week's top stories here are a hunger for justice over one hundred prisoners in guantanamo bay have reportedly been fasting for forty days risking their lives in a protest over their plight. new yorkers take to the streets outraged at the killing of a black teenager with peaceful rallies descending into arrests and violence. the syrian spiral the country marks two years since the start of a conflict which is led to tens of thousands of deaths of the u.k. and france push to lift an e.u. arms embargo to give weapons to the rebels. and the transfer of power in china as the new leadership takes over the reins eyeing to boost the economy and its military while the u.s. pushes for greater influence in the region.

you're watching our weekly news if you're with me welcome to the program. the mass hunger strike in guantanamo prison has entered its fortieth day now more than one hundred inmates reportedly staging the act of defiance it was launched in protest against the confiscation of personal belongings and the desecration of the qur'an the prisoners lawyers are sounding the alarm over their clients critical condition of the camps officials claim the allegations have been grossly exaggerated. investigates. 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 been 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 february sixth to protest against the alleged confiscation of personal items such as photographs and mail and the sacrilegious handling of the 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 faisel a bit 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 and 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 determining that someone needs to be tube fed 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 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 motion or mental strain that this uncertainty triggers for the detainees of the one hundred sixty sixty teenie zakk one time 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 them reporting from new york marina point r.t. . human rights groups around the world to have been campaigning to close guantanamo

urging president obama to keep the promise he made more than four years ago activists are simply she says the clock is ticking fast inside america basically there's there is no real. public resentment of what is taking place there most of the pressure that's coming is internationally yes you have some groups so what is very hard to highlight the issue and to make sure that it stays on the agenda but unfortunately for the also the church of america they're quite happy for these detainees to continue you know detained without charge or trial basically at one time numbers over going to close it's going to be within these next four years. obama has the best interest to do that this is the second time he cannot have. you know and where hoping. it might be misplaced i hope but basically he will try and use these last years

all his presidency in order to do the right thing in a situation where the only thing that has ever happened is the wrong thing and the other prisoners in guantanamo are struggling to draw attention to their plight has been their reaction from one of the world's most powerful human rights movements a most international which is three million supporters around the globe has remained silent on the groups you are saying. why. not having access to detainees is a problem for a human rights organization is something we raise with the operative we have access you know when when there is a trial 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 this of course leads to yes some of the reporting of. on individual detainee cases and it leads to

a time lag because like i say the lawyers themselves and 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. this week a group of attorneys defending the guantanamo hunger strike has expressed their concern in a letter to the u.s. defense secretary chuck hagel the pentagon said it was aware of it but is refusing to discuss it with the author of the guantanamo files worthington says president obama has made no change the previous bush administration's policy of keeping inmates behind bars without trial. 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 medic went out and more effectively still was enemy combatants the bush administration's plan was to hold people forever without ever

having to justify objectives why they were being 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 stricken about. well despite all the condemnation in the tourist attention on time of day has been in operation for more than eleven years now well the website r.t. dot com we're asking you who is to blame. so far the overwhelming majority that eighty percent of you we can see in our chart here blaming the u.s. for not sticking to its promise to shut the facility just eight percent are saying it's the fault of the terrorists who attacked america and a little less today think huber is to blame for leasing out the base and a minority just five percent say it's other countries refusing to take the guantanamo inmates back but if you haven't done so yet you can head to r.t.

dot com and have your say. are still ahead for you this hour pope francis lives up to his name so he wants a poor church for poor people that's why he also hopes to cleanse the catholic church is honest reputation of its sex abuse scandals that story coming your way after a break. with . its technology innovation all the developments from around russia we've got the future covered. you know how 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. welcome to the big picture.

is easy to. you to. welcome back the killing of a black teenager by new york police has prompted a week of protests in brooklyn resulting in clashes and the arrests people vented their anger at the n.y.p.d. accusing them of systematic racism and brutality. has the details.

