assassinations bombings and attacks set the stage for the next iraqi election with a resurgent al qaeda cells boasting that they're stronger than ever. clashes between protesters and alleged muslim brotherhood supporters of egypt's second largest city tonight while in cairo angry crowds demand the prosecutor general quicks over arrest warrants for prominent activists. when the inmates are pressured to end hunger strike battles to try to break a wall of silence from washington over the desperate weeks long campaign. and. doctors are cleared of a legal protest charges in bahrain after spending two years behind bars while some still remain in legal limbo.

believing this is r.t. it's kevin owen here live with me from moscow our top story tonight twenty three people have been killed in a wave of suicide attacks on mosques in iraq the latest in a bloody campaign that's playing on sectarian divisions a regional iraqi election candidate narrowly escapes an attempt on his life after a bomb found in his home was disarmed but five other candidates were killed in assassinations bombings and raids this month believed to be the work of al qaeda cells. just returned from the country in fact and described to my top my colleague a bit earlier tabby might say the atmosphere there right now. the iraq that we saw it really felt like a country that was still in some ways a war zone and on one hand you do have relative stability in the sense that there aren't tanks shooting there aren't soldiers with guns fighting but almost anywhere you go the first thing you see is massive blast walls all around the streets to

protect various buildings from suicide attacks such as the ones that took place today iraqis daily lives our lives were guided by checkpoints that are set up almost everywhere the dictate where people can go anywhere you look on the street you see police officers military soldiers people with guns there may not be daily fighting and shooting but it feels like a country that is still under a military occupation except this time it's its own and the feeling really is that iraq never really recovered you know your. the thing that we heard from from almost everyone that we spoke to is that anywhere you go at any moment there could be a blast like this and how do you survive in a situation don't you feel safe on the ground i did not i mean it depends you know for example the kurdistan region is probably the only success story in iraq that has seen relative safety and stability but most of the other parts are so divided between sunni and shia christian neighborhood spokesman neighborhoods here kook

where one of the blast happened today for example is a great example of a microcosm of everything that's wrong with iraq you have all these different factions there you have the threat of terrorist attacks you have ethnic and sectarian divisions and of course you have the oil which has been the source of conflict between the iraqi government and the kurds and so it doesn't feel safe in fact we needed an armed escort to just get us to certain parts of the city because people you know if they see a foreigner if they see a stranger if they even feel someone who is not necessarily of their sect or or or ethnic origin you stand out and you're at risk for some sort of an attack you being a journalist you're on the ground you want to get the story you want to tell these stories what's going on to help people are coping and you didn't feel safe. so give us a picture of how ordinary iraqis feel every day having to deal with that what's their reaction to all of this it's a very mixed picture because on one hand the one thing that unites all the rockies regardless of their religion or their ethnic origin is this fear this fear of an attack that could happen any time but the other on the other hand i mean this is

their life they have to continue they can't just sit at home and wait for the stability to be or and so you know when we were driving through kirkuk we still saw schoolchildren getting out of their classes whistlestop people on the street but these people operate knowing that this kind of attack could happen at any point and we heard interesting ways of coping for example one man told us that he drives with all of his windows down now in case he is near a suicide attacks that the glass wouldn't necessarily shatter and harness his family another man who was actually injured in an attack that took happens to place several months ago said that he actually stopped going outside he says that you know we have democracy i can go outside but there's no guarantee that i will come home come back to my family and so in some ways it has been normalized to this violence because they have to cope with it somehow in other ways it really has changed their ways of functioning you know you don't go to for example to big bazaars you try not to gather in large groups i mean it's it's by no means is this life as normal. there were sweets drugs will come to these groups she says the

bloodshed in iraq is a direct consequence of the u.s. led occupation. all of what is happening in iraq right now i would strongly argue is the fruit of this illegitimate occupation it may be that the u.s. wanted all of this instability and it certainly probably didn't intend an opening for its rivals to come in but that's exactly what's been created by the way the country was decimated democracy can't be achieved anywhere by the barrel of a gun by white phosphorus by starvation sanctions by all of the things that the us subjected the iraqi people to the american war is not over for the iraqi people and anything imposed from the outside first of all is never going to express the actual interests of the iraqi people and and also by create this very

unstable political situation again after twenty years of u.s. sanctions and if you're patient in iraq the iraqi people are much worse off than they were. while next we're going to close of interview for you with the former head of the iraqi intelligence services american office he told us iraq has descended into chaos because the u.s. invasion like a long term plan for stabilizing the country. the cia told the pentagon topping the iraqi regime is the easy part i want you all scenarios for iraq once you remove saddam hussein the deity replied just medisave to throw him and then everything will stabilize but that's the kind of mindframe the dominated the american war effort there was no sustainable no long term strategy and that's why it all ended in chaos now look what happened to iraq after two thousand and three we did warn the americans that if the regime would fold iraq would devolve into jihadist stronghold.

