border strikes turkey finds its syria again in response to a mortar attack as the turkish prime minister says ankara will go to war if provoked. police fired tear gas and water cannons of anti government demonstrators in bahrain as people rally and activists death in custody. and it's a day of campaign silence in venezuela as the country prepares to go to the presidential polls to see whether to go chavez can cling on to power.

all right it is just off a six pm on saturday here in moscow this is r.t. lined with me rory sushi turkey has launched a fresh artillery strike on syria in response to another mortar attack from across the border ankara began its shelling back on wednesday in retaliation for syrian mortar bomb that killed five civilians middle east correspondent paula now has the details. we do know that the mortar bomb landed in the countryside in turkish that territory so it is possible that no one in fact was injured or killed we also have no word on who was responsible for this later mortar from syria what i can tell you though is that almost immediately turkey responded and went on the offensive meaning that we had the situation along the turkish syrian border intensifying its started back on wednesday when a mortar bomb fired from syria killed five turkish citizens and since then the situation has nearly escalated we're hearing from the turkish prime minister that

he does not want a situation of war but he has warned the syrians not to make a fatal mistake and that is a quote from him and taste his resolve the syrians for their side have apologized for this what is interesting is that you need to realize that these waters that are being fired from syria into turkey all close range missiles now they are coming from territory that is controlled by the syrian rebels so this is why many are suggesting that perhaps they are being fired on purpose they're being fired to provoke the situation and create a false flag operation now the reasoning behind this could be that turkey for some time has been calling for a no fly zone it might be provoked into calling for foreign intervention and for nato to get involved in fact we've heard some rebel leaders in exile call for this although the majority of excels in the majority of syrians are against this but the situation intensifying on the ground and everyone concerned that we could see this

border tension into some kind of regional conflict the battle certainly is intensifying the latest there's a video that has now been released by the syrian rebels we have no confirmation as to the authentication of the video but in it it does claim that the rebels will start executing forty eight muslims from iran if damascus does not meet the demands of the syrian rebels now there has been dialogue and some kind of negotiations. wow between the syrian government and the bring in government at the same time just outside damascus the rebels have shot down a syrian helicopter gunship this comes as shelling continues between both sides in several cities around the country russia has come to the fore in the media atri role it has said that it hopes the united nations arab envoy to syria will be coming to moscow perhaps later this month and they too they hope that both sides

will express caution moscow also saying that these cross border incidents are completely unacceptable. right there well after turkey's parliament authorized troops to launch cross border operations against syria the country's prime minister at war that i will not shy from war if provoked author and journalist afshin rattansi believes damascus might indeed retaliate if pulled into a broader conflict. this kind of flashpoint is the kind of flashpoint it can create world war three and nato as some people have it is a false flag operation we're getting these reports of this continued as it were a reaction from judge government ok it's overdue and we'll face political problems at home but then why were they speaking with the iranians talking about how this needs a diplomatic solution not a military one if turkey continued under the agreements we did. this would draw in a way to situation a wider fears here over war and risks expanding it the people of syria and the

people of turkey will not benefit from this nature says that they'll defend any nato member if turkey continue like this syria might see itself getting increasingly desperate and retaliate with full force then it's up to the united states and britain european and nato allies to figure out what to do what we need urgently right now is a peace conference certainly it's up to china and russia because they're the only people stopping a full scale war the kind of war that will only help but forces it looks like such as al qaeda united states is again supporting al-qaeda and turkey mr herder one should know much better than to try and help al qaeda he's been doing his best to fight the forces that are all through his presence. are switching our focus from syria now to bahrain where riot police have fired tear gas and water cannons at anti-government protesters this after a funeral march for an activist who died in custody turned violent demonstrators

accuse the government of denying the man treatment the authorities however claim he died of a blood disease pro-forma crowds were trying to reach the former pearl square in the capital manama which is now heavily guarded by police protesters threw firebombs wrong so as to cast canisters were holding them by the officers and the sunni monarchy has been cracking down on the shia. opposition for some twenty months now the activists are demanding equal rights and the release of political prisoners including prominent human rights activist and job he's currently serving three years in prison for attending an illegal rally. site. says certain states only get involved when it comes to benefit them. the problem and the double standard which practiced by all those who stood and gantries. then. you can set him on those regimes who. let's say we

relationship with them or probably they consider them as enemies but like o. regime it's a part of their system they have lots of relationships they give them some let's say support. take some for the cities they have the only throw out of countries down. what's happening here although it's not clear. what's happening somewhere else. of course and many more stories are features and videos always in store for you at our website on the dot com for example study again study the european food safety authority has rejected a controversial report by french scientists linking g.m. corn to canned so you can head online for those details. about radical muslim

