detainee's desperation r.t. following a mass hunger strike at the guantanamo bay prison entering its forty first day with some inmates claiming it's do or die but the prison officials insist reports are exaggerated. the protests played country clashes in tear gas in cairo at another episode of unrest as crowds protest against muslim brotherhood members attacking journalists plus. you very lucky to meet you it's a loss to take to. remember it is not something you probably won't see again as will the president of belarus how xander look at go answers to those who love to hate him in an exclusive interview to r.t. saying his ambition for his country is to live as a normal european state. ten

am in moscow i met très a good to have you with us here on r t our top story the u.s. is continuing to downplay a mass hunger strike at the guantanamo bay detention center more than one hundred detainees reportedly fasting for more than forty days in a desperate act of defiance sparked by what they say is the confiscation of personal items in the desecration of their qur'an and prison officials though insist the reports are outright falsehood saying there's only a handful of prisoners refusing food here's how the camp spokesman captain robert duran described the situation in guantanamo and in response to our request for information he said the mission provide safe legal humane and transparent care and custody of detainees adding that the joint task force kuantan m o six to ensure it stays true to the highest standards my colleague bill died spoke earlier to a former get mogahed brandon neely and i asked him how the detainees were treated during his watch at the facility. you know we were told before we actually got to

want to animal that the geneva convention would not be held. on these days when they first arrived they were you allowed to walk around in their cells or cages i call among the dead they were allowed to pray they were allowed to do nothing when the international red cross came also some constraints you know loosened up and they were able to talk and stuff but you know it but they were treated horrible you know they were they were abused by you know by us guards when it came to the inter reaction force team into it was just mistreated all around especially at the beginning do you think the detainees are treated any differently today as just to remind viewers you were that over ten years ago has anything changed. i think from the outside look at it in a strange as far as the p.r. or the way the government tries to spin it because the facility is a lot better but speed guards have been there over the last few years all the dream inside as far as the internal reaction force team and the way the koran is treated in a stuff like that not much has changed maybe the outside it's changed but inside hasn't changed too much all hundred sixty six detainees being held there at the moment

eighty six of them have been cleared for release since two thousand and nine one unable to go home because of transfer restrictions the guantanamo bay camps been operating for more than eleven years now despite president obama's promise to close it down or he's ever piskun all of what's back in his attempts to shut down the facility. the story around the closure of guantanamo bay prison has stuck to president obama ever since the brahmas to shut it down and here are some of the key dates on the way in january two thousand and nine when obama was inaugurated he ordered the facility to be closed within a year and banned certain into regression methods after the us government admitted torturing some of the detainees but in me the same year the u.s. senate refused to fund the closure until the president provided more detail as to what he would do with the prisoners in mid october appear the situation changed as congress allowed some detainees to be moved to the united states for prosecution but at the end of two thousand and ten congress approved the defense spending bill

which prevented u.s. based trials for guantanamo detainees and in january two thousand and eleven hopes a bomb would keep his campaign promise dimmed further when he signed the defense of the resume bill which ruled out shutting one town will be down and prevented the transfer of prisoners from the camp in march obama also signed an executive order resuming military trials for guantanamo detainees a move seen by many as a complete reversal of its previous policy while in december two thousand and eleven the president failed to veto the national defense bill believing the way for prisoners to be held indefinitely and without charge and extending the ban on moving them from the prison finally in july last year the pentagon announced its plans to aliyev forty million dollar fiberoptic cable from guantanamo bay to the u.s. mainland not exactly a sign washington is planning to wrap up its operations in the controversial detention center lack of information in secrecy surrounding good moer only making

the situation worse as london based human rights activist. explains her group tries to uncover what goes on at the camp and she says the media and u.s. officials have done their best to contain scandals there. there's a lot of things that get officially deny the half the night guantanamo bay for example last year when. one of the prisoners died in any strange circumstances took time for the truth to actually come out he actually died we still don't know exactly what the circumstances were 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 happy at guantanamo bay what come out over the last couple of weeks is that one of the deterioration of the prisoners

complained about. is that in january the bullets were fired out of prisoners during a protest that they had held 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 turnus of press that there's been some coverage in the mainstream media it's managed to get a couple of comment pieces but it's not actually being considered as a news worthy item. we're closely following the situation in guantanamo on our web site as well click on r.t. dot com for more opinion and analysis the lawyers of hunger strikers expressing their concerns over the worsening health of their clients while detainees say most inmates are now involved in the fast plus. more comment from activists psychologists and one former detainee who claimed he saw boys young as nine he thought being beaten by guards at the facility.

