into how they explain how this all happened. to newark a mystery we heard the plane takeoff so we told our granddaughter look there's going to be an airplane then i heard a bang and my daughter told me mom it's falling down to the side then came the flames and the smoke and we wanted to run away but we didn't know where to run then we went to the river and saw the plane. looking my chief is my home team who supported in the middle of this team who were shocked when we found out who went to all of the games knew all of them by name it's very difficult. so a real tragedy for the sports world and also for russia forty forty three people confirmed dead like you said to have survived it's still not known if they're going to make it we're hearing bad alexander. can remove who is in the hospital in critical condition we heard rumors earlier that he had passed away we know that eighty percent of his body is burned so hopefully he will make it through this we

know now that he is fighting his way through this in the hospital along with another survivor again still not confirmed to that second survivor is but lots of people hoping her nearest labile that at least these two people will make it out of this tragedy absolutely to just bring a tiny bit of good news to what such a horrendous story that's unfolding there where you are i mean it's getting late now a conceives duck behind you investigate is an emergency teams of course all that awful job of having to work through the night trying to pull more bodies out from the wreckage i guess will be continuing at least till dawn. absolutely we're hearing that specialists are on their way out as we speak from moscow with equipment and lights to continue the search efforts through the night it's very dark you're very cold a lot of the wreckage is in the volga river thirty five bodies have been recovered so far and the officials we've spoken to are very much hoping that they will find the rest of those remaining bodies by morning although you never know we're hearing that it's quite a do. called difficult circumstances out there you can see really no light here to

the city just shock just what happened of course not just for sports fans but for all of russia the whole world watching really as this tragedy unfolds parallel taking place in the city of course the global policy former president made on his way to euro will anyway on thursday will be cutting half of his schedule in half to come here to the crash site and pay his respects to those who lost their lives in this russian speaking we were looking over your shoulder at those rather rule food paid shoes coming in i think from a mobile phone no actually we're not over your shoulder on the screen we're seeing the plane on fire in the volga the smoke and flames coming off and rescue crews the initial ones of boats trying to get to the wreckage as soon as i possibly could can you paint a picture for us please of you know how close the volga river is to the airport i gather the plane split into three pieces two of those ended up in the river is that correct. from the pictures that i've seen and what i've had

a chance to see it does seem like about was the case the airport is about a kilometer from where i'm standing we're not very far from the piece of the volga river where the wreckage is now will we presume being removed from what happened as far as we know what happened was once the plane crashed most of it like you said three pieces it's being said. it was broken into three pieces at least two of those pieces including the fuselage in the volga river a loss of flames loss of smoke and then basically hours after that just intense efforts to find the bodies as soon as possible it has to be said this happened in between i'm going to say four thirty five o'clock moscow time and within hours they have already heard he had found dozens of the bodies and were already at thirty five so although this of course a terrible tragedy it has to be said that the emergency workers. worked very

quickly and very effectively thirty five bodies around and they said don't go away we want you to stay there and coming straight but we've got more obviously reports coming in war eyewitnesses who saw what happened we've been speaking to some of those who watched the plane so tragically come there and this is this is one eyewitness what he had to say. operative no one on the possible someone but after the plane took off i heard a noise like two cars colliding several seconds later we heard another bang then the plane started leaning to the right after we heard the second going the plane suddenly dived and hit the ground we didn't see it hit the ground but we saw that it's tell you broke off the plane broke into. again some conflicting evidence that. the plane broke into rosa seeing news reports and the news was coming through saying the plane broke into three also here an eyewitness reports of that ferocious file one policeman earlier on the nyssa saying that he saw flames he

described them as high as a nine story building horrendous what went on that you were saying just now the cause is there to qana different stories we heard one eyewitness report saying that he saw that plane go down almost as it was taking off and barely took to the sky the other report of course saying that it may have hit ten is why try and bring us a bit more about what's being said about what could have caused this awful tragedy . this is always the case when there are crashes like this lots of different angles that you could have watched this plane hit something no one really knows what went wrong like you said witnesses all have different versions of what they saw from down on the ground happen in the skies this afternoon here in europe investigators are telling us that the two versions that they are now most intensely looking at one of course is human factor that of course is always the case another is a technical failure it seems like what they're narrowing down on is the fact that

