terrorists former u.s. soldiers charged with fighting alongside. after posing with militants in a video. hunger strikers going today fifty five facing a growing risk of serious health problems and even death as one of the. conditions to make them stop. one small step towards inhabiting the moon in less than two decades russian scientists. and the closest neighbor. from last year. 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 as appeared in numerous videos with members of the al nusra front designated by the u.s. as a terrorist organization but his father claims his son was working for the cia and would never join a militant group well he's going to check out examines now where the u.s. drones than the have 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 they are. foolish of us eric karun has joined the al qaeda linked group gentleness were the only rebel group in syria that the u.s. has designated as 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. 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 acquired job with a mortgage company in phoenix arizona worlds away from the walls of the middle east i spoke with and speckhard a leading expert on terror psychology on why westerners end up in the ranks of terrorists some people over here and can. and i was just up in canada talking to

are going over to syria to be to join freedom fighters son they really believe they're terrifying 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. scared and you may just affiliate with a group that you might not otherwise have affiliated with the official message that these are freedom fighters and they need to help you in some way it just confuses them even more that's 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 them. but then when they get over there if they join the group that's been designated as a terrorist group it's confucian probably and 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 as a government right now since the start of the arab spring the u.s. media has fire any damage over freedom find no use featuring stories with the likes of mass event don't ask 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 syrians that freedom 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 and who is

a freedom fighter or who is a terrorist that can be before 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. hunger strike by going ton i'm a bay detainees shows no signs of ending as it now is the eight week mark lawyers representing some of the inmates say their clients are ready to die and thus their demands are met the prisoners want an end to indefinite detention and intrusive searches no it's not to be say that the vast majority of the one hundred sixty six detainees at the facility are taking part u.s. military initially denied reports of the protests and now says that only twenty seven prisoners are involved most of the inmates at the prison have been cleared for release u.s. government is still keeping them behind bars wanted to ask the state of its committed to shutting down the prison the pentagon says it's also set for fifty million dollars renovation cindy palooka a lawyer for one of the hunger strikers told artie's 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 pains 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 hype when we're talking about some of these guys being close to death this is what you've actually seen with your eyes 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 city. to meet with them he maybe by the time they come see him he may be in

isolation or he may be under medical wise or he may be being force fed by that time and really not be able to meet with them and he wanted me to take that message to them and 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 first 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 paired 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 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 implant to continue to do so. for the hunger strike caused hundreds to stay just sitting in front of the u.s. embassy in kuwait but this is expressed outrage at the lack of action by kuwait's government to condemn the treatment offered to the its nationals been housed twice prison for more than a decade one of the mates has been charged with crimes in

a home and his lawyers say the verdict was mostly based on hearsay while another kuwaiti prisoner has been held without charge and those up. well pushing for talks with the taliban that kabul looks to negotiate with tongues to end up. on a militant still refused to present. also ahead get ready to take your seats in a space observe a trick on the surface of the moon tell you more about russia's plans for closest neighbor. mission. critical patients three. four judges three. three. three. three. hold free blog video for your media projects free media.

i mean so familiar city in europe on the hosts of the twenty fourteen winter the pick a. song. a. song . a. dog days or. days a. common. theme song it's so true.

the international landlord in the very heart of moscow.

talking back to us here now is cyprus comes to terms with 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 knots was a local newspaper is claiming pointing a finger at a company related to president anastasio others where a firm by the supreme leader's son in law reportedly transferred twenty one million euros to banks in the u.k. over the company criticised the article as a malicious attempt to politicize the gist of it economic activities and while the president says the claims should be investigated of course comes a separate struggle to get their money out of the banks on the unprecedented restrictions of these restrictions including daily cash withdrawals limited to three hundred euros per person per bank no checks can be cashed by anyone and

payments and transfers outside cyprus admitted to five thousand euros a month per person and those traveling abroad can't take more than one thousand euros with them when r.t. spoke to wolf gun shows so former chancellor of austria he says they could see his troubles were looming large but nothing was done to avert them. there's a tiny countries here a point in the one europe point two percent of the g.d.p. of the eurozone but the problem was his eight times more turnover. of pain compared to be cheap eight times more of the unsustainable it ever but if you would within the european union people where were the mass media the newspapers were 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 this size of

