a foreign focus for french leader along just he makes his first official visit to moscow and talks with president putin. and even mali all topics of contention between france and russia will they get ironed out today on trial thomas in moscow coming up i've got the details. the catholic countdown the final hours of progress to dick's prophecy are ticking away as the church looks to restore its image marred by sexual abuse and corruption. and kept in the dark israeli and palestinian journalists find it increasingly difficult to do their job because of a media blackout imposed by both sides. it's

five pm here in moscow you're watching r t with me and he said now our top story this hour syria is expected to be a key focus for talks in moscow between president putin and french leader francois hollande the near two year conflict and iran remain their biggest foreign policy divisions thomas is following a long visit to the russian capital. it's certainly going to be an interesting day . alond has come to moscow for the first time to discuss trade relations and also to improve relations between the two countries as there are some tensions between the two but the main points of interest for russia are what's happening in iran in syria and in mali let's break that down for you first of all about the syria issue back when these two met in the summer not here in moscow but there they did have clashes about the topic of syria a lot the saying at that time that bashar al assad needs to go must be ousted.

saying no this is not the case that the only way that anything can happen in syria for it to be real change needs to be bilateral talks or talks with all parties involved actually pointing to what happened in libya saying that there was foreign intervention there was an overthrow of moammar gadhafi and look and situation in libya is no better than it was before moving on to iran that. basically states that he supports tough sanctions against the iranian regime aimed at specifically eliminating their nuclear program. and says that iran actually has the right to pursue peaceful nuclear program but that it has to have tough oversight from the i.a.e.a. so two different positions there now when it comes to mali russia actually backs the u.s. position in allowing france to be involved in that operation in northern mali but it says that the destabilization in that country is directly related to the failed policies like syria and in libya so there's some bones of contention there another

thing that people are interested in is back in the beginning of this year between gave famed actor gerard depardieu a russian passport because he was not happy with the seventy five percent proposed taxes in france and so some contention there of see hard facts even brought to the table. but of course we'll be keeping track of this as it happens and will bring me more information as it becomes available. this says the syrian opposition is in rome to see exactly what's on offer from its western backers washington will for the first time provide the rebel fighters with non-lethal aid such as food and medical supplies and also promised almost double the aid to the opposition saying they'll get an additional sixty million dollars joining us now live this down laughlin from the institute of democracy and cooperation in a paris good to see you john are the u.s. promising direct steps in aiding the rebels is that what the opposition wants is

this direct enough. no they want arms they want even more help but not unless it's a very significant intervention sixteen billion dollars should not be sneezed at and what the americans are trying to do is basically to prop up a project that so far has failed if we look back to two thousand and eleven when hillary clinton was calling for the overthrow of assad's they expected the regime in syria to fall very quickly and that hasn't happened however great the rebels games may have been the regime is still fighting back and still shows no signs of collapsing instead is the opposition which is fractured famously the syrian national council is a rag bag of different interests and one of the people speaking to john kerry today mr khatib as of course called for negotiations directly with the syrian government so the the opposition is breaking up and there are plenty of people within the opposition at least according to my sources in the region who are bitterly disappointed with the west who expected

a lot more money they probably wanted to steal a lot of it but certainly they have not received all that they have been promised it'll be interesting to see how much of this sixty billion dollars gets through and as a result they are being forced to leave feel they're being forced into a position where they have to negotiate do you think that's why washington is being restrained in directly providing weapons to the opposition because they're not. together or is there something else behind it no i think that it's already a very significant development because after all the ordinary syrian population is suffering very greatly from this opposition from this so-called liberation because this these paramilitary groups clearly cannot provide any basic services they are not the state they don't run hospitals they don't run the police they don't run the water supply and so on and people are fleeing from the areas where these rebels are located so as i say this is an attempt to prop up an opposition which is failing in its own terms it's an attempt to make it popular among the civilian population and

i'm sure many syrians who watched the meeting in rome today and who seemed to conceive in the others hobnobbing with john kerry will draw the conclusion that the opposition is a western tuffet and nationally will not be good for its image back home in syria but is this money this aid actually going to help the rebels win the war. i don't know i mean i think what it was intended to do on paper is to make them more popular with the civilian population we all know that aid that arms can get to rebels and indeed are getting to rebels through indirect means and that they're being funneled there by america's allies turkey and saudi arabia so whether or not the united states itself is actually sending them i would say is almost neither here nor there of course they would like to have a lot of military hardware center actually from america but they're getting into saudi arabia from croatia instead ultimately i don't think a lack of weapons is their problem i think the problem is the lack of political