police fired tear gas and clash with crowds protesting against an assault on journalists in cairo. among those attacked by the brotherhood members while filming graffiti artist painting near the muslim brotherhood headquarters archies bill true was following me under arrest. we've had reports that tens have been arrested including one journalists as fierce clashes continue between anti-government protesters and security forces outside the muslim brotherhood headquarters here in the capital the police have reportedly been firing birdshot but it's tear gas

hundreds have gathered to protest against an attack they said happened against journalists by muslim brotherhood members groups with the rising at the area outside the main headquarters of the mission but it's arriving with sticks and knives on the journalist attempted to film anti-government protesters spraying anti brotherhood slogans on this main headquarters newly elected journalists in the had one who said this was another example of a crackdown on freedom of speech by the most brotherhood's he called on the supreme guide which is the leading spiritual figure of the regime but they had to apologize to the brotherhood for their part say that this skirmishes that occurred after groups attempted to break into the building it's still not clear how the story's going to end we're seeing significant unrest and lots of anti brotherhood sentiment across the country this protest happening almost on a daily basis and a lot of skirmishes even here in the capital by to her square on the banks of the nile we're seeing a daily fights between

a youth undercover protesters and security forces the president is fighting many different programs at the same time in addition the parliamentary elections have been suspended after the admission of courts said there was a problem with electoral law putting the future of the political casting in doubt this economic problem said major economic problems the president is trying to secure an unpopular four point eight billion dollar loan from the i.m.f. which could see subsidies cuts and tax hikes that people have been protesting against of course you've got a situation in port saïd and here the capital over this very contentious verdict in the port side football trial which saw several people die in the last few weeks so what we're seeing really is continual protests continue on to governments sentiments and with not any solutions on the horizon. stay with us here on r t still to come cyprus and gripped with panic over the rescue bailout from the e.u. as a controversial offer of assistance has huge implications with people losing big chunks

of their life savings plus. a war of aggression in iraq killed a couple hundred thousand people and mess it up majorly including the region ten years after the start of the iraq war which was far more costly than the u.s. ever expected still much public questioning over whether it was worth it or report still to come after a short break. more

news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images and seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations rule the day.

thanks for staying with us thirteen minutes past the hour now looking for its place in the sun and hoping to live as a normal civilized european state is how the president of belarus alexander lukashenko has outlined the future goals of his country in an exclusive r.t. interview he's the man many media love to love to hate and have dug alas he thanked her of europe lukas shank oh says he takes it on the chin because he knows it stuck true in fact the interview points out when he eventually steps down he doesn't want to be replaced by someone ruling to the extreme but just continuing his steady

course at president the former soviet republics been repeatedly criticized by western states for violating human rights and oppressing the opposition lucas shango though says democracy at home is just as good as that found in europe or the u.s. take a listen. i can prove it right here right now that there is no dictatorship in belarus. very simply in just a few words this is the argument i used to convince my western partners in order to be a dictator like starlin one has to have the resources resources of paramount's you need to understand that i have any nuclear weapons exactly i do not do i have as much oil as hugo chavez did in venezuela no do i have as much natural gas as russia number two and so on and so forth do i have so many people as china does one point five billion people know the words in order to be a dictator in dictate one's will one has to have the resources economic social

military relation and so on but we have none and i am being objective about it i am telling you that we have no claims of global importance and don't see ourselves so the major global problem we don't have the resources to do so what we want to do is find our place in the sun and live as an average civilized european state that's all i want so i ask for dictatorship i say to them you're very lucky to meet europe's last dictator alive in person remember it is that something you probably won't see again. follow exclusive interview with valerie's president alexander lukashenko seven thirty g.m.t. here on our website any time that's r t dot com. in the south anniversary of the start of the iraq war two car bomb attacks hit the country killing at least ten people or the war claimed thousands of lives from cost billions of dollars still

