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high profile photographers arrested in georgia suspected of spying after nine others are convicted on the same charge the country's opposition says the government is muzzling the press to cover up its own problems. britain's biggest selling newspaper shuts down in response to revelations its journalists were hacking into the phones of terror and murder victims. credit rating agencies downgrade of portugal's debt to junk status leaves world markets panicking over a fifth and the knock on effect elsewhere. russia's foreign minister described a cynical saying it's come at a price of civilian deaths continue. and in business russia's gas electricity generating business with another national energy. holding company

control twenty five percent of the country's generating capacity join me. in twenty minutes time. international news and comment live from moscow this is anti russian hysteria that's held georgia's opposition has described thursday's arrest of four people suspected of spying among them leading photographers including the president's personal snap this comes after nine russians and georgians were handed lengthy prison sentences for government activity earlier this week. reports now on what might be behind the arrests. there i started to late on wednesday and went on until early thursday and some really high profile photographers have been detained including the personal photographer or president mikheil saakashvili the official

photographer off the georgian foreign ministry and according to lawyers this man has gone on a hunger strike in protest to his detention also a photographer from the european photo press agency was detained as well and one from the associated press although we did receive who are bad he was released after having been questions via relatives of the detained see that they could be charged with ask your knowledge their homes have been searched their computers and cameras have been seized and now human rights groups in georgia say that this is a direct violation of the freedom of press and are demanding their immediate release on wednesday nine people were found guilty by george enough gaudi's of being a quarter of a spy ring and supplying secret information to the russian intelligence service and they were given some really heavy jail sentences ranging from eleven to fourteen

years of imprisonment the along with this one was given to our russian citizen you east really go who is believed to by the georgian authorities to be the head of all for this aspiring and also its connection with the russian intelligence service but a lawyer say that this man is grievously ill and his relatives say that they can't even picture of him being a spy because this man could hardly use a more well form but in general very aspiring scandals and controversies the conspiracy theories are not new in georgia they've been happening quite often since president mikheil saakashvili came to power one of the biggest scandals was probably a few years ago when georgian authorities announced that they prevented a coup at one of the country's military bases. but the opposition says that these are probably being conducted by. the public's attention away from a real economic and political problems and they do exist was just remember the

recent violence clashes between anti-government protesters and police in d.c. . one of georgia's main opposition leaders says the arrests are a way for the country's president to hang on to his job. writes novels the. russian. see the main basis for. doing this to. why he should care. because the second carol. is going. for european partners why. the contrary why. do you always. keep georgia and. he's going to get.

an agent or since. you're with r t can you live from the russian capital still to come on the program. the last of the boat headed to blockaded gaza while the un is expected to publish a long awaited report on israel's deadly assault on last year's flotilla. still has to come but first unjustified and unfair but with the power to determine the fate of entire countries that's the verdict of germany's finance minister on the world's big three credit rating agencies after portugal had its debt downgraded to junk status the move is having a disastrous effect on the e.u. ripping apart the relative calm brought by a second greek bailout panic is proving contagious with fresh fears emerging that also need another cash injection that comes with germany the biggest economy debate the very legality of these bailouts but the only fault of the ratings agencies is

that they didn't downgrade portugal in greece any sooner that's according to writer and editor patrick. the european union to three years ago said the problem with credit ratings were that their their ratings couldn't be trusted then all of a sudden when they actually come up with plausible ratings against the european union suddenly the finance ministers such as mr shaw are saying that oh these are discrete school companies because actually they're trying to get at the truth but actually one of the biggest things that they got wrong was the fact that they weren't being pragmatic enough when it came to the debt and the debt problems of the european union not their being almost right and suddenly the politicians want to shut them up realistically i think the question the ratings agencies must ask themselves because they were at fault here was why they didn't get better returns a couple of years ago when it was absolutely clear to a large number of us that the european union had a really significant problems and they were caught up in the way of the euro euphoria that was going on at that stage and actually the e.u.

itself has been dragging its feet for months over problems in portugal and greece and the difficulty therefore is that the e.u. hasn't acted fast enough and hasn't tried to cure the situation and i think greece well you know what i mean everyone ultimately gets fed up with someone who just keeps passing the begging bowl back in their fears with comprehensibly doing something to try and help the situation and i think that it would be a very very neat thing if greece were willing to sell their gold reserves because at least that would choose some willing to write their economy to deal with their taxation problems and to do with the fundamental problem of the public services still ahead here this hour in r.t. why seeing the light could be deadly. pilots of a passenger airliner arriving from istanbul were dazzled by a partial greenlight aimed at the aircraft by someone on the ground like to the big bad song back to the spirit at some limits of time before that that accident occurred it's. a friendship for garza

