foreign policy friction with the french president's maiden visit to moscow where high level talks and debate. syria and even mali points of contention between france and russia will be easy to detail be sorted out today i'm trying thomas in moscow coming up i've got the details. benedict the sixteenth is set to end his papacy with his successor inheriting a catholic church rife with sexual abuse and corruption allegations. and as the saying goes you should know your enemy but both israeli and palestinian press restrictions on making journalists work an increasingly difficult. world news and much more twenty four seven your with. pope benedict the sixteenth

is set to retire later on thursday becoming the first pope to add to gate in six centuries saying he wants to exit public life and remain to the world he leaves his successor to be named next month to redeem the church's reputation for on a string of child abuse and corruption scandals. reports that. 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 mobile of course a lot of people came to see that thousands upon thousands and then of course it's also it was also the day when the cardinals have arrived in rome in order to prepare for this election 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 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 isn't it the sixteenth has decided to resign and of course you have to remember the vatileaks 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 vatican are about the same age as the poles that again there is my case in 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 last day in the job for pope benedict the sixteenth come friday hilbert's hard to seclusion and prayer while in the vatican there is 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 there's a government crisis and to do is it tries this over the believers. in the last year

or so the world was focused on the government crisis and devout the. pope benedict was a pope who is a great intellectual i think a theologian but he has not is strong hand to lead the food he has no but the. for a man of a government so there was a lack of leadership which culminated in the great scandals of but the leaks far from the splendor of the sistine chapel a closer look at the recent events in the vatican to highlight this illumines and frustration with the church once all about the i distanced myself from the church when i became an adult when i started talking about what had been talking with specially after all the scandals broke out in the catholic church and 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 of transparency the age of the people the churches should be properly. they'd be. considered a sacred she one of. the great assets everybody now you see that they will be to be . the problem in the media they're really working on leases he went to change many things about the church for people of gabrielli 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 with vatican is obstructing the investigation that's likely they knew about this and stayed silent and on top of all those cases of pedophilia with that

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. other states silent. but those things may be looking rather grim for the seat of st peter's at a first glance there's still a chance the catholic church can make a comeback. with the church really splitting through but there. could be strong we become to reform because. the power. of 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 in two thousand year long history but there is opinion that perhaps taking on pleasant development sweeping it under the carpet and filling it with people going for. better left in the past in rome. tough talks are expected in moscow. as a president. french leader francois hollande divisions over syria and iran remain the key points of foreign policy discord. almost as covering the maidan visit to the russian capital. certainly an interesting day today as talks between francois hollande and vladimir putin commence lots of items on the table for discussion including international trade relations an 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 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 our assad must go to push and 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 it 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 that pointing to the. 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 on 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 tone with foreign backing. it is just called free of politic we know this from for centuries ago and should actual 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 filed or sought a political settlement from the beginning now we're entering almost a third year of the conflict and by continuing to fuel this conflict by bringing weapons and money to certain part of the opposition and it just getting worse and

worse they are options to find political settlements and bring in some parts of the opposition that is willing to find a solution and discuss with the regime and get syria out of this is stronger but unfortunately unfortunately are some players on the international scene all 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 off funding and stop thinking about weapons to be on dead weight it 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. later in the program we report on the latest developments in the case of the u.s. army private bradley manning accused of piety sensitive leaks as washington summons a navy seal to prove he said next actions aided outcry the terrorists.

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back to one of our top stories the resignation of pope benedict the sixteenth well for more on the subject let's talk live with bob or doris the outreach director of the survivors network of those abused by priests thanks for joining us here today on r.t. so much so his departure has to do with the recent scandals including child abuse allegations how credible are those those thoughts those ideas. actually we have no idea i mean we don't know his motives for resign we feel that. he has been bold and courageous to resign it's an institution he loves and he felt he could no longer serve well and so it was a very courageous decision to retire and let someone who he thinks could do a better job take over and what we're hoping is that you know in these last few hours that he is the hope that he will be equally bold and courageous in protecting

the children he's done very little except to issue apologies and policies words but we haven't seen any actions where he'll actually protect children royall make one child safer today so that's our hope in the next few hours he will take decisive actions to protect the kids and if there's been no action then how can trust in the church be restored. we don't feel can be how can you trust an institution that will continue to put the needs of predators above the safety of children until that changes i don't see how any responsible parent can just blindly trust that the church will do the right thing if that's the case then we will changing the man that the helm make any difference. it depended to will depend on how that man sees his job and if he has the courage to make the changes the people that can protect the children are the bishops we

