he. writes a few. songs from feinstein. who starts on t.v. dot com. britain's biggest selling newspaper is caught out announcing it shutting down after revelations it was hacking into the phones of terror and murder victims. high profile photographers arrested in georgia suspected of spying often line up as a convicted on the same charge countries opposition says the government is muzzling the press to cover up its own problems. the e.u. gets out of credit rating agencies after a downgrade of portugal's debt to junk status leaves world markets panicking over a fifty billion dollars a knock on effect elsewhere and. international

news and comment live from moscow this is r.t. 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 and follows claims the 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 r t m it has the details for us now from london. it started off relatively tiny really with just we understood the news of the world have been allegedly hacking into the phones all celebrities and politicians and to be honest no one in this country really cares 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's escalated when it was alleged that the sunday version of the newspaper has

hacked in to the telephones of relatives of soldiers killed in combat and also that those who served in the two thousand and five loaves and gold rings 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 we also now know that allegedly senior police officers had been brought by the news of the world to course 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. her 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 instance is tapping into hacking something that goes on throughout 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 behaviors those are the questions we should be asking. the world for more insight on the story let's talk to journalists in return so he's also in london thanks for being with us. is this simply about the news of the world or the war and implications here. this is really an international story you know i have to trip over the red carpet from the harry potter premium but it's another film citizen kane that really comes to mind here because this is a story about rupert murdoch not about rebecca brooks the former editor of the news of the world in the chief executive of one of rupert murdoch's companies this is about a man who has over the decades perhaps promoted the wars of that have killed hundreds

of thousands something millions of people and here he is reacting to a story stories really about about very powerless people like a murdered thirteen year old girl and so ironic that it's something about a murdered thirteen year old girl could have annoyed him so much to close down britain's best selling newspaper so you saying that those who work for the newspaper of being sacrificed. while those at the top really should be held accountable you know some of the activities of rupert murdoch are quite good the skybox upon which this channel and some channels i work for being broadcast but there's very little sympathy with a lot of those journalists who work on rupert murdoch's tabloid newspapers they are the very antithesis of what most people would see as journalism they work against the power less for the powerful and then losing their jobs this newspaper going down i think will be a lot of cheering around britain with maybe the best selling newspaper in britain

a lot of people don't buy that newspaper those that have been hurt by those assurances the darity would be vicious campaigns by that newspaper against working people in this country for decades are something i say this could be a p.r. trick and in fact another newspaper could just simply be rebranded it just comes back but under another name. i mean my understanding is i mean we must remember that the british prime minister who's a press secretary has just been announced will be arrested by the police here he took free flights to meet rupert murdoch like all british prime ministers they have to and i think some are saying that regret it was just annoyed about the b. sky b. issue there's a referral to the competition commission which certainly i think must be on the cards it's certainly been delayed it was supposed to be due this week and my sources in parliament are telling me that he's not going to get b. sky b. which will include which really engage even more rough even more citizen kane wrote

for murdoch in which case this isn't this p.r. ploy i mean he's just giving up this country and going to china and india for the future so you're saying that in fact by dropping the news of the world that would be a damage limitation exercise in that deal to go through that simply wouldn't work that way. hundred sixty or. old newspaper with such a brand of brand recognition it seems a crazy decision many people have remarked how poorly managed the papers have been under well titular head his son james murdoch wasn't to get i mean even the wall street journal the new york post and his paper in turkey was just bored they may be getting the australian international news channel this is a this is a big player but when the decisions come up to rupert murdoch perhaps they just get their affable and so they'll work close it down then but if you thought the british prime minister he must have thought he had some favors do i was going to. let his a b. sky b. is want to take complete control of the station over here and to go through my

sources telling me not but you never know i mean we've got to remember the kennedys had to facilitate a meeting between president obama in two thousand and eight between the fox news head and rupert murdoch and president obama everyone has to meet him it seems politics and here the police and the press and let's talk about politics the implications this could have on the prime minister you mentioned a little earlier than a man because in which it won't be that familiar to international viewers but of course it's well known the links between david cameron rupert murdoch news corps heavily supported the cameron's leadership period and also of course the news of the world editor became his media chief just how could this impact affect the prime minister now than britain. he repeatedly the british prime minister david cameron repeatedly denies that he knew that only course it was up to any sort of tricks at all most people would see this is absurd there are two sides to this story at the moment in this country everyone is going for the chief executive of news international or property that is owned by the parent company which is chaired by rupert murdoch but it's rupert murdoch who has sidestepped all of these issues and