a decade later arguments continue over one of the most controversial u.s. policy decisions are. reports. i know. there's no greater cost to more than shatter human lives the u.s. invasion into iraq resulted in the deaths of almost two hundred thousand iraqis according to various estimates the deadly metals released by bombs and bullets continue to kill. in fallujah more than half of all babies who were conceived after the start of the war were born with birth defects the infant mortality rate there is disturbing. on the u.s. side the war took the lives of four thousand four hundred eighty six soldiers when you talk a country the size of iraq everyone knows someone that was killed. in the states when you're here less than one percent of people participated in or so at this point most americans have turned that off it's as though it didn't happen ten years

of death and destruction and it's as though in this country we're done with that we've moved on and it's difficult if not impossible for any veterans and iraqis to move on from ten years of death and destruction the most recent study puts the total cost of the war at two trillion dollars that the u.s. the authors of the reports say the country will continue to pay and over the next four decades that cost could reach six trillion dollars but on top of the human loss and dollars spent there's also been a political price to pay for american credibility and influence went down well iran's went up and we're still living with the consequences of this ten years later so law of unintended consequences are you know polar moment ended when we went into baghdad but we didn't know it from the berlin wall to that time we destroyed the earth like a grand colossus and then after that it's all been very different colonel lawrence wilkerson who served as chief of staff to secretary of state colin powell at the

time of the invasion says iraq has changed the way the world sees the us people look at what we do they do not. judge us by our rhetoric our rhetoric is high and lofty and we talk about human rights and human dignity and freedom and democracy and what do we do we mount a war of aggression in iraq kill a couple hundred thousand people and mess it up majorly including the region much of what is happening now is a result of what we did in the right in the world looks at that and they say this is not something we need in the world this kind of absolutely in a leadership and when this happens in the world of international relations the world stands up and began to balance the hedge among today many of those who cheered for the iraq war on t.v. shows in the in their memoirs struggle to justify the decisions they made and the actions they took yes history will hold them responsible and render some sort of indictment but there is no accountability for people who make grievous errors in

high office in the united states were the united states of amnesia as gore but also actually said the tendency to get into one could prove dangerous with you war talk brewing in washington with many of the same people who pushed for the iraq war answer now pushing to drag america into another conflict in the middle east a number of the fighters from the bush administration have come out and said the desire to topple directly government trumped all other considerations at the time of the invasion there was no credible intelligence that saddam had weapons of mass destruction or ties with al qaida and yet the administration wanted to invade at all costs what we see from these policymakers today are just different shades of denial in washington i'm kind of. policy advisor fergus hobson thinks there's too many warring factions now in iraq for peace to come any time soon. the problem is that prior to the invasion there really was a difficult situation already the no fly zones and fullest by the british u.s.

and french military and the end of very difficult sanctions meant that iraq prior to the invasion was already in a very poor state and so it's hard to say it remains in a very difficult situation one interesting point to note though is that a recent gallup survey in iraq said the people gave the message that basically they thought the place was small secure and now when the u.s. forces were present in greater numbers people should know that there are still many u.s. contractors there so it's not as though there is zero presence the united states and many people still see that as a presence which they want to fight against also iraq already was a very divided nation you have could you have synergy of many different minorities who are necessarily happy with each other or with the prevailing leadership over the weekend cypriots rushed to a.t.m.'s in a panic over a planned tax on savings accounts as part of a european union and i.m.f. deal the so-called rescue plan for the tiny euro zone country would see one time levy on deposits to avoid a national default and exchange the e.u.

has pledged a ten billion euro bailout to heal the battered economy there under the proposed package terms people in cyprus with less than one hundred thousand euros in their accounts would have to pay a tax of around seven percent those who savings are greater will be hit up for a ten percent tax it's the first such move where private deposits will be forced to sacrifice money to foot the bill the bailout of conditions have been deeply criticized as they are expected to hit mainly the poor people and pensioners moreover fears are mounting over the intense cash outflow for the country people's anger has caused the parliamentary vote on the deal to be delayed till today dr helen samuel e. from the leading british think tank the bridge group thinks the timing island state is feeling blackmailed and uncomfortable under the e.u. umbrella. they will have to try and make it go ahead because 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 that is how it's all been going on about the about the bailouts the way things have gone we see greece is that you know these these bailouts happen they try to produce a stereo never works and then after a while there is another request for another bailout. whether it will actually work or whether cyprus will erupt into riots is something we shall see in the next few days. tribune out of some other stories making global headlines each countries continue being in the news as constitutional amendments in hungary threaten democratic rights a demonstration in downtown budapest gathered hundreds of protesters who say the government's cracking down on election campaign writes homelessness and even family values this after authorities announced plans to pass constitutional amendments the

