raiding the piggy banks cyprus delays a decision on whether to impose an i.m.f. plan to the nation's bank accounts. russia condemns the proposal as unfair and dangerous with some experts saying if the tax is brought in moscow may have to rethink its help ailing europe. the u.s. military maintains there is no mass hunger strike at guantanamo bay where more than one hundred detainees are reportedly starving themselves in protest mistreatment. and no war peace we also want washington and its allies have left behind in iraq as more deadly bombings strike the nation ahead of the ten year anniversary of the u.s. led invasion our top stories this hour. international

news and comment live from our studio center here in moscow this is the twenty four hour a day the parliament in cyprus has delayed until tomorrow a decision on whether to allow an e.u. bailout which will cost its citizens millions of the euro's every bank customer will have their cash taxed if it goes through the plan calls panic over the weekend with people emptying a.t.m. machines fearing their life savings could be plundered correspondent cynthia reports on the implications. the e.u. finance ministers as the and the international monetary fund had agreed upon a ten billion euro bailout for the country on the condition that this a bank tax a bank deposit tax be imposed now this could amount to up to nine point nine percent of of those who have more than one hundred thousand euros in the bank good

for many people their it's their entire life savings that they have that are they feel are now in trouble and the panic that has been stirred over the weekend people trying to get money out of the cash machines but electronic transfers have been stopped and the machines have been running out of money and people there are calling this essentially unfair unjust and simply a robbery their their savings being taken away from them the president of the country however have has been painting this acceptance of the bailout as crucial for the country says that if this bank tax this requirement is not passed then the country will might be forced to get out of the euro of the euro zone area and therefore some people feel that the country has really been put in a position where it has no choice but to accept everything that has be handed down by brussels by e.u. leaders by the meetings that they have here as far as the people are concerned again they really see this as as an infringement for what is supposed to be there and this is unprecedented in the sense that this is the first time that

a requirement for a bailout is actually actually means dipping into the personal savings of citizens that this is the first time it has happened officials here say that this is not going to be a precedent that is not going to be a friend to whatever already there is doubt among the e.u. citizens to whether or not this line the red line that they thought would never be cross has actually already been crossed and if we look again at what may be the biggest factor in disrupting the very fabric of the european union is this kind of social dissatisfaction this kind of a protest from the people where there are where they are not happy with the kind of decisions that their leaders are making as it directly impacts the very quality of their lives. to cecilia there the aftershocks of the use proposition have been felt in other countries inside and outside the euro zone parties tom barton has the details unfair unprofessional and dangerous with the words that lattimer putin used through his spokesman about this tax on deposits in cyprus that would be necessary

for that ten billion euro e.u. i.m.f. loan russian banks russian businessmen and exceptionally rich russian individuals hold a disproportionately huge deposits in cyprus given the country's size the exact number of billions is estimated to be above ten but the exact number could be far higher it's very hard to establish it's partly because of that reason that the e.u. wanted a tax to try and distribute the burden equally and to avoid money laundering there are reports in the greek media that the russian state energy giant gazprom proposed its own bailout to cyprus in return for energy exploration rights around the island but it was turned down because cyprus wanted a solution from within the e.u. all of this does raise questions about the future of russian deposits in cyprus

about whether this tax will hurt more investors all the banks that hold their deposits if those deposits are withdraw it also raises questions over a two point five billion euro loan given by russia to cyprus which may itself not be extended. well for more on the proposed tax i'm now joined live by two thousand man the chairman of the libertarian party of the netherlands how likely is it that the parliament will give a green light to this offer tomorrow when they come to debate it. well i think it is likely that real richard butyl. they don't have very many options. we're is not one to wonder more and they're going. to have to come up with some way and is it fair though that some people should leave lose a proportion of their savings in order to not only save the banks there in cyprus but of course save them money in the banks in the future it's