violent clashes have broken out of egypt's second largest city alexandria during a protest against president mohamed morsi and the muslim brotherhood meanwhile in the egyptian capital crowds have gathered in front of the prosecutor general's office demanding his resignation and voicing their anger against the country's leaders are his bell true is in cairo. understood got it in front of the prosecutor's general office after the main opposition coalition enough summation front called today's protest they are accusing the brotherhood of controlling and the judiciary and also protesting against the recent summons in the fine very well known activists last week for their alleged involvement in the community clashes last week i do miss muffet had to stand in the capital protest is a change to do with the first general office and call to direct and summoning the current. government because this you can sound is questionable off to the appeals

court here fires overturn the presidential decree i think and how do we have violence outside of cairo in egypt psychosis if you think right now there are these people to carry me to think of a pretext and i'm going to get written by me and some people are saying that they are pro president mohamed morsy supporters who are fighting the undercover protesters on this saying they're actually inflicting suffering in the cities but what he's been he's been saying that monitronics and falsities also heard shots i mean really becoming quite fierce here in alexandria the protests sometimes you can back off according presidential elections saying that president morsi has not implemented any changes that you promised and that he really is not fit to govern the country. true later in the program we'll tell you about a new level of government snooping the f.b.i. could soon get the right to read your old line text of voice conversations plans that have provoked an angry reaction from web users is coming up just ahead also to

bring the u.k. fears its citizens fighting in syria could pose a terrorist threat when they return coming up later as well. but next nearly two months since the hunger strike began the still no sign of the cross is being resolved in some protesters are reportedly close to death no. lawyer for one of the prisoners that is near camp delta she outlined the client's plight and says that guards are resorting to harsh tactics to force of maids to their campaign. first say that i saw him he was very weak he had not been able to sleep because he said said the camp authorities had lowered the temperature in much of the camp to very very free temperatures it's it appears that the guards here at the base are trying to end the hunger strike by making conditions more difficult for the prisoners here including making the room the camp very cold and he had lost forty pounds when i

saw sam's you see weighs one hundred sixty seven eggs now one hundred twenty five pounds and when the prisoners began to strike it seemed that camp authorities began to treat someone harshly to try to end the strike and so many more men joined the strike to protest the searching of the qur'an and the worsening conditions and the more harsh treatment here there are many men who are cleared for release at least eighty six of them in now and they're also being treated as prisoners the reputation of the united states in the world is dad see here is the u.s. does not come for its people the government authorities here do not come to the table and discuss it because he needs the improvement of the conditions here there are men who are going to begin to die the u.s. government speeds facing uncomfortable questions over the hunger strike or guantanamo bay but it's failed we sure anyone that it's going to take an action

still a washington correspondent and you can explain why her attempts to get an official response getting nowhere. not a word from defense secretary chuck hagel on the situation in guantanamo i was at a news conference with the defense secretary this thursday at the pentagon he never to my question i frankly don't know why i was right there in front of him raising my hand as everyone else as you know half of the many guantanamo have been cleared for release many of them years ago yet they're still there locked up stuck in this limbo desperate and i was going to ask when they will let these men go and whether it would make any difference if somebody died in this ongoing hunger strike again i never got the chance to ask that question the pentagon has just requested almost two hundred million dollars to renovate the guantanamo prison that kind of investment may suggest that they're not planning to shutting down anytime soon at the beginning of the year the state department closed the office that was in charge of closing the prison i went to

a state department briefing earlier this week again never got a chance to ask the question if the only person who's been responding to our inquiries about the situation with the detainees was robert during the spokesman for guantanamo but the only comments he can offer are about the health of the detainees which is apparently deteriorating and also the latest numbers as far as how many detainees are on strike at the moment the latest we have from him is thirty one person but that's it there's complete silence on the most important questions about the future of the prison what's going to happen to these people president obama spokesperson said the president's team is closely monitoring the hunger strikers guantanamo bay and i can tell you that the administration remains committed to closing the detention facility at guantanamo bay but at the same time offering no specifics as to weigh in and how and how are they going to do that if the pentagon is requesting millions of dollars to renovate it. well as you'll know if you've been watching us since the start of the hunger strike artie's been trying

