latest news on the week's top stories u.s. officials continue to deny a mass hunger strike. more than one hundred detainees have reportedly been starving themselves for forty days. new yorkers revolt against the city's police department on last after n.y.p.d. officers gunned down a sixteen year old boy in a brooklyn neighborhood. syrian port milan two years since the bloody conflict began some european states are itching to put weapons directly into the hands of rebel armies infiltrated by islamist extremists. and handover of power in china is complete new leaders aiming to keep the economy and latrine vestments growing and the u.s. continues to build its presence in the region.

watching our teams weekly news review with me carried out. the strike at guantanamo bay is continuing after forty days with more than one hundred detainees reportedly starving themselves in protest at the discretion of the qur'an by prison guards lawyers for the captives claim the state of their health is close to life threatening the u.s. military has strongly denied the crisis saying only fourteen detainees are refusing or food. reports. 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 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

for isolated from each other and they don't know if they're going to get out tomorrow or never and that such 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 one ton i'm a 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 kuantan a moment 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 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 faced by 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 of this uncertainty triggers for the detainees of the one hundred sixty sixty teenie zach one ton 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 the morning from your marina point r.t. . human rights activist us incorrectly says while most americans turn a blind eye president obama is under mounting foreign pressure to close guantanamo before his time at the white house is up inside america basically there is 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 are working very hard to to highlight the issue and to make sure that it stays on the agenda but unfortunately for the vast majority of americans they're quite happy for these detainees to continue you know detained without charge or trial basically a one ton numbers over going to close it's going to be within these next four years . obama has the best option to do that miss is a second time he cannot have. you know and where hoping and it might be misplaced our hope but basically he will try in use these last years of his presidency in order to do the right thing in a situation where the only thing that has ever happened is the wrong for human

rights activists calling for action to resolve the crisis at guantanamo or amnesty international usually a prominent voice hasn't joined the chorus party austin honesty spokesperson why they are not treating the claims of those who recently in the detention center as fact. not having access to detainees is a problem for a human rights organization is something we raise with your priorities we have access you know when when there is a trial so-called military commission trial we're allowed to go and observe the 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 spend 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. what investigative journalist stanley worthington an expert on guantanamo has barack obama has sidestepped his pledge to shut down the facility in order to please us lawmakers. 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 america went out and more effectively still held as enemy combatants the bush administration's plan was to hold people forever without ever having to justify objectively 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 stricken about. and there on our website we want to know your take on the issue every voice accounts r.t. dot com where you can tell us why you think on time most still open after more than eleven years of that so you think the u.s. is to blame for not keeping its promise to close a facility or maybe cuba should never have leased the base to america in the first place or maybe you blame other countries for refusing to repatriate montana or detainees or indeed you may see the nine eleven terror attacks as the main reason that it's still in business you can head online and have your say right now here's how the voting is going so far on our pipes are we can see with the vast majority eighty one percent blaming washington for failing to keep its pledges and almost equally small numbers of you think others are responsible for what's happening at guantanamo bay so do a cast your vote if you haven't already today well

coming up after the break police under fire protesting the killing of a brooklyn teenager by a new york police officer bitter angry clashes and dozens of arrests. last few popo problems as francis the first gives his first weekly address we look at the background of the man who has pledged to return the catholic church to its humble roots. its technology innovation all the developments from around russia we've got the future covered. story.

is a big. news today. these are the images. from the streets of canada. corp the day. welcome back the killing of a sixteen year old boy by the new york police as coursed public outrage and protests in brooklyn the activists chanted slogans accusing the n.y.p.d.

of racism and cruelty clashes between demonstrators annoyed force of officials resulted in dozens of arrests. as the story. oh 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 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 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 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. 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 a party new york. no working for artie's arabic sister channel in egypt has been attacked while filming activists drawing graffiti on walls we can head to r.t. don't put each of the happen next the headquarters of the muslim brotherhood party in the capital. also there today online or about the money apparently french actor turned russian passport although jordan says he's moved was not about escaping

taxes because the homeland had become too sad for him more authority than. civil strife and devastation in the state of syria two years after its conflict began the war between the government and rebels has seen seventy thousand people killed and millions of homes creating a humanitarian disaster and while diplomatic efforts to bring peace failed many say that foreign countries are fanning the flames with plans to send more weapons were for national 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 the arab spring countries but assad didn't step down within weeks like the leaders of to meijer and egypt nor did his regime fall within months like colonel gadhafi is in libya opposing sides have gone beyond demonstrations and clashes killers have become an every day reality of those wanting a son 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. the group. needed to make a city and it's not them who wants that one again. and you should keep our unity in

all of all of. it gave real poise from coming live in syria's north east ordering 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 the 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 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 from the explosion and palestinian refugee camps in syria and the cold blooded murder of palestinian conscripts these drone wedge between the two arab peoples previously on friendly terms. they wanted to both weaken the regime and spread this fear among

palestinians with kurdish villages in syria's north east targeted the kurdish syrian peaceful coexistence has also been endangered government occurred its approval cations a pure and very dangerous syrian kurds want to be integrated into syrian society to have rights and be respected there are some turkish kurds maybe doing as murder one is 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 the days he wanted to see the fall of the regime. the countries. from syria. she was abducted held hostage mistreated but eventually escaped ukrainian journalist and her question of spent five months in captivity fearing execution by syrian rebels it was demanding a fifteen million dollar ransom for her release but she got away before anything

