today's news and this week's top stories on our t.v. people in cyprus are left to reeling from shock after the country agreed to a highly controversial bailout deal which will see large depositors losing up to sixty percent of their cash. rising powers brics economies are set to make international waves after pushing ahead with the creation of a joint development bank that could rival the global financial heavyweights. and lawyers of the guantanamo bay detainees on hunger strike claim their clients are prepared to die rather than give up with the almost two month long protest. and broadcasting live from moscow this is our team recapping the week's top stories

glad to have you with us. now cypriots woke up on saturday to some very unpleasant news those with six figure bank accounts will see up to sixty percent of their savings seized by the government to meet the conditions of an e.u. bailout that's on top of draconian it capital controls in the country currently daily cash withdrawals are limited to three hundred euros per person per bank no checks can be cashed payment and transfers outside cyprus are limited to five thousand euros a month while those travelling abroad are not permitted to take more than one thousand euros with them the restrictions have been imposed for an indefinite period and as are teased as are silly reports families are already feeling the pinch. like many in cyprus later need this as greta says simply stunned at the speed and manner with which the banking crisis in his country seems to be spiraling out of control he shows us his wallet no cash only lottery tickets

a single parent unemployed and caring for his sick mother you know raveling of cyprus's financial woes couldn't have come at a worse time and i feel hearing that i live with a pension of my mom all of your life is coming up side down you make a plan for the future for the people in the young and the old. suddenly you hear of the economy of your country or in the park system these. corrupt so. you're standing with an empty hands. a sentiment echoed throughout the tiny island nation. scenes like these becoming a daily occurrence another day of nicosia cyprus another protest though this one in particular is a gathering of that the police of the country's largest lender the bank of cyprus but they worry that the company is headed for collapse a bit eventually lose their jobs and many cypriots told me that they are well aware

that this is just the beginning of a long hard road i believe that. europe is germany's told because we're a small economy they felt that the consequences would be minimal what they don't know is that the president has been said and what happened today in cyprus could easily happen tomorrow to italy to front june to spain we just want to be left alone to pick up the pieces and get on with our lives the prison is part of your peer european union system falls and for. paying the money through the european union to help. the other two contras you may embarrass the man yeah. no but this cyprus have a problem or it's because you know economy or something else as economic drama continues with politicians and bankers drawing a painful measures to execute the euro zone i.m.f.

back to bailout plan it's all too clear to ordinary cypriots who is going to be very the brunt need this as mother for example have a monthly pension cut from one thousand one hundred eighty nine year olds to just over one thousand a month ago why they cut from people who have special needs they cut from the people for his part allies question all cypriots would like answered as well. yes or sylvia r.t. because c.s. cyprus. now as you've just seen in that report in the capital in the course he has been rocked by a wave of protests with people venting their frustration throughout the week activist cross crisostomo. says the so-called bailout package has effectively destroyed the separate economy i don't think that it's correct to speak for the bailout because this is not that they loaded can be best described as an overnight us as a nation because with the diseases that they are taking the little group they have

pretty much destroyed forty percent of the economy and now the we also right on top of that problem that we have another law and you kind of understand that the math doesn't work but facing a new part of the i mean in the european union this is the first time that he has this has been done but it's like planting a bomb in the structure of the financial system itself therefore i don't see how any any best or people can teach their mind in the banks when now that we will have a program twice or even more as bad as it was before then obviously there will be a phrase for a new levy on the bun deposits so how are they expected to keep that the poses in the banks and if the when or how of the bank supposed to continue meanwhile financial experts warn that the cypriot blueprint could very well be used in other cash strapped it can economies yanis varoufakis an economics professor at the university of athens believes the deal puts a big question mark over the euro zone's integrity. it is not a bad deal that such

a pile of books goes statement isn't it given that cyprus has been told it would have to deal with the mess of its banking sector on it so as if you could were not part of the us this is the best deal that they could come up with but having posts that situation in assault a week europe has managed to put in jeopardy some very basic principles threatened the state get out the deposit insurance scheme even though in the end they took the step back. they brought back into question the integrity of the year it was on the possibility of selling out of it a member state and a very importantly they sacrificed the european union's market but in simple according to which capital controls i don't know know so it is a good old mess that the engineers and right now on our t. dot com what we're asking you what's your take on the unprecedented seizure of

