is rising very quickly it was a matter of seconds i survived because we saw the broken window and the sailors started pushing people out through it at that moment waves pushed me up on the surface and then i saw that the boat was already underwater. over half the bulgaria's two hundred eight passengers and crew including the captain his wife and child never made it out meanwhile as the arabella another pleasure boat arrived at the scene she was surrounded by people screaming and drowning unable to reach the banks of the vast river three kilometers away. as we approached it was hard to distinguish in the dark water people who were alive from the rubble that was floating around people were in panic when we rescued them in a state of shock some suffering from other traumas they were all covered in oil fuel that was leaking from the sunken ship it was a terrifying picture i have to say despite a huge search and rescue operation after the initial survivors were picked up a few others were found. the divers and cranes working in this water have been

trying to recover just something of the lives lost and families destroyed in those few terrible minutes but they've also been working on the question that cost so much why did the bulgaria sink and sink so fast. as the list of bodies recovered from the ship grew so did the number of revelations about an aging dangerous and badly managed vessel eyewitnesses and people connected with the ship came forward with damning accounts of its poor condition and the stingy management who forced it to keep sailing. i became captain of the vessel in two thousand and seven the ship had been renovated for a while before that there were big problems with the engines and power generators repeatedly mention that to the management and even had an argument with them port authorities say they were lied to the ship was only supposed to carry one hundred forty people but was loaded with over two hundred they were told it was carrying

twenty more tales of bound including a broken engine tricity generators failing so that no s.o.s. signal or tunnel instructions could be issued and blocked emergency exits criminal cases have been opened and arrests being made into the bulgaria sinking and more controversially into why two ships which reached the scene before the arabella didn't pick up a single person that reports the crew members instead took pictures on their mobile phones. all the passengers were shocked there were about seventeen people on a raft many have cuts and injuries that were bleeding we yelled for help i saw the dogs passers by in a different direction towards. the slow process of raising the bulgaria has now started up with it will come the potential for answers but also terrible memories in particular associated with the ship's place where

a group of children were gathered when the ship sank. just some of the young victims in what will go down as one of russia's worst and most of voidable shipping disasters tom bottom party. the captain of a ship that saved seventy seven people from drowning in the volga river has been talking to r.t. watch his interview right here and around twenty minutes. and she's been following the intense search and recovery operation over the past seven days she can stay in touch with what's happening by visiting our website or our you tube channel and we're also posting developments on our twitter stream and facebook page.

britain's government is denying it was too close or of her murdoch's media empire as it scrambles to distance itself from the firm that's mired and phone hacking claims but records show prime minister david cameron held more than twenty meetings with murdoch executives in the past year murdoch has spent the past forty eight hours apologizing with full page ads in british newspapers a meeting of family of a young murder victim whose voicemail was intercepted the media moguls now deployed p.r. guru to rescue the news course reputation before facing scrutiny from m.p.'s about his papers on ethical methods there is a gap on britain's news shelves this sunday after murdoch hastily x. the best selling news of the world has claimed swirled of illegally tapping the phones of crime victims and dead soldiers families as laura hammond reports at

watershed moment for the uneasy relationship between britain's auditions and press . voted three media on t.v. even the sky writers when thought imitates life the long running simpsons takes the show to its own no rupert murdoch aka montgomery burns in an episode broadcast apparently coincidentally they squeak. but it's not the only old 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. of have since about two thousand and four two thousand and five and yet they promise i see 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. sure to go ahead his arch rival the guardian newspaper releases catastrophic allegations of a moral 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 and if you are for example the guardian or the daily telegraph you would welcome that 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 sharp 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. is it impossible to control the media. rupert murdoch he is beautiful murdoch. found out mr burns that you just can't buy all the newspapers those outside his control have been gunning for him three years and this time they may have succeeded just as he looked set to consolidate control over a launch section of the case media markets the 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 you know wherever it's. common russell chancy from the voice of russia radio station in washington d.c. says the scandal is driving force is the public's outrage at targeting innocent victims some of this information has been in the public domain for years simply view of the fact that they were hacking into some celebrities but you know for a while the public goes oh those are celebrities that's kind of fair game i guess sort of lead and you know maybe they were reading the news that much but you know once and once it was you know this poor girl that they were hacking into her phone i mean that's when it when it really hit the fan and and that's why i mean that's why the british government also has to call to account for their own actions and their own kind of i don't want to necessarily say coverups but at the very least their acceptance of the way that it was going i mean there was just a lot of public pressure i think in

