many question the resignation of pope benedict the sixteenth as shock waves reverberate throughout the catholic church. french forces reclaim the city and we bring you a firsthand account from the city after a surprise attack by militants although spoils french claims of a victorious campaign. and. underground. rescue are still looking for possible survivors.

from. this is r.t. with your line on the screen twenty four hours a day the vatican has announced that pope benedict the sixteenth will step down on february twenty eighth citing old age eighty five year old will become the first head of the catholic church to resign from the post in nearly six centuries artie's peter all of the reports now from the birthplace of the pope in germany. well it was 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 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 nice 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 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 but 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 include 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 bulldog he was the defender of the doctrine of fair for faith and not 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 cancelled an investigation into child abuses that range but in one thousand

nine hundred forty since 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 but he's peter one of their mala vatican is mulling a replacement for the outgoing pope and abuse campaign a bobber dora's says little will change as the catholic church hasn't done anything to bridge to bring alleged paedophiles to justice. 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 children 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 if the

people be protected these predators are promoting it like cardinal law was in boston the scandal was huge and yet cardinal law managed to land in in the vatican on the most powerful committees that exist within the vatican so to the message he we believe he sent was if you are unable shield and protect the predators 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 i would expect more of the same since 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 this secret if you put the reputation of the church above this of the children then you will be promoted what a terrible message to send 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. we're always interested in your thoughts on current issues and we're asking you to vote on our website r.t. dot com here's what you think about the future of the catholic church after the resignation of pope benedict the sixteenth well over half of you believe that the resignation will really make no difference as the vatican will be corrupt under any leadership sixty two percent of the nearly thirty percent say that the stepping down will soon be forgotten what a new pope takes over just under ten percent we can see there six percent saying that this is a way for the church to move past the scandals and allegations which have played the vatican and about the same amount for costs a successor crisis for the catholic church your thoughts r.t. dot com because here for me. french troops to regain control of the islamist 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 and there are more than enough indications of 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 dead to me a few hours later responsibility for the attack was claimed by the motor water jihadists one thing to remember here is that this is a vast desert 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 corps 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 joint forces in fighting the terrorists. we share 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 arms and they keep getting more by kidnapping white people for ransom drones pays them to have their citizens returned and then the terrorists have cash to buy weapons if we talk about al qaeda there's no. the army can fight it because she it's terrorism in action going to find out is that those paramilitary who know the terrain well by the 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 start they have just put out but 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 family so 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 all and 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 that to 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 at root. the ongoing mourning conflict was among the topics artie's going to church can discuss with russia's ambassador to the un tony the full interview will air in just over. the hole from now and is also available for you anytime on our website r.t. dot com here's a quick preview. the dramatic events in libya. we're in the course of the crisis of course a lot 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 a believe in 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. in the in the jury or had something to do i mean close to the libyan border also had some sort of libyan connection in terms of people maybe weapons terrorists emanating from libya participating in that attack. still ahead for you this i hear a naughty death over debt financial woes make suicide rates. in the u.k. a student the final words in a bank statement to son of a worrying trend of the deadly impact of money troubles all report on that for us

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 in a few minutes after a short break stay with us. is he to. eat.

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live. live live live live live . welcome back news continues here on r.t. seventeen people had been killed by a me thing explosion in a mine in russia's northern komi republic that's according to the emergency services who also say one person is still missing the blast happened eight hundred meters below the surface well more than two hundred fifty miners were underground bodies are being going to from the storm. 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 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 popping up lost their relatives in the blast that compensation should be in the amount of about two million mobiles and that is roughly sixty six thousand dollars really limited because of the plot seemed a 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 at the mine blast this is this is looking like the biggest in terms of death toll. mining accident over the past year and russia. suicide rates are soaring in the u.k. with money worries pushing many over the edge comes to mental health services and

aggressive debt collecting assaulted by experts as major factors aggravating the situation. one mother who lost a child to debt 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 writing 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 this 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 being increase while an inquest ruled that toby's financial problems working for britain factor to his suicide experts now say that an ailing u.k. economy is partly to blame for the recent surge in 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 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 brighton university we have some very very good regulations that protect people. it's thinks that it debt collection however is that particularly well it's because these practices do it 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. 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 rethought and i think strangely complex hopefully entirely the

trend will go down with what we need to be to. andrew farmer to r.t. london. by the way we have more stores in great pictures for you on our website r.t. dot com at the moment here's a quick glimpse at what we've lined up for you there u.s. president barack obama looks set to restart a key focus of his politics nuclear weapons reduction possibly tempting russia with a potential big money saving you can find out more that's on our website. that's also there and do you know for sure what you'll be doing tomorrow if not then the u.s. defense giant may be able to help you cannot predict your future steps in the behavior just by collecting social network data find out more about that or like. with ukraine refusing to pay russian gas giant gazprom the recent seven billion dollar gas bill authorities in kiev are working on enlisting western companies to explore its shale gas reserves over the controversial controversial method i should

