they were on time obey detention camp marks its twelfth anniversary with more than one hundred fifty inmates still behind bars despite never being charged. they want to display a place that we can treat people how every we want to whenever we want to r.t. takes a look at the history of the facilities people across the u.s. and other parts of the world join protests demanding the closure of the infamous camp. despite recent diplomatic success in nuclear talks with iran a growing number of u.s. senators pushing for more sanctions against tehran a move the white house warns could drag america into another war. and former israeli prime minister ariel sharon dies at age eighty five after spending eight years in a coma you look back at the legacy of a controversial political and military leader.

two am in moscow i am at present very good to have you with us our top story this hour human rights activists are protesting across the u.s. on the twelfth anniversary of the guantanamo bay detention center there demanding the closure of the infamous can't dogged by allegations of mistreatment and abuse so that president obama promised years ago or he's honest us if you're going to look at the history of the controversial facility. hidden on a tropical island a symbol of promises made being far from promises kept will leave an appalling black mark in the history books unless the people who advocate for its continued existence when and if they win i. suppose it civilized values that america has will be gone forever twelve years ago the us brought to guantanamo its first detainees

of the war on terror the us and powerful sections in the ruling class of the us want a place that openly defied international law it's a decision that's been made and that they want to display a place that we can treat people however we want to whenever we want to the to be is poured into the bag scandal surrounding torture and force feeding mass hunger strikes of desperation and dozens of suicide attempts that hasn't been something that has been an issue since i have been here in a facility that has long stopped making sense if it ever did despite the rhetoric it really isn't about national security or prisoners being so dangerous that they can't possibly be released and therefore that can't be true out of seven hundred seven thousand nine hundred eighteen is held at guantanamo in these past twelve years only seven have been convicted and sentenced we have seen eleven prisoners released between august and december last year compared to just five men in the

whole of the previous three years so it's movement but it would be unwise to think that you know we nearly there there are hundred fifty five men still in guantanamo and seventy six of those men were cleared for release the u.s. struggling with what to do with them and then even bleaker future still ahead for the other seventy nine prisoners facing the abyss of indefinite detention. because they were somewhere. somebody where the innocent or guilty is not our job right here after a majority of detainees went on. hunger strike last year obama's administration was pushed to make baby steps again by double standards and overlooking the law international treaty obligations mean that we shouldn't be sending people back to countries where they face the risk of a treatment of torture this followed in some cases but completely ignored in others two men were recently sent to algeria amid grave concerns of possible persecution on the ground the guy who was arclight jamila busy at the oh and his whole adult

life basically in europe and in canada and there was really no reason why college educated guy was fluent in german and english and french but i should be sent home . and probably trapped there are unable to emigrate because of the stigma of kuantan the future of some of those released over the years even more questioned and increasingly grim as media claims surfaced that the cia might have reportedly been engaged in recruiting some of the prisoners as double agents in exchange for freedom our job here is to do the safe legal humane and transparent care and custody of the detainees while in a legend tug of war between the president's will to shut the prison and congress resisting this is officially used as an excuse to avoid simply closing the place down despite personal promises to do so i think the only reason he can get away with that is by portraying it really as a credit mess you know as if this was somehow harder to do now than it was five

years ago he was a good president but politicians human rights organizations legal experts and common sense have long called for an end to the struggle of guantanamo prisoners but america's self-made mess of the last twelve years is already so hard to clean up that reasons to keep it around are likely to breed more anniversaries to come and stacy churkin party new. starts a new chapter in us history washington is seeking to heighten the secrecy around the facility but snippets of what goes on inside still occasionally leak out here's the latest letter from shakur aamer the last remaining british inmate. he describes the million search methods used by president ministration where inmates are forced to undergo the procedure even if they just want to call their lawyer some guards are pushing it further of a say searching inmates genitalia medea benjamin co-founder of the antiwar group code pink says that what's happening in guantanamo amounts to psychological torture let's remember these people have been held now for twelve years

a mansion in your own life what twelve years we would be like we received a note from one of the prisoners shakur who is a citizen of britain has been cleared for release for years now and his note was heartbreaking because he said that what he really misses most is having played a part in the life that his children his youngest child was born on the day that he arrived in guantanamo he has never even seen his youngest child this is mental torture for these prisoners in yemen activists gathered outside the u.s. embassy to join the annual day of protest against the indefinite detention of prisoners it did moe more than half the inmates held at the detention center without charge or trial or yemenis although most of them have been cleared for release by the administration will be covering the protests as they develop. both you and iran have said significant progress has a root was reached in talks on how to implement the nuclear deal reached in november this while

