the week's top stories and of the latest news egypt's opposition rejects the referendum on the new islamist based constitution as they call for yet more protests. rebels in syria come together under one that military command meanwhile more global calls to prevent the government from using chemical weapons are increasingly seen as a pretext for intervention. and vows to see palestinians liberated as the militant group marks twenty five years into action while israel is losing allies through its plans to build more settlements. and broadcasting live from our studios in central moscow this is r.t.

glad to have you with us the opposition has announced it will boycott the referendum on the new constitution saying the document fails to represent the whole nation that's as president morsi has granted the army power to arrest civilians in order to maintain security journalist bell true has more from cairo. the national salvation front which is the coalition of opposition forces how the press conference they express their complete rejection of the referendum of the constitution which they say enforces dictatorial tendencies and neglect key economic and social rights they've called for more protests on choose to against this document and said that basically they will not stand down how this will be responded to by the president he is yet to be seen in all of the speeches by the president and over the statements he's made he's firmly back the referendum on the street speaking to the protesters behind me as you can see that in front of the presidential palace they believe that his initial confusion that gratian which awarded him sleeping power as they said to me this evening was really to ensure

that the constitution was drafted and put to referendum so the president's main aim really is they say how this constitution puts in place how he reacts to the to the boycott by the opposition forces i guess in whether or not it's a huge boycott nationwide or whether it is not large enough to make an impact behind me the republican guards have had a tank stationed outside the presidential palace they've also built a twelve foot concrete barricades however the protesters on friday in quite extraordinary scenes essentially overwhelm the republican guards and push through in front of the presidential gates where they are now people on the streets of the republican guard essentially stepped aside and so many leading many to believe the military perhaps not backing morsi to the same extent that he is saying they are he has called for them to secure the streets they're all fears that violence will escalate this bloody seems on wednesday when rival groups clashed here just at the presidential palace between pro brotherhood pro presidential supporters and protest

is leaving at least seven dead at the national salvation front themselves in this press conference said this referendum will really just simply increase division in the country possibly to further violence as these protest groups maintain that positions so definitely the military may well we may see more time in the streets here in the. egypt has this is the crisis the pain is the u.s. has made no comment on egypt the draft constitution and that is despite the document coming in for criticism for undermining basic freedoms geo political analyst f william and dol says washington is secretly supporting the muslim brotherhood to turn egypt into an islamic dictatorship and the whole decree was a saint to begin with so loudly pressing through but by the book of the proposed new constitution and then the referendum for the fifteenth of december not given the opposition and the liberal groups and second persons or time to really debated openly in the country so that voters have an informed choice the coptic christian groups are threatened if the book brotherhood gets its constitution and imposing

sharia law or other groups of the muslims for example sufi their places of worship are under attack in egypt and likely will be increasingly so and this is probably one of the most major. here in intelligence projects of the of the last fifty years since the us government support of the muslim brotherhood to create islamic fascist regime if you want to use that term across the islamic world across the muslim world from afghanistan down through turkey into saudi arabia qatar and of course egypt. syria's rebels have joined forces under one military command which they hope will unite diverse groups in the western backed struggle against president assad this past week of the international community again voiced fears that the syrian government could deploy chemical weapons to defeat opposition fighters something damascus tonight kind of such a can look at whether the chemical arsenal is a real threat or a pretext for intervention. u.s.

officials said intelligence agencies have detected that assad's government has been preparing its chemical weapons stockpiles with possible use the obama administration's message to syria the u.s. is ready to act if you make the tragic mistake of using these weapons there will be consequences and you will be held accountable there will be consequences. there will be consequences we have sent a an unmistakable message that this would cross a red line how does america the media quickly picked up on the alarming news of the syrian government's alleged plans citing secret intelligence for fox news confirms that syrian troops now have the deadly nerve agent sarin gas weaponized and at the ready the syrian government flatly denied the possibility saying it would not use such weapons against its people. we would not commit suicide we fear there's a conspiracy to provide a pretext for any subsequent interventions in syria by these countries they're