say proposed to boost the country's coffers isn't going down well with environmentalists auntie's a look see at a chef he has this report. 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. 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 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 problem but if everything is so promising why are people out in force against the shale gas initiative. would be 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 even sworn 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 and that's the real question information on how the guests please. between shell chevron and the ukrainian company this class it is still look we are going to be profitable plus the companies don't keer it will be to the environment but political battles of the colleges are the most concerned with a potential threat from the shale gas programme. it could lead to a full blown feat but whenever they speak out the pro-government media labels them as agents of gas. as they usually at different camera schools that extract more gas from the rocks so the underground system which provides fresh drinking water is completely destroyed because water is a strategic ecological resource and when one spoil it the area becomes practically non-viable. but 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 ukraine. police in egypt views water cannons to disperse an anti-government rally from outside the presidential palace the clashes sparked when several hundred demonstrators marched in carney to mark two years since the fall of the former president hosni mubarak and to increase pressure on the current leadership pro-democracy protesters are accusing president morsi of betraying the revolution by. kidnapping and political pressure several egyptian regions are currently in a state of emergency after clashes erupted across the country during the two year anniversary of the uprising opposition spokesman enough majority says creating

a coalition government is the only way to quell the unrest. people are going to go into the streets they are going on the streets willingly the. really need any opposition calls for new protests because the good whole country is in a standstill there's nothing moving forward because there is no real administration at blessing the people's needs and the people demand and the actual anger in the streets so the only solution that i can see and that any sane person can see that the opposition and the mr brotherhood and all the all the different political factions to be in according to 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 but the idea of just excluding everybody out of the government in a post revolution country in a country that's acting that's calling for democracy when there is no real parliament in session that can hold the president or the government accountable to

the failures of administering the country and then refusing to have a quality of government that's just a call for chaos. well more international news in brief we now here in our world update this hour at least ten people have reportedly been killed and dozens injured after a car bomb exploded at a crossing on the turkey syrian border the exposures were reportedly packed into a car carrying humanitarian aid which of those killed are said to be syrian nationals dozens of ambulances were dispatched to the scene areas but a focus of violence is almost two year long battle between syrian rebels and government forces. the government and opposition in bahrain of launch a new round of reconciliation talks the first such meeting in two years a political crisis for reform campaign is a calling on the government to deal with police brutality and perceived discrimination remonde your position is cast doubts on the intentions of the talks saying they're just a bluff to calm the rest activists say there's too much power concentrated in the hands of the. two women the being killed in

a shooting in a courthouse in the u.s. state of delaware the attacker into the lobby of the building and thought at least five shots before being killed by police one of the victims is thought to be the estranged wife of the attacker two police officers were also wounded identity of the suspected shooter remains unclear. and indian officials resigned from the deadly stampede of the railway station that killed thirty six hindu program incident reportedly cut off the roadway officials announced a last minute change of plans for tens of millions gathered on the banks of the ganges river to take a. religious festival held every twelve months. so that brings up the day for the monarchy but with a new state with from now in the meantime the level of his guest discuss the ongoing strife in africa and foreign interests that's in coming our way in just a couple of minutes after this break stay with us.

some countries want oil but that's kid stuff who needs oil when you could secure the world's largest supply of trucker dero soda located exclusively in sweden and reading sweden for absolutely no logical reason is a possible you say well supreme commander of the swedish armed forces general sphere guru and son must have watched red dawn too many times because he thinks the russians are a common general durance and declared that if invaded by russia sweden wouldn't be able to last a week against the onslaught therefore sweden must immediately join nato he said that currently it is not quite possible to invade sweden but due to the two thousand and eight war with georgia it is possible for russia to somehow push through established european borders bring their forces up to sweden gates putting

the generals country in danger but guess what according to your own council of the european union georgia started the war so by that logic if the two thousand and one with georgia is the example of the future then don't kill russian peacekeeping troops and you'll have nothing to worry about but general goran so also made the point that president putin is rearming the russian army has. thing at a threat of being heavily armed to defend yourself is a bad scary thing then joining up with nato seems to be pretty hypocritical if the people of sweden want to join nato well that is their choice but they shouldn't be tricked into having their taxpayers pay for their sons to die in afghanistan based on totally bogus arguments that make no sense but that's just my opinion.