wealthy british style sun it's time to. market why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike stronger on no holds barred look at the global financial headlines.

britain's biggest selling newspaper shuts down on the evidence it was hacking into the phones of terror a murder victim's. high profile photographers are arrested in georgia suspected of spying off to nine others are convicted on the same challenge the country's opposition says the government is muzzling the press to cover up its own problems. the credit rating agencies ultra done great of portugal's debt to junk status these markets panicking over a fifth and the effect elsewhere. and in business. generating business with another national energy major. 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 in comment line. from moscow this is our duty with you twenty four hours a day britain's biggest selling newspaper the news of the world has announced its shutting down in response to the phone hacking scandal that engulfed it it follows claims that paper have 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 tucked in to the telephones of relatives of soldiers killed in combat and also that those caught up in the two thousand and five london 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 to deliberately hacked into the telephone of a missing girl milly dowler who was later found had been murdered 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 of course a crime 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 editor of 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 is tapping attacking something that goes on throughout news corp and is it an isolated incident within news corp or that other newspapers in fact in the u.k. who engage in that kinds of those kinds of behavior those are the questions we should be asking. a little earlier in london well for more insight on the story let's not 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 it had 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 believed that there was pressure

within the news of the world to get the big score stories the big scoops. said by pretty much any means necessary. as it happens the means that they've used aren't really all that new or all that morally if you 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 and maybe giving them some money for doing things or you filtering through people's trash cans or the modern equivalent is listening to their answer phone messages so that kind of things kind of war is going 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 but try to listen to their answerphone messages of people who've been involved in terrorist attacks the victims of those things that's really gone 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 stuff 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. i mean it may well be that the editors and the deputies had a certain amount of don't tell us how you get the story just get the story and so i have a certain amount of deniability but i i think it would be very naive to believe that they don't didn't know quite a bit about the kinds of things that were being done to get stories shouldn't be released in the air force they closing down the newspaper should it therefore be their management who are accountable and let the newspaper continue as it has done for a hundred sixty eight years after all the new journalists there are saying look we're paying the price for what happened six years ago we're different paper now. why would i do feel a considerable sympathy for the stuff of the news the world today who this is

coming as an absolute bombshell completely out of the blue but at the same time there's plenty of people who are quite cynical about what's been told here today because the news british 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 would 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 this seems like something that he would probably be planning anyway sometime in the future but it's still to have to have to do it in these circumstances is a real bombshell but i think that story about a lot of time what 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. i mean the 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 murdoch consolidating his grip on the british media industry so that he saw a lot of 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 that there are a lot of people within the news 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 to size a little bit he's a global media player and people at the guardian the b.b.c. would like to see him cut down the 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 rob what is this doing for your reputation the reputation of your profession. well 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 do do some very very valuable work by taking the. things that people don't want to reveal in places of power and from that point of view are hoping. this will be seen as a confirmation that journalism can do some good stuff as you well know whereby suggesting spot magazine as a tabloid newspaper or. magazine thanks very much indeed for your insight there and your thoughts thanks very much rob lines of spiked magazine. this is r t come to you 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 is also still to come. this is inexcusable it's careless it's negligent it's criminal. campaign

in libya is growing with criticism it's 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 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 of merging that may also need another cash injection it comes of germany the biggest economy debates the very legality of these bailouts well for more on this i'm now joined by bjorn n.p. for germany's 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. 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 and watching these facts it is a very sensible topic that they get as powerful as they are now but they get. in such a position by a lot 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 and i think it's never too late for anything so we have to work on regulation. to lower the power of these rating agencies it could be. a

new rating agency located in europe maybe a foundation author and things like that there are ideas or maybe we have to bring more competition in the market we have on the big three rating agencies with a. profit of fifty percent 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 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 is being done well those private investors still be willing to help out. i think it will be a good question for the private investors from my point of view i think it is

a better way for them to. give less money from from that into it as a part of these countries just to save the rest and to get the chance to save their 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 ongoing 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 court. strung up the rights of the german bunds talk in this case but one thing is quite clear if