the plane couldn't gain. altitude fast enough and then like we heard from those witnesses hit something whether it was an antenna or wire or something something brought it down and obviously that's what investigators are trying to figure out how this all happened it looks like it's going to be quite a while before they come up with a concrete reason and will be able to finally tell us what went wrong and how an entire hockey team was basically wiped out in this terrible crunch course is pretty fair to say in there so whenever you hear about a plane crash here in russia and if it involves one of the old soviet made planes thinking about the pull off form five for the one three four was the crush of we one of those again recently and now this year twenty four jet before. although people say they're airworthy these planes are getting old in design now depends who you talk to a spoke to apollo earlier on that said if these planes are serviced well they're well built in the first place they are perfectly airworthy other what do we know about the twenty four jets. yet of course always depends on who you are some

experts will say soviet planes are very well made and if they're kept in good condition they can certainly keep flying others will say it's time for these planes to retire because we're seeing too many crashes and i think there's going to be a lot of debate about that over the next coming coming the next few days what we do know about this in particular is that it held a hundred seats the general capacity for forty two was about a hundred and twenty and they are known to be very reliable planes over the past decade or so there have been several incidents that have been of cause crashes and of course forced pilots and experts to begin thinking about whether or not you should be flying this is something that is going to continue especially after this latest crash in this thing to bring you sort of a what you know this sort of the the forty two of the twenty four there the runway model was you saying this or yak forty two jet involved in tonight's crush. well

let's not talk again to the sports correspondent. again i mean all four events to ny is being regarded and talked about now is russia's worst sporting disaster absolutely i mean with the loss of patty effectively a whole team completely gone and. it is indeed a tragedy but it does also bring to mind a similar disaster we were looking through and also some of my colleagues reminded me of this of the pact disaster which was also that was a midair crash that happened in nine hundred seventy nine in the new position which is in the ukraine and what has happened is the practice or team has been promoted they were also going off to play did i mean going to football match and they collided with another plane mid-air nine hundred seventy nine august seventeen players for. officials got really well of course talking about looking back at the archives that event a great britain as well absolutely you have their events looking through i mean we found at least eleven different crashes i mean the main one that really i can think of mainly in england is is militaristic in my scene one

thousand nine hundred fifty eight the busby babes and also even as late as ninety nine hundred ninety three the zambian national football team as well and the plane crash. so many international hockey stars approach to the disaster this is the shock of this tragedy is being felt not only very greatly here in russia but also of course around the world absolutely so many of the hopital now in particular in the k.h. are not only attract russian players they attract players from all around the world also the n.h.l. who also sent their condolences we were looking eight or nine different nationalities some of the stars got all the who nick young man of the czech republic have all the nature of slovakia all these international players the repercussions here are not just russian they global do you know holding a memorial ceremony the tickets proceeds from those ticket sales are going to be donated to the team. and i guess the fans for the families now it was a family is i mean alexander medvedev he happened to be at the first match of that match of the season that was stopped because of because of this tragedy and we can hear from him now. a plane carrying the locomotive team to right after they take

off from your. according to the latest information only one player has survived our teams don't think they can continue their marriage after such news thank you for your understanding and supporting this decision now let's commemorate the players who have passed away with a minute of silence. the president of the kontinental hockey league and of course comment as well coming through tonight as well from the president of the ice hockey federation of russia valis love to tuck. we offer our condolences to the families and the club a must see it is a huge loss for russian ice hockey because there were a lot of good players and you're a slob so we'll do everything to find out the causes of the tragedy to support the families and help the sport live on in you know slava to honor those who died in the disaster. well as it was very much as to jack says that this is all about rebuilding the communities rebuilding

