electing a new president choosing between the late leader. and the opposition leader to completely change direction. clashes or guantanamo bay guards fired. on hunger striking prisoners resisting being relocated to solitary cells and the latest attempt to break the long running. rusher accuses the u.s. of dealing a severe blow to. the travel of eighteen american suspected of links to torture and illegal arrests all in retaliation to a similar move by washington. and concerns over the escalating korean crisis spreading further afield as the north threatens to strike. its missiles russia has warned all sides against the military.

live from moscow this is our. show with the top stories of the week and today. deciding today whether they want to continue the legacy left by later. as they head into the polls for a presidential election triggered by his death from cancer last month pitched against each other. and opposition candidate and the free market. reports from. all the polls have opened here in venezuela where fifteen million citizens are expected to cast their votes to choose their president in. about a month ago i was expected legacy. part in these election. it's as much about the

past as it is about the future of this country are there to remain a top candidates are running for the top position you have on the one hand. he is running on a platform of continuing everything that has put in place in this country especially when it comes to social mission is really the cornerstone of chavez's popularity among the masses and the poor people are also says that he wants to tackle crime and government inefficiencies and the rocker sea and the basically though he wants to keep in place everything that's already set in this country on the other hand you have in previous years one who was 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 two men have 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. 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. his policies to the end we will see the difference. in the venezuelans i've been speaking to tell me that one of their main concerns is crime they want to see whatever is empowered to tackle this to bring the climate level of the country they want more security they also mention the problems of inflation the b. economy and of job security but at the end of the day it really boils down to two things for those who are supporting it is out of loyalty to paul is the so-called socialist revolution they want to see this continue. it's all about change they're just part of the current state of the country and they want to see something different very soon of the world is going to see that new face who is going to be. after fourteen years of this. these are tough for australia reporting right there

just to remind you that. is indeed following the developments out of the polling stations in venezuela as vote or the latest updates are available on her twitter feed as you can see right here one of the most recent posts saying that the queues are getting longer as millions cast their ballots and will be having a lot of analysts there discussing the event as well the election joining us live from paris in the very near future. in the game as well or chooses president chavez choice runs against a free market poster boy for possible that is where the juice after coming down days self-styled socialism or free market model venezuela votes fourteenth. ok let's discuss the venezuelan presidential election a bit further now with the old coleman our political analyst joining us live from paris and they welcome to r.t. thanks for joining us on the program this sunday ultimately just

a day before the election it was reported that model roads lead over the opposition candidate has actually narrowed white why do you think that is what i think they say that every time they've been saying that now for ever since i was elected in the first place in one thousand nine. hundred ground i think this is all part of the usual media procedure which is to claim that the opposition has some sort of credibility and i really don't take these claims seriously at all i think my viewers probably going to have should have a fairly comfortable victory or when you're forecasting a victory in this case the opposition just going to sort of interrupt you there but ultimately mo duro could indeed win there but some people are saying well he might win because of people's nostalgia over that of chavez if indeed my daughter could win could he feel the shoes of his predecessor. that's

a difficult question to answer i think nobody really plays chavez in terms of his charisma its performance has been absolutely everything in these last two decades. i think. it's going to be very very difficult for my daughter to replace chavez in terms of. overall appeal his personality and so on but i think that the movement that chavez created the bolivarian revolution the structures that chavez put in place those structures are quite imbedded now in venezuelan society it's going to be very difficult to uproot all that can be very difficult to record all of that but i think the danger is and what usually happens when great leaders like chavez die is that you have all sorts of currents of opportunism that will take over the movement in these parties and i think that could be the danger now in the years

ahead where you will get people because one of the problems the we're seeing here is that clearly in this election maduro. he was the choice to challenge themselves he has a lot of credibility he's quite popular but the one that many issues discussed in this election it was more about personality and cherries and it was more about you know who's going to. i mean i think. there are two men the two men are behind that but i can take chavez's chavez issues at the top of the political spectrum as you say perhaps that campaign platforms have been lacking a bit in substance but if i can for a moment here all the larger picture the broader scale let's discuss the the international arena here do you think venezuela no matter who comes to power capitalism adora think it'll maintain its rather open opposition to what chavez used to call american imperialism. well i think this is a very very important question much much depends on what you might call the global

