foreign policy friction looms over the french president's maiden visit to moscow for high level talks and debate. iran syria and even mali points of contention between france and russia will be details be sorted out today on front on this in moscow coming up i've got the details. the sixteenth is set to end his papacy with his successor inheriting a catholic church rife with sexual abuse and corruption allegations. as the saying goes you should know your enemy but both israeli and palestinian press restrictions are making journalists work an increasingly difficult. national news and comment twenty four hours

a day you're watching r t well tough talks are expected in moscow nater on thursday as president vladimir putin hosts french. divisions over syria and iran remain a key points of foreign policy discord. is covering all the maidan visit to the russian capital. certainly an interesting day today as talks between francois hollande and bloody miller putin commence lots of items on the table for discussion including international trade relations and improving relations between the two countries but the main focus for russia are the international issues specifically syria iran and even mali now while this is president alliance first visit to moscow it's not the first time the two leaders have met they did clash this past summer specifically over the topic of syria saying bush are assad must go to prison saying that that is not a precondition for success to happen in syria and that it has to move forward

through diplomatic talks and a multilateral talks with all sides and all parties involved something that the west is not really backing now on the subject of iran. is siding with the e.u. and tough sanctions against iran aimed specifically at eliminating their nuclear program. coming out recently saying that this is not the way to go sanctions don't really target the people that need to be targeted in order to make this happen rather he says that the nuclear program in iran should be allowed to continue as long as it's only for peaceful purposes but there should be strong oversight by the i.a.e.a. now on the subject of mali some place where the two countries actually do agree russia does support the u.n. mission there in france is led mission in northern mali but he does say that the destabilization in mali is

a direct result of the failed policies towards libya and syria in fact if you point to what happened in libya the west did get involved there was military intervention there was the stabilization of the government moammar gadhafi was taken out of power and look nothing is better there the situation now so pointing to. they're saying we don't want these things to happen in syria as well so these are the topics up for the discussion on the table on thursday also if you remember back in january some tension between the two countries gerard depardieu a famed actor leaving france for russian citizenship being given a passport by putin himself because of poland's high tax proposals in that country so some tensions already there making it even just a bit more interesting here in moscow today and those fronts continues to support the syrian rebels some analysts say there's no solution to the conflict as long as the militants feel they can find on with foreign backing. this is just called free

of politic we know this from for centuries ago international politics is the way. things happen it's not about the people so and if they really wanted to help the syrian people they should have. sought a political settlement from the beginning now we're entering almost a third year of the conflict and they continue to fuel this conflict by bringing weapons and money to certain part of the opposition and it's just getting worse and worse there are options to buy political settlements and bring some parts of the opposition that is willing to find a solution and discuss with the regime and get syria out of this conundrum but unfortunately important there are some players on the international scene who say one thing and do something different if really really interested in finding a solution and stopping the bloodshed the first thing to do is just stop funding and stop drinking weapons to the armed groups that way they would be obliged to sit

at the table if this is not this isn't made by the international players i don't see how it's going to stop. pope benedict the sixteenth is set to retire later on thursday becoming the first pope to abdicate in six centuries saying he wants to exit public life and remain hidden to the world he leaves his successor to be named next month to redeem the church's reputation following a string of child abuse and corruption allegations all t's are going to glasgow has more. he has received a rather walled warm standoff from the people as on thursday people have poured out onto this streets by the vatican and on to st peter's square when the pope did his last drive by in the pope on bill of course a lot of people came to see that thousands upon thousands and then of course it's also it was also there when the cardinals tother arrived in rome in order to prepare for the selection of the new pope and that is going to happen actually rather soon because unlike in previous times cardinals do not have to wait for

certain period of humility after the recent poll but has died and basically that was one of the major changes that have been that the sixteenth has put forth before stepping down but a lot of people are wondering exactly why is it the sixteenth has decided to resign and of course you have to remember the badly scandals the recent scandals involving sex abuse committed by the catholic priests of course there are also accusations of the fact that the church was led by a man who is over eighty years old and of course a lot of people in particular about the same age as the pope again there's actually a sense saying that people in this particular steer in the vatican really have been behind the times and they haven't been quite keeping out of with the changing world it's the law is doing the job for pope benedict the sixteenth come friday he'll retire to seclusion and prayer while in the vatican there's a feeling the real work is only just beginning it's not just about selecting a new bishop of rome some say but the very future of the catholic church the

