as to. face hefty prison sentences crowds exchanged blows with police saying the trial is nothing more than a witch hunt. iran's new president says he wants to build bridges with the west but is the feeling mutual u.k. inauguration as america pushes for tougher sanctions. and american and e.u. activists call for a boycott of the twenty fourteen winter olympics in sochi over a new gay propaganda law in russia we examine the legislation.

from our studio in moscow this is r.t. with the twenty four rounds a day clashes have erupted in turkey during the long anticipated reading of the verdict for almost three hundred people accused of plotting to overthrow the government high ranking senior army officers lawyers academics and journalists have been among those in the dark they've been awaiting the ruling for five years the court acquitted only twenty one of the defendants while major military figures were handed severe sentences activists and media have criticized the trial calling it a witch hunt. has the details from istanbul. if heard the verdict for main suspects in the case for example the retired former chief of staff has received a life in prison as well as you can say that the majority of the top four of the former top military brass which are on trial in the organic cotton case all of them have received either life sentences or sentences up to hundreds of years old so the head of the workers' party is also looking at hundred seventeen years in prison as

well just to give you a comparison one of the people who was on trial was a known mafia lord who has received ten years in prison where is a known journalist who happens to be an opposition activist as well has received twenty nine years in prison already people in turkey are calling this historic trial but they're saying that this it's important says that it does look like at this point all talk of democratic ideals in the country can be buried pretty much with these sentences and of course because of its importance around four thousand people have taken their time to go to the court which is outside of the main city of istanbul they've got there by buses and they were dispersed at this point it looks like they were disbursed at least twice with water cannons and tear gas as well as we've have. some information that rubber bullets were flying as well. as have employed unprecedented security measures they have memory and thousands of police in the place when we tried to get there it was impossible for us to pass

because right only eve all of the sentencing of the verdict the authorities have said that only journalists with turkish media passes will be allowed in there by essentially ruling out the presence of any foreign media if you look at the people who are on trial these are mostly people who are known for their staunch opposition to the prime minister and the ruling party they are the ones who are saying that everyone along with the people already are constrained turkey off the path that was set forth by ataturk oldest. a century go on there instead of going towards the democratic ideals and kind of going along the western way they're taking the country in the complete opposite direction swaying it towards islam islam is the country's not becoming a secular and to see any more you have to understand this is also happening against a backdrop of protests which have happened started in turkey about two months ago and they're essentially still continuing there's almost weekly sort of clashes

between the protesters and the police the protesters are saying that again. a lot of long with these policies basically defeating democracy in the country and they do not want to see that happening and yet there is a very brutal dispersal of them taking place on an almost weekly basis that water cannons tear gas rubber bullets all of that is happening and this trial a lot of people are saying is that the proverbial straw that may just break the camel's back and bring turkey towards the brink if not a civil war the entire protest which the country could find itself develop. professor historian at university an internet campaign by the head of the country's forces is a strange way to stage a coup. general busbar school himself said originally that is a bizarre force chief of the general staff if you wanted to organize a coup he was in a much better position to do it in charge of the armed forces than with this rather right tired group of journalists on the world figures and retired army officers so

that's always been one of the problems with the plausibility accessions and even the prime minister erdogan originally said that he couldn't really believe that general bush who had been. at the central party may now change his mind and i think more the problem for the government is that they feel under pressure from the street protests that began in istanbul all over the park they also feel under pressure internationally because of the fall of president morsi in egypt who they saw very much as the process areas of new. egyptian version of their own justice and development party in turkey they see the pressure in tunisia. the life here in moscow coming up later this hour the surveillance scandal deepens in germany fresh revelations suggest the country's intelligence is feeding massive amounts of data to the n.s.a. sparking outrage from the public and embarrassing politicians that still ahead.

the era of tough sanctions on iran should be buried in the past that's the message from the country's new president hassan rouhani was elected on a platform promising dialogue with the west in an attempt to end the country's isolation everett's nuclear energy program but it transpires not everybody there is enthusiastic about the reconciliation dr cecelia reforms. iran's new president hassan rouhani is widely seen as a moderate politician particularly significant detail where western leaders are concerned after years of strain diplomatic tensions in what is seen as an attempt to ease of that isolation the government had sent out invitations to countries including britain to attend to be a swearing in ceremony. excluding the west and israel now the position was that only details on a base of diplomats would attend but the u.k. had not sent anyone at all the reasoning given by the british foreign office is

