technology innovation. is developments from around russia. the future covered. the vatican announces that pope benedict the sixteenth will step down as leader of the catholic church at the end of the month. french unmodern forces reclaim the city of galle we bring you a firsthand account from the city after a surprise attack by militants almost spoils french claims of a victorious campaign. an eighteen coal miners die in a methane explosion some eight hundred meters underground only republic.

news as it happens twenty four hours a day you're watching r.t. . the vatican has announced that pope benedict the sixteenth will step down on february twenty eighth citing his old age eighty five year old will become the first head of the catholic church to resign from the post in nearly six centuries let's get more on this now from lottie's tom barton live in the studio for us here told me was only part appointed in two thousand and five when that's going on why is resignation now well kerry yeah a real shock i think the small army of journalists and pope watchers that were in rome even even they have been taken aback by this sudden announcement today it should be noted that pope benedict the sixteenth was one of the oldest pope's to be

elected when john paul the second died in two thousand and five however he has said today i do not have the mental and the physical strength anymore to continue my duties. i see that my drug needs those qualities and i no longer have them so i'm stepping down there is time the vatican has been large by a string of scandals as it will tell us about that it has indeed it's certainly been a difficult time pope benedict said it was reported to have said that he didn't really want the job of the pope and what a time to have been in the whole decision for fending off scandal after scandal that the church has been the catholic church has been mired in overarching them all the child abuse sex scandal involving a number of priests around the catholic church and he having to fend off that to try and bolster the reputation of the church which really took a a battering because of that crisis we've also got vatileaks

a lot of leaked information about power struggles and possible corruption inside the vatican the vatican itself responding angrily to that saying the media was trying to play a dan brown book the popular author who wrote the novel angels and demons sort of insinuating that kind of thing going on inside inside the vatican and then we've got the vatican bank itself allegations there that that bank may be connected with dodgy bank accounts to the italian math theory itself so a really difficult period to be pope pope benedict the second the sixteenth also trying to as well as both that reputation try and modernize the church a bit had his own twitter account got to put a million followers however big questions will be asked in the coming weeks when as the new pope is being chosen about who should lead the church the church and about

the future of the catholic church in this great time of troubles as the pope the outgoing pope has said himself big questions indeed ok tom burton thanks a lot for that for now thank you. for more on. the pope's a sudden resignation let's talk now to journalist franco oliver who joins us live from rome thanks for joining us here on our team the pope's relatively short tenure as we've been discussing has been marred by this so-called vatileaks scandal and and edging corruption along with money laundering and not feeling so i mean could this resignation be a way for the head of the catholic church to avoid any kind of responsibility do you think. well i don't know i'd been i don't think he's much worried about the spiritual missile programs even thought you will see that he was tripping day real center of power not just during his pontificate they said yes but for more than

thirty years because he was that the closest collaborators of the sacrement as you know john paul disabling was much more interested in that in the preaching and went around in the world to make the submission be good people then today to the bishop he sold the will defend himself so that my children have did it it means treasury was left to the county of all slaves and last year was for the course when the obese or obese main color breakers because you know the problems with the church to run debts. you must have before they took the most out of the school teacher teaching on the point about for example the bank or the veggie of that i need or are. you sneak a bank could get was back to bit to about twenty years ago would go with it was a big scandal with a with any time b. and you tell your bank and this true side himself in london and then from then on we will soon bowl don't candles candles with weekly review. if you don't share finance yours without any. and it brought more on the problem though even as such

you said we were going to talk about things with the laundering of money via the mafia and then you know the all the big scandal is dipped in the for libya you know just the two basic gold that can be able to assign us in the really little if you will play many in the church was dismissed was that was forbidden to participate to public to public a function because he made to cover up off of the many did did he feel that he prepared forty. scholars they were in you know marriage and now that they have did you know that that the church or make of it was the reach of the case that it isn't about me that with all those things going on in the vatican says a new. catholic church and that will be elected by the end of march we think. it was but it's most likely successor any clues that. this is a people rebuilding saying in a catholic churches are one when to split up when the conclave comes so let's count you know you know you could make