was handed over she shared her story with r.t. you know. at some point i realized that you die and be killed by the army as i was held in a location from where the bandits were firing rockets or i'd be killed by the rebels here the treatment was very bad i lost some twenty kilograms and received no medical attention and so i decided to take the situation into my own hands and escape 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 couldn't be beat not for even killed or 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 and help me get out thank god he did that i was afraid the territory was mined. bosco is preparing

a rapid response naval force to patrol the mediterranean and the east six russian ships are expected to plow the waters on a permanent basis over there to guard national interests and transport people if the syrian conflict gets further out of control or to go pissing off as more. according to the head of the navy moscow wants to have five to six ships permanently beast in the mediterranean that will be controlled through the command of the black sea fleet based in the crimea there's speculation that this group will be put together out of ships taken from the northern the baltic and the scene where at sea fleet the idea to base the navy in the mediterranean was initially voiced by defense minister says last week and of course this comes as the whole region is in the global spotlight due to the gulf in syria with russian authorities are not winking basing the need either in the region to what's happening in the country earlier he said that the only way we need good indeed is help assist possible future of accusations of russian citizens from the country but actually the idea of

moscow basing the needy in the mediterranean isn't something completely new during the soviet times a huge group of up to thirty vessels was currently based there from the late sixty's early ninety's. china's new president has called what he described as efforts to continue to realize ation of the chinese dream he was giving his first comments after the nation went through a once in a decade shift of power this week and as a correspondent on many reports the change brings both challenges and hope. there used to be a superstitious belief almost in china about 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 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 evidence china can be enjoyed for its force for the progress i need president mr xi jinping after being elected was calling him a delay to our 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. well economic development will be the top priority for the new chinese leaders and recent forecasts won't look promising a report from up pricewaterhouse coopers predicts that china which is not the world's second largest economy will catch up with the u.s. by twenty seventeen before even overtaking it one of the top spending power it is announced by the neediness ship is defense well that comes amid america's growing military expansion in china's backyard u.s. efforts to gain a stronger foothold in asia and the struggle for regional influence has been raising concerns in beijing just days ago the pentagon announced a decision to put fourteen more missile interceptors along america's west coast and deploy a radar tracking station in japan they say it's in response to a north korean nuclear threat an expert martin zac believes washington will have to take more notice of china when making these decisions in the future relations with

the united states have steadily be getting more complicated and i think the reason for that is because before 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 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 personally chinese history and secondly actually the 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 expenditure but actually compared with the united states china is very very weak militarily what has been great and remains it which is the economic development. well still ahead few in the program question over the past not see veterans most through the

streets of the latvian capital the controversial demonstration and going to see them as one of his. life on mas russia agrees to help you in space agency's expedition said limits on the age old question on that just ahead. a u.n. investigator ben emmerson has decided to not let the sins of the recent past go he's demanding that the u.s. government release documents about the cia's program of addition and secret detention of suspected terrorists everson believes that there is now credible evidence that shows that cia black sites were used to extradite suspected terrorists with neither charges nor access to a lawyer you know nothing says protect a democracy like snagging people in foreign countries without even charging them

with a crime this huge investigator may have good intentions but the thing is that no matter how much he and his u.n. pals urge the us to prosecute officials connect with torture or expose classified information they really have no power to do anything if you haven't noticed the un is very happy to section and punish someone countries birdie if you out there naive enough to think that they'll sanction the usa or send a peacekeeping mission to stop human rights violators in washington not a chance the un really has no business meddling in the affairs of sovereign countries but they do it all the time but there is a zero percent chance that the un will stand up to the bad behavior from the us government no matter how much it's investigators whine and plead and beg but that's just my opinion.

what about this is not the smoke finally cleared in the vatican this week literally off the papal conclave elected a new head of the catholic church stepping in after the unexpected resignation of the benedict the sixteenth last month pope francis became the first pontiff ever from a south america well earlier i asked our teaser nicholas if the new man in charge is capable of bringing an end to continuing scandals. we spoke to a lot of. especially as a lot of analysts are actually specialists on religion and they said the church is in crisis and they have listed numerous reasons for why that is happening like that or leaks or corruption scandals and they just said basically it needs a major major organization 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 front of the what is it wasn't that we understand compiled by three cardinals even saying that they may be some kind of network of paedophiles 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 is going to resign so they are tying it all together and saying that that's precisely because of the allegations 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 what about the church's finances then francis now saying he wants a poor church for people that sort of thing but it's quite a rich organization absolutely 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

these some of the caliph some of the cardinals were involved in this money laundering scheme where they have actually wanted money from this in the mafia through the bank of vatican which is supposed to be you know above all of the same you can say it is a catholic church compete as it were. with obviously the rising islamic world the number of muslims in recent years has grown by an estimated ninety percent whereas the number of catholics in europe 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 a large part of criticism actually comes from people saying that. the catholic church is and is and it's struggling with indemnity it's not catching up to the times yes atheism is definitely one of the major problems for four catholics right now but there is also issues such as. such as divorce again homosexuality premarital sex all.