mike's concert for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to kaiser report on r t. live from moscow eleven cyprus courts moscow to pull it back from the edge of bankruptcy after nicosia rejects a european bailout offer sparked by an unprecedented tax on savers got the latest this hour. as russia's premier likens europe's handling of the bailout for bullet a china shop warning brussels antics could spark a new crisis. and other big stories of the day barack obama arrives in israel for the first time as u.s. president but they struggle to close the growing gap between the country's middle east policy. and russian and u.n. human rights officials sound the alarm over the treatment of prisoners at guantanamo bay is u.s. military officials trying to downplay a mass hunger strike at the detention center. good

evening you've just joined us kevin live at the hour to new center tonight our top story the scenes of relief and indeed celebration greeted the cypriot parliament's rejection of attacks on bank deposits the one off levy linked to an e.u. bailout deal would have saved millions of account holders lose up to a tenth of the savings are being condemned by officials in the public alike but the country now finds itself of course on the brink of bankruptcy and having rejected the e.u.'s terms it may have to turn to russia for assistance but moscow's a ready offered choice words regarding their handling of the crisis. going off explains now. russian authorities were already quite critical of the cyprus bailout plan proposed by brussels and the so-called troika of key investors which is aimed at taxing private bank accounts in the kind feet on wednesday evening prime minister dmitry mediated had some more strong words to seen fact compare the whole

situation around the crisis in the country and the way you would be in a union officials are dealing with it with a ball at a china shop saying that the bailout plan proposed isn't only going to not help cyprus get over its economic problems but it's also been already a major hit to the image of the you'll be in the banking system in general in fact the prime minister said that russia may have to start revising some of the economic agreements that it currently has with cyprus you also compare the situation with how the sort of it union or soviet authorities dealt with private funds of soviet citizens meaning the expropriation of private property of course and in general you could we did have said that russia is only in favor of a healthy. economy a transparent one and one which is effective and which is which works but he said that this crisis has to be dealt with where the involvement not only of brussels and the troika but with all the players the fact that including russia of course in

the meantime cyprus self at a very difficult position it be ject it the bailout plan proposed by the troika has turned to russia. finance minister has been meeting with russian officials in moscow throughout the winds the this speculation that cyprus is asking russia for a loan the finance minister said that there has been no official proposal yet but he promised not to leave the capital until an agreement is reached look the big picture is all this is happening. despite angela merkel being furious over cyprus even talking to russia about the issue since earlier she directly called in the country not to even consult with anyone about. skurry economic difficulties except for brussels and the troika what the cyprus president made it clear that the country is looking at all ways to get out of this crisis when he personally called president clinton and told him of his country's parliament decision to reject the

european union's bailout proposal now the latest developments are one of the economic aids of the worst and president theoretically said that if cyprus was a member of the new regional economic community then it could have theoretically dig into its reserve fund a similar tactic was used with the bellows when it was experiencing severe economic problems a few years back another sort of possibility or way to solve this crisis comes from cyprus it's authorities are reserve rectenna another one which should be already presented earlier to were european union authorities which they rejected and that is to tap into social funds of the country including the. pension fund and in this way they hope to collect around five billion euros pretty much the same amount which we would have got if the introduced this tax on private bank accounts you could pursue an office so banks throat cyprus might shut to prevent panicking investors rushing to withdraw their savings

a corresponding test for similar reports next from the capital on the situation facing the people there right now as far as what goes on in the street at the moment it's rather calm the initial panic really happened over the weekend when that announcement was made from brussels that they will be taxing people were lining up. in front of a.t.m.'s trying to get their money out and yesterday i was talking to some locals who were trying to get some money out and be a.t.m. some had run out of cash and this morning i actually tried to buy a bottle of water and they had given me a handful of change and apologizing that they have run out of five euros and take you know because the banks were closed the u.k. government as we know had already said about one million euros. cash to their troops were here in cyprus just to keep the cash go away now on a number of bigger level in the canonical level if the banks do remain closed this will pose a problem as the economy does hit a substantially on the banking sector and there's already been doubt on whether the banks will open at all that we also heard from reaction from the e.u.

