in the very heart of moscow. tonight tipped off to big the tax man it's claimed wealthy account holders in cyprus manage to avoid strict capital controls and grab their cash before the plan has sixty percent of the money . the american rebel or u.s. army veterans charged with fighting alongside syrian terrorists even as washington continues to support the uprising. and on the brink of conflict the united states sends fighter jets to be used in war games with south korea while the north beach submits for the missiles after declaring a state of war. all over again having to just turn eight pm now here in moscow this is the

international my name's kevin zero in on our top story that not everyone in cyprus is having their money held to ransom it appears it's claimed wealthy clients were tipped off before the announcement that up to sixty percent of their cash would be tapped millions of euros are believed to be transferred from the country while the shutters came down for everyone else no such head start for other savers then in order to prevent a run on the banks the government's limited among other things daily cash withdrawals and money transfers outside cyprus massive amounts of capital have still reportedly found their way out though the official investigation into the cyprus crash will now be widened to look at one hundred thirty companies and individuals who may have jumped ship but political economy professor undress theopompus says people's trust in the eurozone has already been undermined. it is true we have seen the reports about the. copy that allowed flows there would be food investigation but in addition you could only grazes already cyprus. he's

having major political crises as well the credibility of this is the there is a very low level of these points some political parties are trying to take advantage of the same time it is true there have been acts of that that have made people very suspicious the kids have shadows of the eurozone and if you listen to the troika and these policies certainly we make a good recession into a depression was not a bailout it was a collective punishment deal the amount of money that cyprus required kook allowed a more gradual approach to addressing the economy structural problems we we the these policies not only disapprove financial system has suffered a serious blow but the economy as well and i have no doubt that these we have also followed the effect on the eurozone as a whole already you know people outside cyprus indicating confidence

in the euro and the universe has declined and i don't think that this will be the end of it. and i let you know that later today you can watch out his interview with former austrian chancellor wolfgang pauli believe cyprus could have avoided the crisis but it failed to take action in time let's listen. is it tiny country zero point one the worse year of point two percent of the g.d.p. of the eurozone but the problem was cyprus his eight times more were turned over were by a limb to be a balance is off pain compared to be cheap piece of times more of this is absolutely unsustainable and everybody you would within the european union the people where we're the the mass media newspapers we are all the time complaining that something must be done so nobody should be surprised person government not one but the previous government led by a former columnist who should have done much earlier the reduction of the size of

the financial sector i mean this is bearable you cannot have such a huge financial sectors a jewel banks. if not quoted already you can see the full interview with him here on r.t. six forty five this evening g.m.t. a former u.s. soldier faces life in prison for fighting alongside islamic extremists in syria the f.b.i. is charged with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction although u.s. considers the group that he fought for the honest or a front to be terrorists washington in ten years to beef up its support for the syrian insurgency is artie's going to try to cap reports. a u.s. army veteran eric karun posted the speed on line while fighting with the rebels in syria they shot a. just so much of the saudi air karun has joined the al qaeda

linked group gentleness where the only rebel group in syria that the u.s. has that ignited this terrorists while in syria erik actively posted photos and videos of himself holding various weapons bragging about the rebels latest attacks and calling himself a freedom fighter who shows 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 in syria by saying quote the us plays both sides to end of quote every 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 you know 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 scared and you may just affiliate with a group that you might not otherwise have. the official message that these are freedom fighters and they need to help you in some way it just confuses them even more about some really good point 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 on 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 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 us media has finally three major freedom fighter 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 syrians to 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 the 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. noise representing guantanamo bay detainees say several of their clients lives are now in danger as the mass hunger strike of the news the two month mark but the u.s. military continues to deny whoever reports that more than one hundred captives us. him selves to death officials claim only thirty seven detainees refusing all food in the eleven are being force fed inmates launched a hunger strike to draw attention to the prolonged detainment without trial and inhumane treatment including intrusive searches white house insists it's committed

