divers are going to have to first of all try and find essentially the hole that let in all the water and some of the ship once they have found out they'll want to seal that hole and all the other gaps on the ship so that once it's partially raised they'll be able to pump out the water from the ship making it light enough to raise it more easily a very complex operation visibility in the water is very poor for the divers there's a lot of algae in the water at this time and so it's proving to be a drawn out process but one that is crucial for all those people waiting for answers tom obviously as you were saying a very complicated and a perception job indeed bringing up the bulgaria from the riverbed obviously recovering the vessel will make a major difference to the investigation what it. absolutely it will i mean divers and the emergencies ministry here plan to try and make any information that the divers find available as soon as possible for investigators and investigators are certainly wanting to know that crucial question why this ship sank so fast what

an earth could have gone wrong also people wanted to know that's our relatives not just the relatives of the fifteen people still missing but all the relatives and the survivors who are waiting on the banks for any news as to how this tragedy could have happened some arrests have already been made including the lady who's the owner of the company who rented to bulgaria for what would be its final voyage and also a shipping expert people connected with the ship that may have known what has people these revelations keep coming out about the appallingly poor and decrepit condition of the ship and various other revelations have come out it's hoped that as the ship is raised what has been a mystery for so long move very quickly be revealed what caused the ship to sink so fast and to cause such immense tragedy we prepared a special report looking at the background of the tragedy since it happened this afternoon last sunday. day and we will show you that report now which shows all the

background to this tragedy. a mountain of cuddly toys never to be played with they the flowers and candles are testament to the children among those who drowned in the pleasure boat the belgariad sank in the volga last sunday. we started together for a year she never had arguments with anyone 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 even just as our people were basically buried alive in giant 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 deejay for the disco on the bottom deck he only just managed to escape. and i remember clearly that water was rising very quickly it was a matter of seconds i survived because we saw a broken window in the cellar 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 and 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. 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 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 aging dangerous and badly managed vessel eyewitnesses 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 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 electricity 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 been made to the bulgaria sinking and more controversially into why two ships which reached the scene before the arab didn't pick up a single person but reports the crew members instead took the pictures. show

there were people on a raft many how. we. get different direction towards. the slow process of raising the bulgaria has now started up with it will come the potential. but also terrible memories in particular associated with the ships plane or a group of children 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. did help to rescue seventy seven people. has been describing the horrific disaster so you. see you can see. right now at our website.

reports on the intense search and recovery operation since the tragedy happened you can keep up to date. check out our you tube videos on the salvage mission. is he. you're watching the weekly here on artsy the former chief executive all british newspaper has been arrested by police investigating allegations of phone hacking bribery rebecca brooks is the tenth person to be detained in connection with the scandal that's in. the now defunct news of the world it comes as prime minister

david cameron admits he's held more than twenty meetings with murdoch executives in the past year murdoch is now desperately trying to rescue news cause crumbling reputation today the media mogul made a second apology for the phone hacking scandal here already admitted serious wrongdoing on the pages of british newspapers and the family of a murdered teenager whose voicemail was intercepted and as artie's a lorrimer reports it's a watershed moment for the cozy relationship between britain's politicians and press. good every media outlet in town t.v. we read you even the scale rate is when the art imitates life the long running simpsons takes a shot at its own no 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 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 sky b. into investing in the times and if you are for example or 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 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 possible can truly the media.

of rupert murdoch he is one beautiful man 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 looks set to consolidate control over a launch section of the u.k.'s 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 years nor ever its artsy. richard artist who runs a media education fund believes it's naive to assume it's only the tabloids which are capitalizing on the dodgy data. where this does become a question for national security is the idea that police are selling private phone numbers and private contact details of people like the royal family and the prime minister obviously is not necessarily the same to sell these things to

