many questions of the sudden resignation of pope benedict to the sixteenth as shock waves that reverberate throughout the catholic world. french and mali and forces reclaiming the city of we bring you firsthand accounts from the city after the surprise attack by militants almost spoils french claims of a victorious campaign. and a team of coal miners die in an underground methane blast in russia's call me republic investigation team is and now looking into the cause.

and live from our studios in moscow this is r t glad to have you with us. the vatican has announced a dead 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 parties are all over reports now from germany the pope's country of birth. 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 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 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. oh geez peter all of our reporting for us there and while the vatican is mulling a replacement for the outgoing pope barbara doris a campaigner against church based abuse says a little will change as the catholic church hasn't done anything to bring alleged pedophiles 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 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 promoting it like cardinal law was in

boston the scandal was huge and yet cardinal law managed to land in in the vatican l on the most powerful committees that exist within the vatican so to the message 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 and of course as always we

are interested in your thoughts on current issues and we're asking now what for you to vote web site go our to dot com here's what you think of. the future of the catholic church after the resignation of pope benedict the sixteenth right now almost two thirds of you think that the resignation will make virtually no difference as the vatican will be crushed under any leadership not the vote of confidence for the catholic church there but a little less than a quarter say that the pope's stepping down will soon be forgotten as the new pope takes over about seven percent of you see this as a way for the church to move past the scandals and allegations which have plagued the vatican and about six percent of you because if there is no successor evident right now believes there will be a crisis for the catholic church in picking the new pope tell us what you think.

french and troops have regained control of after islamist militants launched a surprise attack on what is northern mollies 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 of gonzalo one 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 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 a few hours later responsibility for the attack was claimed by the mosher wod 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 and 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 joined forces in fighting the terrorists. we share

the same goals but what they did was a really bad service to us all 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 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 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 stock they have just put out. but i'm ready to go it all lengths i'm raising 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 now 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 train 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 at root. the ongoing conflict was among the topics artie's granted she can discuss with russia's ambassador to the un vitaly churkin the full interview is available for you anytime on our website r.t. dot com here is a quick preview for you now. because of. the dramatic

events in libya. 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 with a wink and nod as he put it from the united states brought them twenty thousand tons of weapons into libya and you know twenty thousand tons you can arm is small terrorist army and of course this is exactly what has happened in mali definitely we see spillover from ability and crisis to neighboring countries. most likely 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 jury it had something to do i mean close to the libyan border also had some sort of. in

terms of people maybe weapons. from libya participating in that attack. death over debt financial woes cause suicide rates to sharply rise in the u.k. . 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 coming up a little later in the program. plus we explain why environmentalist and ukraine are outraged by the authorities decision to go ahead with a multibillion dollar gas project this story and much more after a short break right here on r.t. . the. technology innovation all the developments from russia.

the future covered. 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 that everything is ok. i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture.

here with our team will the uk police in egypt have used water cannons to disperse an anti-government rally from outside the presidential palace the clashes were sparked when the several hundred demonstrators marched in cairo to mark two years since the fall of former president hosni mubarak and to increase pressure on the current leadership pro-democracy protesters are accusing president morsi of betraying the revolution by perpetuating torture 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 made it 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 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 and the the brotherhood and 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 one of the happening in the country 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 eighteen people have been killed by a methane explosion in

a mine in russia's northern kwami republic the blast happened eight hundred meters below the surface while more than two hundred fifty miners were underground or cheese eating english guys following the story. 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 be covered unfortunately dead other than that we also know that immediately already a program has been set up in order to help financially the families of those helping the lost their relatives say in the blast and that's it compensation should be in the mountain ballads to the mobiles and that is roughly sixty six thousand dollars the family preliminary cause of the plot has seen 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 from. the 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 are cited by experts as major factors aggravating the situation artie's andrew farmer met one mother who says she lost her child to death 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 this wasn't fun one had a history of depression or mental illness or even had come across as being down or