to shutting down the prison but the military says congress has decided to keep guantanamo open indefinitely earlier spoke with lawyer cindy put newco recently visited her clients at the notorious facility 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 and 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's a media 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 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 really 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 of 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 for 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 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'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 the detainees have been enduring all of this and plan to continue to do so. well here it ought to bring you a full story of a hunger strike at guantanamo bay as you'll know if you're watching is an issue

that the mainstream media prefers to ignore we've got a lot of interviews analysis not today reports like the few want to website don't come. here sure it's not with me covering over the draconian welfare cut comes into force in the united kingdom are you all about will see some of the country's poorest of the benefits reduced if there are deemed to be taking up too much space in social housing is a big story of the u.k. at the moment we're on top of it for you. room on the moon he tells of russia's ambitious plans to make a habitable space observatory on earth shining. there's a couple of the stories we got lined up for you very shortly tonight. i mean so much to know your city in europe the host of the twenty fourteen winter the picket. thank you.

so much. thank you. doug these. days it. makes it come. see it's so true. about international and world in the very heart of moscow.

hello again north korea's parliament's approved plans to expand the country's nuclear weapons program the regime has been ramping up its rhetoric since the united states sent stealth fighter jets to south korea to joint military exercises there that infuriated the north which says it's now in a state of war with sell along with the military drills over the border the regime in pyongyang has been angered by the latest round of u.n. sanctions over its nuclear test that was carried out by confabulate because many states put its missile unit stuff some. by now it says it's ready to bombard the u.s. bases in the region but south korea in retaliation is warned it will retaliate quickly if the north launches any attack on its territory independent journalist james corbett thinks u.s. defense contractors are hoping to benefit financially from the situation but that washington is playing a dangerous game. i think that the most likely scenario here would be some sort of

the wonder or misinterpretation on one side or the other because everything is on the knife edge as as i've said before i think that really the all of the players here have a vested interest in keeping the tension up but not allowing it to spill it really works and i think that obviously works for north korea which could be easily wiped out in a military confrontation but it also works for south korea and america and all of the allies here in this region that are that also serve to benefit from this and we've seen this directly for example with the announcement of more missile defense on the western coast of the united states that there are now going to be fourteen new ground least interceptors deployed at fort greely alaska at a cost u.s. taxpayers a one billion dollars by two thousand and seventeen so this is this is doing a fantastic business for the defense contractors who serve to to feed into this tension and play off of it so i don't i think that honestly there isn't a lot of plans for preemptive strikes at this moment i think it's more a question of if this will accidentally spill over into something more. and that's

the word i guess it's a story we're keeping a close eye on and we're also asking you for your thoughts about it on our website our say dot com we're asking what you think is behind this standoff thanks for voting if you have that r t dot com well that's what you're telling us so far forty eight percent of this is just checker that's moved it's down one percent from last i think it's part of a u.s. plan to destabilize china any staging say there twenty percent but if if you believe it's down to kim jong trying to build a power base back at home now is reasonably new in the sate there try to make his stamp slightly fear of you expect the tensions to spill over into armed conflict eighteen percent fourteen percent you can say think again pyongyang's way of demanding western aid it's kind of worked in the past will it work this time that's the question of course tell us what you think. home.

next house focusing on mali there the national military backed by french intervention forces is fighting an islamist resurgence in the country's north rebel fighters have launched a series of attacks on the city of timbuktu former ethiopian diplomat mohammad hassan told us france is locked in a power struggle for influence in africa. the french are defending their own interest as you know that doesn't come continent is the world's just going to mint if it is inhabited by the poor poor people we know that it is the trade between africa and china is increasing and also the brics countries increasing only you know that it is france is now is declared declining its became the third party to

not enough flicka and you know understood i had to place difference and became the second as you know that it is even united states have put in its military base. called we needed you know that seventy five percent of the french a little city is used to the nuclear and most of the raw materials is coming from new jersey the main purpose is that it is france also to do positional position there and she thinks that it is sure to be dislocated from this city just a continent and it is in fact isn't a scramble news making headlines right now the sea being a powerful blast the city government compound in the iraqi city of tikrit it's killed at least nine and wounded many more most of the casualties among the police surgeon stopped a fuel tank just outside a police administration building blew it up causing heavy damage to the area terror attacks are frequent in iraq where sunni militants have been fighting to undermine the shia led government cleanup efforts are continuing in our console where a ruptured oil pipeline sent thousands of barrels of crude into a residential area