cleric abu hamza and four other terror suspects are extradited to america that's off the losing their appeal in the u.k. for what they claim is a lack of evidence in that case you can find much more on this on our website. well it may sound rather bizarre turns out that walking your dog or feeding the birds could land you in a lot of trouble in many london parks civil rights groups have accused the city of cracking down on personal freedoms despite there being little information on what activities are banned and exactly where as r.t. sarah furth reports it's not even the police who are becoming after you if you violate the rules. here in this park in london if your found drinking alcohol or growing up all or even feeding the pigeons you could inadvertently be committing a criminal or civil surprise will serve a lot of people we're joined now by. the creator of the google maps banned in

london which sets out the people these zones in london where you could commit an offense the thankfully these activities that most people would have seen i don't see pretty looted can you tell us more about what sort of things people should be looking out exactly and i think all these activities are things people consider to be quite ordinary so handing out leaflets having a drink in the park with your friends walking your dog we realise that over the past few years you've seen the growth of zones where quite ordinary activities are prohibited the banned in london map shows a whopping four hundred thirty five these provisions lines aimed at tackling and she say she behavior the might of been a good policy idea in theory has local people say and it up a very bad policy in practice meaning hardline crackdowns on the soft this of misdemeanors disconcertingly many bars in london have now hired private contractors to carry out the enforcement of these fines phil morris knows all about the after

his local council hired actual services he received an eighty pound penalty for dropping a cigarette butt and that he maintains he didn't know it was illegal he refused to pay two for weeks later. for. just two x. for the private security and surveillance of the ming providers a so-called in full sprint offices in the u.k. contracted by some local councils first start the kitted out with cameras and uniforms but their tactics of pursuing these fines often seem far from professional . a little sleep with mine. on the way. we asked phil's local council for their response they told r.t. these new offices back up support for the public who are not with the actions of the minority who litter and who in their dog fouls. are litter and

not get paid unless the issue of find appropriately x. will only get paid if they find someone to find a fact confirmed by a glance at their website which just shows local councils that their service is risk free and they won't charge and less the penalties and surprising then that the areas where x. will have been hired has seen a massive increase in the number of fines that a receipt and there's now concern over whether that is fair or ethical about the current ability of the transparency i recently dealt in the home affairs select committee which looks at these issues with the case of the london bar of new and which has law enforcement officers who are in fact council officials but dressed up like police i've been promised them a commission is going to look into it because it's it's actually i think a criminal activity to pretend to be a police officer when you're not and i'm very concerned about how that trend is going i think in the past it would be assumes that people knew the law the law was

reasonable and so long as you weren't creating a problem then you could do what you like but increasingly it seems that that is no longer the case these findings may be surprising for sun but the truth is these types of laws and offenses have been creeping up on us the some time now and they're actually growing in number so also the moment you can enjoy the parks in london but if you do not feed in tariff are long. and r.t. of course coming to life in the heart of moscow are still to come for you on the program better testing time as well as well gears up for a presidential vote its longstanding leader find out of the people want to leave him holding the reins of power. for another six years. i was just like i like which one do i like the least ok i'll use the other but of the other one yeah we are closely following the presidential race for the white house and

i've been asking people in america if perhaps they might be suffering some election from t.v. all of these stories are much more after a short break do if you can stay with us. as his day starts at five am even earlier in the winter tending to his flock of story hundred sheep in the mountains and plains of t.v. thirty five years old it wasn't a life he dreamt of having studied accounting but he dition unfamiliar duty dictated that he would take on the care of these animals after his father. has just made camp at their winter found stage setting up his ute judicial to fenian round tent made of diskin. his p.c. back amongst his family as his job is a lonely one and tough going out in a weathers braving extremes of plus to minus forty degrees celcius says there are

there are certain difficulties there's not enough time for everything i'm almost alone my sister works with my mother my mother is seventy five she's very old and i miss mountains when i'm in town and i spend a lot of time here right now probably so on most of it i simply carrying out the work that his father did and his father before him nothing has changed over many many centuries and that's half the problem it's hard work and many people don't want to come into the industry now and it's where they fit their could dial it all together. do you think it's difficult to manage everything alone i used to have people who helped me but they were no good they didn't take care of the sheep with all their heart they hurt the cattle dogs get on with more people leaving than coming to the countryside the region's government is having to act making the life of the herd and more attractive than promising largest subsidies for producers and livestock and organizing cooperatives for the sale of de products to ensure the herder gets a high at fair price i asked sympathizes with those youngsters leaving for an

