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the press has stopped for good at britain's biggest selling newspaper mired in a phone hacking scandal media mogul rupert murdoch has pulled the plug with police investigating the tabloid for snooping on the mobile of murder victims and the families of dead soldiers and people killed in terrorism attacks. politicians loudly condemn what rating agency moody's decision to downgrade portugal's debt to junk status threaten possible retaliation send shock waves through financial markets and triggered worries that portugal could follow greece down the path of a possible default. in georgia for high profile photographers have been arrested on suspicion of espionage just days after nine people were sentenced to lengthy jail terms for spying position has attacked president saakashvili as we've

seen for targeting mass media saying he's whipping up russian hysteria. in greetings from the outskirts of the center of moscow this is r.t. certainly glad to have you with us let's get right to those top stories billionaire media mogul rupert murdoch is pulling the plug on britain's the biggest selling newspaper the news of the world the decision to stop the presses for good came after a phone hacking scandal and golf the tabloids and a storm of public outrage and revulsion the papers accused of hacking into the phones of murder victims dead soldiers families and bribing police for help detectives leading what's now a huge criminal investigation say more than four thousand people could have been targeted with the british government promising an inquiry. reports from london. it

started off relatively tiny 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 most shocking thing really for a lot of people in the first thing that was revealed was that news of the world journalists of the lead to be hacked into the telephone of missing milly dowler who was later found. we also now know that allegedly senior police officers had been wrongly by the news of the world to to post on criminal investigations and other confidential information which to fulfill

a crime there are two things that we should take away from this from 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 you know is the editor of the current editor of the news of the world 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 phone 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. laura and that reporting from london there now media analyst and author phil reese told or a t.v. scandal is likely to spell the end of the arrangement through which police and politicians depended on coverage by murdoch's newspapers the paper's closure will

have little effect on his media empire. i think something changed this week you know for decades british prime ministers have been on their knees to the to the murdoch press because they knew that when the sun which is his main daily newspaper here in britain when the sun supported a british politician running for prime ministership you know they won it and then you find on the next day you find the prime minister reading the sun looking like an idiot saying well the sun got me elected i mean so you've got this the meaning of british democracy is the ministry of democracy really which the murdoch press was at the heart of that i think and that was that for silence as well because important people needed the murdoch press and they couldn't be there they couldn't attack it because of that and i think a line was crossed i think of the action that you know the rupert murdoch took shows that they'll be more revelations the program member rupert murdoch has a very finely tuned business brain and in my view this was a business decision he has a lot of things going on now one of them is to purchase the largest satellite

network in britain called b. sky b. and that decision is about to be approved by the government that was in jeopardy i think he felt that as a businessman he had to sacrifice the news of the world because it in terms of the whole news international it's a tiny part of all that in terms of his global empire the amount of profits it brings yes it was profitable but he can sacrifice that very easily and furthermore he could maybe in a year have a sunday sun the sun is the daily newspaper that he's very successful at and reopen something like that but i tell you the most important thing in my view is that the political cast have been sucking up to rupert murdoch for so many years including prime minister david cameron he now has to stand back and say no i can't do it anymore it's gone too bad. and here with r t still to come in the program greece detained the last of the boats had to walk aided gaza while the u.n. is expected to publish a long awaited report on the deadly assault on last year flotilla also.

this is inexcusable it's careless it's negligent it's criminal. anger at nato campaign in libya is growing with criticism it's coming at too high a price of stalemate and civilian deaths and. european politicians have lashed out at ratings agency moody's after an unexpectedly downgraded portugal's a government debt to junk status germany's finance minister has already threatened to limit the influence of the agency's after the surprise move spread panic and more uncertainty about the eurozone financial stability analysts now say portugal might need a second bailout on top of the seventy eight billion euro rescue package the country received in may there are growing fears that the shock waves could spread to ireland and to spain and italy it comes as germany the use of the biggest economy debates the very legality of the bailouts but writer and editor patrick

young says the rating agencies should have downgraded portugal and greece much earlier at a time when it was possible to find a cure for. the european union two three years ago said the problem with credit ratings where their their ratings couldn't be trusted then all of a sudden when they actually come up with plausible ratings against the european union so the only the finance ministers such as mr showable are saying that oh these are discrete small companies because actually they're trying to get at the truth but actually one of the biggest things that they don't 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 there being almost and suddenly the politicians want to shut them up no realistically i think the question the ratings agencies must ask themselves because they were told here was why they didn't get better rates. a couple of years ago when it was absolutely clear to a large number of us that the european union had 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 eighteen 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 fierce 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. the georgian opposition says and alleged spy case in the country is intended to whip up anti russian is steria to boost president saakashvili hold on power for photographers including no less than the president's own personal snapper were arrested on thursday and may face up to twelve years in jail the case comes after other nine russians and georgians were given long prison sentences for asp r t z