a big big games they did provision before but then the support to what happens they are you know now that they have because only stay because you acknowledge of counting votes there when he's going to need to be in your mind which he's very complicated you know you spend the time being where we are used to be the strongest with some just portion of the well to call it should not be i'm not very mean minority but there is no through my joy to know whether the you know this few months they were but to be essential and or do this congress they talked there was much talk about what course sides debate here in the about the potential they said to the secretary of state but when it was going to be due to step down and somebody did know to the poor people this was the be the biggest surprise everybody was expecting for some of the mean essentially of the government to say that you are still to be to be changed so to that but not because we had. none of us were there for just that it did just basing the two thousand and five when john pulled the

shaken by you remember that the day did for pay for the service except for me with the me suffering. and nobody was going to expect the same pope did they steps down the so yes you said you seem to him for ninety four ok we're going to have to leave it at that affidavit that but frankly but thanks very much for those thoughts on that breaking news head off any thank you thank you very much. french and mali and troops have regained control of after is missed militants launched a surprise attack what is northern mali is most populous city authorities say three civilians were killed during sunday's fighting comes after recent claims by france that the military campaign is almost complete and as local correspondent gonzalo one she reports the joint forces are struggling to flu secure the regions to keep wide by insurgents. the situation in mali is obviously going to have

a gruesome andy there are more than enough indications of that last friday the country was shaken by the very first terrorist attack in its history according to the witness report of what was carried out by a fifteen year old suicide bomber of arab descent the bomber was the only one killed after the detonation of a few hours later responsibility for the attack was claimed by the motor wod jihadists one thing to remember here is that this is a bastard as are territory and therefore it is very difficult to control this attack is just another example confirming that despite the news reports of the french army having taken over gal timbuktu into doubt there is still a long way to go before jihadists are ousted from the country in severe artie's crew was given access to the civil defense camps where volunteers and civilians are preparing to fight against the jihadists the f l n a and uganda coyly local pro-government militia movements that account for a total of two thousand eight hundred operatives but do not support the strategy

chosen by the french in mali and joint forces in fighting the terrorists completely love we shared the same goals but what they did was a really bad service to us there was not really about the army itself al-qaeda had been operating on mali and territory for a number of years now they have all those and they keep getting more by kidnapping white people for ransom drones pays them to have the citizens returned and then the terrorists have cash to buy weapons if we talk about al-qaeda there's no way the army can fight it because that she it's terrorism in action. those paramilitary who know the terrain well say fighting a war they cannot take part in is meaningless one thing all these paramilitary groups have in common is their patriotism and zeal to protect their country and drive away the narco terrorists but this is a losing fight given the financial resources and ammunition they have. put out. i'm ready to go it's all lengths i'm raised to give my life right now to save my

family up there in the north because we're all here have families i believe france will stop these attacks for a while or and the french troops leave they will start all over again because the criminals are still out there hiding them on the civilians not all of them have been caught really need to be given the mandate to complete this mission our own we're ready for it although we can do it because we grew up in the north we know the terrain and the people so we're the only ones who can stop them and find them in the villages and the desert where we know every corner and every part of land. over all while the jihadists forces are taking over their land kidnapping people and using suicide bombers to fight for their cause the civilian population remains the country's most vulnerable group. while the ongoing conflict was among the topics arties going to tick and discussed with russia's ambassador to the un the talent turk and it interview where there are eight hundred forty five g.m.t. it's also available for you anytime on our website dot com here's

a preview. repercussion of spring was the dramatic events in libya. we're in the course of the crisis of course lots of weapons were brought into libya and there was a lot of there were lots of weapons of as it is but still many more weapons were brought into libya during the recent hearings which then secretary of state clinton had in the house of representatives one of the congressman said that they had information that cut out with a wink and nod as he put it from the united states brought in twenty thousand tons of weapons into libya and you know twenty thousand tons you can arm is small terrorist army and so on of course this is exactly what has happened in mali definitely we see a spillover from the libyan crisis to to a neighboring country and most likely the spillover has affected other places as well for instance it may well be there are many indications to that effect that the

terrorist attack. it had something to do. also sort of. people maybe weapons. and so i had more tension in cairo as egypt's supposition to bring supporters the streets. two years since the fall of former president hosni mubarak. explained. his decision to go ahead with a multi-billion dollar project that story in a few minutes. good

