today's news and of the week's top stories right here on our team people in cyprus are left 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 bricks economies set to make international waves after pushing ahead with the creation of a joint a development bank that could rival the global financial have heavyweights. and lawyers of the guantanamo bay detainees on hunger strike claim that their clients are prepared to die rather than give up the almost two months a long protest. and

broadcasting live from our studios in moscow this is our t.v. recapping the week's top stories i'm sean thomas glad to have you with us cypriots it 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 the 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 and 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 these restrictions have been imposed for an indefinite period as r t's are silly reports families are already feeling the pinch. like many in cyprus need us agree this is 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 in raveling of cyprus's financial woes couldn't have come at a worse time by finishing that i live with a pension of my mom all of your life is coming up so i don't you make a plan for the future for the people in the young and the old. suddenly you hear that the economy of your country or in the park system these. corrupt so. you're standing with the nymph. a sentiment echoed throughout the tiny island nation. with scenes like these becoming a daily occurrence another day in 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 and they may eventually lose their jobs though 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 are 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 soon to spain we just want to be left alone to pick up the pieces and get on with our lives to cyprus is part of your peer european union system falls and for. paying the money through the european union to have. the other two contras you may embarrass. no but is that cyprus have a problem or it's because you know economy or something else as economic drama

continues with politicians and bankers drawing up painful measures to execute the years old i m f back bailout plan it's all too clear to ordinary cypriots who is going to be bearing the brunt need us 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 the simple people who have special needs they cut from the people for his part allies the question all cypriots would like answered as well. does or sylvia r.t. nicosia cyprus. and as you've just seen the capital nicosia has been rocked by a wave of protests with people venting their frustration throughout the week activist chris all star most days 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 the bailout it can be best described as an

overnight assassination because with the diseases that have taken a little group they have pretty much destroyed forty percent of the economy and now the we also add on top of that problem that we have another long 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 vest or people can teach their money in the banks when now that we 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 their back when done deposits so how are they expected to keep that the poses in the banks and if the when or how are the banks supposed to continue. meanwhile financial experts warn that cypriot blueprint could very well be used in other cash strapped countries 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 go statement isn't it given that cyprus has been told that the it would have to deal with the mess of its banking sector on it so as if it were not part of the us this is the best deal that they could come up with but having post cyprus in 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 the two clips that back then they brought back into question the integrity of the year it was on the possibility of selling out of it a member state and the very board of the they sacrificed the european union's market principles according to which capital controls i don't know know so it is a good old mess that they have engineered and right now on our dot com we're asking

what's your take on the unprecedented seizure of funds from large cypriot depositors here's how the vote has been going a so far and right now it looks like van had the majority say the bailout will become a model for future confiscations about sixty one percent there this hour just under a quarter of you are expecting a stampede of bank runs across the european union and twelve percent are convinced that the decision could be overturned by public opposition while the remaining few tell us that the deal will be just a one off with too many people feeling it's too unpopular to repeat elsewhere and are to dot com and tell us what you think. and it's been nearly two months since guantanamo bay detainees embarked on a hunger strike mistreatment and indefinite detention have been cited as the

reasons for the protest now lawyers for some of the prisoners say that 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 the international one as far as calling . an american gulag and says the facility has brought pain and suffering instead of justice now the white house however they maintain that it is committed to shutting down the prison and is monitoring the ongoing hunger strike but the pentagon it's 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 newco recently visit did her hunger striking client at guantanamo 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 straight 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 michael 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 and is sticking with his story simon a score no a spokesman for the red cross says the prisoners there are left defenseless and are being held in a legal vacuum. from our observations we those tensions and and this anguish that they knees are experiencing is clearly related to the lack of a clear legal framework in guantanamo and this is now obviously a real impact and as an impact for if it is for some time on their mental health on their emotional al for us would be the issue beyond just what you know we are seeing right now going on time and issues that lawyers are talking about the issue of the legal framework that regiments the detention of guantanamo and this is the

issue that administration must address and coming up right after this break in 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 just nine days ago we have the full story in just a couple minutes right here on our team. thank. you to cut cut cut cut cut cut cut. cut. cut. cut cut here.

