full agreement over mali but syria remains a point of contention president putin sums up his key foreign policy discussions with french leader francois. catholic countdown the final hours of pope benedict'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. live from our studios in moscow you're watching r t with me and he said now it's seven

pm here in the russian capital and russia and france say they've still got work to do in bridging some key foreign divisions syria and mali were among the main issues in talks during french leader francoise last first visit to moscow john thomas listen to what the leaders had to say sean thanks for joining us take us through it i understand they have agreed to disagree on some of the most difficult issues. well certainly and he said that is indeed exactly the way to put it specifically where it comes to syria francoise alond saying that they've come a long way they had some really serious discussions putin saying they had some intense discussions even an argument if you will on the topic but they share the same common goals and they both agree that syria should not be stabilized even further and they should be fighting terrorism of course francois hollande believes that bashar assad needs to go and putin saying that the government of the

legitimate government is better than the insurgents or better than fighting the opposition in fact this is exactly why russia supported france's involvement in mali because france went in to support the government and to fight terrorism there but in terms of syria they agreed to disagree but both sides say that they had intense discussions but were coming closer putting not going as far as saying it that they were going to switch over to france's side on that matter now when it comes to mali as i mentioned francois hollande thanked me and putin for russia's strong support in that country and they said that they discussed the transition from the combat operations to the new peacekeeping mission which will be happening there it's the start another point of contention of course is iran and. wanting sanctions for iran and vladimir putin saying that sanctions just aren't efficient

and saying that iran should actually have the ability to have a nuclear program but it needs to be monitored heavily by the i.a.e.a. now both sides said that they were working with closer together to improve business relations and relations within the country even some jokes about them not feeling very warm towards each other but they put on a good show to make sure that people realize that france and russia are indeed working together to improve the relations proposed countries even though on some of the key sticking points they don't agree. aren't his son thomas bring us up to date on this latest meeting between russia and france thanks sean. now the syrian opposition met in rome to see exactly what's on offer from its western backers washington will for the first time provide rebel fighters with non-lethal aid and give the opposition an extra sixty million dollars let's see what the syrian opposition got from the international community so far we can break down the

numbers for you just wait for a second for us to bring up some graphics that we have for you the u.s. has put fifty four million in that non-lethal support to political opposition but non rebel fighters and the obama government fears weapon supplies might fall into anti western loomis' hams use also back in the rebels calling for the arms embargo to be lifted despite restrictions opposition fighters are thought to be getting covert weapons supplies from the gulf states john laughlin from the institute of democracy and cooperation in paris says the u.s. is trying to beef up the opposition but only makes them look like western puppets. sixty million 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 and if we look back to two thousand and eleven when entering clinton was calling for the overthrow of

a stance they expected the regime in syria to fall very quickly and that hasn't happened however great the rebels' gains 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 the opposition is breaking out 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 that 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 i'm sure many syrians who watched the meeting in rome today and who seemed to conceive in

the other's hobnobbing with john kerry will draw the conclusion that the opposition is a western tough fight and nationally will not be good for its image back home in syria . benedict the sixteenth is in the last hours of his papacy before retiring to a secluded life of prayer he said his farewell to his cardinals before he becomes the first pontiff to resign in six hundred years his successor house the daunting task of restoring the church's battered reputation following a string of child abuse and corruption scandals archies are in english the reports now from vatican city. when 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 that 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 if you're a theologian but he has not is strong hand to lead the group he has not the temperament of a government so there was a lack of leadership which culminated in the great scandals over but the leaks are far from the splendor of the sistine chapel

a closer look at the recent events in the vatican highlighted disillusionment and frustration with the church among some about the i distanced myself from the church when i became an adult when i started talking about what had been. tartlet was eventually after all the scandals broke out in the catholic church so 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 problem. they've been. considering. the great assets everybody now you see that they will be to be the problem with the media they're really working on the system he went to change things for people of 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. if 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 the 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 field day with the scandals the vatican others stayed 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 which would be watchable exchange you know with the with the church really splitting you know being with lutheran but then came out stronger could be stronger with a country. because. the power to. the to the church was the spiritual but in spite of that. relations have left me wondering if what we see has been the world is rapidly changing and that the catholic church has failed to keep pace sure it has seen a fair number of ups and downs as well as scandal 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. 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 won't 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 cheat 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 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 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 as it prepares for a new leader here's how you see things unfolding in the vatican over the next decade just over forty percent of you think that it will drown amid many mounting scandals while less than twenty five percent think the catholic movement will benefit from anti muslim sentiment in europe and actually increase its influence