a bill proposing even more sanctions is gaining strength in the u.s. congress the white house has harshly condemned senators supporting it say they're undermining diplomatic efforts and could actually be seek to drag the country into war or he's more important i reports. it was just a few months ago inside the united nations headquarters where the presidents of iran and the us laid groundwork for new and positive diplomatic relations however the historic success achieved over the past four months may soon be significantly compromised if not destroyed by america's own lawmakers according to reports fifty nine u.s. senators are now backing a new package of unilateral sanctions aimed to increase pressure on iran for its nuclear program this means that the senate is just one vote away from the sixty needed to pass most legislation with the house of representatives which is already showing strong support for economic pressure against tehran according to reports

the legislation would blacklist several iranian industrial sectors and threaten banks and companies around the world with being banned from the u.s. market if they help you want to export any more oil now the provisions would only take a fact getting on violates the six month interim deal or lets it expire without a comprehensive nuclear agreement a us president barack obama has vowed to veto the bill if it makes it to congress but the problem is if the senate actually achieve sixty seven votes it could override a presidential veto or the obama administration says additional economic restrictions could threaten a historic diplomatic opportunity with iran that's been cementing over the past few months let's remember in november world powers reached an interim deal in which to long over its nuclear program and negotiations on a final agreement are still underway not only will more sanctions compromise the success that's already been made but the white house says it won't be timid we need

a potential war with tehran all the more likely oddly enough at least sixteen democrats are supporting new sanctions and sadly if president obama's historic diplomatic. progress with iran comes crumbling down it will be due in part to members of his own party reporting from the marina artsy. policy director of the national iranian american council think senators supporting the bill aren't afraid of putting the nuclear deal in jeopardy because they are interested in a diplomatic solution. they claim that this is not a violation of the interim deal it is a violation of the interim deal the deal says no new sanctions this imposes new sanctions there's a lot of word games being played but really it comes down to the senators don't want to see a deal they don't want to see a diplomatic solution they view this as their way or the highway either. iran completely capitulates potentially you have

a regime change or something like that or the united states is going to go to war and i think that probably president obama and the u.s. negotiators would rather be focused on the go sharing with the wrong side to get a nuclear deal rather than having to negotiate with hardliners in the senate just to protect the nuclear deal that he's already achieved so he's in a very tough spot and i think that's really undermines the position of the united states going into those negotiate negotiations because it conveys his message that the president is not in control of his own foreign policy to deal with the six world powers actually guarantees iran the easing of sanctions so long as the country complies with a number of demands toward its nuclear program you can find out what those are as well as the details of the agreement by clicking away on our website r t v dot com . israel's former prime minister ariel sharon has died at the age of eighty five he passed away from heart failure saturday after spending eight years in a stroke induced coma israel's current prime minister benjamin netanyahu praised his predecessor for doing his best to keep the country secure condolences have been

pouring in from other politicians and world leaders president obama saying the u.s. is joining israel in honoring the man sharon a former political and military leader found himself in tangled in plenty of controversy though during his decades long tenure many in israel consider him a national hero for how he led his country both while in office and in uniform or in all of its wars before he went into a coma but some palestinians are celebrating his death they believe sharon pursued a path of war and aggression towards them or his policy reports that the former prime minister is also remembered for building controversial settlements on the web . i will shove one cut a divisive figure between those who loved him and those who certainly didn't but all agree i will shove one was undoubtedly the father of the israeli settler movement under his guidance more than one hundred six womans were pulled from the gaza strip his motto to defend and preserve the jewish state israel dar was

a lifelong supporter of i will shove on for twenty seven years he farmed spices and flowers in the former gaza settlement of getting a towel large. he was the builder of settlements even in ours he built twenty new homes just like he did in other places we saw him as the father of the settlers and he did so much for us. but eight and a half years ago israel his wife and three children were forced out of the gaza home along with eight thousand others his hero had become his enemy. of god i feel betrayed like a husband who walked into his home to find his wife with his neighbor sharon will most likely be praised as he should be but i would also like him to be remembered for all the things that are not so pleasant and which were critical to all of israel. for a long time champion of jewish settlements in the occupied territories came to believe they'd be more trouble than they were worth and because sharon was the one who bought them it came as a shock that he was the one to destroy them at the end of the day he looks at them

as instrumental for whatever needs he had at the moment when he thought that the settlers in the settlement movement were serving the needs of a stronger israel he supported them and he supported them more than anyone had but when he felt that they were no longer serving the needs of a strong israel then he turned against them so much so that was a total disengagement from gaza despite the anger it evoked among his supporters. to return as prime minister in fresh elections but in two thousand and five he suffered a stroke from which he never. covered after withdrawing from gaza sharon will dollars any food that unilateral withdrawals but the six months he built continue to be a major sticking point in negotiations between israelis and palestinians to see on t.v. tel aviv. and still to come on the program sold for a song economic hardships cause european countries to opt out of your vision twenty fourteen while the host nation is slashing the budget of the contest plus. rome

