cyprus struggles to meet the demands of vital for a bailout ahead of monday's deadline with schools of savers facing the prospect of losing chunks of money for the sake of rescuing the country's ailing banks. u.k. police say there were no signs of any party involvement in the death of self russian tycoon. who said to have repented his past while longing for a return to his homeland. the syrian national coalition chief announces his resignation raising dramatic divisions within the. forces. and starving to death in protest of indefinite detention as noise for hunger striking guantanamo detainees claimed lives on the line the u.s. military denies a crisis and even wants to expand the facility of top stories. in

the back of the seven days leading stories and the latest developments this is the weekly. political analysts i'm the damage to the cypriot economy is already done regardless of what the government and the finance ministers decide. this is exactly the same government that we're talking about that had accepted only a few days ago a catastrophic plan that was dictated by the euro group who were negotiating only be only for it to be rejected by this it pretty parliament so why would anyone believe them this time around the country if you know a way of getting out of this mess by this point to be honest or at least in the medium or even the short and i don't think there's any sustainable way way out as you may have read already as you may already know the world bank as well as you warned. that risk for a contagion of us

a good price is another thing that's so i guess the risk of thing that's becoming more and more a very strong possibility and almost a certainty it doesn't really matter whether whether these actually whether measures are implemented or not and whether that trading haircut is fifteen or twenty to twenty five percent which is pretty much the subject of a discussion of the your group of meeting to the really important thing is that the trust in banking system has been breached already and a bank run by now thinks things you know it will no matter what happens tonight. theophanous he's a professor of political economy at university of nicosia believes there would be dire repercussions to the cypriot nation if it complied with the street bailout terms. there is a political willingness by the government to reach an agreement for the bailout which we did troika but it seems that they're making it more and more difficult with you in new demands they fear that exists in case that albie months of the trade got accepted i mean it would be very difficult for these under one of these

agreement to be viable in the sense that it will throw the country huge fiscal cliff and the huge recession and the vicious circle and it will be extremely difficult if not impossible to get out of it this is unprecedented cyprus lost twenty five percent of its g.d.p. almost two years ago when there was the here couple of the greek dead and there has been no compensation for that if these ideas being discussed are implemented there will be another hearing of the cyprus g.d.p. which will be around forty percent it will be impossible i think to get out of such a mess a correspondent as a seller has been following developments there in cyprus it's stuck between a rock and a whole place ahead of monday's deadline to raise five point eight billion euro is needed to secure a bailout and avoid a banking collapse and the government has produced

a plan that could potentially see scores of people lose up to a fifth of their life savings for the sake of rescuing the banks the prospect caused panic in discontent across cyprus this week with crowds venting their anger on the streets. in a dramatic week of unfolding events cyprus has moved from rejected europe with a resounding no vote on what it saw as an unfair demand for getting a ten billion euro bailout to now bending over backwards trying to clinch that money scrambling to put together a package pleasing enough to its creditors the so-called troika now saying yes to imposing a twenty percent levy on deposits above one hundred thousand euros in the bank of cyprus and four percent for big deposits in other banks imposing capital controls creating a solidarity fund and a restructuring it's a lean banks and in that week of dramatic political and economic maneuvering citizens were on an emotional roller coaster panicked cypriots rushed to a.t.m. to try and get their money out of the bank at gas stations and no cash meant no gas

agri people took to the streets shocked at what they largely felt was europe particularly germany trying to bring them to their knees but it was a hard on how they would pay us and our kids. we don't accept it's a sight all too familiar in next door greece but for the first time in the euro zone string of be allowed to balance a red line had been crossed what is going about this particular instance is that the european union the euro zone have taken a step forward beyond their previous policy where they always said individuals will not be harmed we will not take money out of the models of engineers and actually they don't know what we see is that if you're a big member then you will be left alone and you will be bailouts and you if you are small member you will be beleaguered r us to further complicate matters banks in the country will remain closed until next week and the european central bank had

given an ultimatum if there's no deal with the troika by monday the twenty fifth emergency liquidity funding will be cut off causing another round of panic as citizens feared the worst. holding on to as much cash as they could most conversations now were about nothing else but the predicament their countries it. went to support from but the real support to be able to. say you. know what everybody else or company list or cup and then you go before people see your club. and whatever they could they don't think twice about joining the crowd at the time it's a field trip with your teeth to close. with. you if you case one for you i think those are. well over the past few days maybe cypriots have been