the financial sector i mean this is you cannot have such a huge financial sectors are due banks. and you can watch the full interview with selected today at eight hundred forty five g.m.t. on the chaotic situation surrounding the cyprus spread out as once again unveil the flaws in europe's financial system it's not the first hole that was trying to patch struggling to find a way out of the cash crisis today people abandon is a panel of guests debate how western finances have managed to fall into an abyss. this capitalism there's been around for a while i mean these the bailouts of two thousand and eight follow on from the earlier bailout in one thousand nine hundred five of goldman sachs. that 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 banks in the one nine

hundred eighty s. each time there was this bailout we are the same situation which is that the bankers 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 their 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 upon me 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 be very interesting merely right on the way around what is the other way around of the another way around isn't it the other way around when these banks these people could not pay. yes you can watch the people of al's lively debate show in full here at out in just about ten minutes time. afghan the government says it will push for peace talks with the taliban before foreign troops withdraw at the end of twenty fourteen the statement came during president karzai stripped to qatar where the afghan leader said the greatest threat to the country is not the taliban but interference by foreign states years of stall discussions with the us going to stand the taliban followed america's offensive in the country and combating terrorism it's all about a recently announced it's ready to enter politics and has opened an office in doha

and washington welcome the move for the taliban has so far refused to talk to president karzai describing him as an american puppet security analyst sympatric i think that the wrangling between the american and the afghan government is getting in the way of a solution. 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 congressional pressure but also the congress from his opponents secondly president karzai himself suspect that he was being sidelined because the americans in touch.

with. under present 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 karzai doesn't want to be undermined by the external forces. well i just add few we report from germany on the ground displeasure there at coughing up cash to support others plus a room with a view russian scientists promise a moon base observatory in the very near future stay with us. dangerous experiments on prisoners they want to make money and they have to use healthy guinea pigs in the regular society they're not able to use prisoners i mean more they wish they could. drug tests on human guinea pigs. to pop the deadly pills you get in

a subway he was killed. he didn't pass away and let him die. is pharmacy really about helping people. so.

with europe's financial troubles dragging on and germany is seen as the economic giant that's keeping the eurozone afloat as well as having to pay to help struggling countries it's also still carrying the burden of the solidarity tax introduced after reunification of the country's east well this is all to all of

a 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're sick of paying too much for too long you know let's time to finish this up we need this money more than them now. it's good enough is enough i know many of these that are doing very well get out of here and it's time this test was scrapped this has been twenty years too long now working people live in worse conditions so they 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 contribution 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. right now we should be at the front of the line when it comes to financial help from the state. that will feel like this money needs to be spent in the best interest of the german people today there are cities that we paid. off and my generation can't be expected to pay for decisions made by the previous generation of. 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 gone literally and 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 over r t the region germany. well you will find all the latest news and updates r.t. dot com including the world's top currency they soon have a rival on the block the favorite reserve currency the u.s. dollar may be falling from grace as a little known digital bitcoin goes up in value that story online for you plus. some states in america consider grabbing benefits from those on welfare if they test positive for illegal drugs more head to r.t.

dot com. out of some other news making headlines around the world this hour united states has sent f. twenty two stealth fighter jets to a military base in south korea it's a joint ongoing military drills between the two countries which north escalating hostility in the region and same time south korean authorities will not shy away from a preemptive strike if they believe a north korean attack is imminent don young announced a state of war between the two countries on saturday just weeks after carrying out underground nuclear tests. gyptian political satirist a bus in new surf was met by mobs of supporters after being granted bail on sunday three cases have been lodged against him for broadcasting this is an uprising we just need to be. dorothy's recently instigating a campaign to crackdown on dissent in the country rants have been issued for five

members of the opposition the protests and controversy rather than three quarters march. rebels who overran the central african republic have a bangali last month of the caretaker government. will head the new administration while nine members of the opposition remain in place to elections and for twenty sixteen fighting escalates in january the collapse of a power sharing deal between ousted president was easing and a rebel group. well we may soon be able to take 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 very near future. reports now from somewhere in the outer limits. almost half 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 of an observatory on the moon experts believe earth spur single 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 the 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 quality option. somewhere in space the people of l. discusses the future of western capitalism in crosstalk 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. elton's in their closet and in recent u.s. 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 that 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.