camas 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 didn't is that 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 the broken window and the sailor started pushing people out through it at that moment waves 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 the sunken ship it was a terrifying picture i have to say despite a huge search and rescue operation after the initial survivors were picked up a few others were found. the divers and cranes working in this water have been trying to recover just something of the lives lost and families destroyed in those few terrible minutes but they've also been working on the question that cost so much why did the bulgaria sink and sink so fast. as the list of bodies recovered from the ship grew so did the number of revelations about an aging dangerous and badly managed vessel eyewitnesses and people connected with the ship came forward

with damning accounts of its poor condition and the stingy management who forced it to keep sailing. i became captain of the vessel in two thousand and seven 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. signal or tunnel instructions could be issued and blocked emergency exits criminal cases have been opened and arrests been made into 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 pictures on their mobile

phones. all the passengers were shocked there were about seventeen people on a raft many had cuts and injuries that were bleeding we yelled for help i saw the board passers by in a different direction towards. the slow process of raising the area 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 of voidable shipping disasters tom bottom. interview with r t the captain of the ship who helped rescue most of the survivors from the bulgaria has described the horrific scene you can watch his dramatic account in around twenty

minutes time or on our website or two dot com. britain's most senior police officer has resigned the latest high profile casualty caught up in the news of the world phone hacking scandal which continues to escalate sir paul stephenson quit as metropolitan police commissioner following revelations of he hired a former deputy editor of the paper who'd been arrested by his own officers investigating illegal accessing of mobile phones and corruption hours earlier the former news of the world editor rebecca brooks was arrested as part of the same inquiry media analyst phil grease says that 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 where the celebrities have been arrested so actually manipulating the rest of people is actually a practice it 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 weed out those people who've 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. 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 to 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 you know members of parliament select committee things 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 it's it's 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's 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 laura amid reports it's a watershed moment for the cozy relationship between britain's politicians and

press but every media outlet in turn on t.v. . even the scary to when art imitates life the long running simpsons takes a shot at its 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 and nine as which the police have have since about two thousand and four two thousand and five and yet they promise facie evidence of criminal activity by the. individuals and boy are 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.

short 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 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.

good that would suit the government just fine the british press is famous for its sharp teeth and no holds barred doggedness particularly where its own government is concerned prime minister david cameron has all but shut down the press complaints commission and already talks of statutory controls to govern print journalists back in springfield mr burns is to water it as the townspeople open up their own newspaper and he's almost right we possible can truly the media. rupert murdoch. murdoch found as did mr perkins that you just can't all the newspapers those outside his control have been gunning for him for years and this time a. may have sixty dates just as he gets set to consolidate control section of the e.u. case media markets being pulled out from under him and it's only if they hate scandal

now revealed that the police have known about it for you know where and it's. still ahead this hour the dangers of a debt default. we examine why the u.s. is on the brink of a financial nightmare and what it might do to try to avoid it. square a four wheeled frenzy as high speed formula one super cars screech through the center of moscow. 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 karzai his 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 has started handing over control of some of afghanistan's territories

to local security forces but journalist jerry van dyke who was once held hostage by the taliban says u.s. led efforts in the region have been seriously undermined by the death of karzai brother. 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 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. new nato airstrikes have hit the suburbs of the libyan capital tripoli as colonel qadhafi valve's he'll never leave his country this comes after his opponents have been recognized as the legitimate governing authority by over thirty nations led by the u.s. they said they would deal with of the rebel transitional national council until an interim government is in place the measures that give the insurgents access to gadhafi the assets including billions of dollars which have been frozen in american banks but as a political commentator ted rall says the move mark a radical shift. 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 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 enjoy 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. around benghazi so it's realistic to assume that that is not still the case the u.s. doesn't 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 against the really going to happen. the recognition of the rebels by more nations may bolster their spirit but it's a different story in combat fierce fighting for a key eastern oil town has ended up with heavy opposition casualties as daniel bushell reports it's thought france is now trying the tactic of talks with the libyan regime after failing to deliver a knockout blow to gadhafi. books is like bragging it will destroy the republicans they're often wrong and gets a surprise. french foreign minister ship a boosted france would libya in quote days or weeks the war's into a fourth month no final round inside nicolas sarkozy with his western allies seem shocked their little opponents fighting back well it's not just an embarrassment for sarkozy it's an embarrassment for all nato for the whole west

paris even admits libya's rebels will return some somalia. went to libya for training within the last two or three years. 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. really. giving. none of. this. witnesses. of libya's causing widespread atrocities for every one military personnel that was supposedly a casualty there were ten civilians frauds categorically ruled out sending troops

