choosing between the late leader's closest ally and an opposition leader to completely change direction. clashes a. hunger striking prisoners resisting being taken to isolated cells. of the lists russia eighteen americans its banks and links to them entering its territory 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 . upping the military. stories this hour. with a look back at the top stories and the latest developments this is the weekly. deciding

today whether they want to continue the legacy left by late leader hugo chavez they're heading to the polls for a snap presidential election triggered by his death from cancer last month pitched against each other. or apparent nicolas maduro and opposition candidate and. he's a free market diversity. reports now from caracas what's at stake. leading the polls throughout this campaign has been. the chosen successor of the many people that i've spoken to. out of loyalty. 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 is does win this election will he be able to solve problems of crime for example food 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 now second to him is. the opposition a younger guy who's coming in proposing new ideas basically many of his supporters want to vote for him because they want change. for the past fourteen years and they want to something new this is also. someone who is a bit more u.s. friendly. interesting to see if. he is voted into power. venezuela sitting on the world's largest oil reserves of 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 concern being prime. want to see fast. in american studies at middlesex

university in britain explain to me why he thinks most venezuelans a leaning towards continuing on the course. 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 difficulty 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 estate intervention see this government participation in the call me god the intervening whenever necessary making sure that their issues to vision of income then latin america these performances pretty impressive compared to these other places that i've mentioned so in that sense going back to totally free economics is not going to work and they're not going to embrace it. and just to remind you all still is following developments and polling stations in venezuela's vote all the latest updates are available on her twitter

feed at the moment one of the most recent posts there says that the majority of votes are now expect to be counted by one thirty am g.m.t. the campaign endgame. chooses a new president chavez choice runs against a free market poster boy for possible venezuela choose after commandante self-styled socialism or free market model venezuela votes open fourteenth. a fresh attempt to break an on going 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 normal lethal bullet camp officials say they were trying to prevent hunger strikers from persuading other inmates to join the protest or he's going to check on 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 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 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 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 to you spoke to a lawyer for one of the hunger striking prisoners cindy the new kowtow to measures like confinement only aggravate the situation. michael counsel who represents obeid alleged erik 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 and searched a lot he's been keeping a close eye on the hunger strike at guantanamo we've been covering comments from officials lawyers and international organizations and you can see what they had to say in the special section on our website dot com. it's. a number of former u.s. officials linked to the legalization and application of torture guantanamo feature on a blacklist that russia put together this week moscow released names of alleged human

rights violators was placing on the travel and economic sanctions after a similar move by the u.s. . of now takes a closer look at the tit for tat action frightening times between the two countries . what we're witnessing now is really 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 whose character was by american lawmakers at the end of last year and was named after

city my community 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 to act in unfriendly use of four week a law 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. and stephen f. cohen a professor of russian studies and history at new york university believes president obama has become a hostage to anti russian moods among us normally kids obama did not want the magnitsky act it was imposed on him by the american congress and by a congress that included is own political party the democratic party it's changed and poison the atmosphere it's going to make it harder for example. president obama to make concession a missile defense the president because there is this adage russia doesn't deserve

any concessions and i'm guessing that if president putin 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 important issue that there will be forces in the russian political. compromises to the united states so it's not a sideshow. and as always we're interested in your opinion on be you stories we carry each day on t.v. and on our website and r.t. dot com roski what you think this war of lisp between moscow and washington will lead to well so far we can see here on screen the majority who voted online think the spat would lead to war mind a tit for tat measures from both sides in the future around the fifth believe it won't have much of an impact on the relationship between the two countries at all the rest are split as we can see eighteen percent and eighteen percent they both have less optimistic options some say the relations will be severely hit while

others think the row is possibly the death knell for those so-called us russia reset in diplomatic relations so that's how you're thinking at the moment to me a vote online or use or comment section if you have more thoughts on the story because to hear from me. israel's military prosecutors have decided the deaths of a dozen palestinian civilians and strikes 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 as told me

that 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 during that target saying four civilians were killed and another six were wounded very spend very little explanation as to why these cases have been closed israel has made merely stated that they no prosecutions it's part of a wider problem and in fact already this year since january or thirteen civil cases which p.c.

hate. on behalf of victims of operation cast lead have also been dismissed and of course operation cast lead 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. this is all of the life here in moscow up ahead for you this our nation in despair a decade since the fall of baghdad we look at every piece crushed by the uncertainty war brought their fears for the future. and the death of controversial former british prime minister margaret thatcher has provoked scandal in the u.k. is the song being dong the witch is dead the music charts as parts of the population show that anger at a political legacy that is coming away now with plenty of other stories selfish old right.

