latest news in the week's top stories u.s. officials continue to deny a mass hunger strike at guantanamo bay where more than one hundred detainees have reportedly been starving themselves for. new yorkers revolt against the city's police department. p.d. officers gunned down a sixteen year old boy in a brooklyn neighborhood. the syrian quagmire 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. the handover of power in china is complete with the new leaders aiming to keep the economy and military investments growing that's as the u.s. continues to build its presence in the region.

with a look back at the week's top stories and the latest developments this is the weekly here on. hunger strike at guantanamo bay is continuing after forty days with more than one hundred detainees reportedly starving themselves in protest at the desecration of the qur'an by prison guards lawyers for the captives claim the state of the health is close to life threatening but the u.s. military is strongly denied the crisis saying only fourteen detainees are refusing all 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 hope a release without any real charges this story has been denied by washington and essentially ignored by mainstream media outlets lawyers for the get more prisoners say the men began the hunger strike on february sixth to protest against the alleged confiscation of personal items such as photographs and mail and the sacrilegious handling of their qur'an during cell searches the center for constitutional rights says they've received reports of detainees coughing up blood i'm losing consciousness dropping more than twenty pounds and being hospitalized by day forty five medical experts say hunger strike participants can experience hearing loss and potential blindness and that's in addition to the psychological suffering they've endured for more than

a decade that context where we have individuals incarcerated isolated from each other and they don't know if they're going to get out tomorrow or never in that sense of the circumstance for extreme a psychological stress it's really an abominable you know humanitarian situation where you're depriving these people of life liberty and for no really valid basis the director of public affairs for joint task force kuantan m o 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 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 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 of 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 us is a violating international human rights law by indefinitely holding prisoners at guantanamo without charge the human rights council is urging washington to put bring an end to these illegal practices by either process. killing prisoners in civilian court or releasing them reporting from new york marina point i am heartsick. u.s. military says its force feeding several of the hunger strikers through cheese to

prevent them from starving to death one expert told us the detainees in great danger because they had already been weakened by you is behind us. they've been there well some of them have been there over ten years this is been they've suffered all kinds of ours from torture. in the in the in the form said everyone would agree to probe long deisel ation for many if not most of them which has profound effects all kinds of reviews simply the not knowing what's going to happen to you imagine being in a setting like that for year after year and having no idea if you're ever going to get out obviously the huac of energy the you know without taking food in. the effects line both psychologically in terms of the ability to to even think very clearly. and there's

a danger that some of these effects become permanent around this time point so they're in great danger and london guantanamo campaign coordinator. is among the activists seeking to uncover what really goes on at the detention center she says the mainstream media and u.s. officials have always done their best to contain scandals that. there's a lot of things that get officially deny the half the guantanamo bay for example last year when. one of the prisoners died in a strange circumstance and took time for the truth to actually come out he'd actually died we still don't know exactly what circumstances in which he did die and then it was made impossible for there to be an independent autopsy because some of his organs when they returned to his family months later. had to generated so much that it would be impossible to know what the actual cause of death was so there's a lot of secrecy surrounding what happens at guantanamo bay if there are requests for information they get covered up by national security issues and also there's

just a lack of general interest in actually one is happening on time to move one of the curious things that has come out over the last couple of weeks is that one of the deteriorations of the prisons complained about. is that in january the bullets were fired out of prisoners during a protest that they had held and this had this was corroborated by the pentagon and again it's just it's incredibly curious this has been admitted a couple of months down the line but there has hardly been any outcry in some of the more time to suppress it there's been some coverage in the mainstream media it's managed to get a couple of pieces but it's not actually been considered as a news worthy item. and on our website we want to know your view on the issue every voice counts at r.t. dot com where you can tell us why you think is still open after more than eleven years will perhaps you think the u.s. is to blame for not keeping its promise to close the facility maybe cuba should never have leased the base to america in the first place maybe you blame other

countries for refusing to repatriate detainees or indeed you may see that the nine eleven terror attacks as the main reason that it's still in business when you go online and have your say right now if you haven't done so already here's how the voting is looking so far today with the vast majority blaming washington for failing to keep its pledges and almost equally small number think that others are responsible for what's happening at guantanamo so do cast your vote be good to hear from me dot com. well coming up after the break police under fire protests over the killing of a brooklyn teenager by a new york police officer lead to angry clashes and dozens of arrests plus a new pope old problem as the first gives his first weekly address we look at the background of the man who has pledged to return the catholic church to his humble roots those stories and others after the break.