under attack from above r t s correspondent arms himself with an umbrella to travel to the eternal city to see how people are coping with the vandalizing nature of some feathered friends this and more after a short break stay with us. some of the sixteen percent imports came from illegal fishing in. the european union is ironically taking fish from some of the poorest nations on earth so this is a very serious and very urgent problem that needs immediate international action. but the territorial waters they fish they load the fish into the ships and leave for europe. to day illegal fishing just taking the bread out of our mouths.

right on the scene. of the first strike. and i think that you're. on our reporters with the. instrument. to be in the. thanks for staying with us sixteen minutes past the hour two thousand and fourteen euro vision song contest is at risk of becoming the biggest failure in the history of the event facing a grim prognosis as at least twelve countries have already withdrawn from competition the continent's economic woes seen as the main reason for the mass exodus from the event as artie's alexei reports.

good knowledge represented russia at the u. revision song contest in twenty ten despite only coming eleventh he describes his participation as a major highlight which propelled him to new heights our audience grew very very much many people to get to know us so they began to come to our concerts it was great. music experience because it was a concert on the great greatest. auditory that i could ever imagine. from drag queens to hellish creatures and some of europe's brightest talents one of the world's most watched t.v. programs the eurovision song contest brought fame to the likes of celine dion and julio iglesias however votes have not always been spread purely for it to stick qualities say researchers from switzerland actually you know you should be nice if

you've given us a measure of specie international relations of their feet your cohesion with european countries is measuring the show you see and its culture and then she's influential in what will be the market for this nation in twenty down three weeks after angela merkel pushed the creation of the european financial stability facility to bail out collapsing economies a german teenager lenna my unit was crowned the eurovision swimmer. but ironically it's the europe wide financial turmoil which is now threatening the whole existence of the contest in twenty eleven one financial turmoil was already raging in europe eurovision saw a peak participation of forty three countries next year poland and armenia withdrew from the contest in twenty thirteen they were joined by boss near turkey slovakia and portugal this time caray share be able gary and cyprus have also jumped off the eurovision ship. and that list could expand as many simply cannot afford to take part in the future circus that is euro vision like cyprus where roughly. every

fifth person is on employed i'm not an expert on the euro region and white woods happening i'm describing the situation in cyprus and i'm not surprised that this decision has been taken and given to the cuts in order in other domains i'm talking about here with education culture this shows the bosses say there's nothing to worry about we refresh the format and continued to do so whenever needed to keep the euro vision song contest the most popular pan-european entertainment t.v. show but at this rate of companies dropping out of the competition there would likely have to invent something very soon to keep europe's longest running some contest from losing its voice supersets to littleton from moscow. not only is there a vision but losing contestants it's budgets also been slashed this year the event expected to cost four times less than three years ago international affairs expert

search a truth commission thinks that your vision has also lost both its significance and artistic value. the euro vision song contest has become a political as well as cultural relevance. became the nineties it suddenly became much more important in central in the east in europe than it used to be because many pendent countries of the former yugoslavia and the former u.s.s.r. wanted to put their name on the panel so to say but for many many years the music scene there to stick to. it has been rather with us on this and now days both politically and culturally its significance has declined so you know a period of a state in the period when. modest resources have to be matched against almost on a need to deployments i believe that this decision because made by so many

countries because they've concluded that univision sunk on to simply does not matter. what if the milky way galaxy suddenly fell apart astronomers have discovered hypervelocity stars fast enough to flee our galaxy scientists they have no idea what force drives them but r.t. dot com for the full story there plus. protesting by having fun hundreds gather in homburg for a pillow fight flash mob expressing their anger over the eviction of squatters and find that in the in motion section of our website with all the footage and details . iraq security forces trying to drive al qaeda affiliated militants from fallujah and other key cities in the on barre province at least sixty people killed over the last couple of weeks in sunni dominated areas and at least fourteen thousand civilians fled across computer as a former u.s. marine who fought in fallujah a decade ago he thinks the u.s. led invasion could be to blame for the violence or scene now. i think the reason that there is discontent in iraq right now is because the the u.s.