with a it has been stopped in crete it comes as the un is due to report on last year's israeli raid on a humanitarian flotilla which killed nine turkish activists report have been held back because of the road between israel and turkey which followed the attack neither side can agree on the wording of an apology as they're now explains. well at the heart of the dispute is the whole question of an apology and here is temple is insisting that tel aviv apologize for its role in the events so far these raids have refused to do this the israeli foreign minister in particular i would believe him insisting that israel will not apologize presumably because the israelis are fearful that it will open the floodgates for a whole photos of legal claims to be made against the jewish state instead israel says it will express its regret for the loss of life now for the last few days almost round the clock israeli and turkish representatives have been meeting in new york to try and hammer out some kind of agreement that is acceptable to both sides

we understand that the sticking point is over the wording of the document now no doubt both sides want to reach some kind of agreement quiet to the u.n. issuing this report because it will help in terms of we conciliation it will be much harder for that reconsideration to be made after the report is issued but we do understand at this stage is that the view is that the u.n. report says that the blockade is not illegal but it does criticize israel for excessive use of force and you need to remember that that excessive use of force to lift nine turkish citizens on board the largest ship the maggie mamma did athens has imposed a blanket ban preventing any ship from sitting sail if it plans to sail to gaza what we do know is that one of the ships speak french boats which is called the dignity that has some eight to twelve people on board it's a sail used to date wednesday but today when it stopped to refueling crete there it was stopped by the greek authorities and now the ship known as the audacity of hope its american captain was booted detained the charges were that he was in danger and

the safety of passengers he has been released but that is not necessarily a good sign at all because another ship the canadian ship that is known as the to heena that ship did sit sail it's also going full steam and turned to greece and made all the passengers and all the crew on board have been detained at the same time there is something happening. it's being called a flight and there is an expectation of some six hundred activists from fifty european destinations flying into israel's largest being going in tomorrow friday night mediocrities as you can well imagine are on high alert this is maybe chris is reporting that they have the names of some three hundred people who plan to fly in the israeli police are not confirming that but no doubt they will be a lot of attention tomorrow on the airport where people plan to show their support not only for the tiller but for the people of gaza and palestinians in general. where we have more of the stories we're covering here at r.t. dot com here's

a quick look at what's there for you now the moment you can find out dug himself out of a grave to take revenge on the man who tried to kill him. on the web site of the moment a prank calls a huge traffic jams on one of moscow's busiest roads as drivers rush to pick up a fake money more that at the dot com. those are at their most vulnerable during takeoff and landing and now there's an increasing threat from the ground with a beam of light katrina which over reports on the police hunt for the hooligans with laser pointers which blind pilots but the worst possible moment. very clear proof that the does a love a laser in the eye can be a major distraction for food bill or christian are now determined and. the consequences could be catastrophic if some want to stop get it while flying an

aircraft with hundreds of passengers on board and blinding colors by laser beams has become an increasing musa's in russia over fifty attacks registered since the beginning of the year. the latest incident was that the small port when the pilots of a tupolev passenger ally in a riving from istanbul were does old by paul paul green light aimed at the aircraft by someone on the ground just minutes later and now that problem. was nothing but fault but yet it's only a matter of time before that that accident occurs to me we were going to during landing just a hundred meters above the ground when we were only a kilometer away from the runway as a result we were in danger of losing control the crew was dazzled in a catastrophe could have happened. in the worst case scenario pilots can land automatically but not full at all can land on autopilot and even if they do those

in the cold feet need to remain in control and be able to see. the effect of a laser beam on a pilot can be compared to that of lightning a blind you. potentially lethal laser guns imported from china can be bought in russia for as little as a hundred dollars firing a laser beam as far as five kilometers they can burn through paper and even plastic . in the us sales of such devices are banned russian legislators are also considering outlawing them and toughening punishment for this offense though some are shining a spotlight on the police calling for more action. everyone's waiting for new laws so there's no excuse for police and action on the grounds of our current legislation is good enough is allowance for the arrest and imprisonment of sorts foods for up to ten years in prison as of now there has been only one arrest in

russia for intentionally targeting an aircraft with a laser with this suspect still under investigation attempting to down a plane by other means would be classed as terrorism public concern in russia is rising about the potentially equally serious waste from laser allowed and their high tech hooliganism it's in a grouch over all right. britain's biggest selling newspaper the news of the world has announced it's shutting down this sunday in response to a phone hacking scandal the tipping point came as it emerged that the paper had been hacking into the phones of murder and terror victims as well as dead soldiers papers a jewel in the crown of rupert murdoch's global media empire and a public inquiry has been promised by the government that's now cross to artes nor am it in london for the latest details laura it's not just about a newspaper this goes right to the heart of british politics as well as the police force in kenya untangle for us some of the main details of this story. it does