doing creasing pressure on syria the syrian government sure knows that if they use chemical weapons it would give nato and some of their arab neighbors who are itching to intervene in syria the green light to go ahead with their plans the meskins itself says it would be suicidal for them to do so but with the fear and the hype building up over the use of chemical weapons against civilians in syria it seems the u.s. might be preparing grounds to jump the gun on this one you're the jumping the gun scenario is not new for the us almost twenty years ago the bush administration confidently presented false evidence to invade iraq we have an descriptions of biological weapons factories on wheels and on rails the invasion triggered a civil war that killed more than one hundred thousand innocent iraqis and years later all washington had to say about this was the president thought it was correct congress thought it was forever of course i regret that it turned out a lot of it was wrong in the run up to the iraq invasion the us media was

instrumental in selling the case to the public the congress never. ever percent. of weapons of mass destruction all came from tony blair. now that the u.s. has drawn a red line on syria it has made it clear it's ready to take action but how i'm not going to telegraph in any specifics what we would do in the event. of credible evidence that the assad regime has resorted to using chemical weapons against their own people but suffice it to say we are certainly planning to. take action if that eventuality were to occur two american warships are already near the syrian coast with some. one thousand u.s. marines and dozens of fighter jets on board on top of that nato is sending american german and dutch batteries of patriot anti-aircraft missiles to turkey's border

with syria meaning hundreds more u.s. and european troops will be deployed to the frontier nato says deploying patriot missiles along syrian borders is a defensive step to prevent syria from attacking turkey i don't think there's any requirement whatsoever for patriot batteries on the ground in turkey again the patriot missiles are designed to really protect primarily against incoming fire ballistic missiles or occur if the syrians are not according to the turks the turks of the most powerful military establishment in the region the largest army in nato and intervention in syria will be as bad if not worse than what we experienced in iraq the pentagon said they would need seventy five thousand troops to secure syria's weapons of mass destruction the question on everyone's mind is are they seriously considering that kind of a mess of intervention because that could mean another you rock coming soon and invasion that could be followed by years of bloody civil war in washington i'm

going to check on. syria political activist dr hughes on the dollar says if the international community is worried about a chemical attack in syria it should look to the rebels and not the government. recently there have been some troubling videos that we have seen on you tube and some other reports of of the jihadist groups in northern syria assessing some chemical materials with the name of a turkish company on them and the background there was a music playing with have this chance it's very worrying they were conducting some experiments on the rabbits so it's difficult to verify but if it is not a bluff then this is a this is very very worrying because judging by the effect of this gas it is a convulsing so it's so nerve agent and this is a dangerous development perhaps if you look also at the fact that the united states has recently started listing parts of the syrian armed opposition all of the armed

opposition in syria as terrorist organizations that say something that is probably aware that they're part of the of the armed opposition in syria and probably the scene most powerful part of the armed opposition who are the most are front probably aren't possession of such materials and probably are planning to use them as they threatened so i think the danger is that the the west is aware of such materials in syria but at the same time it's going to be used against the syrian government as a pretext for intervention britain is now facing five more years of austerity. the treasury chief insists that cutbacks will help the country struggling economy find out the details later this hour. also after the break come us val's to liberate palestinian lands inch by inch as it israel refuses to abandon its settlement construction.

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 tele cation. salem's to become and herds cattle as part of this preparation. however these beasts get a musical accompaniment. they can remember 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 and 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. they grow their own crops find 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 not of them on the streets here we are out of the way and we do have. bill creams and song times tourists as well but only. tranquility use. these to. understand

combination of high religion and down to earth hard work the motivates these men. well for the. science technology innovation all the latest developments from around russia we've got the future covered. wealthy british style.

markets. find out what's really happening to the global economy for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to gaza report on our team. in live from moscow twenty four hours a day this is our tree glad to have you with us the u.k. has announced an extension to its program of cuts meaning the country will endure austerity until two thousand and eighteen pensions will be rated even more with those on welfare likely to suffer as well or to surfer as reports from london well everyone now madly picking their way through the facts and figures and while we're there a lot at stake is one thing that was very very clear and that's the u.k. is set to face even more austerity know what those figures say this was that the u.k. economy is going to shrink by no point one percent by the end of twenty twelve now

