Scotland will hold an independence referendum on Sept. 18, 2014, its First Minister Alex Salmond said Thursday — a vote that could see it split from the rest of Britain.

The announcement of the date was the latest step in the process toward possible independence for the nation’s 5 million citizens.

Voters will be asked a single question: "Should Scotland be an independent country?"

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Scotland has a government, in Edinburgh, but remains under the ultimate authority of the United Kingdom. It elects lawmakers to both its own parliament, which handles most day-to-day matters, and the House of Commons in London, which controls defense, immigration and UK-wide taxation.

 

Salmond's pro-independence Scottish National Party, or SNP, won a majority in the Scottish Parliament in May 2011 elections, providing what he called a "once-in-a-generation" chance for Edinburgh to break ties with London.

His deputy, Nicola Sturgeon, said the event would be a "momentous day for Scotland."

But the SNP faces an uphill battle to win the referendum, Reuters reported, with opinion polls putting support for independence at about 30 percent of the electorate in Scotland, while about 50 percent favor the status quo.

Announcing the date as he unveiled the Scottish Independence Referendum Bill in the Scottish Parliament, Salmond said: “I believe it will be the day we take responsibility for our country, when we are able to speak with our own voice, choose our own direction and contribute in our distinct way,” the BBC reported.

The vote is slightly earlier than had been expected and will take place slightly before the Ryder Cup golf tournament is staged at Gleneagles —one of the events that people had assumed would be used to build up a feel-good factor in the run-up to the plebiscite, The Scotsman newspaper reported.

However, The Herald newspaper noted that having the vote earlier allowed independence supporters “to hope for a feelgood bounce” from Glasgow’s Commonwealth Games, which take place in July and August, as well as from the build-up to the Ryder Cup.

The SNP complains that the British Parliament, where members representing Scotland are a small minority because England has a much bigger population of 53 million, does not have the particular interests of the Scottish people at heart.

Reuters summarized the independence debate, shortened to 'indyref' on social media:

The SNP argues that North Sea Oil revenues combined with the local farming, fishing and whisky industries would enable an independent Scotland to prosper.

But other parties in Edinburgh and the London government say both Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom would lose out.

Critics of the SNP say oil reserves are dwindling and Scotland would lose the disproportionately generous share of taxpayer money raised across Britain that it currently receives.

Scottish secession would pose serious challenges to the remainder of the United Kingdom, such as what to do about its Trident nuclear submarine fleet which is based in Scotland.

Reuters contributed to this report.

VATICAN CITY — Black smoke rose above the Sistine Chapel on Tuesday, signaling that 115 Roman Catholic cardinals failed to agree on a new pope during the first day of the papal conclave.

The "princes of the church" began deliberating inside the Vatican after swearing an oath of secrecy and entering the papal conclave at about 5 p.m. local time (12 p.m. ET).

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The smoke was created by the burning of ballot papers used by the cardinals in their deciding vote, with chemical cartridges being added to ensure the smoke did not appear to be white — the sign that a decision has been reached. It means the conclave will reconvene on Wednesday morning. 

None of the 115 cardinals will be seen or heard, nor will they have any contact with the outside world, until they have chosen a successor to Benedict XVI, who abdicated on Feb. 28.

"They're on their own now," said NBC News Vatican expert George Weigel, referring to the total isolation demanded by church rules.

Shortly after the conclave began, semi-naked feminist activists with the words "pope no more" written on their chests and backs staged a protest right next to St. Peter's Square, directly in front of the Vatican. 

They were tackled by police and detained.

The word "conclave" comes from the Latin meaning "with key". It is a church tradition that began in 1268 when local officials became so fed up with the lack of a decision among cardinals — they had deliberated for more than two years — that they locked them away with limited food and water to encourage a result.

Earlier, thousands of pilgrims and tourists waited in line to get inside St. Peter's Basilica for a special pre-conclave Mass with the cardinals.

The "Mass Pro Eligendo Pontifice" began at 10 a.m. local time (5 a.m. ET) in front of a congregation of worshippers who were waiting outside in St. Peter's Square for tickets allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

"It’s in the air! You really feel it," said Lois Girten, 55, from Austin, Texas, who secured a last-minute place on a two-week pilgrimage to Rome through a cancellation.

"It’s God’s gift that I’m in Rome just as the conclave takes place. I’m almost speechless with excitement, it’s a real treat for me."

Several thousand visitors were allowed in to take part in the service, according to Religion News Service correspondent Alessandro Speciale inside the basilica.

