you. talk turns to action at the brick summit in south africa with the world's top emerging economies staking out a challenge to the dollar and green lighting a massive new fund. the guantanamo bay hunger strike reaches its fiftieth day amid fears the inmates find prison mistreatment could really and leave a bad taste in the minds of u.s. government officials keep silent on the issue. the chief biggest bank gets the boot to predicting doom and gloom all european banks get by panic savers concerned about brussels potentially reaching into their accounts. immigrants face a new controversial citizenship test that includes a wide ranging questions on history and even some members of the british parliament

. our top stories this hour. international news and comment live from studio center here in moscow this is r.t. with the twenty four hours a day. a new global bank is being born in south africa where the world's top emerging economies are meeting the new financial powerhouse will be a direct challenge to the world bank and the i.m.f. both dominated by the u.s. brazil russia india china and south africa also greenlighted a new mammoth crisis fund and into they would ditch the dollar let's hear more on the commitments now from pissing off he's at the summit in durban so you've got some very ambitious plans laid out today tell us more about them. some major

long term plans are being drawn up here in south africa at the brics summit and well one of the plans is that the five member states of the organization have agreed to establish a joint anti crisis fund possibly reaching one hundred billion dollars although the details are still being worked out currently it's planned so that the how much each country will have to chip in to this fund will directly. directly be connected to each of g.d.p. but talks on this project will continue to the next g twenty summit in washington when an ambitious project for an ambitious organisation for the past twenty years the five member states of this organization have been the most rapidly developing economies in the world currently it's thought that they're growing faster around seven times faster than those of the g seven nations and it's

estimated that by the year twenty twenty combined the brics economies will make up over twenty percent of the global g.d.p. now among other of a long term plans which have already been decided here in south africa is the creation of a joint development bank possibly with a starting capital of around fifty billion u.s. dollars and it's planned that it will it will be independent from the international monetary fund and the world bank which are controlled by the united states and europe and now also china and brazil have decided to use their national currencies when conducting a newly half of the payments between each other as a direct challenge to the dollar russia and china are already using a similar scheme and the idea is that other members of rigs will soon follow because they see the dollar is increasingly becoming more vulnerable to shocks caused by crises in general it's clear that brics nations. do you want to protect

their economies. they do want to be more independent from western financial institutions especially in the times of some heavy problems with the western financial model in general and what we have witnessed here in south africa is definitely words turning into actions and truly a transformation of this organization from a forum for dialogue to a real working mechanism you go thank you very much indeed for that life and you can position of. well the world bank has already promised to cooperate with the brics development fund as and when the financial institution materializes let's get some comment now on this summit with asia times correspondent pepe escobar. there is no doubt about it these groups these countries that form the brics they haven't got a lot in common have they they all have different start of governments indeed some of them are economic rivals and are they really a group to be taken seriously. from now on yes let's say until this summit in

durban there was a lot of political talk of course and the brics are basically ok an economic group in the making now it's different now they have clear sound actual policies to be implemented this alternative to the world bank and the i r s absolutely essential this is the big deal and of the brics and woods system and they're going to be supported by their next rick's list mexico indonesia south korea turkey and the next mists as well this is you know that runs thick don't make plates of geopolitics and jewett comics are changing it's not atlanticist anymore it's the merchants of reemergence finally of the south i'm reading a fantastic book about that you know as we speak in fact i'm going to write about a probably tomorrow night he shot and he explains in detail over three hundred

pages how this south has been completely undermined and attacked in fact by the norse although since the end of the second world war and not for the past few years at least with the desk of neo liberalism in fact all over the place failed policies now the souses start to organize itself so that the way of talking here you talk about economics and sounds if we're crossing the border now into geopolitics is that really what one of the yen ambitions is of this group. as well it's not only to economics is job on geopolitics as well because inside the brics we have for instance crucial a bilateral relationships for instance now china is still largest trading partner of brazil of course there are clashes but they can resolve this inside the brics mechanism you know russia and china is in weeks three me strategic partnership evolving special. energy no wonder sieging being

a way into russia just after he was elected president in china anybody else warsi and you want he went to africa where the meeting is taking place because south africa is one of the bridges for china to invest in the whole african continent and miss being spread by western garp rich media that china is the new colonialists the power in africa is completely ridiculous but if you talk to african officials from many of these countries involved some even say that china has already invested there are countries and they have an extract or a single barrel of oil yet so you know this proves that the most important thing in fact that we should be talking about older time is deal the argument that west through leeds have at the moment the greeks and the organizational to solve this oh they have a lot of resentment against the west this is ridiculous. but since we're in