a hockey community and there's been there have been suggestions because it is the it's effectively the end of the team we there is a famous commentator xander because mike you suggested that perhaps other teams maybe donate players and help to help in the rebuilding of the city and also say ok well kate thanks for giving us the sporting side on this terrible event and i think you. will of course keep you updated with the latest developments as we get them throughout the course of the. meantime let's take a look at some of the other top stories from r.t. . and the top court in berlin has thrown out a series of lawsuits which said germany is bankrolling of bailouts to ailing european economies were illegal but judges ruled out giving chancellor merkel a blank check saying any future rate was no be pre-approved by parliament of course that could hamper germany's ability to react swiftly to any new crisis but it sets a precedent for other nations to tighten their belts as well opposition parties welcomed the ruling but said merkel had made the crisis worse through the lays and

lack of vision but i will advise a party that young told us there's little to celebrate just. ultimately this is actually i think what we would call a pyrrhic victory it's an empty victory for mrs merkel yes the below is can go ahead but like all good court judgments read the small print and what has happened today is that in fact the german court has come alive with an announcement of the german parliament and most importantly of all the german budget committee has a grid deal more say on what goes on in the whole issue on a larger basis what we're looking at today is the fact that yes bailouts can go ahead but at the same time it's still a very very quietly picture of the euro we know that the german people are deeply unhappy about what's going on and they don't see there being any benefit in suddenly giving a credit card another bottle of vodka to a drying drunken man in a department store and that's what we've got here it's going to still be a terrible result once the market as a bit of

a relief rally which is going on as we speak what's happening is greece's essential being sold hide vying to end slavery by the way that the euro debt mechanism is working it's a farce for greece it's a farce for the greece people and it's a total complete and utter disaster for the greece should be allowed to go free and it must make its own decisions its own sovereign decisions that of greece doesn't believe the cancer is spreading and as we know it reached that italy last month it's already we're rooting around the place in spain and it hit portugal italy ireland so far does the disease google for it finally kills the patient i think the question is it's not a question of how much work is there to get greece side of the euro actually are much chances are that the euro is going to survive with greece still in it and the answer is really numb. well further south is clear frustration among italians and the spanish as well with thousands rallying in protest of their government's fresh air it emerges italy's forty five billion euro package welcomed by the e.u.

new attack sites and raising time for women. in spain the demonstrations there came ahead of a crucial senate vote on amending the constitution to limit national debt and unions and rights groups say the deck would decimate the welfare system in the most vulnerable. libyan rebels say they've tracked colonel gadhafi and they're ready to take him dead or alive the former leader was tracked down after loyalist convoys left for the neighboring country of the rebels are believed to be locating gadhafi with high tech equipment and intelligence now they say they've got control of most of the country after a helping hand from western nations but that in stark contrast to how america and britain operated in libya in recent years because before the anti gadhafi campaign the cia and i six were allegedly sending terror suspects to live here for interrogation and torture according to documents they've now been unearthed in libya not surprisingly they were about outrage let's tell you a bushel for r.t. reports next the signs suggest the violence isn't over yet and the real chaos maybe

yet to come. mohammed has song is one of africa's most experienced diplomats just broke from the libyan capital he says may two bombings has turned it into a ghost town there is no police there is no administration there is no there is no it's called law and order has been replaced by a more cruel rebels some fear that the various groups who have emerged might soon stop fighting each other what's your weapon stores have been raided every man stamped with kalashnikovs if the tribes fight for their independence the country will enter and never ends in civil war with brutal urban guerrilla war. lists argue that even rebel leaders don't know where therefore it is a from. rebel hands mahmoud joel was alarmed to find islamist sleeper cells had joined his tripoli offensive the vast parallel structure of competence has appeared we have no idea who is in charge of them. hopes of