funds from large cypriot depositors here's how the vote has gone so far. right now the majority of you say that the bailout will become a model for future confiscations this hour just under a quarter of you are expecting a stampede of bank runs across the european union and eleven percent are convinced the decision could be overturned by public opposition while the remaining few tell us the deal will be a one off that's just too unpopular to repeat elsewhere you can head to our tea dot com and tell us what you think. now it's been nearly two months since the detainees started gone tomtom obey embarked on a hunger strike mistreatment and indefinite detention have been cited as the reasons that for the protest now lawyers for some of the prisoners say their clients have no intention of giving up their protest even if it cost them their

lives the u.s. military has been playing down the strike claiming only thirty seven prisoners are involved but attorneys for the inmates say more than one hundred are starving themselves the prolonged crisis has drawn condemnation from numerous human rights groups among them amnesty international and as the international went as far as calling guantanamo an american gulag and says the facility has brought pain and suffering instead of justice the white house however maintains that it is committed to shut down the prison and is monitoring the ongoing hunger strike but the pentagon is considering spending almost fifty million dollars to renovate and expand the facility saying the u.s. congress has decided not to close the facility at all lawyer cindy recently visited her hunger striking client had gone to him oh here's what she had to say about his condition. i met with him from tuesday through thursday every day and when i first met with him on tuesday i was extremely shocked to see that he had lost about forty

pounds from the last time that i saw him and he was in a terribly weak state he was bending over from stomach pain and he also said that he had not eaten since february sixth so he was one of the initial hunger strikers and he was in a terribly bad state i've seen it with my own eyes and i heard him tell me he's supposed to have another meeting with his military council in the following week and he told me to let them know that he may not be in a state to meet with them he maybe by the time they come to see him he may be in isolation or he may be under medical watch or he may be being force fed by that time and may not be able to meet with them and he wanted me to take that message to them you know the from you know my meetings with mike with my client last week and his conversations with other strike you know other detainees and prisoners who are also on strike they are prepared to stand up for the principles of not having their

religious practices disrespected not having the qur'an desecrated and now it's become an even bigger message that they want to deliver which is that they have been now detained since you know two thousand too many of them mike i and for eleven years now since two thousand and two some of them are cleared for release have been declared in a sense by the united states however the u.s. refuses to transfer them and the congress refuses to provide funds for that the obama administration has closed the office that it had set up in the state department to study the closure of guantanamo and carry that out and it hasn't happened and so this has gone beyond the desecration of the qur'an that disrespect of their religion and. they're now also protesting the worsening conditions as these prison officials are essentially retaliating against them and trying to end

the strike by making conditions harsher and to detainees have been enduring all of this and plan to continue to do so simon scorn a spokesman for the red cross says the prisoners varo are left defenseless and are being held in a legal vacuum. from our observations. this anguish knees are experiencing is clearly related to the lack of a clear legal framework in guantanamo and this is now adding a real impact and as. it is for some time on their mental health on their emotional al for us would be beyond just what you know we are seeing right now in guantanamo this issue's lawyers are talking about the issue of the legal framework that regiments the detention of guantanamo and this is the issue that the administration must address and coming out right after the break the last paycheck the u.k. media reveals that the russian tycoon boris berezovsky was due for a massive cash boost shortly before his death nine days ago we have the full story

in just a couple minutes right here on our. mission . critical free. free. free. free. free. free blog video for your media project free media don carty dot com.

the international in the very heart of moscow. to have you back with us. exiled russian tycoon boris berezovsky was in line for a three hundred million dollars payday shortly before his death this is according to a british newspaper report which refers to leaked emails and police documents the money was to come from the liquidation of the moguls of business assets was found dead at his home nine days ago r.t. sarah ferguson as the details. these are the leaks email and police documents that

is being reported show you that an investment company which controls three all of. these offshore trusts said c b going to liquidate his assets between. thousand and twelve a march two thousand and thirty own family with the aim of providing him with around three hundred million dollars in cash now at the time of course president it's been widely reported he was under pretty severe financial pressure not least because of his recent high profile cool case which he lost against fellow oligarch graham in a primate it and says only it's been said by his friends and family lots of people he was at that call case at the time to not just to put him under financial pressure but psychological pressure as well the police at the inquest that was a fit and a wednesday said that the cause of death was consistent with hanging the parts by

