president choosing between the late leader's closest ally and an opposition leader to completely change direction. plus years of guantanamo bay prison guards the non-lethal. hunger striking prisoners for resisting being taken to isolated. war of the lists eighteen americans suspects of links to torture from entering its territory all of this in response to a similar move by washington. and concerns over the escalating korean crisis spread further afield as the north threatens to strike japan. and russia as one all sides against the military at.

the top headlines of the week and of today this is the week with me will receive. the deciding today whether they want to continue the legacy left by late leader. heading to the polls for a snap presidential election triggered by his death from cancer last month pitched against each other. and opposition and the. free market devote. reports from caracas at what's at stake. leading the polls throughout this campaign has been smuggled he is the chosen successor of the board and many people that i've spoken to who support mother will say that out of loyalty for thomas even for mother loyal they also want to see continuity in all the social programs that are already in place in the country however venezuela is plagued with a lot of problems and the big question there is if motherhood does win this election will he be able to solve problems of crime for example try to just play

some of the economy which people have already been bringing up and these are large shoes to fill for him and he's being watched and scrutinized very closely now second to him is it because the food industry is the opposition these are the younger guys coming in the blue ideas and basically many of the supporters want to vote for him because they want he said they've had enough of it that it is really that they've seen for the past fourteen years and they want something new and a copy of this is also being paid to to someone who is a bit more friendly citizen i would be interested to see if it is real or would you change the nations with the united states if he's voted into power they do let's not forget that this is really sort of the world's the largest oil reserves in the world is watching closely how this vast wealth is going to be managed to moving forward but also people tell me that they want answers to all the problems that they see on the ground the biggest concerns they have of being prime food shortages again i mean they want to see answers fast. and i just remind you all to.

follow developments of polling stations in venezuela as vote the latest updates available on twitter feeds one of the most recent posts that says the queues are getting longer millions cost that the. campaign end game venezuela chooses a new president chavez choice runs against a free market poster boy for venezuela choose after commandante self-styled socialism or free market model venezuela votes fourteenth. a fresh attempt to break a months long hunger strike at guantanamo prison has led to clashes between guards and detainees inmates trying to resist being forcibly moved from communal living quarters to single man cells and offices or spawn did by far in non-lethal bullets a camp officials say they were trying to prevent hunger strikers from persuading

other inmates to join the protest gun h.g. can file this report 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 byard four rounds of prisoners from non-lethal weapons they say the detainees covered surveillance cameras windows and partitions to prevent the guards 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 they were claims that they brought down the temperature into 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. now we also spoke to a lawyer for one of the hunger striking prisoners cindy newco she told us that measures like solitary confinement only aggravate 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 approach as 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 artie's been keeping a very close eye on the hunger strike a one time of we've been gathering comments from officials our lawyers and international organizations as well you can see what they had to say in a special section t. dot com. a number of former u.s. officials linked to the legalization application of torture one ton of obey a feature on a blacklist that russia put together this week moscow released the names of alleged human rights violators it was placing under a travel and economic sanctions after a similar move by the united states artes you got a pretty good offer takes a closer look at the tit for tat action threatening ties between both 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 names 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 get 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 or the foreign ministry's called the mike needs to act in unfriendly rules of four week a lot we've heard from. prime minister dmitry medvedev saying that us 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 mainly 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 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. correspondent you go to prison off right there and in the meantime stephen cohen fessor of russian studies and history at new york university and he believes that president obama has become a hostage to anti russian mood someone u.s. lawmakers. obama did not want the magnitsky act it was imposed on him by the american congress congress one that included his own political party the democratic party changed and poison the atmosphere it's going to make it harder for example. 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 missile defense and i mention that because it's on the table at the moment it's an issue that there will be forces in

the russian political class with. the mostest. so it's not a sideshow. at all it's he is always a we love getting your opinion on the stories we're covering and we're doing that today as we speak right now. on our web site we're asking you basically what's going to be the off the mouth or even the next step of the war of lists between russia and the u.s. down to forty three percent the majority of all voters though for this hour are saying it's just going to lead to maul mine a tit for tat measures between moscow and washington a distant second saying it's not going to affect the key issues between the two biggest boys on the blog interestingly enough they join third and fourth. in the orange saying it's going to severely affect an equal number saying yes the death knell for the state of the reset of relations between the u.s. and russia they often mouth the fallout of the war of lists between russia and the u.s. will be well let us know what you think we're still taking your photo. don't go.

this week tensions around north korea's nuclear threats reached a new high with pyongyang putting tokyo on his potential hit list and japan was threatened after it said it was preparing to shoot down any missiles the north might launch the u.s. secretary of state a is in japan right now the last stop of his asian tour to rally support against pyongyang's nuclear program and washington tokyo and seoul indicated talks with the north can only happen if it's ready for denuclearization and the apparent deadlock is worrying not only the countries involved in the dispute but moscow as well as

artie's reports. 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 concern. 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 nuclear war if we remember the. 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 tension. serious. concern from the russian president.

and for the denuclearization of. there 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. 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. the birthday of the late korean leader. north korea kim il sung some reports are suggesting that it's. actually conduct. china is perhaps the only country with influence over reclusive north korea and committed to ridding its neighbor of nuclear capabilities in

a manner and to walk to us brian becker believes the growing alienation between north korea and its historic ally china is ultimately playing right into washington's. 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 in your 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 that 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. are still to come here on r t a nation in this. decade since the fall of baghdad as we look at iraq crushed by the.

broader views of the future. and the death of the. british prime minister margaret thatcher has provoked scandal in the u.k. the song ding dong the witch is dead rockets of the music charts and parts of the population so they're. like to see this coming up you want. technology innovation all these developments around russia. the future covered.

