you with us here on our t. our top story the hunger strike in guantanamo prisons entered its fortieth day now with more than one hundred inmates reportedly staging the act of defiance the strike was launched in protest against the confiscation of personal belongings of the rough handling of their qur'an well the prisoners lawyers sound the alarm over their clients condition camp officials claim yella geishas are just a gross exaggeration or he's a marine important 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 hold a release without any real charges this story has been denied by washington and essentially ignored by mainstream media outlets lawyers for the good no prisoners say the men began the hunger strike on feb 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 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

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 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 the 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 very 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 no prisoners have sent a letter to us 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 it's always 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 of motional mental strain of this uncertainty triggers for the detainees of the one hundred sixty sixteen ease at 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 quote bring an end to these illegal practices by either process. getting prisoners in civilian court or releasing them reporting from new york. arts and. human rights groups around the globe have been campaigning to close guantanamo urging president obama to keep the pledge he made more than four years ago activist seem curry 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. to highlight the issue and to make sure that it stays on the agenda but unfortunately for the falsely george of america they're quite happy for these detainees to continue you know detained without charge or trial basically if one tunnel was ever going to close it's going to be within these next four years. has the best to do that miss is a second time you cannot have the. you know and where hoping and it might be misplaced hope but basically that he would 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 rome. while the

prisoners in guantanamo are struggling to draw attention to their plight there's been no reaction from one of the world's foremost human rights groups amnesty international which has more than three million supporters around the globe remained silent r.t. asked the group's usa researcher rob freer why. not having access to detainees is a problem for a human rights organization is something we raise with the or poor it is we have access you know when when there is a true so-called 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 so we can speak to them this of course leads to yes on 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 certain 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 get more hunger strikers expressed concern in a letter to the u.s. defense secretary chuck hagel the pentagon said it was aware of the letter but refused to discuss it further the author of the guantanamo files and he worthington says the bush administration was planning to keep the inmates behind bars without trial obama hasn't bothered to change the situation. you know these are still men who aren't held either as prisoners of war according to the geneva conventions always criminal suspects who are going to face a trial nearly all of the many groups out of more are effectively still enemy combattants the bush administration's plan was to hold people forever without ever having to justify objected lee why they were being held clearly the situation that we've had for some time. is that president obama can't really be bothered to

overcome opposition in congress can't really be involved but to try and secure a decent legacy for him so by revisiting his failed promise to close the prison everyone's forgotten about. despite condemnation the detention camp at guantanamo has been open on operation for more than eleven years now on our web site r.t. dot com we're asking who you think is responsible for that so far the overwhelming majority eighty percent say it's the obama administration for not sticking to its pledge to shut down the facility eight percent say it's the fault of terrorists who attacked the united states last thing cuba is to blame for leasing out the base and a minority five percent say it's other countries for refusing to take the good mo inmates back if you haven't done so 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 while he also hopes to cleanse that half of his tarnished image and wash the holy sea clean from its sex abuse scandals the story

coming up after this break. technology innovations all the developments around russia. that's huge you're 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 realize that everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harvey welcome to the big picture. if you.

eleven minutes past the hour the killing of a black teenager by new york police prompted a week of protests in brooklyn leading to clashes and arrests people vented their anger at the n.y.p.d. accusing them of systematic racism and brutality are his honest answers you're going to has more. oh. 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 teen had pointed a gun at them however this remains i'm certain that there was

a weapon that no one saw or 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 to show didn't 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 an end to police brutality for three nights in a row peaceful vigils turned chaotic clashes broke out. leaving. an 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 i'm scared out of children parents are not

supposed to bury their child and this must be absolutely honest artsy new york this week part two years since the start of the conflict in syria what started as protests calling for reform and change inspired by the revolt fever from 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 have been trying to settle its future they've only health and the flames are teams worry 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 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 what 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 opposition and sometimes executed. in order to make it six million it's not a move in once that one again. we should keep our unity in all of all of. it gave real poise 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. 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 to society from the inside. and some say it's been feud 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 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 north east targeted the kurdish syrian peaceful coexistence has also been endangered but for a crowd it's approval cations a pure and very dangerous moment 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 god we've never been treated like that of course when violence targets us it can't not affect relations. and fears are that those who wanted to see the fall of the regime who witness the country's whole instead. from syria. after almost six months in captivity in a constant fear of execution ukrainian journalist escaped to the safety from syrian rebels and the assad fighters have repeatedly threatened to kill or demanding a fifteen million dollar ransom for her release on her coaching of a share the details of her escape and said the captors mistreated her. you know.

