the most important part is putting the slings in place and making sure they're fixed properly we spend most of our time preparing as for the lifting itself it was take very long so as you heard there all the all the importance is in the groundwork for preparing the lifting another very important moment is going to be when they just start to lift the ship they're going to try and send the divers in to search for essentially for the hole that little water and whatever managed to stick to sink the ship and when the divers find out they're going to have to repair that hole and pump the water out before they can lift a ship so in both of those operations they met that may also at the same time hopefully provide answers as to where these remaining fifteen bodies are and also the answer that everyone is talking about why this ship sank a mountain of cuddly toys never to be played with they the flowers and candles a testament to the children among those who drowned in the pleasure boat the bulgaria sank in the volga last sunday.

we study together for a year she never had arguments with a new one she was a very kind girl and was always ready to help. the ship sank in just three minutes turning a summer afternoon on the river into a scene of horror and even focused is that people were basically buried alive in time metal coffin we managed to get out through the windows i was there with my ten year old daughter i couldn't rescue her she swallowed too much water when i was pulled out i realized my child was gone in the chaos to escape many other families were also torn apart one five year old boy lost his mother and grandmother and was only kept afloat by a man who grabbed his hand another man unable to hold on to his son in the strong current oil slick had to watch him drown in front of him yuri was the d.j. for the disc. go on the bottom deck he only just managed to escape. i remember

clearly that water was rising very quickly it was a matter of seconds i survived because we saw a window and the sealer started pushing people out through it at that moment waves pushed me up on the surface and then i saw that the board 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 a 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. but 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 the 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 ageing dangerous and badly managed vessel eye witnesses 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 ship hadn't even 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 portal thorough. these 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 had been opened and arrests being made to the bulgaria sinking and more controversially into why two ships which reached the scene before the hour didn't pick up a single person but reports the crew members instead took the pictures on their mobile phones whatever you have is a little closer to god if you and your passengers were shocked there were about seventeen people on a raft many hundreds cuts and injuries that were bleeding we yelled for help i saw the boards passes by in a different direction towards. the slow process of raising the bulgaria has now

started up with it will come the potential for sins 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 avoidable shipping disasters tom bottom part. the captain of a ship that saved seventy seven people from drowning in the volga river has been talking to r.t. will bring you his account of what happened in about twenty minutes down. there and he's been following the intense search and recovery operation over the past seven days he can stay in touch with what's happening by this ng our saddam or our need to challenge we're also posting developments on our twitter stream and a facebook page.

britain's government is denying it was too close to rupert murdoch's media empire as it scrambles to distance itself from the firm that's mired in phone hacking claims but records show prime minister david cameron held more than twenty meetings with murder executives in the past year murdoch has spent the past forty eight hours apologizing with full page ads in british newspapers and meeting the family of a young murder victim whose voicemail was intercepted the media mogul's now deployed p.r. gore's to rescue news corp's reputation before facing scrutiny from m.p.'s about his papers on ethical methods there was a gap on britain's news shelves this sunday after murdoch hastily axed the best

selling news of the world as claims swirled of illegally tapping the phones of crime victims and dead soldiers families as more and it reports it's watershed moment for the uneasy relationship between britain's politicians and press. but every media outlet in turn own t.v. radio to even the sky. when thought imitates life the long running simpsons takes a shot it's rupert murdoch aka montgomery burns in an episode broadcast apparently coincidentally this week. 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 police of have since about two thousand and four two thousand. boy. promised 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 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 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 thought it has the townspeople open up their own newspaper and he's almost right we possible can truly the media. rupert murdoch. beautiful murdoch found as did mr perkins that you just can't borrow 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 large section of the u.k.'s media markets the drugs being pulled out from under him and its own over the hidden scandal now revealed that the police have known about it for years nor ever done to. investigative journalist paul ussher maher says the scandal has compromised britain's prime minister well it poses quite a big threat to david cameron because it's the first time we've seen his judgment quite clearly brought seriously into question the decision to use andy corson who had been the editor of the news of the world when some of these events were taking place as his press advisor it was clearly a very very bad judgment and strong to him and he now is trying his best to make clear blue water between him and news international what you've got to see about