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there's a big picture. here with me. people have been killed by a methane explosion in the mine in russia's northern komi republic make this report say one person is still missing the blast happened eight hundred meters below the surface well more than two hundred fifty miners were underground let's get more on this now from our team. well what more can you tell us about this incident. what we know that at least two hundred forty two people have been evacuated from the mind immediately after the explosion that is the safety that created at one point there were several people who were missing looks like most of them have been

recovered unfortunately dead as you said one person is still listed as missing at least for me sure we're getting is from the ministries of the emergencies in fact of course there has been some confusion about the numbers from the get go different ministers different up the shells were given different numbers in terms of people who are still trapped underground or. have died as a result of the blasts in fact the confusion over the numbers has been such that president putin has directed the head of the ministry of emergencies to head down to the place of the incident and figure out what exactly is happening when the numbers why where is the confusion coming from other than that we also know that immediately already a program has been set up in order to help financially the families of those up in the last their relatives say in the last ten to compensation should be in the amount of about six billion rubles that two million mobiles i'm sorry that is roughly six to six thousand dollars the family read any information as yet as to

what may have caused the blast. in the first place. well if it is it is shielded the moment that is that. it is a tsunami. in a gas explosion leave methane gas explosion it is a get a force that is still a preliminary cause of the blast investigation has been launched a criminal case has been launched into this as well which is said to investigate but they're not negligence in terms of. safety regulations has been in place that is what we know at the moment. ok for their inability to frank you. moving on suicide rates are soaring in the u.k. with money worries pushing many over the edge cuts to mental health services and aggressive debt collecting are cited by experts as major factors aggravating the situation farmer met one mother who lost her child over debt despair.

for the last year and a half and thorn has been coming to terms with the tragic death of her son aged just twenty three toby took his own life riding his spinal words on the back of a bank statement after racking up a three thousand pound overdraft and a five thousand pounds student debt it was just a shock it wasn't from one that had a history of depression or mental illness or even had come across as being down or depressed. you know in the last few weeks months of his life if anything he came across as someone that you know didn't have a care in the world following his death and became a trustee for the charity piracy which aims to prevent suicide among young people from a home in cornwall she even runs her own blog giving advice but it's a battle her charity and similar ones around the u.k. are struggling to when suicide is on the increase according to latest figures

accounting for six thousand deaths between twenty ten and twenty eleven a rise of seven percent so why the increase while an inquest ruled that toby's financial problems were a contributing factor to his suicide experts now say that an ailing u.k. economy is partly to blame for the recent deaths nationwide areas of high unemployment such as camden here in london are among those worst affected and it's a problem compounded by cutbacks in mental health services the double whammy effect of the recession is that the people are becoming more distressed more anxious and therefore more at risk of wanting to take their own lives at the same time whether sterrett and cuts means that we have fewer psychiatric beds that the crisis care isn't there and if that isn't enough the growth of same day loan companies and intimidating debt collectors are adding to the pressures people are feeling according to researchers at brighton university we have some very very good

regulations that protect people like it's problematic let things problematic debt collection however here's the big particularly well it's because these practices are still. in response the u.k. government has announced plans to crack down on aggressive bailiff's from next year late night visits will not be allowed and restrictions will be put on what property can be seized they are also spending over a million pounds on research as part of a suicide strategy plan. but there is only one very small step in the right direction for someone like can there's no easy answer i mean one thing i've learned more about thirty five than i ever wanted to know but i've done a lot of reading and research and it's dreamy complex hopefully entirely the trend will go down with but we need to be doing more andrew farmer for r.t. london we have more stories and pictures for you on our website r.t.

