the president choosing between the late leader's closest ally and an opposition leader who aims to completely change direction. can be. lethal rounds on long term hunger striking prisoners who are resisting being taken to an isolated. war of the lists russia eighteen americans it suspects of links to torture from entering its territory 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 if it intercepts its missiles. against upping the military and top stories this hour.

with a look back at the past seven days top stories and the latest developments this is the weekly on. venezuelans deciding today whether they want to continue the legacy left by late leader hugo chavez heading to the polls for a snap presidential election triggered by his death from cancer last month pitched against each other. apparent nicolas maduro an opposition candidate and he's a free market the vote on reports from caracas on what's at stake. leading the polls throughout this campaign has been. the chosen successor of. many people that i've spoken to. out of loyalty for thomas. for 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 does win this election will he be able to solve problems of crime for example shortages inflation of the economy

which people have already been bringing up and these are large shoes to fill for him and he is being watched and scrutinized very closely and second to him is and you get the feeling that she is the opposition that he doesn't use the full moon for many of his supporters want to vote for him because they want. to see for the past fourteen years and they want something new and this is also. someone who is a bit more friendly so this will be interesting to see if that is really will be changed. if he is voted into power they believe let's not forget the venezuela sitting on the world's largest oil reserves of the world is watching closely how this vast wealth is going to be 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. they want to see answers fast.

well let's not talk to dr francis he's the head of latin american studies at middlesex university in britain the poll suggests. to win this election but many see this as a vote really a proxy vote for do you think we'll be able to return the support public backing it for years. i think if he if he continues with the policies of the toughest government that is to say to social programs to resist to vision of wells the free hell's free education expansion increased immigrating inclusion of the people and so on there is no reason for him not to have to support judge him by the size and the enthusiasm of the crowds. he was able to draw out throughout the very short span of electoral campaigning i think he will but the

social policies that chavez has pursued has led to a crumbling infrastructure we're seeing a double digit inflation we're seeing corruption and crime but there is got a lot of challenges to face a lot of problems does he really have the leadership qualities to do that. well the economy of minnesota last year grew at five point eight percent and according to the economic commission for latin america in two thousand and thirteen the venison economy's going to grow by five point three percent the massive improvements in it for trucks are motorways bridges new on the ground trains buses and so on there is plenty more to do. regarding inflation the inflation something like five years ago thirty to thirty five percent in the region of twenty percent all of these things have to be addressed of course i think the economy is strong enough and the areas of the world economy that are growing a lot in america to some degree africa and certainly asia and latin america could have been as well as quite well linked into it and i think it's going to benefit

continually from this relationship so i don't think there is too much to worry there the question is whether he will be able to manage what is coming ahead given that he's no hand in the government he's been there since ninety ninety eight but very very high level positions i think you also had to do well all right a lot of experience in the government but what about his relationship with the military service of course was in the military had a lot of influence and support from the military you can't say the same for me directly and it's very important to get that military backing in that country. judge him by the wrist the behavior of the military there in this election and dealing what we can call the transition between charges being here and then coming back. there was a plenty of speculation there would be a split from a patient on. very close of several venezuelan reality and i haven't seen any single indication of that whatsoever and there is no reason why this can change we

were talking about the economy a little earlier prelims he's advocating a free market economy will he not get a lot of support for that and isn't it perhaps time for the country to change direction. well it depends what you mean by africa on a me if if if you are in their shoes and you look around and you see the crisis in the united states you don't want to go down that road if you look at what the difficult and free market economics have done to europe i'm sure they don't want to go that route he has to look around the latin america and they see some serious mistake intervention serious government participation in the economy god the intervening whenever necessary making sure that their issues division of income then latin america actually these performances pretty impressive compared to these other places that i've mentioned so in that sense going back to totally a bridal freakonomics is not going to work and they're not going to embrace it just