ecosystem the clinical system is like an ecosystem in the sense that if you look at . chavez allies in the world what countries chavez rely on well he relied a lot on the relationship the strong relationship with the roofs strong relationship with russia strong ratio with china in africa there were huge initiatives from two thousand and nine to create closer integration between africa and latin america this initiative was very much chavez very much came from from cherry's and south. straight after that in two thousand and eleven we saw the nato bombing campaign in libya destroyed the country and ended that initiative effectively although the structure is still there there was some african latin american summit in two thousand and thirteen in guinea now but there are there is an absence of leaders now in africa there are very few independent leaders. within

a massive recall an edition of the african continent i think missouri is going to really have a lot in the on his plate to deal with in the next so you say mcdowell a lot on his plate by allington you think that will do you think a privilege you think the president strong enough candidate to lead venezuela of course venezuela being one of the countries of the world where the largest reserves of oil that's a lot of responsibility that. absolutely no absolute short answer is no he's not a serious candidate this is a puppet of the united states he's a noxious character who got into a lot of trouble only a couple weeks ago i think was when he insulted the handicapped people he's. an obnoxious. buffoon of a character it's not really a politician really can rise on television with baseball caps and tracksuits in order to make himself look popular and so on but he has absolutely no policies and

he he represents i think a return to that horrible system we had in one thousand nine hundred of of corruption and crime and a tiny oligarchy which had all of the power in its hands and i think there's very few people in venezuela who would be able to tolerate that and if he was one of the dangers in this election and this is something that. the venezuelan government has been warning the people about destabilisation campaign there have been various destabilization campaigns we should remember that in two thousand and thirteen in two thousand and two on the thirteenth of. of april there was a coup d'etat against chavez backed by washington i saw it here maybe with a coup d'etat against chavez so many were saying was dictated from washington also a lot of a lot of rumors already coming up in the past couple of weeks of conspiracies and a possible coup d'etat. life in paris a political analyst i wish we had more time for this we don't but we have got our exclusive live coverage of this one as well in the elections here at r.t.

so from us to you from moscow to paris thank you very much indeed for joining us here on today thank you. campaign endgame venezuela chooses a new president and chavez choice runs against a free market poster boy for possible venezuela choose after coming down to self-styled socialism or free market model venezuela votes open fourteenth. we're coming to you live from moscow a fresh attempt to break up months long hunger strike at guantanamo bay prison camp has now led to clashes between the guards and detainees the inmates tried to resist being forcibly moved from communal living quarters to single man cells and officers responded by firing non-lethal bullets a cab official say they were trying to prevent hunger strikers from persuading other inmates to join the protest guyon h.g. can has more on the story. 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 from observing them during the 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 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 on the corresponding gun and you know we did also speak to a lawyer for one of the hunger striking prisoners. told us that measures like solar tree confinement in the situation. my co-counsel who represents obeidallah derek poteat visited him just two days ago at guantanamo and obeidallah described 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 unable 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 the protests 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 been searched. when r.t. has been keeping a very close eye on the hunger strike and gone time obey prison and we've been gathering comments from officials lawyers and international organizations to see what they have to say in the special section of r r t dot com. for now a number of former u.s. officials linked to the legalization and application of torture at guantanamo feature on a blacklist that with the russia put together just this week in fact moscow released names of alleged human rights violators it was placing on the travel and economic sanctions this after a similar move by america r.t. as you go to this going off takes a closer look at the tit for tat action threatening ties between the nations what we're witnessing now is really

a game of political pingpong first washington published a part of its so-called kill 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 more nene's to be put on them the american his character was by american lawmakers at the end of last year and was named after sort of you might be an 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 the foreign ministry's called the magnitsky act an unfriendly use of four 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 more sed 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 view of a bomb administration which claims to be an administration 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 r.t.c. got his kind of reporting there and in the meantime stephen f. cohen a professor of russian studies and history at new york university he believes president obama has become a hostage to anti russian moods among u.s. lawmakers. obama did not want magnitsky act it was imposed on him by the american congress a congress that included is our own political party the democratic party changed and poison the atmosphere it's going to make it harder. president obama to make concessions to let's say. the president. because there is this added to. the concessions and i'm guessing that your president would like to modify his position on defense and i mention that because it's on the table a moment it's an issue that there will be forces in the russian political class.

