when passing by becomes a crime the captains of the two boats which were at the site of the volga river cruise a disaster but didn't stop to hold off facing arrest. and torture taught on u.s. soil investigate how the country which talks up its record on human rights is accused of training people to brutally violate them at home and abroad. a story still to come this hour but first the chief executive of the british newspaper group owned by the murdoch empire has resigned over the phone hacking scandal rebecca brooks mounting pressure to quit saying her ongoing involvement was deflecting attention from the company's attempts to clean itself up she is due to appear before a panel of m.p.'s next tuesday along with her former boss and his son to face questioning on the allegations of unethical methods what is your reports on how the vultures are circling some permanent perils from a surprising source. but every media outlet in town t.v. read you even the scary to when art imitates life the long running simpsons

takes a shot at its owner rupert murdoch aka montgomery burns in an episode broadcast apparently coincidentally this week. but it's not the only piece of timing in the extraordinary phone hacking case that seems to get more scandalous every day the list of something like four thousand names which the police have had since about two thousand and four two thousand and five and yet they promise facie evidence of criminal activity by these individuals and boy by the murdoch empire and yet they have not acted on it so why now just as the murdoch deal to take control of satellite t.v. giant b. sky b. look sure to go ahead his arch rival the guardian newspaper releases catastrophic hourly. ations of amoral journalists and their shady practices that when the deal

collapses the times for example which currently loses money you could have transferred some of the profits from. investing in the times for example the guardian or the daily telegraph. it's not just rival newspapers who stand to gain from murdoch's empire crumbling the b.b.c. could retake t.v. territory lost to b. sky b. and the labor party which was wounded by years of relentless attacks by murdoch papers can finally take revenge but where will all this lead be. you know. that would suit the government just fine the british press is famous for its shop teeth and no holds barred doggedness particularly where its own government

is concerned prime minister david cameron has all but shut down the press complaints commission and already talks of statutory controls to govern print journalists back in springfield mr burns is to water it as the townspeople open up their own newspaper and he's almost right we. can truly the media. rupert murdoch. murdoch found as did mr burns that you just can't buy all the newspapers those outside his control have been gunning for him for years and this time they may have succeeded just as he gets set to consolidate control over a lot section of the e.u. case media markets drugs being pulled out from under him and it's all over the hidden scandal now revealed that the police have known about it for years nor ever its own land. well we're asking what you think about this at our web site and

whether you believe the tabloids tactics in getting a story can be justified here's how the voting is going at the moment at r.t. dot com let's have a look on screen t.v. results so far what most people are saying that these reporting methods are. ethical and must be punished twenty one percent however thing. as long as it doesn't cross the line seventeen percent believe the projects simply meeting the demands of the public while the rest say the trend mirrors society has moved towards less privacy and log on to our tea dot com to have your say. italy is bracing itself for a tough round of belt tightening as its parliament prepares to finally approve harsh austerity measures as part of efforts to prevent the further spread of the euro zone debt crisis which italy's finance minister has compared to the sinking of the titanic but his financial advisor marco poly explains the drastic austerity measures may make the situation in italy even worse. of course

in the short term that my appease the markets but moving forward firstly is 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 make the situation worse and therefore make the deficit situation worse i think it went wrong really the outset of the whole euro project the stability pact which limits the amount of borrowing that countries can undertake has not be made here too and many countries i mean living well beyond their means for for many years all these countries have simply too much debt and it is very very difficult to manage that forward if the markets keep demanding higher interest and really a default situation of at least some of the european debt has to be on the table and will probably be on the table within the next six or twelve months. and into

those cross torpedo lavelle in his quest to scott why the leadership is so adamant about saving the euro at any cost and here's some of what's coming up in a few hours' time free of cost. lead greece go bankrupt it would be good for greece it would be good for europe it'd be good for the world if greece went bankrupt and rose to the heart of pay their bills or start a lie then you would have everybody would know it's a strong sound currency based on a strong sound economy why not let him go bankrupt let it happen in europe in america we've had stage where it is go bankrupt we've had counties go bankrupt it didn't in the united states and it didn't in the u.s. start i'll tell you why because of the four hundred billion dollars of debt that greece has fifty percent is held by german and french banks and those countries don't want to take a second in the financial markets it's that simple. cross