dot com here's a quick glimpse at what we have lined up there if you today. never sure what you're doing tomorrow if not then a u.s. defense giant may be able to tell you we cannot predict your future steps need behavior it says just like collecting social network data and more online. than twenty apart by a tornado a deadly twister tears through the u.s. state of alabama destroying everything in its path that footage in full on artie's you tube channel. gyptian security forces are on a high alert half the country's opposition announced mass rallies to mark two years since the fall of former president hosni mubarak over a dozen parties have declared their intent to march on tahrir square the presidential palace to step up pressure on currently the mohamed. pro-democracy protesters using present seal training the revolution of the twenty kidnapping and

political repression several egyptian regions are currently in a state of emergency after deadly clashes erupted across the country during the two year anniversary on the uprising position spokesman made very says creating a coalition government is the only way to quell the unrest. people are gonna go into the streets they are going on the streets willingly we don't really need any opposition calls for you brought us because the whole country is in a standstill there's nothing moving forward because there is no real administration at blessing the people needs and the people demand the actual anger in the streets so the only solution that i can see and any sane person can see that the opposition the brotherhood and all the all the different political factions to be in a call it of government that would be the only solution and the only way out because at that moment this government will take responsibility for any reform

that's going to be as one of the happening in the country the idea of just excluding ever. everybody out of the government post revolution country in a country that's acting calling for democracy when there is no real parliament in session that can hold the president or the government accountable to the failures that administering the country and then refusing to have a quality of government that's just a call for chaos if ukraine refusing to pay gas problems recent seven billion dollar gas bill authorities in kiev are working on investing western companies to explore its shale gas reserves for the controversial method proposed to boost the country's coffers isn't going down too well with environmentalists. reports. it was described as the day of ukraine's energy independence when in november last year he signed a one billion dollar agreement with a spanish utility to build a liquefied natural gas terminal on the black sea coast delight quickly turned into

dismay when it emerged that the man signing the deal had nothing to do with the company three months later ukraine's leaders were shaking hands again this time with boiled dutch shell having signed a real deal to explore and develop the country's potentially he would shale gas reserves reportedly the third largest in europe. at the expectation is about eight to ten billion cubic meters of gas production per year and the highest is up to about twenty two twenty five once it's operational we will strive to fully meet our domestic energy needs and to even become an exporter. this is definitely sweet music to keep for years ukraine has been striving to reduce its reliance on us imports from russia especially now when gas. was seven billion dollars for violating gas agreements this project is definitely good we would pay between one hundred fifty to one hundred eighty dollars per cubic meter of gas

instead of the four hundred fifty dollars we're now paying to gas problem but if everything is so promising why are people out in force against the shale gas initiative for the second sure know if not worse for years ukraine has often been divided on many different issues from perception of history to the official number of state languages and then you shale gas initiatives are no exception if political enemies hard line nationalists and communists have put their differences aside and spoken out against. the opposition even proposed a bill prohibiting the exploration and extraction of shale gas the matter of. information on how the gas. between shell chevron and ukrainian companies it's classified and it is still not clear if it's going to be profitable plus the companies don't care about harmful it'll be to the environment but political battles aside ecologists are the most concerned with

a potential threat from the shale gas program which they insist it could lead to a full blown feat but whenever they speak out the pro-government media labels them as agents of gas brought. they usually add different camels to extract more gas from the rocks and so the underground system which provides fresh drinking water is completely destroyed this water is a strategic ecological resource and when one spoil it the area becomes practically non-viable. even in the most optimistic scenario ukraine may see its own shale gas filling its pipes only in a decade from now ecologists insists they're not against shale gas in principle just that the potential environmental impact from its extraction needs to be researched and assessed before drilling begins they have already sent a letter to the president the question is whether those at the top will be willing to listen let's see russia. reporting from kiev in ukraine. well

after the break we report on how household garbage has become a vital lifeline for young palestinians stay with us here alter. both. legal.

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