thank. you thank you thank you. thank. you thank. you thanks. technology innovation all the developments from around russia we. covered. them live from moscow this is our taste certainly glad to have you back with us self exiled

russian tycoon of boris berezovsky was in line for a three hundred million dollars payday shortly before his death that's according to a british newspaper report which refers to leaked e-mails and police documents the money was to come from the liquidation of the moguls business assets he was found dead at his home nine days ago as artie's sarah firth have the details. these are the leaked email and police documents that is being reported say 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 head 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

graeme in a primate it and i said simply 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 and financial pressure if it's psychological pressure as well but the police at the inquest that was a fair and a wednesday said that the cause of death was consistent with hanging the bars 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 there's some sort of intriguing facts to this we had reports of the record interview that he gave with the journalist the day before he died in which he spake it about losing hope in his life and then of course he got the family and friends coming out he say that this wasn't a man that they would have thought would have committed suicide despite the financial pressures so it's very difficult 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 first critical condition in a hospital. bed and. all the details are online. having. to find out. the world's biggest emerging economies have agreed to talks to create a joint development bank the decision was taken at the fifth the brics summit. the member states brazil russia india china and south africa it is hoped it will provide an alternative to the world bank and the international monetary fund the

brics economies are to establish a cooperative council to facilitate joint business projects 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 tour and seize in at least well 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 be less dependent on the western financial institutions especially in light of the 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 so more states are voicing their desire to join in their. rationing including egypt and russia's president vladimir putin has also met with these the egyptian counterpart the ties between the two countries are quite strong both economic and cultural last year egypt was visited by around two and a half million russian tourists despite all the turbulence in the middle east and northern africa these issues have also been discussed including of course the conflict in syria i tease you got a piece going off reporting for us there sticking with this story asia 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 beginning. of the bretton woods system and if you think it should be supported by their next rick's list mexico indonesia

south korea turkey and the next mists as well this is you know that the stick don't make plates of geopolitics and jewett comics are changing it's not atlanticist anymore it's the merchants of really merchants finally of the south miss being spread by western corporate media that china is the new colonialists the power in africa scoop legally ridiculous. afghan president hamid karzai has been in qatar over the weekend where he reportedly tried to kick start peace talks with the taliban the group recently announced a vet it ready to enter politics and has opened an office in doha washington a welcome to the move as it has long been pushing both sides towards talks and 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 pocketed puffy thinks that it is wrangling 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 of 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 mainly 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 via 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 external forces and analysis take a look at some other international news in brief for you this hour in mali three militants and one soldier have been killed in renewed fighting and turn back to that after the regional governor's residence came under attack from as one hundred fighters french and government troops initially seized of the city from the rebels in january this comes just days after president orlanda announced that french troops would stay in the country until the end of the year. in morocco thousands of workers have rallied to protest against of the economic policies of the islamist led government marchers there demanding the prime minister's resignation as unions are furious over high unemployment and the planned reforms of

the pension system the moderate islamist party came to power in the two thousand and eleven elections following an arab spring uprising in the country. according to syrian state media rebels have set up to nine oil wells ablaze in the east of the country that's after opposition groups got into a dispute over who could use the wells allegedly over five thousand barrels of oil and over fifty thousand cubic meters of gas are being lost every day because of the fires meanwhile near the city of aleppo having fighting heavy fighting has been reported between government and opposition fighters. 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 artie's policy or reports some fear the idea of stance could limit the government's ability to use social media as a p.r. tool 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 universe should wish the mish just as the government uses social media for explaining for complaining for propaganda or for spinning it also has to do 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. one 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 a 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 exposure 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 that the dancing is abusing power i do think that putting your sniper a more 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 the just there are just kids that misuse the misuse of power because just for them it just is not shooting the kid is 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 idea if 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 flexed its online muscles during the flotilla incident a year and a half later distributing regular video taken from an israeli assault craft and tweeting in sixteen languages after the most recent israel gaza war last november the earth one embarrassed i.d.f. social media guru boasted his unit had beaten the enemy some claimed foreign media

asked more questions about the idea of twitter activity than about the army's bombings in gaza. but when ordinary soldiers start using the same platforms all that positive public diplomacy threatens to be undermined one place at a time. tel aviv where does it for me this hour but my colleague carrie johnston will be in the studio in a little over thirty minutes time before that though artie's technology update heads to barcelona to see the latest gadgets on offer at the mobile world congress . 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 everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm target market is

a big issue. hello and welcome to technology much as christopher columbus served the queen and king of spain by pushing the boundaries of the known world we too have come to barcelona to

serve you well the team and i may not have discovered uncharted lands we have found a handful of innovations the limits of mobile technology it's that time of year again when the whole community descends on the catalonian capital while the annual gathering has been happening for more than a quarter century organizers build this mobile world congress as bigger and better than ever having moved into a newer and more spacious center is the one stop shop for just about everything in personal size tech with one fruit shaped exception all the industry's big players who are there hoping to investors and gadget guru so like so with apple staying away as it traditionally does samsung was able to bask in the knowledge that it was far and away the biggest fish in the pond with an eye on keeping its share of the android based the no eight point zero made its big debut and got the blogosphere a buzzing but it's going to have to work hard to fight off challenges for both new and old competitors. nokia was also on hand to tout its latest role.