long and lengthy process is going to be needed we were told just recently by a spokesman from the emergencies ministry it's going to take many days before they can begin to even start raising the ship that's going to come as a blow to all the investigators who were hoping for answers to come from the raising of the ship and all the relatives and survivors waiting on the bank for some news of the remaining fifteen bodies 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 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 even focused is that people were basically buried alive and

trying 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 and found 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 legs 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. 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 ageing dangerous and badly managed vessel eyewitnesses people connected with the ship came forward with damning accounts of its poor condition and the stingy management forced it to keep sailing. i became captain of the vessel in two thousand and seven 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 electricity 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 been made to the bulgaria. and more

controversially into why two ships which weeks the scene of. all the hours didn't pick up a single person but reports the crew members instead took three picture on their mobile phones while you're busy. and you. were shown that there were people on a raft many had caught some 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 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 who helped rescue seventy seven people from the sinking bulgaria has been describing the horrific disaster scene in an interview with r.t. and you can see that in full next hour. 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 his force was supposed to be investigating the paper's conduct just hours before that the former news of the world executive rebecca brooks was arrested amid claims of hacking and bribing police media analyst reporter phil reese told me earlier here in r.t. that the practice of police being paid for information by the media is not likely to disappear any time 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 celebrities have been arrested so actually manipulating the arrests 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 different levels remember that four years ago right the police had these bags with i think it was a level one thousand letters about four thousand celebrities and victims of crime and all these other people and they knew they were taking part investigation these bags were just left there i mean it's amazing it's 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 that 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 these are 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 it is shaking at this each day it's headline news and people are asking who's next. phil reese talking to me a little earlier a senior aide to afghan president hamid karzai has been killed in the capital kabul laughter a group of armed men attacked his home it happened on the day the u.s. started handing over control of some of afghanistan's provinces to local security forces and less than a week after the assassination of president karzai brother well for more on these

latest developments some are joined from chicago by steven lemon a progressive radio news host and author stephen the half brother and a kid of the afghan president both killed in less than a week because i was saying just as the u.s. hands over power to local forces in parts of the country what do you make of the timing of this. i think the timing is mostly accidental but i recall an early article i wrote. several years ago i called it the over the last war and i mentioned that it was for. a president not only a story with a small security detail and not be practical the marine division to go and see him . to go to rehear fully but if he came up with a small security. agent he would last five minutes how about the

resistance if ghana's want to liberate their country. or they'll take any opportunity they came here to target any of fish or if you were able in any tour group to really comes out no one would be happy or they want to take your but isn't it more about sending a message to america to nato that by pulling out of some of these provinces they're making a big mistake and it's too early you say the timing was accidental isn't it more symbolic from the taliban. well if if if if if a person killed at any point in time wasn't with their person was it would have to wait for another time so here's this symbolism in paul i would say it's more determination and symbolism bill you know i mean i mean these people are very bitter women liberate their country very brave is exactly what the vietnamese did

they were you know i stand for occupation the afghan resistance which is what i call them they will know i stand for resistance and i think about the elation when growth bill where obama came into office there were thirty thousand u.s. troops near the tree more than triple the number of one hundred thousand now we claim so he says two hundred ten thousand by the end of this year more and a shia well they may change their plans if there's one more important recall involved not only under one hundred thousand u.s. troops about thirty or forty thousand other troops there are well over one hundred thousand private security contractors they include blackwater types they recruit included hired mercenaries you never discussed in the major media so combat forces may come out of private security forces may go in to take their place america came

to afghanistan to stay here not leaving so your saying that really will be no withdrawal as such and yet a bomber is trying to send that message to the american people what may need to score political points ahead of his possible reelection or do you think the american people won't fall for that oh the american people came the fall for all a lot. of why did he stole he so many of our rights his know would grow from iraq or afghanistan there was no we grow from japan from germany. south korea from italy and there were sixty five years ago we'll hear a very strategic reason for being in these countries all the way or grow whatever happens or maybe all of them is if the strategic reasons change but it again is there is a very important votary there's a lot of oil in the caspian area or russia is competing with with america and

america once every way got a game here it's using afghanistan as a quite well i. system to be able to be a living build that you know have been built with a war but it's also a land based aircraft carrier targeting russia targeting show. stephen that the definition between combat troops and support troops now do you think though the afghan forces really going to be able to take control clearly they will still need some help from those support troops not the combat troops because there are reports though from areas of the country that there are areas of stability which should in fact be a sign for hope and indeed if those afghan forces have support from american forces that's going to promote stability further is it not well not certain. in the u.s. if the afghan forces are you know you've reported attacks by afghan forces killing

u.s. forces how we'll can these people be here part of the afghan forces because they need to take your own employment is extremely high in the country these people want your. iraqis want your of so they become part of the forces if americans who are out which would have been poorly built to the americans only road or. maybe even more people will to their own people despite you being very insistent that there is actually no pullout no withdrawal the actual talk of u.s. led forces being pulled up by a bomb. with these timetables it's actually really giving encouragement to the taliban to fight even more it's sending the wrong message could be could be right but i think they're determined anyway and i've written no recently but all maybe a year ago i called a high level u.s. commanders on the ground below the top commanders. including general