led occupation put in place a lot of structural injustices that are the root of all the violence in iraq right now one of the results of the occupation of iraq was that the sunni community. became a very marginalized targeted group within iraq so this is the root of a lot of the fighting in on by province right now. i think for the u.s. government to continue arming the rocky government to facilitate their internal oppression of various ethnic minorities within the country i think that would be very immoral on our part and i think it would be even more immoral for us to send troops to participate in this repression. turning now to some other international headlines egypt's army chief could be in there writing in the presidential elections slated for next year he said to the country's media that a presidential bid is a possibility if the public and military support the move it is feared his candidacy could further deepen divisions in egypt which remains in turmoil since

the military ousted president mohamed morsi in july. thousands of people have rallied in the streets of rome protesting against same sex families demonstrators joined by members of the catholic church and local politicians italy are mean sharply divided over the issue of same sex relationships in december twenty third team the nation's democratic party introduced a bill allowing gay couples to register their partnership which still has yet to be approved. punches and water bottles thrown in turkey's parliament during a debate regarding judicial reform breaking out after the proposal of a draft bill to give the prime minister's ruling party more say over the courts the opposition claims that the bill seeks to bring the legal system in line with executive powers violating the constitution prime minister heir to one man and his allies have been at the center of a corruption scandal but broke out last month leading to bitter tension with the opposition. a protest in the span. enclave of middle east and north

africa turned violent people most of them police were injured demonstrators torched heritage in the streets protesting the lack of jobs in the region security forces later put out the fire and secured the area. and back to rome now where it may seem like just a minor problem the medieval ease economic crisis and soaring unemployment thousands of birds soaring across rome each winter and they are certainly leaving their mark on the city making people feel discomfort. reports on the tactic savvy italians are using to try and keep the city's streets clean. role model one of the most beautiful and romantic cities in the world a popular destination for lovers or enthusiasts history addicts and. being with counselors tell it all falls on top of cars and roads and on pedestrians it's very slippery to get tons of complaints these are the birds hundreds of

thousands of starlings which migrate towards a more stable year leave their mark and they go. over your bed every year the same we're surrounded by a show. the city and spends tens of thousands of euros tackling the flying menace a species special operation in itself careful it's so dry it's very difficult to clean it off these birds are worse than vandals it's like they're angry at me personally. but the real mission takes place at sunset dressed in protective gear and armed with a loud hailer scientists storm the bird's favorite sleeping spots and this

irritating noise is none other than a recording of other stories making a sound which warns of approaching danger the goal is to scare the feathered falls to less populated areas. hey that may not need to be the idea from science books it works great only for short periods of time. but even when they do manage to steer the birds usually they just move to other residential zones and always come back at sundown. of course was heard issues and a worse problem the city has to deal with but any case. those plaiting to the site see if you have a megaphone it may be a good idea to read a little bit even if the forecast is all clear. you go to school for r t rolled. up next on our team or national look at how illegal industrial fishing in west africa is water is robbing locals of their means of survival and if you're watching us in the u.k. sputniks with george galloway i mean away after this short but.

there are many internal battles in society liberals and conservatives will never agree on gun rights or abortion but there is one battle that is often more generational than anything the battle for school uniforms teachers argue that uniforms eliminate a big distraction in the classroom and break up the caste systems that can evolve at school between the cool fashionable kids and the ones who can barely afford lunch like me in my younger years but teenagers will scream uniforms crush their freedom of expression and that they have a right to express who they are their individuality who has the right to dictate to them what to wear the thing they don't realize is that if the school doesn't tell

them what to wear that big corporations and m.t.v. will all the cool individuals who dress alike and blindly follow all the trends are just obeying corporate marketing instead of their parents yeah for some reason it is bad if the school punishes you for dressing improperly but if the cool kids make your life a living hell for not wearing the right brand of shoes well that's all well and good for some reason hey look at it this way school uniforms are cheap which leaves more money for parents to buy you video games being individual in your actions and not a fake individual in trendy clothes but that's just my opinion. when it has to do with illegal immigration. mediately send frontex to us see borders to day they control us in our waters as if a new colonization were taking place there experiencing a military occupation of the oceans when they want to combat drugs in america or

asia they find the means to do it and. of the few if they really want to combat illegal fishing we will they have the means to do read you they have the airplanes to photograph the they have the patrols to stop them from fishing in our seas. country because they are shrinking our country and what is more serious. they are destroying our fishing resources and marine wealth. is more than a european regulation on earth which is slowly acquiring a global day bench and a worldwide effect has been implemented only for a year now the regulation seeks the source of the profit if we manage to put

a stop to profit making then the legal fishing will stop and the only way to do that is to seize all. imports to europe. also has deposits in marine life deposits in january imported to europe must be this certificate which credible to certify people that day i not the product of illegal fishing that they have been caught according to the regulations. what do they need. illegal fishing certificate. to fish illegally have networks that bypass. them to sell in the european nation and north american market fish that has been caught illegally in the consumer from north america or asia or europe will not.