never to be played with they the flowers and candles a testament to the children among those who drowned in the pleasure boat the bulgarian 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 didn't talk 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 slicks 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 through communed two 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 dog. the 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 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 a damning account of its poor condition and the stingy management forced 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 portal forat least 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 tails a 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 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 about seventeen people on a raft many had. cuts and injuries that were bleeding we yelled for help i saw the

boats passes by in a different direction towards. the slow process of raising the bulgaria has now started up with it will come the potential for us 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. in an exclusive interview with the captain of a ship who helped rescue most of the survivors from the bulgaria as described the horrific scene you can watch his dramatic account in twenty minutes here on our t.v. or on our website or to 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 commissioner following revelations 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 the former news of the world editor back of brooks was arrested and questioned for twelve hours as part of the same probe before being released on bail media analyst phil reese says 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 they've 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 isn't it 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 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 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 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 to 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 you know 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 is 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's spent the last forty eight hours apologizing for the phone hacking scandal with full page newspaper advertisements while also meeting the family of a murdered teenager whose voicemail was intercepted and reports it's a watershed moment for the cozy relationship between britain's politicians and the press. but every media outlet in turn on t.v. read you even the sky rated when 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 have 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. b. sky. 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. this. 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's thwarted as the townspeople opened up their own newspaper and he's almost right we possible can truly the media. rupert murdoch he is 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 think it is 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 and it's all to. go 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. and rover square a four wheeled frenzy has high speed formula one super cars screech through the center of moscow. new nato airstrikes have hit the suburbs of the libyan capital tripoli now. 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 the rebel transitional national council until an interim government is in place new measures that give the insurgents access to cut off his assets including billions of dollars which have been frozen in american banks but as political commentator ted rall says the move marks

a radical shift in 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 in the northern alliance the northern alliance were the former regime that had power in kabul and they enjoyed diplomatic relations with the west even though the taleban controlled ninety five percent of the country it's almost just wishful thinking and frankly if i were a diplomat i would find it disturbing it's a bizarre situation if the u.s. knows who these people are they're not seeing and certainly there's no doubt that traditionally there's always been a very high component to jihad these even around bin ghazi so it's unrealistic to assume that that is not still the case the u.s. has an amazing how it should be 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. 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 with heavy opposition casualties as daniel bushell reported thought now that france is trying the tactic of talks with the libyan regime after failing to deliver a knockout blow to khadafi. books as lloyd bragging will destroy their reported lives they're often wrong and gets a mill city surprise. french foreign minister they both did falls with when libya implodes days or weeks the war's into a fourth month the final round inside. sarkozy with his western allies seeing shultz 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 all being libya's rebels but on some somalia. when should they be up 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 has become train. leading it was a good person. giving. none of. this. witnesses the two of libya's causing widespread atrocities for every one military person that was supposedly a casualty there were ten civilians for all to categorically ruled out saying what

the real troops protect but predict is the only way you know it's a great libyan. the moves the splitting the nato coalition silvio berlusconi head of keep italy admits invading libya was a mistake rocher up staying did the us vote will be bombs would bring havoc in libya which would you pay said the latest tool to help support so you could have ruffle coats lloyd lead diplomats meet. with elections just annoying months away saw go advisors said a successful war could resurrect his chances instead one paper writes libya's becoming a slow motion crash for france's deeply unpopular president. so because these a jogging for excessive sweating is understandable this is libyan spring is turning into a mouse and the new bush will see paris. now let's have

a brief look at some other stories from around the globe. egypt's former president hosni mubarak has suffered a heart attack and is in a coma according to his lawyers but denied by health officials and state t.v. doctors were reportedly working to bring the eighty three year old deposed leader to consciousness speculation about mubarak's condition has intensified as the date of his trial on charges of corruption and the on lawful killing of protesters approaches. 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 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 leave the country but he still plans to run for re-election next year. a senior aide and

a close ally to afghan president hamid karzai has been killed in the capital kabul after a group of armed men attacked his home a member of parliament also died in the attack the taliban said it was responsible claiming it was one of their biggest achievements in the decade the attack happened on the day the u.s. started handing over control of some of afghanistan's provinces to local security forces and a less than a week after the assassination of president karzai his half brother. the clock is ticking for american politicians to agree on the next move in sorting out its massive national debt to avert the looming possibility of default august second is the deadline for raising the nation's fourteen point three trillion dollars debt ceiling president obama has urged the republican controlled house of representatives to come up with whatever mechanisms it can to ensure the u.s. can continue to pay its bills analysts say if washington lacks the money interest

rates could skyrocket and the value of the dollar could decline the seriousness of the situation was reinforced when two rating agencies threatened to downgrade the united states' prize to aaa rating but even if the budget were approved investor jim rogers says it's unlikely to solve america's debt problem. you know to the states already has been downgraded in the world markets every i'm not the only person who knows that 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 x. no they've got to take a change so 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. dollars. a moment of destiny is also approaching for the eurozone struggling to contain sovereign debt crisis italy became the latest european country to approve a tough seventy billion euro cuts package including higher taxes and lower pensions meanwhile greece's prime minister has appealed to the country's european partners to wake up and and of the euro zone's continuing turmoil this comes as eight out of ninety one european banks failed stress tests to see if they could survive another major economic crisis british euro m.p. paul not all believes that the eurozone can cope with greece but it if italy goes then trouble is unavoidable. this was always about politics it was not about economics the idea that you could have a column ease in the mediterranean in line with economies like germany fast growing economies like germany was never going to work the only way to get on to this mess is for those countries to go back home to their national potencies to devalue to