a reliable replacement for more and more good than a few appear to be fading libya's rebels remain deeply divided while the chaos from motos bombing appears to be spreading beyond the country's borders in the turmoil there are fears that religious extremists could be using you. as a base to further their aims in north africa if i'm to new zealand or a good while of a while tunisian women got abortion rights twenty years before women in belgium under the last regime divorced women good benefits revived arab religious movements and trying to reverse that. before the war leaders from barack obama to nicolas sarkozy and silvio berlusconi shook and even kissed gadhafi the rebels got the red carpet treatment in paris but the west will also change tack warning experts if libya doesn't go for them as planned according to this man who's just returned from war torn tripoli the message from some locals there is that the conflict may have

created a frankenstein's monster for europe they warned us that we don't know what we are creating in libya it will be a free haven of extremist groups which are just on the southern border of europe poirot's from failed somalia made their coast a no go frighteningly some diplomats now think libya is heading in the same direction but what they will do short of that it is mediterranean will not be a safe seat there will be a part of us and there will be all bloat to control the mediterranean to make it safe i don't think french economy can support that western intervention in libya has brought large numbers of new forces to the fore experts fear the west itself may come to regret their emergence daniel bushell r.t. brussels. staying with the region's troubles the situation in syria was discussed in moscow at a meeting between the russian and french foreign ministers both sort of his counterpart stressed the need for dialogue between the syrian government and

opposition but the meeting also outlined a few differences in approach to that because france is seeking tough sanctions on the syrian government while russia wants a more peaceful solution but both say they look forward to discussing possible measures at the u.n. general assembly later this month russia's foreign minister stressed that syria must not be of the people of the libyan center. we're convinced that it's vital today to start talks and this is actually what the syrian leadership calls for it's extremely dangerous to prompt certain forces in syria to boycott those talks and neither russia nor france wants to see that happen every party in syria should stop using violence and we've proposed a resolution to this a fact we encourage the government to carry out the reforms it has launched and the opposition should not use provocations and reject invitations into dialogue. any kind of sanctions on syria only represent the imperial ambitions of some other

western powers the country will only be able to settle as issues of the external pressure is taken out of the picture that is the view of jacob hallberg president of the future of freedom foundation or spoke to. sanctions always hurt people i mean it's amazing that these old colonial powers have now learned that it only ends up hurting the people not the regime itself it actually solidifies the power of the risky best best way forward is to butt out i mean that's what the u.s. needs to do that's what the brits need to do france the world is filled with dictators with tyrants it always has been this is a matter for the syrian people to decide how far do they want to go to oust this dictatorship they want to go to revolution which is a very costly enterprise a lot of people lose their lives this is a choice the people of that country need to make but you know these these are they all come on you know powers you know britain and britain france i mean they're they're living in the old days of having their empires back where they're

controlling the middle east and controlling the events of the middle east and installing their little puppet regimes extracting oil from these countries is going to go to something significantly worse they're going to keep playing this game with the sanctions regime is not going to budge it's you know no regime is going to budge to it with respect to sanctions and you're just going to see a tightening and tell ultimately yes you may see a libya type situation. the council of europe's legal committee is to look closer into swiss claims that fourteen european countries allegedly allowed the cia to operate secret prisons on their soil the report by a politician he says u.s. actions in those detention centers violated basic human rights and torture was widely used the chief human rights commission is already urged poland if you when you and romania to come clean about their roles i'll go does says the leader of the lithuanian opposition party front who told us it will be hard to prove facilities

were actually present. in the feni of inquiry showed that there was a whole infrastructure of the building of the prison bilocation the cia planes landing in the fenian in two thousand to two thousand and five but nobody gave the information about who about with the so-called suspects about so-called terrorists who they were and this is the information about concrete persons who were brought to the fenian this information is lacking and this is the core of the problem and this allowed to libyan officials of that time to say that you know we didn't have prisons because there is no evidence and no facts about concrete so-called terrorist. national identity is a powerful emotion when you've been a small part of a big country for the best part of millennium you can feel a little bit helberg wales for example the tiny british principality that now wants