a global economic crisis at the moment so much talk about these fast developing economies surely they're going to be affected by the global economy crisis and indeed that g.d.p. is slowing down they are this summer experiencing stagnant growth so is really the the outlet outlook and that rosy no no no i'm not saying it's a rosy outlook is that brazil was going to grow one percent this year this is absurd they were growing between seven and eight china even if they decreased from band to seven point five seven point seven they still leaking every eleven and a half weeks china creates the greek economy inside china if you put this in perspective this is enormous of course from the point of view of the western leaves the only thing that they care about is this ovation of capitalism a financial capital is basic in terms that china is the salvation of capitalism just like them so being fifty years ago that he was saying is actually the opposite analysis china is saving the west he's. head of the west c.b.

giant n d r this group was this in terms of russia and china as well but in general sure there will be more integration of all the brics among the other developing countries as well in especially among the global south in we're talking about one hundred fifty one there and in sixty countries thank you very much indeed pepe escobar joining us live picture of times correspondent thank you for your thoughts well of course our coverage of the developments coming out of the brics summit will continue on the business report and lucy come in office here to tell us what we can expect in about an hour from now to talk about of course what top story is this brics summit will certainly be talking about the development bank but the bigger story for us in the business report is the deal on the sidelines the thirty billion dollar agreement currency swap deal signed between brazil and china and of course the global implications for the u.s. dollar as the world's currency reserves something that the brics countries have certainly been trying to challenge so more all that and more for you in about an hour's time on our business report lucy thanks very much indeed thank you you see

coming out of that. is now fifty days since the biggest hunger strike began in america's war on terror a detention facility with no progress being made to stop the protests which could be close to turning deadly the appetite for justice and acceptable treatment is seen three of the protesting inmates hospitalized lot of thor's you say at least ten being force fed all these made a point not brings us the latest. this hunger strike at the guantanamo bay detention center grows more dangerous by the day the international committee of the red cross has announced that they have sent a doctor and another delegate to the island prison a week earlier than planned because of concerns surrounding the health of those hunger strikers participating in this protest now the i.c.r.c.

representatives are scheduled to make a regular two week visit to the detention camp on april first but as we already just reported the organization says that these sent to representatives early do issues in the concerns relating to the hunger strike now in the meantime navy captain robert duran to spokesman for the detention operation who we've been communicating with more than two weeks now confirms that thirty one of the one hundred sixty six give no prisoners are on hunger strike eleven of the men are being force fed three of those men were hospitalized for rehydration an observation now two weeks ago when r.t. reached out to captain and he dismissed any report. the mass hunger strike taking place at the detention facility within the past day we spoke with attorney carlos warner he recently went to go visit his clients for a phrase. he's been charged with war crimes but his attorney when speaking to our

she read a statement from his client let's take a listen to that quote i scare myself when i look in the mirror let them kill us as we have nothing to lose we died when obama indefinitely detained us respect us or kill us it's your choice the u.s. must take off its mask and kill us mr warner said that his client has lost more than thirty pounds in a month that his client looked exhausted weak it was not just about treatment this is about the fact that these inmates of these detainee detainees have lost hope these are men they're not animals they are people that we have grown to know many of the men the ones that are indefinitely detained they have zero hope they have no hope because of the ministration i think many of them are ready to die the question is how and when will they. know this hunger strike began according to attorneys on

or around february sixth attorneys say that the prisoners went on the strike to protest the a legit confiscation of their personal items and they allege it sacrilege is handling of their comrades there's one hundred sixty six six prisoners languishing still guantanamo but more than half of them have been cleared for either transfer or release attorneys say that by holding these men without charge without trial the united states is violating international laws of human rights. well for the seven weeks the hunger strike has been taking place r.t. has been gathering statements from lawyers activists prison officials and international organizations and head to our special time line on our website r t v dot com to get an insight into what is happening at guantanamo and get an idea of what sort of reaction this protest has invoked so far we also want to know what you

think about what is happening at guantanamo and we're asking on our web site a moment what you think will be the result of the ongoing hunger strike and these are the results we have on screen for you we can see that the majority sixty percent believe that some of these prisoners could well die as a result just token policy changes may take place we can see that eighteen percent of you believe that conditions for the prisoners could indeed improve so the hunger strike could achieve something we can see the seventeen percent think that the detention center could be closed but indefinite detention could carry on elsewhere and a minority of the five percent believe that this bad press could lead to an end to indefinite detention that's what you think so far because here from e r t dot com. well there are plenty more stories coming up in the program this hour including the united states is supporting president bashar al assad at least that's what the leader of the syrian opposition council says after his request for effectively

imposing a partial no fly zone over the country was turned down by washington more on that coming up shortly stay with us.

