razor thin majority. of the world. could be used. to. tweak. and we have a look at the claims of. possibly taking hold of the country. thank you very much for joining us here on r t today. with your news from all around the world in an unexpectedly close race. his hand-picked successor as the next president elect. suggests that chavez is

socialist policies will live on after his death from cancer however rival and refusing to concede and demanding a recount because figures show he's only about two hundred thousand votes behind. in the capital caracas with the latest. if you talk about the reaction participation and this is about ninety nine percent of the votes counted already at this point no initial reaction with little came out saying that the fight will continue the revolution work will continue alluding very much to google child this is a very and revolution and had come out though. being very quite negative he came out say that there were allegations of voting fraud and he wanted a recount you know that had campaigned really on a platform invoking this really it was at the core and you have to want something new wanted

a change in direction and it's evident you know that the diverse opinion of the two men is evident among the people we've spoken to a lot of them in the past few days a very enthusiastic very passionate about their belief the different direction they want to take a venezuela however what's clear though is that all the citizens regardless of who they voted for a recount was all the problems that they want solved and without a charismatic character like chavez to assuage the fears of the concerns of citizens it will be a very very tough a challenge for my doodle first of all to unite a very divided country a second of all to address the problems. if. president one as well is likely to continue its strong ties with latin american allies while pursuing america sentiment that's the view of professor of latin american history. so i think we're going to see a continuation of venezuelans foreign policy i think there's a difference between criticizing us and being anti american i think will see

a promotion of latin american policy the promotion of a multi-polar world that is the u.s. is not the dominant issue on their agenda they have relations with russia with china with europe with with latin american countries and will see i think a continuity within that that's been part of the strength promoted by the chinese administration and my little we should recall was the foreign minister in charge of chalices foreign policy why i think the opposition will definitely be emboldened by the may have a small window to operate the venezuelan constitution permits a recall within three years i wouldn't doubt that unless my little gets traction and addresses these issues significantly and quickly the opposition may mount a challenge again in three years that's what they did to which i was in two thousand and four. still ahead for you here on our turning your back on your homeland i report on how current tax laws and growing discontent with washington's foreign policy pushing a rising number of u.s. residents to give up their citizenship. and an official report into

a missile strike that killed twelve palestinian civilians including four children during last year's gaza war. military acted with quote most of professionalism that's coming up a bit later in the hour. but for now a north korea is celebrating the anniversary of its founding fathers birthday and some concern it could use a missile launch or nuclear test to mark the occasion traditionally shows off its military might to the world this year the date comes at a historically tense moment with north korea resorting to war rhetoric threatening the u.s. south korea and even japan with a strike says this is to counter what aggressive behavior if the u.s. expands its military presence in the region and there's no sign the standoff might be resolved with talks as america and its asian allies say they can negotiate only if north korea shows a willingness to get rid of its nuclear weapons. reports. monday april

fifteenth is known as the day of the north korea when the nation is celebrating its biggest holiday the birthday of the late leader the founder of the north korean republic kim il sung of course the north koreans will be celebrating in the streets in the ever present military parades but the eyes of the world of course be focused not on the celebrations on the festivities in north korea but on whether. they decide to hold missile launches the latest reports are suggesting that already has mid range missiles. which would be able to hit a target at more than two and a half thousand miles and the reaction of the international community to the possible launch can be very. very serious. a major conflict in the region also interesting to see the transformation of north korea embargo under the sanctions which the country has been living in for. only have they managed to

build. could potentially be dangerous for the whole region and even reach the shores shores of the united states but also. suspected there is information that north korea may be in. the space program so definitely this crazy twisted crazy. continuing we're watching the situation here in the far east and we'll update our viewers with all the latest developments as we get them throughout the day and away the world's attention focused on the korean crisis. pushing the boundaries of. the u.k.'s top financial school accusing the british broadcasting corporation. of its students using them to shoot a documentary on the network of a journalist with a group of students visiting pyongyang without the university's consent details of the story the b.b.c.'s got to say about it.

this is north korea featuring in talks between the foreign minister and the white house national security adviser here in moscow a visit is being seen as an effort to bridge a chasm in relations between moscow and washington day after both published a travel blacklist of each other citizen. ns and washington unveiled a list of russians sanction for what it believes are human rights violations in turn moscow published a similar document punishing those linked to torture at guantanamo bay and violations against russian citizens as russian minister foreign minister sergei

lavrov explained may still be hope. of a version of american relations we heard from tom donilon and john kerry that they understand will the negative impact of the whole of various factors on our relationship among those is the magnitsky list the continuing abuse of adulthood russian children in america rights violations against russian citizens which range from outright kidnappings and other factors both john kerry and tom donilon should meet that barack obama and the white house are aware of how this hurts our relations and that they will act to minimize these faxes we'll see at least we'll judge by deeds not words. now hear it out here we always enjoy getting your opinion on all the stories we're covering and on our web site r t v dot com right now we're asking what you think about the whole war of blacklists will end up having happening in the end what will transpire what will the aftermath be russia u.s.

