detainees desperation are following the mass hunger strike at the guantanamo bay prison entering its fourth day now with some inmates saying it's a do or die protest but prison officials insisting the reports are exaggerated. belo panic in cyprus as the use controversial offer of assistance has huge implications with people losing large chunks of their life savings. to mount a war of aggression in iraq kill 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 of whether it was all worth it. you're very lucky to meet you it's lost it takes it in person remember it is that something you probably won't see again. as the president of belarus alexander

lukashenko answering those who love to hate him and in that exclusive interview saying his ambition for his country is to live as a normal european state. eleven am in moscow why matter has a good to have you with us here on r t our top story the u.s. is downplaying a mass hunger strike at the guantanamo bay detention center of more than one hundred detainees reportedly fasting for more than forty days now in an act of defiance sparked by the confiscation they say of personal items and desecration of their qur'an prison officials though insist the reports are outright falsehoods saying there's only a handful of prisoners refusing food here's how the camp spokesman captain robert duran described the situation in one town a row in response to a request from r.t. he said their mission provide safe. if legal humane and transparent care and

custody of the detainees adding that joint task force one time zero seems to ensure it stays true to the highest standards my colleague bill dodd spoke with a former guantanamo guard brandon neely earlier and asked him how he thought the detainees were treated during his time at the facility. there were you know we were told before we actually got to want saddam will that the geneva convention would not be held. on the say when he first arrived there when he will now go walk around in their cells or cages as i call mom did they were allowed to pray they were allowed to do nothing international red cross came also some constraints you know loosened up and they were able to talk and stuff but you know that 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 and it was just mistreated all 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.

the way the government tries to spin it because the facility is a lot better but still guards of been there over the last few years three men saw it as far as the internal reaction force team and the way the chronos treated in a stunt like that how much just maybe the outside stays but the inside hasn't changed too much larger than sixty sixty tammy's being held in guantanamo at the moment eighty six of them have been cleared for release since two thousand and nine but unable to go home because of transfer a stretch ins guantanamo bay camp has been operating for more than eleven years despite president obama's pledge to shut it out or piskun all of takes a look back at his attempts to close 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 would 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 tunnel 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 of 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 leave a 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 a lack of information in secrecy surrounding guantanamo's only making the situation worse as a london based human rights activist she explains her group aims to uncover what goes on at the camp and she says the mainstream media and officials have always done their best to contain any scandals there. there's a lot of things that go officially deny the half the night of the day for example last year when. one of the prisoners died in a strange circumstance and took time for the truth to actually come up 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 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 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 comment pieces but it's not actually being considered as a news worthy item. we're following the situation in guantanamo on our web site as well click on r.t. dot com for more analysis and opinion lawyers of the hunger strikers expressing their concerns over the worsening health of their clients well detainees claim most

inmates are now involved in the do or die protest plus. more comment from activists psychologists and one former detainee who said he saw a boy he thought was as young as nine being beaten by guards at the facility. police a fired tear gas in clash with crowds protesting against an assault on journalists in cairo a cameraman from artie's arabic channel was among those attacked by brotherhood members while filming graffiti artist spray painting near the muslim brotherhood's

headquarters are true has more. 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 who gathered to protest against an attack they said happened against journalists by muslim brotherhood members groups with the rising at the area outside this main headquarters of the mission brotherhood arriving with sticks and knives on the journalist attempted to film anti-government protesters spraying anti brotherhood slogans on this main headquarters new year lek to 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 this 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 problems at the same time in addition the parliamentary elections have been suspended after the admission of courts said there was a problem with the electoral law putting the future of the political casting in doubt this economic problems 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 because you've got a situation of poor saeed's 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 government sentiments and with not any solutions on the horizon. well stay with us here on our team here is a little bit of what's to come a rescue plan that's causing panic cypriots opting for cash instead of bank accounts as the government plans a controversial levee required for the emus ten billion euro package bailout. also israel's attempts to bulldoze its way to territory are failing against one better when village now in the running for a guinness world record as the settlement that's been destroyed the most number of times its inhabitants value not to back down stay with us for more. than leaving these who ways since the seventeenth century.

tricked. their community on the ceiling. they clearly distinguish between their old. guard their families and things in the treasure. so. to speak the language. will programs and documentaries in arabic it's all here on. reporting from the we'll talk sports to vo ip interviews intriguing story are you. trying. to find out more visit or a big old dog called. thanks

for staying with us twelve minutes past the hour now 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 eurozone country would see a one time levy on deposits to avoid a national default in exchange the pledge a ten billion euro belo to heal the wounded economy under the proposed package terms people in cyprus with less than one hundred euros are sorry one hundred thousand euros in the bank would have to pay a tax of around seven percent those who savings are more would be hit up for a ten percent that would be the first move where private depositors would be forced to sacrifice their own money to foot the bill bell conditions have been deeply criticized as they're expected to hit mainly poor people and pensioners the worst

moreover fears are mounting over the intense cash outflow from the country people's anger is cause the parliamentary vote on the deal to be delayed till today dr helen samuel leave from the leading british think tank the british group thinks the tiny island country is feeling blackmailed and uncomfortable under the e.u. umbrella they will have to try and make it go ahead because they really do desperately need the bailout money unless of course. 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 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 say greece is that you know these these bailouts happen they try to do susteren eighty any never works and then after a while there is another request for another bank. whether it will actually work or

