tonight breaking news the u.s. releases the so-called magnitsky list naming russian officials banned from entering america for alleged human rights abuses moscow says it amounts to interference in his domestic affairs and promises a similar response. also a blinding doubt stephen over cypresses economic revival and survival as the bailout price tag doubles bringing fears of an even greater burden on bank depositors and setting a dangerous precedent for europe's other struggling nations. while cyprus faces severe pressure from international lenders we look at the example of another european country where the public refused to foot the bill for bankers' mistakes. plus. american protesters voiced their outrage over the mistreatment of prisoners at guantanamo bay and urged their president to follow through on his campaign pledge to close the detention camp.

breaking news this hour as i said the u.s. has released a list of russian officials banned from entering america because of alleged human rights violations moscow's already warned the measure would have a negative impact on ties and promises to come up now with a similar response let's go live to washington artie's garnishee cams there. who are these people the u.s. is like listed what are they accused of what we know of the. well kevin the black list includes eighteen names those are russian officials suspected of being responsible for the prison death of the lawyer sergei magnitsky in two thousand and nine the list includes judges investigators directly involved in the magnitsky case here magnitsky accuse the number of russian officials of corruption but was himself accused of tax evasion and died in a moscow jail four years ago he's colleagues and family said he died because he was

regularly beaten and refused medical care investigators who looked into the case said he was pleased to illegally in pretrial detention and died from heart complications president putin called case death in prison a tragedy but russia sees this kind of punitive legislation as interference in their internal affairs the monkey skill law itself casts a much wider net requiring us visa and financial sanctions against all russian officials deemed to have been involved in human rights violations the wording of the legislation is quite vague for example the bills provision that names put on the list of people to be sanctioned can be based on quote unquote data and information provided by ngo's and perhaps by other interested groups or people rather than through due legal process so this potentially undermines the basic principles of presumption of innocence and due process or. russia or this us

measure what can we expect from moscow next them. well russia's prime minister dmitry medvedev has made a very similar point he noted that the u.s. government already has the full authority to deny a visa to anyone they want without having the special laws in place so russia sees it as a message a message that will most certainly prompt a similar response from moscow russian lawmakers have already passed the legislation targeting american officials deemed to have been involved in violations of the rights of russian nationals including russian children who were adopted and abused by the u.s. adoptive parents possible cited a number of those cases but they haven't published any lists yet critics of the magnets killed by the way here in the u.s. even if you u.s. lawmakers have pointed out that perhaps before punishing russian officials for alleged violations the u.s. could be could could look into human rights abuses committed by americans see in. iraq ghana stand anyway a moscow does not see the tit for tat moves as

a positive development and here's what the russian president's spokesperson said quote the appearance of any lists will no doubt have a very negative effect on bilateral russian american relations but he also added at the same time these bilateral relations are very multifaceted and even under the burden of such negative manifestations they still have many prospects for future development and growth that was the russian president's spokesperson going to as you can in washington thanks for the pressure to. well russia's also accuse the u.s. of a cold war approach in its move over the magnitsky case at all to dot com our web sites and we've got more details on how this major row unfolded as well as analysts and another says talking about where it takes relations between moscow and washington next. eurozone finance ministers are said to be no extra cash for cyprus build a ten billion euro international bailout the mood has been grim then at the ministers meeting in dublin as it emerged that the island nation needs around six

billion euros more than originally thought to avoid bankruptcy the cypriot government will now have to raise extra funds without external help and after the recent raid on bank deposits there are now deep concerns over the president has been set as a test or a similar reports. it dominated headlines for much of two weeks a year reserve nation on the brink of bankruptcy the banks were closed cash rationed and capital controls put in place cyphers of those heavy losses which could rise to up to sixty percent on wealthier depositors in order to clinch a ten billion euro e.u. i.m.f. bailout last month it had however initially planned to would reduce a levy on deposits of less than one hundred thousand euros supposedly protected by state guarantees before backtracking in the face of widespread protests this has been a meeting away from protesters for the past few days it's just

a few meters from parliament which is just over here but the bills and the voices did little to change the inevitable painful outcome for the country the general view being communicated from here in brussels is that the cyprus is unique and the measures imposed on the country as part of that bailout package will not be used as a template for other troubled eurozone nations but not everyone is convinced the president has been set up and unless you've been hiding under a rock if you are in a country like savina for example or any of the other one of those countries that might get into a crisis you don't repeat a crisis of the going to see what happened to cyprus and going to pull their money and that cause a vicious circle in fact a new e.u. law is already being drawn up where first shareholders would take a hit if a bank fails and then possibly unprotected investments and deposits case in point is cyprus officials insist that the posits below one hundred thousand euros are sacred but