officers it meaning the afghan war is lost it cannot be won and our center mysel in this is a fair american wages war is not just a win them but to wage them because the profits are so great the war profiteers one of these wars waged so the afghan war is the longest in u.s. history cheney years from now we may be talking about the air war being a fog of war at least in u.s. history because we view the money ten million dollars ten billion dollars we know or don't read for every month so i had the regular affairs appropriations for the f.b.i. and for all of your defense our aeration this is money the honor and all owing to the war profiteers bill ok stephen thanks very much indeed who knows in ten years' time you and i may still be talking about this thank you very much indeed so even at a progressive radio news host and author joining us live there in chicago if you feel

. the 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 dollar debt ceiling is looming have a closer and nor make a 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 debt not quickly effectively and even if the budget is approved fund managers say it's unlikely to solve the problem of america's debt. you know how do the states already as big. downgrade in the world markets every i'm not the only person who knows that the united states is the largest debtor nation in the history of the world look at the value of the u.s. dollar is down fairly significantly over the past few years they have to increase the debt ceiling for the moment there's no question about that their choice though for the future is they've got to take an axe no they've got to take a chainsaw to government spending and do something about it they're not going to do

that they might announce they're going to do it for this to get the budget ceiling passed but it's not going to have any effect everybody sees that washington is not going to solve this problem and more and more people are looking for something to replace the u.s. dollar. the things a little better in europe with this really now the focus of stopping the eurozone heading into oblivion runs approved a tough seventy billion euro cuts package to avoid the need for a buy not it's the euro zone's third largest economy could prove too big for its neighbors to say meanwhile eight out of ninety european banks have failed stress tests to see if they could survive another financial crisis pretty sure and people not all believe the latest developments prove the single currency union is simply not working. this was always about politics it was not about economics the idea that you could have a colonies in the mediterranean in line with economies like germany fast growing economies like germany was never going to where the only way to get out of this

mess is for those countries to go back on to their national policies to devalue to get growth moving. again exports going in at the moment they can't reduce their debt because they couldn't see these are controlled by frankfurt they're controlled by the european central bank they're not controlled by athens or lisbon or even thought of we see the people out on the streets in athens and i just wonder how long it will be before the people of outlands pizza rolls around in lisbon in tokyo and this thing is contagious this thing will move right across the continent specifically in the mediterranean and the bigger issue now facing the european union is italy italy is the third largest economy in the euro zone of late largest economy in the world i think the euro zone can actually cope with greece and portugal the smaller economies but if italy goes the whole thing could cave in because if italy goes it's all these economy is intertwined with spain's and of spain and italy go then we are in serious trouble

a new round of nato airstrikes as rattle the suburbs of the libyan capital tripoli as colonel gadhafi valid never to leave his country in the face of assaults by the alliance and 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 in a diplomatic meeting on friday saying he would deal with them until an interim government is in place recognition by the contact group on libya also gives the rebels access to billions of dollars of gadhafi is frozen assets in u.s. banks but it will commentator ted rall says the move is a radical shift from the international stamp. 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 six to two thousand and one civil conflict there between the taleban and 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 if the u.s. knows who these people are they're not saying and certainly there's no doubt that traditionally there's always been a very high component of jihadi he's been around benghazi so it's unrealistic to assume that that is not still the case the u.s. has an amazing habit of shipping skids full of hundred dollar bills to third world countries and expecting them to end up in the right hands and that's not really going to happen. now let's have a quick look at some other stories from around the globe egypt's former president hosni mubarak has suffered a stroke and is in a coma according to his lawyers doctors reportedly working to bring the eighty three year old deposed leader to consciousness but health officials and state t.v.

have denied saying the barracks condition is stable becomes of the country's prime minister reshuffled his cabinet in response to renewed public protests demanding political reform. and that is why the president hugo chavez is back in cuba for more cancer treatment including chemotherapy and more malignant cells have been found after he had surgery to remove a tumor from his pelvic region and 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 he's battled cancer has raised doubts over his fitness to leave the country but officially he still plans to run for reelection next year. or constitutionally speaking charges could be way for up to one hundred eighty days at which point a vice president will be sworn in to act as president until the next elections well for more on the situation there now let's speak to it right away venezuela based journalist you've got a job thanks very much for being with us here on r.t.

