calls for independence in scotland have not fallen on deaf ears as the british prime minister is set to sign a deal for an historic referendum that could ultimately result in the breakup of great britain up to three hundred years. russia says there's no confirmation of claims that soviet era cluster bombs are being used against civilians in syria and . the e.u. has imposed a new batch of sanctions on iran targeting its metal and gas sales but the aim is to pressure the nation over its nuclear program after three rounds of talks since this april produced no results.

worldwide news around the clock this is with me will receive show you live in moscow thousands of scottish people who have been calling for the country's independence for years could soon see their dream become a reality and agreement is set to be inked today that would pave the way for a referendum in two thousand and fourteen reporting from edinburgh now on south. we're here on coutts and hill in edinburgh the city that for decades has been the scene of protest among scottish independence well of the years a wrangling and consultation today prime minister david cameron and first minister alex summoned to going to be meeting here to sign a memorandum of understanding head of a referendum to be held at the end of twenty four team to decide whether or not scotland gains independence now the bills mean

a long time in the making of concessions to be made side by side nations the alex salmond's gaining the rights of sixteen is seventeen year olds the participation in this since this referendum will be legally binding the holy week is going to be one says the legal how is she draft up this referendum and the what's known as a section thirty i think it's really important this is a hundred years for this and i think she put it i think it's stupid. yeah i don't know because like they've been part of like brits invaded and stuff i think we need to work together i think. it's really. just a case about you know the return years ago from the payments of the family except to accept the riches and go a bit more and there you go so the decision now was the post mostly back up the

fact that the majority of the scottish public but now are in support of remaining in the union it's around. a quarter of the scottish public when the polls are carried out that they want independence but of course that very will be held to the end of twenty four feet so it still to play for and that will be eight months of campaigning to tell his public why the country should become an independent one summer. will be part of a. capability these are all going to be. employed if. yes in that referendum yes to independence the united kingdom that's been in existence for three centuries now. of its nuclear deterrent and most of it's not to mention the impact it would have on its international standing it really would have very far reaching implications in the end is why this is being

described as the most important political decision to face the united kingdom the three hundred year is and today with the signing of that memorandum they'll be feeling the dail and kicking off that campaign to decide whether or not gotten gains independent. of the edinburgh scotland. are still to come just a bit later here on r.t. that about london. is a civilized country do this. mental condition. could be sent to america just. made to hunt down terror suspects. this is our two you know claims that soviet era cluster bombs are being used by the

syrian government cannot be confirmed according to russian officials moscow says the region is flooded with being supplied illegally from lots of places all over the world. has details now from just outside the russian foreign ministry. human rights watch the new york based watchdog has said this following what they've seen in a online video that soviet era cluster bombs were being used by the syrian government against the civilian population in syria and the ongoing conflict there now russia has rebuffed these claims wholeheartedly. there are plenty of weapons in the region right now with huge amounts being supplied illegally to syria and neighboring countries of which there are mercenaries and for in trainers in the conflict zone this is being confirmed by independent media the region is flooded with domes reproduce it's very hard to determine where they're all coming from the alleged cluster bombs are said to be from the soviet era we can come to terms with

some former soviet and warsaw pact countries on a production of soviet technology without a license so there are plenty of things that need to be sorted out as that's at the . level of was giving his address he reiterated russia's stance which hasn't changed since the conflict first started over a year ago which is that they want to see both sides lay down their weapons they want to peaceful solution through dialogue so that stance has been backed up by the current joint u.n. and arab league peace envoy lakhdar brahimi now he took over the job from from kofi annan you'll remember he's currently on a tour of the region trying to convince syria's neighbors to stop pushing for both sides to lay down arms and comes to the table and come to the table for talks all of this comes against the backdrop of a further round of sanctions that have just been signed off on by the european union on syria. all of our reporting there now for the meantime syrian civilians