i did not find this minister said well the block deeply regretted the boat but the bailout offer still sounds provided that the initial requirement is still met obviously that it's not that has not passed the parliament and they're really not happy about that or the impact of what is happening in cyprus certainly sending ripples across a europe first of all to the citizens who are now quite afraid of their savings and the fact that the seeds of doubt so the credibility has been damaged that the damage has been done even if the boat did not go through so people are saying if it can happen to cyprus that that red line to be crossed and dipping into people's savings it could happen to other euro zone countries that might be leading bailouts in the future to assure sort of us the worry will us but in the past and as head of research at the national astray a bank he told me a rescue loan to cyprus could yield rich rules for russia. i think either way it appears that russia is going to have to pay but far from that being a burden let's look at the fact that russia is the ninth largest economy in the

world it's a two trillion dollar g.d.p. and in fact there are opportunities here for the state which to open up which might previously have not been available so it's not this is a really old bad news the the voluntary way of doing it is to say that perhaps some group some cypriot assets might now well be available for sale which wouldn't previously have been considered in minerals or oil and so exploration rights or indeed other measures which would be attractive to russia perhaps in a way that previous they might not have been available so there are opportunities here as well as problems. coming up the man who engineer britain's a sarah t. program is now looking to rebranding himself the u.k.'s chance for of the exchequer rebels a new budget which invasions cutting corporate taxes even more while introducing a host of new duties including a levy on call. us officials have admitted that the number of guantanamo bay

detainees on hunger strike has almost doubled since last week they've also said that at least eight inmates are being force fed now but they dismissed lawyers claims of prisoner abuse russia's voiced concern over the hunger strike while the un human rights body is taking a cautious stance on the issue. as the latest. strike of guantanamo inmates has been causing concerns and condemnation worldwide from the human rights organizations and activists russia has now joined in in this criticism earlier we spoke to constantin del go for the advise of the russian foreign minister on the human rights issues and he was also very critical of the events at guantanamo prison. many international human rights organizations have acknowledged that the guantanamo bay prisoners are living in a rights vacuum with interrogation methods and confinement conditions are violating major human rights standards and of course will undermine the us as an international rights watchdog the prison is operational despite its inmates winning

almost half of their appeals which were later overruled by higher courts we have repeatedly drawn the attention of our american colleagues that the very existence of this detention camp marez its human rights defender reputation as the us likes to see itself double standards are obvious here and we hope that eventually the guantanamo problem will be solved once and for all we did you call r.t. also asked for comments from the united nations high commissioner for human rights the organizations their organization reply to us by saying that they were looking into the legit mistreatment and the hunger strike itself but so far they cannot confirm it and there are certain fears that the un watchdog simply has no access to the guantanamo inmates the ones on hunger strike and the only information we've managed to garner so far came from the lawyers of the inmates and they are they are the ones who have been ringing alarm bells and informing the public and r.t. in particular of everything happening behind bars in front of

a prison there have been no comments coming from u.s. authorities from officials from defense officials which is causing more reasons for condemnation and concern among the human rights activists as i've said most of the information comes from lawyers thanks to them we know that some of the inmates on hunger strike have already. been losing consciousness and coughing blood and there are certain fears that in two days on the forty fifth day of the hunger strike they might start having problems with eyesight and even more serious health problems because their condition is deteriorating the only comment we received from the us officials from the guantanamo officials in particular was that the number of inmates going on hunger strike has doubled over the last ten days and now amounts to twenty four people but that's been aired the rest of the information has been concealed and this is certainly causing concerns especially given the fact that the u.s. has been a strong advocate of human rights worldwide but when it comes to a legit violations of human rights on its own territory both some people the

officials are keeping one everyone in the dark on the situation of course we are following all the developments in this bizarre story and we'll be getting more information from the lawyers which will be of course will be in forming our viewers as we get it we surely will now the strikes across but i'm going for forty three days now if you want to trace it back for the chronology of the counts at r.t. dot com our web site. twenty city budgets kept true to the spirit of austerity hiking g.-d's across the board but also including a reduction in corporate taxes unveiled by the architect of britain's austerity program george osborne it included measures to support those most hard hit by the cuts he tells now than forty sarah firth. it's a chance that was forced to admit that economically we are worse off and yet he said that we're going to be staying on track with our economic plan there's no money around and yet we see a lot of tax cuts announced now there's a whole raft of measures this is always going to be

a budget they are taken more as a whole rather than on these individual measures but we can talk to as we said a lot of tax cuts we're in that's a good nice thing the future cancels a penny off the pine so they stop the big g.t.s. later that stopping the big tax is something that's being come painful very hard but and it is a big but for any of the positive news that within that budget announcement there was that crucial missing ingredient and that's great and that's what it really comes down to here we see over the years growth has backed me to continue to stagnate and that's really start. to repeat the economy and it seems today again for all the announcements once again that is lacking the budget announcing coincided with the latest unemployment figures they've gone up living costs have increased as we were listening to the chancellor deliver that twenty thirteen budget i was outside with some of the phrase has this from some trade unions that