a separate example has already sown scenes of fear i would be trying to single cent i have from europe because the president has been sent here to limit the good works and i'm afraid that this will happen in greece afraid not for my future but for my children's future. oh no i hope it won't happen but with you authorities we have is absolutely constant and after all that said and done some say what's more problematic is the inevitability of another cyprus debacle if the underlying problem of unsustainable public and trade deficits are not tackled at the core europe and america are bleeding to death and they're not doing anything about it they must go bust so unless they turn around no sign they're going to then the dominoes must for cypriots now know all too well how hard it is when it's your dominoes turn to fall just are so your r t brussels. cyprus is taking drastic measures to meet the demands of international lenders

another european nation iceland has shown that there is another path the nordic countries faced virtual bankruptcy back in two thousand and eight after its banking sector spectacularly collapsed but the taxpayers made it clear they were going to pick up the tab hugo piskun off looks now at how the country's first nearly five years on. though not a member of the eurozone or the european union for years iceland was considered the most effective now liberal free market economy in europe that was until its bankruptcy in two thousand and eight foreign debt spiked banks closed down and the national currency plummeted the wallbank european union and the international monetary fund also known as the troika demanded that iceland be up at the time it meant every citizen would have to pay one hundred euros per month for the next fifteen years to cover the debt of private bankers nationwide protests erupted sounds familiar except unlike in cyprus greece portugal and others these protests made iceland's president reject the troika's demands and the trio went while

threatening isolation and sanctions even raising comparisons with cuba which rekick stood its ground at a nationwide referendum and around ninety percent voted not to be the debt in fact they went even further starting criminal investigations into why so much money was old even jailed some of the country's top bankers and while they were added ordinary citizens rewrote the constitution which now obliges the government to keep all work in the public eye unless it's a matter of national security of course now for more earlier i spoke to a professor of political science and one of the people who took part in the revision of iceland. the european union was shouldn't. be icelandic state the icelandic taxpayers were responsible for that of private banks in the case went to an international court now the after court found iceland was in the right einstein and was not responsible for this immense and refused the

claims of the. very hard initially forced about the current relations between iceland and the rest of europe are you guys still friends they claim but basically be flushed down the toilet and would not be able to. sort of a young mertz son equal in europe but dr oz who calls us iceland's relationship if you would have been outside world tyrus normalised. international investors are coming back to the country. thanks i've stabilized quite a lot the only thing to add here is sure there is lots of information on this story in blogs and social networks but you won't find it in mainstream media why perhaps to avoid giving ideas to anyone else under pressure. less total rest assured he's professor of political economy in california jackie returning to

the situation in cyprus if we may for a moment there are fears that they'll be more raids on bank deposits to raise the money needed now to avoid bankruptcy also fears that it could be applied elsewhere and it's been tried in cyprus here. yes well you know as your report already indicated it's less than a month the cost of belhadj risen another six billion in cyprus and with the c.m. and the european saying they will not offer any more than their ten billion that means someone somewhere it's got to come from the other six billion additional us less than a month by the time the ten billion starts flowing in the loans from from europe will be late may is going to rise another five six in the cost of the bailout what you're going to see is a severe depression in cyprus as government raises taxes cut spending sells off assets but on even on the private side you're going to see and we're already see in major money hort demand for cash balances money cost and he's absolutely and as

they get their money out there you're going to see capital flight so the situation in cyprus is going to get much worse to the day can cyprus actually balance the books or not. i think it's impossible for them because of the increasing depression that's going to hit that economy they're going to name no more bailout money both the banks and the government and the europeans already sent and i'm going to give it so what does that mean that means the fear of contagion you're going to have to a bell and even more people of those over one hundred hundred thousand euros will have to pay more or maybe now they're going to have to start going after those with less than one hundred thousand which is a good number is expropriated the depositors to pay for it and that's not only happening in europe but there are some revealed memos in the united states the federal deposit insurance corporation in united states that handles depositors

a guaranteed i met with the bank of england there was a leaking a report last december and it showed that both the us and who carry are now considering maybe making depositors pay so this thing is a reflection of the growing banking instability so you have a bigger than me if you. oh yes of course a by by significant margins. the global policymakers are are converging on austerity in q e both as the solutions the u.s. and japan now are rushing towards you know even more q.e. money injections but europe can't do that the e.u. and easy can't do that because they really don't have a banking union and they don't even have a banking supervisor in the us but just check if you had money in a bank for night it's late he had money to back tonight in slovenia would you be worried about it would you be worried about the fact that what we've seen happening over the last month or so in cyprus could be happening to banks that some point

