fresh arrests over the u.k. phone hacking scandal rocked rupert murdoch's already showed couldn't media empire public fury of the case challenges the future of britain's newspaper industry. they've got to take an axe you know they've got to take a chainsaw to government spending and do something about it. calls for the u.s. to cut spending and threats of the country's credit rating might be downgraded lawmakers fail to raise america's debt ceiling as more states plunge deeper into economic crisis plus. initial investigations into the sinking of the gold area points to negligence and that the tragedy could have been avoided if. the first

arrests were made in the investigation into sunday's pleasure cruise a disaster is divers continue to retrieve bodies from the volga river with the death toll now standing at one hundred thirty. and in business we took a look at how debt problems in europe and the u.s. are good news for precious metals more on that in twenty minutes. with a rapid change of heart sorry this is r.t. coming to you live from the russian capital with the word twenty four hours a day top story this hour with a rapid change of heart rupert murdoch and his son james have now reportedly confirmed they will give evidence to a parliamentary committee investigating the u.k.'s phone hacking scandal this comes hot on the heels of earlier reports that they declined the summons it's alleged

that several of murdoch's newspapers were engaged in rampant voicemail hacking and bribed senior officials and authorities and the reports the media mogul's red top rise over the decades was littered with red flags warning of what was to come. rupert murdoch's push to expand in british media has come to a halt popular political rage overthrown hacking the sports news corp to drop its paid to buy satellite broadcaster b. sky b. but some say he's already killed the british press and they were saying it's far back as one thousand nine hundred eighty one that's when he went on a media spending spree and bought amongst others the world renowned times newspaper news international has been playing a toxic part of our public life for so long but it worked under his ownership circulation just kept on rising in a market that killed off others and sky t.v. a loss making and obscure satellite network rocketed to become the biggest player

in the u.k.'s pay t.v. markets i do admire rupert murdoch because he's a risk taker when he bought the times and sunday times of london there are people who will say that he saved the newspaper industry but now it's clear that success came with a heavy price tag morality murdoch's journalists kept ratings high by violating and exploiting the vulnerable they hacked the private voice mails of families of dead soldiers and of murdered children essentially we've seen criminality and invasion of privacy on a staggering industrial scale not even the rich and powerful could escape then chancellor gordon brown's baby was splashed over the front page of the sun his illness a sick headline royal family phones were hacked the scandal even goes right to the heart of the police force senior police officers were bribed by journalists for tipoffs on sensitive investigations private lives were made public and now we've

got. to be some hacking into gordon brown's private life you have to start you have to stop what else is in the course is the lottery it's not just. one. these are people ploy to information what should be private sources medical records tax records is taken thirty years for the worst fears about the british press to come true but come true they have murdoch may own successful newspapers in an ailing market but their papers which have lost their greatest asset the public's trust the u.k. has more c.c.t.v. cameras per person than anywhere else in the world i can't see it it's just in this small car park so britain's always know big brother is watching but the question now is what's big brother watching for and more importantly who's trying to bribe him lower at it r.t.

. what will the scandal then mean for the global media and. it looks like a proper police investigation for the first time into this it could well mean that we see rupert murdoch's empire in britain crumbling collapsing. we spoke on the issue with u.k. investigative journalist tony calls ling and you can check out our website r.t. dot com for the full interview with. the same credit rating agency that sparked fresh panic in the e.u. now threatens to review america's triple a credit score for downgrade for the first time in over ten years and says there's a risk the u.s. could fail to resolve the in its budget negotiations and even if the package is approved it's unlikely to offer a solution to america's debt that's according to investor and co-founder of the quantum fund jim rogers. you know and the state already has been downgraded in the world markets every i'm not the only person who knows that the united states is the

largest debtor nation in the history of the world look at the value of the u.s. dollar is down fairly significantly over the past few years they have to increase a ceiling. there's no question about their choice though for the future is they've got to take an axe you know they've got to take a chainsaw to government spending and do something about it they're not going to do that they might announce they're going to do it for this to get the budget ceiling passed put aside going to have any effect everybody sees that washington is not going to solve this problem and more and more people are looking for something to replace the u.s. dollar. the eurozone debt crisis now focuses on italy where the senate has approved tough new austerity measures which is set to receive final approval in the country's lower house on friday and comes amid concerns that italy the euro zone's third largest economy may be next to ask for a helping hand in follows both in the portugal having never ratings downgraded to junk status any serious blow to the bone up within europe struggles to walk off its