caught in the crossfire are increasingly fleeing the conflict zone where the number of refugees said to be rising exponentially the u.n. warns that number could soon top half a million and it will not stop there. cuffing office story. the bekaa valley is one of the poorest regions in lebanon the resources are scarce living conditions visibly harsh but for syrian refugees with the fewest means this is now home we arrive to the town of all cars just thirty minutes after syrian shell hit the area the lebanese army wouldn't permit us to film the damage but even here at the official border crossing. sporadic gunfire serves as a reminder of the dangers on the other side hundreds of thousands of syrians have fled their country many coming right here to lebanon to seek refuge from the escalating violence but whether numbers are growing by the day and no end to the fighting in sight many find the prospects for their future are increasingly grim

there are no camps for the refugees in lebanon most stay with host families mohamed not his real name isn't so lucky. we thought it would be safer here but bullets are still reaching us bombs are falling three or four hundred meters beyond our tents inside lebanese territories people here advise me to move my tense to protect my children which i did now i live there near those trees. we met this refugee at a nearby apple orchard where he and seventeen members of his family have been hiding after losing everything in the war he didn't feel safe showing his family on camera but describe the struggle of trying to survive where you're not wanted. yeah the situation is awfully miserable especially for us the syrians who come to. outside this region it's safer in the situation is better everything is secured for the other refugees they have refrigerators food televisions everything here we have nothing at all we don't have work either it's a catastrophe. no help from lebanon he says and no way to return home.

we are stuck in between we don't feel safe neither from the syrian army nor from the red. carpet. has registered nearly seventy thousand syrian refugees but their number is set to soar the u.n. warns that the syrian refugee population could more than double before the end of the year today there are just under three hundred thousand syrian refugees in the form a boring countries and the prime provides for up to over seven hundred thousand this means is an additional four hundred thousand the question is whether syria's neighbors can absorb the incoming wave already cracks are showing riots erupted last week at the un runs attari refugee camp in jordan police fired tear gas to quell the uprising by syrians complaining about poor living conditions it was the worst violence since the facility opened in july. we can place a border in the faces of the refugees we have to help them. but help is hard to

come by turkey saw its refugee population swell to more than eighty seven thousand people over the past month prompting ancora to at least partially shut it's open door policy. less than one hundred meters from its border makeshift camps like this one have sprung up were desperate hopefuls wait to be allowed to cross ravaged and dispossessed by war marginalized in the collected in neighboring countries for syrian refugees like these hope in itself is a herculean feat to see catherine of lebanon. and on top of the syrian sanctions the european union has just slapped more of them on iran over the country's nuclear program but the new measures include a ban on e.u. metal sales a whole imports of terrans natural gas and various sole shipment restrictions as well as the new regulations mark one of the toughest lines against iran to date and with mounting worries the state's making nuclear weapons iran has always denied this and says it might consider limiting enrichment of high grade uranium if it's

allowed to have fuel for over search reactor sanctions have been piling up on the country since two thousand and six when the u.n. banned supplies of heavy weaponry and arms exports after which more bands from the e.u. and the us followed to run university professor side mohammed about andy says that western penalties have little to do with the so-called nuclear program the iranians are willing to be more open and allow more intrusive inspections and they're willing. to talk about enriching uranium at twenty percent under certain conditions but in general nothing has changed and increasing sanctions by the west will only make things more difficult because the iranians see that are being imposed by western governments as inhuman their intention is to make ordinary iranians stop or there is a consensus that this is not this doesn't have much to do with the nuclear program

the issue is iran iran independent iran is a country that not bow down to the western powers and the europeans and americans want to run to near like saudi arabia like most of the other countries in the region and that objective to make ordinary iranian topper. watching r.t. you know just a couple of minutes here on the program separatist marchers across india but nationalist party leader gains control of a consonance second biggest city and a major he calls for more independence from flanders blaming the belgian government for draining the region this story and a lot more after a quick break. a sacred place rising out of the waters of the lake the lawn ministry is home to one

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 up many hours on the road to becoming a monk requires both hard work and religious telly cation. alexei wants to become and has cattle as part of this preparation. however these beasts is a musical company. you base your sound sequences you know they react to the sound signals the flutes the herders had in the old days they needed them it wasn't just a fun thing but these meadows 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 they're surrounded by the lake so they have to work very hard in order to provide whatever

food they need they grow their own crops find their own fish and repair their own churches. but the central purpose of alarm has always been religious the main ministries surrounded by smaller primaries spread through the mini archipelago the monks who knew their existence is a little different from that of of them on the streets here we do with. we do have. some times to do so as we're. always. trying quickly to use is hardly. disturbed. that is the condemnation of high religion and down to earth hard work that motivates these men.