briefly funny much in the united states we don't see any change in relations between the two if we do or get same we see the same foreign policy being pursued. where there were already talking between the venezuelan government and the united states administration and the purpose of the talks which actually were directed and led by maduro and now also by the us how are the current vice president. the purpose of this concession was to normalize relations between the two clearly there are very important sections within the obama administration that want to normalize relations with you know one of the most important supplies of older they have in the region therefore everything was going fine except until u.s. assistant secretary of from ferric affairs roberta jackal's said that you know she find it very difficult for free and fair listen to the place in the sort of world of a sort of very offended for two reasons one they felt this is not correct and secondly this is an unacceptable interference then and therefore they stopped the

conversation so my senses and i soonest they are clueless and as soon as mother always you know get rated which i think you would please i said but he's been predicting then i'm sure those folks would receive them go have. tough conditions ahead of them. in the united states and very largely they will come to some from a rental opinion wrote that america wants these to be sorted and you know. told an equivocally that they won all these methods sources such as the blockade in cuba such as the aggressive attitude towards venezuela ecuador of bolivia and i think it looks like the main stations prepared to contemplate this possibility in the us well we're expecting results to start appearing at about ten thirty pm g.m.t. in the meantime thank you very much indeed for joining us dr francisco domingo's live there in london thank you my pleasure. well just to remind you all is following developments of polling stations in venezuela's vote and all the latest

updates are available on her twitter feed at the moment one of the most recent posts there says that queues are getting longer as millions a casting their ballots. campaign again. chooses president chavez choice runs against a free market poster boy past as well as jews after calming down self-styled socialism or free market model venezuela votes fourteenth. fresh attempt to break an ongoing hunger strike at guantanamo prison camp has led to clashes between guards and detainees inmates tried to resist being forcibly moved from communal living quarters to single man cells and officers responded by firing non lethal bullet camp officials say they were trying to prevent hunger strikers from persuading other inmates to join the protest or he's got to count as more. 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 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 hundred 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 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 you know to also spoke to a lawyer for one of the hunger striking prisoners so the told us that measures like solitary confinement only aggravate the situation. michael 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 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 without has been keeping a close eye on the hunger strike or gone tell them oh we've been covering comments from officials lawyers and international organizations and you can see what they had to say in a special section on our website on the dot com. a number of former u.s. officials linked to the legalization and application of torture of guantanamo feature on a blacklist that russia put together this week will release names of alleged human

rights violators it was placing on the travel and economic sanctions after a similar move by the u.s. well it is you got to get off takes a closer look at the tit for tat action threatening ties between the two countries . 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 one of its blacklist of eighteen american officials linked to human rights violations i want animal be detention center and the violations of the rights of russian citizens outside the circle but since both lists have been published only partially we may expect more means to be put on them the american his character was sponsored by american

lawmakers at the end of last year and was named after city michael needs to be an employee of the hermitage capital investment fund he was suspected of fraud he got himself claimed 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 is unfortunate . that as a political tool to apply pressure on russia the foreign ministry has called the marking its character unfriendly also 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 more sed russian lawmakers believe that there are going to act harms america's own interests is like so i don't really see the rational for this from the point of your bomb administration which claims to be ministration 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. for an advisor to moscow on monday for talks and these lists are definitely not going to make its job any easier and as always we're always interested to know what you think about the stories we cover each day here in our team right here on our website r.t. dot com on our home page today what you think this crisis between moscow and washington could lead to it's on our home page you can vote on our online poll r.t. dot com this is what you think so far the majority feel that this really won't lead to much of a major problem perhaps a few more to attack measures in the future and right about a fifth say it will not affect major cooperation between the two countries while the remainder are a little less optimistic we can see that eighteen percent believe that this could severely affect the relations between the two countries while nineteen percent say

could be the death knell for that so-called resetting of diplomatic ties between moscow and washington there is no we think you haven't done so already dot com it's on our web page. up ahead for you that's. a nation in despair a decade since the fall of baghdad we look at iraqis crushed by the uncertainty of war brought in that fear is for the future. and the death of controversial former british prime minister margaret thatcher has provoked scandal in the u.k.

as the song ding dong the witch is dead broke itself the music charts as part of the population showed their anger at a political legacy that is coming your way after a short break. with . its technology innovation all these developments from around russia we've got the future covered.