to seek answers from the u.s. government as well as detainees attorneys and international human rights groups if you want to get up to speed on the latest information we've got anyway head to our timeline r.t. dot com on our website there's a lot for you to take in also to take a trip through post tsunami ghost and google street view has got a virtual tour around a city in the fukushima prefecture left in ruins by that earthquake and devastating wave that followed also of course affected by all that radiation and a late night launch with the i assess in time for breakfast a russian soyuz rocket dock successfully after cutting a flight time from two days just six hours find it early did it home. britain's worried that its citizens who join up to fight alongside the syrian rebels could pose a serious terror threat when they return to the u.k. the home office says hundreds of europeans who are getting involved are learning combat skills from groups like al-qaeda but it's not preventing britain and france from pushing to supply arms to the opposition in syria so first got the story. this

is the first annual report on the counterterrorism strategy and in it they highlighted the growing security threat from syria where al qaeda affiliates were tracking hundreds of flights is from europe now let's take a look at some of what the report says and they said as and when u.k. residents return there is a risk that they may carry out attacks using skills that they've developed eva sees no these are concerns that only be highlighted by the british government but also being highlighted by other european members as well recently we saw the dutch heightened security threat level as they said that they thought they had around one hundred foreign fighters that had gone to syria and these are also the concerns that i think of being echoed by france as well say assessing not just a problem confronting flippant one obviously that we've seen highlighted in this counterterrorism strategy reports and certainly i think

a lot of concern amongst the british authorities with seeing these young british people fighting in the war zone much more coming through the latest in the case of the bahraini doctors of arrested for hoping antigovernment protesters the few that should be given over. 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 is. hard welcome to the big picture.

mission. couldn't take free. free. free free. free. free. free blogs videos for your media project a free media. in bahrain twenty one doctors a big plate of involvement in illegal anti-government protests that arrest was part of a crackdown on demonstrations that started back in february twenty seventh. spent a long time in bahrain reporting for us. when i came to some money hospital which is the mainly medical institution in bahrain it looked more like

a fortress with riot police protecting its doors and for no reason we just couldn't get in and talk to the doctors but i did manage to talk to some of them and things they told me were just astonishing. they told me that if you were a protester if you were part of the opposition you were injured at a protest you being delivered to the hospital there's a high chance you will be delivered to a basement of the hospital and tortured there one of the doctors told me that a member of the royal family was personally involved in torturing her she electrocuted her beat her up and did some horrible things with her this woman this member of the royal family later went on trial as we know but still i mean things happen like that imagine how difficult for you sort of to. contact you had with the authorities what have they had to say about that while credit to the bahraini authorities we had a huge access to the governmental spokes spokespeople and they all claimed in one voice that those doctors were performing acts of national treason that they were conspiring against the regime that they were doing illegal stuff and they were

actually bringing weapons into the hospital something of course don't like torture allegations don't even have a chance to put that to them certainly i mean i asked him about the torture but it refuted all such allegations saying that nothing like this took place later after we came back from bahrain it emerged that the royal member of the world family went on trial for the alleged torture what is life like there at the moment we've been reporting about this for months now only years know. a lot of the rest the world's media isn't talking about it what is the scale of the protest movement now well if you if you go to bahrain you'll see a very well civilized state beautiful roads nice infrastructure hotels nightclubs everything is absolutely perfect there it's one of the most open states in the gulf i could say but if you just go into shiite villages just off the road just a little closer to the city. of the capital city you'll see the hardcore of the protest movement the poor people who are suffering who wants that want a change in their country. you can never asked him if you can have a new great how many people are there they could be thousands tens of thousands

hundreds of thousands but definitely the movement is strong and they're very angry i could say because it's so closely watched the government doing about it for one hundred this protest committing treason against the state i guess that means they're not listening in a way of course because the torture allegations and the claims by the human rights activists are suggesting clearly that this is a this is a dead end there's no solution to the situation one side wants to change the other side clearly doesn't want this change they say the government says that it's open for dialogue they want to clearly change the whole situation and appease the opposition but as far as we can see there are protests happening every day nothing's happening nothing's changing. of course but with a bit earlier on talk to you faced similar charges to those cleared today she spoke to me earlier on she described what she had to go through during her confinement and they. have to have it right from one. room

and we just have. to pull. down the. line all the. fourth. line you know that we did and that. you know. if you think you know very thankful akiko ok we've been i want to. be. given. the i have a good thing. so we get our long. haul it is that all of by electrocution and then have fictional her acting and that should be you know and really all that. direction than fiction. watch what you say during private internet chats and calls lawyer agencies have

always been able to request some details of our communications were necessary but now the f.b.i. wants to go further much further listening and watching as you talk and type in real time in new york and finding out then what this could mean for ordinary americans. an estimated six hundred million people use skype to chat with family friends and colleagues i'm using the video ip service to talk to you right now and this year a top priority for the f.b.i. is to gain the power to be able to monitor internet chats e-mails and basically all on line correspondence as it is taking place washington is working on legislation that would force email cloud services and chop providers like skype to install in surveillance equipment within their networks that equipment would give the u.s. intelligence community the ability to monitor online correspondence in real time basically the same way that the f.b.i.

