terrorists former u.s. soldiers charged with fighting alongside syrian rebels posing with known militants and a video. of a hunger strike is going today fifty five placing a growing risk of serious health problems in the. toughening conditions to make them stop. one small step towards inhabiting the moon in less than two decades russian scientists say the research that an observatory closest neighbor. news and much more twenty four hours a day this is. a u.s. army veteran has been charged with conspiracy for fighting alongside

a syrian rebel group linked to al qaida eric harroun known to syrians as the american has appeared in numerous videos with members of the al nusra front designated by the u.s. as a terrorist group his father claims his son was working for the cia and would never join a militant group that is going to change a comic salmons and now where the u.s. draws the line between terrorists and so-called freedom fighters. a u.s. army veteran eric karun posted this video online while fighting with the rebels in syria. to so much of the south erik karun has joined the al qaeda linked group javagal nusra the only rebel group in syria that the u.s. has that ignited this terrorists while in syria eric actively posted photos and videos of himself holding various weapons breaking about the rebels latest attacks and calling himself a freedom fighter charlotte your days are numbered you're going to die no matter what where you go we will find you and kill you upon arrival in the u.s.

he was arrested and charged with illegally using a rocket propelled grenade on behalf of the al qaeda affiliated group according to court documents eric told the f.b.i. that quote he hated al qaeda he did not know any al qaeda members and would fight any regime if it impose sharia law in syria end of quote but in an interview with a journalist before he was arrested eric responded to a question about fighting alongside terrorists is syria by saying quote the us plays both sides to end of quote very karun had never served overseas during his brief time with the u.s. military before heading for syria he had a quiet job with a mortgage company in phoenix arizona worlds away from the walls of the middle east i spoke with and specker a leading expert on terror psychology on why westerners end up in the ranks of terrorists some people over here and in canada i was just up in canada talking to them are going over to syria to be to join freedom fighters son they really believe

that they're fighting for freedom but they get there and it's a chaotic situation. may be looking a factor and once you're in a chaotic war torn environment your emotions are heightened here scared and you may just affiliate with a group that you might not otherwise. affiliated with the official message that freedom fighters may need to help you in some way it just confuses them even more about a really good point because you know we are calling this a fight for freedom we are speaking about it on the media that it's freedom fighting so when someone feels strongly about it and wants to go and how. are we to blame. but then when they get over there if they join a group that's been designated as a terrorist group it's confusion probably. we need to get straight on that we need

to decide exactly what we're going to do about syria i think that we have a very confused response ourselves and the government right now since the start of the arab spring the us media has already freedom fund featuring stories with the likes of. an american who first fought with libyan rebels and then switched to syria i fought in the war in libya in two thousand and eleven and i saw the effects of what we accomplished and i want syrian stafford as well. in recent months the obama administration has tried to publicly distance itself from radical islamists fighting among the syrian rebels by saying washington supports the more moderate forces among the opposition. but on the ground in syria in the middle of a bloody civil war that line is blurred many of those in the syrian opposition who washington supports welcomed the efforts of radical groups like on the street. while politicians argue about who is a terrorist then who is a freedom fighter or who is

a terrorist that can be useful now and dealt with later young westerners like eric may find themselves confused about what they're fighting for in a place like syria in washington i'm going to check out. the hunger strike by going to one of the bay detainees shows no signs of ending as it nears the eight week mark lawyers representing some of the inmates say their clients are ready to die unless their demands are met. the prisoners want an end to indefinite detention and use of searches or is an activist say that the vast majority of the one hundred sixty six detainees at the facility taking part in the protest u.s. military initially denied reports on protests but now says that only twenty seven prisoners are involved most of the inmates at the prison have been cleared for release the u.s. government is to keep him behind bars why tasso stated it's committed to shutting down the prison the pentagon says it's also set for fifteen million dollars renovation cindy a lawyer for one of the hunger strikers told r.t.

as kevin knowing what she saw. i met with him from tuesday to 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 when i saw you so you can confirm one of you is a hearing i was told where there is a media when we're talking about some of these guys being close to death this is what you've actually seen with your. 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 may be by the time they come 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 is this brinkmanship how long is it going to tell you how long do you estimate it's going to take before maybe someone dies who's going to blink first or the hunger strike is maybe going to back off is the government going to do anything what's going to happen next. well you know the firm 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 mike i and for eleven years now since two thousand and two some of them are cleared for release have been declared in

a cent 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 is gone beyond the desecration of the qur'an the disrespect of their religion and they are 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 the detainees have been enduring all of this and plan to continue to do so. but a hunger strike caused hundreds to stay just sitting in front of the u.s. embassy in kuwait protesters expressed outrage at the like about action by kuwait's government to condemn the treatment told to move its nationals who've been housed in the tourist prison for more than a decade ago one of the inmates has been charged with war crimes his attorneys say

that but it was mostly based on who you say you are another kuwaiti prisoner has been held without charge. but i still had few pushing for talks with the taliban in kabul and left to negotiate about insurgents to end the war in afghanistan or the militants to refuse to talk to president karzai. also take your seats in and imagine space observatory on the surface of the moon tell you more about russia's space conquest plans. i mean so know your city in europe on the hosts of the twenty fourteen winter that pick a. song. a. song . a.