is announcements were met so loud that people gathered there they really haven't found a message this government the resonates with british think what sort of first i'll just go to talk to richard wellings he's deputy editorial director of the institute of economic affairs he told me britain's no especially susceptible to economic shock waves from the eurozone. other people are pretty pessimistic about their long term outlook they don't think there's going to be this two or three percent growth that the government predicts in a couple of years' time obviously the big question mark is what happens in the eurozone which accounts for around forty percent of u.k. exports and if they are just goes from crisis to crisis that as he's seen recently in cyprus that's going to really have a very good name effect on growth in the u.k. so it's completely unpredictable this huge uncertainty in this context a cautious chance that would have actually made some great to spend the cuts now to actually put the public finances on a more prudent fourteen but what we didn't see was any massive program of steve regulation and this is really the way for him to get out of his current fix instead

we saw even more tax complex to get more red tape being piled on the office to have top of all the stuff coming from the european union which is very very harmful to the u.k. . coming up both the syrian government the rebels have called for international probes into accusations that chemical weapons were used near aleppo in northern syria and a priest in the speaks to us he says he can confirm chemical weapons were used in the assault the left twenty five people dead also an iraqi terrorist group with links to al qaeda claims responsibility for bombings that killed dozens in baghdad further upset in the country ten years on from the u.s. led invasion just a couple of the stories to go after this really quick break do hope you can stay with me. science technology innovation all the developments from around russia we've.

covered. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought. i'm tom harvey welcome to the big picture.

hello again it's twenty three sixteen about now moscow time for barack obama's in israel his first ever visit to the country as u.s. president obama has been repeatedly criticized by pro israeli lobby as for distancing himself from tel aviv and some believe there's little chance therefore of the ice falling between the two governments any time soon to discuss this visit let's talk to political analyst abraham aloof she is from the ocean evening during they said press conference earlier with a bomb of any minute said that israel can never see the right to defend itself with its greatest friend talked about america of course what is the main by that. well i think that the state of israel speaking about defense is really like carnivores speaking about being vegetarian the state of israel has been launching one that after another against neighboring arab states as well

as palestinians with and most recently in gaza and two thousand and twelve so i think that this is just a bunch of zionist propaganda that there's not really worth commenting on what is really at stake here is the fact that there's a symbiotic bond between us administrations across the front decades and the zionist state of israel regardless of the policies and the party in power in either country but do but but surely a bridge is not a shot across the browser of iran and its alleged nuclear program to kids is basically saying isn't it there it might attack without the u.s. given a say so. well that's a distinct possibility and of all the things that are supposed to be discussed during obama's visit to occupied palestine i think the question of iran being

a target is probably the most important one on the list obviously we have different agendas here but at the same time let's not forget that the prominence of iran and the gulf area and across the other broods and has also upsetting nato's balance of power and that aids and so this is not only an israeli concern and also a u.s. government concern the problem is they're both looking at it from the front angles with israel being closer to the margins of their inion projects and off. but closer to home israeli palestinian relations remain tends to say the least what are both sides expecting from the obama visit you think. as far as that goes i think there's nothing substantial to be expected from this visit the primary goal of this visit is to embellish obama's image as an unsigned matter now

personality and so this is mainly a public relations visit that is meant to improve the status of the democratic party in the united states visibly the israeli lobby and the u.s. congress as well as the senate also it's meant to try to create some form of or up between the two leaders between that the now and obama however that this taking place beneath. an organic relationship between the united states senate as well spanning a graph across several adminstrations as far as this so-called peace process. there's nothing on the table really and all that is being asked of the palestinian authority or so for this to accept unconditional surrender to israeli terms thank you for your thoughts live from jordan appreciate it. an al qaeda linked group

named the islamic state of iraq says it was behind a series of attacks in baghdad on tuesday to kill sixty five people in the end mostly shiite areas of the city it was indeed the deadliest violence to hit iraq this year it came on the tenth anniversary of the u.s. led invasion of the country and despite the conclusion of the so-called freedom and democracy missions to build it he's still nowhere in sight you see caffein off reports from iraq. almost everyone that we've met here in iraq is deeply scarred and traumatized by war in one way or another whether was lost as under the saddam era or the massive violence and bloodshed that's been unleashed by the u.s. war and subsequent occupation not to mention the sectarian and ethnic lines that that war has opened blood shed is unfortunately the new norm for most of the parts of iraq here where we're standing right now is actually the semi autonomous region of iraq a kurdistan is probably the only area in the wrong that has seen life improved since the war in large part due to profits from the oil that's been found in this