whether the cyprus will be rocked into riots is something we shall see in the next few days. and of the tenth anniversary of the start of the iraq war two car bomb attacks hit the country killing at least ten people all over all the war has claimed thousands of lives and cost many billions of dollars but a decade later arguments continue over the wool one of the most controversial policy decisions by the us or he's gotten a cheeky and takes a look. i don't. there's no greater cost to war 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 the war 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 says 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 runs went up and we're still living with the consequences of this ten years later the

law of unintended consequences are you know the 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 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 the leadership and when this happens in the world of international relations the world stands up and began to balance the hedger more today many of those who cheered for the iraq war

on t.v. shows and 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 would also aptly said the tendency to forget is to move on and could prove dangerous with you war talk brewing in washington with many of the same people who pushed for the iraq war certain now pushing to drag america into another conflict in the middle east a number of things 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 policy makers today are just different shades of denial in washington i'm going to check out. policy advisor fergus hodson thinks

there are simply too many warring factions in iraq for the country to see peace anytime soon. the problem is that prior to the invasion there really was a difficult situation already the no fly zones in force 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 that 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 so many different minorities who are

necessarily happy with each other or with the prevailing leadership looking for its place in the sun and wanting to live as a normal civilized european state is how the president of belarus alexander lukashenko outlined the future goals of his country in an exclusive our t.v. interview he's the man that many media outlets love to hate and i'm more than happy to call europe's last a dictator but lucas shango takes it on the chin he says because he says he knows it's not true in fact in the interview and points out when he eventually steps down he doesn't want to be replaced by someone ruling to the extreme but just someone continuing his course the president the former soviet republic has been repeatedly criticized by the west per file aiding human rights and oppressing the opposition and lukas shank oh says saying democracy at home is just as good as that in europe and the us 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 you need to understand that do 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 you know in order to be a dictator in dictate one's will one has to have the resources economic social military population 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 solving major global problems 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. you can see there for exclusive interview with the president of belarus alexander lukashenko in ten minutes time here on our air on our website any time that's at r.t. dot com. inhabit in several better when villages say they're not going to back down in their face of israeli bulldozers it's already been a race to the ground forty seven times with official saying the bedouins have no proof of ownership of the land but this community claims they've been there for more than a century and have no plans to surrender it artie's parsley or has more. there's not much here but what there is within now was destroyed. part of an israeli plan to win the negev desert of its bid when residents. had if

they even demolished a village of thousand times i will rebuild that 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 i was tagged and take it to the cemetery and now they're 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 we dictated to neighboring towns but women thought we're not the frank 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 have asked 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 shake saya alto he disagrees he says his ancestors are buried in a cemetery where graves date back at least one hundred years. but we have papers

from the in one thousand and five we paid 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 weighty government is expected soon to possible that will see more than twenty i'm recognized big when 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 bid was pretty fair to live in are going to go to the villages to brazil. 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. i'm going up as promised artie's exclusive

interview with the president of belarus alexander lukashenko stay with us here on r.t. . 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 newspaper so segregation in america was wrong but no america funding 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 line it's really human rights groups but selim said the attempt by segregation is appalling and the current arguments about security needs and 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.

i think somebody very special on the show if they're with mr look at him hello and thank you very much for sitting down with r.t. you've come to st petersburg to discuss further integration of russia and belarus with the present crisis they do it's like you know earlier there was talk of a single currency a single flag a single parliament but now less than twenty years on it's kind of obvious that it's most unlikely to happen so why have these large scale plans. what is tearing our countries apart president thought and should would have been the historically we came up with the treaty was still the creation of the union states of bellary said russians now if you actually look it up you'll see that it lays down a clear plan of action to build this union state listing all of the key elements needed the single currency in common institutions. well there is a very detailed blueprint we were also supposed to draft a new constitution and hold a referendum on it however we never did this last bit there was no constitution or

referendum overall we have made significant headway over the past years although we have not been able to deliver on what was spelled out in the treaty we have come to realize that perhaps we are not ready for yet that is not the time or but there is still one great upside our joint efforts towards a union state led to the creation of a new organization the customers don't you know which in turn bought about a common economic space and we are now working to transform it into the eurasian economic union. would you agree with those analysts who say that it's an attempt to restore a mini version of the soviet union. you can of course compare it to the soviet union or the european union or any other union regardless of which one exactly you pick as a reference point we can support the trend or see the world is seeing a global integration process with new unions emerging across the planet to take apec for example or merkel in latin america i just returned from venezuela there

are many more examples of this trend new organizations emerge to survive in this competitive environment why shouldn't we use the positive experience of the soviet union in fostering our relationship now if we look beyond russia you are very close to chavis he was a figure who united a group of world leaders in challenging the west and western corporations now that he's gone what is the future of this alternative movement. i would not say that chavez united us simply because it's so difficult to do i first realized that when we became part of the nonaligned movement where there are so many forces including the united states trying to win these nonaligned countries over to their side to drive a wedge into the movement hugo chavez worked hard to unite developing states with his contribution is really great and i was lucky to have worked with him on this try.