more than fifteen percent say that the schism will render the church powerless a schism in the future another one i should add and fifteen percent the minority say that they have constant confidence that there will be a resurgence if much needed long overdue reform actually goes through head on to our team got columns and have your say. stay with me 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 come out stops gaza journalists from associating with israelis. and army private bradley manning accused of the biggest bully of state secrets in u.s. history is said to publicly explain his motives for the first time analysis coming

up after the break. she good lumber tour to mccurry was to build the world's most sophisticated robot which fortunately doesn't give a darn about anything tunes mission to teach creation why it should care about humans. this is why you should care only. more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. trying to corporations rule the day.

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. here with r t live from moscow 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 to hamas prohibits gaza journalist to have any contacts with israelis are policy are met colleagues struggling to report through the blackout and help sworn enemies understand each other. november last year israel and gaza are at war and in the middle of it a gaza journalist reporting in hebrew 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 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 how to. 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 as their father has to have in the attack is coming from both sides of the border israeli journalists today are banned from working in gaza 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 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 from us 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 not particularly promising in one of the recent human rights watch report that accuses

a muscle harassing assaulting and arbitrarily detaining journalists israel too has come under fire for deliberately targeting reporters and media houses affiliated to him us 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 and 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. philip terry whistleblower bradley manning is about to publicly explain his actions for the first time in a statement he'd 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 gusto who has been writing extensively on wiki leaks says the prosecution is trying to shift the focus to terrorism. the fear here 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 now be talking about terrorism terrorism and terrorism and 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 pursuing whistleblowers and making certain that they are prosecuted and they go out because i'm 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 who 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 zealously as whistleblowers. ever wasted 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 equipment which is neither used nor needed we tell you more at r.t. dot com. also there ukraine's justice ministry gets to feel the force and online for why the death star's finest are knocking at its doors. download the official publication if you so choose your language stream quality and enjoy your favorite. if you're away from your television well it just doesn't sit

well with your mobile device so you can watch your t.v. anytime anywhere. free. education free in-store charge free. range month free. free. to tide free. download free blogging video for your media project for free media r t dot com. for world news now here on our chief 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 acquitted on wednesday two policemen were

found not guilty of shooting the protester dead the ruling stretton to feel more unrest in the sunni controlled kingdom that's been embroiled with nonstop rallies for two years. violent clashes broke out today into a cause the vice president of the main opposition party was sent into death for war crimes seventeen people are reported dead and two hundred injured after protesters rampaged through the capital setting fire to a hindu temple and attacking a police camp worker saying saeed he was convicted of mass murder rape and other atrocities during the one thousand nine hundred seventy one independence war between bangladesh and pakistan. european bankers are to have their bonuses capped as part of a new raft of financial laws passed by the e.u. one year's salary will be the maximum reward or possibly double if shareholders overwhelmingly agree the u.k. is vowing to challenge the moves with e.u.

finance ministers next week if there's legal caps on bonuses will serve yearly damage london's banking dominance it could also impact worsen at impact and to europe sentiment in britain where a referendum is being planned on whether to quit the bloc. libya will soon as 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. that vast oil resources make libya a target for regional and global players. well first of all libya did not pick up its economy did not pick up only the oil production was that as you know. it's a pity you know because the. contras 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 what that is to the projects all over the country. and i think libya because of this oil was the subject. over. being target by too many countries libya. be using over at least is being seen as a most you know to finance. sort of the lack of assistance that might be coming up with from there and i just think that's why libya. is the target for too many too many players and and the reason i would like you know. we're bringing that full interview with the former libyan in term prime minister mahmoud jibril on friday here on ars he says we have

a martin is up next he dissects the stories which make the mainstream news. 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 what's clear if i see 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.