that's. 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 this child 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 to police brutality for three nights in a row few 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. so 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 on address leaving many worried children parents. absolutely honest party new york. the new chinese xi jinping has pledged to fight for great when they saw his nation in its first speech after the presidency and while the new prime is the. commitment to strong relations with united states it's off to china completed reassigning its top jobs this week this correspondent on we reports the changes come amid the many challenges. 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 growth in 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 leak which outweighs the now the cut chinese premier he's been talking about reform is the largest dividend china can enjoy for its course for the progress 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 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 does seems to be a really believe the chinese have been holding over the history. of president xi jinping said economic development will be the top priority for the ruling communist party and forecasts predict that should be possible to pull off reports from price waterhouse coopers proves that a task to boost g.d.p. growth is within the country's reach it predicts china now the world's second largest economy will match the u.s. the currently there by twenty seventeen we can see here well before overtaking it one of the top spending power it is announced by the new leadership is defense well that comes amid america's intense flexing of its own military muscles in china's backyard us to gain a stronger foothold in asia in the struggle for regional influence has put beijing

on edge in recent months when one of its latest moves the pentagon has decided to put more missile interceptors along the u.s. west coast and it would also deploy a radar tracking station in japan this is said to be a response the north korean nuclear threat however china expert martin jakes believes the more beijing grows a power the more complex its relations with washington will become. relations with the united states have started to be getting more complicated and i think the reason for that is because before you know china was very much still a developing country and a much weaker global power down the united states but china of course has been growing like crazy and is more and more present around the world in different continents in 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 if. the chinese military i mean we talk about the rise of the expenditure but i actually compared with the united states china is very very weak militarily what has been their great growth to and remains it which is the economic development. well that this week marked two years since the start of the conflict in syria began as protests calling for reform and change inspired by the arab spring states turned into a bloody civil war that's killed tens of thousands syria has been torn apart by violence and while some countries abroad have been trying to settle its future critics say they've only helped fan the flames of war what is more financial reports now. 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 to regime slogans in syria have been repeated to the longest of 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 killing us have become an every day reality of those want to assign 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 shiite minority some more ignorant position and sometimes executed.

in order to make it six million it's not them who wants the one i don't. 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. with 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 to society from the inside. and some say it's been viewed 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 north east targeted the kurdish syrian peaceful co-existence has also been endangered but her occurred its approval cations a pure and very dangerous syrian kurds want to be integrated into syrian society to 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't not affect relations. and fears are that those who wanted to see the fall of the regime will witness the country's whole instead. from syria.

britain and france have made moves to try to directly arm the rebels and to state says they want to lift an even bugga war and they may still supply weapons despite the ban russia has responded by saying any such attempt will be a breach of international law with a lannister but when they see these the e.u. will eventually find a way to allow more arms to reach the war torn country i'm quite sure there will be some modification of the fan to lead the league loophole so that britain and 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 nicoli a few months ago from said oh they were terribly worried about the poor refugees so they sent a hospital to jordan it just happened to be a military hospital i'm at the time various people say that i mean there we go this is the foot in the door and now there are several different allied armies in jordan

and indeed they are training up rebels there and the idea here is you've got the turkish from to now you're going to have the jordan from to distract the syrian government attacks it take them on to flanks. well russia is to create a naval task force to patrol the mediterranean of the six ships and mostly for goods and cruises will apply the waters on a permanent basis zein to protect national security and russia's interests in the region. as more. according to the head of the navy moscow wants to have five to six ships in the mediterranean that will be controlled command of the black sea fleet in the crimea there's speculation that this group will be put together out of ships from the north of them and this thing works feet the idea to base the navy in the mediterranean it was initially voiced by defense minister sort of. week and of

course this comes as the whole region is in the global spotlight due to the gulf with russian authorities are not winking in the in the region to what's happening in the country really all we need the good. help assist possible future of accusations of russian citizens from the country but actually the idea of moscow basing. in the mediterranean isn't something completely new during the soviet times a huge group of up to thirty vessels was growing we'd be there from the sixty's. when a camera mounted working for artie's arabic a sister channel in egypt has been attacked while filming activists drawing graffiti on walls we had to r.t. dot com to see footage of the instance which happened next the headquarters of the muslim brotherhood party in the capital cairo. also there it's not about the money for french actor turned russian passport holder