a newspaper as it would be to sell them to a terrorist organization but if you can do one you may be able to do the other so it's very serious the whole edifice of news international is deeply intertwined with the downing street machine all that has yet to come out and will cause a lot more headaches but i think what people i talk to and. expecting is for the scandal to go up through the chief executive of news international to james murdoch and james murdoch himself many people say should step down whether he's for. this escape without serious damage is also doubtful although i don't think he's going to retire or leave the helm of the company. you're watching the weekly here on r t it's good to have your company on this sunday and so i had to give us our worries about debt default we had some of us on the brink of a financial nightmare what it might do to try to avoid it. in a field of frenzy as

a high speed formula one suit because of race so right through the center of moscow . a new round of nato airstrikes has rattled the suburbs of the libyan capital tripoli as kind of gadhafi vowed never to leave his country in the face of assaults by the alliance on the rebels this comes after the opposition became the legitimate authority in the country in the eyes of more nations the u.s. more than thirty other states are recognize them but a diplomatic meeting on friday saying they would deal with them until an interim government is in place the recognition of by the contact group on libya also gives the rebels access to billions of dollars of khadafi pros and assets in u.s. banks political commentator ted rall it says the move is a radical shift from the international standpoint. the united states usually doesn't extend diplomatic recognition to a regime that is not in the counting all that is region 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 they 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 i mean 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 to find these even around. gazi so it's realistic to assume that that is not still the case the us is amazing it should be skids full of hundred dollar bills to third world countries and expecting them to end up in the right can't. really. high level recognition of the rebels may bolster their spirit but it's a different story and combat fierce fighting for

a key eastern oil town has ended with heavy casualties among the opposition and as artie's daniel bushell reports it's thought now that france is trying the talking tactic with the libyan regime after failing to deliver a knockout blow to khadafi. books is like bragging will destroy the reporter lives they're often wrong and gets a surprise. french foreign minister should pay both did france would with libya in quote days or weeks the war's into a fourth month no final round inside nicolas sarkozy with his western allies seems 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 being libya's rebels but on some somalia. went to libya for

training within the last two or three years just 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 u.n. vote on foreign intervention because a tree. giving. none of. this. witnesses to libya's causing widespread atrocities for every one military personnel that was supposedly a casualty there were ten civilians for all it's categorically ruled out cindy grilled troops predict is the only way mail to break the libyan deadlock the moves of splitting the nato coalition silvio berlusconi head of keep italy

admits invading libya was a mistake rocher up steam did the un's vote warning would bring havoc in libya which said belated support. loire valley diplomats speak for. with elections just more in months away psagot advisor said a successful war could resurrect his chances instead one paper writes libya's becoming a slow motion call crash for france's deeply unpopular president. so these a jogging for excessive sweating is understandable this is libyan spring is turning into a marathon and the new bush will see paris. i twenty minutes past the hour here in the russian capital you are with the weekly time is running out for american politicians to agree on the next move in sorting out its soaring debt the deadline to lift the nation's fourteen point three trillion dollars debt ceiling is looming

ever closer as lawmakers struggle to find a compromise president obama is urging democrats and republicans to ignore their differences to avert armageddon leading credit rating agencies say there's a risk the u.s. could fail to resolve the deadlock quickly or effectively economist dr weil. van handwork says the disagreement on capitol hill interfering with attempts to reach a solution. is a personality conflict between the majority leader and the president which is quite unique and this has been taken into the public avenue of 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 problem problems what's required in the u.s.

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 that 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 the monetary relationship is an all time low and that portends trouble for the future the best two currencies probably other norwegian krone in 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 gold is a highly risky proposition. well things are a little better in europe with italy now the focus of stopping the eurozone heading into oblivion rooms approved a tough seventy billion euro cuts 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 what's happened in greece. there will be one significant difference between the people who take to the streets between greece and italy and that is that in 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 for see the fact that silvio berlusconi many of the reasons most of which are outside of the direct school 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 there are big problems in western europe they haven still be here definitely to the east everyone not so fortunately expect further to the crisis because the epidemic the contagion seems to be spreading and we have new political leadership seeming to do with. you with r.t. as we're highlighting the week's top stories here on the weekly but for now let's pause and check out some of today's other international headlines the u.s. led coalition has started handing over control of some of afghanistan's territories to local security forces the central bank region has become the first of seven