could listen in on phone conversations with court approval under love coca leaves the phone companies were required by law to implement technology that allows this wire when you're looking at something like skype or some of the other networks those laws do not apply to these places and the only thing we need to change that law because when we go to a company sometimes we get cooperation and technical assistance sometimes we don't and that's just not enough courtesy of the electronic communications privacy act the f.b.i. can already out says archives of emails tweets and transcripts but clearly that's not enough for the agency to keep tabs on what criminals would be terrorists and dissidents are saying online the problem is where we are today so the way that we communicate is really not limited to telephone companies and sort of the old fashioned you know picking the phone and calling someone you have i mean g.

mail google voice dropbox according to google's latest transparency report the united states is the world leader when it comes to requesting user data on its own citizens f.b.i. general counsel andrew weissman says the agency is working to expand its internet spy powers by the end of the year and by then a skype chat between two people may include a bigger audience reporting from new york. r.t. . the queues in cyprus aren't getting any shorter as banks reopen for a second day after the emergency two week shut down but strict limits we did still hard for people to get out of their cash capital controls of effectively quarantined cyprus and the rest of the e.u. will do so for at least another month lawrence freeman from executive intelligence review magazine told us it shows that cyprus rescuers failed i don't think cyprus has been saved i think the people in cyprus believe that which would you have right now is the beginning of the end of the euro system the euro house is burning

and there is no reason to have confidence in the banking system don't forget overnight they were shipping in billions of euros from germany into cyprus and then delivering them by truck because people couldn't live so if you don't have confidence in your banking system it's not going to work and the system itself the euro system is a failed experiment i was always opposed to it we should have nation states with their own sovereign system so this now has proven that it doesn't work and the dictatorship from the european commission the european central bank and the i.m.f. to tell the people of cyprus you have to suffer as a result of this in a similar way they are being greece you are going to see this crisis in europe in spain in italy right now there is no government all of europe is in a state of collapse but this is just the beginning of what we could see on a global scale right now an alternative to europe's economic slushing strategies

gaining traction a suggestion that a more radical form of capitalism is the way forward weary of brussels heavy handed approach undergraduates of teaming up to offer their vision of a european future free of government meddling is artie's peter all of a this report. europe it's got food it's got culture it's certainly got history but it also has an increasing number of young people that feel that their future is being sold from under me. this group of students for liberty is seeing its membership swelled by young people dissatisfied with the status quo they believe in a hardline version of capitalism and their ranks are growing and growing and growing this weekend we have four hundred students here from forty five forty four countries i never thought it was possible it is very exciting to see this growth all over europe and the demand is huge for these ideas so i'm very optimistic for the future there conferences are organized by young people for young people they

aren't financially backed by any political party and everyone who made their way here did so out of their own pockets they haven't got an overnight fix for europe's woes but they say it's time for the new approaches but i think it's quite a dangerous situation because that means that you have politicians and bureaucrats ruling over nearly five hundred million people and so on not necessarily do they know always what the best things are for us the changes they want to see include more freedom to do business less interference from bureaucrats and the decentralization of power away from brussels today's europe the most important problem with you is the overextension of the unit. they were designed to to maintain peace have a free market to make sure people could move freely around europe and have started like building a new nation or trying to build

a new nation as the next generation they want to contribute to europe's future something they believe they're being denied at the moment and i think it's a expression of the fact that people young people in europe feel stripped of their own power of their you know their own right. i mean we have fifty percent unemployment among young people in spain how can you feel empowered when you can't get a job and it's that feeling of being left behind that pushes this group of young people to look for a way to change their situation these are all over r t live in belgium. doing stay with us for next half hour or so because off the break we look at the rise of the emerging brics nations and what that's going to mean for the west is coming up so.

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with your mobile device you can watch on t.v. anytime anywhere. is a. hello and welcome across town where all things are considered i'm capable of oh can the brics countries brazil russia india china and south africa reinvent the internet. system can they collectively challenge the hit germany of western dominated trade and finance or do they merely want to greater say in how the world is run and for whom. to cross-talk the brics i'm joined by yet a slightly savalas.