consistency the fact that they've made themselves unpopular in syria itself and that as i say they are after all not a state or a rebel group and they can't provide living conditions for the people who have come under there and are. all right john laughlin live from paris with us from the institute of democracy and cooperation and thanks for that. pope benedict the sixteenth is in the last hours of his papacy before retiring to his silk looted life of prayer he said his farewell to his cardinals before that he becomes the first pontiff to resign in six hundred years and the successor has the daunting task of restoring the church is the battered reputation following a string of child abuse and corruption scandals archies arena gluco reports from vatican city. we came here we spoke to quite a few vatican experts all of him unanimously agree that there are some major

changes which should be implemented in the church they have all the indicated that the pope is eighty five years old he is a rather old man there is no getting around it as well as a lot of the cardinals in the quarter which is essentially the government body of the vatican they're roughly the same age there are some issues which come along with it and of course a lot of them have also said that modernity and acceptance of things that are happening in the world right now is something that the cardinals as well as the next pope should keep in mind 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 crisis it is a crisis at two levels it is a government tries these entities it tries itself the believers. in the last years of the world was focused on the government tries to see devout to come to gloria a pope benedict was a pope who is a great intellectual it's

a theologian but he has no strong hand to lead the food he has not the temperament of a government so there was a lack of leadership which culminated in the great scandals over but the leeks far from this funder of the sistine chapel a closer look at the recent events in the vatican highlight disillusionment and frustration with the church among some about i distanced myself from the church when i became an adult when i started talking about what had been taught when after all the good 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 will be she's there to experience she the age of the people the churches. to be properly. considering.

the great assets now you see. the problem with the media they're really working on the system he went to change things for people like brayley 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 the girl who disappeared in the vatican twenty years ago and they say the man found her remains. police are leading the investigation but instead of helping them. struck him investigations going on. and on top of all those cases of pedophilia was 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 field day with the scandals the vatican other state silent or rebuffed all accusations 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. but then came out stronger could be stronger we've come to reform because you know the two ways the power. the two the church is the spiritual but in spite of that personality relations have left me wondering if the holy see has been blind the world is rapidly changing and that the catholic church has failed to keep up pace sure it has seen. a fair number of ups and downs as well as scandals in two thousand year long history but there is

opinion that perhaps taking on pleasant development sweeping it under the carpet and sealing it with the people ring for secrecy is a tradition better left in the past in rome in a ghost r.t. . the catholic church finds itself at a crossroads right now with calls to reconsider its approach as the clock ticks down on pope benedict's tenure barbara doris who runs a support group for victims of abuse by priests says that the church will regain the trust and support of the public until it shows its willing to bring offenders to justice how can you trust an institution that will continue to put the needs of predators above the safety of children and until that changes i don't see how any responsible parent can just blindly trust that the church will do the right thing 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 were forced to turn over everything they know about these crimes to police and prosecutors 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 for you know who've been involved in this cover up cardinal mahoney would be a prime example of 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. over to you now and your thoughts on the long term prospects for the catholic church that prepares for a new leader here's how you see things unfolding in the vatican over the next

decade forty percent say the church will drown amid its mounting scandals just under thirty percent believe its influence will actually grow and benefit from anti muslim set to meet in europe and actually increase its influence seventy percent say it will undergo another schism leaving the vatican powerless while slightly fewer have some confidence saying a resurgence will happen after a long overdue reform add your voice log on to our dot com. stay with r.t. as we report on the double blackout that's leaving israeli and palestinian journalists struggling to shed light on the conflict israel refuses to recognize the palestinian media workers rights while hamas stops gaza journalists from associating with israelis. and army private bradley manning

accused of the biggest leak of state secrets in u.s. history is set to publicly explain his motives for the first time analysis on that coming up after a break. live . that's to be. a. little. bit misleading good.