a small sacrifice is it not but worth paying. no i think it's fair. or who have. put their money in a bank that is safe a bank didn't take these risks a bank that has good ratings the bank that didn't need bail out these people are going to be affected as well. part of their savings are going to be taxed as well and the people who didn't take this precaution the people who did put their money in banks to keep it taken huge risks are no good and i'm going to benefit from this so therefore the impact could be that people have put that money in other weaker economies throughout the euro zone could now be trying to pull that money out of those banks and we see a massive run on the banks in a major impact not just of course what we're seeing in cyprus but throughout the eurozone of course you know if it can happen in cyprus can happen in greece in the greece's problems are no smaller than and cyprus problem there are bigger. if you

can happen in greece it can happen in portugal and it can happen in portugal it can happen in spain and italy and so what was quite likely is that a lot of people are going to moving their money out of southern europe to other places to switzerland or austria or other or northern europe could such a plan actually be implemented in other countries another bailout deal of this sort because if the authorities the m f and the e.u. authorities think this is going to work do you think they might actually do this elsewhere when another deal is on the table. yes i do i mean they're presented as a one hour solution because they claim that this is a unique situation to same principle of course it isn't unique at all this is a problem that we see all throughout the eurozone and as a matter of fact it's much more fundamental than that it's a fundamental flaw in our banking system about the banks can create money out of thin air that aren't backed by anything and that's great bubbles and central banks

can go on forever with that and with inflating new currency it's a fundamental flaw in the banking system and this is just a quick fix this is we keep kicking the can down the road it's not a fundamental solution until open and solution as it is is implemented we're going to see a lot more of these so-called one our solutions. to our mind as chairman of the libertarian party in the netherlands thank you very much indeed for joining us live here on r.t. you're welcome but we are closely following the tensions in cyprus on our web site at r.t. dot com that's where we're asking you what you think will come out of the controversial deposit levy and so far here's how it you'll vote come in the majority believes that forcing savers to pay for their banks mistakes will only cause social unrest thirty six percent expect a chain reaction of bank runs leading to the collapse of the e.u. less of the blame for or less if you actually blame the floor during his own system saying the cash will only offer a short term solution. and this hour only a minority has faith in the debated tax to bring stability to the island state

party dot com is where you can tell us what you think you'll be good to hear from you. or despite mounting media coverage and legal appeals the u.s. military continues to deny a mass hunger strike is underway at guantanamo bay lawyers for more than one hundred detainees say they've been starving themselves for over forty days in protest of the desecration of the koran by prison guards when grilled by artemia guantanamo a spokesman defended the facilities policy captain robert duran says the camp is committed to the safe legal humane and transparent treatment of the detainees he claimed only fourteen kept is a refusing all food was some of those being force fed to prevent starvation decades who was held at guantanamo for five years and released without charge dismissed that description and said above it is continuing with bush era war crimes the things that happen there's a beginning is there's

a systematic torture where everyone goes through. the list of out of their clothes for example and they're sometimes sexually abused physically abused like myself and others we were physically beaten. you can see my right eye has been. but i was the last they tried to god's both my eyes we never even were told what. a lead allegations against azhar we were questioned for hundreds of times and we were interrogated many many times and then released without any conviction we were never convicted never had the chance to see the evidence against us the generals have set up. cheney and all the other officials the lawyers who legalized torture and they justified the methods of torture and this book and publicly in defending this kind of torture i think of course we hold all

these people responsible now obama and the all the other officials that the taking over there the people there were serious crimes of committed inside montana most people don't realize their people were killed inside and on them more than nine people were killed in the people that i know inmates were sexually abused there were people who have lost their arms and lost limbs in amputated like of the design some people were paralyzed throughout their lives some people lost their eyes these are serious crimes these are serious war crimes or crimes against captive people and these people have to come to justice if we let these people at large what will happen is that more across these like these would take place and they are examples of criminals committing crimes and just not paying back for their crimes despite pledging to shut down guantanamo during his first presidential campaign in two thousand and eight barack obama has now dropped the issue from the top of his agenda this is drawing little on the u.s.