get growth moving. on to exports going in at the moment they can't use 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 lisburn 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 i was in the streets in rome and 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 your opinion is italy really is the third largest economy in the eurozone is the eighth largest economy in the world i think the eurozone can actually cope with greece and portugal the smaller economy if italy goes the whole thing could cave in because if italy goes it's a these economy is intertwined with spain's and of spain and italy go then we are in serious trouble in the struggle for land rights in israel there is one place that's still a deserted territory it used to be

a flourishing palestinian community but now israelis are eyeing it up as a luxury getaway artie's a policy or has the story. this old in the mountains of jerusalem are the remains of a once bustling arab community only the memories of those who once lived here have survived intact i feel is. the come back and to be. in my village. to see the hobson's the world this rain also to remind. my father that your coup de graff among the cacti and fick trees but in one nine hundred forty eight just before the state of israel was declared his family evacuated unlike the hundreds of arab villages that disappeared in forty eight and sixty seven most of the original houses of lifter are still here so they only were heard of sure thing . mama. they will shoot do they do with the whole the whole deal with

the hope that they will shoot. our mother took us inside the room in the corner and then the table so as to protect us here cook was one of seven hundred thousand palestinians who became a refugee in one nine hundred forty eight his childhood home was quickly absorbed by the newly established jewish state almost inevitable as the man who lived his house in london forty nevertheless if he was forced to do he loved it just because you were reared and he is considered as absentee and he lost the property in the early one nine hundred fifty s. jews moved into the abandoned homes like you and your husband's parents they were also refugees fleeing arab countries we life had become dangerous after israel was created these ready government sent them to live in lifter your nieces to prevent arab owners from returning or in their came here on their for the i believe here years without water without electricity the came here to jos the land for them and

their memory here is very important most of the original two hundred jewish families lived because life in the mountains was difficult and the government was slow to develop the area no one has lived in these houses for forty six years all that remains are stone walls where wild flowers and grass now grow lifter is empty . and it's into that emptiness that the israeli government now plans to build more than two hundred luxury homes a chicago tel shops and a museum insisting they'll preserve the area's history we will find ourselves with a neighborhood where history has been conserved there will also be documentation and the story will be told of who lived there as we do in all the neighborhoods of jerusalem but many like your could say it's palestinian land and a double injustice why you want to destroy our house and.

yanni. for every three world came from anywhere in this thread why i can't move in my village and come back. return back to my freedom and liberty and. this new me. and. so i'm going for palestinians lifter is a physical reminder of injustice and survival but for a fair number of israelis it's an eyesore and they'd rather not be reminded of what happened here every time they drive into jerusalem policy r.t. lifter. several moscow streets were impassable on sunday afternoon but not because of the new tourist traffic jams they were sealed off temporarily to become the realm of the fast and the furious in a high octane performance formula one drivers burned some serious rubber against the amazing backdrop of the kremlin walls it was all part of the annual moscow city

racing show featuring famous f one drivers and the winners of the world rowing championships it's a taste of things to come for russian f one fans as the country will get its own grand prix in three years time. and i will recap today's and this week's main stories for you in just a few moments don't go away. welcome

to the what makes a big splash in the world of high tech business what turns events science into i can't see products they don't understand oh boy trophies this guy he followed russian invaders to each of meters and brought it in their big breakthrough back. spotlight on stone on technology update here and. we've got the future covered.

broadcasting live from the heart of moscow this is our thomas. cable has forced rescuers to restart the complicated operation to lift of the massive cruiser that sank a week ago one hundred twenty nine lives. the murdoch media scandal claims another of britain's top cop quits over connections to journalists suspected of bribery and phone hacking former news international chief executive of news of the world editor rebecca brooks has also found herself once again dealing with police and behind closed doors but this time under arrest before being released on bail the libyan

rebels have been recognized as the legitimate governing authority in the country by the u.s. and thirty other countries but colonel gadhafi. is never to leave libya as nato airstrikes continue. a transatlantic 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 . from the captain of a vessel whose crew leapt to the rescue of survivors in the volga river tragedy last week. captain is out thank you very much for this interview was the first to come to the rescue of the sinking cruise ship bill garia how did you get to know about the tragedy. yes we were the first to help and we were sailing in the same direction as

the bulgaria and we picked up on the radio just bits of conversations between some ships we couldn't make out what the ships were but we heard them talk of seeing people overboard and speculating that it looked like a boat or a small ship had capsized once we heard that we put on more speed to get there faster when we did arrive at the tragedy site we saw terrible things and only when we realized that it was the pleasure boat area that it sunk to the true scope of the disaster strike us. how long did it take you to get to the scene. but you know 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 sad.