proposals go as far as banning graham students from seeking work when they graduate and work abroad when they graduate the ruling party controls two thirds of the parliament and it's come under fire from the recent decisions that defied the democratic values. thousands of yemenis demonstrated in the southern city of aden yesterday against the un back national dialogue due to begin soon reconciliation talks set to start next week but with regular u.s. drone strikes in the region locals of the object of the move they say the talks don't include any real representatives from the north or southern regions the general strike has left the southern half of the country paralyzed as troops were deployed to protect government buildings last wednesday two people were shot when police and protesters clashed in aden. one palestinian prisoner on a hunger strike since july has been released by israel on the condition he not leave the gaza strip for ten years i am and sharon a previously held by israel was arrested for

a second time last february for violating terms of his release though no evidence against him was ever disclosed a second hunger striker went into cardiac arrest last week after being held as a prisoner in a television hospital despite his critical condition. staying with the middle east inhabitants of a rural bedouin village say they're not going to back down in the face of israel's bulldozers it's already been razed to the ground forty seven times with officials saying bedouins have no proof of ownership but the community claims they've been there for more than a century and have no plans to surrender it artie's policy reports. there's not much here but what there is within hours is destroyed. part of an israeli plan to win the negev desert of its bedwyn residents. if they even demolish the village of thousand times i will rebuild it as long as i'm alive

i will keep struggling i will not give up my living in fear all the time whenever somebody calls us and says there bulldozers in the main street will take all our stuff outside the tent and take it to the cemetery and now they are threatening to demolish the cemetery. village has become the focal point of tel aviv's plans it started with the first demolition more than three years ago and since then most families have relocated to neighboring towns but will meant that we're not the freight we're waiting for them to come again. a steadfast few who live near the threat and symmetry wait to rebuild their homes after the bulldozers leave there is a lighter side to the story residents here are vast the guinness book of world records to enter them as the village that has been demolished the most times in history forty seven and counting. nearly half of the big one population of the negative around ninety thousand people live in forty five villages and recognized

by the israeli government they don't appear on any map and have no official signs marking their existence when they're not being torn down they're being torn apart through the government's refusal to provide sewage systems roads electricity water schools or hospitals but television says it's ready to change that if the bedouins move to recognize villages it promises to provide them with basic services and compensation. they are living on lions that belong to the state israel is a country of law and institutions and when you claim land belongs to you should be able to prove it through legal papers the better ones don't have these papers so it's very hard to accept their claimants. but shaikh saya ultimately disagrees he says his ancestors are buried in a cemetery where graves stayed back at least one hundred years. but we have papers from the in one thousand and five we pay taxes for this land from the year one thousand twenty one until nine hundred forty seven we have papers from the british

in one hundred twenty nine and we even have papers from the year of nine hundred seventy three signed by israel itself all these papers prove that the land belongs to us. these rady government is expected soon to possible that will see more than twenty and recognized big win villages destroyed and some fifty thousand bedouins displaced about two thirds of the land is threatened with confiscation the government trying to organize their vigilance against their will the bed was pretty fair to live in are going to go to the villages to brazil or way of living and to brazil of their own culture it's only a matter of time before the village gets demolished for the forty eighth time and the people living here hope more than just the guinness book of world records will take note quality r.t. i will keep village in the negev desert. next peter of el and his guests engage in a heated debate cross start coming your way.

there was a time in america when buses were officially segregated and today if they tried to resegregate the wall next to there would be outrage throughout the usa every t.v. channel and newspaper so segregation in america was wrong but no america funded segregation also or via foreign aid seems to be a ok and jim dandy. arab language leaflets have been spread around west bank in palestinian areas asking residents to start using special bus lines plans to put palestinians on separate bus lines were first announced in november of two thousand and twelve after some complaints by jewish settlers of trouble on the buses between passengers of different ethnicities

in regards to the special bus lines israeli human rights group but selim said the attempt at bus segregation is appalling and the current arguments about security needs an overcrowding must not be allowed to camouflage blatant racism you know when south africa had apartheid they were slammed with sanctions including from the us but if you're israel go ahead and segregate all the buses you like and you'll still be the us is top recipient of foreign aid at three point one billion dollars a year if there's one thing i don't like it's hypocrisy like this but that's just my opinion.

lead .