live from moscow this is art to you with me rory suchet there has been more unrest in bahrain with saudi backed security forces clashing with program form demonstrators in the capital the protests have been ongoing in the country for more than twenty months with fights breaking out between police and demonstrators are now almost on a daily basis the sunni are thora these are often cracking down on the mostly shia pro-democracy campaigners using tear gas and water cannons around eighty have been killed since the uprising began and thousands arrested as the protesters continue to demand more rights equal access to jobs and education opportunities for the rest comes as the country's criminal court gets ready for tomorrow's appeal hearing for a prominent human rights activist that of not build

a job he's currently serving three years in prison for participating in an illegal gathering let's discuss this further now former black or any m.p. side of the isle of man joining us live here on r.t. good to see you today thanks for coming on the program as are as i'm sure you are just hearing more protests again let's talk about the source of these protests here are we talking ethnic tension the driving force or perhaps there are deeper reasons at work. scuse me mr this is rory sushi in moscow can you hear me. i'm afraid we've lost connection here and we do apologize here mr side. will chat with him as soon as we reestablish that connection and to apologize and thank you for your patience for now though here on our team he claims he was just looking for u.f.o.'s spoke could now face sixty years in a u.s. prison for most a decade washington has been demanding the extradition of the old sixty's u.k.

hacker gary mckinnon of a do so under a treaty designed to get hold of terrorists a final decision expected on tuesday but as laura smith reports from london officials there could still at the end of the day step. gary mckinnon it's mother janice who's been up all night working to get everything in order to convince the home secretary not to deport her mentally ill son to trial in america it's ten years since the u.s. demanded gary's extradition for hacking into the pentagon's computers from his north london bedroom he's mildly autistic and doctors say a very real suicide risk gary would not survive five minutes and that c agreed by so many top a psychiatrist and doctors do we really extra days suddenly with a mental condition who is suicidal and his emotional age or a child does. civilized country do this surely not but there may be

a light at the end of the tunnel the home secretary has until october the sixteenth to decide whether she'll block the extradition gary's mother has high hopes as does his lawyers who were to give up if the worst happens to women to the supreme court twice we've been to the house of lords we've been to the high court so you know there's we've exhausted every possible nickel charming challenge we can because his legal team were all absolutely sure and convinced that if ordered he would commit suicide so we're talking about man's life we're told now has built a successful practice on fighting water is seen as one sided extradition the rules in the treaty with the us the americans must only show reasonable suspicion if they want to extradite a briton compared with probable cause going the other way the result nine times more britons have been extradited than americans it's

a treaty that even david blunkett the home secretary has signed it in two thousand and three admits was a mistake it's now under review but so far it's just words also just talk has been prime minister david cameron. and his deputy nick clegg supports but gary mckinnon both were loudly on his side while in opposition but after two and a half years in power there's been no action all the while the cases roll up to forty five year old gary of almost a quarter of his life and taken a potentially irreversible toll on his health is beginning to wonder who is real and who isn't he says it's like there's a veil between him and the world and sometimes actually feels that it's just not real gary used to cycle used to swim you wrote music a sign if gary had been tried in the u.k. at the start he would have served his sentence and been able to put all this behind him by now as it is he's stuck in limbo still liable to sixty years in an american

jail and still insisting he was only looking for evidence of u.f.o.'s laura smith r.t. london. i will do the world update in just a sec for now there were separatists in belgium have gained control of europe's second biggest port city and twirp after the flemish nationalist leader won the election to become the city's mayor. promised to use his new power to seek wider all twenty four flanders the new french are lined so n.v. some thirty seven percent of votes in belgium is wealthy dutch speaking region the party stated its goal is an independent flemish republic its first objective is to end the fiscal transfers to the poor one loonier region which the nationalists claim is a drain on flanders belgium politician philip glass says the outcome of the election illustrates just how support for breaking away has grown in the region over recent

