resisting attempts to move them to. break the ongoing hunger strike. a major thorn in relations as washington releases the names of russians that labeled as human rights violators. directly from moscow. and starting afresh in venezuela as the nation heads to the polls on sunday to elect a new president after the death of the country's charismatic long time leader. plus the u.s. says it may scale down its forces in asia if north korea abandons its nuclear weapons program. to china to put pressure on pyongyang. quarantine billions and save us money. through.

the week today this is the weekly on r t with me it's a pleasure to have you with us today. inmates at the guantanamo bay prison have clashed with. a two month long hunger strike that offices trying to forcibly remove detainees from communal living quarters and isolate them in individual cells. the prisoners as they resisted with improvised weapons. this was apparently a pre-dawn operation that took place hours after the delegates of the international committee of the red cross left the island left guantanamo a statement released by the u.s. military says the guards at guantanamo have fired four rounds at prisoners from non-lethal weapons they say the detainees covered surveillance cameras windows and partitions to prevent the guards ongoing hunger strike the guards allegedly clashed

with the detainees which military officials say led them to move the captives from communal to single cells the military says the detainees used improvised weapons to resist the transfer they say that's when the guards started shooting at the captives one ton of the prisoners have been starving for more than two months now trying to bring public attention to their plight because they sense did mr ation would rather forget about them the state department closed the office that was working to transfer the remaining captives half of them have been cleared for release their attorneys are saying that the president has been doing all possible to stop the hunger strike they've been force feeding the strikers there were claims that they brought down the temperature in the cells to make it harder to endure the strike and now we hear that they put them in solitary confinement and shots of being fired. and a. lawyer for one of the detainees on hunger strike she says measures like solitary confinement the problem could be at least partially solved by simply respecting the

person whose religion. michael counsel who represents your bio derek puts heat visited here just two days ago at guantanamo and oh by i don't know describe the camp six as looking like a village which had been decimated by some sort of attack with men just walking around very feebly very weak barely i mean to have any energy to even communicate with each other it's a very very sad difficult situation and the reaction of the u.s. is the opposite of what it should be this strike approach could have been resolved with not violence but by simply agree to allow the men to return the qur'an says the u.s. government to surrender them so that they did not have to watch them continue to be desecrated and searched and it's commandos from come delta who have appeared on the radar screens of russian authorities who are child

a list of american human rights violators on saturday the man named now fall under a travel and economic sanctions that comes in direct response to washington's publication of a list of russians it has banned from entering the united states again due to what it claims to be human rights breaches and more on this now from artie's you got a postcard. what we're witnessing now is really a game of political pingpong first washington published a part of its so-called magnitsky a list eighteen russian official suspected there of being connected to human rights violations they have been subjected to various economic and travel sanctions including the ban for them to enter the united states and shortly after this list was published a symmetric reaction came from moscow which published a part of its blacklist of eighteen american officials linked to human rights violations at the guantanamo bay detention center and the violations of the rights of russian citizens outside the center but since both lists have been published

only partially we may expect morning to be put on them while the american is character was by american lawmakers at the end of last year and was named after city my good ski and employee of the hermitage capital investment fund he was suspected of fraud he got himself a claim that he had uncovered a massive corruption scheme but he died in prison in two thousand and nine before a court could make a decision on his case moscow has been accusing washington of using his unfortunate death as a political tool to apply pressure on russia or the foreign ministry's called the mike needs an unfriendly rooster for week a lot we've heard from prime minister dmitry medvedev saying that u.s. authorities have the full right to deny entry visas to anyone without even having to explain why not to mention passing any controversial laws or black lists and many or most russian lawmakers believe that the magnitsky act harms america's own interests is like shooting oneself in the leg so i don't really see the rational

for this from the point of your bum administration which claims to be an administrator that is paying attention to multilateralism to international partnerships it was definitely a blow to the relations between moscow and washington and now this is happening ahead of a visit by a senior u.s. foreign advisor to moscow on monday for talks and these lists are definitely not going to make his job any easier. pissing off reporting there and stephen f. cohen a professor from studies and history at new york university it feels the diplomatic fallout is due to be incompetence so if the us congress the act by congress was of course provoked by russia for being forces in the united states congress is excel for is not russia for which it's just uninformed it knows almost nothing about russia most members of congress have no understanding of their

