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. another protest this time with 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 leading to tens of thousands of deaths while the u.k. and france pushed to look to new arms embargo to get weapons to the rebels. the transfer of power in china new leadership taking the reins eyeing to boost a growing economy and increasing military spending as the u.s. pushes for greater influence in the region.

one pm in moscow i met très a good to have you with us here on r t our top story this hour the mass hunger strike in guantanamo prisons entered its fortieth day with more than one hundred inmates reportedly staging an act of defiance the strike was launched in protest against confiscation of personal belongings and a rough handling of their qur'an well the prisoners lawyers sound the alarm over their clients' conditions camp officials claim the allegations are just a gross exaggeration artie's 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 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 to terminating that someone needs to be to that and if that 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 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 our team 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 made to detainees in guantanamo and uncertainty 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 has 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 this uncertainty 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 u.s. 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 the morning from new york marina point r.t. . human rights groups around the globe have been campaigning to close guantanamo urging president obama to keep his pledge that he made four years ago activists seem courageous he 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 on tottenham is 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 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

prisoners in guantanamo one ton a moat try to draw attention to their plight there's been no reaction from one of the world's foremost human rights groups amnesty international which is more than three million supporters around the world it's remained silent or he's 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 details 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 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 get more hunger strikers expressed concern in a letter to u.s. secretary of defense chuck hagel the pentagon said it was aware of it but refused to discuss it further author of the guantanamo files any worthington says of the bush administration was actually planning to keep get mowed in behind bars without trial that 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 men in guantanamo 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 bothered to try and secure a decent legacy for him so by revisiting his failed promise to close the prison everyone's forgotten about. despite the condemnation of the tories detention camp at guantanamo bay has been running for more than eleven years now on our website our. school who you think is responsible for that so far the overwhelming majority some eighty percent are blaming the administration for not sticking to its pledge to shut down the facility eight percent saying it's the fault of the terrorists who attacked america a little less think cuba is to blame for leasing out the base in a minority of five percent say it's other countries for refusing to take captive to take the captive inmates if you haven't done so we had to click on our t. dot com and have your say well still ahead this hour pope francis approves his name saying he wants a poor church for poor people as well you also hopes to cleanse the catholic church's tarnished reputation and wash the holy sea clean of sex abuse scandals

that is still to come after this break. its technology innovation all the developments from around russia. the future covered. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big.

news today violence has once again flared up. these are the images. from the streets of canada. for asians to rule the day. thanks for staying with us twelve minutes past the hour the killing of a black teenager by new york police has prompted a week of protests in brooklyn resulting in clashes on arrests people venting their anger at the n.y.p.d. using them of systematic racism and brutality are things out of stuff here churkin it has more. than. 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 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 discharge 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 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 it was. 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 are not supposed to bury their

child and this must be absolutely honest party new york. this week mark 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 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 helped fan the flames as artie's marie if emotional 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 ask nick 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 arab spring countries but assad didn't step down in

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 killing us have become an every day reality of those wanting a son to go both home and abroad have decided to target with 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 executed. in order to make a city and it's not to me once that one again. should keep our unity in all of all of. it gabriel

a 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 from 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 u.s. 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 a cut its approval cations a pure and very dangerous moment syrian kurds want to be integrated into syrian society have rights and be respected some turkish occurrence may be due as earlier ones killing his own people we've never been treated like that of course when violence targets us it can't not affect relations. and fears that those who wanted to see the fall of the regime will witness the country's whole instead. from syria. russia plans to create a naval task force to patrol the mediterranean five or six ships mostly frigates and cruisers will patrol the waters on a permanent basis it's designed to protect national security and russia's interest in the region let's get more on this now from artie's your piskun. tell us more

about these plans of the russian navy. well according to the head of the navy moscow wants to have five to six ships permanently beast in the mediterranean they will be controlled through the command of the black sea fleet which is based in the kuwaiti other speculation that this group will be put together out of ships taken from the northern. and the seam black sea fleet the idea to be the navy in the mediterranean it was initially voiced by defense minister sergei shuttle last week but i thought these are not linking this to the conflict in syria although we do know of plans to send a need to the region to help assist possible future evacuations of russian citizens from the country but actually in general the idea of moscow basing the navy in the mediterranean isn't something completely new during the soviet times a huge group of up to thirty vessels was permanently based there from the late sixty's to the early ninety's. thank you are to europe is going of thank you very

much for that update 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 who chang has announced a commitment to strong relations with the u.s. is after china completed reassigning its top jobs this week as correspondent town way reports it comes amid many challenges but also promising forecasts. there used to be a superstitious believe almost in china about that 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 a growth quantity 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 legal challenge wasted now the cut chinese premier he's been

talking about reform is the largest dividend china can be enjoyed for its post for the progress president mr xi jinping after being elected was calling him a delay 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 already got its own definition for example pivot 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 with the 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 that seems to be a really believe the chinese have been holding over the history. she jinping said economic development will be the top priority of the ruling communist party and he

