but. many question the sudden resignation of pope benedict the sixteenth the shock ways reverberate throughout the catholic world. french forces reclaim the city and bring a firsthand account from the city after a surprise attack by militants almost spoils french claims of a victorious campaign. and seventeen coal miners die in an underground of the famed blast in russia's call me republic with rescue is still looking for one possible survivor.

from the new center here in moscow this is r.t. with the on line on 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 the eighty five year old will become the first head of the catholic church to resign from the post in nearly six centuries all these people all of the reports now from the pope's home country 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 leaks include one of the one of the reasons that benedict said that he has to step down as he thought his age 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 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 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. and while the vatican is mulling replacement of the outgoing pope an anti abuse campaign a barber doris's told me that little will change as the catholic church hasn't done anything 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 promoted by 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 if t. 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 interested in your

thoughts on current issues and we're asking you to vote on our website r.t. dot com and here's what you think about the future of the catholic church after the resignation of pope benedict the sixteenth what we can see on screen almost two thirds of you believe that the resignation will make virtually no difference as the vatican will be corrupt under any leadership one quarter say that the pope's stepping down will soon be forgotten when his successor takes over and six percent of you see this as a way for the church to move past the scandals and allegations which have played the vatican and we can see there that four percent forecast a six a crisis for the catholic church good to hear from you and the websites r.t. dot com. french and troops have regained control of gal after isn't this 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 once he reports the joint forces are 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 person 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 most 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 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 at. in the civil defense camps where volunteers and civilians are

preparing to fight against the jihadists the f.l.n. a and gondokoro 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 all those and they keep getting more by kidnapping white people for ransom drugs 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 way the army can fight it because that she it's terrorism in action going to 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 start they have just put out now 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 when the french troops leave they will start all over again because the criminals are still out there hiding him on the civilians and 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 parts of land. overall 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. you know going. conflict was among the topics

artie's going to church can discuss with russia's ambassador to the un vitale chicken we have the full interview later this hour and it's also available for you anytime on our website r.t. dot com is a quick preview. the typical spring 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 back. 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. and that interview coming in coming to you in full in later this hour death of a debt is called suicide rates to rise sharply in the u.k. a student leaves his final words on a bank statement the son of a worrying trend the deadly impact of money troubles a report on that is coming up later in the program along with other reports including we explain why environmentalists in ukraine outraged by the authorities

decision to go ahead with a multi-billion dollar gas project the story i'm all right. well the. science technology innovation all the news developments from around russia we've got the future covered. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then something else you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought. i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture.

more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations to rule the day. here in moscow news continues now seventeen people are being. a meth an explosion in a mine in russia's northern komi republic and 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 on the ground. following the story 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 and of lost their relatives in the blast and that's it compensation should be in the amount of about two million people so that is roughly sixty six thousand dollars really limited because of that last scene the gas explosion in the mine you have to mention here that there has been no fire immediately following the blast in 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 death toll. mining accident over the past year and russia. police in egypt have use water cannons to disperse an anti-government rally from outside the presidential

palace the clashes response when several hundred demonstrators marched in caro to mark two years since the fall of former president hosni mubarak counter increase pressure on the current leadership pro-democracy protesters are accusing president betraying the revolution by perpetuating torture kidnapping and political repression several egyptian regions are currently in a state of emergency after a deadly clashes erupted across the country during the two year anniversary of the uprising opposition spokesman says that creating a coalition government is the only way to quell. unrest. people are gonna go into the streets they are going on the streets willingly they don't really need any opposition calls for due process because the whole country is in a standstill there's nothing moving forward because there is no real administration and blessing the people's needs and the people demand the actual anger in the streets so the only solution that i can see and that any sane person can see that

the opposition of the brotherhood and all the all the different political factions to be in a court 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 want to be happening in the country but the idea of just excluding everybody out of the government post revolution country in a country that's acting that's our 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 suicide rates are soaring in the u.k. with money worries pushing many over the edge can steam mental health services and aggressive deck connecting the cited by experts as major factors and preventing the situation farmer one mother who lost a child to 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 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 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 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 in 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 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 that protect people like it's problematic letting plastic debt

collection however here's the big 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 seized 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 you if not. i mean one thing i've learned more about through thought than i ever wanted to know but i've done a lot of reading and rethought and i think strangely complex hopefully. the trend will go down when we need to be. andrew farmer from london we have more stories and pictures for you in a website r.t. dot com here's a quick glimpse of what we've lined up there for you at the moment

a regular safety drill in a luxury cruise liner went terribly wrong when a lifeboat fell into the sea killing five people we got the details online also. short what you'll be doing tomorrow if not in a u.s. defense giant may be able to help you can now predict your future steps and even behavior just by collecting social network data the full story right now on our website r.t. dot com. with ukraine refusing to play 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 method proposed to boost the country's coffers isn't going down well with environmentalists. reports. described as the day of ukraine's energy independence when in november last year a key have signed a one billion dollar agreement with a spanish utility to build a liquefied natural gas terminal on the black sea coast delights 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 relies 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 eighty dollars per cubic meter of gas instead of the four hundred fifty dollars we're now paying to gasp but if everything is so promising why are people out in force against the shale gas initiative. will 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 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 with. information on how the gas is split between shell chevron and ukrainian companies this class it is still not clear if it's going to be profitable plus the companies don't care about harmful it will be to the environment. but political battles of

ecologists are the most concerned with a potential threat from the shale gas program. it could lead to a full blown feat but whenever they speak out the pro-government media labels them as agents of gas. usually and different camels that extract more gas from the rocks and 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. 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. reporting from q.