national affairs or national security and when a lot of us bring pressure on the majority members of congress and this was a bipartisan attack that the so called liberal democrats progressive feet will support of the magnitsky act as much as it did reactionary riyad grow a republicans you end up with a bill like this it's not about russell vote it's about it's about a lack of knowledge it's a bad thing in the legislature to pass laws on subjects they know almost nothing about now it's true that the obama white house did not want to make new. but he didn't use its powers words leadership to stop. and so that's what you call a combination of a build up in congress and a lack of leadership from the white house. and it is your opinion we are always interested in hearing on our website r.t. dot com we do ask you about the fallout of the war of lists between moscow and washington let's see how you're voting right now from the web site dot com and it's

a very interesting the numbers got they fluctuate every single hour we appreciate your participation in this poll here still though the majority of voters from the dot com are saying this will just lead to more but minor tit for tat measures on both sides of the equation here a very distant second saying it won't affect corporation on the key issues third position though are voters saying it will escalate and severely affect then in the final position here that's actually moved by seven percent the last time i saw it it's going up seventeen percent saying it'll be the death knell for the u.s. russia and the relationship of the whole reset button we had in the recent past with hillary clinton and sort of a left off of the ministry of foreign affairs you can submit your vote online at r.t. dot com or you can use our common section as well if you have more thoughts on the story. well still ahead for you this hour here on our nation in turmoil a decade on since the fall of saddam hussein iraq convulses in rows of terror and a lot of scars left behind of years of occupation the past onto

a new generation. for now the u.s. secretary of state john kerry he's in china on the latest leg of his emergency tour to try and diffuse tension around north korea's nuclear threats in a news conference he suggested that america could remove its newly bolstered missile defense in the region if pyongyang abandons its nuclear weapons program it's believed that often might encourage china to put pressure on north korea something it's been reluctant to do so far earlier this week a pentagon report released by mistake claimed the north already had the capability to launch a nuclear missile and the white house however quickly dismissed those findings as premature. nevertheless though america japan and south korea have continued to build up defenses with seoul saying it's braced for the north's missile test any time russia has warned against the escalation of the crisis as a chef ski now reports. the city with

a population of around seven hundred thousand people is the closest. to the border with north korea literally two hundred kilometers away is the place where the russian the chinese and the north koreans meet at the same course the escalation of tensions on the korean peninsula has led to some serious not only in the far east of course but in moscow as well because should anything happen between the two koreas especially if nuclear weapons would be involved russia would be one of the first countries affected. by the possible consequences of nuclear war if we remember the several years ago traces of radiation were felt. which is also just a stone's throw away from here so all the latest developments in the north korean conflict in the escalating tensions. serious. the russian president mr president we are against nuclear proliferation and for the

denuclearization of the who korean peninsula. because we are neighbors and if something happens there it will make the. children. but of course not only russia is concerned with the current situation on the korean peninsula the u.s. . if it decides to hold. this would signify that it no longer wants to listen to the international community the most interesting day here clearly will be monday when. north korea. some reports are suggesting that it's. actually conduct. the first election in fourteen years without us from buoyantly to. his death last

month left the country at a crossroads. appears to be a frontrunner the gap between him and the opposition likely have a few no. following the whole election and cover. the polls are about to open here in venezuela fifteen million citizens are expected to cast their ballots and choose their next president. no one's expected really the legacy of. these elections it's as much about the past as it is about the future of this country to have candidates running for the opposition you have on the one hand that nicolas maduro he is running on a platform of continuing everything that was put in place in this country especially when it comes to social missions really the cornerstone of thomas's popularity among the masses and the poor people are also says that he wants to tackle crime government inefficiencies in iraq or c. and that basically goes to keep in place everything that's already set in this

country on the other hand you have the this is one who is running on a platform of change and innovation he says he wants to introduce a more free market economy in the country more pro-business policies at the same time maintaining those social spending programs to learn a very different views on where they want to take this difference really can also be felt on the ground when you talk to the citizens on who they're going to vote for in these elections. going along with crime and violence the biggest challenge is to convince the population of venezuela that everyone has the opportunity to succeed. and no one. but we need to continue pursuing his policies after all if you follow his policies to the end we will see the difference for the venezuelans i've been speaking to tell me why. of the main concern is crime they want to see whatever is empowered to tackle this to bring the crime that level down of the country they want more security they also mention problems of inflation

the be economy and of job security but at the end of the day they really boils down to two things for those who are supporting mughal it is out of loyalty to paul this is the so-called socialist revolution they want to see this continue for those supporting us it's all about change they're just part of the current state of the country and they want to see something different will very soon the world is going to see that new face who is going to be at the helm of venezuela after fourteen years this. right there are the weeks on the day's top news stories coming up after this break. the. science technology innovation. developments around russia we've. covered. you know sometimes you see

a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you. are welcome to the big picture. we care with zero in federal. choose good news good consensus yet you. choose to get to. choose the stories that impact your life. choose the access to.