as he. continues here on t credit rating agencies a ringing alarm bells over cyprus saying the. rescue was sent investors packing across europe brussels by it all to the tax haven all came strong with some of the harshest conditions yet. deposit tax you banks are now reporting mass calls from fearful savers who are looking to get their money out of the block germany founder and c.e.o. blacksmith energy consulting group says the ease approach to solving the crisis has

been less than ideal i think the debate here is obviously much water than the particular case of cyprus and the political message that's being conveyed behind the behind the base and been going on for the last week or so are clearly underlining. the lack of a lack of vision behind europe's bailout the particular case of cyprus shows a political move where we're we're we're we're trying to. to heal a deep wound with a bandaid obviously cyprus is again in particular case but the overall discussion and the overall worry and fear that is that is underlying here is is for for every european citizen coming up a pipe dream for one russian businessman that's of these been three digging a tunnel the siphon crude oil from a pipe the only thing he's likely to earn from it is

a stint behind bars. still to come but first the stone age the jury service and the london olympics are just three subjects you can now be quizzed on if you want to become a british citizen the new version of the controversial u.k. citizenship test has just been put into place and is being harshly criticized for its difficulty and focus on history of furthur ports many brits themselves struggle to find answers to some of the questions. also in scotland the famous british landmark in london's trafalgar square built to commemorate admiral nelson he died in the past or to fall in a scene a fight but it's also now be on one of the questions that forces. the way he is being criticized focusing too much on historical information and not enough on practical knowledge it's become a standard joke and i mean that you know for something which is supposed to be taken seriously and you know when it was first announced we were involved in

a few little quiz sessions where even you know prominent members of the people who in the past have been prominent members of the government were being asked questions like who was the the british king who expelled the daves for. i'm guessing completely and hopelessly wrong and yet his discipline suits these. they must first say that by putting british culture and history at the heart of the system that they're ensuring that those who want to settle in britain permanently fully understand british life but the criticisms about the test being overly complex and focusing too much on historical information do the questions really represent what it means to be british was a find out we got some of these questions to members of the british public to find out how they fare which led looks a prehistoric monument which stands in the english country of will. the name of the admiral he's got a monument here in trafalgar square below the notion yes that's right ok we've got

another one for you because this is an assistant ship test what do you call the second largest party in the house of commons conservatives it is the opposition. you go one of the to the name of the admiral he died in battle in one thousand nine hundred five and has a monument here in trafalgar square. give you. all sorts of questions i've gone through them it's not as if these questions are going to be sprung on people it's going to be done online and they get to have plenty of opportunity to look through a very thin book frankly and mug up for it if they can't do that then i think that . wants a pass a test eighteen of the twenty four questions correctly and the need to learn details historical backgrounds if they want to become

a british citizen and many people do last year more than one hundred fifty thousand people took the city test nationally almost eighty thousand of which were here in london. it's fast becoming one of the most precious commodities on earth no surprise then that the black gold rush might now land one russian entrepreneur in prison that's after he personally dug a sixty meter tunnel to siphon crude oil from a pipeline and in today i spoke to r.t. shaun thomas who told me he tells. well you have to give the guy credit for some entrepreneurial spirit if you will but a bizarre story indeed let me get down to exactly what happened ok so this fifty two year old man from the oil rich region of novosibirsk spent three years digging a sixty meter tunnel from his country home to the. trans nafta subsidiary pipeline and what he did was he then tied into that pipeline and then he spent

three months siphoning oil for himself off of that pipeline and then selling it course he got caught up being not very lucrative for the man but here's what he got basically three months thirty tons of crude oil estimated about fifty five hundred thousand rubles that's about sixteen thousand u.s. dollars and if you ask him we had the opportunity to actually hear what he had to say about it if you ask him why he did he said well he just wanted to see if he could get away with it and listen what he had to say. but i wanted to see whether i could manage to accomplish something like that or not one so i read a thesis paper about it and it served as a starting point i came to the site every day off to work and kept digging at night and all day if it was the weekend so when i wasn't at work i worked here it was no easy task there were a lot of difficulties with the soil then all i needed was a hose a dick car i had one hose and i connected it to a container the cart was the difficult part the oil kept spilling my efforts didn't