talk a little later here on our team and on the other side of the atlantic president obama has given us nor makers thirty six hours to reach a deal on raising the debt ceiling that the deadlock has already spurred two of the three major credit rating agencies to threaten a downgrade of america's triple a status but investment analyst max wolff tells r.t. that washington's addiction to debt is clouding both sides appetite for a real solution. america's been running on debt for years this is a disaster in the making and i would liken the situation here to a cancerous tumor inside a body there's no better time to cut the cancerous tumor out quickly as you possibly can that said the u.s. government has been running on debt for many many years and we've been raising the budget the total debt ceiling for many many years as a budget issue and we've successfully had deals struck it has become the political

norm in the united states that whatever party is in the white house has to ask to raise the debt ceiling it's always been raised in the past the party that's not in the white house that's out of power screams and yells for three or four days at most usually about how the government spending too much and should live within its means the debt ceiling demand gets raised and it's business as usual that's been the case for thirty years so we have one side in the congress right now that's the cited no increase in revenue is acceptable i don't know other side that has decided that not raising revenue is unacceptable and so we've reached an embarrassing impasse that has dragged on for weeks longer than it should and is the reason that we're going to see the growing chorus of foreign and domestic voices urging congress and the white house to stop riling already strained global markets with a political impasse. would have to get all the best video as you see on can also be seen at channel and there's plenty of extra content there for you too you can watch stunning footage captured by cameras fixed to the boosters of the space shuttle

atlantis as it lost it off into space you can log on to youtube dot com slash r t to check that out and who knows maybe you'll click will be a cool celebration of the of the approaches would you believe the landmark of five hundred million views. more news today violence has once again flared up. these are the images the world seeing from the streets of canada. change operations rule the day. when the let's return to our top story this over thirty countries including the u.s. have officially recognized the libyan rebel council that's the n t c as the legitimate governing authority there reiterating early calls that colonel gadhafi and his

family must go well let's discuss this development now with dr franklin lamb he's director of an organization called americans concerned for middle east peace and he's joining us there live in tripoli in libya so washington and its allies have made the support of the opposition official but it's unclear isn't it who the rebels actually are so therefore is there not a danger of them turning against the u.s. and indeed its allies a few years down the line as we've seen so often in the past. yes well that's right but just to tell you update on the situation here since the news broke and a lot of people are glued to their radios i had a hard time coming into this hotel for this interview because of increased security sort of fact that the thirty countries are unanimously backing b m t c of the nato has said they will fight and continue to bomb during ramadan and it was widely assumed here that there would be

a ceasefire during ramadan it's clear that the contract groupers holding back some of my pressure on the government here and you're quite right nobody knows a whole lot of a lot of questions about who these different factions who are arguably down fighting among themselves. as for power in the in the east what will ultimately be their relationship with the americans who have a long history you know of business judging their allies and getting themselves involved but i think all of this is because nato cannot accept or afford a defeat nor can the white house so they're using the istambul conference to mock some eyes maximize pressure on the khadafy government i've just read one of your recent articles there from tripoli you saying that the bombing has actually increased gadhafi is popularity and therefore in tripoli with the announcement of this news how has that news where the recognition of the rebels has now officially been stated how is that news gone down with the people you've been talking to there

in tripoli. well of course the news was fairly recent but some of it was anticipated i think it's sobering i think it's sobering it is a blow i think there was a hope that there would be less unanimity of course the chinese and the russians stayed away and they will have a major function if the if a big group takes this to the security council and they may put the brakes on it there but i see this is a power play to moxon buys international pressure over the weekend to try to shake loose the resolve of the government here but i think the people talking to as with the earlier you know four of four months of bombing it's still going to resolve somehow i don't think i think i'm more concerned about it as a westerner of than the people who are here i think they're resolved to see this thing through and to repel any nato attack on the capital of their country let's talk about that thirteen billion dollars of frozen gadhafi assets that could be

passed on to the rebels themselves the thing is there's a lot of trust in that isn't there how can they be sure that this vast amount of money will be properly spent. a good question especially given the track record of a. countability your lack of accountability for american funds and funds generally in iraq and afghanistan i would assume that nato of people will say they're going to watch it or that the congress is going to demand that the accounting office have a role in this somehow but surely that's a problem of money house a way of disappearing fast in critical situations like this often coming perhaps with strings attached a way some people might see it as a form of bribery making sure that there is going to be a reward in the future and i'm talking about the country's huge oil resources. yes yes exactly i think one could see it that way i mean certainly you know that will encourage and is perhaps designed to have more people leave this government and you