in ukraine. americans are prepared to tune into the president's big speech with barack obama set to make his state of the union address on tuesday for the first time after his reelection a bomb that will speak before congress and the nation to share his plan of restoring prosperity for the middle class well let's get some live analysis now from new york based economy max for that wolf max the u.s. is about to hear some promises of economic growth is that realistic is there a solid base for that now in the u.s. . well there's certainly a large base of people who have been waiting to hear this record be kind of stronger on that suit so i think there's a large base of people who want to hear that story but a much larger more important group that want to see that promise delivered on and we've been doing a better job our politicians over the last few years talking about the importance of the economy and delivering real improvements in the economy that's what makes this important but also makes the public a little bit skeptical about the disconnect between some of the sort of soaring rhetoric and some of the kind of more sorely unappreciated realities of our economy

today and that knowledge is created talking about of course is the middle class it's been described as the thriving middle class but really could it be described as that the moment. i think it's a bit pessimistic but largely accurate to call it the way i like to call it now which is the artist formerly known as the middle class so what's actually happened is a lot of what it's meant to be middle class in america has been access to affordable higher education college and university ability to retire with some security ability to own a home an ability to have health care and really all four of those pillars of the mass middle class experience that defined post world war two america are either nubile being nibbled away by economic change or and some can't take cases those legs have collapsed for tens of millions of american families and above the really will be stressing his interest he's keeping this for the middle class to flourish that's the top of his agenda but why is that because they are his voters his supporters as it were all who he deems to be supporters. i mean i think there's

going to be three reasons we're going to see this focused on one the state of the union this time tomorrow night comes right after the inaugural speech the second inauguration which was very light on the economy and came in for some significant criticism both from allies unusually as well as from foes of the president's we needs to address that to the economy is still the biggest issue in the united states and three the president has a very good track record of many areas and the weakest area and unfortunately for him one of the most important is in terms of delivering the goods as it were economically we are already seeing a weak economy here so it will probably be revised up but it was actually technically negative g.d.p. in the fourth quarter of two thousand and twelve and there's a kind of feeling that at some point promises and good efforts by the president won't get him all that much with his base of supporters unless he can put. in real delivery of improved economic circumstances behind the rhetoric the promises and the successes that the obama administration has had in lots of areas other than the

economy and when you say will it be a challenging time perhaps to speak fighting message to his opponents. you know i think we're going to see the president try to do something that has been the hallmark of his more successful campaigns which is to go around a congress that fundamentally does not generally want to work with him and try to appeal directly to the american public and get them excited get them bought in on a notion of raising taxes particularly for high income earners government services and making selective cuts particularly to programs that are less likely to be caught and if they are cut to undermine the american middle class where that's defense spending the nuclear arsenal and we may also see some pressure on a minimum wage story here in the united states that has not kept up with as create a situation where the floor keeps falling and that's a real concern for tens of millions of american families ok max great to hear your thoughts thanks very much indeed for joining us live next prod wolf live in new

york an ati thank you always my pleasure and. americans are preparing what we just talked about americans going to listen to what obama has to say about that let's look at some other news now in brief from around the world in a world update at least ten people have reportedly been killed and dozens injured after a car bomb exploded at a crossing on the syrian border the explosives 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 the area has been a focus of the almost two year long battle between syrian rebels and government forces. the government opposition in bahrain of launch a new round of reconciliation talks the first such meeting in two years of political crisis pro-reform campaign is a calling on the government to deal with police brutality and perceived discrimination meanwhile the opposition has cast doubts on the intentions of the talks saying they are just a bluff to calm the unrest activists say there's too much power concentrated in the

hands of the sunni monocle. two women are being killed at a shooting inside a courthouse in the u.s. state of delaware it hack into the lobby of the building and fired 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 the identity of the suspected shooter remains unknown. also in the world of indian officials resigned following a deadly stampede at a role with station that killed thirty six hindu pilgrims incident reportedly occurred after railway officials announced a last minute change of platform for train departure comes as tens of millions gather on the banks of the ganges river to take a dip marking the religious festival that's held every twelve years. well that brings up to date with may not be but with the news team with more news for in about half an hour from now in the meantime katie will be here with the latest business news of the day so stay with us from now if you can.