a lot of public animosity towards the collusion in the breaking of the law just just extreme ethical violations so i think it's the public and that's the reason why this is really blowing up finally. plenty more had including a story of injustice and survival to report on an ancient arab community that's being lined up as a luxurious israeli resort almost half a century after palestinians were forced out. maybe as rebels became the legitimate power holders in the country in the eyes of more nations after the u.s. and more than thirty other countries recognize them on friday at a diplomatic meeting in a stamboul the alliance of western and arab nations working on the crisis announced it would deal with the opposition until an interim authority is in place the recognition by the contact group also gives the rebels access to billions of dollars of cut off these frozen assets in u.s. banks but political commentator ted rall says the money and status won't change the

situation on the ground. this is really a radical shift from an international student point the united states usually doesn't extend to diplomatic recognition to a regime that is not in the counting all that isn't in power and doesn't even seem likely to be able to achieve power anytime soon but you can look at the situation in afghanistan during the one thousand nine hundred sixty two thousand and one civil conflict there between the taleban in the northern alliance the northern alliance were the former regime that had power in kabul and they enjoyed diplomatic relations with the west even though the taleban controlled ninety five percent of the country it's almost just wishful thinking and frankly if i were a diplomat i would find it disturbing it's a bizarre situation if the u.s. knows who these people are they're not seeing and certainly there's no doubt that traditionally there's always been a very high component of jihadi didn't around and ghazi so it's realistic to

assume that that is not still the case the u.s. has an amazing how it should be skids full of hundred dollar bills to third world countries and expecting them to end up in the right hands. really going to have. the high level recognition of the rebels may bolster their spirit but it's a different story in combat fierce fighting for a key eastern oil town has ended with heavy casualties among the opposition as they are bushell reports it's thought france is now trying the talking tactic where the libyan regime after failing to deliver and knockout blow to could. not tell. which. books is like bragging will destroy their opponents they're often wrong and gets a surprise. french foreign minister ship a boasted france would win libya in quote days or weeks the war's into a fourth month no final round inside. the with his western

allies seem short their little opponents fighting back well it's not just an embarrassment for sarkozy it's an embarrassment for all nato for the whole west paris even admits libya's rebels but in turn some somalia. went to libya for training within the last two or three years. documented we have the fly records and everything else so it seems strange in many ways the whole western support of some of the rebel groups. must be questioned because in some cases i think we are effectively arming al-qaeda. it's all making a mockery of the un vote on foreign intervention in the country now very leading it in a good person. giving. none of. this. witnesses . of libya's causing widespread atrocities for every one

military personnel that were supposedly a casualty there were ten civilians frauds categorically ruled out sending troops but expose predict is the only. to break the libyan deadlock the mood is a splitting the nato coalition silvio berlusconi head of key italy admits invading libya was a mistake. did the us votes. would bring in libya to pay said. support. loire valley diplomats speak for up. with elections just annoying months away so good for is that a successful war could resurrect his childe says instead one paper writes libya is becoming a slow motion cold crutch for france's deeply unpopular president. so it is easy jogging for excessive sweating is on the stand to pull this is libyan spring is

turning into a murderous and the new bush will see paris and in a few minutes we ask if one death can do americans afghan after how many guys have brothers killed by his own guard our two reports and now it puts the us on the back foot in tackling the taliban. the clock's ticking for america's rival politicians to agree on the next move in sorting out its soaring debt congress needs to raise the current fourteen point three trillion dollars debt ceiling to avoid defaulting and president obama wants parties to nor their differences to avert armageddon the leading credit rating agencies are already threatening to downgrade america's triple a credit score for the first time in over ten years they say there is a risk the u.s. could fail to resolve the deadlock quickly or effectively economists dr roger of on hand worst says american politicians can't comprehend solutions to the deficit.