backlash of the blacklists so far the majority of voters at r.t. dot com are the blue forty two percent saying it's going to spark new tit for tat issues distant second saying it's not going to affect the major issues that both the washington and moscow have to concentrate on down to the third position saying it's a death knell for the reset in relationships on the bare minority now seventeen percent saying this will severely affect ties or we love it when you get involved with our stories that our teachers head over to our tea dot com adding getting getting involved with this story when you can for the meantime in just a moment here on our team a renowned pianist upsets the officials in turkey with what they're calling an anti religious tweet small more that story just.

the duke of international and world in the very heart of moscow. thank you for joining us here on r t today a ten month suspended prison sentence has been handed down in turkey to around composer and pianist over a series of tweets that mock islam fans will say was first charged with denigrating religion in june last year facing up to eighteen months behind bars at the time of the musician once a cultural ambassador to the e.u. is a high profile critic of the islamic led government of prime minister tayyip or the one and says his punishment is purely political as autism or if an oscar explains once rejected conservative islamic ideals are returning to the country just long been trying to become a member of the european union. all these years i thought murder was a sin then i got new instructions from the good lord himself in his favorite

language english the simpsons has kept its humor close to the bone for many years but for turkey's radio and television a supreme council in charge of monitoring media content it's now gone too far if you are more liberal you can say that yes it's not an insult it's a joke but those who are more conservative may feel it and then we are of the protection of their beliefs this episode cost a company that protested thirty thousand us dollars the council dominated by the prime minister's party has fined the same media group for promoting smoking through allianz in america and your violence against women after showing oliver stone's alexander without discovering. i can't imagine how celtic broadcasting world we've created for many turkish women real life is far more insulting to them than western movies at first glance they are free to wear

and do what they want but the head of the group of women of the republic says there is a lot of pressure on them. the reformed education system is split into three parts of four years in which the result thousands of girls leave school before the end encouraging young marriages the state promotes heaven at least five kids only three out of ten women today go to work it's far from a democratic model of society. turkish opposition says there is a dangerous tendency here nine decades off to turkey broke with islamic rule of the ottoman empire in favor of a ninety clerical pro western vision the ideas and values that were jacked it appear to some to be making a comeback becoming on me. tells you what to do what to do what not to do. what not to eat what to eat with islamic ideas comes islamic symbols they form a greek also looks church on the turkish plexi coast is currently

a museum no service has been held here for fifty years but so on its walls will once again reign with the sound of prayer this time not led by priests but any mom it's quite a religious conversion a seven century old christian heritage site is about to become a mosque and from that point on will only be open to muslim men access for women will be restricted if they don't want to. close the sisters we are coming here for breakfast tourists come here it is good for travelers on the dirt off miscue around there i think there are enough i guess sophia has already been used as a mosque durance long history after the ottoman sultan conquered turkey today it seems the country's given itself up voluntarily one example could be the leaks drafts for new uniforms for flight attendants on turkish airlines they show the nation's image will be represented by lone captains skirts below the knee and

autumn on style fast caps or two months to develop ultra religious so they. you know laws on sharia. and there are many similar people in turkey a thing that you know we don't want such a rule and that's changing that's changing as. that our troops way of life the way of life did not work in turkey turkey under every gun has made impressive progress it's economy's booming and its role in the region and internationally is increasing but other things are happening too which could put societies journey into reverse. from turkey. and online for you right now at r.t. dot com how far should you go to understand history because one u.s. teacher tasked his students with getting into the minds of nazis asking them to write an essay on why jews are evil i find out what's behind the bizarre story of r.t. dot com. sale in cyprus if at least three million euros have disappeared

from your account to pay for the e.u. bailout all is not lost you can now claim citizenship is compensation for story on our website. there will be no criminal investigation into israel's air strike on gaza last november that killed twelve civilians nine of them members of one family israel's military concluded while the deaths were regrettable the attack was justified because it was targeting a senior hamas militant but the decision was slammed by human rights organizations who want a criminal investigation into what they call war crimes more than one hundred fifty palestinians most of them civilians are believed to have been killed during israel's eight day operation in gaza last year. martin from the palestinian center for human rights as israel has dropped other possible criminal cases too so instead of warn you you may find some of the following images disturbing. there were two cases which were closed in this way 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 weren't no prosecutions it's part of a wider problem and in fact already this year since january or thirteen civil cases which piece the hate towards the basij 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. straight to iraq now to open up the r.t. world update where at least thirty two people have been killed and two hundred injured in a spate of bomb explosions across the country it's thought most of the blasts were car bombings with one attack carried out by a suicide bomber the explosions happened just days before provincial elections and already fourteen candidates have been killed in the lead up to the poll. the deadline passes today for thirty eight french ministers to publicly declare their assets register will include a list of bag deposits and property held by the officials of president francois hollande came up with the idea to calm a scandal over the budget minister who was forced to resign last month he's been charged with tax fraud linked to a secret bank account. forty seven people have been arrested outside the naval base