thank you for joining us here on our. show you in moscow police are bracing for protests at the funeral of former prime minister margaret thatcher which i will be held this wednesday at some polls cathedral in london organizers of the demons say that they're standing against the legacy of the controversial leader who during her time at the top of british politics took on the unions and privatized state services as well and her detractors are finding creative provocative ways to show their anger at the mob she left on british society an online campaign has rocketed the song from the wizard of oz ding dong the witch is dead right back into the music charts but a b.b.c. radio show that plays out the weekly hit list has said it will only air five seconds of the song as part of a new story for fear of offending people let's go to water and journalist to toby young are joining us now live from london here good to see you today mr young as polarizing as she may have been we're still talking about a person here

a mother and a grandmother i mean there are many that are saying this song ding dong the witch is dead being played in the aftermath of margaret thatcher's death is in very poor taste what do you think. i think it is in very poor taste but i don't think that's a reason not to play it i think that we should hold people's rights to free speech and that includes the right to offend people as a conservative and as someone who greet lee at my margaret thatcher i absolutely stand fast to the principle that something shouldn't be banned some shouldn't be not played because some people find it offensive the right to free speech if it means anything includes the right to offend people and i think it's conservatives want this song banned on grounds of taste and decency on the grounds that they're offended it will be a hostage to fortune because there are plenty of things which conservatives will

want to say in future which the b.b.c. made bad our own similar ground so i think we just if i can if i could to stop it just for you what it comes to the listeners to the b.b.c. radio one program but most of them are under twenty five a lot of them weren't even alive when margaret thatcher was in power one might presume it's them buying the song that's why it's shooting up the charts but do they even know what they're rallying behind. i don't think they do i think unfortunately. twenty four year olds have a good historical memory i think if they did know more about look at that they think twice before attacking in this tasteless way after all if it hadn't been for the strong transatlantic alliance between margaret thatcher and ronald reagan the soviet union might not have collapsed in one thousand eight hundred nine the berlin wall might not have come down and eastern europe might still be under the yoke of

soviet tyranny. so i think you know we have them and margaret thatcher to thank for the fact that we enjoy the freedom to do this kind of thing but i don't think margaret thatcher would have wanted this song banned after all she stood up for freedom she has here i mean as as you say of mystery i mean margaret thatcher herself was a huge advocate of free speech and what do you think she would have made of a she she once famously said of protesters towards her that at least it showed that she had made an impact i mean you can't really argue with that can you oh she said that she actually always took some satisfaction when her opponents attacked her personally and stooped to low vulgar tactics like this because it meant that they had no other or humans left they were reduced to this because she had a actively beaten them in open debate and i'm sure she would have taken exactly the same view about the people buying this song and wanting to promote it in the charts but i'm don't think for a second that she would have wanted the b.b.c. not to play the song but i've ever very very quickly here toby i'm running low on

time at the b.b.c. has said that will only play a few seconds of the song but not the whole song i want what what is the point of playing it at a door ding dong the witch is dead and many saying it's and poor taste but now the b.b.c. saying well we're only going to play a few seconds what's the point well i think it's a bit of a fudge i think the b.b.c. should play the song in full i think the phrase i said before the fact that some people including. meek will find it offensive if he's not a good reason to not play but i have to say that those of us who are and love to moderate sacha have made a character attack and we're borrowing a song called i'm in love with margaret thatcher by the not sensible and we're hoping that will pip ding dong the witch is dead to the number one spot so we're going to wait and see it's off to go sit have been successful over a young journalist and author a great pleasure to have you on our team today thanks for sharing your sunday with us thank you. i recommend you live from moscow a decade on since the u.s. led overthrow of saddam hussein bombings bloody power struggles and uncertainty now