weakest economies will for more on the reason are joined by financial advisor and wealth manager mark foley he said for us live in london thanks so much for being with us here on r.t. will these cuts are to be implemented over the next three years will they be enough for italy to avoid it by a lot or could be too little too late. well we'll see how the markets react and we'll see how severe the package is of course in the short term that my appease the markets moving forward firstly it may be difficult to actually implement these cuts as the british are finding over here but also severe austerity measures may well also tip the balance and push it back into into recession which again will will that make the situation worse and therefore make the deficit situation worse why would it be difficult to impose those austerity measures difficult in terms of the

reaction from the italian people. that there is that side but dismantling. the massive spending the government does isn't necessarily as straightforward in terms of there is certain certain rules routinely you about looking after people who are unemployed and housing people you can't throw people out on the street bigger cuts coming made in things like pensions public sector pensions and perhaps state pensions but again there might be significant objections by the by the italian people than and civil unrest in union militancy well looking in context italy and its position there in europe it's the third largest economy always has two trillion euros of debt that's more than greece portugal and ireland combined we've seen growing and bailouts and even in germany and other countries if after three years it does need a bailout the e.u.

even afford this it's going to be a massive sun isn't it. i don't think the issue is going to be dealt with in three years' time i think that the issue will be dealt with in the next six months. maybe maybe in the next year i don't think this can be pushed back that far because the. work is that what you're saying they won't work in that three year period it's just not going to work. well it may work to appease the market in the short term but longer term. all these countries many western countries have simply too much debt and it's very very difficult to manage that debt moving forward if the markets keep divinely higher interest and really a default situation of at least some of the european there has to be on the table and will probably be on the table within the next six or twelve months so since the crisis started we witness more and more countries are imposing austerity measures

all getting bailed out of both but with little success so why is it all going wrong . well i think it went wrong really up at the outset of the whole euro project in that the natural rebalancing of of the various economies through the exchange rate mechanism hasn't been replaced by another system to help countries in time of difficulty. and the stability pact which limits the amount of borrowing that countries can undertake has not been it here too and many countries have been living well beyond their means for for many years and therefore when a crisis is sort of a lot of time but in effect then it's all gone wrong drop the eurozone get out of the euro and get back to original currencies is not the idea because some countries are threatening to do that. but i think that is definitely a possible solution another solution is a debt write off another solution is having

a more centralized fiscal system within europe where the e.c.b. actually. collects the money in terms of issuing bonds at a much lower interest rate at the group strength and then. gives it to the various member states but that is something is going to take a long time to implement and the european leaders haven't got around the table to implement new new new structures you're a financial advisor with all these movies grades in these ratings for various countries in the course of the problems the bells ringing throughout the eurozone as a financial advisor would you advise me to invest in europe or not. but i'm not buying european debt. certainly would avoid the. countries and i think. he's got to be on the table at some point and i think it's difficult to. see how well how that actually does i would say when countries are on the knees

when the financial problems are really bad that's the time to start investing again or not. maybe but there are other alternatives there are alternatives such as gold which we've done very well on over the last few years commodities real assets not paper based assets is where i've been focusing our investments over the last couple of years and that has proven a much better strategy than perhaps paper based assets which in many ways are questionable moving forward really interesting to talk to market thanks very much indeed for joining us live there in london financial adviser and wealth manager mark foley thank you. well as the global debt crisis sweeping through europe reaches italy mexico and stacy herbert discuss how its national gold reserves might make it a target for financial perspectives that's in the cards report coming your way later today but here's a quick preview for you. and of these guys actual gold that the i.m.f.

and the people who support the i about the terrorists as i mentioned like eric cantor they are helping to facilitate the thieving of that twenty four hundred tons of gold because that is meaningful they need that gold because of course is the i.m.f. going to get the airport landing fees from naples or sicily. now. as divers continue to retrieve bodies from the volga river the number of victims after the pleasure cruise and sinking on sunday has risen from one hundred thirteen the vessels captain was also among the dead his body reportedly found on the bridge meanwhile more details emerge of procedural violations that could have contributed to the tragedy gary's crew reportedly understated the passengers on board to obtain permission from river controllers to set sail claiming the number to be just twenty instead of two hundred russian prime minister putin has visited and paid tribute to

the rescue operation and said that those whose negligence and greed led to the disaster must be punished but he's got reports now on how the investigation proceeds. the first arrests have been made and this is starting to move beyond just a disaster recovery operation the two people that have been arrested so far are straight line in yakima she is the owner of the company that rented double daria for what would be its final voyage also give us sure he is a state expert on shipping and sometime before that voyage he said the borg area was fit to sail and so perhaps was negligent in that decision divers are still working. in teams in our in our out in a on a platform out in the river over the sunken bulgaria it's now estimated there are around a dozen bodies left to be recovered divers have explored most of the ship now there