really and i can i can try my best in the short time that we have it started off relatively. really with just we understood the news of the world had been allegedly hacking into the phones of celebrities and politicians and to be honest no one in this country really cared about that very much we will think that celebrities and politicians are sort of fair game as far as that kind of thing is concerned but then of course it escalated when it was alleged that the sunday version of the newspaper. to the telephones of relatives of soldiers killed in combat and also that those caught up in the two thousand and five london bombings got a version of which it is today in fact. the most shocking thing really for a lot of people in the first thing that was revealed was that news of the world journalists to deliberately hacked into the telephone of a missing girl milly dowler who was later found had been and what they had done was hacked into her voicemail not just listen to it but also deleted messages that were

ready that a clear out voicemail box to receive all the messages from people who were looking for her desperate to fall into and thereby get leads to stories that they were writing we also now know that allegedly senior police officers had been brought by the news of the world to tip off some criminal investigations and other confidential information which is of course a crime now newspaper insiders i think it's fair to say are gold smacked by the decision to close the news the news of the world down as you say it's the jewel in the crown of rupert murdoch's empire but of course it does take the heat off news corp and if you think about it was really one of the only options that rupert murdoch himself had it was turning what was a perfectly good news corp and a very big brand toxic just by its very presence and would have continued to companies were withdrawing their advertising from the news of the world which would be less than very short of revenue in a very short space of time a red top newspaper like that needs the support of servicemen and their families and of course that would have been that if it come to light if it been proven. they

had hacked into the phones of relatives of dead soldiers and of course the rest would have been made in connection with bribing the police very high profile arrests so really there are two things that we should take away from this for now one of them is really this kind of action couldn't have taken place without an ok from the very highest level and in fact i spoke to someone today who knew the editor of the current editor of the news of the world rupert murdoch said to her you have to keep this paper in high circulation around four million copies a day and you have to do it by any means possible so it's almost like he was giving the green light to that from the very beginning we don't know that of course and also is this an isolated incident is tapping attacking something that goes on throughout news corp and is it an isolated incident within news corp or are there other newspapers in fact in the u.k. who engage in that kind of those kinds of behavior there is a question we should be asking more of thanks very much indeed for that live in london. rebel fighters in libya blame the lack of ammunition and the lack of

nato support for their failure to advance towards the capital tripoli while nato claims it targets only military facilities were dr franklin lamb the director of americans concerned for middle east peace told me a little earlier here in r.t. that that doesn't match what he's seen for himself in tripoli. i can give you five examples one is the down's syndrome children center which was completely demolished by bombs that serves all over five hundred thousand children around this country their headquarters was bombed as you know secondly as you know the killing of eleven shakes up in brit who were on a peace mission they were bombed a micro bus that was bombed two weeks ago that killed nine people you know they are hitting civilians we had a report this afternoon from a fellow from human rights watch who estimated that for every one military person

that was supposedly a casualty there were ten civilians it's not excusable however many collateral damage arguments we have with the kind of precision weaponry and the laser targeting this is inexcusable it's careless is negligent it's criminal. from on the situation in libya i'm joined by andrew gavin marshall from the center for research on globalization in montreal thanks very much indeed for joining us now let's talk about these recent reports of alms being delivered to libya do you think come the supplying of alms to libyan rebel fighters will actually help bring the end of this conflict any closer. it depends what you define the end it's for the agenda of nato countries the end is securing libya as a protectorate our client states it's not a humanitarian mission it's an imperial mission and arms funding supplying arms to the rebels will increase that agenda as we saw just today the

rebels advance in the west into at least one to two towns and that's famous for the french arms that were coming in and we know from other reports early in march before the nato operation even again that egypt was a brain arms to the rebels with us not legion of course where does egypt get their weapons and arms from the united states are there as robert fisk reported in early march of zero nine it's a tz and a secret agreement with saudi arabia to ship our firearms to the rebels i invent got sleep and of course guitar also openly admits that they are in the rebel groups so the agenda is to arm them to fuel this civil war to find that side and to give them the means to undertake and expand this war so a pup and let me just ask you apart from military support what about viable support you'll there in canada your country as officially recognized the transitional