the international airport in the very heart of moscow. continues hearing on t.v. this week tensions around north korea's nuclear threats reached a new holiday with pyongyang putting tokyo on its potential hit list japan was threatened after it said it was prepared to shoot down any missiles the north might launch the u.s. secretary of state is in japan well 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 is ready for the new car as nation

apparent deadlock is worrying not only the countries involved in the dispute but moscow to. the 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 korean border meet at the same place of course the escalation of tensions on the korean peninsula has led to some serious concerns not only in the far east of course but in moscow as well because should anything happen between the two koreas especially if the nuclear weapons would be involved russia would be one of the first countries affected by the possible meltdown and by the possible consequences of nuclear war if we remember the fukushima incident several years ago traces of radiation were felt on the island 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 has led to some serious. concern from the russian president mr president we are against you. on for the denuclearization peninsula we are very alarmed. because we are neighbors and if something happens there we will make it. seem like a children's. 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 he just. stopped this and 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 celebrates its biggest holiday the. birthday of the late korean leader. north korea kim il sung some reports are suggesting that it's. actually conduct a missile test launch. it's been ten years since the statue of saddam hussein which

was a central baghdad was torn strips became the symbol of the regime's fall and marked the beginning of a new will a decade debility sectarian violence and terrorist attacks claimed thousands of lives and reports of the late dictator has been replaced by hora of the. right it is. the 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 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 is a blatant visual reminder of a country still very much as you want. but kook 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 or

when the 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 was heard. 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 for somebody in the middle of the privacy what benefit did the your bring democracy only explosions shooting and killing 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 out on the subject you. know it's not about the sectarian differences unfortunately it's both 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 to see captain of our team here cool illo . the death of former prime minister margaret thatcher this week reopened old divisions among the british people while some grieved her passing socialist students an anti capitalist would join by x. miners in london's trafalgar square on saturday to bid a not so fond farewell demonstrating said they stand against the legacy of fashion during her time at the top of british politics to calm the union and privatized state services detractors and finding creative and provocative ways to show their anger at the margin after an online campaign has rocketed the wizard of oz song

being dong the witch is dead to the top of the music charts but the b.b.c. radio show that plays out the weekly hit list has said it will only have five seconds of the song as part of a new story for fear of offending people author and journalist beyond believes the full song should be played out of principle. i think it is 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 greet lee at night 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 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 to

say in future which the b.b.c. made bad decided 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 commence left they reduced search of 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 fracture have made a counter-attack and we're buying a song called i'm in love with margaret thatcher by the not sensible and we're hoping that will pip. which is said to a number one spot. the reason margaret thatcher was so controversial is she turned the u.k. into a totally different country on r.t. dot com you can read the interview with ortiz contributor afshin rattansi on the lessons the iconic leader helped britain and the world to learn.

israel's military prosecutors have decided the deaths of a dozen palestinian civilians in airstrikes launched on gaza during an eight day war last year don't warrant a criminal investigation it was decided the killings were merely unfortunate it was found that one attack that killed nine family members was the result of a targeting area. martin from the palestinian center for human rights i spoke to a little earlier she says international law is being disrespected. there were two cases which were closed in this way and we received notifications of those cases on the eleventh of april just three days ago the one case is the case of the family which is one of the most enduring images of the offensive in november where there were twelve civilians killed and a further six were wounded there were five children of the family that the second cases of the show a family home which was targeted and it's located on baghdad streets and you're in that target saying four civilians were killed and another six were wounded and

there's been very little explanation as to why these cases have been closed israel has made merely stated that they no prosecutions it's a wider problem and in fact already this year since january or thirteen civil cases which p.c. hate tourists that they said on behalf of victims of operation cast lead have also been dismissed and of course operation cast that happened four years ago so we're facing ongoing impunity for both about offensive and the offensive in november there's been a number of changes to the israeli legal system which have made it practically impossible for palestinian victims to achieve any form of justice will be used to move home from now from in the meantime we look at the lives of palestinian women who take nearly any job in the newsroom just to feed their families and so to bring .

through all of the deals i would live. in eternal silence good imo you are already the invisible god. every day is a struggle. for our children sleep soundly at night. we are palestinian women working in israel. we've done more for our kids than our husbands.