depressed you know in the last few weeks months of his life if anything he came across as someone that you know didn't have a care in the world following his death and became a trustee for the charity piracy which aims to prevent suicide among young people from a home in cornwall she even runs her own blog giving advice but it's a battle her charity and similar ones around the u.k. are struggling to 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 amazing 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 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. it's problematic let thinks problematic debt collection however it appears that the tickly well it's just 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 dan there's no easy answer i mean one thing i've learned more about thirty five than i ever wanted to know but i've done a lot of reading and rethought and i think strangely complex hopefully entirely the trend will go down with what we need to be doing more andrew farmer for r.t. london. and we have a more stories and pictures for you on our web site r t dot com here's a quick glimpse of what we have lined up for you there right now. be careful about what you wear if you're going to the wailing wall in jerusalem israeli police have detained ten american women at the holy site over their outfits head to our web site for the story. do you know for sure what you'll be doing tomorrow if the new u.s.

defense giant may be able to help. predict your future stamps and even behavior just by collecting the social network data we've got the details for you online. americans are preparing it to tune in to their 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 obama will speak before congress and the nation to share his plan on restoring prosperity for the middle class new york based economist max wolf says the middle class in the us has been deprived of many social guarantees by the economic situation in the country. 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 nimble being nibbled away by economic change or in some can't take cases those legs have collapsed for tens of millions of american families their state of the union 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 and usually as well as from foes of the president's own needs to address that we're 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. on to some of the international news making headlines for you this

hour at least twelve people most of them soldiers were killed 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 thirteen people have been killed and twenty eight injured after a car bomb blast at a crossing on the turkey syrian border the explosives were reportedly packed into a card carrying humanitarian aid most of those killed are said to be syrian nationals in the region has been plunged into violence in the almost two year long battle between syrian rebels and government forces. the government and opposition in bahrain have begun reconciliation talks for the first time in two years of political deadlock pro-reform campaigners are calling on the government to deal with police brutality and perceived discrimination meanwhile the opposition it

casts doubts on the intentions of the talks saying they are just a bluff to calm the unrest and activists say there is too much power concentrated in the hands of the sunni monarchy. at least fifteen hundred people took part in a so-called hunger march in one hundred capital budapest protesters shouted slogans against the rising costs of living and poor employment prospects the march was joined by members of the opposition socialist party who are demanding a wage raises and a tax overhauls. with ukraine refusing to pay russian gas giant gazprom as recent a seven billion dollar energy bill authorities in kiev are working on enlisting western companies to explore its shale gas reserves however the controversial method is proposed to boost the country coffers. but it's not going down too well with environmentalists parties alexy reports. it was described as the day of

ukraine's energy independence when in november last year he signed a one billion dollar agreement with a spanish utility to build a liquefied natural gas terminal on the black sea coast delight quickly turned into dismay when it emerged that the man signing the deal had nothing to do with the company three months later ukraine's leaders were shaking hands again this time with boiled dutch shell having signed a real deal to explore and develop the country potentially he would shale gas reserves reportedly the third largest in europe for. 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. russia especially now when gas. was seven billion dollars for violating gas agreements this project is definitely good we would pay between one hundred fifty to one hundred eighty dollars per cubic meter of gas instead of the four hundred fifty dollars we're now paying to gas problem but if everything is so promising why are people out in force against the shale gas initiative. 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 if political enemies hardline nationalists and communists have put their differences aside and spoken out against the plan the opposition even proposed a bill prohibiting the exploration and extraction of shale. yes but that's the real question information on how the gets 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 keer the most harmful it will be to the environment but political battles the size ecologists are the most concerned with a potential threat from the shale gas program which they insist it could lead to a full blown script aster feet but whenever they speak out the pro-government media labels them as agents of gas. as they usually end 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 so that even in the most optimistic scenario ukraine may see its own shale gas filling its pipes only in a decade from now ecologists insists they're not against shale gas in principle just that the potential environmental impact from its extraction needs to be

researched and assessed before drilling begins they have already sent a letter to the president the question is whether those at the top will be willing to listen let's see russia. reporting from kiev in ukraine. and shortly on our team peter lavelle and his guests to discuss the ongoing strife in africa and foreign interests there and some crosstalk coming your way in just a couple minutes right here on our.

choose your language. the consensus. the opinions that you think are a couple.