telling me that they've seen or read about the impact of the economic crisis on the people of neighboring greece but it's not a really felt feel to them a lot until the past week or so they share similar language or similar culture and other wondering are they going to have to share a similar social tragedy as well. just are still here r t nicosia cyprus. british police said there's no evidence of any third party involvement in the death of self exiled russian tycoon and vocal kremlin critic. has it experts went to his home near london where he was found dead but have given the all clear of course one of his at the scene. police continuing to investigate the unexplained death of boris berezovsky now in a statement they said the place most a movie carried out there had been a two mile police cordoned. off the c.v.r. and the investigators trained in handling radioactive material had given the scene

the all clear the police have described taking a statement from the employee he found mr birdsall ski's body after forcing a pin in the bathroom door having become concerned for his welfare now that employee was the only other person in the house at the time the body was discovered another senior investigating officer hit his side that they are keeping an open mind in the early stages of the investigation and that it would be wrong to speculate at this stage but of course that has been a huge amount all speculation. made his food chain of the breakup of the soviet union a hugely controversial character now we've heard in an interview that with a party given by mr brzezinski his latest friday the day before he died in a conversation with a journalist he talks of his longing to return home to russia and we've also heard from the russian president's press attash

a he said that months ago the president received a letter from verizon we can take a listen now to what that said. sometime ago maybe some two months ago. he made a lot of mistakes and to forgive him mistakes. did exist pretty dismal certainly the picture i think being built up of mr berger ski in his final years quite aside quite a lonely picture he was a larger than life characters that seem somewhat reduced in. in years now we've had a number of high profile court cases here in the case the most recent of which is with fellow oligarch roman abramovich and people are described not just the psychological impact of losing that court case which quite humiliation for mr

burroughs or ski but of also the financial impact of that is well as he said the picture coming out of them and he certainly had seem to express in his final days a longing to return home and of course that hasn't happened and he is now the subject of the ongoing investigation here into his death. when my colleague discussed what more could be left in history by peter lavelle the host of crosstalk on r.t. . boris berezovsky here man who absolutely made a fortune as they say during the ninety's a total in time you stay in russia you stole it let's be clear here is that all it he didn't make this the even a woman it i mean it pilate a manipulator ok he used the system what was happening in russia the political system had collapsed the economy had collapsed belief in authority had collapsed everything it was in collapse so he picked up pieces all the all over the place where he was he didn't generate wealth you store wealth let's be clear about what

they can you can you talk about in the end because you know talking off air about the the rule of seven of bankers that came out of this is where the term came in i think was better that invented it essentially that in one thousand nine hundred six a small number of people in the community enormous wealth but they wanted more and they said to yeltsin we'll get you reelected would have to give the shares in state institutions and bear off lot of eccentric cetera and he did it he gave the economy away so he would over a very little had no power and because ascii was at the top of the pool so this is how he generated his wealth he didn't earn it but now you talk about the wealthy man you met and this yes. oh i'm arrogant he was full of themself ok but a lot of security around him an enormous amount of security he was paranoid for good reason there were attempts on his life and he left because he was worried for his life ok he took his money with him or at least a good part of it is called a self-imposed exile in learned it was what i saw it asleep it was an escape he

left he was he would have been charged with all kinds of criminal offenses all the reservation self-preservation not going to get out of and then revenge ok what about what about one of the you know one of the high profile cases was how did we mustn't let it then being the polonium poisoning work for a bit of skin so litvinenko world would be better off in what capacity to look for dirt to look for dirt on politicians on college and yes of course that was his job let's let's bring it up to date. meeting up at all which in court are we talking about billions you know massive massive legal deceit it was a really huge gamble on the part of better software it was a gamble didn't have one shred of evidence one sheet of paper to prove he can get caught with no paperwork absolutely why gamble so he was a new i am just coming you know the end was coming he was running out of money you think he was running out of money is broke because a lot of people question how much he was really worth was he worth these three point one billion i doubt it ever you doubt it so do you think it was

a court battles or without my mortgage or maybe others that basically by step by step broken down he died alone interesting alone no friends is his wife and had learned all respect he lost his money he'd lost the respect he wasn't able to come home because we had heard recently that he had been trying to come back to moscow even pending illusional delusional you think he wanted to come back on i think he wanted to come back and as for given this no it was never going to happen larry degeneracy chief editorial writer and columnist of the independent newspaper i spoke to her a little earlier here in r.t. she believes that some foreign officials in britain will probably breathe a sigh of relief with one of the thorns being removed from russia u.k. relations. i don't think he particularly was a serious threat to the kremlin. i think that. fancied himself as a threat and maybe he wanted to be more of a threat than actually he was. but the position that he held through the second