at some point i realize that you died be killed by the army is that 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 think this 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 a bit nuts or even killed of capture it again but i did have a nady 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 and help me get out thank god he did that i was afraid the territory was mined. comes as britain and france have made moves to try to directly arm the rebels to state say they want to lift an e.u. and bardot and they were they may still supply the weapons despite the bad russia responded saying any such attempt will be a breach of international law political analyst robert thinks the e.u.

will eventually find a way to allow more arms to reach the war torn country i'm quite sure that there will be some modification of the fans to leave a little loophole so that britain or france can actually draw the coach and horses through it they've already been sending weapons into syria so it's it's childish to pretend that this is a new development but they want to do it more openly and more directly meagerly a few months ago france said oh they were terribly worried about poor refugees so they sent a hospital to jordan it just happened to be a military hospital and i'm at the time various people say that every day we go this is the quote in the door and now there are several different allied armies in jordan and indeed they are training our rebels there and the idea here is you've got the turkish wrong turn now you're going to have the jordan from to distract the syrian government attacks it take them on to flanks.

the new chinese leader xi jinping has pledged to fight for the great renaissance of his nation he says in his first speech after assuming the presidency while the new premier league chairing announced a commitment to strong relations with the u.s. is after trying to completed reassigning its top job this week correspondent way reports it comes amid many challenges but also promising forecasts there used to be a superstitious belief almost in china about eight percent growth rate of the national t v for that list number has to slow down to about seven point five percent it has to be a slowdown number because chinese do this tends to shift from growth in quantity growth in quality maybe argue we did sixth really important to do reform reform really has been the key word for the new generation of leaders coming into power recently mr leak which outweighs did now the cut chinese premier he's been talking about reform is the largest ever this china can be enjoyed for its for the for with

chinese president mr xi jinping after being elected was called the immediately two of president obama and he advocated if the two countries could have mutual respect and openness to one another things can be better and he's been talking about a new kinds of relations between new powers and that of course the definition is not being given by the chinese side however it seems that the u.s. has really got its own definition for example pivot to asia or rebalancing and as a result there has been increasing number of turturro disputes or disputes in other stores between china and some of the asian neighbors with the coming in the united states might be a backup for them in the region but the chinese seems always want to have a peaceful neighbor would that seems to be a really believe the chinese have been holding over the history. she jean ping said economic development will be the top priority of the ruling communist party and he may well be thanking him stars according to some forecasts report from

pricewaterhouse coopers prove the task to boost g.d.p. growth is within the country's reach it predicts china now the world's second economy will match the u.s. the current leader by twenty seventeen all things remain the same before then overtaking it one of the top spending priorities announced by the new leadership is defense now this comes amid the u.s. intends flexing its own military might in china's backyard u.s. efforts to gain a stronger foothold in asia and the struggle for regional influence is put beijing on edge in recent months one of its recent moves the pentagon decided to put more missile interceptors along the u.s. west coast and also deploy a radar tracking station in japan is said to be a response to a north korean nuclear threat by china expert martin jakes thinks the more beijing grows as a power the more complex its relations become with washington privileges that the united states have stated to be gets 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 in different countries i don't think the chinese are going to be militarily aggressive i mean not as not be first the chinese history and secondly actually the tradition of this regime especially since nine hundred seventy eight i mean you know. the chinese military i mean we talk about the rise of expenditure but actually compared with the united states china is very very weak military has been there great growth and remains it which is that i could only give up my. a camera man working for artie's arabic sister chattel in egypt was attacked while filming activist drawing graffiti on walls click on our t.v. to see the shocking footage of the incident that happened next to the headquarters

