>> i just know you like irishmen. i happen to be irish. >> i dated one irishman. >> delighted. it's been a pleasure to meet you. >> it's been really nice to meet you. >> thank you so much. >> thank you very much. >> thank you very much. thank you. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com i'm zain vergee at cnn in london, here are the headlines this hour. after 547 days, two french journalists kidnapped by the taliban have returned to paris from afghanistan. the france 3 television staff as well as their interpreter had been held captive since december 2009. they're holding a news conference saying they have been well treated.

tough awe stairty cuts for greece have been passed by the government. the debate is not over yet. today, the greek parliament takes the next step, where to make spending cuts. strikes and protests continue in athens. in britain, delays at airport ready expected. many schools will close as a wave of strikes begins. three major public sector unions are staging a 24-hour strike billed as the biggest since the 1920s over proposed cuts to their pensions. monaco is preparing for a royal wedding tomorrow when prince albert marries his fiancee, charlene woodstock. the 53-year-old prince is the only son of princess grace and the late prince. those are the headlines. i'm zain vergee at cnn in london. "world business today" starts now.

good morning, from cnn london, i'm nina dos santos, this is "world business today" and these are the top stories. the battle may have been won but the war has just begun. greece presses ahead with harsh spending cuts. thousands of workers walk off the job in the united kingdom in mass protests over pensions. and birmingham city football club carson yeung is charged with money laundering. negativity on the streets of athens, but positive news for stock market around the world. the avoidance or a deferral of a default for greece has given investors room to excel today. here in europe we saw hefty gains on wednesday as the

markets got wind of what was happening in athens. around 2:00 p.m. local time yesterday. those gains have largely been sustained in early trading today. there is a note of caution that optimism echoed by the european central bank, juan claude trichet. we must point out that now that the greeks have passed the awe stairty pl -- austerity plans they have to implement them. gains, modest ones though, ftse 100, up by 0.5%. lloyds banking group is moving today after confirming it will be cutting 15,000 jobs by the year 2014. let's move along and talk about the currency markets. the euro has been strengthening against the dollar. currently trading at 1.4510 and the british pound bouncing back as well.

that one trading, 1.6103. japanese yen at 80.37 at the moment. banks were among some of the big winners across the asia pacific region. hong kong led the charge for most the day with hsbc and the bank of communications performing especially well in that market and even though the nikkei ended the day in flat territory, citigroup stock finished about 3% higher on the tokyo exchange. is this how the markets finally settled. let's take a look at them. the nikkei putting on 0.2% for the day and the hang seng up by 1.5%. the s&p asx 200 in australia up by 1.75% on the day. over to the action on wall street on wednesday, financial also leading the charge there. that came after bank of america agreed to an $8.5 billion settlement with investors. on the face of it, a huge settlement like that doesn't

seem like good news, does it? but the bank of america, it means that it has escaped criminal charges and investors are hopeful that they will finally draw a line internet bank's involvement in the entire u.s. mortgage mess. the approval of austerity measures in greece added a note of optimism on the other side of the bomb. this is the picture at the close of trade. pretty solid gains with the s&p 500 up by 0.8%. looking ahead to thursday's session right now, this is how u.s. markets look set to open. if we look at the future trading, it seems as though we could see the s&p 500 once again outperforming the other two markets. the gains for the most part with the exception of the s&p modest at the moment. traders on all the markets around the world are currently watching greece again this thursday as the parliament takes a final vote on the sweeping austerity measures.

that is expected to happen in two hours from now. in the rubbish-screen streets, workers are cleaning up the mess from wednesday's riots. right now for the moment things are for the most part calm. on wednesday, battles between protesters and police followed that initial vote to approve the deep budget cuts and tax hikes. the parliamentary vote is critical for greece. the eu, the imf and ecb often referred to as a so-called troika in greece are expected to give final approval on july rd to an immediate $17 billion payment, the fifth tranche of money from the original bailout payment for greece. it would likely clear the way for a second huge bailout so another one later on this year. in athens, of course, on the allies of the ancient greek capital, the greeks are struggling to understand what exactly happened to their country and wondering if there is indeed any way out of all

this mess. we are joined live from athens with part of that story. let's go to her. diana, things seem pretty calm at the moment but, again, anything could change within the next four hours. >> reporter: anything could change but i think the real violence coincided with the two days of general strikes yesterday. i would imagine those small group of sort of hooded youth who were at the forefront of the rioting pretty tired by this point. i don't want to predict anything. the square behind me in front of the parliament building looked a little like armageddon at points last night with huge fires blazing in different corners of the scare. you've seen the video, clouds of tear gas. now it is all back to normal, people going about their daily business. busy, sweeping up of the streets. while the parliament debates the implementation program.