this is that this is a very bad week for bad journalism but it's a good week for good journalism because its reporters at the guardian like nick davis of david lee have been consistently campaigning on this issue against the normal political pressure from the complaints you know the media complaints places here against news international they've kept going and they've exposed this so that's good work by good job ethical journalists but i think that actually may turn the tide because it's going to be a very brave editor that now hacks into someone's boat. you know it looks at somebody medical records because they're seeing what's happening to those who have so in terms of ethical good journalism you know i think it might be a breakthrough i think this could be some serious ramifications for the press generally but seriously. this may be a good thing. in a few minutes we ask if one death can do america's afghan mission after having

highs eyes have brothers killed by his own guard our team reports on how it puts the u.s. on the back food tackling the taliban. libya's rebels have become 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 enter a must already is in place the recognition by the contact group also gives the rebels access to billions of dollars of gadhafi is frozen assets in u.s. banks but political commentator ted rall says the money and status won't change the situation on the ground. that this is really a radical shift from an international standpoint the united states usually doesn't extend diplomatic recognition to it a regime that is not in the counting all that isn't an hour and doesn't even seem

likely to be able to achieve power any time soon but you can look at the situation in afghanistan during the one nine hundred ninety six to 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 jihad. around benghazi so unrealistic to assume that that is not still the case the u.s. has an amazing how it should be a skids full of hundred dollar bills to third world countries and expecting them to end up in the right hands and 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 keystone oil town as ended with heavy casualties among the opposition as daniel bushell reports it's thought france is now trying the talking tactic with the libyan regime after failing to deliver a knockout blow to gadhafi. book says like bragging will destroy their reply lives they're often wrong and gets a surprise i. french foreign minister ship a posted france would be encroached days weeks the wars into a fourth month and the final round inside nicolas sarkozy with his western allies seeing short 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 being libya's rebels but on some somalia. wench to libya for

training within the last two or three years that's documented we have to fly records and everything else so it seems strange in many ways the whole western support of some of the rebel groups in libya 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. by leading and. giving. none of. this. witnesses that they too will be go of libya's causing widespread atrocities for every one military person that was supposedly a casualty there were ten civilians for all to categorically ruled out saying we rolled troops but experience predicted the only way to break the libyan deadlock

the moves the splitting the nato coalition silvio berlusconi head of tea party italy admits invading libya was it mistake russia abstained did the us vote well the interest of all reasonable means would bring havoc in libya which you play said the latest tool to help support so you get several full court. with elections just months away so voices that a successful war could his chills is instead one paper roy it's libya's becoming a. crutch for the president. so it is easy jogging for. us with. this is a libyan spring is to. see. 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

a current fourteen point three trillion dollar debt ceiling to avoid default again president obama wants parties to ignore their differences to avert armageddon the leading credit rating agencies are already threatening to downgrade americans 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 with investment analyst max wolff believes america's debt addiction means there won't be quick you or. america's been running on debt for years this is a disaster in the making and i would like in this situation here to a cancerous tumor inside a body there's no better time to cut the cancerous tumor out as 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 debate 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 side is no increase in. new is acceptable other side 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. sayings are little better in europe was italy now the focus of stopping the eurozone heading into oblivion rome's approved tough seventy billion euro package to avoid a debt wiped out it's 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 another financial crisis financial writer patrick young says the italian people's response to the budget cuts will echo greece. there will be one significant difference between the people who take to the streets between greece and italy and others that greece at least thank goodness the taxi drivers don't go on strike where is nuclei expected almost everybody is going to end up on strike and it's going to be absolutely chaotic the only way they can slip this through is perhaps because we do have this long lead in time until the cuts really start to make an impact in two thousand and thirteen but i think the problem is in the meantime a large amount of the sort of the leftist opposition in italy see the fact that silvio berlusconi and many of the reasons most of which are outside of the direct fiscal reason are well i mean he's a wounded animal at this point in time and in some ways i think that he's going to be finding it very difficult to hold his government together so there are big

