paving the way for scotland to go it alone leaders put pen to paper setting up a referendum for independence by two thousand and fourteen. moscow says it's impossible to confirm whether damascus he's using soviet era cluster bombs against rebels or the e.u. slaps the syrian government with new sanctions. and one man is stuck in the siege of the libyan opposition's last stronghold tells r t the supplies in bani walid running out.

a very warm welcome to you from all of us here at r.t. moscow i'm real research. but dream of independence that has lived in the hearts of many scottish people for centuries has moved a step closer to reality the u.k.'s prime minister and scotland's leader have signed a historic deal paving the way for a referendum on breaking away by the end of two thousand and fourteen. to more than three centuries as part of the united kingdom one of the major decisions reached what was allowing sixteen and seventeen year olds to vote last month thousands marched for scottish independence in edinburgh and a little bit later we'll be joined by correspondent sara firth who is in the scottish capital for more details. for now the e.u. has slapped the syrian government with fresh sanctions it comes as claims emerged that soviet era cluster bombs are being used by assad's forces moscow says that cannot be confirmed because the region is being flooded with illegal weapons from all over the world. has this report. human rights watch the new york based

watchdog has said this following what they've seen in a online video that dates soviet era cluster bombs were being used by the syrian government against the civilian population in syria in the ongoing conflict there now russia has rebuffed these claims wholeheartedly with the union there are plenty of weapons in the region right now with huge amounts being supplied illegally to syria and neighboring countries there are mercenaries and for in trainers in the conflict zone this is being confirmed by independent media the region is flooded with gnomes it's very hard to determine where they're all coming from the alleged cluster bombs is said to be from the soviet era and we can come to terms with some countries on regulating their production of soviet technology without a license so there's plenty of things that need to be sorted out also to get

a 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 a peaceful solution through dialogue now that stance is being backed up by the current joint u.n. 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 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. of course want to put all of our reporting right now syrians caught in the crossfire off fleeing the conflict zone and never pick up numbers the u.n. has warned the figure could soon top half a million and probably won't stop there are thousands of caffein off investigates.

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 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 tents 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 when you're not wanted. the situation is awfully miserable especially for us the syrians who come to a car 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're stuck in between we don't feel safe neither from the syrian army nor from the rebels. lebanon 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 close our border in the faces of the refugees we have to help them. but help is hard to come by turkey sides refugee populations 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 the neglected in neighboring countries for syrian refugees like these hope in itself is a herculean feat to see catherine of lebanon or out of from syria another libya where an opposition stronghold is facing an ongoing scene each with residents calling for international help the conflict. it's already killed ten people in a series of armed confrontations last week at the siege began with the national congress tried to arrest the suspected murderers of the man who captured colonel gadhafi but residents refused to hand them over to dr. ali or from the bani walid council says the situation is only getting worse. that's the. result of the feast no food no no can go. to.

the militias of. the city with. the militias which. i think. i think because. we. come. from moscow this is our take a british man who hacked into the pentagon ten years ago is set to find out his fate on tuesday washington has been seeking his extradition and if found guilty

gary mckinnon who suffers from mild old system could spend sixty years behind bars and saudis laura smith reports his family says he could take his own life if indeed he is shipped off to america. 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 the 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 only 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 oct sixteenth to

decide whether she'll block the extradition gary's mother has high hopes as does his lawyer who were to give up if the worst happens to move into 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 charm we challenge we can because as they will to all absolutely sure i'm convinced that if would commit suicide so we're talking about man's life we're told no 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 to britain 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 here is 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. 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 rob 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 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. iran is facing a fresh round of sanctions nuclear program as the. transfer. of power and willingness to compromise. iraq. following. much more on that in just a few moments. gracefully dancing across the arctic tundra more than just a scenic image it is a way of life traditionally the people are. herders in many ways they.

are also highly skilled and organized. another week. depending. on the day we found this particular camp they were settled near the coast of the see here for families work together to manage nearly a thousand reindeer herding reindeer is not just a job for the people in fact they say it's a part of their culture and way of life and they say that they can use almost every single part of the reindeer to help them survive. the deer is a means of transportation. with. the life in the tundra is harsh and so before winter hits many of the children are helicoptered to the center of the district and not even for boarding school.