a real mess there. all room carrying more than ninety thousand barrels a day of. load on friday afternoon and forced the evacuation of dozens of homes. u.s. prosecutors are to seek the death penalty for james holmes who is charged with shooting dead twelve people at a movie premiere in denver last july a gunman opened fire in a suburban cinema the opening of a batman film the disclosure comes days after the prosecution publicly rejected an offer by attorneys that holmes would plead guilty to avoid execution. ok well it's. still just about for four hours here anyway paul fool's day but attacks that's just come into force in the u.k. is no laughing matter the so-called bedroom tax will see social housing tenants have their benefits slashed if they've got a spare room he'll give a counsellor in sheffield in the u.k. a city that includes some of the more deprived areas in the country says the

government's crushing those who are most in need of help two million households across the u.k. are going to be directly affected by these taxes the poorest people in this country this government this tory government is attacking the poorest people on the people who can't afford to pay and they're not people are not working they're up at most of these people affected are people who are working but in very low paid jobs and they need these benefits to help them survive and get by where i am in sheffield we have hundreds of disabled people who are going to be directly affected by this sees people can't work they're physically disabled through no fault of their own they survive on benefits of very low benefits and not they're expected to have to pay for an extra room in their house that they need for their carers to stay in or they need to because they've got children that don't live with them or for whatever reason they're the people most affected seventy five percent of the people affected by this are working people i think is the most devastating thing this government

has ever done in these in the week that they're giving one hundred hours about a pound back to millionaires to changing the national health service to imposing taxes on the poorest people in the country is going to have a devastating effect to most people in this country you know gibson from sheffield there in germany it looks like people are getting tired of handing the cash to help others only this time it's not about foreign bailouts it's over helping fellow germans two decades after reunification divisions are made when it comes to the prosperous west helping the once struggling east as peter. over the past twenty years states in the east of germany have received billions of euro in taxpayer money to help with development after unification but now those paying the taxes here in the western part of germany say they're sick of paying too much for too long and it was the surgeon it's time to finish this up we need this money more than them now. do we know that this is good enough is enough i know many of these

that are doing very well i better than it stand this test was scrapped has come of it's been twenty years too long now working people live in worse conditions so 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 of 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 now that will float this money needs to be spent in the best interest of the german people today there are cities that need aid so. my generation can't be expected to pay for decisions made by the previous generation. of voters look now in these two groups 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 likely 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. here's a puzzler what's the point of a defense system that can't defend well red faces in israel commanders admit the fabled i can't fully protect civilians got more that online tonight and also what's next for wiki leaks the countdown is so on to discover the whistle blowing sites next move got a bit quiet lately isn't it we consider what there may be that r.t. . least the two language. programs and documentaries in arabic it's all here on our t.v. reporting from the world talks about six of the yard p. interviews for intriguing stories for you to. introduce the arabic to find out more visit arabic t.v. dot com. if you're bored of the bahamas or maybe tired of the tropics for

a nice if you are a new holiday destination could be on the horizon soon the mood and lecturing j.f.k. takes us on a virtual trip. 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 civil 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 their 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 a song but a real human holiday option. well if you're the action packed so you might want to know on the way as russia's sochi prepares to host those twenty fourteen winter olympics we go there we take you on a tour of its spectacular surroundings plenty good programs coming up but.

you know when the history of any culture there are some dark chapters throughout human history there's been. 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 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 of russia the city of sochi is busy preparing for the twenty fourteen winter olympic games construction is booming transport infrastructure is being completely revamped and disabled access points so 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 mine very experienced god and i'd say if and when they are off on a bench. 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 tama but mostly it's just to try to show the ropes fortunately alexei's wonderfully named watson is up to the toughest. most muddle of luck much of the suspense in this the seconds until. we have gone up and do.