easier more profitable life day in the public's capital because ill but he no longer wishes to join them he enjoys his pastoral way of life and looking for a helper who shares his enthusiasm but more time on his hands he says matter of fact we can start to look for a new wife. quarter past the hour moscow time this is our to do with me of war weary sushi it is a day of campaigning silence in venezuela on the eve of sunday's tightly contested presidential vote at the election a war of feel how many remained loyal to the outspoken socialist leader go chavez his opponent a young lawyer and staunch critic of the government is projected to give him a close race at the polls in caracas with more on this artie's lucy catherine off.

there's no question who these venezuelans will be voting for comic over seventh because we are here because we support our president chavez he does many things to help us housing education programs helping the poor everything here has gotten a lot better because of him everything has changed. their red shirts brand them as the lifeblood of the venezuelan president's leftist movement through out his fourteen years in power for the hundreds of thousands of supporters who gathered in caracas on thursday the message was clear they want six more years of alkali done to. his supporters say that chavez is the country's first president to genuinely care about the lower class gothic chavez is the punishment of the rich and the window of hope to cool. them. under the banner of socialism for the

twenty first century chavez has pumped hundreds of billions of petro dollars into the economy and government run aid programs along with earning him popular support poverty has fallen from fifty percent in one thousand nine hundred nine to around thirty percent last year yet life in this country is far from ideal and with the plague of unemployment climb and corruption many venezuelans are now saying it's time for chavez to go but i'm one of those who voted for chavez but his past and we need a change. in this race change means a vote for opposition leader in the us a forty year old lawyer who unlike chavez enjoyed a privileged upbringing. the son of a wealthy family that controls a media conglomerate and a chain of movie theaters has gained supporters by promising to combat climate unemployment and corruption but opponents have charged a pretty as is deliberately hiding his real economic goals the candidates are. going to be worked out very chavez is the man and he has come from this kind of

poverty and now works harder. changed and the other. is a man of the wealthy or the leader. who would implement. a stereo he says it's a choice between two radically different worldviews referendum and venezuela's socialist experiment. the canadian authorities are not doing anything to help a russian student brutally beaten by inmates in a calgary detention center and that's according to the sister of twenty four year old denise tell your cough slowly recovering from severe head injuries. trouble to kind of the english word was arrested in august for allegedly threatening his classmate a charge that since then has been dropped and then investigation into his beating

is ongoing he is haven't yet released any details of the assault or charge anyone in connection with it his sister. also believes the canadian government is deliberately trying to ignore incidents that happen inside the country's detention centers. but that's not a first that is very often it's happening all there and it's been a lot while they was in the i.c.u. unit there were five inmates in the same hospital it was a different kind of in europe and then it was happening with christopher to uploading if you will good a little bit didn't do it to you in the same model hours a day very often happening over there but they never did enough they tried to hide it and i didn't do it just even didn't try to reach me or say stop it can be no they're not commenting anything and they absolutely they are not helping me was not he told laying down he's not eating on his own he had

a cue in his throat and he's grieving for this you. your whole your caller is still are away from him i have to be just as you've been bitten like that and he does the rest of the rehab in here he might not qualify because even though the different kind of like there was a special governmental program and they can be used i warned him to just mama take him back to ross and just look at all although some of the did i did because they had to pay for some. our news from the vatican is in the world up there we'll start with this from venice which is now getting ready to hold a rally later on saturday calling for a referendum on independence from rome several thousand are expected to attend a gathering of the venetian provinces wealthier than many others in italy and activists believe it will be easier to go it alone is the latest in a number of european regions to consider independence including the likes of scotland and catalonia. hundreds peace activists joined

a two day march in pakistan against u.s. drone strikes in the country the convoy which is travelling from islamabad to south waziristan is being led by cricketing legend imraan khan he's since the become an opposition politician can claim that the drone strikes have killed large numbers of civilians and enraged tribal factions living across the area he's also called on people to shoot them out of the sky the region is a hotbed of taliban militancy and of course a major focus of u.s. strikes. the post former butler has been handed an eighteen month sentence after he stole and then sold on to a journalist the point of private letters. said he would not appeal the verdict he said to serve a sentence under house arrest however a papal spokesman said that benedict the sixteenth will most likely pardon his former aide the high profile leak was exposed when an italian journalist published a book accusing the leaders of the roman catholic church of numerous intrigues

corruption and homosexual affair. minors in south africa have gathered for a rally against the dismissal of twelve thousand of their colleagues they were sacked after staging a strike demanding better pay and working conditions the protesters are also mourning their colleagues killed by police in brutal clashes that began two months ago the death toll in the ongoing to early unrest has already reached forty eight. now next month the u.s. will go to the polls to decide whether to keep barack obama or start anew but while experts continue slamming the entire electoral system for a total lack of real choice the voters themselves seem to be growing rather bored of the whole lot of area resident new york resident but his lawyer finished hits the streets to find out more.