even pay off everything happened so fast i think it was just bad luck. bad luck indeed it was not profitable for him in fact he said that he spent more money digging the tunnel and getting it all set up than he did from selling the oil off he also said that there were problems with his system that it overflowed it spilled it ruined his clothes and that he's now repenting for the whole thing but one thing that is certain now that he's facing some prison time he's facing charges of large scale theft he might be going behind bars maybe all of these digging skills. prove to be useful to people we. are going to be interesting enough it is a massive network throughout the whole of russia certainly just imagine if you haven't got caught he could have made a lot of money out indeed indeed andy and you could have gone undetected in fact there are countries who have done the exact same thing from russia as as well. the turkish military police have reportedly wounded

a number of syrian refugees after firing tear gas at a protest against living conditions in the camp meanwhile the leader of the opposition syrian national council has accused washington of supporting president assad the u.s. made it clear it won't fulfill his request to shoot down syrian warplanes and nato patriot missiles deployed in neighboring turkey and other developments the arab league has handed syria's seat in the body to the opposition but it also officially endorsed league of member states to send arms to rebel fighters the russian foreign ministry has reacted by saying the moves in a deterrent and only encourage more bloodshed in syria a b.m. as a kiwi headed for the pan african news while says the arab league is looking out for itself when extending its support through the rebels but. we also have to understand the political composition of the arab league it has been dominated a little last several years. the gulf emirates these elite forces are operating in countries that are not democratic themselves therefore they

have no real moral basis for criticism of the government in damascus also on these arab emirates in the gulf heavily with the united states and the north atlantic treaty organization so it's really not surprising that in concert you would have a situation where the syrian government would be attacked and that you would have these opposition forces who are happily divided themselves who have no real program for the future of syria and who have been reluctant and even absent in regard to negotiate any type of political settlement to the conflict in syria to be seated as a legitimate government of syria france and germany have demanded an explanation from russia concerning a series of ongoing checks into non governmental organizations operating in the country and he's in a going to has more on the story. france and germany are basically concerned with the recent checks which have been conducted by the members of the prosecutor's

office as well as by some tax officials who have been coming into offices of various n.g.o.s in order to check their financial paperwork now some of these n.g.o.s are from france and germany and this is why berlin and paris demanded an explanation at the same time the officials russian officials are saying that all of this everything that's happening is very strictly within the legal framework of these so-called foreign agents law which is essentially keeping track of what is it what exactly is happening to the non-governmental organizations or where is their money coming from and where it is being distributed they have demanded all indios which are being operated by foreign companies or who is funding is based on overseas present a very present a very detailed paperwork regarding their finances and also put themselves in the special registry list now there are reports that a lot of n.g.o.s have actually refused to do that and decided to boycott the law altogether but this is a lot of the russian federation officials say and therefore you can't really

boycott it or whether or not you choose to boycott it we're still going to come to your office and demand to see those papers and that is exactly what has been happening. time now for some international news in brief in is really the five star movement has said it will not enter into negotiations to form a government with the center left alliance led by pierre luigi bersani. party previously said it would not support the big parties it blames for the current crisis in us but leaves italian parliament deadlocked alliance one last month's election but did not get enough senate seats to govern on its own. in bangladesh protesters thought to be supporters of the opposition have detonated a handful of crude explosives in the capital dhaka nobody was hurt in the blasts the demonstrators are demanding the release of one hundred fifty activists taken into custody earlier this month charged with inciting violence this comes on the second day of a nationwide strike called by position. hague tribunal has

sentenced to high ranking bosnian serbs to twenty two years in jail each for their role in the yugoslavia war then bosnian serb interior minister and a top security official were both convicted of aiding a campaign of murder torture and persecution more than double the amount of serbs have been sentenced by the tribunal compared to other ethnicities. i'll be back with more for you with the news team. i'll be back with more with the news team in about half an hour from now in the meantime coming up syria's on that going turmoil that is going to be discussed in peter lavelle's crosstalk stay with us for that if you can. 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 that everything you thought

you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture. news sigrid lumbered story to mccurry was able to build a new its most sophisticated robot which fortunately doesn't give a darn about anything tim's mission to teach music creation why it should care about humans in the world this is why you should care only on the dog.