that we does not have an embassy in tehran but this has been criticized by members of the opposition labor party here particularly the shadow foreign minister douglas alexander had called this misjudgment as well as a missed opportunity adding about diplomacy involves meeting with people would you disagree now in light of the steps upward that to run appears to be taking it moving this invitation to european leaders as well as appointing a foreign minister with relations with washington as some are reading. really wanting to rebuild those relations with the us and we spoke with labor m.p. barrie gardiner for more on this the u.k. foreign minister william hague he had said we will respond in good faith to positive action by iran and improve relations on the supply so basis without remark shouldn't this invitation to attend the president's inauguration in iran have been accepted i think it would have been

a very good opportunity to say look he starts with. a clean sheet as far as we're concerned we want to take him as we find him and it would have been a good opportunity for to go to have informal discussions are around the inauguration. and to do some sounding. too he was going to behave in this so i think it's an opportunity mints. i hope that there are backed channel conversations going on that are beginning to try and work out a new relationship with what is after all a new president at the end of the day in this very careful dance between tehran and a western leader it's every action and not action will certainly play a part in that equation on where relations are really headed reporting from london and tests are still here. the number one priority for rouhani now is to loosen the grip sanctions have on the country let's see what effect they've had so far well

the economy has been dealt a severe blow with swathes of punitive measures from the u.s. and the e.u. targeting iran's oil exports trade and the banking sector in turn twenty twelve alone iran is thought to have lost at least fifty billion dollars in oil revenues now these financial burdens of sin the price of essential such as bread milk and meat skyrocket the country's medical institutions are also sound saying that the measures prevent millions of people from accessing vital drugs it's been reported that last year six million iranians suffering from multiple sclerosis hemophilia and cancer could not get appropriate medicine well local journalist says that it's too optimistic to expect much change from the new leadership immediately. we have seen a very high rates of inflation something like forty percent based on official feet yours according to the consumer price index or to c.p.i.

the figure is far more than dads and one of the economic advisers of president walker has said that to rein in should not blame rowhani if the prices are. up to over and november then we have the unemployment rate of twenty eight point three percent which is another problem the new administration he's playing saying you know that year was national congress he has fallen over fifty percent since last year so altogether i should say that the expectations are very high from president rouhani but she could not revive the economy as fast as many iranians expect. the white house says it will become a willing partner should iran choose to engage on the nuclear issue quite the opposite signals are coming from american lawmakers just days before rouhani is you know gratian they post a bill which would see iran's oil exports slashed by another one million barrels

per day. the from the national iranian american council says america is not interested in cooperation. the fact that they would vote for new sanctions before the new iranian president who has been saying positive things and who is going to himself face so many obstacles for the house of representatives to go forward with this vote demonstrates that this is a chamber dominated by politics instead of pragmatism and is dominated by ideology instead of. an actual desire to resolve the problems that the lay before the united states now the reason that they went forward with this vote was because of immense political pressure from pro sanctions groups and neo conservative and hawkish organizations that are more interested in seeing a war with iran than seeing a diplomatic resolution to the nuclear standoff. iran has a well documented rocky relationship with the west but also doesn't see eye to eye

with some influential states in its own region tensions with saudi arabia came into focus after an incident involving the sudanese president's plane which was heading for to run for integration but was barred from entering the gulf kingdoms their space political analysts resume russia explained to me earlier that attitudes in riyadh string towards iran. the saudis are less concerned about the wrongs of the nations you know the west and more concerned about our own relationship with the west back saudi arabia on the economic front lesson iranian oil and gas that's on the international market the more money saudi arabia makes but two if the strategic relationship between iran and the united states were to improve then this to you randi it would not be needed by the united. mine. they are very concerned that america are both right and you will be wrong cut saudi arabia out and leave saudi arabia but what is. it injured hundreds triggering panic. to say

the asteroid that plays its way into russia's urals may be part of an orbiting family that could be flying towards earth moral not another stories after the break . well told from a language of what i will only react to situations i have read the reports. like the pollution to the no i will leave that to the state department to comment on your latter point to say it's secure yet a car is on the docket. thank you no more weasel words. when you need a direct question the pretty for a change when you punch be ready for a. freedom of speech means letting down the street into chaos.

