many question the sudden resignation of pope benedict the sixteenth reverberate throughout the catholic world. french forces reclaimed. from the city after a surprise attack by militants almost spoils french claims of a victorious campaign. underground blast in russia called me republic still looking for possible survivors

. from the new center here in moscow this is r.t. with the on line on the screen twenty four hours a day. the vatican has announced that pope benedict the sixteenth will step down on february the twenty eight so old age the eighty five year old will become the first head of the catholic church to resign from the post in six centuries. has more. well it's described by one cardinal as a lightning bolt from a clear blue sky it certainly caught some of benedict's most senior advisers on the hope his spokes person said that it had been left frankly flabbergasted by the news that the pope will be stepping down at the end of the month now benedict is eighty

five years old obviously not a young man but the cardinals knew that when they elected him and he was supposed to be there for a lot longer than this i think they would have thought it's not unprecedented but it's not really done that often in fact the last time a pope stepped down was nearly six hundred years ago it's certainly not been an easy ride it's not been the longest papacy just under eight years but in that time the certainly being plenty of drama no leaks includes one of the one of the reasons that benedict said that he has to step down as he thought his age and made him physically and in some cases mentally unable to deal with the everyday life of being the pope in the modern world and one of the series of scandals that we've seen involve the so-called vatileaks similar to wiki leaks a series of documents that were distributed online which well apparently showed a c.v. a series of shady dealings done by the vatican this type of thing of course not

something your average eighty five year old has to deal with but they included some quite serious allegations including the fact that the vatican colluded with silvio berlusconi's government in italy to try and get pressure taken off the church of rome for paying taxes on properties which it own and there is also a list that was published of well less than savory clients for the vatican bank which included some people alleged to be sicilian mafia bosses and of course one of the major scandals that is will be remembered for benedict's papacy concerns child abuse now in his previous. this job before he became pope he was essentially regarded as the john paul of seconds papal bull dog he was the defender of the doctrine of fair for faith and in what role he is accused of covering up

sexual abuse scandals all around the world but also here in germany in fact in recent times there's been further controversy over this as the church here in germany canceled an investigation into child abuses that ranged back to the 1940's and stop that investigation apparently according to the man who was conducting it because they weren't happy with what would be made public so there's certainly been controversy and it will be something that's picked over for a long time to come after benedict steps down at the end of this month where for more on the pope's unexpected resignation let's talk to anti abuse campaign up barbara doris she joins me live now from the u.s. barbara did pope benedict the sixteenth managed to restore the image of the catholic church in light of the geishas and other scandals. no we don't believe he did we believe that he uttered words he said there was filth in the priesthood he apologized to the victims but he took no actions he didn't discipline

a single church official for hiding enabling shielding to predators or you know moving them from country to country from diocese to diocese so until he does that nothing has changed and we believe the words were just empty empty promises and yet no just just just reading some of the tributes to him they say that he'd handled it as if he was god sui for making big changes he was somebody who tried to resolve the numerous issues that plague the church and you're saying he failed absolutely if the people be protected these predators are promoted by cardinal law was involved in the scandal which huge and yet cardinal on managed to land in the vatican on the most powerful committees that exist within the vatican so to the message that you leave believe you sent was if you are unable shield and protect the creditors you will be rewarded and we don't feel that's the right message we

feel that he should be taking action we have a bishop in the united states that was convicted of child endangerment and is still being allowed to run a diocese what kind of a message is that to send to the world do you think there's more then to be official explanation of his resignation. hard to say the vatican is very secretive they're certainly not known for being opened in our midst and transparent we have no idea why he did it but we feel he has two more weeks in which he could you know take some huge steps towards protecting children if he would discipline even one or two cardinals of bishops for the part they've played in this cover up it certainly would shut the tone for electing a new pope and while at the work would expect well has he set the tone or set the ground for his the next person to take over from him what can we expect from whoever it is his successor to do well i would expect more of the same since are those that enable and shield and protect continue to be promoted to continue to be