itself he was found with a ligature around his neck there's no evidence at the moment of third party involvement or of foul play but police haven't ruled that out yet as he said the details that have the most as some sort of intriguing facts to this we had reports of record interview that he did with a journalist the day before he died and which he spake it about losing. his life in then of course he got the family and friends coming out he said that this wasn't a man that they would have thought would have committed suicide despite the financial pressures so it's very difficult to i think tally up all the evidence right now. a new strain of bird flu that had not been transmitted to humans before kills at least two in china. as a third person is in critical condition in hospital with health experts saying it's not known how the virus is spread and no vaccine exists yet details are online plus . jailed and still having fun in venezuela inmates open

a nightclub in prison inviting strippers and putting on a music show with doors open to friends and family of the detainees dot com to find out the party never stops. the world's biggest emerging economies have agreed to enter talks to create a joint development bank the decision was taken at the fifth the brics summit comprising the member states brazil russia india china and south africa it is hoped it will provide an alternative to the world bank and international monetary fund the brics economies are to establish a cooperative council to facilitate joint business projects are going off has been following the blocks annual meeting in south africa. the leaders of all five brics member states were very optimistic in terms of the future of the organization they all stressed that it is potential is still far from being used to the fore and actually one of the latest initiatives to change that is the creation of the

so-called business council to get the business of the five states to get directly engaged in more joint ventures in various fears also earlier china and brazil decided to use their national currencies in at least while in nearly a half of the payments between them only the trade turn or between the two states stands at around seventy five billion euros dollars and the general idea is for all other members of the brics to do the same to protect their economies from things like currency wars or the possible negative consequences of the change of the dollar of war the us also the five leaders of the world alternately able to agree on which we should know of a joint development bank possibly with a starter capital of around fifty billion us dollars but it's a massive project and it's going to take time to work out all the details but in general for the past two decades these five economies have been the most rapidly developing ones in the world currently it's estimated that their growth is around

seven times faster than that of the g seven economies it's also thought that by the year twenty twenty combined the brics states will make up around twenty percent of the global g.d.p. so it's no wonder why they want to protect their economies why they want to trade freely and how they wish between themselves and deal less dependent on the western financial institutions especially in light of the latest problems with the western economic model in general and what we witnessed here at this summit in south africa is that brics as an organization is transforming from a forum for dialogue to a full scale mechanism for strategic cooperation and more states are voicing their desire to join in their. it is rationing including egypt and russia's president vladimir putin has also met with his egyptian counterpart the ties between the two countries are quite strong both economic and cultural last year or egypt was visited by around two and

a half million russian tourists despite all the turbulence in the middle east and in northern africa these issues have also been discussed including of course the conflict in syria if you go to peace can offer point for us there now asian times reporter pepe escobar believes the emergence of a new lender would be a serious game changer in the global economy this alternatives to the world bank and the i.m.f. some still say essentially this is the big. end of the brics and woods system if you think it should be supported by their next rick's list mexico indonesia south korea turkey and the next miss as well this is you know that the stick don't make plates of geopolitics a jew economy is changing it's not atlanticist anymore it's the merchants of reemergence finally of the south miss being spread by western corporate media that china is the new colonial has the power in ask is completely ridiculous.

afghan president hamid karzai is in qatar where he hopes to start peace talks with the taliban the group recently announced that it is ready to enter politics and has opened an office in doha washington welcome to the move as it has long been pushing for both sides towards talks ahead of the nato withdrawal at the end of two thousand and fourteen so far the taliban has refused to talk to president karzai calling him an american puppet but security analyst deep pocket tripathi thinks that it is wrangling up between america and the afghan government that is really getting in the way. informal contacts have been taking place in doha for the last couple of years but then those informal talks did break down for two reasons accuse the americans on being shaky and vague. they

wanted an exchange of prisoners president obama didn't want to have anything to do with any exchange of prisoners because of many congressional pressure but also outside the congress from his opponents and secondly president karzai himself suspect that he was being sidelined because the americans were in direct touch. i mean cities with. under president of the americans have openly accused president karzai of being incompetent and corrupt so there's no love lost between president karzai and the americans and and president karzai doesn't want to be undermined by the external forces and allat so take a look at some other international news in brief for you this hour here in mali three militants and one soldier have been killed in renewed fighting in turn back till after the regional governor's residence came under attack from is one of the

fighters french and government troops and initially seized the city from the rebels in january this comes just days after president hollande announced that french troops would stay in the country until the end of the year. in morocco thousands of workers have rallied to to protest against the economic policies of the islamist led government marchers were demanding the prime minister's resignation unions are furious over high unemployment and planned reforms of the pension system the moderate islamist party came to power in two thousand and eleven elections following an arab spring uprising in the country. in bahrain twenty one doctors finally walked free after spending over seventeen months behind bars after being accused of taking part in anti-government protests they were initially convicted for instigating hatred and participating in illegal gatherings however the doctors insist they were only doing their job and treating the wounded and