problems in western europe behaving to be a definitely to the east of everyone not so good fortunately expect further to the prices because the epidemic the contagion seems to be spreading and we have new political leadership seeming to do with it. now let's take a look at some other stories from around the world tunisian police used tear gas and rounds into the air to disperse a crowd 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 managed to remain unhappy with the way interim leaders are ruling the country since january's revolution that ousted president ben ali. foreign minister has resigned ahead of a massive reshuffle spurred by renewed public protests 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 returns to cairo as many believe

little changed at the top as president mubarak was ousted. the un's first humanitarian delivery for somalia's drought victims has arrived just over a week since a ban was lifted islamised insurgents which rule 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's worst drought in decades. russia's foreign minister was in the u.s. capital this week to get clarification on washington's missile the fans agenda america is steaming ahead with deploying its anti-missile shield in europe despite objections from moscow russia feels the system could compromise its own nuclear arsenal and a joint missile defense program that's being brushed aside by washington and nato the us is also refusing to provide legally binding guarantees that its system is

not a against russia sergey lavrov stressed to the voice of russia radio and washington over the need to prevent a new arms race. fix on the ground that being created on the basis of american national design of missile defense which was not accepted by us as a reasonable way to respond to what is there sieved as being the opposite of the system we want at this particular moment to stick to the original agreement that there would be no parts of the system which would. compromise which would. create three six for the strategic stability and for the but then in the strategic stability area and they made a strategic arsenals of the participants of the system. the taliban is calling the assassination of the afghan president's half brother its biggest achievement in a decade the khandahar province chief was gunned down by one of his bodyguards on

tuesday journalist gerry van dyke who survived taliban captivity says the death is a blow to the u.s. led war effort while the cars it was not just the governor or the shadow governor of kandahar he was the most powerful and the most popular person throughout all of southern afghanistan this shows that right now with the canadian troops pulling out and with the u.s. trying to now focus on eastern afghanistan feeling that they have controlled the south there is now a vacuum who is in power who can the west rely upon. and i've also heard and others have reported that he was responsible for perhaps starting to bring the taliban together with the united states to negotiate they killed the person who had all the information we do know that there's a power vacuum throughout all of southern afghanistan he who holds kandahar holds that country because in the one nine hundred eighty s. when i worked as

a route newspaper reporter in afghanistan there were negotiations between the mujahideen the united states the soviet union pakistan pakistan does not want to watch from the sidelines when pakistan says that there should be direct negotiations between the united states and the taliban what it is also saying is that pakistan wants to be at the table also because don't forget most of your viewers know this the leadership of the taliban is not enough gana stand like al-qaeda it is in pakistan it cannot operate there independently it has to have institutional backing. i'll be back with a recap of our top stories in just a few moments stay with us.

this. disciplinary. work. the penitentiary system transform a criminal into a law abiding citizen. present life behind bars on r.g.p. . welcome

back you're watching are the live from moscow and today's let's take a look at today's news and the week's top stories we're covering cruz started the saumur task of lifting the ship that gravelly one down in the volga river last sunday taking nearly one hundred thirty lives relatives and investigators hope for easing the vessel will help establish why the disaster occurred. tycoon publicly it's humbled by the same history as loyal allies leave and the police close in on both sides of the atlantic and use mobile faces a grilling by british m.p.'s and allegations of hacking the phones of nine eleven

victims. losing battles but winning the war of the libyan rebels earn foreign recognition and access to get out of the essence but their finer struggle to get to grips on the ground the opposition is failing to advance with a strategic oil town suffering heavy casualties. plus the west to empty wallet as america and the eurozone race to save their collapsing economies in the face of soaring debt and plummeting credit scores the u.s. congress needs to raise the debt ceiling to avoid default while italy is on the verge of needing a bailout. next year is from the captain of a vessel whose cruel left to the rescue of survivors in the volga river tragedy last weekend. kaplan is out and thank you very much for this interview was the first to come to the rescue of the sinking cruise ship will garia 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 realised that it was the pleasure boat boat garia 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.