pretty soon or i wouldn't consider i'd be starting preparations and you can bet people in italy still mania certainly portugal strang maybe even hungary are thinking about that and that's not to say that even some of the french banks are going trouble credit agricole and so for barclays in england certainly investors with any kind of sense rather europe are thinking about where can i pull my money out just let's slow down economies tom truly against this any lessons to be learned from iceland people said they they wouldn't go with it they didn't give in to pressure can we learn any lessons. yeah the less public banking system and to shield the credit markets the consumer credit markets from all the speculation going on which is wrecking the global economy now. and will continue and even spreading to china now thanks ever so much good to have you on the program we got to pay our bills to be got to go to a break in a minute thanks to be with us all right still ahead for you as attention continues

to mount on the korean peninsula the u.s. states it would never accept north korea as a nuclear power it's just a couple of minutes that we take a look at why washington may be interested in provoking conflict in the region and also to come to what's behind katz the looming foreign investments we explore which countries are benefiting from the gulf monarchies billions but also give us just about diversity in the economy no. with oil pipes bursting in arkansas people across the usa start to realize that they are moving towards what the atlanta calls the infrastructure cliff in short america's infrastructure start to get a bit old and according to infrastructure port org the u.s. needs about three point six trillion dollars of infrastructure spending by twenty twenty to turn things around the site sponsored by the american society of civil

engineers gave all aspects of american infrastructure like bridges and drinking water in schools cetera some pretty bad great except for solid waste from a well for some reason in their opinion everything in the u.s. is going to crap except for america's ability to throw solid crap away i'm not trying to sit here and scare you there is nothing to fear this is a big challenge but it's a very possible one to accomplish according to cost of war dot org the last ten years of war of cost about three point one trillion dollars just cutting wars in half by fifty percent could put a huge dent in the infrastructure spending and what about all those billions. bailouts that were spent you see the money is there it just gets wasted if the money stops getting thrown away and starts getting spent or well planned infrastructure then the infrastructure will start paying for itself rocket infrastructure creates wealth so don't fear the infrastructure cliff just stop wasting money or a lot of politicians to waste money and everything will turn out to be just fine but that's just my opinion.

the international and world in the very heart of moscow. get anger over the hunger strike at guantanamo bay detention centers driven activists on to the streets across the u.s. protesting against the mistreatment of detainees and the continued operation of the

camp an open letter by twenty five human rights organizations was delivered to president obama urging him to keep his campaign promise and close the prison at his miniport i was at the demonstration in new york for us. times square is considered one of the best places in the us to advertise a product or message or our brands and that is why civil rights attorneys human rights groups and many activists and protesters are out in the streets of times square right now to raise awareness about the hunger strike taking place at the guantanamo bay detention center and it is clearly garnering a lot of attention to what those are saying that have been turning out on the streets as they're calling on the obama to administration to immediately address the ongoing hunger strike that began in early february at the island prison according to attorneys representing the detainees there they say more than a hundred men are participating in this hunger strike they say it began when when

they detainees there say that the u.s. officials mishandled that their arounds during a cell search and that's what sparked this ongoing hunger strike according to the u.s. u.s. military officials they say only forty one men have been on a hunger strike and at least alleged that are being force fed they say nobody's lives are in danger but that is not what lawyers are telling our team take a listen i saw men who have dramatically lost weight the people that i met with had lost over thirty and forty pounds what they told me is about men who are too weak to come out of the prison they told me of men who are skeletal that's the word they used who are near death who are so weak they can't move they told me about pressure tactics right now within the camp by the officer where he is to try to break the strike things like withholding the delivery of clean drinking water these are

people who have been refusing food for over sixty days they need water to survive or they will die and they talked about tactics like the withholding of bottled water to drink and being. forced to drink from the scenes in their cells which are attached to toilets now this new york rally is part of a nationwide day of action to close guantanamo and end indefinite detention protests are also taking place in over twenty six cities including chicago l.a. and washington d.c. i think that anything to show mamma or the government that this is wrong and that people don't support it is a good thing i don't think is a legitimate. vehicle for for for trying these people i mean because they're not being tried is a problem last week organizations including the center for constitutional rights amnesty international and the united nations called on washington to immediately

shut down the guantanamo detention center at the u.n. human rights chief released a statement saying that america's failure to close the controversial prison and release detainees is a violation of international law currently there are one hundred sixty six prisoners being held at the island prison and at least eighty six have been cleared for release reporting from new york marina r.t. . well as you know day in day out we're on top of this story we've kept track of the hunger strike could tell a move from the start of the protests we've got opinion from high profile politicians lawyers human rights activists if you are cut short when they get the latest it's online on our website r.t. dot com. qatar is boosting its financial presence abroad amassing billions of dollars in foreign assets and its economic expansion isn't limited to out of countries either with cash from flowing to europe as well as the u.s.