the. economic down in the final. day that landed in new york saying i and the rest it's a neat way to be everything. good. news continues here on r.t. live from moscow famous russian vodka could soon be hard to find in new york and not because of production troubles activists and some bar owners in the u.s. and europe have called for a boycott outraged by a new law banning gay propaganda to minors the legislation is being criticized as profound discrimination but supporters of the law say up holds the views of the

majority of russians they cite the latest survey by an independent research organization levada center now almost half of those who took part in the vote think that it was sexuality is a bad habit or a perversion or some even believe it could be a result of a mental trauma or an illness then he twelve percent believe that homosexuality is just a normal sexual orientation while some people remain undecided as we can see there now the figures of the same survey conducted back in one thousand nine hundred eight are interesting lee almost identical suggesting that the new law hasn't led to an increase in anti gay sentiment here in russia are teasing me so now i investigate. but there is. no stoli no sochi. dumping russian vodka and calls to boycott the olympic games the l g b t community in the west is furious with the passing of a new russian law banning gay propaganda to minors

a detail almost never mentioned lot of here putin signed a law and some very strict anti-gay measures these laws absolutely obscure they're not clear in what they mean of course it will not have a wide ranging gretzky's of being applied everywhere and to everyone and members of the gay community have been attacked and arrested you cannot say that there is massive suppression or messi of attacks against gay people in the streets and that wherever you say that you're gay you will be killed or beaten russian gay activists are taking their case to the european court of human rights and say the law is meant to target specific individuals but see the picture of gay life in russia from abroad is warped these pictures being shown and being portrayed just because this little became a symbol of a protest against the suppression of l.g.b. community in russia supporters of the law argue it represents the russian majority

. if there is a large number of people who believe the law is to soft thirty years ago there was criminal punishment for being if you take examples from some states in the us the relationship is much crudely and stricter than these propaganda law. it's important to remember this law is about gay propaganda to minors and it will be enforced with fines not criminal punishment russia is still a very traditional conservative country he wants to hold on to that. this is one of moscow's many gay nightclubs yes it's in a discreet location but it holds three thousand people is. packed on the weekends and is full of foreigners its owners asked us not to film on the inside to protect the privacy of its clients but reassure us business is booming there is a happy arriving excitable you know wonderful gay community which is great modern

man drew is british openly gay and living in russia for eight years he opposes the law but won't be dumping his russia is dominated by the church in general far more than the u.k. i think if you compare america for example you can't look at some friends of these and new york and then look at the middle part of texas and that's what russia is especially moscow you've got the old meets the new and you've got soviet mindset she's with this camp to this boom with excising the west lifestyle homosexuality is illegal in over seventy countries across the globe so martin asked why russia why do the western media why do people in and the west never mention cats are the world cup is coming up they're going crazy about lympics i was in such a last week filming there's a gay community there there's a great day scene then saatchi but the west has a big in its bonnet regarding russia politically. state repression got together and

he's now a r.t. moscow. let's have a look at the facts and myths about the gay propaganda law here in russia statement one being gay is a crime in russia now well that's false a crime is promoting normal traditional sexual relations to children nontraditional is defined as ones that can't produce children second can you be arrested under this new law well yes you can if the police suspects you gay propaganda to children third you can get a prison sentence for that this is true individuals can be made to pay a fine of up to fifteen hundred dollars while the maximum penalty for organizations is thirty thousand dollars and if you're a foreigner you can be deported or detained for up to. fifteen days and by the way you can read more about this on our website and also their online for the moment. a shoulder to cry on is the first robot heading into space and scientists think he could help lonely astronauts through trying times of isolation go online for more

videos of this little guy. and played by treats the social media company twitter has introduced a new button that allows users to report online abuse as soon as it happens the details for you and other stories come. right on the scene. first for you and i think you're. on a reporter's twitter. instrumental. to be in the. german intelligence is sharing large swathes of telecommunications data with the u.s. according to the latest revelations published in dare speak of magazine documents provided by whistleblower edward snowden showed that the degree of surveyed its

cooperation between burnin and washington is higher than officials would like to admit because one of the brings us the story now from the german capital. what the these internal communications that have been leaked by edward snowden show is a rather cozy relationship between the national security agency and the german foreign intelligence agency the b n d now a lot of these documents in the latest article in. deal with a monitoring station that was based in the very end what we've seen that's come out from these documents of just how much data was being collected and then passed on to their american allies american partners in this system it's quite outstanding really in december of last year alone there were five hundred million pieces of metal data collected from this from this monitoring station there does seem quite evident from the said these cables that have come out these internal memos in the

fact of just how much data was being collated and. distributed between the two agencies that this certainly was a very close relationship you couple out with one of these leaked documents from a couple of weeks ago where which referred to the head of the b n d as both showing an eagerness and desire to help the n.s.a. it certainly seems that the two agencies were working incredibly closely indeed now in response to this we've seen demonstrations on the streets of berlin as well as many other cities around. the country people saying well just they need it coming out people coming out in support of edward snowden in support of bradley manning basically saying that the this must stop and if germany was involved if it turns out that the b. and b. were involved in spying on its own people that they they must be brought to book for that now we have seen something of an attempt at face saving from the german government so we have an election coming up here in the end of september and of