where the mainstream media prefers to keep it out of the headlines and the war on terror is still marketed as reason enough to keep the camp running. recaps the failed attempts to bring guantanamo to an end. the story around the closure of guantanamo bay prison has stuck to president obama ever since he promised to shut it down and here are some of the key dates on the way first in january two thousand and nine and when obama was inaugurated he ordered the prison to be shut down within a year and banned some of the interrogation methods after the u.s. government admitted torturing some of the detainees was kools another exactly since in may the same year the u.s. senate refused to fund the closure of the jail until the president provided more details as to what to do with the detainees then in mid october to appear the situation that changed when the congress approved allowed to some of the detainees to be moved to the us for prosecution but then it all you turned again at the end

of two thousand and ten when the same congress approved the defense spending bill which prevented us trials for guantanamo detainees in january two thousand and eleven despite his campaign promise to close that obama signed the defense of the reason plan which ruled out shutting guantanamo bay down and prevented the transfer of prisoners from the camp in march obama also signed an executive order resuming military trials for. detainee's and we've seen by many as a complete reversal of his former policies in december two thousand and eleven the president feel to veto the national defense bill being the way for prisoners to be held indefinitely and without charge and extending the ban on moving them from the camp and finally in july last year the pentagon voiced its plans to lay a forty million dollar fiberoptic cable from the u.s. mainland to guantanamo not exactly a sign washington responding to wrap up its operations in the controversial setter

. and there's more opinion and analysis of the story on our website at the moment and still ahead for you this hour here in our to europe's last dictator uncensored offensive i can prove it right here right now that there is no you can take the ship in batteries that. speaks exclusively to the president about a receipt dismisses western criticism saying he's as devoted to democratic values as the next person this and much more for you after the break.

more news today violence is once again flared up. in these are the images kobold has been seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations rule the day.

r.t. comes you live from the russian capital sixty minutes past the hour now the u.k.'s main political parties have agreed to create an independent body to regulate the press the new watchdog will have powers to impose million pound fines and demand publishers apologize to the victims of press scandals let's not get some reaction from investigative journalist tony goldwyn who joins us from bristol twenty a lot of political debate over this the decision comes in the wake of the never some inquiry which revealed that journalists hacked thousands of phones will this new body actually help prevent those sort of scandals in the future now. we'll see because i think apologies or not really was necessary i think in cases like phone hacking what should have happened was the proprietor should have been stopped from being a newspaper proprietor at all and we saw such massive criminal activity going on within these newsrooms there's a very good case to say that that person in fact the burdock empire should have been completely closed down and let's not forget that this was all prompted by

something the phone hacking scandal which actually was a failure in policing the police had the evidence the the phone the hundreds of phones had been hacked and yet they didn't act on it so in a way this this whole idea of regulating the press is important thing to do but it started with an inquiry which actually was a failure in policing but i mean it will be interesting to see if a royal charter pans out i think really any different to the other sorts of press regulation we've got course the problem is going to be who is on the panels that's deciding on this press regulation because whether it's the b.b.c. or off calm at the moment you've got people on those panels who are essentially from the establishment appointed part by the establishment the b.b.c. . trustees chaired by chris patten is a former conservative senior conservative cabinet minister and of course that in him. fecht a lot of the regulation that's going on within the b.b.c. to have somebody like that in charge of regulating it off com they are they are

doing a lot of other broadcasting regulation in britain you've got a situation where for example their consumer panel on off com is supposed to represent consumers but actually it's been chosen by all jews which is a corporate executive headhunting firm so that's a real serious problem the other thing of course with off com is that they've actually banned press t.v. from the british airwaves so what we're seeing is actually an inch stablish mint type regulation which is really what we don't need if this is going to work it's going to have journalists regulating and victims regulating too much what about the press though the reaction by the press at the moment i understand that the organization hacked off which is representing the victims of that phone hacking scandal they're happy with the news of this but what about the press well i don't think hacked off necessarily represent all the victims they take they seem to represent it seems to me more like some of the more high profile victims i mean i'd like to see some of the less well known victims people who are fairly obscure who have been victims of the press over the years on this panel so even though hacked