as well while qatar says diversity its economy is the main reason for foreign investments there is a growing feeling that politics is playing a major role in the strategy bell trues been looking at way cutters money is going . as egypt's president mohamed morsi is struggling to mend the egyptian economy it's on i can tell one of the richest countries in the world has said that it will buy three billion dollars worth of gyptian government bonds much needed help at a critical time egypt is also suffering from a natural gas shortage at the moment causing blackouts across the capital the khatami foreign minister said last week that they would also consider becoming one of the major suppliers to egypt that sickly as they have the third largest natural gas present results in the world at the bottom wages in syria the guitar a government is also saying they will support the rebels they have given one hundred million dollars to the notch then the syrian national coalition is saying they want the rebels to be armed however they extend that and their interests

outside of egypt and the arab world building a global empire they have reportedly been invested in many countries including the u.k. the us france singapore malaysia iraq just to name a few in dition qatar has been diversifying its areas of interest investing in many sectors including the media fashion petrochemicals and india and indeed financial institutions however the real push are for the super wealthy but tiny emirates appears to be from the surprisingly they have a favored real estate in the french riviera as well as paris buying up several casinos now it is not just luxury property they are investing in they have apparently a gifted three hundred million euro fund to underdeveloped areas all fronts including the notorious suburbs which house key french muslim communities this guitar officials say is all part of a global strategy to ensure that investment revenues exceed that of oil and gas by

twenty thirty and securely as their reserves are looking to run out in the next hundred years however many fear this aggressive expansion of its economic presence of broads is in fact consuls a deliberate move. increase their political influence abroad in addition to possibly exporting its own particular conservative brand of islam and his investments increase year on year it is yet to be seen what power this tiny yet super wealthy emirates will wield in the future. well true those generate a lot of traffic on the websites night let us know what you think about this story it's the website we have a vote we've got running tonight let's take a look superdelegates see if you made up by chart movement or you have this the question is what you think about qatar's global cash splash r t dot com forty two percent this hour you think it's buying political clout abroad a quarter of you this think is a distraction from the democracy shortfalls back at home ok again

a quarter of you that's going up and think it's reading when the oil and gas dries up try to make footholds abroad eight percent hedge against international financial risks you don't think is anything wrong with that let us know plenty of time of your say on our website. as focusing on the careers now north korea has warned tokyo that it will be a prime target in case of war if japan maintains its hostile stance as it puts it or tries to intercept any of pyongyang to test missiles the threat came in response to japan's warning that it would shoot down any north korean missile heading towards its territory meanwhile the u.s. has reiterated it would never accept north korea as

a nuclear power those comments came from secretary of state john kerry who's visiting seoul earlier a mistakenly published pentagon intelligence report suggested pyongyang may be able to deliver a nuclear weapon on a ballistic missile washington's been trying to play down that assessment but many experts believe the u.s. might be benefiting anyway from keeping this situation right on a knife edge. there is another game being played because the united states is ramping up its military facilities in southeast asia obviously for seeing that china will become a super power and all the time kim jong un has repeatedly said i mean he said one month ago we don't want war we want to talk and what must be done now is rather than governments like the british one of course and the united states saying north korea represents a clear danger therefore we have to have a more united states left the nonproliferation treaty britain isn't

a bang by the spirit of the nonproliferation treaty of which it's a signatory and what we need urgently is president obama to make this call but as in so many other foreign policy issues president obama is wavering looks weak about it and what they want to do is force their presence in that region and president obama beat heavily by the arms companies and i got to say companies even in britain will be benefiting greatly by all this news talk of a perceived north korean threat because everyone can upgrade their. let alone. upgrading nuclear weapons of mass destruction in violation of any type of interpretation of the nonproliferation treaty. should return to those twenty two twenty seven moscow time now thanks for being with r.t. ok hotfoot from the business. you got a bulletin coming up for us just in a minute or so after the break natasha not great news for the future of the economy

in russia at the moment prospects down yeah absolutely significantly down i should say by one third but the good news is that the numbers are still something that many european countries absolutely and they would love to see all the details in the business but now after a short break. he became a symbol of the nine hundred ninety s. he personified the russian mafia in the kremlin. he was a twentieth century arrest buton. in just a few years he rose from junior was a multi-billionaire and senior politician. is decline was as rapid as his meteoric rise and ended in exile his death is now as mysterious as his life. better.

choose your language. call it week over though if you're going to. choose this is the consensus you. choose to get the news that you think great to. choose the stories that impact your life choose access to. it's twenty nine minutes past the hour you watching the business program are welcome. russia's economy is slowing down the country's economic ministry slashed its growth forecast by one third that means the slowest expansion rate for russia since the deep.