the two thousand and twelve presidential elections why are they so boring this week let's talk about that. so tired of all of it you know i mean it's almost like it's more than twenty four hours of coverage on everything you know no matter what happens and nothing happened exactly having said that i think obama's going to win do you think he believes in himself as much as he did four years ago because he seems kind of tired he seems like he's a little frustrated i think he's more tired of mitt romney and just all of this like he just wants to get it over to november and just like ok give me you know my polls and let me when he says bored with the elections as we are very much president obama's team with the first african-american president that was so exciting no it's boring me again i don't know if there's going to be as much of a turnout for voters this year are you going to vote absolutely we're talking about the election you know. i'm not american you guys don't let me now yeah we don't we don't let a lot of americans vote to you apparently why do you want to run don't you think

either candidate can get it done i think there's too much corruption in the government i mean this should be important right. but how can it be a problem with only two thoughts. and there's no really a choice right it's one of the other and if by a really good option then what you do and the bush kerry kerry yeah i was just like i like which one do i like the least ok i'll use the other a vote of the other one yeah yeah so it's kind of the same thing as two thousand and four that maybe it's just like one of those here the new times a new age you need to support the people of your country is very important so is that what there is that what's missing this year neither of them are really speaking to the people yes forty seven percent that came from romney and now the thirty percent thing that came from ryan and. a lot of presidents telling us that they don't care about it right at this point a month away from elections act like they just wants to be to get it over with and

they just want to hear more details on plans get it over with and get on with it and do something. good they do things that are not that smart. yet there are the smart ones with all the millions of dollars they think they get put on a better so. whether or not you think this election is boring the bottom line is we only have about a month until it's finally over and we can all gladly. do stay with us here on r.t. for coverage of the ongoing us presidential election for although in just a few minutes we look at the scars of war still visible in vietnam almost four decades after former president nixon decided to call it a day. a

sacred place rising out of the waters of the lake the long monstrous home two hundred fifty orthodox monks mostly younger than thirty five and they've come from many different places and backgrounds to live in isolation here spiritual life it takes so many hours on the road to become a monk requires both hard work and religious telly cation. to become and heard as part of this preparation. however these pieces of musical company. sound sequences you know they react to the sounds the flutes the heard is heard in the old days they needed them it wasn't just fun but these matters didn't come naturally requiring decades of composting to bring the soil up to farming standard this island is mostly rock. the soil here is very thin on the monks can't just get more of it because that's surrounded by

the lake so they have to work very hard in order to provide whatever food they need . to grow their own crops found their own fish and repair their own churches. but the central purpose of the lawn has always been religious the main ministry surrounded by smaller priories spread through the many archipelago the monks here know their existence is a little different from the out of of them on the streets here we are out of the way and we do have. bill good aims and sometimes tourists as well but i'm always. trying quickly to use this cog. just a. combination of high religion and down to earth hard work that motivates these men. i mean all those years of dealing with

p.t.s.d. and vietnam and age you know and the enemy you know as that's what it was like all those years you know america's moved on left us stuck in time how dare they we're going to come out. we're going to take over where the very voice has has been stopped has been discontinued they think that that's all that was necessary to hide their lives but they're wrong because they forgot about the widow this is a piece they did after my daughter danielle and i had the diagnosis with her spine are we in the process of the diagnosis this is. agent orange it's evolved. may has been bird. six very much like plucky dad and my oldest daughter

lizbeth her she's in prison and by everything that's happened to us plus service asperger's and the alcohol and drug abuse as a result of his p.t.s.d. and other illnesses in this is all came about because of daniel's mind problems he access to that vertebrates putting apart the u.s. air force kept detailed records of the spray missions that began in one thousand nine hundred sixty one and continued for ten years these voluminous records were used to create maps and calculate the extent of the spring thirty years after the war and. one of the things that we did when we created this tree a graphic information system was to to create a way in which you could take these tens of.