know turn and go to the other side i again i see politics in every aspect of what i read a coming out of istanbul just an hour and a half ago just finally i spoke to you before there in tripoli and you gave us a very graphic account of the bombing that has been taking place there tell us about the conditions for the people there briefly i know that you're in tripoli but you've been outside of tripoli what are you seeing we're hearing reports of living conditions really now in a dire state and many people might say that sort of money should be going to the libyan people what do you make of conditions there and should these people be receiving that money for help. or well. i'll tell you on the street except for a little tension and maybe stress this afternoon people reflecting on the news of things remain calm and plenty in the markets i see we hear of some shortages but i travel around a lot in the night in the day here and i think the population house changed much

there but of course have been seen coming here today of course you see long lines waiting for benzine gasoline and things like baby formula some items of missing so far it's ok the question is the next few days the next week the next. two weeks before the run up to ramadan i think will be a critical period and we may see more pressure brought against the civilians here if there is shortages and it becomes serious more serious then obviously the international community has the obligation not just to try out good for every way they can in the back. in those areas but to bring them over here in the west and we haven't seen the woods yet but we'll have to wait to see what how you know what develops here and what the international community's response is dr franklin lamb director of americans conservative middle east peace joining us live there in libya thank you. but as

a finish searching for bodies inside the wreck of the pleasure crucible garia which sank within minutes last sunday one hundred fourteen people out of over two hundred on board have been officially confirmed dead while fifteen remain missing the vessel will be lifted from the riverbed within the next few days and investigators hope a thorough examination will help determine what caused the tragedy well so far two people have been arrested in connection with the disaster the head of the company which operated the boat and the inspector he said if i could face charges of negligence that led to the dance arrest warrants have also been issued for the captains have to call their vessels which passed by the sinking ship without stopping to help he's been speaking to the captain of the ship that did come to the rescue and here's how he described the scene. as we were nearing the site we began to figure out how many people there were in the water although that was hard to do because there was a lot of rubble floating around as well it was very hard to pick out individual people from among the floating debris some people were in a dreadful condition many were injured they had oil all over their skin because

when the ship sank the fuel oil came up to the surface and spread everywhere and covered them that made the rescue even harder because the oil made the victims greasy and hard to get a hold of to pull them on board seeing children in that condition that was particularly heartbreaking. and you can watch that full interview with the captain who many in russia are calling a hero right now on our website at r.t. dot com. u.s. likes to be seen as one of the world's leading human rights advocates but at home it faces growing accusations of hypocrisy tens of thousands of professional torturers have reportedly been trained on american soil over the past sixty years and it's claimed that many of them have used their techniques abroad as ford reports. it's been thirty years since colombian soldiers kidnapped be starved and electroshock tech there are all for having a quote subversive book. but it's a memory he relives every day people have survived torture in colonial times very

lucky to be able to tell the story most people get tortured for ten days as a stand there and then they get shot and kill many have been disappear hector says the colombian soldiers who tortured him and later killed his brother. and were trained right here on american soil at the school of the americas in four benning georgia army major jurists of blair was an instructor there i was very much in favor of the school of the americas during the cold war era but major blair says he was horrified with what his former students did with their anti-communist training in their own country a classified. army sgt. words terror again next door assassinate. commonly. called waits for. graduates from the school of the americas have been implicated in massacres and torture throughout the hemisphere of the more than sixty thousand

soldiers and police to have graduated ten thousand of them have been colombia has been the largest user of the school of the americas i don't think it's an accident . abuser of human rights in that with some hemisphere the eighth amendment to the us constitution forbids torture and other forms of cruel and unusual punishment as does the geneva convention but they did happen there's no question that in our country not only gauge and torture and so taught others how to do it we also render people we also sent people to prisons in other countries where there were in fact torture there although congress demanded more oversight of military training programs and inter. an investigation by the government accountability office showed that school of the americas manuals advocated using quote torture truth serum blackmail and execution the pentagon said it didn't know what the manuals contained because its staff advisors assigned to review them didn't speak spanish united

nations special repertoire for torture one mendez himself a survivor of torture says a lack of transparency in the u.s. led to further abuse can be eighty's unfortunately. a military aid and police aid was restored and after that it's been difficult to document to what extent that includes teaching. techniques that are prohibited by law by international law it's a legacy that sharply contrast with the u.s. rhetoric about respect for human rights abroad torture survivors and religious leaders in washington d.c. have come together to demand a full commission of inquiry into what they describe as torture practiced or enabled by the united states including in its own prisons like one time obey and by the cia when president bush says that he waterboard and he would do it again. and he said damn right that he had ordered it. that's a very serious problem for the spirit soul of our country as the myth of how many