germany is not clear in this game the game is. about you know an m.p. you're busy 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 we did we did not lose any money. we just gave credit. the country paid for this money it isn't the german taxpayer and all concerned about not getting that money back. it's the question so i think we are in a powerful position in the german economy that. we can lower the tax there's a topic especially my part on these very interesting beyond saying of 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 snapper this comes after nine russians and georgians were handed lengthy prison sentences for anti-government activity earlier this week are you going to reports now on what might be behind the arrests. the arrest started to late on wednesday and went on until early thursday and some really high profile photographers have been detained including the personal photographer off president mikheil saakashvili the official photographer off the georgian foreign ministry and according to the words this man has gone on a hunger strike in full just 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 that he was released after having been questioned 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 georgian off saudis 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 u.t. scream 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 grieving 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 the prevented a coup at one of the country's military bases. but the opposition says they're into these are probably city stands are being conducted by stories to divert 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 help hang on to his job. for suckers surely writes novels the continuation of war and there are sure to. see the main reason for. us to pause and. why he should care

in power because the secondary. is going through all these. you don't know if you're going to. war in europe in a car here's why george. why do. you always. keep george. but he's going to get so-called russian agents or since. a friendship for gaza with aid has been stopped in crete it comes as the un is due to report on last year's israeli raid on a humanitarian flight to which killed nine turkish activists report has been held back because of the route between israel and turkey which part of the attack neither side can agree on the wording of an apology has now explains. why 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 events so far the israelis have refused to do this the israeli foreign minister in particular avigdor lieberman insisting that israel will not apologize presumably because the israelis are fearful that it will open the floodgates for a whole focus on the legal claims to be made against the jewish state instead israel says it will express its word great for the loss of life now for the last few days almost around the clock israeli and turkish we presented just have the 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 quietly giving issuing this report because it will help in terms of. we conciliation it will be much harder for every consideration 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 lift nine turkish citizens on board the largest ship them out the 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 itself used to date wednesday but today when it stopped to refueling crete there it was stopped by the greek will find sees another 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 is there to hear that ship did see it say it's also been called stephen 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 that'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 airport being going on tomorrow friday night as many opportunities as you can well imagine are on high alert the israeli press 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. reporting their rebel forces in libya have blamed a lack of munitions and a lack of nato support for their failure to advance towards the capital tripoli while nato claims its targets only military facilities dr franklin lamb director of americans concerned for middle east peace told me earlier that doesn't match what he's seen for himself in tripoli. but 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 breakdown of who were on a peace mission they were bombed the 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 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 think of them as neighborhood watch over a million have been armed i've seen women he is some as old as in their sixty's

a woman under seventy training i think we're going to see a popular militia popular army. emerge from the neighborhoods if it's an invasion. early on is the most vulnerable joint takeoff and landing and now there's an increasing threat from the ground with a beam of light trying to show the reports now when the police hunt for the who to guns with laser pointers which blind pilots at 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 right now do it mant and missed but the consequences could be catastrophic if some want to stop get it while flying an aircraft with hundreds of passengers on board blinding pilots by laser beams has become an increasing nooses in russia with over fifty attacks registered since the beginning of the year. the latest incident was that this most important one the

pilots of a tupolev passenger ally in a riving from istanbul were done as owed by possible green light aimed at the aircraft by someone on the ground just minutes later and now that problem. but nothing but but yet it's only a matter of time before that deadly accident occurs to me we were blinded 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 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 outlawing them and toughening punishment for this offense though some are shining a spotlight on the police calling for more action acquittals in court everyone's waiting for a new laws 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 fools 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 and russia's rising about the potentially equally serious risk from laser allowed and their high

tech hooliganism exceed in a grouch over our team. that. brings up that moment i'll be back with a summary of all my news stories in five minutes from the current is next with the business news. good evening from moscow and welcome to our business report russia's gas from has announced 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 there are a nova group controlling the i east s. holding will hold a blocking stake in the combined utility and gas problem will hold the rest companies say they may sell shares of the new power giant through an i.p.o. david hearn from investment consultancy helicon advisors explains the 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 for renault but 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 they've been thinking about the exit for years right it's a question of getting at the right person. to look at the markets now or prices are climbing after two new reports offered some positive news about jobs light sweet is trading at around ninety nine dollars my old friend is at one hundred seventy dollars per barrel stocks in the u.s. 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 central. 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 outweighed concerns about about target's place and russian stocks surged the most into long solved thursday boosted by high oil prices also after the bank of america increased price estimates for some metal and mining companies the r.t.s. added one point nine percent in the black while the my six and over two percent higher. now as i look at some individual resolve of my sex we're seeing gains in the energy sector on strong good crude look quote rose over two percent and gas from gain over three percent of the bareback was also up supported by news it may

see a record net profit in the first half of the year. that's all for now remember you can always find most always on my website just logon to our team dot com. we'll. bring you the latest and sign systems to go.