half of the ninety's in russia obviously made him a key figure of that period the figure of berezovsky his position when he died this weekend and the contrast between that and his position of power and influence in the late ninety's illustrates in some ways how russia has changed and how much russia has changed in those five ten years i think elsewhere behind the scenes in places like foreign office in the corridors of government they'll be you know i won't say they'll be doing something as improper as sort of dancing in the aisles but because oscar was a very awkward figure he was a big obstacle to diplomacy with russia and i think his death will be seen as i hope anyway as maybe removing an obstacle to better relations with russia or to you know if you're in moscow this is the weekly on the way this hour blackout behind bars u.s. officials continue to downplay the scale of a mass hunger strike at guantanamo bay while the pentagon now wants to expand the

tourist facility this story more for you after the break. technology innovation. developments around. the future. you know sometimes you see a story and it's so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew. was a big. it

was. you're watching a weekly here on. the syrian national coalition has decisively rejected the resignation of its president was all county but not steve was just months off he was elected. as the details in his statement was said that he was stepping down because some matters have to quote him reached a red line it's not he hasn't explained exactly what prompted his resignation but he did say that he was designing to be able to work with freedom that cannot be

available from official institutions keep in mind that her tip was someone that both russia and the united states and look to as a person that they could negotiate with on the future of syria back in favor you had to admit with the russian foreign minister sergei lavrov following his claim that the syrian opposition was ready to negotiate with syrian president bashar assad it is important to remember that this was the first time ever that the syrian opposition talked about the possibility of taking a side. although later backtracked by saying that he was willing to talk about the departure of assad with his vice president and his government but not with the syrian president assad himself now tips resignation does raise questions over the integrity of the syrian national opposition coalition it comes on the heels of twelve opposition members pulling out last week over the election of a prime minister the tip has complained that there has been insufficient groundwork to actually be able to form

a government what we're witnessing also is stark division amongst not united picture at all as the opposition finding it very difficult to come to some kind of united stance on how to deal with the syrian regime when hunted for stepping down is also seen as a sign of internal divisions it is seen as a sign of anxiety and so the question remains what does his resignation mean if it's to find a diplomatic solution to this conflict a label him a damascus based journalist and political commentator has told me that the diversity of western sponsors to mow lawns is creating more division within the syrian coalition. in the same way the opposition has many points of view the opposition has many sponsors and every sponsor is claiming his territory like qatar has people that is sponsoring inside the coalition authority really house people sponsoring turkey has its people the united states how the people the united kingdom and france and those of some of the opposition figures act accordingly to

what their foreign sponsors are on them to do as a result we see more disagreement as a disagreement comes not only from the national disagreement the disagreement over national causes like how to deal with events and who it comes from the international disputes between these countries often we've seen like the united states of america would like to advance people to a solution at some point to be contradicted by the united kingdom and france as we've seen recently with that with that with the embargo with weapons of bargain regarding sending weapons from the you to syria the united kingdom and france were acting in complete disengagement with all the nasty it was a cliff declaring it was to do of course with that position changed afterwards so i tell you it's not embarrassing because everyone knows that this is opposite that some of the external opposition or opposition operating abroad is directly linked to western powers is directly linked to western powers and regional powers also and they will act accordingly. skin and bones fainting and even coughing up blood

that's how lawyers for the hunger strike in guantanamo detainees describe some of their clients who've been starving themselves since early february some lawyers claim they are no longer given access to their clients in custody while the u.s. military continues to downplay the scale of the hunger strike and despite the crisis the pentagon now wants expansion of the facility saying it will be open indefinitely as r.t. is going to now reports. despair among guantanamo detainees is growing as now even their lawyers are being denied direct access to them attorneys say they had a visit scheduled for early next week with one of the prisoners who's been on strike since the beginning of february lawyers have been informed by saudis that the only flight to the prison the u.s. military flight was cancelled we have. told there are no other options there is no. this is why