the international airport in the very heart of moscow. thank you for sharing your sunday with us here on out to today it has 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 fall and marked the beginning of

a new war a decade of instability sectarian violence on terrorist attacks claimed thousands of lives and saudis lucy catherine off reports the fear of the late dictator has been replaced by the horror of the on. iraq war is supposed to be over but these pictures tell a different story chaos and confusion in the aftermath of yet another deadly blast here into a kook. this oil rich city has been described as a long line a symbol of the country's most intractable woes as collating violence the conflict among ethnic. just groups and a 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 and is a blatant visual reminder of

a country still very much at war. but 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 diverse 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 attacks could 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 or 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 the car windows down that way if there's

a blast at least the glass was heard. such precautions didn't help sixty year old fellow 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 or so by the end of the. harvest what benefit did the work bring democracy only explosions shooting and killing people should feel free to go out and come back safely where is that a job i can leave but there's no guarantee i'll come back a lot of our soldiers. no it's not about the sectarian differences unfortunately it's book black cool the oil in 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 for law they simply want the peace of mind of knowing they can go out and return to their loved ones alive to see captain of our team. and of the u.s. led mission left a heavy burden on iraq is now the use of unconventional weapons threatens future generations of children a doctor. says america will not be able to compensate for the damage it's 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 thousand nine hundred one and then in two thousand and three are true catastrophe and all types of munitions were used of including dispenser weapons past present munitions 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 and world health organization reports on the internet radiological monitoring held on the international level with good points of radioactive contamination of southern central and in the 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 in yellow. this is r t the death of former prime minister margaret thatcher this week reopened old divisions among the british people while some grieved her passing socialist

students and anticapitalist were joined by x. miners in london's trafalgar square on saturday to a bit a not so fond farewell demonstrators said they stand against the legacy of stature and during her time at the top of british politics took on the humans and privatized state services now detractors are finding creative and provocative ways to show their anger at the mob she's left an online campaign is rocketed the wizard of oz song ding dong the witch is dead to the top of the music charts for the b.b.c. radio show that plays out the weekly hit list and said it will only add five seconds of the song as part of a new story for fear of offending people and author and journalist toby young believes the full show me the full song should indeed be played simply out of principle. i think it is important it's very cool 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 greatly admired margaret thatcher i absolutely stand fast to the principle that something shouldn't be banned a song shouldn't be not played because some people find it offensive if 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. may ban decide 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 comments left they were reduced to this because she had a actively beaten them in open debate but i have to say that those of us who are and loved moderate that have made a counterattack and we're buying

a song called i'm in love with margaret thatcher by the not sensible and we're hoping that will pick up on which she said to the number one spot. the reason that margaret thatcher was so controversial is she turned the u.k. into a totally different country when r.t. dot com you can read the interview with artie's contributor afshin rattansi on the lessons the iconic leader helped britain and the rest of the world to learn. wiki leaks is back launching a new website packed with the largest amount of geo political material ever published the project k. archive includes more than one point seven million confidential or formerly confidential diplomatic communications from former u.s. secretary of state henry kissinger here are some of the revelations on wiki leaks right now some documents reveal that the u.s. backed road to excuse me dictatorships known for brutality against their people

including franco's spain and when two ruled greece and washington had also close connections to the vatican in supporting the one nine hundred seventy who in chile that saw the bloody pinochet regime come to power and another scandal threatening to block in sweden's name its secret police were reported to have spied on leftist citizens under cia orders and we spokes person kristinn hrafnsson believes the whistle blowing web site has simply done the job of the u.s. government. because it is dedicated to bringing historical records to the public attention when there is an attempt to keep them hidden although these documents have been declassified to be extremely difficult to approach them and assess them in their current form of the only year in the national archives so what we did was to regard it as a gather with help and and publish them in a searchable database a very robust database the authorities here in washington of course they should be

very pleased that we are doing the job that they should be doing themselves so maybe you should apply for us on phones and continue his work from the u.s. government and they should actually focus on one tension of supporting over a concert of continual is unprecedented relents is an attempt to prosecute julian assigns and all the members of that we can use team. into the r.t. world are they now starting with at least five people dead after a bus crash near the belgian city of antwerp and the vehicle reportedly travelling one hundred kilometers an hour when it smashed through the highway guard rails and the bus was carrying dozens of russian youths on a european tour although none of them were among the dead. some two thousand people marched through the center of glasgow scotland second city calling for money spent on britain's nuclear defense arsenal to be spent instead on public services the so-called scrap trident coalition joined at the rally by politicians and trade

unionists it says that a cash should be diverted to health welfare and education. for italian journalists held captive in syria had been released and flown home the group working for italy state t.v. network and were abducted when filming in northern syria in a town serving as a base for the front that's a rebel force linked to al-qaeda the journalist said it turned out to be a mis understanding. now cyprus's bell out plans swell to twenty three billion euros. softer a new round of talks between the e.u.'s financial heads this friday the country has already landed a ten billion euro deal with international creditors and it got away with contributing less than a quarter of it this time around those cyprus will pay the biggest share and that means more spending cuts tax increases and selling off gold reserves while levying losses on cypriot banks the latter will see the accounts of save as raided at the

banks being targeted fessor of political economics jack rasmussen says there is concern that others might follow the example of 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 seeing major money who are in demand for cash balances money cost needs but 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 you're going to have to a bell and even more people on 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 that's not only happening in europe there was a leaking a 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. art after

a very short break here on our report white knight it's a look at the lives of palestinian women who work nearly any job just to feed their families they get the money for them in israel this is. with oil pipes bursting in arkansas people across the usa start to realize that they are moving towards what the atlantic calls the infrastructure cliff in short america's infrastructure starting 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 and schools cetera some pretty bad great except for solid waste removal for some reason in their appeal.