there's a personality conflict between the majority leader and the president which is quite unique and this has been taken into the public discussion once that happens and trust is lost between the leaders it's far more difficult. to secure an agreement behind the scenes if you cut spending you're going to also impede economic growth because the government is one of the largest employers if you bring troops home and stop the wars you also have a problem with employment as the servicemen and women come home these are classic economic problems what's required in the us is a drastic program of infrastructure development and public jobs to guarantee wages and non interest loans for average americans if italy defaults for instance in europe it will be impossible for northern europe to bail out italy that will take the u.s. over if the dollar significantly loses value when the u.s. is unable to help europe that will in turn take the u.s. down the japanese no more have do not have sufficient liquidity to help this time

around as they did in two thousand and eight the euro is intrinsically weak one is not a competitor for the dollar the ruble stands to be fairly stable given russia standing as a major energy producer a natural resource giant on the world scene so the ruble should remain relatively stable the dollar however has nothing to go down against except the prank and if you look at the dollar and the franc that monetary relationship is an all time low and that portends trouble for the future the best two currencies probably other norwegian krone and the swiss franc at this point gold is over traded and as we saw in two thousand and eight there can be a paradoxical drop in the price of gold during a market market crisis so banking on go is a highly risky proposition. things are a little better in europe with italy now the focus of stopping the euro zone heading into oblivion realms approved a tough seventy billion euro cuts package to avoid a debt wipe out if the euro zone's third largest economy and could prove too big

for its neighbors to bail out meanwhile eight out of ninety european banks have failed stress tests to see if they could survive and now their financial crisis economics professor patrick meant for access some e.u. countries may have to accept the form as wealthier nations no longer wants to be from your costly rescue. but i think we've known all along that a lot of banks in europe north would not stress tests if these stress tests included the possibility of sovereign default because of course they've got loads of greek and portuguese and spanish debt and so there was never any question that one of the reasons why it might be in germany's interest to bail out greece is that it's if it doesn't it's going to have a banking crisis of its own and will have to bailout its own banks but i think the the judgment of the taxpayer is they'd rather bail out their own bearings if they have to then keep on giving money to greeks who may never get to give it back to

them so there's nobody really in prosperity by these rich northern countries and therefore the other countries have to think of some way of getting by and that's going to be default. let's now take a look at some other stories from around the world news and police used tear gas and shot rounds into the air to disperse a crowd who torched a police station in the capital the clash followed an incident on friday when security forces fired tear gas to break up a demonstration in a mosque in the city many tunisians remain unhappy was the way interim leaders are ruling the country since january's revolution that ousted president ben ali. it gets foreign minister has resigned ahead of a massive reshuffle spurred by a renewed public protest he'd only been in the job for a month but the interim prime minister has been forced to make changes after widespread anger over the government's record street crowds return to cairo as many believe little change that the top since president mubarak was ousted. the u.s.

first humanitarian delivery for somalia's drought victims has arrived just over a week since the aid ban was lifted islamised insurgents which ruled large parts of somalia imposed restrictions on foreign aid two years ago calling them anti muslim that changed after more than ten million people became affected by the food crisis as a result of eastern africa wars drought in decades. the taliban's calling the assassination of the afghan president's have brother its biggest achievement in a decade the kind of horror province chief was gunned down by one of his bodyguards on tuesday journalist and author valentine says the death is a blow to the u.s. led war effort. he was a power broker that provided a lot of stability in kandahar province which of course is one of the key provinces in afghanistan. a place where opium has grown and where

a lot of people that his absence will not affect the drug trafficking do it's plenty of other people who are going to step in and his absence has more to do with his role as a conduit to many taliban itself he was actually very political you or sort of the u.s. and the cia as somebody who could. represent their interests in negotiations with the taliban and he was considered a very very tough negotiator for the united states he was someone who represented u.s. policies rather than afghan policy he said so this is a very big coup for the taliban they will have to deal with. with his hard line for a while. and the struggle for land rights in israel there is one place that's still a no go area fifty years ago it was a thriving palestinian community but it was driven out and now israel's eyeing it up as a luxury getaway artie's policy or has the story. this old in the mountains of jerusalem