haunting every day iraqi life from a resurgent al qaeda to sectarian rivalries even in the highest halls of government it's all taking a tough toll on the people with more than a thousand casualties last month alone as artie's lucy catherine of reports for many the fear of the late dictator has been replaced by the horror of the un. but. the iraq war is supposed to be over but these pictures tell a different story chaos and confusion the aftermath of yet another deadly blast here into your kook. this oil rich city has been described as a raucous one a symbol of the country's most intractable escalating violence the conflict among ethnic and religious groups and the fight over iraq's resources roadblocks and

concrete barriers to find the new iraq checkpoints like this one are a dominant feature of life and they are everywhere aside from the house they're also frequent target of attacks for us it was a blatant visual reminder of a country still very much at war. but it's been a flashpoint for years now and in the city center it's clear that life doesn't stop just because of the threats we were expecting empty streets but people continued to go about their business as normal vendors seemed busy families did their shopping beneath the surface there are scars today kirkuk continues to be an incredibly dangerous place shortly after the city without the help of a military escort residents here say that a toxic happen at any time in any place in fact it's not really safe to stay here for too long so let's get inside. we need car want to his family there kurds who say they're happy that saddam is gone but their fear of political repression has been replaced by fear of the unknown. we don't know who the enemy is or when the

next bomb will go off but it's a daily fears so we've gotten used to it i do small things to feel safer like driving with all the car windows down that way if there's a blast at least the glass won't hurt us. such precautions didn't help sixty year old mahmoud who says that a decade of war has ruined iraq he happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time a bomb blast went off injuring his leg for him daily life has become a painful struggle just about the only problem i have is what benefit did the your bring democracy only explosions shootings and kidnappings people should feel free to go out and come back safely where is that i can leave but there's no guarantee i'll come back alive but sergeant you. know it's not about the sectarian differences unfortunately it's book the black the oil and behind this oil is the hidden interests of politicians pawns in

a political game playing with their livelihoods and lives for conflicts not of their own making the iraqis we met didn't hate their neighbors or care about who controls the oil just like fall they simply want the peace of mind of knowing they can go out and return to their loved ones alive lucie county r.t. iraq. and michael prize notes are part of the invasion as a u.s. soldier but he told r.t. the reality of what he experienced brought about a drastic change of heart. witnessing all of the lives told by the bush administration really crumble in front of our faces and the main thing being interactions with the iraqi people who we were told we were liberating and seeing what was being done to them and how they opposed our presence there and also realizing that the people that we were told were our enemies were exactly like my friends and family and neighbors here at home and that i had so much in common with

them you know i was being told by the multimillionaire politicians that we were the enemy and that we had to fight them and interior that i witnessed and took part in were truly terrifying and humiliating experiences for of iraqis who were detained on my experience working in interrogations is that ninety nine percent of the people that we anteroom gated and terrorized and humiliated in those cells had done absolutely nothing wrong were picked up at random and did not deserve to be in jail the greatest atrocity of the modern era i mean over a million people dead and millions millions more whose lives were destroyed. it's been a week of intense fire fighting for the eurozone with the single currency blocks ministers approving an emotion see bailout for cyprus but the flames are not out yet that now emerging nicosia is going to lead a lot more money than i originally thought a ten billion euro lifeline is now being greenlighted for cyprus which request even

more money was flatly rejected and it needs to come up with a billion euros more which it will try to amass by draining the bank accounts of savers the cypriot banks professor of political economics our jack russell most things european accounts and now a threat. what you're going to see is a severe depression in cyprus as government raises taxes cut spending sells all facets but all that you want on the private side you're going to see it in. we're already seeing major money hoard demand for cash balances money the loss of these absolutely and as they get their money out you're going to see capital flight so the situation in cyprus is going to get much worse you're going to have to will bail and even more people on those over one hundred hundred thousand euros will have to play more or maybe now they're going to have to start going after those with less than one hundred thousand that's not only happening in europe there was

a leaking you know report last december and it showed that both the u.s. and the u.k. are now considering maybe making depositors pay so this thing is a reflection of the growing banking instability. this is a lot for moscow i know many people have to fly into space but here in russia space prize to you coming up next our special report from the year rolls which was of course hit by a massive me to your earlier this yeah this is not. more

news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images and seeing from the streets and canada. operations room to get. both. of.

you. can use this not. just coming out of central and western russia right now i simply incredible the sky full of fire and brimstone. thousand tons. i wish this is a. trail of smoke a day at least twenty times the strength of the atomic bomb dropped on hiroshima took place in the sky above the cities and towns of your goals the blows to wave smashed windows undestroyed groups of the goodness of buildings. it was followed by a downpour of stone fragments.