now i think he's left and he calls on to basically get annoyed with david cameron has now got the media chief that cameron selected into deep water. if cameron thinks that rupert murdoch is just going to lay off the british prime minister now i think you'd be being naive we can expect some pretty serious stories in coming weeks they will try and upset the british government here but this isn't just about politics this is also about as you mentioned earlier the links with the british police force with british law now this is this is going far deeper than a journalist and. a journalist scandal isn't it this is this is going far deeper i mean some say that rupert murdoch has debased civil life for so many decades but now we have scotland yard a name that is internationally recognised routinely it seems take bribes they initially were supposed to inquire into this phone hacking scandal where you hack

into a phone for a celebrity or a dead british soldier or a murder victim and here we are hearing that the police watch not the first inquiry now we're hearing that money changed hands in bills in envelopes scotland yard's position is now in such a position that people here are calling for outside police forces because the police force the police of this city is no longer trusted but after leaving the action thanks very much indeed afshin rattansi joining us live there from london good to hear what you have to say thank you. you're with the still to come in the program the grease to change the last of the it's a blockade of gaza while the u.n. is expected to publish a long awaited report on israel's deadly assault on last year's also still to come this hour. this is inexcusable it's karel's it's negligent it's criminal. in libya it's growing with criticism it's coming to

a higher price of stalemate and civilian deaths. mr restore the kind of person justified unfair but with the power to determine the fate of entire countries that's about it 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 may also need another cash injection it comes as germany the e.u.'s biggest economy is based very legality of the pain but the only fault of the ratings agencies is that they didn't downgrade portugal greece any sooner that's according to writer and editor patrick young. the european union to three years ago said the problem with credit ratings were that 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 all these are

discreet small 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 on a strike and suddenly the politicians want to shut them up realistically i think the question the ratings agencies must ask themselves because they were faulty or was why they didn't give 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 problem and they were caught up in the wave of your real euphoria that was going on at that stage and actually the e.u. itself has been dragging its feet for eighteen months over problems in portugal and greece and the difficulty therefore is that the e.u. has and acted fast enough and hasn't tried to cure the situation and i think release well you know what i mean everyone it ultimately gets fed up with someone who just keeps passing the begging ball back in a fierce comprehensively 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. anti russian hysteria and that's how georgia's opposition has described thursday's arrest and four people suspected of spying among them leading photographers including the president's personal snap and this comes after nine russians and georgians were handed lengthy prison sentences for anti-government activity earlier this week parties even to this kind of reports now on what might be behind the arrests. there i started early on a wednesday and right 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 poor but he was released after having been questions via relatives of the detained see that they could be charged with espionage 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 jail sentences ranging from eleven to fourteen years of imprisonment the longest one was given to our russian citizen you east really girl who is believed to by the georgian authorities to be the head of all for this spy ring and also its connection with the russian intelligence service

what boy or say about this man is grievously ill and his relatives say that they can't even picture him being a spy because this man could hardly use more wealth. but in general various spy scandals and controversy 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 he prevented a coup at one of the country's military bases but the opposition says these are probably cities balance being conducted by india authorities 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. . reporting now one of georgia's main opposition leaders says that the arrests are

a way for the country's president to hang on to his job. for such truly writes no continuation no for anything russian. see the maybe this poor please don't miss that. and mean i'll be easy ways to write he should care. power because the suction was second care. and to solve the issues going through all his care and he got a few in the nation for european partners why georgia so-called democratic. power and you always. thought. she should keep georgia and she got a cool position but he's going to be. russian agents or russian spy so. still ahead for you this hour nazi why seeing the light could be deadly. pilots of

a tupolev passenger ally now riding from istanbul were dazzled by palmful green light aimed at the aircraft by someone on the ground knocking nothing wrong back yet it's something a matter of time before accident occurs. that story coming at us of a first rebel fighters in libya have claimed a lack of ammunition and a lack of nato support for their failure to advance towards the capital tripoli they say claims it targets only military facilities dr franklin lamb a director of americans concerned for middle east peace told me earlier that that doesn't match what he's saying for himself that. i can give you five examples one is the down syndrome children center which was completely demolished by bombs that serves 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 microcassette 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 says think of them as neighborhood watch over a million have been armed i've seen women here some as old as in their sixty's a lone woman and her seventy training i think we're going to see a popular militia popular army. emerge from the neighborhoods if it's an invasion.