the same taste of freedom as the celtic cousins in scotland reports on why the people of the valleys going to get a bigger voice welcome to wales part of the u.k. and a proud nation with its own language and customs and the latest voice to call for independence applied comrie which means the party of wales has always argued the country could be better off without the u.k. and it seems increasing numbers are starting to see their point of view our economy has been run from london with the interest and priorities of the south east of england to the fore and independent wills of course will be able to chart a different course based on our needs and priorities wales is a long way from declaring independence but it's no longer just a pipe dream and people here voted overwhelmingly earlier this year in favor of handing the welsh assembly full law making powers that was considered a turning point in welsh nationhood and plights couldn't read the party of wales

have undoubtedly taken heart from the surprise victory of the scottish national party that victory in may gave the s.n.p. an outright majority in the scottish parliament which has many powers devolved from westminster the party's promise to hold a scotland wide referendum on whether to declare independence according to applied comrie that marks the turning of the tide for a unified u.k. people now who i believe are beginning to to use the word independence in in a welsh context which they think they wouldn't have done a few years and i sat debating valley of sizing the people in where's it going to see that when scotland becomes independent the next logical step is for witness to be coming to bangor. of course separatism is nothing new to the british isles and the thousands of victims of the troubles in northern ireland are testament to how high feelings can run both in the present day and for centuries past while national

sentiment may not be a new phenomenon the reasons for it have changed over the years and in these current turbulent economic times money talks scotland has oil and gas but while wales was a proud coal producing nation its mines are now closed and it's got some of the highest unemployment levels in the u.k. because of that the older generation is reserved when it comes to independence but young people are filled with national fervor for them independence is less about money and more about nationhood and identity wales needs to be independent because it is a great country and we do we do and it like being is really patriotic i think more patriotic than england definitely we have a lot of politics here we should. just seem to be better here at the moment you can get free prescriptions. education seems to be

a bit better played comrie says it's going to build on that support providing not just emotional reasons why wales should be independent but concrete economic reasons too and it says wales does have resources particularly land and see for green energy if the scots vote for independence wales might not be far behind nor emmett's r.t. cardiff. it's been a day of disquiet in israel where police have started dismantling the tent cities built by protesters during the past two months becomes a part of a nationwide over living costs and other social problems among israelis right now but the move came less than a day after televisa administration promised to protect the demonstrators and cooperate with them it led to clashes between the camps inhabitants and the police as well as calls for television. mehta resign meantime in the west bank jewish settlers vandalized an israeli defense force base damaging several vehicles but was in response to the i.d.f. early dismantling several illegal outposts jewish settlers later danny dyer told us

the authorities will act as they would in a palestinian state and the neither side will achieve anything. this act of vandalism they called upon the perpetrate those to surrender to the police and also called the police to use all the. capabilities they have in order to catch the perpetrators of these acts but they were used exactly the same terminology when violence perpetrated by israelis against the palestinian property we have to understand. we are all playing here. game leads us know. there are only game in. the world including the united states including the united nations including the european community and including russia is that the state solution but that the state solution isn't visible just after twenty eight minutes past ten moscow time there are you stay with us over the coming hours

here and we will be closely following that crushed tragedy that saying no most all of the champion ice hockey team look at motive yaroslavl killed earlier this evening after the plane came down just after takeoff a few hours ago you were watching r t international from moscow.

please. loses. its. soon. to. subject. to. the breaking news from r t this hour on russia's worst ever sporting tragedy

a jet carrying the country's crippled champion i saw a locomotive was crushed near the runway in the. northeast of moscow there are only two survivors tonight from wonderful to for. people who play the time. also from us germany's highest court rules of the country's bailout billions for struggling nations are illegal but it's warning i'm glad that she left to ask permission next time she wants to run for the rest. with colonel gadhafi now surrounded by the rebels r.t. looks at how libya might become a breeding ground for it stream misson face an even bigger civil. war across all the latest developments in. the bring you the wrong pictures there across all the latest from the course as those details come through the next few minutes though let's focus on europe.