it sounds like a small amount but of course no sign of that all important in fact what we thing is that borrowing has gone up we think the debt has risen and fallen and most crucially i think it's probably the fact that the government had missed that reduction target so we're now facing an extended austerity program as they say it's right the way three to twenty eighteen say pretty gloomy out and this is what we were expecting a bit of course that's going to really not be what millions of families all across the again to you know one thing here and of course this is really going to. have to speak to us more about this or some statement by the child that today i'm joined by a labor m.p. and the public i said a public health minister thank you for joining us so the first academy is slowly healing according to chance the total on what was your reaction well i thought that

was a very sinister. the truth is every prophecy every target of themselves he has failed he has not met his targets he's not going to deal with the deficit. growth we grow and also there's going to be a huge cart made in benefits pavement to some of the poorest people in the country are going to suffer the most as a result of it and there's no end to this austerity and some now when it's. just one percent and then the well that's less than inflation here that's really going to hit a huge number of books forty seven billion pounds so it will be cut from the benefits we're talking about farmers is a really on the bread line anyway even losing ten twenty pounds is a big i mean it's a very cold day outside and it's very cold prospects for britain's poor because

they are going to bear the brunt of the start caused by christmas by the whole school doesn't know what he's doing thank you very much for joining us also say there is a cause for concern he said i won't pay anything the thing is one thing cutting through all the waste and that's. going to be said to have to replace it so even talk of even more starting the greek prime minister is on a mission to secure more support and more financing from germany he has a visiting the wealthy and conservative region of bavaria to convince leaders there as sense is worth the cash his visit comes a week after creditors agreed to prop greece up with another forty four billion euros attorney george cultural gallo's believes the real solutions are still a long way off. so might as cause me to stone walling says listen. but unfortunately. no we. don't view it is not easy to go.

through just that you go to example even to the. nice little military front. here but of course it's real easy for the smith you do so so it's a. german taxpayers so. this simple you serious usual. stuff in for people with clear we go to this. and of course we always have more for you on our website r.t. dot com. trouble ahead as u.k. charities become the latest victims of the economic crisis there find out what they're in fear of in two thousand and thirteen. and check out the new mercedes benedict the sixteenth of the pope has taken delivery of his new high tech ad go friendly wheels including a throne for comfortable cruising among the crowds. the hamas leadership has vowed it will not give up an inch of palestinian territories

the political leader of hamas khaled mashal who runs the militant group from qatar is in his last day of historic trip to gaza in a speech labeled as extremist by israel he slammed it for occupation of the palestinian lands refusing to recognize the legitimacy of the jewish state that's after israel has announced earlier this week that it will keep on building new settlements which has been denounced by the international community middle east expert morelock says israel has even soured relations with one of its allies germany. we really made it very clear that we are totally against the continuing new settlements in the west bank and in jerusalem because this will definitely make the to see. solution impossible it because if this building so going on the west bank will be split into the access to jerusalem will not be possible for the palestinians any more reaction by mr netanyahu and others were very strong and

unusually undiplomatic you could say just before his visit to berlin condemning the stand of germany and the fact that the foreign minister lieberman with some lame excuses did not come to berlin to meet his counterpart our foreign minister rest of ela also shows that the moment there are lots of tensions among the politicians in germany and in east. israel exports tons of fruit and vegetables cosmetics and other goods to the e.u. every year but despite being labeled as made in israel some products don't originate from there many are produced in settlements on occupied territories prompting calls to ban such exports or at least enforce more accurate labeling artie's peter oliver investigates. produce of israel except this isn't israel this is the jordan valley in the west bank and this farm is deemed illegal under international law the european union imports around three hundred million dollars

worth of products from here each year now a group of twenty two n.g.o.s from across europe is looking to highlight the issue and it's published a report in which it claims e.u. imports make the settlements viable because they are produced in illegal settlements which are contrary to international humanitarian law should be banned out of the european union now if this is not possible at least the consumers have to have the possibility to. to decide for themselves if they want to buy products which have been produced in legal settlements your c. farms this land is much concerned by the thoughts of european n.g.o.s he says he's here because his government told him it was ok to be here. because i was told he. saw a circle where i was told they could do it to morrow the state of israel told me it's time to go i'll go i'm told i'm an occupier when i got here there was nothing if

