this is business briefing. i'm sally bundock. nervous energy — can opec keep the price of oil pumped up? plus — picking up speed again. the economic slowdown is over — now india must tackle a mountain of bad debt. and on the markets — asian shares are down after a plunge in top technology shares — we'll bring you all the details. we start in the austrian capital vienna — where in the next few hours the future direction of oil prices could be decided. ministers from the oil exporters' cartel opec are meeting — along with non—member russia. top of the agenda — whether to extend cuts in the supply of oil that have helped push prices to their highest in two years

it's exactly a year since opec and russia first struck a deal to cut production. brent crude has soared from 45 dollars a barrel in the summer to over 63. that deal is due to expire at the end of march. but there are signs of a split. russia is happy with oil at $40 a barrel — some of its oil bosses have been questioning why cuts should continue now prices have recovered. but the saudis need much higher prices to balance their economy — they want oil at $60. let's get more on this story. herman wang, is opec specialist for s&p global platts. he's in vienna covering the meeting. welcome to the programme. you

expecting production cuts to continue beyond march? thank you for having me. it looks like we are heading towards a nine—month extension. as with a lot of these agreements, the devil will be in the details. we know that russia isn't quite as, or, a little less committed to having this production cuts locked in for another year. there are a lot of people that will be looking closely at this communique to see if there is an exit strategy from these cuts. we know that opec will meet again in june. even if they extend these cuts for a nine—month period to the end of 2018, they will still be subject toa of 2018, they will still be subject to a review injune. opec meets twice a year. will it be a three—month commitment with an option to extend or even cancel for the additional six months of 2018? that is what will be looking at. and

if they do go ahead as we expect, will we see a reaction on the price 01’ will we see a reaction on the price or is it already priced in? it seems as though the market has priced in expectations of a nine—month extension. there maybe some of these buy the rumour, sell the news. when they pre— announced they will come to an agreement on a nine—month extension, they were originally going to expire onjune. the market really sold off after the news even though opec signalled, a long with russia, they were going to do this. we can see a similar reaction today. the question for opec is how much of a sell—off will they be willing to tolerate and that is what the language of the communique will come into focus —— that is when the language. a three—month deal with an option to extend for six months, the

markets may not look at that quite as favourably and we could see at bigger sell—off. as favourably and we could see at bigger sell-off. tank you very much. —— thank you. billions of dollars have been wiped off the value of australian bank shares after the government announced a wide ranging enquiry into the finance industry. it comes after a series of scandals from misleading financial advice to breaches of money laundering rules. here's what australia's prime minister had to say earlier. our financial institutions operate with an implicit social license. australians deserve and expect the highest levels of service and accountability and for the vast majority, that's exactly what they receive. since the financial crisis however, there have been examples of misconduct by financial institutions, some of them extremely serious and that's demanded a response from the institutions themselves and from government. rico hizon is following this for us in singapore. what more can you tell us? mr

turnbull has long resisted labour opposition calls for a royal commission into misconduct and that it would be a waste of money at their worst mounting political pressure. the big banks previously we re pressure. the big banks previously were also against any enquiry but in a letter to the treasurer shortly before mr turnbull‘s announcement, the big format, anz, commonwealth, national australia bank and westpac, admitted it was now in the national interest. —— let the big four. asked if the year—long enquiry on the banks could undermine the australian economy. confidence in the banks have an undermined by their actions and the scandals in the last couple of years. i think the ceos of the big four banks and mcquarrie would hope that this would draw line under

that lack of confidence that were starting to build. —— macquarie. our economy is doing well so on balance, i don't think it will. and after the news broke, the share price dropped roughly 1.5%. currently, national australia bank and westpac shares are trading in positive territory. bumpy ride. good to see you. let's go to india now — it releases gdp figures in a few hours time and they are expected to show growth picking up after a long slowdown. it's been a bumpy year for indian businesses. this time last year the government caused chaos by scrapping high value banknotes to crack down on the black economy. and the launch of a new national sales tax caused further disruption. now for the next challenge — tackling the mountain of bad debt owed to india's banks. sameer hashmi explains. this is the amount of money that is

owed to india's banks but how did things get so bad? for years, corporate have not been paying back their loans. this man is one of them. he is most famous for making beer. the former chairman of the kingfisher group owes close to $2 billion. it is people like him that are causing india big problems. it is eating into bank profits. lending has been gone down to smaller firms. the government hoped it would boost the debt. the government has a plan. the loans are owed to government run banks. the finance minister wants to raise the money in three ways. most of it will come from selling. india banks are flush with cash after a banks are flush with cash after a ban on 90% of bank notes last year.

