it's nice it's one you're a one folks. many question the sudden resignation of pope benedict the sixteenth and shock waves reverberate throughout the catholic world. french in mali and of forces reclaim the city of galle we bring you a firsthand account from the city after a surprise attack by militants almost spoils the french claims of a victorious campaign. and eighteen coal miners die in an underground methane blast in russia's kwame republic an investigation team is now looking into the cause of the tragedy.

live from our studios in a moscow this is r t i'm sean thomas glad to have you with us the vatican has announced event pope benedict the sixteenth will step down on february twenty eighth citing old age eighty five year old will become of 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 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 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 right 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 made him physically and in some places 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 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 was 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. artie's peter all of our reporting for us there from berlin sticking with this story while the vatican is mulling a replacement for the outgoing pope barbara doris a campaigner against the church based abuse says 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 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 that 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 certainly a controversial subject we want to hear what you think about this head to our web site and there we've got four choices for you in fact cast the cafferty. search into a successor for crisis help of the holy see move past vatileaks and other scandals also make no difference as the vatican is corrupt under any leadership then finally pope benedict the sixteenth will be forgotten as soon as the new pontiff takes over let's see so far where you have come on the issue taking a look at the numbers they've been changing a little bit over the course of the night and almost two thirds of you believe that the resignation will make virtually no difference as the vatican will be corrupt under any leadership a little less than a quarter say that pope benedict the sixteenth stepping down will soon be forgotten when his successor takes over seven percent of you see this as a way for the church to move past the candles and allegations which have plagued

the vatican and then if you take a look at just the smallest little sliver there six percent say that the forecast for the catholic church will have a difficult time selecting a new pontiff with the suddenness of the retirement tell us what you think at r.t. dot com. indeed. french and mali and troops have regained control of gal 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 corresponded to gonzalo want to reports the joint forces are struggling to fully secure the region still occupied by insurgents money so 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 detonation of a few hours later responsibility for the attack that was claimed by the motor watch 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 in the dow 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 were volunteers and civilians are preparing to fight against the jihadists the f.l.n. a and uganda coit local pro-government militia movements that account for a total of two thousand eight hundred operatives. but i 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 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 terror is an action going to for that 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 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 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 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. you know 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. of death over dead financial woes cause suicide rates to rise sharply in the u.k. . student leaves his final words on a bank statement a sign of a worrying trend of the deadly impact of money troubles i report on that coming up a little later in the. explain why environmentalists in ukraine are outraged by the authorities decision to go ahead with a multibillion dollar gas project. with . technology innovation. developments from russia we. covered.

the big. news today. these are the images. from the streets of canada. please. welcome back here with a live from moscow police in egypt have use water cannons to disperse an

anti-government rally from outside the presidential palace the clashes were sparked when 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. the revolution by perpetuating torture kidnap 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 says creating a coalition government is the only way to quell the unrest. people are going to going to the streets they are going on the streets willingly they don't really need any opposition calls for a new protest 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 and the 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 does 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 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 kwame republic the blast happened eight hundred meters below the surface while more than two hundred fifty miners were underground or he even is 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 recovered unfortunately other than that we also know that immediately already a program has been set up in order to help financially the families of those up in the loss to their relatives say in the blast and that's it compensation should be in the mountain ballads to the intervals and that is roughly sixty six thousand dollars the family preliminary cause of the blast husbands leave the gas explosion in the mine will 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. a mine accident over the cause is here in 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 party's under former 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 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 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 the someone you know didn't have a care in the world following his death and became

a trustee for the charity piracy which aims to prevent suicide among young people from a home in cornwall she even runs her own blog giving advice but it's a battle her charity and similar ones around the u.k. are struggling to win suicide is on the increase according to latest figures accounting for six thousand deaths between twenty ten and twenty eleven a rise of seven percent so why the increase while an inquest ruled that toby's financial problems were written for a factor to his suicide experts now say that a mailing 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 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 it's a plastic debt collection how it is that particularly well it's just these practices like it's 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 times on research as part of a suicide strategy plan but that is only one very small step in the right direction for someone like him it's not. one thing i've learned

more about through the thought than i ever wanted to know that i've done a lot of reading and rethought and i think strangely complex hopefully. the trend will go down with. andrew pharma to london and we have more stories in pictures for you on our website r t dot com here's a quick glimpse of what we have lined up for you there right now. 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 and to our web site for the story. plus do you know for sure what you'll be doing tomorrow if not well then hey us defense giant may be able to help it can now predict your future steps and even behavior just by collecting social network data we've got the details online. americans are preparing to tune in to their president's a big speech on tuesday with barack obama to make his first state of the union

address since his reelection obama will speak before congress and the nation to share his plan on restoring our prosperity for the middle class new york based economist next fraud wolf says the middle class in the us has been deprived of many social guarantees by the economic situation in that 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 nubile 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 take a look at some other stories making headlines around the world 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 and 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 car carrying humanitarian aid most of those killed are said to be syrian nationals 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 casts doubts on the intentions of the talks saying they're just a bluff to calm the unrest activists say there is too much power concentrated in the hands of the sunni monarchy. at least fifteen hundred people took part in the

so-called hunger march in the hungary and capital buthe past protesters shouted slogans against the rising cost of living and poor employment prospects the march was joined by members of the opposition and socialist party for demanding wage raises and a tax overhaul. with ukraine refusing to pay a russian gas giant gazprom a recent seven billion dollar energy bill authorities in kiev are working on enlisting western companies to explore its shale gas reserves however the controversial method proposed to boost the country's coffers isn't going down well with environmentalists are the reports. it was described as the day of ukraine's energy independence when in november last year he have signed a one billion dollar agreement with a spanish utility to build a liquefied natural gas terminal on the black sea coast delight quickly turned into dismay when it emerged that the man signing the deal had nothing to do with the company three months later ukraine's leaders were shaking hands again. this time

with boiled dutch shell having signed a real deal to explore and develop the country's potentially he would shale gas reserves reportedly the third largest in europe 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 relies 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 eight dollars per cubic meter of gas instead of the four hundred fifty dollars we're now paying to gas prop but if everything is so

promising why are people out in force against the shale gas initiative for the second tour no if not worse for years ukraine has often been divided on many different issues from perception of history to the official number of state languages and then you shale gas initiatives are no exception even sworn 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 gas. information on how the gas split between shell chevron and ukrainian companies for this class it is still not clear if it's going to be profitable plus the companies don't keer the most harmful it will be to the environment. but political battles of size ecologists are the most concerned with a potential threat from the shale gas program which 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. even in the most optimistic scenario ukraine may see its own shale gas filling its pipes only in a decade from now a cola just insist they're not against shale gas and grain simple 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 ukraine. now in our team breaking the set with abby martin.

some countries want oil but that's kid stuff who needs oil when you could secure the world's largest supply of truck so-to located exclusively in sweden and meeting 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's 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 the president putin is rearming the russian army hinting at a threat while 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. you get. to cut.

to get. to go. to live on one hundred thirty three bucks a month for food i should try it because you know how fabulous and like i've said. i mean. i know that i'm. really messed up. in the very slow motion. of. worst superglued the silence of a good radio guy who came in a big six and what's cool about it is you never seen anything like this i'm still exists. the folks i meet martin so last week i talked about the new leader to be the man.