students learn different languages utilize modern technologies through specialized grant programs and even learn arts. all within a protected environment the school was founded and named for an tom petty attica a scientist who wanted a better way of life for his people but even with the most progressive ideas in education many minutes say they don't want to trade the modern life for their beloved tundra. but i have returned to the tundra and i actually like it here if you're outside there's fresh air fresh water looks at the site you can see deer it's a joyful sight. a sentiment that hopefully ensures that russia's northern reindeer will have caretakers for generations to come.

across the aisle moscow time it's good to have you with us here on our to today the prime minister and scotland's leader have signed an historic deal paving the way for a referendum on breaking away by the end of two thousand and fourteen. further study for us right out and good to see you sara said all the deal for the referendum has been nonstop what's next for scotland. well they have sealed the deal but now the real battle begins prime minister david cameron met here in edinburgh today with first minister alex salmond they signed that memorandum of understanding ahead of the referendum for scotland's independence that will be held in the olsen of twenty forty now that's going to focus around a single question as the prime minister said today is that the biggest question of all will be settled a separate scotland or a united kingdom now that this is being used in the coming lots of wrangling lots

of consultations but now all sides are going to be able to gay forward and they're going to be wanting to set forth their arguments to the scottish public about whether or not scotland should indeed be independent and the implications of the outcome of that that will be held in the autumn the twenty four team really can't be underestimated this is truly a historic moment the start of a very very far reaching implications if they did indeed vote for independence but still to play for and i think scotland certainly going to have a theist fight on its hands over the coming years certainly as you say sir there are many levels to this indeed whether it comes down to the issue of scottish assets in oil or whether it's you know their whole job of being that of a of a national defense unit of the u.k. but as you did mention a moment ago sara that many many for many years even centuries now people in scotland have been talking about all calling for independence but what is the mood like nowadays among the majority still the same award. well edinburgh of course is

the city will be seen as such things that many many years protest cooling ciscos this independence is very very hard to gauge exactly what the figures on the polls often fit around a third quarter of people actually for independence but you know it really is two years until that actual vote will be held it's an incredibly turbulent economic climate is the moment they campaign for keeping scotland within the union will say they said less is to say there's nothing to worry about the majority in scotland want to remain within the union but you know it is old still to play for here and maybe was missing taking a bit of a gamble because they drop that middle option the devolution mocks the option for perhaps more powers to be handed to scotland that was to look there's no middle ground it really is one question it's all or nothing and you know possibly there'll be a lot of people here in scotland who are maybe on the fence he will say well ok we

might not have wanted all of it we might have wanted to remain within the union but actually we don't want to be left with nothing if we vote to scotland to remain so i mean that kids end up actually being a bit of a gamble there's been loads of two hundred today about the strategic mini. sides in the lead up to the still he came out better as he said concessions made by both sides sixteen seventeen year olds are going to be allowed to take part in the study again and there's a difference of opinion over how much of a difference that would actually make but i mean incredibly exciting times as we said he to implications in this and they thought these two years to lay out their argument a lot can happen incredibly to most times as any scottish fishermen will tell you it doesn't take much for the waters to get very very choppy here and so yeah you can see a very interesting couple of years of fist fighting at the back of the school and the gun all right these are for the love and the birth thank you. the

e.u. has imposed fresh sanctions on iran the measures targeting the banking sector and gas exports forcing terror rance a curb your reign in the enrichment amid fears the country's developing nuclear weapons iran has always denied and says it might consider limiting the enrichment of high grade uranium if it's allowed to have fuel for research reactor but iran university professor side mohammad marandi says the penalties are not about the nuclear program at all. 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 the sanctions that are being imposed by western governments has inhuman the intention is to make ordinary iranians up 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 tougher. as could have you with us are a nazi today a new study has revealed a staggering rise in birth defects among iraqi children conceived in the aftermath of the u.s. led war and the findings were published by the bulletin of environmental contamination and toxicology it suggested that american and british ammunition has caused high rates of miscarriages and birth defects including in the heart and brain professor christopher busby from the european committee on radiation risks believes the