one piece going off reports on the background to these arrests the arrests started a late on the 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 protest to his detention also photographer from the european press agency was detained as well and one from the associated press although we did receive word that he was released after having been questions via relatives of the detained say that they could be charged with espionage their forms 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 off the press and are demanding their immediate release on wednesday nine people were found guilty by georgian off doherty's all

for being part 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 spy ring and also its connection with the russian intelligence service but a lawyer say that this man is grieving the ill and his relatives say that they can . and even a picture of him being a spy because this man could hardly use a mobile phone 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 that these are published the stance of being conducted by india also worries 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. has you got a piece going off reporting there now one of georgia's main opposition leaders believes the recent espionage cases are intended by president saakashvili to boost anti russian hysteria a cornerstone of his plans to stay in power for some surely writes no it was the continuation of russian. see the main basis for. the most deposed and mean i would be is the way the line he she carried in power because it's not true is second care which really. is going to go

walkies and he documented explanation for in europe why georgia. lie. your way explanation. of georgia and he should but he's going to get so russian agents or since. and still ahead for you this hour why seeing the line could be deadly. while it was a passenger ally now arriving from the symbol where does the old by a possible green light aimed at the aircraft by someone on the ground want to leave nothing but did some damage from the time before that deadly accident occurs. there are reports of massive explosions in the city of don in turkmenistan which

a turkmen government statement said were caused by fireworks materials started by hot weather a government statement said there were no victims but despite a media and internet blackout unconfirmed reports say that there have been casualties military and emergency vehicles have reportedly left in the capital of. twenty kilometers away in large numbers to the city of fifty thousand said to be in panic the cabinet and security council met in emergency session chaired by the president to coordinate the response and a large scale evacuation is currently underway as explosions were reportedly still taking place twelve hours after the initial incident with rounds of unexploded material scattered widely there are reports again to unconfirmed that an armory depot caught fire triggering major blasts the authorities have set up an emergency center providing water and medical assistance russia's foreign minister

has condemned nato for continuing military actions in libya in an interview with russian t.v. sergey lavrov said bombing the country to make colonel gadhafi step down is a cynical political game with too many civilian lives at stake artie's peter all of our reports. we heard from a very vocal. today really criticizing. the essential mission creep of going outside intervention into the libyan situation now he. is 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 as a cynical matter. that the bombing should go on until gadhafi back but the human cost of these political statements very high. well it wasn't just libya that

was on the agenda. to speak about he also brought up syria he did say 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. our teams are all over reporting now the libyan deputy foreign minister has accused nato of intensifying air strikes in the country claiming it's a final phase of the alliances campaign but he says it's civilians who are suffering from nato air raids dr franklin lamb director of americans concerned for

middle east peace in tripoli said that even centers for children with disabilities are being targeted. i can give you five examples one is the down's 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 who were on a peace mission they were bombed the micro bus that was bombed two weeks ago that killed nine people 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 here some as old as in their sixty's a woman understand the training i think we're going to see a popular militia a popular army. emerge from the neighborhoods if there's an invasion. a french ship from the so-called freedom flotilla has been stopped in crete while sailing to gaza with humanitarian aid for palestinians the vessels are planning to emulate another marine convoy last year on which nine turkish activists were shot dead by israeli commandos who were intercepted in route to the blockaded strip last year the raid sparked outrage an instable and damaged relations with television if both sides have been meeting in new york ahead of a u.n. report in the flotilla attack out soon as artie's polis later reports one of 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 greens so far these raids have refused to do this the israeli foreign minister particular avigdor lieberman insisting that israel will not apologize presumably because the israelis off fearful that it will open the floodgates for a whole host of 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 mown because israeli and turkish refusing to 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 looting of the document now no doubt both times when to reach some kind of agreement quiet to the issue in this report because it won't help in terms of the conciliation it will be much harder for every consideration to be made off to the reported. artie's policy are reporting there and now there's more on the stories we're covering and other bad others besides on our web site r t v dot com here's what's lined up for you there

right now. the bizarre story of a man who dug himself out of a grave to take revenge on someone who had tried to kill him and. drivers on the moscow ring road have been stuck in a jam sparked after motorists together a bank notes scattered on the highway which turned out to be dug dig deep for more that are coming back. there are calls for tougher police action to stop what's feared to be a new hooliganism fad in russia dazzling aircraft pilots with laser beams jobs are you people using pointers which produce bright beings up to five kilometers long to