'Noble mission'
In his homily, cardinal Angelo Sodano, Dean of the College of Cardinals, told the congregation: "My brothers, let us pray that the Lord will grant us a pontiff who will embrace this noble mission with a generous heart."

At night, cardinals will walk or be taken by minibus the short distance to the modest rooms in Casa Santa Marta, which John Paul II had built in 1996.

Such is the importance of secrecy that Vatican officials have installed jamming devices to prevent the use of cellphones by cardinals or hidden microphones by anyone wanting to hear their deliberations.

No conclave has lasted more than five days in the past century, with most finishing within two or three days. Pope Benedict was elected within barely 24 hours in 2005 after just four rounds of voting.

Benedict triggered the election last month with his shock decision to abdicate because of his increasingly frail health — the first pontiff to step down in six centuries.

He leaves his successor a sea of troubles — including seemingly never-ending sex-abuse scandals, rivalry and strife inside the Vatican bureaucracy, a shortage of priests and a rise of secularism in its European strongholds.

Related: 

 From Rome to Africa: Meet 20 men who could be pope

Conclave smoke signals a bit of a gray area

Full coverage of the papal abdication from NBC News

 

A hugely popular news story about a jilted dentist accused of pulling out all her ex-boyfriend's teeth has unraveled as a hoax.

News websites around the world ran the story last week about a woman in Poland named Anna Maćkowiak who took revenge on a man named Marek Olszewski when he turned up at her clinic complaining of toothache, days after dumping her for another woman.

Among the numerous U.S. news sites that picked up the story were Fox News, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Huffington Post, Yahoo! News, MSN, the New York Post, and The New York Daily News. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft, which operates MSN, and Comcast.)

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The story even included quotes from the scorned dentist and her toothless ex. 

"I tried to be professional and detach myself from my emotions. But when I saw him lying there I just thought, "What a b******," Maćkowiak was quoted as saying.

Quotes attributed to the boyfriend victim meanwhile read: "I knew something was wrong because when I woke up I couldn’t feel any teeth ... When I got home I looked in the mirror and couldn't f******* believe it. The b**** had emptied my mouth."

Online news outlets also reported that his new girlfriend had left him because "she can’t be with a man without teeth."

The story claimed Maćkowiak is being investigated for medical malpractice and could face up to three years in jail.

But when msnbc.com contacted police in Wroclaw, Poland, about the supposed criminal case, a spokesman said they had no record of such an incident.

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"Lower Silesia Police Department has not been notified about such an event and is not investigating such a case," Pawel Petrykowski of the Provincial Police Headquarters in Wroclaw said in an email that was translated into English.

A legal adviser for Poland’s Chamber of Physicians and Dentists, which handles disciplinary matters, said the organization is not investigating and has never investigated any such case, and added that there is no dental practitioner named Anna Maćkowiak listed in Poland’s central register of dentists.

"No information about this kind of misconduct has been provided to the Supreme Chamber," the legal advisor, Marek Szewczyński, said in an email. "The Supreme Chamber is also not aware of any actions of this kind being taken by the Regional Chamber of Physicians and Dentists in Wroclaw, which would be the competent authority in case of a possible professional misconduct committed by a dental practitioner from Wroclaw."

Most online news outlets in Poland left the story alone.

Polish television news channel TVN4 published an article mocking foreign media's coverage of the story, which it speculates began as a prank. "It appears that the article, written as a joke, began life on the Internet and has little to do with any truth," the translated article reads.  

All the news reports about Maćkowiak published on news websites in the U.S. and elsewhere, such as Australia’s Herald Sun or New Zealand Herald, can be traced back to an article published in the online edition of Britain's Daily Mail newspaper.

The article, which has been shared on Facebook more than 75,000 times since it was published on April 27, appears under the byline of staff reporter Simon Tomlinson.

But Tomlinson said he does not know where the story came from and distanced himself from it when questioned about its origins.
"I've drawn a bit of a blank," he said in an email. "The (Daily) Mail Foreign Service, which did the piece for the paper, is really just an umbrella term for copy put together from agencies. My news desk isn’t sure where exactly it came from."

The American Dental Association’s national spokesperson, David Johnson Jr., said the story of Maćkowiak’s revenge was highly improbable -- not just as an unprecedented abuse of the doctor-patient relationship but because most dentists are equipped to administer drugs only for conscious sedation dentistry. That would mean the ex-boyfriend would know his teeth were being extracted as it was happening, rather than realizing it after he arrived home.

"Patients are already fearful enough of going to the dentist," said Johnson, who has an oral surgery practice in Tennessee. "It’s really concerning if anyone is delaying getting treatment because they think there is even a possibility that something like having all their teeth removed could ever happen."

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