of the muslim brotherhood party in cairo. also a click away it's not just about the money a french actor turned russian passport holders or are deported to you says this move was nothing about escaping taxes now but because his homeland had become quote too sad for him on just swedish so they find out more on our t.v. dot com. white smoke billowing from the roof of the sistine chapel when they signaled that the new head of the catholic church pope francis had been selected the new suit the seventy six year old argentine has become the first pontiff ever from the americas and the first from beyond europe in more than a thousand years here a place better than at the sixteenth of the vatican who expound expectedly resigned 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 abuse cases child sex abuse cases the most damaging let's take

a look at some of the numbers for that the largest number of reported cases of children abused by priests is in the u.s. allegations were made against more than four thousand priests and deacons more than a billion dollars have been paid out to victims of the settlements in ireland that comes in second in these room statistics the church had been turning a blind eye to the allegations for thirty years in germany two thirds of all the diocese allegedly involved in sex abuse scandals and austria an example of how the scandals led to people's disillusionment with the church almost ninety thousand austrians deserted in just one year italian journalist franco oliva thinks there needs to be such a large spiritual rebranding of the church that will be a tough task especially in the current crisis hit europe. the problem is that the new poverty law better gone or comes from south america to be so very sensitive area would be for this kind of progress but he is for so to freeze the nobility of their of there's a late new slice of countries from europe for example your position every the

economic and moral crises and so there can be so young meaning people in especially in europe they are getting away from the chores need to find their interest in needs you know that you're in the region. she's going to be to be problem if they don't want it to marginalize because the rich are still there so the through old you know all the poor countries. turning now to some other stories making global headlines this hour tunisia's witnessed its biggest rally since the jasmine revolution that overthrew the dictatorship in the country two years ago thousands marched against the islam is a government who they assassinate. a prominent secular politician it was also the biggest rally organized since foley was shot dead forty days ago this is specter political motivations of his murder sparked public outcry and forced the country's prime minister to resign friday although the ruling party denies involvement in the crime. nearby egypt hundreds of hardcore football fans raw even cairo for the

release of their recently detained comrades known as ultras thirty eight of them were arrested and charged last week after attempting to set fire to a court where one of their fellow bombers was on trial 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 people died. falkland islanders have voted overwhelmingly to remain a british territory only three votes going against the idea in a two day referendum the u.k. prime minister david cameron's called on argentina to respect the landslide result but buenos aires maintains britain's stole the islands from a two centuries ago the continuing dispute sees some critics questioning britain's overseas policies as r.t. sarah for ports. 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 first time at the. oath the happiness that we were leaving to each other and the way we've been treating here. we discover. degassed is a british colony in the indian nation and the largest of the che go silent as a population of a thousand people about the same as the. good memories. there you go it's a home a real paradise today they da gusty is one of america's biggest military advice is because we it's our plan. it's not for them. you know when you see them you got this anger because they are enjoying. not us. we

are suffering back in the one nine hundred sixty s. and it is shrouded in secrecy bush cynically to loan 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 for sums of money and costing precious lives the exact same time it was also using extensive resources preventing the people of the chakan silence from attending hey the falkland bears are living in. and they have a choice to stay where they if they wanted to stay under. the rule of the british

or if they wanted to go to the fork. and time rules they have a say but with the stock which i would not have the city he gave me the impression that there's no justice even the british government is the one like you every now and then you see you here in the news talking about human rights justice social justice and so on that day i don't want that money the justice the cica seeing community have been fighting for their right to return to the islands ever since they winning some of their cool cases the prettiest. government have continually appealed blocking their progress every step of the way how differently that people have been treated there's been a government balloting on knocking on doors on their behalf or asking what they want the word comes to mind. for how long they going to punish us for how long we.