course this is all absolute golden information to the opposition leaders if you hear them campaigning they're saying well. you really want to trust those guys not they help the americans it seems look into your into your private details but in terms of the german people well there is shock and and outrage at times of just how much they were spied on and how much their country seems to have helped that spying take place. he's peter all over their anger over government surveillance was also felt across the pond the thousands of people marched across the u.s. against the n.s.a. surveillance operations as part of a nine hundred eighty four day dozens of u.s. cities saw demonstrations and also doubled up in support for whistle blows it would snowden and bradley manning the rallies are organized by a grassroots movement called restore the fourth that calls for an end of warrantless communications spying the fourth amendment of the us constitution protect citizens from wonderful search and seizure. a powerful car bomb has killed at least six people and wounded more than thirty in the southern

philippines city of kut a baton a device went off during rush hour leaving victims bloodied and causing damage to nearby buildings is thought a local official may have been the target of the attack religious tension is on the increase in the mixed muslim catholic city with previous bombings having been carried out by a local militant muslim group. mass protests continue across tunisia as pro and anti islam is government supporters take to the street police fired tear gas to disperse a crowd that try to block the governor's residence in the town of cedar busied on monday the rallies were triggered by the murder of a secular politician mohamed brahmi at the end of last month. egypt's military government has indicated it is willing to compromise with the muslim brotherhood in order to end the political stalemate gripping egypt since the el sting of president morsi last month the army offered to free up positions in the new government for members of the party released some jailed members of the movement and unfreeze its assets meanwhile members of the brotherhood visited in

jail by diplomats have called for president morsi is reinstatement as the first step towards. the mayhem sparked by a massive meteor that smashed into russia's urals earlier this year could well happen again remember this. this space rock huge appear to be devastating as it was a little towards of just. may not have been flowing sort of those first thought but was part of a group of us troy's that still pose a threat to lindsey fronts explains. it may be hard to believe that an eleven thousand ton eighteen meter across meteor made its way to earth undetected but that's exactly what happened which is why scientists are leaving no stone unturned even in space now to figure out how the chelyabinsk meteorite made it to earth

scientists ran billions of orbital simulations and came up with the apollo asteroid family that may sound a bit intimidating because it is it's a two hundred metre wide cluster of rocks that according to scientists broke up around forty thousand years ago now it's still at large it's our it's orbiting around the sun now to find out if it is actually the parent cluster of the chelyabinsk meteorite scientists would need to then to send a tool to the asteroid and take a core sample that's not going to happen any time soon the cost is extreme although if this cluster of meteorites any one of those fragments does show itself to be on a collision course with earth you can bet that action of some sort will be taken until then this cluster of asteroids is still under observation to make sure that something like chelyabinsk does not happen any time soon. coming up to twenty seven s. plus the here in moscow stay with us now for all your sports news that's coming up

after the break more news interest often and. wow revolutions in the middle east sure get a great deal of coverage what you don't mix a lot of sense revolutions or exciting t.v. peaceful protests or nice but footage of molotov cocktails flying and crazed crowds of local middle easterners really grab attention so there's a logical natural reason why some protest movements get a lot of coverage in the mainstream media well others kind of adult please forgive me for being conspiratorial but there is one revolution going down which does have all the exciting visuals of the arab spring but just doesn't get any of the mainstream coverage in fact unarmed people in this country recently stormed the

parliament trapping ministers and lawmakers with that they held them down for eight hours demanding the government resign until police with shields smashed their way through creating a narrow corridor through which the officials could escape now that sounds like exciting and visual news but why did you hear about it all over the mainstream press that's because it didn't happen in libya or egypt or any other exotic country but in good old boag area right in the e.u. where u.s. and e.u. interests are best served by the status quo being maintained there is no need to hype up an intervention or kinetic action in bulgaria the only time you ever hear about the need for a crackdown in bulgaria is when a government there actually started working in bulgaria own interests and not the us use desires but the ashes my opinion.

hello welcome to the all t.v. sports show another action packed tough hour of russian and global sport coming up with me partridge and here are the top stories. worlds apart two top had tough fleets poland is seen by about and you saying bolt will be going for gold at the world athletics championships in moscow next week. while rockies rockets and german to ring colleagues rockenfield claims and historic victory at the d t m series comes to russia for the first time. and the beach boys in russia win the home leg of the euro beach sulkily before preparing to defend their world cup crown into heat next month. but first athletics and with russia's first ever world championships due to start at the luzhniki stadium here in moscow this saturday there was.