years. the idea is gaining ground that it's the most important thing because we are having a lot of problems now in belgium we see that france is the federal government doesn't have majority on the flemish side in the federal parliament although the flemings make up the majority of the population in belgium the federal government doesn't have a majority in flanders and that's of course is a big problem it's a problem of democratic deficit and this means this government doesn't have a real democratic legitimacy in flanders voted for something completely different that we are getting now with this federal government and this is an economic economically socially powerful prosperous region we have we are already we have a flemish nation we have a flemish people you have to know that belgium is an artificial country it's really two separate countries already within belgium we see a completely different political consensus on the floor in the world will lose side

and flanders would be perfectly able to have to have an independent state and be a member of the you know european union. are starting with guantanamo bay into the we go the long delayed trial of the self-proclaimed mastermind of nine eleven and his four accomplices is to begin monday at the notorious u.s. naval base at the hearings have been delayed several times since the original start date in august the military court will consider twenty five motions from both the prosecution and defense relatives of victims of the terror attacks have been invited to attend the hearings. human rights advocate alys it don has been elected as libya's new interim prime minister it comes only a week after the ruling national general congress dismissed his predecessor for failing to form a cabinet dan will now face a tough task of forming

a government that libya's conflicting political factions kind of agree upon the country is still highly volatile after last year's uprising that led to the chuckling at its longtime leader mark it down. brazilian marines and police have stormed two of rio de janeiro's most notorious slums the operation was aimed at wrestling control of the shantytowns away from drug gangs this as part of the preparations for the two thousand and fourteen football world cup at least five suspected terrorists who were tempted to flee were killed by police and are planning to deploy specially trained asians to operate in the two areas on a permanent basis. to all flock. here we have a natasha now tell us all about it volatility a threat to russia's economy absolutely of course and russia's former finance minister tells this r t how he sees the situation developing this story in just a couple of minutes but first heightened competition and

a lower and edgy demand has gazprom as european partners asking for a discount italy's energy giant any insists on cancelling a key contract provision the so-called take or pay clause and he's president policy corroding israel. woodley asking to a remove the clause if he is to renew the expiring contract to take a pay principle means that any either takes the specified volume of gas from gazprom or pays a penalty the fine could reach eighty five percent of the price wash share any reported a loss of six hundred million euro it had to pay one of the house billion euro in the take or pay penalties. and it's time now to check out the equity markets first to european shares are and was that of territory at this hour u.s. triggers a warning to higher opening on wall street now here in moscow equities this hour are suffering from earlier losses as you can see about how far some of them isis

and the r.t.s. the euro is gaining to the u.s. dollar at this hour and the ruble is also a strange thing to the currency basket and prove this hour is next u.t.i. is down after the international energy agency slashed forecasts for global demand crude price volatility threatens russia's growth since its budget largely depends on oil revenues former finance minister alex they couldn't explains what to prepare for if the strength continues. the first scenario which is also the base one is the status quo given the current gold prices institutions and markets will improve but at a slow pace the second scenario involves a sharp drop in crude prices triggering a major cuts in infrastructure and education spending the third scenario is the most difficult one it involves the improvement of public institutions that compensates for falling oil prices this scenario requires white support to get

implemented. and up next on our t.v. it's peter lavelle at this crosstalk. well. science technology innovation all the most developments from around russia we've got this huge earth covered. culture is that so much of the taxpayers' money coming to but i seriously am a real mystery and again we are told the global economy wrists getting back into recession just three years after pulling out of the previous growth is slowing in.

motion would be soon which brightened the food bounce comes from feinstein's pressure in some of. these firms down totty don't come. i'm in sochi the latest city in europe on a host of the twenty forty in which are the biggest. subsidy. thank you. saatchi. thank you for the. way a. dog days of. pride days it. takes to calm. the. sudsy it's so true. the gold fever. turns thousands into slaves. much problems but also among

brotherhood involved in the monsoon and since i started working in amman i studied . the most. i think that in this country. as an environmental cost which is unacceptable local business news lately that's controlled by criminals in order to protect our lives our families and to work in peace. we are forced to pay protection to illegal groups. to pay. the price of the modest effect.