you show goods and we made it. in denmark and the united kingdom goods coming from settlements in the west bank already has to be marked differently to denote that it's not from israel the collective n.g.o.s want to see this implemented europe wide here in europe there are many people with ties to the middle east region and they want to make sure they know exactly where their produce is coming from. are you sure this comes from spain. is a palestinian living in germany she has family in the west bank and says the israeli checkpoints mean palestinian farmers are losing out to the settlers even even if you think through it so they get jordan. israel kicked points keep them at the checkpoints for days and. the sun. and then you can even more those behind the report into trade between the settlements in europe say they own trying to organize any kind of witch hunt but we're not talking about boycotting

jews over here we're not talking about even boycotting israel itself we're talking about making a difference differentiating between. legal israeli products which should be watched by european citizens as much as they course the short and second products which are totally illegal and should be banned and people should not be. under some other world news for you know hundreds of people have marched through the norwegian capital in protest against the e.u. getting the nobel peace prize demonstrators accuse brussels of being undemocratic they also criticize member states for maintaining expensive military forces while their populations suffer and. the rally took place ahead of the prize giving ceremony and also. in southern philippines the southern philippines rather has a been hit by a five point six magnitude earthquake there were no immediate reports of casualties

following the tremors this comes less than a week after a deadly typhoon hit the country that storm claimed the lives of more than five hundred people and left tens of thousands homeless many of those are now starving. and right after this break r.t. travels to the scorching nevada desert as our cameras show you what the famous burning man festival is really like. the legacy no one should be proud. of scrap metal littering pristine arctic landscape building stilton over their foundation pipes spewing black smoke over the snow covered peaks the traces of the soviet industrial activity on the spitzbergen archipelago don't make a pretty picture the guiding principle here is the worse the better locals like to tell the story that back in soviet times when norwegians were visiting barons were

they also an express lane. and how prosperous the settlement was well times have obviously a challenge when they saw it lags say it's still attracting a region tourists are barons work i would then cons watch native cash that's why when. our goal is common as was uncovered here a few days ago instead of throwing it away the local administration decided to paint the bin you and put it at variance with central square that in the nine hundred eighty s. there was a burgeoning mining community the soviet union was determined to maintain its own costs to a degree located halfway between north america and western europe the bergen archipelago is part of norway with a special status that allows other countries to set up industrial bases here in the middle of the cold war it served as the use of western most outposts now it's one of the last preserved relics.

of the soviet union if it was cut off from any financial support for two decades it's a curious site for western tourists and i think it could be even more appealing for russians trying. to keep its presence on spitsbergen russia still maintaining a coal mine here but in terms of profit is far behind local souvenir shops so between. bill it is a big hit the defunct aren't curtain still helps keep the money flowing guys it's the russians in your film but you can't play the role models only for almost. the local administration is increasingly under pressure to bring the infrastructure up to more than standards these modernization efforts are not very popular with tourists if you come into a very authentic place like bond sport i think it should stay the way it is that would be my wish i mean that's the part of the little you know authentic tradition

he up there and. i should not i would not like to have it in a shiny condition to be on those they tend to change even for the better is not always good for business something that even a local band has become attuned to when they try to add the morning russian songs to die repertoire the audience called the wanted to hear it was a song comfortably familiar. gypsy the jolly champ was created in the fifty's and mass produced i think it came out of hand and it was all of the. battery powered. toy that when you turn it on the clock to symbols together all crazy crutch this year

i'm going to find it and i decided i wanted to make the most annoying thing i can think of it represents me so many ways. that. that's annoying picnic. as far as i am concerned i'm a virtuous person i know i just don't have any money but i live in one of the most beautiful places i've ever seen i'm with the people who love me the most and i get to. do this art form that i've come up with and i've started doing in the last four years and it's just opened my eyes to so many different things and it was all inspired by burning man and it was just a coincidence because i was making costumes for myself and i had decided to make

myself a coat and as i was finishing it the first person that came over to visit me said what is that and i said that's my royal row because i had realized when i had put it on it wasn't just a fur coat it actually was a royal row and that's when i became. so the first person who came in and said i want one of those and i said well it's going to be for five hundred dollars because it's expensive for me he said no problem. and he had me custom it so he could put his ball cap on and put the bill of his cap inside the head so i have this little pocket here form and then. this is so. the reason i open the store was i do a lot of business online all over the.