cami much stronger a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into this report. britain's biggest selling newspaper shuts down evidence it was hacking into the phones of terror and murder victims. high profile photographers are 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. the e.u. itself credit rating agencies after a downgrade of portugal's debt to junk status these are world markets panicking over a bailout and the knock on effect elsewhere. and in business. generating

business with another national energy major i.e.s. holding company may control twenty five percent of the country's generating capacity join me for a full business bulletin at the markets in about twenty minutes from. international news and comment live from moscow this is with you twenty four hours a day britain's biggest selling newspaper the news of the world has announced it shutting down in response to the phone hacking scandal that's engulfed it follows claims that paper been hacking into the phones of murder and terror victims as well as dead soldiers the paper is a jewel in the crown of rupert murdoch's global media empire and a public inquiry has been promised by the government it has the details now from london. it started off relatively new 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 had tied in to the telephones of relatives of soldiers killed in combat and also that those caught up in the two thousand and five blogs and bombings the anniversary of which it is today in fact also the most shocking thing really for a lot of people in the first thing that was revealed was that news of the world journalists allegedly hacked into the telephone of a missing girl milly dowler who was later found to have been murdered and we also now know that allegedly senior police officers had been brought by the news of the world to to post on criminal investigations and other confidential information which the cool crighton there are two things that we should take away from this for

now one of them is surely 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 current editor of the news of the world rupert murdoch said 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 tapping attacking something that goes on throughout the news corp and is it an isolated incident with the news corp or are there other newspapers in fact in the u.k. who engage in that kinds of those kinds of behavior there's a question we should be asking. a little earlier in london for more insight on the story let's now talk to rob lines deputy editor of the online magazine spike he's also joining us from london rob it's been known for years that the news of the world has been engaged in phone hacking yet it always been blamed on one or two rogue reporters so how was it allowed to go as far as it apparently has.

well i mean i think the idea that it was only one or two rogue reporters was always a bit of a myth and i don't think very many people really believe that there was a pressure within the news the world to get the big score stories the big scoops. said by pretty much any means necessary. as it happens means that. if you aren't really all that new all that morally you feel like different from from the things that local newspapers and national newspapers have been doing for a very long time talking to the police about things maybe giving them some money for doing things were all you filtering through people's trash cans all the modern equivalent is listening to their answer phone messages so that kind of thing is kind of wars got on before but what's different about the last few days is that it's not just celebrities it's not just politicians it's now some very very sensitive people the million dollar cases is the most high profile trials and this

is their answerphone messages of people who've been involved in terrorist attacks the victims of those things got really gone a bit too far for most people's ties and that's really kind of brought things to a head you mention that word pressure the pressure on those journalists to get those stories and sell the newspaper now some are asking would really the newspaper staff have taken those risks and gone ahead with that sort of practice without the authorization and indeed that pressure from the very top of the organization. but i mean it may well be that. the editors and the deputy had a certain amount of don't tell us how you get the story just get the story and so they have a certain amount of deniability but i i think it would be very naive to believe that they didn't go quite a bit about the kinds of things that were being done to get stories so should only air force they closing down the newspaper should it therefore be their management who are accountable and net the newspaper continue as it has done for

a hundred sixty eight years after all when the journalists there are saying look we're paying the price for what happened six years ago we're different paper now. considerable sympathy for the stuff of news the world today who this is coming as an absolute problem shall completely out of the blue but at the same time there's plenty of people who quite cynical about what's been said here today because the news purchased newspaper industry for a while has been talking about moving to seven day newspapers getting rid of specific sunday titles and so the idea that rupert murdoch will come along and publish the sun newspaper which is his daily monday to saturday newspaper or the sunday as well and save money by doing so it seems like something that he would probably be planning anyway sometime in the future but it's still a it's a have to have to do it in these circumstances is a real bombshell but i think the story about a lot of time about this idea that some also see the closing down of this newspaper as damage limitation ahead of murdoch's buyout of yet another major u.k. media asset i'm talking about british sky broadcasting. yeah i mean the there's all

sorts of different interests going on here the most and certainly the people who have been attacking murdoch and so keen to see these allegations go forward other people who would suffer from for example murdoch buying sky from consolidating his grip on the british media industries so that he saw a lot about elites out there like the b.b.c. and other media outlets really be capitalizing on this and seeing this is a great opportunity to to to weaken the murdoch empire as it were i think i think there are a lot of people within these media organizations who have over the years been. irritated. by by murdoch in one way or another i'm quite happy to see him cut down the size of a little bit he's a global media player and people like the guardian the b.b.c. would like the same size that is no it just occasionally however for the kinds of things that the news of the world has done just finally you are a british journalist what is it doing for your reputation the reputation of your