system. so it's not a side. well as always hear it on c we're always interested in your opinion on the stories we're doing here particularly now this one regarding the war of lists ultimately between a rusher in the united states and aussie dot com we're taking your feedback what's going to happen next well the majority of voters it's actually down to forty three percent for this hour saying it's just going to lead to some more minor measures a very distant second i was saying it's not going to affect the cooperation on key issues and curiously enough the let's just go down to green eighteen percent it keeps. getting higher and higher more involved voters from. saying this will be a death knell for the u.s. russia reset in their relationship so the war of lists what will be the next step between washington and moscow well we're still taking. and still the time here in the program up ahead for you a nation in despair

a decade since the fall of baghdad if we look at iraq he's crushed by the uncertainty that war brought and that fears for the future. and the death of controversial former british prime minister margaret thatcher has provoked a scandal in the u k. as the song big name dong the witch is dead rockets up the music charts just blocks of the population show their anger at a political legacy that's coming up for you after a short break. we'll

look at. science technology innovation all the list of elements from around russia we've got the future covered. the international landlord in the very heart of moscow. thank you for sharing your sunday with us here at city this week tensions around north korea's nuclear threats reached a new high with pyongyang putting tokyo one is

a potential hit list japan was threatened after it said it was preparing to shoot down any missiles the north might launch or the u.s. secretary of state is in japan now on the last stop of his asian tour to rally support against pyongyang's nuclear program washington tokyo and seoul indicated talks with the north can happen only if it's ready for a de nuclearization the apparent deadlock is wiring not only the countries involved in the dispute but moscow as well sees alexia shift as this report. the city with a population of around seven hundred thousand people is the closest russian big city 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 place of course the escalation of tensions on the korean peninsula has led to some serious. 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 consequences of a nuclear war if we remember the. traces of radiation were felt. just a stone's throw away from here so all the latest developments in the north korean conflict in the escalating tension. serious. from the russian president. on for the denuclearization of. 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. state secretary john kerry said that. 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. perhaps the only country with influence of north korea has committed to ridding its neighbor of nuclear capability. and so we're activist brian becker believes the growing alienation between north korea and its historic ally china is ultimately playing straight into washington's hands the obama administration is taking the bush administration policy of provocation escalation increased tension to a whole new level they want to create pressure on china to break china away from its historic relationship with north korea by creating a military confrontation or

a near confrontation the united states is saying to the chinese look the stakes are very high time for you to change time for you to abandon your your ally in north korea and i think they think that there could be the the prescription the precursor to regime change in north korea if they could break china away china doesn't want to do that although you can see the debate going on right now within the chinese establishment. live from moscow this is arts he it's been ten years since the statue of saddam hussein which watched over central baghdad was torn down by u.s. troops it became the symbol of the regime's forward mark the beginning of a new war a decade of instability sectarian violence and terrorist attacks claimed thousands of lives it's not easy to see catherine off now reports fear of the late dictator has been you know placed by horror of the unknown. right it is.

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 in kirkuk. this oil rich city has been described as a white 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 household 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 has 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 the 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. you know. we don't know who the enemy is where women next bomb will go off but it's a daily fears we've got used to it you know 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 mood who says that a decade of war has ruined iraq he happened to be in the wrong place at the long time. a bomb blast went off injuring his leg for him daily life has become a painful struggle if so by the end of the pipe is what benefit did the work bring

democracy only explosions shootings and kidnappings people should feel free to go out and come back safely where is that a job where 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 gold 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 lucy captain of our team iraq. a u.s. led mission left a heavy burden on iraq use of the use of unconventional weapons threatens future generations of children dr c.

says america will not be able to compensate for the damage caused. it's clear that though the u.s. spoke of their help provided to iraq after the invasion notably reconstruction education and investments their so-called help resulted in the use of weapons banned by article fifty three of the geneva convention it prohibits any kind of weapon which if used where there is war can affect the areas environment climate and water resources things that occurred in one nine hundred ninety one and then in two thousand and three are true catastrophe all types of munitions were used including dispenser weapons bosphorus ammunitions depleted uranium and chemical weapons all these types of weapons were used intentionally and on a mass scale in iraq this testing out of weapons had disastrous effects in terms of environmental contamination not to be compared even with hiroshima this is by no means an exaggeration this is not my opinion you can look up human rights watch in

world health organization reports on the internet radiological monitoring held on the international level points of radioactive contamination of southern central and even northern areas of iraq and despite repeated calls and all the reports published by iraqi scientists the us turned a blind eye on the issue. thanks for joining us here on r.t. today at the death of former prime minister margaret thatcher this week reopened old divisions among the british people while some grieved passing socialist students and anti capitalists were joined by ex miners in london's trafalgar square on saturday to bid not so fond farewell demonstrators said they stand against the legacy of thatcher it during her time at the top of british politics took on the unions and privatized state services.