catholic church is undergoing a very important tries to see if there's a crisis at two levels but there's a government tries this and to do is it tries itself we believe are. in the last year or so the world was focused on the government tries to see devout to the good . pope benedict was a pope who is a great intellectual is being a theologian but he has not is strong hand to lead to us not that the. for a man of a government so there was a lack of leadership which culminated in the great scandals of about the leaks far from the splendor of the sistine chapel a closer look at the recent events in the vatican to highlight disillusionment and frustration with the church once and all about the i distanced myself from the church when i became an adult when i started talking about what had been taught especially after all the scandals broke out in the catholic church i realize that

it doesn't represent my spirituality benedict the sixteenth may have been the first pope with a twitter account but many argue this measure alone was not strong enough in appealing to the masses and there will be no more tweets once pope benedict the sixteenth steps down now this is the age or transparency the age of the people the churches should be properly. they'd be. considered sacred she one of the. great assets everybody now you see today will be to be. the problem of the media they're really working on leases he went to change pretty things about the church for people of gabrieli of this inability to face up to and much less to punish those who may be responsible for tainting the image of the church is the deciding factor in abandoning catholicism. there's another scandal with a girl who disappeared in the vatican twenty years ago and they say the man found her remains the italian police are leading the investigation here but instead of

helping them about it is obstructing the investigation it's likely they knew about this and stayed silent and on top of all those cases of pedophilia with this is just disgusting the list of controversial events involving catholic priests or vatican officials reads like a tabloid reports of sex abuse pedophilia accusations allegedly corruption and possible ties with the mafia while the media especially in italy has been having a healed day with the scandals the vatican. others stayed silent. but those things may be looking rather grim for the seat of st peter's at a first glance there is still a chance the catholic church can make a comeback. with a church with. strong. we've come to reform because. the power.

to the church is the spiritual but in spite of the. many wondering if. the world is rapidly changing and. failed to keep pace sure it has seen a fair number of ups and downs as well as two thousand year long history but there is opinion that perhaps taking an unpleasant development sweeping it under the carpet and feeling it. better left. in rome. well leading british secular. would catholic leaders will have to change their approach to dealing with scandals that surround the vatican if they want to win back public support. i'm certainly aware of two major issues over child abuse that are going to come up and are going to be very very hard for the vatican to swallow

because it's not just that there are the child abuse. that is issues it's actually that the finger of blame is going to be pointing at the vatican for having obstructed justice in all the secret files which release so that's going to look very bad and i think people are going to get less and less tolerance about that in the vatican has shown no real sign of actually coming to terms with this and putting its hands up and really telling for its past sins and being much more open and and dealing more properly with victims and actually getting the people who perpetrated these crimes. turned over to the police the outgoing pope has packed the college of cardinals with people who are as if not more conservative than he has so it's going to be pretty hard but if they've got any sense they're actually look and see that the vast majority of catholics don't actually agree with all their positions on on these sensitive social issues and i think they need to

actually look at their own congregation and start taking some science from that and be much more sensible over issues like contraception homosexuality abortion all those kind of things and actually be open to. secular justice on matters like child abuse and money laundering. and later in the program we report on the latest developments in the case of a u.s. army private bradley manning it seems to be sensitive leaks as washington summons a navy seal to. actions painted kind of terrorists. list.

could speak. to. her. wish i. look. so good. lists. and i'm a. little mouse but i'm a little. live . science technology innovation all the list i'm elements from around russia we've got the future covered.

it is easy to. see he. says.

it. well the issues for you now israel has closed off the main supply route into gaza response to recent rocket fire from the strip the first since november's conflict and as tensions rise some journalists in the region are finding their work and at

times livelihoods affected by the ongoing standoff artie's paula sneer investigates now how those trying to spread light on the situation are coming under pressure from both sides of the divide. november last year israel and gaza are at war and in the middle of it a gaza journalist reporting in hebrew for you to an israeli newspaper it was the last major story sunny as rami would write for the hebrew press a month later gaza's ruling hamas party banned palestinian journalists from working with israeli media accusing it of being hostile tel aviv refuses to recognize hamas and regards it as a terrorist organization and a magnet for mother i do not understand this decision unfortunately i feel that our struggle will have less meaning if we do not speak to the israeli media and make them hear our message sami feels he's on a personal crusade to help both sides better understand each other when his nine year old daughter was hit by an israeli missile it was his israeli editors who

arranged for her to be bought across the border and treated and it was in the newspapers that he published his anger and anguish over israel's bombardment of gaza. the head of. israel is using the media in its war against us in this war journalists are under attack they want to kill all our words and reports that prove that there were no crimes in gaza is that their father has to have seen the attackers coming from both sides of the border is ready journalists today are banned from working. but ironically it's not a must but tel aviv that stops them deeming it too dangerous for them to report from there in a very scary place for israeli some a masked people came to my palestinian cameramen in gaza they gave him twenty five thousand dollars and we told him that the next time the jewish is going to enter gaza please tell us where it's going to be a route with a car we're going to kidnap both of you and take you take him and it really is you

