the sinking island of the fibrous struggles to meet the e.u.'s demands vital club but a lot ahead of monday's deadline with scores of seven is facing the prospect of losing chunks of the money police say could rescue the country's ailing banks. u.k. police say there are no signs of any third party involvement in the death of self exiled russian tycoon baris results he is said to have repented his past while longing for a return to his home was. also the syrian national coalition chief announced his resignation raising the alarm over dramatic divisions within the anti assad forces. and starving to death and protests at an indefinite detention as lawyers for hunger strike began tunneled detainees claim their clients lives are on the line the u.s. military denies the crisis and even wants to expand the facility and.

the latest news on the week's top stories this hour she was me you'd think for joining us now they've failed so veiling cyprus is in the hands of brussels now as the deadline for the e.u. bailout deal is looming in the thames to meet the e.u. use demands 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 they prospect caused panic and discontent across cyprus this week with crowds venting their anger on the streets. reports. 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 did 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 living banks and in that week of dramatic political and economic we knew every 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 i agree 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 the hot how they would pay us and our kids. we don't accept it's a sight all too familiar in mexico or greece but for the first time in the euro

zone street of be allowed to bear it's a red line had been crossed what is going to fight 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 going to mars the engineers and actually they don't know what we see if you're a big member then you will be left alone and you will be below two and you if you are a small member you will be beleaguered r us to further complicate matters banks in the country will remain closed until next week 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 fear the. worst holding on to as much cash as they could most conversations now are about nothing else but the predicament their countries it. tend to believe we know. we are waiting is

a possibility but there is to be able to. say you didn't believe it would you know what everybody else for company lives or company then you're going to go before people see your club and whatever they could they don't think twice about joining the crowd it looks to me with your letters. if you came to me one thing i think those are. all 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 that a lot until the past week or so they share similar language 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.

and political analyst says the damage today seaport economy has already been done regardless somebody or the government and the e.u. 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 u. a group who were negotiating only boot only for it to be rejected by the super department so why would anyone believe them this time around the country if your way of getting out of this mess by this point to be honest or at least in the medium or even the short of them 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 has always you warned. risk for a contagion of us it would crisis another thing that's so it's the risk of thing it's becoming more and more a very strong possibility and also so what if it doesn't really matter where that where these actually where the measures are implemented i'm not aware that if you know twenty twenty five percent which is pretty much the subject of a discussion of the new group meeting the really important thing is that the trust

by consistently has been breached already in a bank run by now being seen as you know that will no matter what happens tonight riteish police say there's no evidence of any third party involvement in the death of south exiled russian tycoon and vocal crime and critic berries there is also a biohazard experts went to his home in london where he was found dead but have given us the all clear our correspondent staff at all so they sent. police continuing to investigate the unexplained death of boris berezovsky now in a statement they said the post-mortem will be carried out there had been a two mile police cordon. after the c.d.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 after the break up of the. controversial character now we've heard in an interview that with a parody given by mr brzezinski his latest friday the day before he died in a conversation with a journalist he talked of his longing to return home to russia we've also heard from the russian president's press attash a he said that two months ago the president received a letter from verizon scale we can take a listen now to what that said. sometime ago maybe some two months ago but it's. himself saying that he admits that he made

a lot of mistakes and to forgive him for these mistakes and. transfer them to. this did exist certainly the picture i think being built up of mr burgess all ski in his final years quite aside quite a lonely picture he was a larger than life characters that seem somewhat reduced in recent years so it had a number of high profile court cases here in the case the most recent of which was with fellow oligarch roman abramovich and people have described not just the psychological impact of losing that court case which quite humiliation for mr birdsall ski but also the financial impact is well as he said the picture coming out of him 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 own going investigation here into his.

was at the top of russia's political life in the ninety's with money and power at his grasp and my colleague for research i discussed legacies led by the tycoon with peter level the host of crosstalk on our channel. boris berezovsky here man who absolutely made a fortune as they say during the ninety's or told you stay in russia you stole it let's be clear here is not only 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 software that invented it essentially that in one thousand nine

hundred six a small number of people had accumulated enormous wealth but they wanted more and they said to yeltsin we'll get you reelected but you have to give me shares in state institutions and bear off lot of eccentric cetera and he did it he gave the economy away so he ruled 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 ok he didn't earn it but now you talk about the wealthy man you met and this yes. ome 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 it's all the self-imposed exile in learning it was what i saw it asleep it was an escape he left it was he would have been charged with all kinds of criminal offenses resignation 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 which had a limousine company then it didn't go the polonium poisoning work for a bit as off screen so litvinenko worked with. 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. meeting up at all of which in court are we talking about billions you know massive massive legal disease it was a really huge gamble on the part of better software or was it a gamble to have one shred of evidence that would one sheet of paper to prove he came to court with nothing to work up slightly why gamble so he was a newbie and just coming into 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 call back a loser without my mortgage or maybe others that basically by step by step broken down and he died alone interesting alone no friends is his wife and had little

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 penning a illusional delusional you think he wanted to come back or not i think he wanted to come back and as forgiveness no it was never going to happen. and married to j.f.k. chief editorial writer and columnist at the independent newspaper i believe some foreign officials in britain will probably breathe a sigh of relief with one of their thongs being removed from russia u.k. relations. it 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 like you 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 that's improper or sort of dancing in the aisles but it is obviously 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. and on the way out cry from behind bars there's no end in sight for the hunger strike as the u.s. government talks of expanding the notorious facility instead of considering the fate of those being held without trial charge a trial. of the exiled former pakistani president pervez

musharraf has returned home planning to regain political power despite criminal charges and assassination threats from the taliban this story and much more after the break. technology innovation. developments around. the future. you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so for langley 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 you knew you don't know i'm tom harkin welcome to the big picture.