its technology innovation is development from the ground we. have heard. and then something else. and realized. it was a big. news today. these are the images. from the

streets of canada. the day. kool aid or. continues here in the killing of a black teenager by the new york police has caused public outrage and evoked week long protests in brooklyn the activist childhood slogans accusing the n.y.p.d. of racism and cruelty clashes between demonstrators and law enforcement officials resulted in dozens of arrests. the story. 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. who were able to see it that this individual. a weapon on him as these candles burned 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. not a 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 the. new york bloodshed civil strife and devastation the state of syria two years after its conflict began the war between the government and rebels acing seventy thousand people killed millions fleeing the homes creating a humanitarian disaster and while diplomatic efforts to bring peace of all failed many say that foreign countries a fanning the flames with plans to send more weapons. 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 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 wanted to go both at home and abroad have decided to target would hurt the most serious diversity pitting people against each other after every massacre and every killing rivers of blood have been joined by streams of mutual accusations and hatred. the first blow was dealt to relations between the country's sunni majority and the ruling she had minority some more ignorant position and sometimes. it was never to make a city and it's not the one again. we should keep our unity in all of all of. it gabriel and poise from commercially livin in series ne 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 for months now especially from gulf countries trying to drag us to this perilous share soon again it's a big threat because a tear society from the inside. and some say it's been few from the outside it is part of the 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 drive 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 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 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. is preparing a rapid response naval force to patrol the mediterranean at least six russian ships are expected to ply the waters on a permanent bases they'll be there to guard national interests and also transport people if the syrian conflict gets further out of control or going off as more according to the head of the navy in moscow wants to have five to six ships

permanently based 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 works the fleet the idea to base the navy in the mediterranean was initially voiced by defense minister said again last week and of course this comes as the whole region is in the global spotlight due to the conflict in syria with russian authorities are not winking basing the need either in the region to what's happening in the country or earlier they said that the only way the navy good in gauges that help assist possible future of i.q. ations of russian citizens from the country but actually the idea of moscow basing the. isn't something completely new during the times a huge group of up to thirty vessels was growing we'd be there from the sixty's early ninety's. the cypriot government has suspended a debate on

a bank deposit their view that has sparked mass anger the demand for all deposit holders to hand over up to ten percent of the savings was in force by eurozone finance ministers as a condition for a much needed ten billion euro bailout well for some analysis i'm now joined live by dr helen similarly from the leading british think tank the bridge group. doctors and well you just said. debating this until tomorrow do you think this bailout plan really could go ahead. well i think they will have to try and make it go ahead because the really do desperately need the bailout money unless of course they do the alternative which is actually drop out of the euro and probably default at some point which will not necessarily be the worst thing that can happen but that doesn't seem to appeal to any of the governments in question i mean we've had this problem with greece and we've had this problem with other countries so they

will have to try to make it work whether it actually will i mean the government has frozen all the or the accounts so that people can't withdraw more than a certain amount of money they can take their money abroad although i suspect. this will come out in the next few days perhaps that as this was this was not an unexpected decision by the finance minister as some people would have taken their money abroad already. whether it will actually work or whether cyprus will erupt into riots is something we shall see in the next few days well do you think they would erupt into violence because for most of them it's seventy percent why are they so angry if that actually could mean saving their banks and and saving their own money in the long term. well yes i mean i think logically that one could could do that although. the way things have gone with c. greece is that you know these these bailouts happen. try to produce

a stereo never works and then after a while there is another request for another bailout so it might happen but i think there is a problem that when people look at large proportion then of course seven percent is actually quite a lot of money for people who say things aren't that big i know it's early but also just to run through and it doesn't seem fair does it that those who have been saving are being penalized rather than those who are running their kilts and it just doesn't seem first. i'm afraid that is how it's all been going on about the about the bailouts i mean it's it is actually bailing out countries and banks who have been running into debt and. the people who people saving a lot of people from various other countries have invested money i mean the problem with cyprus has always been is that it has attracted savings not even savings but