given the most powerful positions within the vatican the message is clear if you follow the company line if you keep the secret if you put the reputation of the church above this if t. of the children then you will be promoted what a terrible message to send and your ideas who could take over the tenure the list is long and very very complex complicated you're very critical of the church but surely isn't there an element of reform there has been success in the past as i mentioned and in modern times we will see that in the lives of what the pope has achieved so far and who could take over i think what we've seen in the way of reforms has come because the victims have found the courage to come forward attorneys have brought these cases to the courts and allowed civil authorities to take over governments like the italian the irish government and the government in australia are doing their own investigations to me it has certainly helped to educate people about the depth of the crisis and the coverup. these are the sources

where we see that the forms are happening not from within church officials you talk about cover up a crisis what about the transition process do you think there could be some form of power struggle behind the scenes. you know i'm not a very conservative but i would assume there is and this issue has certainly played a part in the fact that many people no longer trust church officials like they did in the past and that's a very sad statement that you can't trust your bishops. or leave it there barbara doris joining us there from the u.s. thank you very much indeed for your time thank you. french a modern troops have regained control of go after is missed militants launched a surprise attack on what is northern mali is most populous city authorities say three civilians were killed during sunday's fighting this comes after recent claims by france that the military campaign is almost complete and as local correspondent gonzalo one chair reports the joint forces

a struggling to fully secure the region still occupied by insurgents. the situation in mali is obviously going to have a gruesome ending 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.

and they and again the core a 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 joining 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 insurance pays them to have a 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 going to find out is that 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.

but i am ready to go it all lengths i'm ready 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 on the we can do it because we grew up in the north we know the terrain and the people so we're the 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 cards the civilian population remains the country's most vulnerable at root. well for more on this let's talk to eric denise's director of the french center for intelligence studies joining me live now

from paris now france says it will not stay much longer in mali ending its military campaign a success but now with this recent surprise attack by rebels just how sure can paris be of a speedy exit. now the problem we we see if there is a success we don't see in the persian is a victory because we know it's absolutely difficult to fight against a jihadist group anyway remember what people see a few months ago everybody was thinking that it was absolutely. money without hundred of casualties but in fact we discovered the. stronger in value when you were in afghanistan so this is why the french are we going to be very proud of the dog but only for the water was all saw. previews that we were expecting terrorist attack but. unfortunately very soon so in effect what we're seeing perhaps this campaign now by the militants turning into

guerrilla warfare and you're saying militarily so far it's been a success but now this could be something very different going to be impossible to root out all those militants and they could cause a lot more fear and instability now in mali yes because it's something absolutely normal that the tourists try to react they have been suffering a lot of the casualties between three hundred and four hundred terrorists been killed i mean so much more important number of terrorists since two thousand and two when the u.s. and the against them but we we expected such a reaction but we don't think that the reaction would be so. important like it is in august and because it's not against and because in the book too as well of the insult them only all the book edition of the supporting the local government as well as the french troops so we are expecting some back tax but if you look at the first act like it's very it's i mean something like people were just trying to be

so i said bombers because they kill themselves but they don't do a lot of the victims around the population and of course this sort of warfare could lead to even more civilian casualties we've seen some already of course in mali just how will the french authorities deal with that not just civilian casualties but of course the dangers of of french military casualties too yes but you know as they are in the r.v. we know that we lost some casualties and we have been very lucky because during the all operations we had just one one. out of the country with bin was been killed this is why also we want to leave the country very soon because we know buchanan you know. what happens or it when france leaves the country there is talk of course it returning to exploit the resources that mali have some people being very critical of that but wouldn't that exploitation lead to investment and then perhaps prosperity. stability further down the line everybody wins. just briefly the

keys of the country need a huge development program to fight against to find against or is one accident french troops are going to leave i think we will are some under some hundred maybe some one thousand guys in the country but if we leave we see that we need to be replaced by a friggin or european units and also we said we need absolutely a huge development program to fight against all the poverty all the reason. in favor of the. development in money eric thanks very much your thoughts are to me as director of the french center for intelligence studies live in paris. death of a debt financial worries make suicide rates rates sharply in the u.k. . still to come a student leaves his final words on a bank statement a sign of a worrying trend of the deadly impact of money troubles a report on that is just ahead. plus we

explain why environmentalists in ukraine are outraged by the authorities decision to go ahead with a multi-billion dollar gas project that story. stay with us. download the official cation if you so choose your language stream quality and enjoy your favorite. if you're away from your television or it just doesn't sit well with your