that's a meteorite. it's ten thirty tons of coke told through space towards russia. with the power. of a nuclear. city open sky full on r.t. wealthy british style sign it's time to let go. market why not come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy

with mike stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to kaiser report. news continues here on r.t. this week tensions around north korea's nuclear threats reached a new high 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 secular state is in japan right now the last stop of his asian tour to rally support against pyongyang's nuclear program or shinton tokyo and seoul indicated talks with the north can happen only if it is ready for the nuclearization it parent deadlock is not only the countries involved in the dispute but moscow too as artie's alexiev 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 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 possible consequences of a nuclear war if we remember the. traces of radiation were felt. all the way from here so all the latest developments in the north korean conflict in. syria. from the russian president. and for the denuclearization of the 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. 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. china is perhaps the only country with influence over a reclusive north korea and is committed to ridding its neighbor of nuclear capabilities in a peaceful manner and he will write to his brumback believes the growing alienation between north korea and its historic and i china is ultimately playing 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 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 a debate going on right now within the chinese establishment. it's been ten years since the start you of saddam hussein which watched over central baghdad was torn down by u.s. troops and became the symbol of the regime's for all and the beginning of a new war but instability sectarian violence and terrorist attacks claim fails and of lives and is all to be covered over ports fear of the late dictator has been

replaced by horror of the unknown. 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. symbol for the country's most intractable woes escalating violence the conflict among ethnic and religious groups and the fight over iraq's resources. getting there was our first challenge a group of kurdish soldiers had agreed to take a sin both baghdad and the kurds lay claim to care coop and are sparring over control aside from the danger those entering from the kurdish side need special permission to get past the iraqi checkpoints when have it. roadblocks and concrete barriers define 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. inside your kook we drive quickly to avoid danger we're told to look out for black b.m.w. apparently they've become a favorite for iraq's insurgents who didn't pick the best day to come to roadside bombs exploded here earlier that morning around the same time that baghdad was rocked by a series of deadly blasts but kirkuk 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 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 for thinking about it 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 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 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 to survive the only. 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

a lot of soldiers 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 follow 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. the us led mission of to heavy burden on iraq is the use of unconventional weapons threatens future generations of children and dr bass he says america will not be able to compensate for the damage calls. that 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 in the brain dispenser weapons boss prism 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 that you can look up human rights watch and world health organization reports on the internet radiological monitoring held on the international level to the point of radioactive contamination of southern central 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. the death of former prime minister margaret thatcher this week reopened all 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 bid a not so fond farewell demonstrators said they stand against the legacy of sacha who during her time at the top of british politics to go on the union and privatized state services her detractors are finding creative and provocative ways to show their anger at the mark she left an online campaign has rocketed the with of all the song being dong the witch is dead to the top of the music charts at the b.b.c. radio show that plays out the weekly hit list and only five seconds of the song as part of a new story for fear of offending people author and journalist toby young believes

the full songs should have been played out of principle. 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 night margaret thatcher i absolutely stand fast to the principle that something shouldn't be banned 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'll 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 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 were reduced 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 margaret thatcher 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 pip ding dong the witch is dead to 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 a website you can read an interview with r.t. contributor afshin rattansi on the lessons the iconic leader helped britain and the world to learn. and to euro sentiment is going mainstream in germany with the launch of a new party dedicated to pulling the plug on the struggling single currency the group called alternative for germany says it has already received thousands of membership requests and the political establishment is concerned about the

newcomers popularity our correspondent peter all of it was at the party's first official convention. germany's political new kids on the block alternative for deutschland claim to be able to provide the german people with just an alternative to the current political status quo the main item on their agenda though regards the euro something which they say is being kept alive artificially for too long it's coming time to pull the plug the euro is dead actually the euro is dead what we do right now is we put under pressure surgery we give them drugs if you touch cigs but actually it's already dead but i'll put it to should have drifted nice that yet despite current personal popularity here in germany alternative to say that mrs merkel isn't handling the european financial crisis the right way that what she's trying to do is trying to tell people in greece and in italy and in

spain that they should act more like germans we find it ridiculous that our federal chaunced tries to turn the lovely people of greece italy and trenchant of prussia she will never manage to do that it will not work i need to bring disunity instead of unity in europe alternative for germany is certainly a small party but they will be hoping to try and push the political big guns when it comes to the general election here on the twenty second of september they may also be facing a few challenges from other stop alicia political parties that want to pull germany out of the euro two want to see the euro go by the wayside the m.p. de have said that they are the real anti euro policy and that they're going to challenge alternative for germany so they're going to have a lot of work on their hands without hoping to try and pick up a few votes the people disillusioned with the way things are going when germans go to the polls on the twenty second.