profession. and i think the british journalism and certainly the tabloid and the british journalism has been held in pretty low esteem for a very long time sorry. i think it just confirms people's worst prejudices about these things but hopefully i think there's a real sentiment as well that journalists to do some very very valuable work by taking the. things that people don't want to reveal a place of power and if you are hoping. this will be seen as a confirmation that showed this and can do some good stuff as you well know where by suggesting spark magazine as a tabloid newspaper or all. magazine thanks very much indeed for your insight there and your thoughts thanks very much rob lines there dead at a spiked magazine. this is r t can be live from the russian capital still to come in the program this hour greece trains the last of the boats headed to blockade of gaza while the un is expected to publish

a long awaited report on israel's deadly assault last year's material also still to come. this is inexcusable it's careless it was negligent it's criminal. campaign in libya is growing with criticism is coming too high a price of stalemate and civilian deaths. unjustified and fair 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 and it was 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 alan may also need another cash injection it comes of germany the biggest economy to pay to the very legality of these pay an article for more on this i'm not sure. he's m.p.

for germany's free democratic party thanks very much indeed for joining us there in berlin now speaking of the impact the downgrade has had on europe by these ratings agencies how sensible do you think it is to have virtually unregulated ratings can rattle an entire continent with what is ultimately just just an opinion. good evening in fact rating analysts are indeed nothing else and journalists and rating agencies are similar to newspapers publishing an opinion. watching these facts is a very sensible topic that they get as powerful as. they get. in such a position by law it's a topic we have to work on interesting enough these rating agencies are based in europe so what is the solution to all of this is it too late for europe to have alternative rating agencies based on the continent so i think it's never too late

for for anything so we have to work on regulation. to get to lower the power of these rating agencies could be. a new rating agency. in europe maybe a foundational. ideas or maybe we have to to bring more competition in the market we have only the big three rating agencies with a. profit of fifty percent and that indicates the market does not work so we have to bring more competition in this market to get a third or fourth opinion on these issues talking about money this downgrading came just as the e.u. began trying to coax private investors to put money into the bailouts private

investors well now that the damage being done well is private investors still be willing to help out. i think it will be a good question for the pros and rest of us from my point of view i think it is a better way for them to. give less money. from that into it as a part of the country's just to save the rest and to get the chance to see if the wrists or. if you asked me. to do this let's talk about what's happening in your country at the moment there you are in berlin the old going lawsuit against the bailouts there in germany. can europe really afford to lose this case and therefore lose german support if they the verdict is indeed that these bailouts are illegal. i don't think

that will lose the case. the. stronger the rights of the german bunds turk in this case but one thing is quite clear if germany is not clear in. the game. about u n n p c gauging the thoughts of the german taxpayer the german population just how much further are the germans prepared to carry on helping out with these bailouts. this moment it would not do with any money. just to give. the country paid for this money but isn't the german taxpayer at all concerned about getting that money back. it's they're christian so i think we are in a powerful position in the german economy that we can we can lower that takes.

a topic especially my own party has a very interesting piece on saying thanks so much for your time m.p. at the free democratic party of germany joining us live in berlin. the russian hysteria that's how georgia's opposition is described thursday's arrest of four people suspected of spying among them leading photographers including the president's personal sniper this comes after nine russians and georgians were handed lengthy prison sentences for anti-government activity earlier this week are you going to have reports now on what might be behind the arrests. the arrest started a late on a wednesday and went on until early thursday and some really high profile photographers have been detained including the personal photographer of president mikhail saakashvili the official photographer off the georgian foreign ministry and according to the worst this man has gone on a hunger strike in full just to his detention also photographer from the european court of press agency was detained as well and one from the associated press

although we did receive who are that he was released after having been questions via relatives of a good team see that they could be charged with the 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 georgian authorities of being a quarter of a spy ring and supplying secret information to the russian intelligence service and they were given some really heavy chill sentences ranging from eleven to fourteen years of imprisonment the almost one was given to our russian citizen you easterly girl 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 what the lawyers say about 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 controversially conspiracy theories are not new in georgia they've been happening quite often since president mikhail 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 city stands being conducted by india authorities to divert the public's attention away from my real economic and political problems and they do exist so i 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 help hang on to his job. for such truly

writes novels the continuation or for any russian hysteria c b maybe. it was the cause and meaning. why he should give. up power because this is the second carol. to solve the insurgency is going through all the accused her. explanation for european car here's why. it's really why. you always. keep georgia and. he's going to get. russian agents or since i saw. a friendship bound for gaza with aid has been stopped in crete comes as the un is due to report on last year's israeli raid

on a humanitarian for terror which killed nine turkish activists report has been held back because of the route between israel and turkey which part of the attack but either side can agree on the wording of an apology is now explains. well a lot of the dispute is the whole question of an apology and here is the bill is insisting that tel aviv apologize for its role in the brains so called these radios have refused to do this the israeli foreign minister in particular who don't even insisting that israel will not apologize presumably because these raids off fearful that it will open the floodgates for a whole focus of the legal claims to be made against the jewish state instead israel says it will express its were great for the loss of life now for the last few days almost round the clock israeli and turkish representatives having a 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 looting of the document now no doubt both sides want to reach some kind of agreement quietly here in issuing this record because it will help in terms of we can see