but predict is the only way they'll 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 warning foreign bombs would bring havoc in libya. support. lloyd lee diplomat speak for a. while with elections just more in months away thought voices that 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. is easy jogging for excessive sweating is understandable this is libyan spring is turning into a marathon don't you see paris. russia's foreign minister was in the u.s. capital this week to get clarification on washington's missile defense agenda

america is steaming ahead with deployment of its anti-missile shield in europe despite objections from moscow the u.s. claims the project is aimed at protection against an attack by iran or north korea but russia feels the system could threaten its own national security moscow has suggested a joint missile defense program but that being brushed aside by washington and nato the u.s. is also refusing to provide a legally binding guarantees that its proposed system is not aimed against russia sergey lavrov stressed the voice of radio voice of russia radio in washington needed 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 your sieved as being the purpose 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 szell in the strategic stability area namely strategic arsenals of the participants so this isn't. now let's have a brief 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 were reportedly working to bring the eighty three year old to consciousness but health officials and state t.v. have deny the information saying mubarak's condition is stable comes after the country's prime minister reshuffled his cabinet in response to renewed public protests demanding political reform. venezuelan 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 and downs over his fitness to leave the country but 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 of the nation's fourteen point three trillion dollar debt ceiling is looming ever closer as lawmakers struggle to find a solution president obama is urging democrats and republicans to ignore their differences to avert armageddon its credit rating agencies say there's a risk of the u.s. could fail to resolve the deadlock quickly or effectively but zeke miller from the business insider website says both parties understand the dangers of further borrowing. and the impact on the u.s. economy the world economy and the global economy really depends on what the credit

agencies do and you know we heard from moody's on wednesday and then from s. and p. both warning severe consequences if the government doesn't raise the debt ceiling in time including a possible downgrade from the government's aaa rating and that increases borrowing costs not just for the federal government but for seven thousand across the. country the united states i don't think anybody thinks united states is getting away with this any longer you know they've sort of reached the point where every everybody in both parties agrees that the debt is just too high and they're just they can't borrow any more you can't be borrowing for you know specific annual expenditures it's not a sustainable model for any country if this debt ceiling goes up or if the u.s. credit rating is downgraded and that would have you know sort of the current the current recession and slow down the recovery. things are a little better in europe with italy now the focus of stopping the euro zone heading into oblivion rome's approved a tough seventy billion euro cuts package to avoid a dead wipeout the euro zone's third largest economy and could prove too big for

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

there's no bailout really impressed by these rich northern countries and therefore the other countries have to think of some way of getting by and that's going to be default. several moscow streets were impassable on sunday afternoon but not because of the tories traffic jams they were sealed off to temporarily become the realm of the fast and the furious in a high octane performance formula one drivers burn some serious rubber against the amazing backdrop of the kremlin was was part of the annual moscow city racing show featuring famous f one stars and the winners of world round championships it's a taste of things to come for russian f one fans as the country will. it's own grand prix in three years time. i'll be back to recap today's and of this week's main stories for you in just a few moments stay tuned r.t. .

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bringing you the latest news and information from around the world this is direct from russia's capital moscow. a cable has a forced rescuers to restart the complicated operation to lift the massive cruiser that sank a week ago claiming one hundred twenty nine lives. and the murdoch media phone hacking scandal claims another v.i.p. scalp britain's top cop quits over police connections to. journalists suspected of criminal behavior former news international chief executive and news of the world editor rebecca brooks was arrested earlier in the day in london. and the libyan rebels have been recognized as

a legitimate governing authority in the country by thirty other countries but colonel gadhafi remains defiant and valves never to leave libya as nato airstrikes continue. and a transatlantic a cash crunch as america struggles to raise its debt ceiling in time to avert a default while the euro crisis spreads adding more pressure on the single currency . hears from the captain of a vessel whose crew leapt to the rescue of survivors in the volga river tragedy last week. captain is out and thank you very much for this interview was the first to come to the rescue of the sinking cruise ship bulgaria how did you get to know about the tragedy. yes we were the first to help and we were sailing in the same direction as the bulgaria and we picked up on the radio just bits of conversations between some

ships we couldn't make out what the ships were but we heard them talk of seeing people overboard and speculating that it looked like a boat or a small ship had capsized once we heard that we put on more speed to get there faster when we did arrive at the tragedy site we saw terrible things and only when we realized that it was the pleasure boat area that it sunk did the true scope of the disaster strike us. how long did it take you to get to the scene. of a particular i mean i would say about five to ten minutes fifteen at most from the moment we heard the radio talk but it all happened very quickly as we were nearing the site we began to figure out how many people there were in the water although that was hard to do because there was a lot of rubble floating around as well it was very hard to pick out individual people from among the floating debris it was truly a tragic picture that we saw what condition where these people where they panic stricken where the song. when we got them on board we.