luck. i mean very little. your authority and the ongoing standoff between israel and hamas has made it almost impossible for journalists on both sides to do their job palestinian media isn't recognized by israel nor are its journalists rights while hamas perhaps gaza journalists to have any contacts with israelis are just policy they are met

colleagues struggling to report through the blackout and help sworn enemies understand each other for november last year israel and gaza are at war and in the middle of it a gaza journalist reporting he for you to an israeli newspaper it was the last major story some the other 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 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 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 city to how to be. israelis 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 he's the father has to have he in the attack is coming from both sides one order of israeli journalist two you are banned from working on cars are dying but ironically it's not a must but tel aviv that stops them deeming it too dangerous for them to report from there is a very scary place for is rarely of some a masked people came to my palestinian cameramen in gaza they give him twenty five thousand dollars and told him that the next time that they. he's 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 release you overheard him over is among a handful of his way journalists would regularly work in gaza but after his government made it illegal six years ago the station employed gaza based

palestinian journalists now because of hamas is ruling even that has become impossible it's 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 leaving gaza but are those hamas sanctions are not particularly promising in light of the recent human rights watch report that accuses some us of harassing assaulting an arbitrarily detaining journalists israel too has come under fire for deliberately targeting reporters and media houses affiliated to harm us to june of last one 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 with sami because he speaks of mice he engages his radio audiences. because he spends 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. military whistleblower bradley manning is about to publicly explain his actions for the first time in a statement he already submitted to the judge he says he wanted to spark debate on the role of the us military and foreign policy manning faces twenty two charges including aiding the enemy which could end up in him serving a life sentence journalist kevin who's been running extensively on wiki leaks says the prosecution is trying to shift the focus to terrorism. fear the fear i think is that you would be sensationalizing the proceedings and it would not it would make it nearly impossible for manning to have a fair trial just because we've now been 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 that terrorists received it this will continue the obama administration has ushered in this era of of pursuing whistleblowers and making certain that they are prosecuted and they go after them zealously in a manner that they do not go after other individuals that's been the thing i think is the most particularly striking is you can have private contractors you engage in weapons smuggling like like the black wire executives or you can have bankers that engage in financial fraud and they are pursued as jealously as whistleblowers. fiber ways and money on gadgets you never use it's probably nothing compared to the british military it's blown over a billion pounds of public money on a plane which is neither you nor i needed to tell you more at r t dot com and.

also their ukraine's justice ministry gets to feel the force had online for why the death star's finest are knocking at its doors. choose your language. completely free care without any financial support to stay still similar. to the good news good consensus yet you can. choose the opinions that you think great to. choose the stories that impact your life. choose to access to your office. do we speak your language was anybody will or not a day of. news programs and documentaries in spanish more matters to you

breaking news that will turn into bangalore stories. for you here. in troy i'll teach spanish to find out more visit i to allahabad. more world news now for you first to bahrain where seven people have been jailed for ten years each for attempting to murder a police officer the incident took place during ongoing anti-government demonstrations thirteen other people were created on wednesday two policemen were found not guilty of shooting a protester dad the ruling threatened to fuel more unrest in the sunni controlled kingdom that's been embroiled with nonstop rallies for two years. bangladesh's opposition party leader has been sentenced to death by a special war crimes tribunal del warhol saying sadia was found guilty of multiple

mass murders rape and religious persecution during the one nine hundred seventy one war for independence with pakistan last month's ruling against another opposition figure sparked manson rust and deadly riots over port leniency. european bankers are to have their bonuses capped as part of a new raft of financial loss passed by the e.u. they'll only be allowed to get a reward of up to one year's salary or possibly double vat if shareholders overwhelmingly agree the u.k. has been battling against imposing absolute caps on boehner says the move could worsen n.t.e.u. sentiment in britain where referendums been promised by prime minister cameron and whether to quit the bloc. libya will soon oust the un to lift an embargo on arms imports it was imposed at the start of the uprising that toppled moammar gadhafi in an attempt to protect civilians libya is still turbulent though

with security forces made up of former rebel fighters still struggling to control the vast desert territories the interim prime minister during the civil war told r.t. bed vast oil resources make libya a target for regional and global players. first of all libya did not pick up its economy did not pick up only the oil production was you know. it's a pity you know because the. country as you know. rushed into libya immediately you know to start pumping oil again because it's connected to their way of life to their economies you know was better to the projects all over the country. and i think libya because of this oil was the subject of. being targeted by too many countries libya. be using over at least is being seen as a move to finance compensate for the lack of assistance that might be problems with

little bo from then up to the states and that's why libya. is this is the chief part of it for too many too many players and and the reason i would like you know. well so you the full interview with the former libyan in term prime minister mahmoud jibril on friday here on r t next we take you to russia it's called the peninsula and a front row seat to see natures all some sky highlights but stay tuned we are standing by for a press conference from president putin and his french counterpart from from here in moscow.

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 clarifies 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 of for drones is absurd congressman.