national council as the legitimate representative of the living people now that in effect is taking sides well business of course and there was a nato video or a nato meeting video released recently in which you see a comedian a vessel intercept revel in the waters they found in the sky over tons of arms on the bessel and then they left and told it to go on its way and continue with its mission so not only are they giving the local support but they're actively facilitating the arms transfer so it's one and the same it's not just a rhetorical it's very on the ground. will support for the rebels i was talking a little you probably saw the report talking to a guest live from tripoli just an hour ago and he was saying that people are convinced that a ground invasion really is imminent now do you think that is likely. and i think it's actually quite likely yes we also have to understand that there have been certain ground forces in libya. and western ground forces in libya since before the

nato bombardment in early march the streets cia and i six in britain special forces from both the u.k. and the u.s. were on the ground further in april france italy and the united states agreed to send military advisors into libya and this is you know drew a lot of parallels yet no more first military advisors wrists and later the troops followed it so again the parallels are there also recently dept of fire which is an israeli publication with close links to israeli intelligence reported that at the top levels in western governments. around a full scale ground invasion is being discussed and they made it according to this publication it may even be launched within the next few weeks other military sources in the united states have said that they're preparing for a ground invasion by october so i think that the the process is under way france

openly admitting that they are dropping arms for the rebel groups is again a process in exposing the wider agenda in pushing it to the next steps taking it further forward so again the next process is going in actively supporting the rebel groups again also even al jazeera reported recently that they do they have video footage of western advisers on the ground in the media advising and leading the sensually these rebel groups so they're there already and again and that's laying the groundwork for a larger invasion which i think is in an. well we'll have to leave it there. thanks very much for giving us your thoughts on this from the center for research on globalization there in montreal thank you time. russia's foreign minister of nato for its actions in libya in an interview with russian t.v. and said that the tactic of bombing the country. has inflicted too many unjustified

civilian deaths and has been following what had to say we heard from a very vocal of today really criticizing. the essential mission creep of the ongoing outside intervention into the libyan situation now he drew comparisons between what's happening in libya the bombing of the former yugoslavia and fight saying that the bombing campaign by nato against colonel gadhafi has actually gone on far longer than the bombing campaign that was conducted against parts of the former yugoslavia. it's obvious that politics is a cynical matter we hear from the western capitals that the bombing should go on until gadhafi backs off but the human cost of these political statements is very high. well it wasn't just libya that was on the agenda. to speak about he also brought up syria he did say this he was concerned that the

focus seems to be wholly on the assad government and how to get rid of. it isn't acceptable that the opposition should resort to violence provoking peaceful protesters to join acts of violence and therefore making them a target for police or security forces the message that russia has been wanting to put across has been that they want to hear voices not violence to try and come to peace in the middle east and in north africa as well concerning libya. there in central moscow is next now to bring you the latest from the world of business. hello and welcome to business here in the with me corinne mccann thanks for watching rushes guest from has announced it's too much to merge as an electricity generating business with another national energy major i.e.s. holding by the end of the year the joint company could control twenty five percent

of the country's generating capacity and will be worth around fifteen billion dollars that we know of a group controlling the ice as holding will hold a blocking stake in the combine due to the take and gas from will hold the rest of the company say they may sell shares of the new giant to an i.p.o. david hearn from investment consultancy helicon advisors explained payoffs for the parties involved. for gas pump clearly it's a way to expand to leverage off of the team that they've spent some time building up or read over it's a way to basically stop messing around with these assets dealing with operational companies anywhere in the world is complicated and it's even more complicated here for them it's probably a good a good deal for you it's a way to to stop operationally having to deal with all the household and retain the upside broadly speaking we've been thinking about that exit for years right it's

a question of getting at the right price. let's have a look at the markets now prices are climbing up the two new reports offered some positive news about jobs light sweet is trading at ninety nine dollars per barrel while brant is at one hundred seventeen dollars a barrel u.s. stocks are hard to even buy better news on jobs the government said thursday that the number of people who made first time claims for unemployment benefits last week dropped to the lowest level and seven weeks that's a sign that employers are laying off fewer workers target gap and other retailers rising after reporting stronger sales and european stocks and higher on thursday led by. portugal after the european central bank suspended collateral rules on the nation's debt strong u.s. employment day also contributing to the game's earlier markets had been largely on a move by the e.c.b. decision to lift interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point to one a half percent the bank of england has kept its key interest rate unchanged as

worries about the economy's recovery outweighed concerns about above target inflation. russians dogs surge the most in two months held her as they used to buy high oil prices and also after the bank of america increased price estimates put some metal and mining companies yes and one point nine percent in the black and it over two percent higher now let's have a look at some individual movers on the minus six we're seeing gains in the energy sector on stronger crude oil rose over two percent and gas problem again over three percent spread bank with also off supported by news it may see a record net profit in the past year. that's all for now i'll be back with some more updates in about forty five minutes from now thanks for.