of the remains of a once bustling out community only the memories of those who once lived here have survived intact i feel it's heavy to come back and to be. my privilege. to see the hobson's this rain also due to. my pride that. your coup de graff among the cacti and fit trees but in one nine hundred forty eight just before the state of israel was declared his family evacuated unlike the hundreds of arab villages that disappeared in forty eight and sixty seven most of the original houses of lifter are still here so they move ahead of two thousand. he shouted mama. they will shoot do they do with the whole the whole deal with the whole deal they were to do the. our mother took us inside the room in the corner

and then the table so as to protect us here cook was one of seven hundred thousand palestinians who became a refugee in one nine hundred forty eight his childhood home was quickly absorbed by the newly established jewish state almost every bit as the man who lived his house in one thousand forty nevertheless if he was forced to do just because he was reared and he is considered as absentee and he lost the property in the early one nine hundred fifty s. jews moved into the abandoned homes like you only your husband's parents they were also refugees fleeing arab countries we life had become dangerous after israel was created these really government sent them to live in lifter your nieces to prevent arab owners from returning or in the came here on live here years without water without electricity the came here. for them and their memory here is a very important most of the original two hundred jewish families left because life

in the mountains was difficult and the government was slow to develop the area no one has lived in these how this for forty six years all that remains are stone walls where wild flowers and grass now grow lifter is empty. and it's into that emptiness that the israeli government now plans to build more than two hundred luxury homes a chicago tel shops and a museum insisting they'll preserve the area's history we will find ourselves with a neighborhood where history has been conserved there will also be documentation and the story will be told of who live there as we do in all the neighborhoods of jerusalem but many like your could say it's palestinian land and a double injustice why you want to destroy our house and. yanni. for that there are three world came from anywhere in this thread

why i can move in my village and come back return back to my precinct and live. this new me. and. so i'm going for palestinians lifter is a physical reminder of injustice and survival but for a fair number of israelis it's an eyesore and they'd rather not be reminded of what happened here every time they drive into jerusalem policy r.t. lifter. well the brings us up to date here in our team i'll be back with a recap our top stories in just a few moments. forty

two thousand americans die each year for accidents will be a thousand. seven hundred thousand people. and thirty two thousand will kill themselves cancer in all its forms kills five hundred sixty thousand of us here part diseases even more devastating they killed over eight hundred seventy thousand americans every year. we'll. bring you the latest in science and technology from around flushing.

we've got the future covered. wealthy british style but it's just not time to practice. markets. why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy cars report on r g.

day's news and the week's top stories here in our recovery crews started the somber task of lifting the ship that rapidly went down in the volga river last sunday taking nearly one hundred thirty lives relatives and investigators hope raising the vessel will help a stablished why the disaster occurred. of sorry saga of a tycoon publicly tumbled five save his stricken empire as loyal allies leave and the police close in on both sides of the atlantic the news corp mobile faces a ruling by british m.p.'s and allegations of happening the phones of nine eleven victims. losing battles but winning the war the libyan rebels are in

a foreign recognition and access to get out their fighters struggle to get to grips on the ground the opposition's failing to advance on a strategic east little town suffering heavy casualties. plus the west empty wallet as america and the eurozone brace to save their collapsing economies in the face of soaring datum plummeting credit scores u.s. congress needs to raise the debt ceiling the way to fall while italy is on the verge of getting a bailout. next r.t. hears from the captain of a vassal whose crew left to the rescue of survivors in the volga river tragedy last weekend. captain is out and thank you very much for this interview was the first to come to the rescue of the sinking cruise ship bulgaria how did you get to know about the tragedy. yes we were the first to help and we were sailing in the same direction as

the bulgaria and we picked up on the radio just bits of conversations between some ships we couldn't make out what the ships were but we heard them talk of seeing people overboard and speculating that it looked like a boat or a small ship had capsized once we heard that we put on more speed to get there faster when we did arrive at the tragedy site we saw terrible things and only when we realized that it was the pleasurable area that it sunk to the true scope of the disaster strike us. how long did it take you to get to the scene. of a but you know i would say about five to ten minutes fifteen at most from the moment we heard the radio talk but it all happened very quickly 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 it was truly a tragic picture that we saw what condition where these people where they panic stricken where the song.