so hugo chavez says that he still plans to run for reelection next year but just how much of an issue of these health problems to. his holding on to power there in venezuela. well chavez isn't holding on to power first of all i mean he's been elected each time that he has been in office and certainly were he to run again most likely as polls showed today he would win so it would be an election of the people it's not a hold on power and of course i mean no one knows no one ever knows the can happen with your house you know he's trying his best right now as he calls it himself he's fighting the greatest battle of his life to come out of this situation on top and so far he's been doing excellently i mean he had the humor extracted in june you know more cells have been found malignant cancer cells have been found his body obviously the chemotherapy is a necessary precaution he's going to do it and you know he has the right attitude

he has a positive optimistic attitude so as long as all things go well scientifically and medically personally physically emotionally he should be fine but nevertheless he is having to delegate for the first time ever could this not though we can his position i don't think so i mean basically the functions that he's delegated are administratively nature and i mean there are things that he could continue to do i mean he's not going to be mentally incapacitated you know he's just going to be physically distant and you know going undergoing treatment. but he still will remain in front of government i mean they activated an electronic signature so he can sign a sorry document he's going to be via teleconference on different cabinet meetings and of course he's already i mean even though he's getting his first chemo today he's tweeting about things happening in the country here he's watching it on t.v. involving everything. people are quite surprised he has gone back to cuba or not

stayed in his country those questions have been raised and you would have thought to be a lot easier for him to keep an eye on what's going on if he stayed in caracas not really in fact the opposition was primarily speculating and pushing for him to go to brazil i mean it just so happens you know the opposition. it's value is very right wing it is very anti cuba and so they have a thing against cuba were he to have chosen to go to brazil i don't think that their attitude would have been the same whatsoever were he to have chosen to go to the united states they probably wouldn't have said a word about it so it's really just because it's cuba it's an old nemesis you know the latin american right wing and so there's certain old fears are stirred around that by i mean again the powers that he's delicate delegated are administrative it's really about signing necessary financial documents things that he could do by it would be better and more efficient to have the vice president do it but in the first let me just let me just ask you though he has been a clear opponent of washington with his alliances with cuba of course iran and syria there are some who say that his health problems could be exploited by the

u.s. to try to remove him. they are being exploited by the u.s. and in fact for in what ways you are there with those on the opposition well one is through sort of a psychological campaign in media just trying to portray this perception of a weak charges of an ailing chavez of a terminally ill child is in trying to sort of send what he has that wasn't as though it will. have a charge i mean he's already gone through the biggest part of this which was obviously the surgery and coming out of it not having lingering cells i think we all pretty much are familiar with what chemotherapy and luckily i mean he's in he's in a good spot none of his organs have been affected it's not a cancer of an organ you know if there was no spread whatsoever i mean he has pretty good chances so that the image though being projected and yes i mean he has fallen els so it's a surprise and and a shock for many in venice weller but again we've seen him over the past few days a strong passionate chavez singing as he usually does in advance and i mean sort of

back to as much as he can being his usual level of energy and recognizing at the same time the necessity to delegate and not just because he has to undergo medical treatment but because he needs to do that anyway i mean he's someone who because of his own feeling and anxiety and responsibility of the things that need to be done in this country has taken it all upon himself and nobody can do that i mean he's tried to do it and it's taken a toll on his body so i think that delegating part is going to be a very good result overall for venezuela and those sectors in venezuela that try somehow to say that this is a power vacuum or i would just remind people that in the united states ronald reagan had three cancers during his presidency and in fact was operated on in one thousand were right before reelection he was reelected and he was one of the most remembered presidents of the united states all right thanks so much we've run out of time thanks very much for joining us live there in caracas and we'll all be back

with a recap of our top stories for you in just a few moments stay with us live in moscow. for the full story we've got it for. the biggest issues get a human voice face to face with the news makers. wealthy british scientists it's time to listen. to the. markets why not.

find out what's really happening to the global economy in cars a report on. today's top stories in the review of the week from monty emergency crews are striving to lift a russian cruiser from the bottom of the volga river after the first attempt failed the operation will provide answers to the catastrophe that claimed one hundred twenty nine lives. britain's top cop quits as the focus of the ferrari of the phone hacking scandal surrounding the u.k. press switches to the police comes as former news international c.e.o. rebecca brooks was arrested earlier in the day. libyan rebels now have full diplomatic recognition from washington with access to colonel gadhafi assets frozen in the us meanwhile nato has intensified attacks on the capital tripoli in an effort to oust the libyan leader never something. plus intercontinental cash

crunch america faces up to the possibility of the full europe's debt crisis. as contagion piles more pressure on the euro u.s. congress needs to raise the debt ceiling to avoid financial disaster while it is on the verge of a bank. well up next you can watch the first part of our special report about anti nuclear activists who are trying to open the world's eyes to the danger of atomic disaster that's our special report. the nuclear age is over sixty years old richard peddie can he can describe exactly how an underground test was done. there were three two one zero almost you couldn't hear anything about there was no noise at all in the ground lifted up. we live under the threat of increasingly sophisticated weapons. in two thousand one hundred

eighty eight states parties to the nonproliferation treaty signed on to a statement providing for an unequivocal undertaking to the total elimination of nuclear weapons it has been set back by principally the united states but not alone russia france china the u.k. all have their share responsibility. disarmament agreements are not being honored. what is happening now it is that their role is intact pantries are able to write a draft should over international law because there isn't sufficient body of protest from within that country ordering them to these basic principles. french polynesia thrust into the midst of the nuclear tests. and when we accompanied them to ground zero with guns pointed ready to fire who are we going to fire at i wonder who can maybe crabs. yep we're going to be there was a or.