know had him oh is among a handful of israeli journalists who'd regularly work in gaza but after his government made it illegal six years ago his station employed gaza based palestinian journalists now because of hamas is ruling even that has become impossible. very problematic decision of hamas for a lot of other decisions that the hamas made i think that the problem of normalization in. connecting trying working with the israeli media the result is that the only reports that are those hamas sanctions are not particularly promising in one of the recent human rights watch report that accuses hamas of harassing assaulting and arbitrarily detaining journalists israel too has come under fire for deliberately targeting reporters and media houses affiliated to harm us during this last one gaza israel felt twenty places in the two thousand and thirteen world press freedom index due to the actions of its army in the palestinian territories these two journalists are where sami because he speaks of

mice he engages his radio audiences. because you spend so much time in palestinian areas with few israelis day to trade the media blackout does little to shed light on the fate and future of ordinary gazans it also perpetuate stereotypes on both sides of the border that have done nothing but breed mistrust and hatred policy on our team television. well let's take a look at some other news from around the world this hour the leader of italy's five star movement which came third in the country's general election has ruled out a coalition with the center left describing the head of the democratic party pier luigi bersani as a dead man talking the former comedian claimed he would not support any new government for political parties participated in the election none of them gaining enough seats to govern leaving the country in political deadlock italian public demonstrating a strong n.t. of the sentiments during the election even prime minister monti's party with

a minority of votes in both the lower house and the senate. libyan government is set to urge the u.n. to lift an arms embargo imposed in the. twenty eleven uprising brought down market duffy's regime plans were announced by the prime minister as tripoli desperately seeks to rearm its military which has been struggling to take control of the country since the fall of gadhafi militias containing many former rebels hold much of the power on the ground across libya's vast territory. in colombia striking coffee growers have clashed with police and blocked roads demanding a fair return for their coffee beans farmers through objects that security forces who responded with tear gas and time to disperse the angry crowds protest to say due to rising costs of production and making a loss because of the fixed price for quickly set by the government.

and washington is looking to summon the more than one hundred forty witnesses to the trial of army private bradley manning is accused of leaking classified u.s. data prosecution plans are aimed at very fine allegations that manning's leaks directly jeopardized american security the list of witnesses will include a navy seal from the raid that killed osama bin laden was lucky to attempt to prove al qaeda benefited from the release of the secret information journalist kevin stone says it's purely an attempt to shift focus. the fear here i think is that you would be sensationalized hitting the for seedings and it would not it would make it nearly impossible for manning to have a fair trial it just because we now be talking about terrorism terrorism and terrorism will get away from the fact that he is charged with the offense of releasing the information and they don't have to show the terrorists receive that this will continue the obama administration has ushered in this era of pursuing

whistleblowers and making certain that there are prosecuted and they go after them zealously in a manner that they do not go after other individuals that's something i think is the most particularly striking is you can have private contractors who engage in weapons smuggling like like the blackwater executives or you can have bankers that engage in financial fraud and they are pursued as zealously as whistleblowers. on our website right now i want the next limit russia's president could look like a contest to find the perfect design is in full swing and suggestions ranging from extravagant vehicles to more traditional soviet style examples you can have your pick of the column. all said that the u.s. has officially labeled an environmental activist group striving to protect whales in the pacific as pirates. now means for the so-called ante way it is online.

coming up next we take you to russia's code up and then to discover the wonders of the debt injury overnights to stay with us. i've got a lot of messages from our t.v. viewers who are very concerned about drones living under skynet is not the american way and many are concerned about their safety and privacy congressman ted poe has introduced a bill that may address some people's concerns about drones this bill is the preserving american privacy act which clear fice how the government can use these drugs so basically the act adds bureaucracy to drone usage in order to restrict it

in theory protecting people's privacy. the thing is that one side is arguing for drone usage and the other side for bureaucratic restricted drone usage but what about not using drones to spy on americans ever no drones should be used on american territory period and overseas they seem to breed more terrorists than they kill saying that there are only two sides to this issue for drones and well kind for drones is absurd congressman paul if you would please be so kind as to change the name of your legislation to the drones are an acceptable form of tyranny act i would be very grateful to you sir but that's just my opinion.

that speak. to. her. will. look. very. good. to me a little. more

news today violence has once again flared up. and these are the images. from the streets of canada. shank operations are.

not everyone can say they've been on top of the world's bucks if you're in russia you could have better chance than most there are only eight countries on the planet that stretch above the arctic circle and this is one of them. if you go to the right spot you can see the most spectacular light show on earth the old boy all this it was mid-winter on.