may well be thanking his stars according to some forecasts or report from pricewaterhouse coopers proves the task to boost g.d.p. growth is within the country's reach it predicts china now the world's second biggest economy will match the u.s. by two thousand and seventeen and then possibly overtake it one of the top spending priorities announced by the new leadership in defense now this comes amid the u.s. stepping up its own military presence in china's backyard the efforts to gain a stronger foothold in asia and the struggle for regional influence has put beijing on edge in recent months one of its latest moves the pentagon decided to put more missile interceptors along the u.s. west coast and also deploy a radar tracking station in japan said to be a response to a north korean nuclear threat china expert martin jakes though things the more beijing grows as a power the more complex its relations will develop with washington bridge nations of the united states have steadily 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 that china of course has been growing like crazy use more and more prisons around the world in different continents and different countries i don't think the chinese are going to be militarily aggressive i mean as not be first the chinese history and secondly actually their tradition of this regime especially since nine hundred seventy eight i mean you know it's the chinese military i mean we talk about the rise of expenditure but i actually compared with the united states china is very very weak militarily what has been their great growth and remains it which is that occurred on the ground up. a camera man for artie's arabic sister channel in egypt has been attacked while filming activists drawing on the walls go to r.t. dot com to see the shocking footage of the incident that happened next to the headquarters of the muslim brotherhood party in cairo. and another click away

it's not about the money french actor turned russian passport holders view says his move was not about escaping taxes but because his homeland had become too sad for him just read this so they find out more at our dot com. white smoke billowing from the roof of this esteemed chapel on wednesday signaled the new head of the catholic church church pope francis had been chosen that seventy six year old argentine had become the first pontiff ever from the americas and the first from beyond europe for more than a thousand years he replaced 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 were that a billion dollars has been paid out to victims in settlement cash in ireland that comes in the second in these grim statistics the church had been turning a blind eye to allegations for thirty years in germany two thirds of all the diocese were largely involved in sex abuse scandals austria an example of how the scandals led to people's disillusionment with that organization almost ninety thousand austrians walking out of the church in one year old lone italian journalist franco all the of a thinks there needs to be a large spiritual rebranding of the church so much that it will be a tough task especially in crisis hit europe. the problem is that the new poverty law better go now comes from south america they say very sensitive area would be for this kind of progress but be a source of to face the nobility of their of there's a late new slice of countries from europe for your piece in every the economic and moral crisis and so there can be the i mean many people in especially in

europe they are getting away from the church didn't find that it was in need you know that you're in the region. this is going to be could be problem if they don't want it to marginalize because the rich are still there so the through world you know all the poor countries. turning now to some other stories making headlines across the globe. tunisia's witnessed the biggest rally since the jasmine revolution that overthrew the dictatorship of the country two years ago thousands marched against the islamist government that they accuse of assassinating choke replayed a prominent secular politician he was also the biggest rally organized since bin laden was shot dead forty days ago the suspected 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. in egypt hundreds of hardcore football fans are all even cairo for the release of their recently detained comrades known as ultras thirty eight were arrested and charged last week

for trying to set fire to a court war 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 people died . and if you minutes report on an unseen conflict in a remote part of colombia a scramble for gold stay with us here on our. these

are decent faces of freedom fighters. and. they're ready to clean up minnesota. and bring you liberty. salute play free. not. to be treated this way.

an archie. download the official application to yourself choose your language stream quality and enjoy your favorite. if you're away from your television all it just doesn't matter that with your mobile device you can watch ati anytime anywhere. for the past ten years colombia has welcomed foreign capital with open arms in his turn the new president juan manuel santos places mining at the center of his development model in bogota the independent expert coolio hero denounces an incestuous relationship between the multinationals and the colombian political class.

no it's without it it isn't just an impression it's a reality that there exists a very strong link between these companies and the political elite that they serve the interests of the big multinationals. marked in red on the map of the country the land requested for mining concessions of vast area the multinationals bag the major part of the mining rights about seventy percent of the andes is tenure and all covered by requests from mining concessions when you know if they when we see that it's easy to imagine that we're all going to find ourselves expropriated where are we going to grow the economy and people's food yet what's going to happen to our regions so that it's a completely irrational gamble that. the mining permits are already allocated but the big companies aren't yet mining began d.s. gold. the largest reserves lie in the heart of the corridor. mountains where the

revolutionary armed forces of colombia the fark operate. at war with the colombian government for over fifty years no one can penetrate this region without their authorization with the help of divers go betweens we've established contact with the four guerrilla fighters they've authorized us to travel through their zone while waiting to receive us. the local economy is based on coca plant growing these small green leaves are the raw material of cocaine. after years of anti drug enforcement cocoa farming is going through a crisis more and more pickers are leaving the fields to work in the gold mines. we penetrate into the mining zone in the far controlled mountains we get there by mule a two day journey with a good guide. marie c.e.o. is the president of a local small scale miners association.