invaders should take responsibility for what they did. it actually supports the work that we did and published about a month ago which did have formal evidence brought from the general hospital there are high levels of lead and mercury which we also found in the head of the mothers of the children with congenital malformation we believe quite strongly that it was the ukrainian weapons the new ukrainian weapons that were used in fallujah and of course they used an awful lot of depleted uranium in as well and i reported this whole issue about the uranium in the congenital malformation at the united nations human rights council last month and there was an awful lot of interest in it there so we would hope that the united nations might actually put some pressure on the united states not to come clean about the kind of weaponry that they were using and i'm sure they were using a lot of experimental weaponry in fallujah which is why we see these enormous increases in congenital malformation. this is r.t. global chain reaction to the pussy riot scandal and the performance of place in

london some paul's cathedral for women from the occupy movement wearing white chain themselves to the pulpit during a sunday service in protest of the wealthy church and their links to big banks. but watch out putting up a book of may no longer be anonymous police in the u.s. have decided the most effective method to combat prostitution is just to name and shame the punters. now separatists in belgium have gained political control of the country's wealth the port city of antwerp the party's leader bob was voted in as mayor and called for more powers of self rule for the wealthy dutch speaking region of flanders in the short term he wants to end fiscal transfers to the poor french speaking wallonia the party's aim is to split belgium which are seen hostility between his two deeply divided communities increased by the euro crisis belgium politician philip class who's the euro m.p. for flanders says the outcome of the election illustrates how supporters breaking

away. it's been searching reaching. the idea is gaining ground and 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. 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 the credit deficits and this means this government doesn't have a real democratic legitimacy in flounders voted for complete something completely different that we are getting with this federal government and friends is an economic economically socially powerful a prosperous region we have we are already if we have a flemish nation we have a french people you have to know that blow them is an artificial country it's

really two separate countries already within belgium and we see a completely different political consensus on the federation around the world. this would be perfect. to have to have an independent state and be a member of the you know european union. but let's cross over to. his business good to see you again although not exactly the best of news to share economic and so it's now work making people less enthusiastic to fill up their cars exactly with lower energy demands combined with increased competition and this in turn means that russia's gas probably is getting requests from their european partners for a discount on their contrasts now if this is energy giant any insisting on counseling a cake called that vision the take all fatals now and as president paolo scaroni a supposedly asked to remove the clause if history new the expiring contract now

they take open. principle means that any either take a sea specified volume of gas from gas probably all pays a penalty for the fine it could reach eighty five percent of the price last year any reported a loss of six hundred million a year i had to pay one point five zero in the take or pay a penalty. all right that must sit with your fanatic out the market if they do indeed remain in positive territory as we can see around four tenths of the six for the banks and drug makers still leading the guy you know that says investors digest a raft of data coming from china with better than expected exports numbers that check out some current is the euro is still gaining despite the italian prime minister voicing his concerns about the common currency in the euro zone in general the ruble is still manages hold instanced get a look at the russet main indices as well they are indeed still holding on to that

gaggle or they have to open modest lives just a touch up today most states economic regulators say because you could see another deficit bulges this shit fight us how business and this our next that it's all about the u.s. will straight will be moving and. hard to stop stephen. interest a couple of minutes or an hour to you we took a look at what the host city for the two thousand and fourteen winter olympics has to offer you just a sec. download the official application to cell phone choose your language stream quality and enjoy your favorites from alzheimer's t.v. is not required to watch on t.v. all you need is your mobile device to watch ati any time.

will come into the future science technology innovation called in news developments from around russia we've gone to the future covered. wealthy british style. markets why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with my stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into kinds a report. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something

else you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture. if. which brightened a few pounds from phones to professionals. whose friends totty don't come. down in the black sea coast of russia the city of sochi is busy preparing for the twenty fourteen winter olympic games construction is booming transport infrastructure is being completely revamped and disabled onsets points are being installed across town. but aside from being

russia's second lympics city sochi is also one of the country's most popular tourist destinations people still care for the long hot summer as the spacious beaches and the warm seas busk if you're looking for more than just a town it's also an area filled with some amazing natural highlights. so i've been spending a lot of so i'm in the city but off in the mountains there's the caucasus reserve which is literally the size of finland so i've met up with one very experienced. if and when you are off on a bench. it's fair to say that if you're driving up here then you're in for a bumpy ride.