region but less than an hour away in the city of kirkuk where we went a completely different picture checkpoint after checkpoint blast wall surrounding the city it was quite dangerous for us to move around without a military escort and most of the residents complained of potentials of security attacks almost at any moment so this is something that's really been reflected across the country and it's quite symbolic of course that on the anniversary of the ten year invasion iraq close that painful chapter much the same way that it began with bombs across baghdad but as for whether the people feel better off or not it really depends on fortunately on their experience their. ethnic affiliations their religion and what they've suffered during the past ten years. the situation in the country is better than the fool we do have a problem that is violent there are lots of explosions everything is ok except the bombing it's not. the way things are today suffering. groups

of fracturing this democracy. we would feel free to go out and return safely. but there's no guarantee that i'll come home so as you heard there the one thing that does seem to unite iraqis today is fear fear of when the next explosion or attack may come. the u.s. led offensive championed the goal of freeing iraqis from saddam hussein's tyranny and protecting the world from his alleged weapons of mass destruction so it was saying was toppled but no w m d's of course all of that is really takes a look at the troubled legacy of the war. what for the thinking then and what do they think now those are the questions that many people want to ask those in power who made the decision to invade iraq ten years ago r.t. did just that pose in several uncomfortable questions to those who voted to invade the country a decade ago warning their replies may leave you surprised no i don't regret voting

in that way because i think the people of iraq have been freed of course you'll regret any number of people who died but the big question is what were the was the intent of saddam hussein against his own people we've already seen that we had a very repressive regime but what's come in place of saddam's baath history team could hardly be called a better safer life if they could have insurgency terror attacks roadside bombs and seemingly endless six tearing violence the effects of the invasion on the iraqi population has been devastating let's look at these numbers over here we're looking at almost five thousand coalition deaths about hundred thirty four thousand of iraq he does but of course those numbers are varying greatly depending on the source and finally you're looking at more than two million displaced people of course not to mention the latest report by the watson institute for international studies at brown university which reckons the war has to date cost the u.s. more than two trillion dollars some american military officials remain undaunted by

the numbers and believe what they did ten years ago actually was a good thing i think it was very necessary for us to do something to help the middle east a degree of freedom that it hadn't had before now a lot of people are going to argue that the iraq invasion did not provide the types of freedom that we had originally envisioned but what what the they were dealing with that was they a regime that didn't allow any freedoms and now depending on where you are in iraq there is at least a some. once of some freedom unfortunately no map of those places has been provided the latest gallup poll conducted on the eve of the tenth anniversary showed fifty three percent of americans consider the invasion of iraq a mistake the view is shared by at least one man who was among those who ten years ago believed a military operation against saddam hussein was necessary artie's bureau london met

with lord prescott who in two thousand and three was tony blair's deputy prime minister it always used to be denied that it was regime change talking about not only was reviewed but it's now what motivates the russian i think in regard to iraq you see the people not talking about intervening but they don't want boots on the ground with like they just want. to kill more civilians than the alleged terrorists so i want the lesson to be heard and we shouldn't repeat it again these countries must develop in all ways as for those iraqis who fought in the war well for them the war is anything but over as they now have to rebuild a country led to the brink of collapse by foreign invaders in the name of ultimate good while those who instigated the carnage seem to show no regret whatsoever just check out our web vote we're ask you to vote tonight what you think the invasion of iraq resulted in over half of you just one percent believe the security bill region

is going downhill since the invasion a quarter say u.s. power has been declining is a missive an emboldened globally but one of five think nothing's fundamentally changed regarding the global security again six percent saying the removal of saddam hussein's made the world a safer place we can still have your say course. in syria both the government of the opposition are calling for an international investigation into whether chemical weapons were used in an attack near the northern city of aleppo both a blade which other for the assault left twenty five dead including sixteen government troops journalist in damascus. has got these details. that occurred in an area called which is in the notify people in an area that was under the control of the government it contained one of the military station it's called the police center the police training center and this police training center has been and it attacked from the position for the last three weeks or more and they would try to control it hard because of the difficulty of the hard fighting from the

government they could not control it and now after that attack the government claims that it's their position who fired a missile a. pain in the morning with chemical gases and this can be can guys just played into the killing of two or three people on the one of the seventy people including some of the doctors we're trying to. to heal these people and in this in close by hospitals the government to claim that the opposition was was responsible for it and that he and opposition said that the same time the government is responsible for the exchange of claims between two. conditions between the two parties we got in touch with a priest in the town just outside aleppo with this attack took place he told us by phone he can confirm chemical weapons were indeed used it doctor who could. i. assured. him.

were who were injured because of the. rocket. over crime and. we wired. what. he told me. after being forty years doctors in that one to three large great. coming away people of more type of conversation after the break. to build a new. mission to.

only. the official. language stream quality and enjoy favorites. if you're awake.