. says his move was not about escaping taxes because his homeland had become too sad for him more at r.t. dot com. well white smoke billowing from the roof of the sistine chapel on wednesday seville the new head of the catholic church pope francis had been chosen the seventy six year old dodge in time became the first pontiff ever from south america and the first from beyond europe in more than a thousand years he placed a bet. the sixteenth in the vatican who unexpectedly resigned late february to discuss the issues the new pope has inherited from his predecessor we're now joined by our correspondent in the studio and we know a lot of interest when a new pope is chose nervously the church is in something of a crisis is that you say absolutely and that's why there is this particular attention being paid to pope francis because obviously it's not every day that the

pope actually steps down and resigns and the lot of the people that we talk to because i was i was there when the event actually happened when pope actually stepped down we spoke to a lot of. specialist a lot of analysts of actually specialists on religion and they said the church is in crisis and the. numerous reasons for why that is happening like that it leaks or corruption scandals and they just said basically it needs a major major modernization so francis really has a lot of things to work out and to go out. and his position what he does and how is he going to sort of change this tarnished image that really is a tarnished actually yes well you could say that he's kind of making the first step because he has met with journalists already and that is something that none of the popes have ever done before so he's kind of making a step in that direction but yes you have to understand that the media has actually played an important part in making in sort of perpetuating these scandals especially the tell the media they have had a field day with a lot of they have done their research they have actually broken several scandals

and that is how that really came around in fact that there was this dossier was in there we understand compiled by three cardinals even saying that they may be some kind of network of people within or near to the vatican to the serious stuff and it was the vatileaks that has actually spurned on the report because after finding out about the vatileaks after the scandal broke out pope benedict the sixteenth has actually ordered this investigation to take place and there were three cardinals who did it and reportedly according to the italian media he was presented with this report on december seventeenth which also happened to be the day when he announced that he. it's going to resign so they are tying it all together and saying that that's precisely because of the allegation allegations of the so-called gay ring within the vatican itself which are which is kind of ironic considering that homosexuality is. a mortal sin by the catholic church and what about the church's finances then because francis now saying he wants a poor church for more people that sort of thing but it's quite

a ritual when i say she was lovely i mean look at the pictures it's absolutely grandiose and beautiful but yes it does have a lot of money and part of the vatileaks scandal actually surrounded the major corruption scandals the vatileaks focused on the power struggles which were happening inside korea which is the congregation of cardinals and it was also focusing on potential ties with this is still in mafia according to. according to some journalist according to the information which was leaked in that it leaks. some of the caliph some of the cardinals were involved in this manual on doing scheme where they have actually laundered money from this in the mafia through the bank of vatican which is supposed to be you know the same you can say on the world level then how does this how does the catholic church compete. with the obviously the rising islam well the positioning is not very well at all actually other has been a research done very recently and it says that the number of muslims in recent years

has grown by an estimated ninety percent whereas the number of catholics in the world in. in the world has only grown in europe rather has grown just by five percent and they're actually predicting that by twenty thirty the growth of muslim population will surpass the number of hundred fifty percent so obviously the catholic catholicism isn't competing with muslim with that with islam at all also you have to understand there's thousands of people actually leaving the church a lot of people are banding it bending it saying they have lost. their feet. essentially they're disillusioned with it they don't believe what is being what's being preached from the pulpit well that's right i'm pope francis is saying he wants to go back to the gospels and to go back to basics as it were as if there was quite a challenge there isn't there in terms of atheism or something absolutely because again. a lot of a large part of criticism actually comes from people saying. the catholic church

isn't. it's struggling with it's not catching up to the times yes atheism is definitely one of the major problems for for catholics right now but there is also issues such as. wars again homosexuality premarital sex all of that is something that a lot of specialists in the area are saying francis now has to look at and take some steps if he wants to keep the catholic church. yes there's a billion of catholics worldwide but i think there could be more if the church these are big issues for us in trade. or i think all right thank you very much for that. well in a few minutes we report on an unseen conflict in a remote colombia a scramble for gold so with us from.