a french ship bound 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 flotilla which killed nine turkish activists report has been held back because of the rare winter in his run in turkey which followed the attack neither side can agree on the wording of an apology is. no explains. well at the heart of the dispute is the whole question of an apology and here is simple is insisting that tel aviv apologize for its role in the brains so called the israelis have refused to do this the israeli foreign minister particular avigdor lieberman insisting that israel will not apologize presumably because these raids off earful that it will open the floodgates for whole photos of legal claims to be made against the jewish state instead israel says it will express its with grit 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 looting of the document now no doubt both sides want to reach some kind of

agreement quiet here in issuing this report because it won't help in terms of the conciliation it will be much harder for the reconsideration should be made after the report is issued but we do understand at this stage that we do if a u.n. records 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 or not 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 range both which is called the dignity that has some eighty twelve people on board it's a sail used to date wednesday but today when it stopped and refueling crete there was stopped by the greek authorities and now the ship known as the audacity of hope it's american captain was very detained and charges were that he was in danger in

the safety of passengers he has been released but that is not necessarily a good sign at all because another ship a canadian ship that is known is there to heena that ship this state sail it's also been forced to return to greece and made all the passengers and the crew onboard 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 thousand european destinations flying into israel's largest it will paying billions find a nice meal for as he says you can well imagine are on high alert 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 the support not only for the tiller but for the people of gaza and palestinians in general. where we have more on the stories we're covering here at our dot com here's a quick look at what's there for you now on the web site and dug himself out of

a grave to take revenge on the man who tried to kill him. with a prank causes huge traffic jams on one of moscow's busiest roads as drivers rush to pick up fake money more that's at obscene dot com. and on his or at their most vulnerable during takeoff and landing and now there's an increasing threat from the ground with a beam of light trying to trevor of course on the police hunt for the hooligans with laser pointers which blind pilots of the worst possible moment. very clear proof that the does all of a laser indeed i can be a major distraction for food bill or christian run and. the consequences could

be catastrophic if someone is targeted while flying an aircraft with hundreds of passengers on board and 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 passenger allied arriving from istanbul were does old by possible green light aimed at the aircraft by someone on the ground just played and now that probably. not the topic was wrong but yet it's only a matter of time it war at that little 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 harlots can land

automatically but not full as props can land on autopilot and even if they do those in the co-feature 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 or a blind shear. potentially lethal laser guns imported from china can be bought in russia for as little as a hundred dollars firing a laser beam the star is 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 our glowing them and toughening punishment for this offense though some are shining a spotlight on the police calling for more action acquittals in court everyone is waiting for a new laws so there's no excuse for police and action on the grounds of 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 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 risk from laser allowed and their high tech hooliganism it's in a grouch over all right still. twenty four minutes past the hour now the russian capital about the summer on a new story in six minutes from now meantime kareen is next with business news. i don't want them to business here nazi russia's gazprom has an els that will merge a select electricity generating business with another national energy major as holding by the end of the year and your own company could control twenty five percent of the country's generating capacity and would be worth around fifteen

billion dollars and we know of a group controlling the i asked holding a hold a blocking stake in the combined utility and gasp on the whole the rest of the companies say they may sell shares of the new giant through an i.p.o. david hearn from investment consultancy helicon advisors explains the payoffs for the parties involved. for gas from 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 start messing around with these assets dealing with help original company use anywhere in the world is complicated and it's even more complicated here for them it's probably a good a good deal better it's a way to to stop operationally having to deal with all the hassle and retain the upside broadly speaking we've been thinking about it exist for years right it's a question of getting at the right person. that's how i look at the markets where

prices are climbing after two new reports offered some positive news about jobs i sweetest trading around ninety nine dollars per barrel while brand is one hundred and that one hundred and eighty pallister of our starts in the u.s. a bronze on encouraging news about us and clients also retail sales suggest the economy recovery might be on more stable ground banking stocks are leading on the down j.p. morgan chase and the gain is gaining two point two percent after its private investment are agreed to by outsourcing service company customer services for four hundred seventy million dollars and bank of america is also a five percent the size. stocks in europe higher were high on thursday led by portugal after the european central bank suspended collateral rules on the nation's debt strong u.s. employment data also contributing to gains the bank of england has kept its key interest rate unchanged as worries about the economy's recovery concerns about above target inflation and russian stocks surged the most in tsunamis on thursday

boosted by high oil prices also after the bank of america increased prices to news for some metal and mining companies the r.t.s. ended one point nine percent in the black modernize its and it over two percent higher let's have a look at something individual moves on the my six games in the energy sector is obvious on strong crude who co-wrote over two percent gazprom gains over three percent and bear bryant was also up supported by news it may see a record of net profit in the past year. so that's all from me in the business team here join us tomorrow for more business cannot stay with us. going to. the.

wealthy british style. sometimes in the tightening. markets why not. come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with much stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into cars a report on our jeep.

moving. to. the back. to. the book. hungry for the full story we've got it firsthand the biggest issues get the human voice face to face with the news makers on r.t.e. . in indonesia ologies available in the ground your hotel for sure it's a media hotel the ritz carlton hotel or a little hotel from the film live millennium hotel in china you can see all the t.v. and censored film account.