dog days or. days it. takes a common. theme song it's so true.

welcome back now as cyprus comes to terms a severe e.u. bailout cash controls millions of euros are alleged to have been spirited out of the country just days before the euro group proposed the punishing levy on bank deposits well that's what a local newspaper is reporting pointing the finger at a company related to president anastasio others will affirm a kohen by the separate leaders son in law reportedly transferred twenty one

million euros to banks in the u.k. over the company criticize the article as a malicious attempt to politicize the economic activities you are the president says the claims should be investigated the report comes a separate struggle to get their money out of the banks on the unprecedented restrictions now these include daily cash withdrawals limited to three hundred euros per person per bank no checks can be cashed by anyone and payments transfers outside cyprus are limited to five thousand euros a month per person again and those traveling abroad can't take more than a thousand euros with them well r.t. spoke to wolfgang former chancellor of austria who says nick a serious troubles were looming large but nothing was done to avert them. any country zero point one was here a point two percent of the g.d.p. of the eurozone but the problem was his eight times more

turnover were by him to be a balancing of pain compared to the cheap easy eight times wars of this is absolutely unsustainable and everybody you would within the european union people where were the the mass media newspapers where all the time complaining that something must be done so nobody should be surprised government not one but the previous government led by a former communist who should have done much earlier the reduction of the size of the financial sector i mean this is you cannot have such a huge financial sectors are due banks where you can watch the full interview with . later today at eighteen forty five g.m.t. . the chaotic situation surrounding the cyprus spread out is once again unveil the flaws in europe's financial system it's not the first hole the e.u. is trying to patch struggling to find the way out of the cash crisis and today

people have been in his panel of guests debate how western finances of managed to fool into abyss. this capitalism has been around for a while i mean the the bailouts of two thousand and eight follow on from the earlier bailout in one thousand nine hundred five of the goldman sachs also there was of the see the huge crisis goldman sachs needed to bail out over its loans to mexico that was the bailout of the s n l's that was the bailout of the the banks in the one nine hundred eighty s. each time there was this bailout we are the same situation which is that the bankers they go to government and say well we've taken all these risky loans and if you don't bail us out the entire economy of the world will come tumbling down and the politicians are don't know whether this is true or not and immediately whip out their checkbooks and write it out this is what capitalism is and therefore what is precisely that the richest are bailed out they continue to earn the massive bonuses

while everybody else has to pay for the risky loans and the risky you know nonsensical decisions where's the personal responsibility in all of this i mean if there is nobody willing to take on loans that they couldn't afford to pay that back or take on mortgages that they couldn't afford to pay. there wouldn't be a crisis i mean if if banks where they're saying to people look i want to force this loan a piny when people said look i really can't pay that i really shouldn't be taking that because it's out of my knee and i should really leave anybody out here right on the way around what is the other way around for the negative way around isn't it the other way around these banks are these people who are not paying. and you can watch people of bells a lively debate show in full here on r t next hour. the afghan government says it will push for peace talks with the taliban before foreign troops withdraw at the

end of twenty fourteen a statement came during president karzai stripped to qatar earlier the afghan leader said the greatest threat to the country is not the taliban but by foreign states years of stalled discussions with the us afghanistan and the taliban followed america's offensive in the country combating terrorism taliban recently announced it's ready to enter politics and is open office and don't washington welcome the move but the taliban are so far refused to talk to president karzai describing him as an american puppet and security analyst impactor kathy told my colleague over there in wrangling between american and afghan government is getting in the way of a solution. and again that 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 mainly conversational pressure but also on the congress from his opponents and secondly president karzai himself suspect that he was being sidelined because the americans in touch. with. under for them to do so because i got going to washington recently been having spat so with the drawl of troops on tuesday president karzai appeared to suggest america's big colluding with the taliban why would he say that in the countdown to his taking control of security where these talks may be on the cards as well their internal events that are taking place undermine president karzai that are continuing attacks etc by. the nato forces in which civilians even children are being killed every now and again and 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 president doesn't want to be undermined by external forces well just ahead we report from germany on the ground displeasure that coughing up cash to support others also room with a view russian scientists promise of moon base observatory in the very near future stay with us.

news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images. from the streets of canada. for a chatroom. dangerous experiments on prisoners they want to make money and they have healthy guinea pigs in the regular society they're not able to use prisoners anymore they wish they could. drug tests on human guinea pigs. to. pass away he was killed. he didn't pass. his pharmacy really about helping people.