might be some places left where bodies could be but it is possible that some of those bodies may know may not be in the ship they may be in the water around the ship and in a worst case scenario currents may have carried some of the bodies up to two hundred kilometers downstream there's also been revelations added to the case of the of the ball carrier and it's particularly concerning to ships just after the sinking passed by and didn't pick a single person up there's been massive public fury over this and that has recently been perhaps somewhat tempered by the views of some experts saying that actually these two ships that arrived with people in the water and in the oil slick around them they weren't passenger ships they were barges and it would have actually been very difficult for them to pick people up and they may have actually hindered the third ship arabella which came in did start to pick people up we earlier spoke to the captain an exclusive interview the captain of the arabella

saying what he found when his ship arrived at the scene of the disaster. it happened really fast and i have five to ten minutes after we heard the distress call as we approached it was hard to distinguish when we got water people who are alive from the rubble that was floating around people were in panic when we risk of them in a state of shock with some suffering from the traumas which they were all covered in oil fuel that was leaking from the sunken ship it was a terrifying picture of. big cats and of the arabella also added his own views to those of those two other captains he was in the vicinity as they were and he gave his own views on the public fury and the experts saying well maybe it was they didn't do so. it's an awful thing let's hear what he had to say about that. we were approaching the position of the tragically almost at the same time as every cargo ship and i don't know why he didn't stop and maybe try to get the inertia of heavy cargo wouldn't let him but as we approached the site its presence could only hamper

the rescue operation to proceed and not waste time so there's very mixed feelings now about the role of these two ships the rescue operation will shortly if they can recover the rest of these bodies be moving into its next phase and that is for two ships specially equipped to try and raise the sunken bowl garia and then it will be known hopefully in a proper investigation can start as to why this ship sank sank so fast causing so much tragedy. time by reporting there and we've got more on our website including footage of the recovery operation still underway in the volga river you can log on to r.t. dot com for the help. russia has less disagreement with the u.s. on the libyan crisis than with some european countries that's the view of foreign minister sergei lavrov after talks with the u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton what is going to try and brings us more now from our washington bureau. with regards to leave here both russia and the u.s.

have the view that colonel gadhafi must step down and that the leaders should be able to truce their future leader it's the power towards those aims that moscow and washington disagree on. the world russia criticizes the scope of the into the foreign intervention in libya possible sees the actions of the allied forces forces there is a violation of the un mandate minister lavrov said the resolution is being wrongly interpreted as anyone can do whatever they want foreign minister lavrov was also asked about why russia is blocking a u. and should have condemned the syrian president assad he said the attitude of the west is exclusively about exerting pressure on one of the parties namely the syrian government and president all side of moscow sees it as sees it as the wrong attitude cautious says it says the wrong message to the syrian opposition prompting them to believe that if they were remain insistent in the situation it's getting critical the west will come to help them the way it is happening in libya mr lavrov

said it's unacceptable that the opposition. is agitating peaceful protesters in to engaging in armed clashes and if actively turning them into a carcass for the police and security forces take a listen to the. diplomacy exists not to condemn and score political points diplomacy exists to solve problems and make it condemnation without proposing any solution to any breakthrough neither in syria nor any other place there is a good example of how we are all dealing with the situation in yemen no one's tripos into condemning anyone or a doctor un security council resolution supporting one or another sign everyone has to sightsee down and hold negotiations dance a responsible approach that we hope will prevail america's missile defense plans is one of the most irritating issues in the relations between the two countries president obama has scrapped the bush administration missile defense plan but they're going ahead with a new plan for many. a lot of roff said russians need for legally binding

guarantees that the project will not threaten russia's security washington has made reassuring statements before but moscow needs to have it on paper so there is an understanding among the russians that words are good but words in a legally binding document are better. well to read more about the green. visit to washington you cannot go on to our web site is not t.v. dot com that's alongside other news videos and blogs here's a taste of what's on line right now to find out why morning which is the first man in space you karen has been unveiled right in the very heart of london also. fugitives for freedom both furry and further right people run away to the circus but this unlikely trio escaped from one oppressive ferret a monkey the parrot got together to get away for good or. bad daring to be to break loose at r.t. dot com. a wave of criticism is government in israel over