a shift it will be much harder for that we can see ation 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 nine turkish citizens on board the largest ship the money 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 the french boat which is called dignity that has some eight to twelve people on board it's that sail used to date wednesday but today when it's stuck to me feeling crease there it was stopped by the greek authorities and now the ship known as the audacity of hope its american captain was very detained the charges were that he was endangering 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 is there to

heena that ship to see it sail it seems to be in full steam and churned 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 that is an expectation of some six hundred activists from fifty eight european destinations flying into israel's largest it will be going on tomorrow friday night as many authorities as you can well imagine are on high alert israeli prison 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 a lot of attention tomorrow on the airport where people plan to show the support not only for the fertility but for the people of gaza and palestinians in general. reporting their rebel fighters in libya have blamed the lack of and ammunition and a lack of nato support for their failure to advance towards the capital tripoli where nato claims its targets only military facilities dr franklin lamb

a director of americans concerned for middle east peace told me earlier that doesn't match what he's seen for himself in trouble me. i can give you five examples one is the down's syndrome children center which was completely demolished by bombs that's serves over five hundred thousand children around this country and their headquarters was bombed as you know secondly as you know the killing of eleven shakes up in a 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. military person who that was supposedly a casualty there were ten civilians is 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 i spent the last week visiting neighborhood committees says think of them as neighborhood watch over a million have been armed i've seen women he is some as old as in the sixty's alone women understand me training i think we're going to see a popular militia a popular army. to emerge from the neighborhoods if there's an invasion. on is the most vulnerable during takeoff and landing and now there's an increasing threat from the ground with a beam of light trying to achieve the reports now when the police hunt for the hooligans with laser pointers which panelling punnets at the worst possible moment . very clear proof that the does a laser in the eye can be a major distraction to football or push general knowledge of mt and east of the consequences could be catastrophic if someone is targeted while flying an aircraft with hundreds of passengers on board blinding pallas 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. one the pilots of a tupolev passenger allied arriving from istanbul were does old by part will greenlight aimed at the aircraft by someone on the ground just later and now that probably. but i think what but yet it's only a matter of time before that little accident occurs 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 the catastrophe could have happened. in the worst case scenario pilots can land automatically but not all aircraft can land on autopilot and even if they do those

in the cockpit 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 one hundred dollars firing a laser beam as far as five kilometers they can burn through paper and even plastic . in the u.s. sales of such devices are banned russian legislators are also considering i'll glowing them and toughening punishment for this advance those some are shining a spotlight on the police calling for more action acquittals in court everyone's waiting for a new laws but there's no excuse for police and action on the ground our current legislation is good enough is allows for the arrest and imprisonment of such 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

a 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 risk from laser allowed and their high tech hooliganism it's in a grouch over our team. that went i'll be back with some of our main news stories in five minutes from now kareen is next with business news. good evening from moscow and welcome to our business report russia's gas from has an else it will merge its electricity generating business with another national energy major i.a.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 every nova group controlling the i east that's holding will hold a blocking stake in the combined utility and gas pump to hold the rest companies

say they may sell shares of the new power drive through an i.p.o. david byrne from investment consultancy helicon advisors explains the payoffs for the parties and off. the gas pump clearly it's a way to expand some leverage off of the team that they've spent some time building up for renault but it's a way to basically start messing around with these assets dealing with all the racial company use anywhere in the world is complicated and it's even more complicated here for damage probably a good thing a good deal it was a way to stop operationally having to deal with all the hassle and retain the upside broadly speaking we've been thinking about that exist for years right it's a question getting of the right person. let's have a look at the markets now or prices are climbing after two new reports offered some positive news about jobs sweet is trading at around ninety nine dollars my old

friend is one hundred seventy dollars but our stocks in the us are higher driven by better news 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 in seven weeks that's a sign that employers are laying off fewer workers targets and other retailers are rising after reporting stronger sales and european stocks ended high on thursday led by paul to go after the european said. so banks suspend the cotterell rules on the nation's debt strong u.s. employment data also contributed to the games the bank of england has kept its key interest rate unchanged as worries about the economy's recovery outweigh concerns about about arkansas. and russian stocks surged the most into long sought thursday boosted by high oil prices also out for the bank of america increased price estimates for some metal at ninety companies the r.t.s. and the one point nine percent in the black while the mars extended over two

percent higher. as i look at something individual over song or mindsets we're seeing gains in the energy sector on stronger crude look close over two percent and gazprom gained over three percent bareback was also out supported by news it may see a record net profit in the first half of the year. so for now remember you can always find most stories on our website just logon to our team dot com plus. the real.

world. bringing you the latest in science and technology from around the world. we've done the future of coverage. lead mission is. going to take three. more churches priests. three. three. three. the old city block. the street.