in scotland housing the u.k.'s nuclear deterrent submarine mounted trident missiles and the group called scrapping trident is rallying to demand the weapons of disarmed and funds should be spent instead on disability education and welfare they earlier saved a similar protest in the center of glasgow trade union members scottish m.p.'s and the austerity activists all taking part. and this week the u.s. senate will introduce a bipartisan bill allowing undocumented immigrants to apply for permanent residency if they fulfill certain criteria but figures reveal a rising number of americans are actually giving up their own citizenship while tax reasons are being cited there are also those who see the action as a sign of protest against washington's foreign policy pretty roll of a report. taxes no one likes paying them but in the us some are willing to go the extra mile to avoid it there are many people who consider it there are

people that do it. and there are really can be great tax advantages for people who want to give up their stuart citizenship it might sound quite drastic but last year over eighteen hundred people did just that one hundred back their american passports some high profile names were among them kung fu star jet li felt he was taking a pounding from the i.r.s. so swap his u.s. citizenship for that of singapore joining him there is facebook co-founder eduardo saverin who avoided a tax bill of around forty million dollars by doing so once you've made the decision to give up your citizenship what happens if you change your mind just how easy is it to get back again as long as it isn't found that you gave up your citizenship pretty much purely for tax reasons certainly possible but it's not painless you have to go through this process again authorities are

considering introducing tough laws against those who skip out tax if you will now through u.s. citizenship and it is determined that you've done this. pretty much purely for tax reasons you could face serious issues with regard to ever returning to the united states but is that the only reason people give for renouncing citizenship mike good ski give back his u.s. passport because he couldn't condone the direction the country was taking two thousand and eight there was a lot of talk in the news about. america going to leave all options on the table with respect to iran's nuclear program which of course was code for us what we've deployed nuclear weapons against the people of iran i said to most of the. if the united states. commits another mass atrocity by deploying a nuclear weapon or say deploying chemical biological weapons. i'm just going to

give up my citizenship i just you know i give up on this country my kids now what is known as a stateless person as he didn't take on any other citizenship despite now living in slovakia you know the zone is obviously a great place to be for somebody in my situation because if you're going to be in a cage as i say this is a very nice one europe is is lovely he says he has no regrets about the decision you know we've got drone killings without warrant of even american citizens and whoever you know and their relatives overseas we've got you know the president has prosecuted more whistleblowers than all previous presidents combined despite his campaign promises to the contrary you know there's there's a laundry list i don't need to go specifically into obama i think this is a it's a feature of the system be it for tax purposes or personal reasons like mike the

number of people choosing to jump ship has risen eight fold since two thousand and eight making it a serious choice for a growing amount peter all of a r.c. belin. i'm just a moment a pillar of crosstalk that's next on its. own and know who a lazy bureaucratic and trivial censorship strikes again but this time in russia a bill has been signed into law that will put fines on individuals and legal entities for using vulgar already in the media one major flaw of many with this is that they really don't know which words are going to be considered vulgar i guess these words are so awful that they cannot even write them down i'm not naïve there

has always been and will always be censorship but this where would list is just silly there is a common expression on the russian internet that russian mainstream media connects up more and i is ation of society russian t.v. does have all the bloody violent action movies as well as scandalous talk shows which are kind of like freak shows and plenty of reality t.v. where young people pretty much act like subhuman animals in a cage they've got all that so the government is basically saying that if some guy on t.v. because there are twenty people blooded limbs flying that that is totally ok for television unless they could forbid swear while doing it you can show brainless materialistic dimwits sleeping and fighting with everything that moves on a reality show but if they say that one magic three letter russian word then it is over the line this is not a logical way to conduct censorship but that's just my opinion.

live. live.

this land. torn apart by conflict. has changed. a modern islamic nation. and a peaceful one is still an islam the first of course a secular law a second. fashion. and so. in places. where traditions still can't and mando cannot go on the catwalk in a swimsuit. republican country on elsie.

choose your language. of choice because without any financial plan to stay still some of the. treatments that the concerns you can. choose the opinions that invigorating to. choose the stories that entire life choose to access to often. simply. to sleep tonight. when welcome to cross your considered i'm peter lavelle whistle blowers are they an endangered species governments around the world routinely training deployed hackers to launch sophisticated cyber attacks against the real and imagined enemies but

when individuals use some of these same tools to expose life and government abuse there are legal traitors in criminals is there a war on telling the truth. crosstalk whistleblowers i'm joined by jeannie myrow in new york she used the president of the international association of democratic lawyers and in washington we cross to mark levine he is a senior fellow with the truman national security project and talk radio host crosstalk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want j.d. is there a war against whistleblowers now are they an endangered species well i don't like necessarily trivializing war but i certainly think that there is a battle against and to demonize anybody who tries to speak truth to power especially in situations where there's. powerful interests and one side whose whose truth is the don't want the truth out ok if it's

a war i don't want to trivialize war because war is really horrible but. certainly there's a battle against. whistleblowers in my in my view i also think that we need to in terms of endangered species i.