least be cool language. programs and documentaries in arabic it's all here on. reporting from the world talks about six of the ip interviews intriguing story for you. in trying. to find out more visit. when europe's financial troubles dragging on that germany is seen as the economic giant that's keeping the eurozone afloat as well as having to pay to help the struggling countries it's also still carrying the burden of the solidarity tax introduced after reunification with the country's east. found out is making many

germans feel far from one off. over the past twenty years they have germany have received billions in taxpayer money to help with development after unification but now both paying the taxes here in the western part of germany say they think of paying too much for too long. and it's time to finish this up we need this money more than them now. you know that enough is enough i know many of these that are doing very well get in here and it's time this test was scrapped. it's been twenty years too long now working people live here in worse conditions so we don't we can't continue to pay for the east we gave them a future now this must stop formally the region was home to germany's now pretty much defunct coal mining industry now the main cities in the us area face mounting debts as they struggle to live up to their commitments as part of the solidarity pact which sends money to the east in

a statement given to r t the lord mayor of dortmund says the practice of taking loans to pay their way could have dire consequences those cities that have high debts will soon be unable to borrow in order to remain part of the solidarity pact either that or conditions imposed will be so severe as to propel them faster towards bankruptcy the solidarity pact will remain in force until twenty nineteen by which time the west will have contributed hundreds of billions of euro with the major cities in the region sinking further into the red those in the west of germany are suggesting that it's time for the east to help them out here right now we should be at the front of the line when it comes to financial help from the state. that will flow this money needs to be spent in the best interest of the german people today there are cities that need aid. my generation can't be expected to pay for decisions made by the previous generation. voters look now in

the east it looks much better and i just go and have a look at how bad it is around here it's like a pigsty as the east has been licked clean you don't have to go far to see the effect city debt is having on daily life here in the west local councils can't even afford to keep public swimming pools open while the continued use of taxpayer cash in the east is testing just how solid the germans feel the solidarity pact really is peter all other r.t. the region germany. some other news making headlines around the world this hour. the united states has sent f. twenty two stealth fighter jets to a military base in south korea to join ongoing military drills between the two countries which north korea blames for escalating hostility in region at the same time south korean authorities that they will not shy away from a preemptive strike if they believe a north korean attack is imminent when young announced

a state of war between the two countries on saturday just weeks after carrying out the underground nuclear tests. political satirist about some new surf was met by mobs of supporters of being granted bail on sunday three cases have been lodged against him for broadcasting biting criticism of president morsi and we just need to be gypsum authorities recently instigated a campaign to crackdown on dissent in the country warrants have been issued for five prominent members of the opposition protests on the muslim brotherhood headquarters in march. the rebels which overran the central african republic capital bangui last month to name the caretaker government leader michel djotodia will head the new government while the members of the former opposition remain in place until elections planned for twenty sixteen in january after a power sharing deal between ousted president was easing and these rebel fighters

collapsed. we may soon be able to take a not so grounded look at what's going on in space russian scientists are planning to build a space observatory right on the moon surface beginning with a robot research lab in the near future. reports now from somewhere in the outer limits. it was tough a century since neil armstrong's giant step ended the race between the u.s. and u.s.s.r. to put a man on the moon earth's only natural satellite is once again in the spotlight while america has directed its attention to mars russia's central research institute for machinery announced the launch or rather a relaunch of the lunar program according to the ambitious plan a russian space ship will fly to and circle the moon by twenty thirty but this promises to be only the beginning and here is where it gets very interesting the next step as they search it claims will be the construction over an observatory on the moon experts believe earth space rock is simply the perfect spot from which to

research space so if this idea proves to be a success expect a laboratory there to observatory and the lab may soon be followed by a helium mining shafts and if the moon really holds ice as scientists believe this could produce both the water and oxygen which would make the earth's satellite inhabitable by humans hotels with rooftop swimming pools grocery stores and a hospital all this could be possible this would not be easy of course expect some competition from the u.s. and china but in five six decades flying to the moon and back would not be just a line from the song but a real human holiday option. be resorting to the next hour to expose the wonders of mountainous terrain just three hundred twelve days to go until the twenty fourteen winter olympics kick off stay with us.

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 us history the scandalous prison at guantanamo bay as making patriotic americans 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 super cool and awesome do you realize it takes over one million dollars per year per prisoner to keep the place open are you sure you don't want that money to go towards 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 very simple start the paper work tomorrow buddy make the nation look better that's your job but that's just my opinion. down on the black sea coast to the city of sochi is busy preparing for the twenty four winter olympic games construction is booming transport infrastructure is being completely revamped and disabled access points are being installed across town. from being the second lympics city sochi is also one of the country's most popular tourist destinations people still queue for the long haul some of those displaced

species in the warm seas. if you're looking for more than just a time it's also an area filled with some amazing natural highlights. so i've been spending a lot of so i'm in the city but off in the mountains there's the caucuses reserve which is literally the size of finland so i've met up with one very experienced god and i'd say if and we all fall out of bed. it's fair to say but if you're driving up here then you're in for a bumpy ride it's you might be lucky and find some time ago but mostly it's just trying to splinter groups fortunately alexei's wonderfully named wattage is up to the toughest.