claim they were tortured into confessing to crimes they didn't commit their acquittal didn't manage to deflect attention from the gulf states massive internal problems and its crackdown on dissent since the uprising began over two years ago the sunni monarchies been continuously using violence to disperse campaigners asking for political reforms scores of activists have been arrested and charged over that time physician dr haji recounts her own experience while being held by the country's security forces. to have tried for a month. and we just have to sit here and april and that's a lot to get to know you are out of the. line all of this most of the. forty nine people in line here without reading them and that you didn't really think you know. and i mean by that you

think you know very thankful and so we didn't deny something you can't want to. be standing not given food. do it through i have a good thing so we get. i don't know how words were locked down before you think the phone would stay. on hold to that black hole up by electrocution and then have the actual harassment that should be you know and really all that yes i'd like to know but the question. in israel the military is cracking down on soldiers who are misbehaving a group of servicemen posted a series of dance videos on the web that quickly went viral but as archie's policy or reports some fear the idea of stance could limit the government's ability to use social media as a p.r. tour offensive and damaging fun a picture of an israeli soldier with mud on his face titled a bomb

a stone posted on facebook by none other than the head of the i.d.f. social media unit should. the most just as the government uses social media for explaining for complaining for propaganda or for spinning it also has to deal with private soldiers using new media every soldier is a broadcast station. it looks innocent enough but this whole jerk got two weeks in a military prison. while after posting these pictures on his facebook profile this infantry fighter was brought to book for abuse of power and misuse of army weaponry . these soldiers turned their patrol in hebron into a dance move. it angered the i.d.f. but others felt they did a far better job of showing the human side of the army than any spin doctor ever could under the military code of justice offense and i think that sergeant and above which is in fact any conduct which is unbecoming an i.d.f.

soldier would would would be for really potentially at least expose you to criminal liability could actually find yourself in jail but it's not always fun and games neither is it so clear cut the i.d.f. told r.t. that a sniper who posted this image was dealt with appropriately it's the problem of free speech i don't see how you can control it i don't think the dancing is abusing power i do think that putting your sniper in innocent person is an abuse of power and i think this is that it's think that the army should do gil you gave was an officer with the paratroopers unit he says he'd brief his soldiers regularly about what they could and could not post online but many were careless or childishly unaware of the impact one clip could have you have to remember that soldiers are. kids. eventually they're just they're just

kids that misuse the misuse of power because just for them it just is not shooting the kid not trying to kill the kid the irony is that the i.d.f. itself put so much emphasis on social networks using them extensively to promote its actions. the i.d.f. has taken its war to twitter facebook instagram and even tumblr turning its social media tool box into the most globally visible arm of the israeli defense force it started during the israeli gaza war at the end of two thousand and eight but the idea of social media department for. next it's on my muscles joining the flotilla incident a year and a half later distributing regular video taken from an israeli assault craft and tweeting in sixty nine which is off to the most recent israel gaza war last november the erstwhile embarrassed i.d.f. social media guru boasted his unit had beaten the enemy some claimed foreign media

asked more questions about the i.d.f. twitter activity than about the army's bombings in gaza. but when ordinary soldiers start using the same platforms all that positive public diplomacy pretends to be undermined one place at a time. tel aviv. on r.t. after the break amid the man who can always find a home for the homeless after three decades behind bars he's now helping ex convicts on to the right path that is in just a couple of moments right here r.t. . you know when the history of any culture there are some dark chapters throughout human history there's been war on every continent and religious strife and

oppression every culture has some skeletons in their closet and in recent u.s. history the scandalous prison at guantanamo bay as waking patriotic american scurrying around a decade or so rather than slamming the door shut and get mall i hate that term condemning it as one of the greatest mistakes in american history and gloriously declaring on t.v. channels and newspapers the country wide that it shall never be repeated again the pentagon instead wants to blow another forty nine million dollars expanding it even if you are one of the types of things that american gulags are supercool and awesome do you realize that it takes over one million dollars per year per prisoner to keep the place open are you sure. so you don't want that money to go toward something else like your children's education the thing that burns me up about this the most is that obama promised if elected to close guantanamo bay and as commander in chief of the armed forces he could do this whatever he wanted no amount of filibustering by the republicans could stop him obama you promised hundreds of millions of people to do something.