areas where that's to happen ahead of the nato combat operations in the country in two thousand and fourteen senior ministers and foreign ambassadors marking the event by visiting the province which remained relatively peaceful throughout the new decade long occupation of afghanistan. venezuelan president hugo chavez is back in with you both for more cancer treatment including my therapy you know more cells have been found after he had surgery to remove a tumor from his a public region he was transferred some powers to his ministers during his absence but didn't agree to opposition calls for a temporary handover of all presidential authority his battle with cancer has raised doubts over his fitness to lead the country but officially he still play. to run for reelection next year. egypt's prime minister has begun a major cabinet reshuffle after public protests demanding political reform again flared up in the country a foreign minister has resigned while two new deputy prime ministers have been tainted the interim prime minister has been forced to make changes after widespread

anger that little appears to have changed at the top since president mubarak was ousted. the taliban has described the assassination of the afghan president's half brother as one of the biggest achievements in a decade the head of kandahar's professional council was gunned down by one of his own body guards on tuesday journalist gerry found dyke who's been held hostage by the taliban says the death is a blow to the u.s. led war effort while the cars i 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 the taliban have claimed responsibility for this but it's not clear that the taliban are responsible it

could very easily be a power struggle 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 their force someone would have had a definite reason perhaps pakistan perhaps the taliban to stop this we don't know yet who is responsible because they killed the person who had all the information. that was our journalist committing on the killing of the afghan president's half brother. several of moscow streets are impassable right now but not because of the notorious traffic jams they've been sealed off to temporarily become the realm of the fast and the furious the annual moscow city racing show is at full throttle in a four wheeled frenzy that drivers pushing the pedal to the metal and outdoing each other tv's top gear team were there to kick it all off rather push it all off to look at this. unlucky ness on plunging seventy meters at the end of

a bungee and there was somebody inside a female member of the audience hopefully well strapped in both woman and machine emerged unscathed and even the heavy rain couldn't stop formula one cars from speeding past the kremlin a sort of rehearsal for the one grand prix which russia will host in three years time. i'll be back with today's and this week's headlines in just a few moments to stay with us.

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welcome back here with the weekly here on our view of the week's top stories now rescuers are preparing to lift a russian cruiser from the bottom of the volga river where it sank in a matter of minutes last sunday claiming around one hundred thirty lives and it's hoped the operation will provide answers as to why the catastrophe happened. apologies keep on coming from rupert murdoch could be unethical practices of one of his newspapers the news a cool boss is now desperately trying to rescue his media empire reputation which has been severely damaged by the phone hacking scandal. libyan rebels now full diplomatic recognition from washington and with access to colonel gadhafi has

assets frozen in the u.s. meanwhile nato has intensified attacks on the capital tripoli in. an effort to oust the libyan leader you've never seen a. class intercontinental cash crunch as america faces up to the possibility of default and europe's debt crisis contagion piles more pressure on the euro the u.s. congress needs to raise the debt ceiling to avoid financial disaster while italy is on the verge of needing a bail out. all that hard to do stay with us so once we follow an anti nuclear campaign by citizens against their governments it's part two of our special report . the follow up from the french test went beyond the polynesian islands it caused outrage in new zealand which took the lead in the anti-nuclear movement and became a black sheep among western countries yes unlike any other country new zealand refused to rely on nuclear weapons for its security but here nuclear technology is

banned it's the law i think a lot of the young people do feel proud about new zealand especially for a policy that people have come complacent and feel as foreign we're safe there are these other issues here i mean a lot of people say people in the peace movement has had beaten out of me is gravy it's the sounds of it that's what people say. even in new zealand it's difficult to find young people concerned about this issue they are more sensitive to the melting of the antarctic and he wants to revitalize the ageing pacifist movement when i'm working at the peace foundation and my role is to use outreach coordinator. recently outreach to tell he to pacific youth fist of all and making all these amazing people from twenty seven different countries in the pacific and i felt for the first time in my life that new zealand was not.