shine in a plane cockpits during the most of vulnerable phases of flights take off and landing. as the details. they reveal become clear proof of the dazzle of a laser in the eye which can be a major distraction for food bill or kris jenner's are now determined and. the consequences could be catastrophic if someone is targeted while flying an aircraft with hundreds of passengers on the blinding powerless by laser beams has become increasingly uses in much over fifty attacks registered since the beginning of the year. the latest incident was that the small. one the pilots of a passenger ally now arriving from istanbul were dazzled by popple green light aircraft by someone on the ground. just minutes later and not that probably last. night my lucky nothing what's wrong but yet it's only a matter of time before

a deadly accident occurs to me we were blinded during landing just one 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 hollis can land automatically but no fool at all in london old pilot 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. 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 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 the question was in court a everyone is waiting for a new law there's no excuse for police an auctioneer that around our current legislation is good enough is allowance for the arrest and imprisonment are 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 liaison 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 lots and their high tech guys it's been a great show art it's. in a moment it's asteroids extra terrestrials and you have photos with a leading russian astronomer who tells us if the truth is really out there.

thank you. and in the cluster thank you very much for being with us today that you have promised that i'm twenty years time you will have disk. average life on other planets are we actually talking about allan's or are merely some bacteria talking

life forms because one particular form such life cover is a separate question of course where there is life and intelligence and civilization are a possibility but this cover of life is of primary importance in what form. of the sun what i'm going to tell you is a paradox the form will definitely be well known to us in my opinion and i believe experts generally agree on this life and intelligence should they exist elsewhere at all should be highly human like as a scientist would you guarantee one hundred percent that we will discover life yes and i will explain why you see there is this rational if not purely scientific outlook on the universe a process can either be or if there is at least one similar occurrence of it is a regular phenomenon for some time scientists believe that the solar system is something unique but nowadays we find that most stars how planets are in the furthermore the formation of planets is an inevitable process that occurs when

a giant molecular cloud forms into a star about a thousand planets located around different stars have been discovered to this date over five hundred stars are known to have planets a million planets are projected to be discovered within the next ten years with moreover some of the recently discovered planets not only resemble the earth by composition but also seem to have. an oxygen necessarily indicates the presence of life aquatic time the earth runs out of its resources and they will definitely be depleted someday perhaps in a few billion years do you think there is a chance that humankind will be able to inhabit other planets like you if you will see what you're talking about i'm not an expert on this although i do have a feeling life is generally organized in such a way of that any species exists for a certain limited period of time it is highly possible humans are no. exception the primary destination for human colonization will be the moon but i might not live

long enough to see this but you definitely will as it will happen within the next twenty to twenty five years three global powers of the united states the european union and china are already competing for set up the first lunar observatory and hence the first colony on the moon therefore dave believe in aliens when the one in what sense do i believe they have visited us of that and their existence. if there was intelligence and a civilization outside earth then we would call that civilization extraterrestrial but the term is used quite differently by the public to refer to phenomena that we supposedly observed here on earth that i do not believe in one of the u.s.s.r. was the only country in its day to host a grand experiment the general staff it issued in order to various limits under the defense ministries command to report any unidentified flying objects they were called on identified atmosphere phenomena about them the program was called out of

the net it was divided into two parts the defense ministries net look at what might be traces of new types of weaponry the other than it is the so-called a n n and looked for phenomena previously unknown to human kind for more than twenty years people of course one sixth of the earth's territory even more the matter is we had a latina stationed outside the u.s.s.r. at certain points all those people monitored the skies for u.f.o.'s every single day they detected approximately one thousand after unusual phenomena only two of which may have been explained this day for the rest were either manmade or natural some of them were amazing you would not believe me if i told you about some of the things that were found people didn't know such things could happen airplanes abandoned by pilots who flew on for days a missile was wanted to tack to bypass the passenger jet by a mere two meters we saw something of the sort later on. in ukraine i believe it has been proven quite convincingly that extra terrestrials never visited us we

recently spoke to jill tarter who works with seti and she told us that the valley and sue indeed exist to their civilization should be much older and more advanced than ours and she said ellen's was not contact us but there is a joke we have in the fact that extra terrestrials are not contacting us proves that they exist and they're smart but seriously we know that there is no speed faster than the speed of light it takes light from the star closest to earth for years to reach us it would take us centuries to devise a means of transportation if that would allow us to travel this distance we know for a fact now that the star closest to us is devoid of life the next star. is twenty light years away it would take us. to think of a way to get that physical star travel is impossible that's my belief we would have to revise the whole science of physics miracles do not happen sometimes.