the government wanted banks to via bonds with that money and they will flush that back into the banks. that will improve the banks' balance sheets and that will allow them to make profits. it will come from the treasury. many say is that of a bailout, what really needs to be done is reformed the banks to make them more efficient in things they can lending. if that is not done, the government may have two dive into a savings once more. to rescue the banks again. now let's brief you some other business stories. american airlines is facing a shortage of pilots over christmas — after a computer glitch gave too many of them time off. an estimated 15,000 flights don't have an assigned pilot due to the software error. pilots are now being offered more money to cancel their holiday plans and work the shifts — american says it expects to avoid cancellations. google is being taken to court, accused of collecting the personal data of millions of users, in the first mass legal action of its kind in the uk. it focuses on allegations that

google unlawfully harvested information from 5.4 million uk users by bypassing privacy settings on their iphones. investors should be aware of the risks from the rapid rise of digital currency bitcoin, a bank of england deputy governor has warned. bitcoin‘s value passed a record $11,000 on wednesday after a sharp but often volatile rise this year. sirjon cunliffe, the bank's deputy for financial stability, said that when prices grow so fast, "investors should do their homework and think carefully". nearly every analyst i have spoken to is saying the same thing. and now — what's trending in the business news this morning: from business insider: ‘uber‘s very bad year has gotten worse' —

it reports that the tax app's losses widened to 1.5 billion dollars in the current quarter — this comes on top of its well publicised legal problems — at a time it's supposed to be gearing up for a flotation. a timely feature in wired — it goes ‘inside adidas's robot—powered, on—demand sneaker factory‘ — it says the speedfactory is the future of automated manufacturing. and the wall streetjournal online marks the return of the national debt clock to times square — after a six—month repair, and having extra digits added. the us now owes more than $20 trillion. and don't forget — let's us know what you are spotting online — use the hashtag bbc—the—briefing tech stocks were out of favour on wednesday. news briefing is up next. a man who a judge ruled had probably

sexually assaulted his baby daughter before she died has been giving evidence at an inquest into her death. 13 month old poppi worthington died after sustaining unexplained injuries at her home in 2012. danny savage reports. poppi worthington‘s life was tragically short. the saga surrounding her unexplained death is very long. 13—month—old poppi died nearly five years ago. she'd been rushed to hospital in barrow after being found unconscious at home early one morning. many months later, a family court judge found that poppi's father had probably sexually assaulted her shortly before her death. today, he was bundled through the back door

of the coroner's court under police guard. paul worthington denies any wrongdoing and has never been charged, but he's been called as a witness at the inquest into his daughter's death. screened from the public but not the press, he agreed that poppi was as fit as a fiddle and would wake up just before 6am. but when asked about events closer to the day that poppi died, he kept replying, "i refer to my previous statements. i rely on the right not to answer under rule 22." that rule states no witness at an inquest is obliged to answer any question which might incriminate them. last year, cumbria police was heavily criticised for its handling of the investigation into poppi's death. that report detailed a catalogue of mistakes made by detectives, saying that crucial evidence was thrown away, witnesses weren't interviewed for eight months, and there was enough evidence to arrest poppi's father on day one. accused of sexually

assaulting his own daughter, paul worthington has been in hiding for months. but he was called to give evidence here in person, although he repeatedly exercised his right not to answer questions. he is expected back here tomorrow. danny savage, bbc news, kendal. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: donald trump has hit back at the british prime minister following a spat over controversial tweets by the us president. following the latest missile test, the us ambassador to the united nations has warned the north korean leadership that it would be "utterly destroyed" if war broke out. the french president emmanuel macron says libya has agreed to allow migrants who are facing abuse in its detention camps to be evacuated urgently back to their home countries. the oil exporters' group opec is meeting in vienna later on thursday to discuss whether to extend production curbs. now it's time look at the stories

making the headlines in media across the world. we begin with the times and its coverage of a key brexit issue. the paper predicts that britain is close to sealing a deal about policing the northern ireland border — that would involve devolving a package of powers, on areas such as agriculture and energy. turning to le figaro, brexit comes up again during an exclusive interview with the former british prime minister, tony blair, who the paper says is convinced there's still time to stop brexit, if the divorce bill means the uk won't get more money for the health service as promised by the out camp, during the referendum campaign. following north korea's latest test of a missile that could hit the continent of america, the straits times says president trump is proposing "additional major sanctions" —

as he tries to find a non—military solution to the threat from pyongyang. president trump also features in the financial times which covers the criticism aimed at him after he re—tweeted anti muslim posts, from a uk far—right group. the telegraph features a claim that online media giants such as google and facebook could pose a "clear and present danger to civil society", as algorithms cloud ourjudgement over ethics. and now that the details of the royal wedding have been announced, gulf news asks whether it will be good for business, with estimates that harry and meghan‘s big day could bring