more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations are ruled today. this is welcomed by the syrian national coalition has decisively rejected the resignation of its president earlier al-khateeb announced he was stepping down just months after he was elected to scarcity sales and. in his statement was outed said that he was stepping down because some matters have to quote him reached red lines now 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 to it was someone that both russia and the united states look to as a person that they could negotiate with on the future of syria back in february hearted met 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 talking to 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 how to 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 applying minister the tip has complained that there has been insufficient groundwork to

actually be able to form a government what we witnessing also is a stark division amongst not united picture at all and the opposition finding it very difficult to come to some kind of united stance on how to deal with the syrian regime with hunted 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 the to find a diplomatic solution to this conflict. and damascus based journalist and political commentator says that the diversity of western sponsors demands it's 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 saudi arabia house people sponsoring turkey has its people the united

states has its people the united kingdom and france and those of some of the opposition figures act accordingly to what their foreign sponsors who want 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 from really cold like to advance people to the 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 involved or regarding sending weapons from the you to syria the united kingdom and france were acting in complete disengagement with what the united states was likely is declaring it wants to do of course the position changed afterwards so i tell you it's not embarrassing because everyone knows that this is opposite. 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 gone tonally detainees describe some of their clients who've been starving themselves since early february some attorneys claim that no longer given access to the captives while the u.s. military continues to downplay the scale of the hunger strike and despite the crisis the pentagon now wants to expose the facility saying it will be open indefinitely as it is going to check our 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. sorties that the only flights to the prison the us military flight was cancelled we have. told there are no other options there is no good on it.

and 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 to a 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 their 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 to do 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 that. no one has talked to us 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. want to. and it 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 in. big brother continues its march to the land of the free ride out on our website why u.s. authorities think they don't need a warrant to attach a g.p.s. device to personal car sacrificing americans privacy to detect citizens everywhere . and russian becomes the second most used language on the net pushing german down one place and being supplanted only by the website lingua franca english so called the reasons behind the russian language as well as on r.t. dot com. former pakistani president pervez musharraf

has returned to his country after four years of self-imposed exile that's despite the time to ban recently threatens to target him with snipers and suicide bombings musharraf plans to lead his party in may's general election hoping to regain political influence but he faces a series of criminal charges that. have granted him protective bail and freed him from immediate arrest but his cool analyst sultan and harley believes musharraf is bound by foreign patrons with our own vested interests in pakistan. as. it looks for one written the operation. their preference is always a 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 a trusted man and you can find some evidence on it because saudi arabia has in fact approached mr nawaz sharif who was his biggest operator and keeping silent if you

notice mr murdoch i should have just returned from a trip and he has not even called being called on it versus saying that we cannot deny a person from a zip up residing in greece or norm so probably there is a method in the western interest is that they would like to see their own man in place so that their. practices and bit interests are governed as well as ensured by one person and that may be but raise what shots. and some international news stories in breve this hour in paris riot police fired tear gas on protest is trying to disperse the crowd marching against the country's same sex marriage bill officers started to use force as anti-gay demonstrators push their way onto the police say according to police there were three hundred thousand protesters but accidents claim a much larger number two people were arrested but no injuries have been reported a large majority of the lower house of france's parliament approved the not just putin bill last month and now the draft law is awaiting the senate's vote next

month. the head of the central african republic france saw ghazi's has been forced to flee to the democratic republic of congo after rebel forces seized control of the capital bangui france and france meanwhile claims its soldiers have secured the city's airport and called for an emergency meeting for 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. and coming up after the break we continue our journey from the north end of iraq to the country's far south in a taxi following a filmmaker's dangerous trip across the waters of the country stay with us.

all since the new pope was chosen the calls for reform our analysts everyone wants the new pope to allow this and to allow that but the problem is that the catholic church is a religion not a product if people don't like the way a pepsi bottle looks while the company will have to in theory change it to be public demand but the pope claims to represent the will of the creator of the universe the pope. supposedly holds and protects an ancient an eternal truth so how can you expect this eternal truth just up and change because of public demand even though they pretend like adult religions do change over time but how can you expect the pope after hundreds of years of saying that people would be condemned to the fires of hell and eternity in a charred walls of the damned for certain sins just now say well i guess those sins are ok if you're catholic and you want your religion to change constantly then why do you believe in it why bother having principles and rules in the first place

supposedly given to you by the almighty if you're just going to change them whenever you feel like it i don't get this but that's just my opinion. visiting the general hospital in fallujah is like living it was a nightmare. children with two heads toomas wealth of nations missing limbs and macabre an unbearable litany they say every family here is sheltering or hiding a deformed monstrous child. come home. from. going to. get out there is enough to know my daughter cries all day long news

but she hopes to see her daughter get better. deeply affected by leaf illusion the city with its newborn monsters. we had for bad. on the banks of the tigris. baghdad can be translated as the garden of peace. but it's a better fragile peace the patrols or iraqi wearing uniforms applied by the u.s. the army is divided by political religious and tribal conflicts everyone fights for his own camp. the president is kurd the prime minister shia and the parliament is run by sunnis.