mobile device so you can watch on t.v. any time and. 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. are welcome is a big picture. continues now seventeen people have been killed me think explosion in the mine in russia republic that's according to the emergency services you also say one person is still missing the blast happened eight hundred meters below the surface while more than two hundred fifty miners were underground. at least two hundred

forty two people have been evacuated from the mine 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 i didn't 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 lost their relatives say in the blast and that's it compensation should be in the mountain about two million vehicles and that is roughly sixty six thousand dollars really limited because of the blast to the gas explosion and in the mine you have to mention here that there has been no fire immediately following the blast and that could be said to be a fortunate thing because otherwise of course we'd be looking at a death toll would be significantly higher there has been a criminal case launched also into the possible breach of security measures at the mine blast this is this is looking like the biggest in terms of the death toll

. mine accident over the past year and russia. 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 assaulted by an expert says major factors aggravating the situation. one mother who lost a child to that dispair. for the last year and a half thorn has been coming to terms with the tragic death of a 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 the shock it wasn't from one but 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 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 win 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 working for britain factor to his suicide experts now say that a mailing 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 in 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 brighton university we have some very very good regulations to protect people. it's problematic let thinks that it debt collection however hears that 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 ceased they are also spending over a million pounds on research as part of a suicide strategy plan but that is only one very small step in the right direction for someone like can. 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 rethought and i think strangely complex hopefully in time the the trend will go down with what we need to be. andrew farmer for r.t. london we have more stories and great pictures for you on our website at the moment r.t. dot com here's a quick glimpse at what we've lined up for you right now u.s. president barack obama looks set to restart a key focus of his politics you clear weapons reduction possibly russia with a potential big money saving you can find out more about that on our web site at the moment plus also there. you know for sure what you'll be doing tomorrow you can open a u.s. defense giant may be able to help you to know predict your future steps and even behavior just by collecting social network data more on line.

with ukraine refusing to pay russian gas giant gal's problems recent seven billion dollar gas bill authorities in kiev are working on enlisting western companies to explore its shale gas reserves however the controversial method proposed to boost the country's coffers isn't going down well with environmentalists. reports. it was described as the day of the cranes and 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. 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 eight dollars per cubic meter of gas instead of the four hundred fifty dollars we're now paying to gas probably but if everything is so promising why are people out in force against the shale gas initiative for the second tour no 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 hardline 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. information on how the gas split beach. shell chevron and the ukrainian company says this class it is still not clear if it's going to be profitable plus the companies don't keer the most harmful it will be to the environment but political battles of size ecologists are the most concerned with a potential threat from the shale gas program. it could lead to a full blown. but whenever they speak out the pro-government media labels them as agents of gas. is a usually at different camels that 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 and grain simple 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. reporting from kiev in ukraine. that's it for me the news team for the moment will be back with more in about thirty five minutes from now in the meantime a recap of the week's sporting on arts is with a partridge stay with us for that.

is trash to get rid of. but it's also a treasure. it's worth fighting for. and the trap was no way out. to speak your language. programs and documentaries in arabic it's all here on all t.v. reporting from the world talks about seventy i p interviews intriguing stories are you. trying. to find out more visit or a big. dog called. hello

welcome to the r t sports show with me kate partridge twenty six minutes of sporting action from russia and around the world coming up and these are the top stories. warm up on ice fabio capello remains unbeaten as national coach as russia beat iceland two now in a friendly in spain ahead of next month's world cup qualifier in belfast. plus the europhiles russian side and she is a need and regain return from their winter break and prepared to face big nine european opposition in the last thirty two of the europa league. and every second counts with a year to go russians across the country can join in the can down just such as

clocks are one fails to usher in the nation's first ever winter games. but let's start with football and fabio capello remains on beaten as the coach of russia as the national side kicked off twenty thirteen with a comfortable two nil friendly win over iceland in marbella doesn't get up off reports from the spanish resort. many wealthy russians have a second home in the luxury a spanish city or want to be including the russian national coach fabio capello who called the country's top players together to come to the resort for a four day training camp it had of their first match of the year against iceland. in december i asked the premier league coaches to let their players join a national team two days earlier but the normal followed fee for rules decided to let their players go only two days before the game the law is on their side i thought they would make an exception for the sake of the national team however my attitude to the players stayed the the same.