but in brussels business it's one euro one fault. with the pope benedict the sixteenth that shock waves reverberate throughout the catholic world. french and modern forces reclaim the city and we bring you a firsthand account from the city after a surprise attack by militants almost spoils french claims of a victorious campaign. one thousand coal miners die in an underground of the famed blast in russia's called me republic an investigation team is now looking into the cause of the tragic.

night 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 the 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 one of the reports now from germany the pope's country of birth. 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 being 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 is 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 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 range but to the nineteen 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. auntie's peter all of that and while the vatican is mulling a replacement for the outgoing pope barbara doris a campaigner against church based abuse told me a little earlier that little will change as the catholic church hasn't done anything to bring a lead 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 action he didn't discipline a single church official for hiding enabling shielding to predators for 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 we believe he sent was if you were unable shield and protected 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 the secrets 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. what was interested in your

thoughts on current issues here a nazi and we're asking you to vote on our website dot com and here's what you think about the future of the catholic church after the resignation of pope but. dicked the sixteenth well almost two thirds of you believe that the resignation will make virtually no difference the vatican will be corrupt under any leadership a little less than a quarter say that the pope stepping down will soon be forgotten when his successor takes over and seven percent of you see this is a way for the church to move past the scandals and allegations which have played the vatican and four percent forecast a success a crisis for the catholic church always good to hear we have to say it is r.t. dot com that's the web site. french and malian troops have regained control of after 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 comes out i want to report 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 first terrorist attack in its history according to the witness report it 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 army having taken over timbuktu and. 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 core a local pro-government militia movements that account for it to. total of two thousand eight hundred operatives 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 all there is not really about the army itself al qaeda had been operating on mali and territory for a number of years now they have all means and they keep getting more by kidnapping white people for ransom drugs pays them to have its 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 sheer terrorism in action and 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 and i'm ready to go it's all lengths i raise 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 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 and 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. 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're going mining conflict was among the topics

artie's going to church can discuss with russia's ambassador to the end of it. the full interview is available for you anytime on a website r.t. dot com and here's a quick preview. 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 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 a small terrorist army and so on of course this is exactly what has happened in mali definitely we see

a spillover from ability and crisis to neighboring countries 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 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. death of a dead financial woes cause suicide rates to rise sharply in the u.k. a student leaves his final words on a bank statement sign of a worrying trend of the deadly impact of money trying to report on that is coming up later in the program. still to come explain why environmentalist's in ukraine are outraged by the authorities decision to go ahead with the multiplayer. in

dollar gas project the story more after a short break. including . science technology innovation all the latest developments from around russia we've got the future covered. 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 thought. i'm sorry welcome to the big picture.

if. he continues here naughty police in egypt have used water cannons to disperse an anti-government rally from outside the presidential palace the clashes sparked when several hundred demonstrators marched in cairo to mark two years since the fall of former president hosni mubarak country increase pressure on the current leadership pro-democracy protesters are accusing president morsi of betraying the revolution by perpetuating 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 of the uprising opposition spokesman 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 they don't really need any opposition calls for new protests because the 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 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 to 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 or 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 eighteen people have been killed by me thing an explosion in a mine in russia's northern commie republic and blast happened eight hundred meters below the surface well more than two hundred fifty miners were underground not he said in english who was 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 couple of lost their relatives say in the blast that compensation should be in the amount of about two million illegals and that is roughly sixty six thousand dollars really from the recalls of the last 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 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 cuts to mental health services and aggressive debt collecting aside by experts as major factors i grating the situation bodies under a farm i met one mother who lost a child to despair. for the last year and a half and thorn has been coming to terms with the tragic death of a son aged just twenty three toby took his own life riding his final 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 farm one but had a history of depression or mental illness or even had come across the thing in all the press. 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 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 written for a factor to his suicide expert as nice

a bit enabling 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 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 look at problematic let things plastic debt collection however appears 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 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 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 it's strangely complex hopefully. the trend will go down with what we need to be to. andrew farmer to london. we have more stories and pictures for you on our website hartley dot com here's a quick glimpse of what we've learned up there for you a regular security drill on a luxury cruise liner went terribly wrong when a lifeboat fell into the sea killing five people we got the details online of the moment plus. to 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 and even behavior just by collecting social network data the full story for you right now on the web site. americans are prepared to tune into their president's big speech with barack obama to make his state of the union address on tuesday for the first time after his reelection a bomber will speak before congress and the nation to share his plan on restoring prosperity for the middle class based economies max wolf told me earlier that obama needs to put his promises into action to enlist people's support. 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 from allies on usually as well as from foes of the president so he 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 in many areas and they 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 some 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. time now for other international news making headlines this hour at least eight soldiers were killed and several others wounded after a suicide bomber blew himself up in the northern iraqi town of mosul the driver detonated a car filled with explosives in front of a military checkpoint the bombing is thought to be related to the ongoing sectarian conflict in the country with the sunni minority protesting against what they call

unfair treatment from the shiite led government. at least twelve people have been killed and twenty eight injured after a car bomb blew up at a crossing on the turkish syrian border the explosives were reportedly packed into a car carrying humanitarian aid most of those killed are said to be syrian nationals the region has been plunged into violence and almost two year long battle between syrian rebels and government forces. was on a world update the government and opposition in bahrain have begun reconciliation talks for the first time in two years of political deadlock for reform campaigners are calling on the government to deal with police brutality and perceived discrimination meanwhile the opposition cast doubts on the intentions of the talks saying they're just a bluff to calm the arrest activists say there is too much power concentrated in the hands of the sunni. with ukraine refusing to pay russian gas giant gazprom is recent seven billion dollar gas bill authorities in kiev 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 are the select reports. it was described as the day of ukraine's energy independence while 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 throwing the deal had nothing to do with kompany three months later ukraine's leaders were she. 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 eighty 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 it will be the second sure noble 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 throughout much of the information on how the gas the split between shell chevron and ukrainian companies is classified and it is still not clear if it's going to be profitable plus the companies don't care how harmful it will be to the environment. but political battles aside ecologists are the most concerned with a potential threat from the shale gas program 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 brum. 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 a college's insist they're not against shale gas in principle just at 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. that's it for me for the moment shaun thomason the team will be back with more news for in about thirty five minutes from now in the meantime coming up after the break the partridge where have all these weekly sports update.

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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 off 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 the 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 to such week as clocks are one fails to usher in the nation's first ever winter games. but that still is 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 because it didn't get up off reports from the spanish resort. many wealthy russians have a second home in the luxurious spanish city of want to be including russian national coach fabio capello who called the country's top players together to come to the resort for a four day training camp ahead of their first match of the year against iceland. in december i asked the premier league coaches to let their pleasure join a national team two days earlier but the number of followers free 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 same this didn't seem to affect the climate inside the team while i would side it was seventeen degrees as the team trained for really.