actually huge amounts of money from other countries for example russia and therefore there has been this discussion as to whether the you should be bailing out the banks when a lot of that bailout will go to investors who are not actually cypriot or even in the u. but at the same time they rely on foreign investors don't they and that obviously in the long term. and that would put off for future investments here so they are doing really do rely on investors but but it is one thing to rely only on foreign investors it's another thing to demand that the taxpayer in other countries be allowed this foreign investors after all that is exactly what we're doing will all be paying towards this bailout fund especially the euro zone countries but one way or another all the countries in the you will be paying so that is actually something very different from foreign investment foreign investment is a very good thing most doctors want foreign investors so. anyway there it is and demand that the taxpayer should in a way you're saying this is a necessary evil do you think that perhaps we could see this sort of scheme being

applied to other countries now because we haven't seen investors being penalized in this way before every i mean maybe it is a good idea but that's that's exactly why it's happened this time because of course just in just demanding that austerity be. used has not worked so far the greek government has not really imposed anything very much nothing much has happened in italy nothing much ireland is about the only country that has imposed certain rules and actually they are sorting their economy out so obviously the decision was this is that we're not going to rely on the government we are actually going to impose these rules what is actually works is a separate issue i mean i think what you're facing here is the euro zone which is an inherently unstable structure and therefore it's yet another crisis in the euro zone. which will presumably be followed by another crisis in a couple of months just as all the previous crises were followed each time the crisis go to hell and so will you from the u.k.'s leading think group thank you so much for your time we appreciate your thoughts on this thank you about

a cameraman working for ortiz or a big sister channel in egypt has been attacked while filming activists drawing graffiti on walls had to r.t. dot com to see footage of the incident which happened next to the headquarters of the muslim brotherhood party in the capital cairo also a lot of the moment drastic measures are leading animal welfare groups says it will use drones to stop illegal hunting in britain find out more about the upcoming war in the countryside at r.t. dot com. china's new president has called for what he described as efforts to continue the realisation 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 as correspondents here and we 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 let's 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 who is the now the cut chinese premier he's been talking about reform is the largest evidence china can enjoy for its pose 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 people to asia or rebalancing and as

a result there has been increasing number of territorial 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 china seems always want to have a peaceful neighborhood does seems to be a really believe the chinese have been holding over the history. economic development will be the top priority for the new chinese leaders and recent forecasts look promising a report from pricewaterhouse coopers predicts that china which is now the world's second largest economy will catch up with the u.s. by twenty seventeen before actually overtaking it and one of the top spending priorities announced by the new leadership is defense 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 where 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 as your base independent news that is said james kolbe it says the major players in the region play a political waiting game we've already seen how this is starting to play out with the confrontation for example between china and japan over the of the sink islands and we've seen some some indications of how this is going to happen through u.s. proxies in the region rather than a direct congress that confrontation between the u.s. and china and i think that that plays into everyone's interests at the moment because no one is really that interested enough to sit in the entire table at this point in time i think that's something that could potentially develop some ways down the road and i think that's what china has their eye on at the moment and that's why they're steadily and quietly just continuing to build up their military forces we're seeing for example the deployment of new drones new aircraft carrier lots of new technology that they have are developing right now that is certainly

not at any point at this point certainly not a rival to american military dominance in the region but one could imagine that extending from here into see it becoming a real military power and i think there's no question that that's where the chinese leadership wants to take china. and in just a few minutes analyse the bond between the falkland islands and the u.k. is cemented in a landslide referendum report and have been can be hypocritical in turning a blind eye to the wishes of people living in some other of its overseas territories also with the new pope now the helm of t. the simply post of the pontiff promised a new approach to the catholic church and much more after the short break. a un 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 for 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 u.s. 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 certain contraries birdie if you out there naive enough to think that they'll sanction the usa or send a peacekeeping mission to stop the 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 its investigators whine and plead and beg but that's just my opinion. this is the weekly here in r.t. the smoke finally cleared in the vatican this week literally after the papal conclave elected a new head of the catholic church stepping in after the unexpected resignation of benedict the sixteenth last month pope francis became the first pontiff ever from south america when earlier my colleague carrie johnson asked. if the new man in charge is capable.