it's. not only are the attorney struggling to find out the true extent of what's happening in guantanamo now but we journalists are as well this friday captain robert zubrin the spokesman for guantanamo responded to our inquiry he wrote us quote we have twenty six hunger strikers with eight receiving and total feeds meaning they get nutrition through feeding tube last friday robert to rand wrote us there were fourteen people refusing all food while their defense attorneys had been saying there were many more we cannot independently verify any of this at this point we're just relying on what the officials and detainees lawyers tell us we're certainly in touch with the attorneys and will continue to press the officials for answers in addition to the inquiries that we made with the defense department we also asked the department of justice for their perspective on what's happening and they basically told us that it's none of their business that the military oversees the facility and referred as back to the department of defense defense attorneys are telling us that these sorties have created conditions which make it nearly impossible for them to do their job and defend their clients so frustrating there

is nothing that we can do we have sent e-mails to the department of berms to the commander. asking them. to talk to us about. her response we have been told by the department of justice that they will not talk to us they were. part of the. norman's talk in the meantime in washington the officials tried to downplay the hunger strike but they seem to have a good idea of why these men resorted to such a desperate move and yet they have no solution to offer they had great optimism that guantanamo would be closed they were devastated when the president did you know backed off at least their perception of closing the facility that has caused them to become frustrated and they want to get this i think turn the heat up get it back in the media but it was not on the status of the detainees that general john

kelly who's command oversees guantanamo came to discuss in congress he was there asking for money to renovate the prison the upgrade of the camp is estimated to cost taxpayers almost two hundred million dollars as washington schedules renovations at guantanamo the international community continues to call on president obama to comply with his own promises and to shut down the infamous prison we have no right to hold people indefinitely without charges without a trial and without people having access to a justice system that's against every principle of law which exists in the world the un commissioner for human rights responded to our request for comment and said they have quote repeatedly regretted that the u.s. government has not closed guantanamo bay four years ago president obama ordered to stop tortured guantanamo but the u.s. says indefinite detention itself is a form of torture british resident shakur aamer was cleared for release six years ago yet he's still being held captive here's what he writes please touch me in the

old way here they destroy people mentally and physically without leaving marks half of the men now in guantanamo have been cleared for release many others never formally accused of a crime three months ago the state department closed the office in charge of closing the prison there's a growing sense among the detainees there that the only way out of guantanamo for them is in a coffin in washington i'm going to check them. for the pakistani president pervez musharraf as. returned to his country after four years of self-imposed exile that's despite the taliban recently threatening to target him with snipers and suicide bombers shot of plans to leave his party major general election hoping to regain political influence but he faces a series of criminal charges at home although it is of granted him protective and freedom from immediate arrest political analysts and highly believes that musharraf is backed by foreign patrons with a vested interest in pakistan it. has. to

its advantage it looks for the operation. their preference is always that military dictator but the situation now in pakistan is that military dictatorship is possibly out of the question so the next best thing is to prop somebody who was there trusted man and you can find some evidence on it because saudi arabia has in fact. mr nawaz sharif who was his biggest up on and keeping silent if you're not dismissed i'm sure you've just returned from a trip and he has not even being called on it versus saying that we cannot deny it posting from is it up residing in greece or norm so probably there is a method in that madness and vested interest is that they would like to see their own man in place so that their teddies their practices and their interests are governed as well as ensured by that maybe by race but shut off time now for some more international news stories in brief for you world update approaches in paris

which gathered hundreds of thousands of people demonstrating against the country's same sex marriage bill turned violence after police and volunteers should say have to please try to disperse the crowd riot police fired tear gas on protesters pushed their way to the shows and using two people arrested but no injuries have been reported a large majority of the lower house of france's parliament approved the much disputed bill last month and the draft law is awaiting the senate's vote next month . the head of the central african republic busies has been forced to flee to the democratic republic of congo after rebel forces seized control of the capital bangui meanwhile claims its soldiers have secured the city's airport and called for an emergency meeting of the un security council to discuss further action the rebel alliance began its offensive in december and has taken control of about a dozen towns. well that's a big update for the moment you've been watching a weekly here on the news continues now about to forty five minutes from now in the

meantime from the north end of a roman to the country's fall south in a taxi we fought a filmmaker's dangerous journey around the water own country that's coming your way to the brain here. wealthy british style it's time to.

market why not come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with my next concert for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to kaiser report on our. on the road to bass for this morning the u.s. army is beginning to withdraw from iraq. in december twenty seventh after nine years of occupation the last american troops are finally leaving the country. every

day every car got in it but if i do have a little bit of the iraqis anger towards the departing invaders who once dreamed of being liberators the departure resembles abandonment and escape despite the optimistic speeches. cease there's. a. little closer.