have police and prosecutors who can arrest predators but often by the time a victim finds the courage and the strength to come forward the statute of limitations has run and prosecutors and police can't do much bishops are on the front line bishops have the power they often hear about these predators and they have chosen to move them protect them shield them from from their crimes if the bishops. we're forced to turn over everything they know about these crimes to police and prosecutors we have a much better chance of protecting the children we feel that's what the pope can do he can set the example he can discipline even a handful of the complicit bishops who fit you know who been involved in this cover up cardinal mahoney would be a prime example cardinal brady these men could be disciplined for the part they've played and once he did that he would set the tone of this behavior not only of the

predators but of those to protect them will no longer be tolerated so how hopeful are you that the next pope will actually do that then. the history and experience certainly has been on our side but we're always hopeful that things will change and think things are changing because victims are finding the courage to come forward and report these crimes prosecutors are looking for new ways to investigate and prosecute these crimes there's been government investigations in a number of state and countries we have a number of investigations of gone on in ireland there's one open right now in australia there's been one in brussels and in the united states a handful of prosecutors have been convened grand juries to investigate these the criminal behavior of not only the predators but of those that have protected them ok we'll leave it there from above it's always thank you very much indeed for joining us here live on r.t. today. or is interested in

your opinion all the stories we're covering the pope's departure and the future of the catholic church is no exception we've launched a poll on the matter in the r.t.e. asks section of our website let's have a look at right now we can see the results here so far most of us don't see any bright prospects for the vatican amid the mounting scandals about a quarter though i think its influence will grow as a counterbalance to islam some of you were predicting another schism in which would leave the vatican powerless and finally the minority there seventeen percent see that in this resurgence but only after a long awaited reform do join our vote and have your say. now moving on israel has closed off the main supply route into gaza in 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 paullus there investigates now how those trying to spread light on the situation 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 heat for leading israeli newspaper it was the last major story sunny as rami would write for the hebrew priests 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 make that offer 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 here on message some he 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 israeli to how to me and 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 in the attack is coming from both sides of the border israeli journalists today are banned from working on gaza but ironically it's not hamas 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 that 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 if you overheard 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 normalisation 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 light of the recent human rights watch report that accuses hamas of harassing assaulting an arbitrarily detaining journalists israel too has come under fire for deliberately targeting reporters and media houses affiliated to hamas during this last war gaza israel fell 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 days 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 t.v. television. now a second 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 or signing as a dead man talking to former comedian better grillo claimed would not support any new government or political parties participated in the election with none of them gaining enough seats to govern leaving the country in political deadlock italian public demonstrations strong until sturdy sentiment during the election and in 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 during the twenty seven uprising that brought down . margaret off his regime the plans were announced by the prime minister is 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 territories. quarter in bahrain there's seven people behind bars for ten years each for attempting to murder a police officer incident occurred during ongoing anti-government demonstrations of thirteen other people were acquitted comes a day after two policemen were found not guilty of shooting protester dead rulings threatening to few more unrest in the sunni controlled kingdom that's been wracked by rallies for two years now before it is crackdown on pro-democracy campaigns and

seen around eighty people killed on both sides thousands arrested. and out of some news just in from israel a car bomb has reportedly exploded on the outskirts of tel aviv at least two people are said to have been killed in the blast or early police assessments suggest the strike was criminally motivated of course we'll update you on the details as soon as we get them. more washington is looking to summon the more than one hundred forty witnesses to the trial of army private bradley manning accused of leaking classified u.s. data the prosecution plans are in the very firing allegations that manning's leaks directly jeopardized american security and this two witnesses will include a navy seal from the raid that killed osama bin laden is likely to attempt to prove al-qaeda benefited from the release of the secret information journalist kevin stoner says it's purely an attempt to shift focus. the fear here i think is that

you would be sensationalizing the for seedings and it would not it would make it nearly impossible for manning to have a fair trial it just because we'd not 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 and financial fraud and they are pursued as zealously as whistleblowers. on

our website right now what to the next limit of russia's president could look like a contest to find the perfect design is in full swing the suggestions ranging from extravagant vehicles to more traditional soviet style examples i feel at home. also online today the u.s. has officially labeled an environmental activist group a struggling to protect whales in the pacific as pirates on that what that now means for the so-called anti whale is online. coming up financial guru max kinds a shed some light on the murky world of big finance and the kaiser report 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 poe if you would please be so kind as to change the name of your legislation.