off seem to be happy with it i mean i don't think anybody's going to know what's what's going to happen until we've seen how this all pans out and who is on the panel back to you just looked around you when you talked about the office and we've talked about other regulator bodies in a way what you're implying that these are all being self-regulated this body this new one really needs to be very powerful indeed and it seems to me you're being a little bit cynical about it it's not necessarily the organization that is needed . well i mean these things off the start off with great intentions don't they and you off to the start with good people on those panels but what happens often is you have to look at who's appointing people to the panel in the future and whether it's journalists doing that i mean for example the national union of journalists here in britain had to fight to even be close to the process to put this together and now the general secretary of the national union of journalists michel sanish story is actually come out at least on friday anyway in the original proposals against this you saying all journalists need to be on the panel and of course they do

journalists at the cutting edge and it's not the journalists that cause these problems it's the proprietors and the editors of these firms so if you're going to have journalists on the panel if it's not going to have some of the should we say less establishment well known victims i think the whole thing may slowly turn into another establishment fix up as this happened at the b.b.c. live from bristol investigative journalist tony gosling thanks very much indeed for your thoughts and for you time. thank you. iraq is about to mark ten years since the u.s. led invasion with at least fifty people killed since last week in suicide bombings across the country in two thousand and three washington unleashed its shock and or air strikes aiming to rid the country of suspected weapons of mass destruction and toppled saddam hussein a decade later arguments persist over whether anything was achieved what he's going to charge investigates. there's no greater cost to war and then shattered human lives the u.s. invasion into iraq resulted in the deaths of almost two hundred thousand iraq

according to various estimates the deadly mad also 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 said 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 for the u.s.

the authors of the report 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 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 then what do we do we mount a war of aggression on iraq kill

a couple hundred thousand people and mess it up majorly including the region much of what is happening now is a result. what we did in the right with the world looks at them 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 and then 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 and to move on could prove dangerous with new war talk brewing in washington with many of the same people who pushed for the iraq war is now pushing to drag america into another conflict in the middle east

a number of insiders 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. expert on post-war iraq and since i spoke to middle earlier he says that those who believe iraq is recovering a seriously misguided. the only thing we hear is that you know iraqis are killing themselves well nothing of the other struan there is a budget of about four point seven billion dollars that the best i can spend on propaganda it's not me who says this it's the foundation that's from harvard university who are watching this closely they produce stories they produce fictitious stories about

a blossoming democracies in iraq and so long while nothing of the others through it's held people who are barely lost their relative school who are without a job who whose wives are being taken because they cannot find husbands women who are routinely raped in prisons i mean it's hell it's a big open air prison still it's sort of past ten years is the biggest humanitarian manmade disaster of post world war two it's not me who says that it's antonio guterres a few on h.c.r. the red cross who said that eight million people are a need of urgent humanitarian help we don't know anything about. looking for his place in the sun and wants to live as a normal civilize european state those are the goals president alexander lukashenko has for the future about every since he told on t.v. in an exclusive interview. as europe's last dictator look freely admitted he won't

give up power lightly and tonight speculation his youngest son would succeed him as president leader of the former soviet republic has been repeatedly criticized by western states for violating human rights and oppressing the opposition but looking back saying his democracy is no different than that found in europe or the us. i can prove it right here right now that there is no dictatorship in belarus shall i 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 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 . and so on and so forth do i have so many people as china does one point

five billion people know that 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. and have missed that interview in full in just over an hour here on r.t. i'll be back with a news team with morph in half an hour from now in the meantime no peter bell he's guessing gaijin some heated debate on what could be the gender of

a bomber's upcoming visit to. israel that's of the brain. there was a time in america when buses were officially segregated and today if they tried to resegregate the wall next to it there would be outrage throughout the usa every t.v. channel and newspaper so segregation in america was wrong but no america funding segregation no survive a 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 it's really human rights groups but selim said the attempt at the polling 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.