a new bill that outlaws the boycott of israel and jewish settlements occupied palestinian territory opposition parties have called the morning we can government to silence the people one peace movement has petitioned the supreme court against the bill prime minister netanyahu faced a stormy session in the knesset on wednesday where he was himself forced to defend the way some members will tell him protest legislation imposes fines on course there's an answer to this to suit them compensation model goofy from boycott divestment and sanctions movement in ramallah says the bill will only make the pro palestinian action stronger. has never been a democracy and can never be a democracy so long as it's an apartheid state so long as it has terms or flaws discriminating between its jewish financial or citizens so long as it denies millions of palestinian refugees to right to return home and so long as it

continues with its occupation of the west bank including the truth as well as guys or so a country committing such violations of international law i am of course basic human rights cannot call itself a democracy professor hill and partly the israeli historian maybe i did try to when he said israel is ahead. for which is a democracy only for the master class not for everyone but if anything israel is going it's really pushing first forward in digging the grave of its occupation and apartheid as long as palestinian rights are not respected by israel as well as the occupation continues apartheid continues then i look refugee right continues the palestinians have no choice but to continue to resist to continue the struggle. now a brief look at a couple of other international headlines at this hour in our world update victims of the three coordinated bombings in mumbai are being laid to rest at least seventeen were killed when a blast struck three downtown location to even russia he said. and equip

a sophisticated explosive devices investigators admit no immediate suspects but say that all terror groups are being considered. suicide bombers attacked the memorial service for the assassination hard product of afghan president hamid karzai at least four people are reported killed in the blast that what the mosque including a top cleric a day earlier two explosions shook the city of kandahar during a funeral ceremony for a while because i believe his brother was shot twice by his family friend a longtime head of security chiefs day. well it turns out that for the moment so i'll be back with some of our main news stories about seven minutes from now the meantime is the business news next on r.t. that's when the arena after a short break. hungry for the feast we've got. the biggest issues get the human voice face to face with the news makers.

which beasts which brighten if you are about song from violence to christian. stance on t.v. dot com. hello and welcome to business here on artsy the safe haven assets such as gold are seeing every new ground over fears the u.s. could lose its top notch credit rating moody's investor services threaten to downgrade the country due to political deadlock over race in the states that ceiling although it still seems likely by many analysts at downgrade could cause

mayhem in the markets. many investment funds etc must only invest in aaa so therefore a lot of them would have to divest of their investments in u.s. treasuries and that would put a solid. pressure for the downside on the treasury is the yields would go up to become more expensive for the united states to borrow money from what is a pretty pretty poor deficit situation at the moment so it would be quite grim and would harm the u.s. is the prospects for g.d.p. growth in the future but in the end the consequences of the fall by the united states are far too far even for these people to contemplate and therefore i would probably suggest that they not. we'll come to an agreement both sides will have to get away a little bit but so they'll come to an agreement. now let's look at the markets now and gold is trading at record highs as investors look for

a place to park cash silver is doing even better it's up three percent but it's still some way short of the record that set a couple of months ago. let's take a look at what's happening at the u.s. markets wall street is in the red this hour with us despite reports of a three month low for darkness benefits applications conoco phillips is leading the gains among energy stocks after announcing plans to spin off its refining units and on the losing side the shares of hotel chain marriott's international fell by over eight percent after it said third quarter earnings were below expectations. now european markets also closed in their ad but lloyds banking group was up over three percent bucking the trend there in london and in frankfurt metro a.g. and commerce bank were down about three and four percent respectively carmakers b.m.w. v.w. and dialer work pretty strong go. and in russian markets closed on the positive

notes on bargain hunting this spike concerns over that in europe and the us though we didn't really see big numbers there now let's take a look at some individual movers on the my sax cast from last almost one percent despite announcing a deal with r w e n will have more about in just a moment's. pause positive out point four percent and telecoms giants ross telecom first rebounded from a bad start so that they bought it and that the session in the red point seven percent and overall the day straight could be the scribe thousand and nervous and then. in your. birds is to know the people were going to completely be the words of the. on the other countries in europe the euro zone the stress in the u.s. you have the situation where you know the. agencies who are you are serving the

review which is also quite worrying for the commodity to grow through strong. in. the basically prevents you know opinion from prudence for most of the setting of the russian shares going on when the institutional funds. russia's biggest companies plug in and see groups power generating sector gas prom and germany's are thought we are to create a joint venture with plants across the continent now earlier there are spiegel magazine reports that the russian gas and openly could become a key stakeholder in the odds of the investing as much as fourteen billion dollars are totally needs cash as it seeks to develop new sources of energy so the german government's side its are bad in nuclear power all that's all the business news for and our join us for another update in less than an hour's time in the meantime stay

tuned for the headlines. the.