let in all the water and some of the ship once they have found out they'll swap to seal that hole and all the other gaps on the ship so that once it's partially raised to 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 a mountain of cuddly toys never to be played with they the flowers and candles are testament to the children among those who drowned when the pleasure boat to bulgaria sank in the volga last sunday. the most we studied 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 i didn't like it is that people were basically buried alive in china 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 the broken window and the cellar started pushing people out through it at that moment. we've 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 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 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 the 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. . tunnel instructions could be issues and blocks emergency exits criminal cases

have been opened and arrests being made into the bulgaria sinking and more controversially into why two ships which reach the scene before the arabella didn't pick up a single person but reports the crew members instead took pictures on their mobile phones. all the passengers were shocked there were people on a raft many hundreds cuts and injuries that were bleeding we yelled for help i saw the boards 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 play room 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 party. the captain of a ship who helped rescue seventy seven people from the sinking bokhari has been describing the horrific disaster scene in a full interview with martin you can see it in full in just over an hour from now or find it online at our website or to don't comment all the latest reports of the intense search and recovery operations since the tragedy happened in can keep up to date there and by the way while you're online remember to check out our you tube channel for videos all the salvage mission. is eve you. believe. it's.

london's police commissioner has resigned as britain's newspaper phone hacking scandal escalates still further it follows revelations he hired a former news of the world journalist as a media adviser at the same time as this force was supposed to be investigating the paper's conduct just before the former news of the world executive rebecca brooks was arrested amid claims of hacking bribing police media analyst and reporter phil research the practice of police being paid for information by the media is not likely to disappear anytime soon. this is a good example of what the police have been doing in the kind of murdoch years they've been using arrests it been leaking they've been paid for telling people when the celebrities have been arrested so actually manipulating the rest of people is actually a practice that has become in trying now in my view as a result of the kind of bribery thing so this would hardly be out of practice but i

don't think it's going to deflect opinion i mean there are so many m.p.'s now and indeed so much of the british establishment which for so long kowtow to murdoch is now prepared to get to the bottom of this and we doubt those people who have been corrupted at different levels remember that four years ago right the police had these bags with i think it was a leaven thousand letters about four thousand celebrities and victims of crime and all these other people and they knew they were taking part investigation and these bags were just left there i mean it's amazing remarkable that it took four years for them to do anything about this meanwhile senior police officers were wining and dining with members of the murdoch empire they were they were meeting them for drinks privately one even hired them at a thousand pounds a day to work for him so you know what does this tell us about the relationship between the police and the news corp employees well it's very very serious and if this can happen at the top of the police look at the example that gives the officers down down the lines now you could well. you know can any organization

properly examine itself but so much is at stake but if that operation is seen to be corrupted as well i think we've got you know an even bigger problem i think so many people now are watching it including members of parliament select committees the investigative bodies within the british political system they're all all eyes are on this let alone all the journalists who are looking at what's going on so i think that the ramifications of this is so big i mean you know britain is this is shaking at this each day it's headline news and people are asking who's next. meanwhile rupert murdoch is trying to rescue news corp's crumbling reputation he spent the last forty eight hours apologizing for the phone hacking scandal with full page newspaper adverts while also meeting the family of a murdered teenager whose voicemail was intercepted and his lawyer and that report is a watershed moment for the cozy relationship between britain's politicians and press . i bought every media outlet in town t.v.

radio even the scariest when thought 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 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 and nine as which the police have 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. look 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 it 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. producing. all. this. you know. that would suit the govern. 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 we. the media. he is. murdoch found as did mr burton's 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 lot section of the case media markets pulled out from under him and it's all over the hidden scandal now revealed that the police have known about it for years.

the dangers of a debt default seven while the us is on the brink of a financial nightmare and what it might do to try to avoid. square a four wheeled frenzy is high speed formula one super car screech through the center of moscow. a new round of nato airstrikes. of the libyan capital tripoli as colonel gadhafi valid never to leave his country in the face of assaults by the rebels this comes after the opposition became the legitimate authority in the country in the eyes of more nations the u.s. and more than thirty other states recognize them would have diplomatic meeting on friday saying they would deal with them until an interim government is in place recognition by the contact group in libya also gives the rebels access to billions of dollars of gadhafi has frozen assets in u.s. banks. imitated ted rall 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 capital 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 taliban and 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 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 of jihadi even around benghazi so it's realistic 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 can't. really going to happen. the high level recognition of the rebels may bolster their spirit but it's a different story in combat as fighting for a key eastern oil town has ended with heavy casualties among the opposition as daniel bushell reports it's france is now trying the talking tactic with the libyan regime off to failing to deliver a knockout blow to gadhafi. books is like bragging they'll destroy their riposte moves their often room gets a mill steve surprise the with. french foreign minister ship a boasted france would win libya in quote days or weeks the war's into a fourth month the final round inside nicolas sarkozy with his western ally. seems 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 all the libya's rebels but it and some somalia. went to libya for training within the last two or three years thus 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 in libya must be questioned because in some cases of it we are effectively arming al-qaeda. it's all making a mockery of the un vote on foreign intervention in the country. none of. this. witnesses. of libya's causing widespread atrocities for every. military person that was supposedly a casualty there were ten should be oh yeah. frauds categorically ruled out sending