prisoners were tortured by the united states are hard to find but survivors like hector's even numbers don't tell the full story when someone gets torture not only the person who. has to deal with the big wouldn't because of those on the torture it's also someone who has to be humanized themselves in order through the human eyes and all of human beings but a society that. is going to pay a price a very big price as well killing ford r. t. washington d.c. . i'll be back with a summary of a main news stories in about five minutes now in the meantime and all the latest business news with marina. following a wealth. it's a business here on r.t. now russia's largest bank is expanding into europe as burbank has agreed to buy the eastern european unit of austria's vaults bank international and it's the first all of its kind by a russian bank and business are things that down the brings us all the details this

purchase goes in line with their banks ambitious plans to become an international banking group but how do they care mcgrath says that by two thousand what seems their bank plans to generate up to seventy per cent of its income from international operations they have also said that he believes that in the great potential of those eastern european countries where pulled out the broncho is that the basic market approach her. probably nobody can move it generates it up two months to five billion euros by two thousand and fifteen and it's more than russia's potential so their bank he just wants to use this eastern european union bank as a platform for its own international operations bank is among the top ten lenders in the czech republic slovakia croatia and bosnia this is a traditional banking business there are no complicated structures or toxic assets there is no dependence on securities operations and almost no big corporate clients

it could be called the bank for medium sized and small business those burbank plans to finalize the deal by the end of the year and it's just the beginning here must be upset that they all read the looking at some banking also in other parts of europe and the inter kim. let's take a look at the markets now u.s. stocks are in the black and that's the spy reports consumer sentiment plunged in july with many saying views on the current economy and expectations are worsening. in europe stocks some of the session slightly down as traders were cautious ahead of the release of bank stress test results which are coming out later to. day and russia markets closed mixed after a difficult week volumes were down as many people were away on holiday and direction remains unclear. let's take a look at some individual movers on my psych's the banking sector that quite well

by over one and a half percent the bank is currently figuring out the details of its purchase of bank of moscow. was also up after news of its acquisition of all spheres valcke international in eastern europe and the country's biggest company gas from one up by point three percent and that was helped by gains in the oil price. russia will not make concessions over its tax regime for carmakers to gain membership of the world trade organization under the current rules manufacturers which make more than sixty percent of a vehicle in russia receive financial concessions and this is intended to boost local production of cars and prime minister putin says the system is not open for negotiation. the requirement to sixty percent localization and production of three hundred thousand calls a year we have a little position can't be changed but it's

a riddler and we cannot cross because we cannot to burned in the interests of domestic producers. separately prime minister who can we says there are plans to build a second line off the eastern siberia pacific ocean pipeline the system for exporting crude oil to asian markets he also suggested another line could be added to the north stream gas pipeline and that goes under the baltic sea and terminates in germany but he gave no time frame for either project. well that's all the business news for though the headlines are next with bill.

welcome to the what makes a big splash in the world of high tech business what turns events science into i can't change products they don't understand oh he'll catch these these guys he followed russian innovators to each of bidders abroad and their big breakthrough back home spotlight on start up on technology update here on. we've got the future covered. the. writer. of the song from feinstein pressure.

starts on t.v. dot com. live from moscow this is the with the twenty four hours a day top stories this hour over thirty countries including the u.s. officially recognize the libyan rebel council as the legitimate governing authority reiterating earlier calls for get daffy to give up power the recognition would allow washington to sponsor libyan rebels with money from gadhafi frozen assets. u.k. phone hacking scandal gathers pace forcing the chief executive of the group owned by the murdoch empire to quit meanwhile questions arise as to why it's taken so long to confront the crisis despite police knowing about many of the allegations for years. and people take to the streets to protest against looming cuts and the latest e.u. country to be hit by the financial crisis that's as the parliament approves

a killer sturdy budget in an attempt to avert a bailout. well in fifteen minutes from now we'll have the sports update with kate but in the meantime ortiz modern andrews takes us on a romantic talk of russia's northern capital. hello and welcome to the program i want to think sheryl from the same kid is will be exploring the pits the rest allows the never ever i'm very small to transport also known as the venice of the north the waterways of the focal points of the city enjoying the summer months are a great way to see the full of so. many of simply displaced churches cathedrals

museums are visible from the canal trip of the stone to staying in the city may be an ideal way of deciding to join a visit. piece the great grand vision of the city was to create a window to europe. from a swampy scarcely populated region the area became a fine european capital. spend another expense in the construction of lavish palaces on the banks of the countless channels cutting through the city such great architects as for strolling through and through how to bring the dream to life centuries later as you can see on this map of the day st petersburg the waterways and bridges still dominates the capital perched on the banks of the never river you can see how the city is set up and very spot crisscrossed by canals. and create a whole atmosphere of a like. a cost and i think it's just amazing.