troops but it's predicted is the only way mail to break the libyan deadlock the moves the splitting the nato coalition silvio berlusconi head of keep italy admits invading libya was a mistake. did the us vote for and bombs would bring havoc in libya. said the latest count supports the love ruffle quote lloyd lee diplomat speak for a blazing row with elections just more in months away sako advisers 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. because these are jogging excessive sweating is understandable this is libyan spring is turning into a marathon the new bush will see paris. a senior advisor to the afghan president

hamid karzai and a member of parliament have been killed during a suicide attack in the capital kabul the incident comes less than a week after a car sized half brother was assassinated the taliban claimed responsibility for the killing describing it as one of its biggest achievements in a decade meanwhile the u.s. led coalition started handing over control of some afghanistan's territories to local security forces but general is jere van dyke has been held hostage by the taliban and says u.s. led efforts in the region were seriously undermined by the. full conference progress. while the karzai 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 you know what 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 therefore 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 journalist gerry van dyke commenting on the killing of the afghan president's half brother. now let's have a brief look at some other stories from around the world at this stage of the day egypt's former president hosni mubarak has suffered a stroke and is in a coma according to his lawyers doctors were reportedly working to bring the eighty three year old leader to consciousness but health officials and state t.v.

have denied the information saying condition is stable it comes after the country's prime minister reshuffled his cabinet in response to renewed public protests demanding political reform. but israel and president hugo chavez is back in cuba for more cancer treatment including chemotherapy no more malignant cells have been found after he had surgery to remove a tumor from his pelvic region he's 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 plans to run for reelection next year. 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 leaving credit rating agencies say there is

a risk the u.s. could fail to resolve the deadlock quickly or effectively economist dr roger von hand there says the disagreement on capitol hill is interfering with attempts to reach a solution. 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 larger. 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 us is unable to help europe that will in turn take the us 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 in the frying. monetary relationship is an all time low and that portends trouble for the future the best two currencies probably are there we 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. things are little better in europe with italy now the focus is stopping the euro zone heading into oblivion rooms approved a tough seventy billion euro cut package to avoid the much needed bailout or perhaps a possible bailed out it's the euro zone's third largest economy and could prove too big for its neighbors to save me eight out of ninety european banks have failed stress tests to see if they could survive another financial crisis financial writer patrick young says that the italian people's response to the budget cuts will echo what's happened in greece. no. there will be one significant difference between the people who take to the streets between greece and italy and that is 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 for see the fact that silvio berlusconi due to 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 there are big problems in western europe they haven to be more definitely to the east everyone was talking fortunately expect further surprises because the epidemic the contagion seems to be spreading and we have new political leadership seeming to do with. several moscow streets were impassable on sunday afternoon but not because of the notorious traffic jams they were sealed off to temporarily become the realm of the fast and the furious and a high octane performance formula one drivers burn some serious rubber against the amazing backdrop. that was part of the annual moscow city racing show featuring

famous f one stars and the winners of the world rally championships as a taste of things to come from russian f one fans as the country will get its own person in three days time. no different to the driving we normally see here in the russian capital now we're discovering another part of russia with in just a few moments but before that i'll be back with a recap of our top stories stay with us live here in moscow.

wealthy british. markets. find out what's really happening to the global economy with. no holds barred look at the global financial headlines khans a report on. the move. the branding period.

to. treat. today's top stories and the review of the week from r.t. rescuers are preparing to lift the 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 it's hoped the operation will provide answers as to why the catastrophe happened. britain's top cop quits is the focus of the fury over the phone hacking scandal surrounding the u.k. press switches to the police company's former news international c.e.o. rebecca brooks was arrested earlier in the day. libyan rebels now have full diplomatic recognition from washington and with access to colonel gadhafi assets frozen in the u.s. meanwhile nato has intensified attacks on the capital tripoli in an effort to oust

the libyan leader never to leave. class intercontinental cash crunch america faces up to the possibility of default 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 meeting a boehner. lobby back here with more on those stories in less than thirty minutes from now in the meantime we take you into the heart of siberia where east meets west. the region deep in the far east is one of russia's newest territories. two thousand and eight it brought together the chip. regions and with it a striking mix of asian and european culture. traveling around you can find

buddhist temples spooling national parks and remote villages that still practice traditions that date back a thousand years but if you're flying here in the regions vibrant capital. one of. course the best way to get to know is to have a local show you around. a bit of. in the. just over three hundred thousand people and it's a real mismatch of styles it's one of the only cities in russia that's based on a grid system and the downtown area has some beautiful european influenced. but. the more soviet and industrial it becomes. this is a great way to see.