whilst those riots were going on yesterday, i went out to the side streets to find out from people how they felt, how the measures would affect them. let's take a listen. greeks young and old flee the tear gas in the square. they want to voice their outrage that measured to affect every age group, every profession. we're a little over 100 meters from where the rioting is going on with our riot gear. it's really like a normal day, people sitting around, strolling, having a bite to eat. this family all went to protest until their son john was hurt by a tear gas canister. john lost his job last year. he says with more than 35% of young people out of work, even a degree in mechanical engineering doesn't get him anywhere. >> you can find only like for

cafeteria, security, easy job with little money. >> reporter: a gas mask here and there, faces smeared in white cream to protect against the tear gas. but plenty of -- open regardless of the strike to take the sting out of rioting. katerina and her mother opted for coffee after deciding it was too dangerous to go into the square after the vote. katerina tells me she gets paid less per hour as a german teacher here than a cleaning lady would in germany. "i've been working as a teacher for 15 years" she says, "and i'm still getting the exact same salary as if i just started off. they're exploiting this situation. her mother's a pensioner, she says health care is her biggest concern these days. for example, if they're striking and you need the doctor, she

says, you have to go private and they say pay and you'll get it back from your health insurance. yes, but you've got to have the money in the first place. they're right not to have braved the riots. back at the square, a tense standoff continues. the shape of things to come between the people and their politicians as these unpopular measures pass through the parliament. and now look at the square, nina. you can see the tourist buses taking people around the city's popular sites and the cleanup operation that is going on and just to give you a sense of perspective, nina, in the coffee shop and at the newsstands this morning, there's actually more talk about a big match-fixing scandal that's rocking the second division football league than there is about the rioting and the austerity program. nina. >> just gives you an idea of how volatile and changeable the situation is in athens.

diana magnay, thanks for the update. the austerity measures are one part of the recovery for the country. the imf's acting managing director tells us the goal is to restore greece's economy and its competitiveness. >> the greek action is the bedrock of the adjustment program and it's just worth mentioning, it's often reported that this is an austerity program. it's in fact a program of structural reform, intended to restore the competitiveness of the greek economy within the euro zone and to allow the prospect of restored and sustainable growth in greece. the second part is the financing support that will be necessary to make that program possible. and that's what we're still discussing with our european partners. and we are making progress, as you know, in the last week,

there was an agreement on the broad terms of private sector involvement in providing financing. we're still working out the details. >> lipsky is serving only as the fund's temporary leader. early in july, the french finance minister, christine lagarde will be taking over as the managing director of the international monetary fund and she'll have to grabble with the greek crisis. the lack bash against austerity goes well beyond grooe greece's borders here. jim bolden will explain the issue. the pain in spain. we've seen months of strikes and pro-testifies and anger over the usual suspects, unemployment, tax rises and public spending cuts. al goodman takes a look at one possible change that might give a lift to the spanish economy.

>> reporter: i'm a.m. goodman in madrid where many economists say one way for spain to get out of its deep economic crisis improve worker productivity which lags behind germany and other countries. some think the unusual work schedule with a two-hour lunch break is part of the problem. spaniards get to work in the morning about the same time as other europeans. as the day wears on, the spanish work schedule gets more and more out of sync with the rest of europe, due to prolonged breaks. they work long hours but economists say that doesn't always add up to more productivity. >> i'm jim bolden in london. hundreds of thousands of public sector workers, including teachers, willing on strike on thursday. ports and are airports will also be affected. the government say the pensions of these employees should not be cut in order to cut the budget deficit. there could be millions of workers on strike come the autumn an agreement isn't

reached this summer. >> britain has tough budget choices to make itself. the country is bracing for what's being called the biggest count there. if you think the world's economy would be shaken by a greek default, don't even think about the consequences of a default by the united states. still the world's largest economy, the united states is engaged in a highly partisan debate over raising the federal debt ceiling from its current level of $14.3 trillion. congress must act by early august. the international monetary fund is telling washington to raise the debt ceiling as soon as possible and in a new report it says, quote, it should be self-evident that a debt default by the u.s. government debt market would have very serious, far-reaching and dramatic repercussions and that's why we're confident that one can be avoided. if that's not clear enough, perhaps the squabbling lawmakers

will probably take notice of another warning coming from standard & poors overnight. if the u.s. fails to make a scheduled debt payment on august 4th it could lower the country's aaa rating immediately, not just lower it but lower it down to a "d" rating. the president, barack obama, urged congress not to play political games with the country's own credit rating. take a listen. >> look, i'm the prefz the united states and i want to make sure that i am not engaging in scare tactics. and i've tried to be responsible and somewhat restrained so that folks don't get spooked. august 2nd is a very important date. and there's no reason why we can't get this done now. >> after that news conference, the republican congressional leaders rejected the president's call to include new next revenues in any deal to raise

the u.s. debt ceiling. up next on "world business today," why myspace is now advertising space. plus, the football tycoon accused of foul play. that's all to come on the show.

nymex crude trading up by 0.38 cents. welcome back. you're watch be "world business today" live today on cnn. the digital advertising firm specific media has bought social networking site myspace for a price tag of $35 million. that's still far less than the $580 million that the site's previous owner, rupert murdoch's

corporation paid for it in 2005. specific media announced justin timberlake will take a stake in myspace and help to shape its future as an advertising platform. there's a new tangible rule at apple's virtual apps store. as of today, vendors like kinld and barnes & noble are no longer allowed to guide customers from the apps store to their own websites. apple requires app users to make those payments through the app store's own payment system which gives apriling a hefty 30% cut of all sales. the chinese government says ai weiwei owes almost $2 million in fines in unpaid taxes. the tax bureau officials demanded the monday from her son on monday. the artist spent three months in prison on charges of tax evasion. he's currently out on bail. the hong kong billionaire

yeung has been arrested and charged with laundering millions of dollars. he owns birmingham city. ramy inocencio joins us with the details of these allegations. >> carson yeung was granted bail thursday with a bond ever 7 million hong kong dollars or just under 1 million u.s. he was arrested on wednesday and has been charged with five counts of money laundering. using five different bank accounts betwe s between 2001 a. i spoke with the ceo of birmingham outside of hong kong's eastern district courthouse. he tried to distance the football club from its owner. >> the charge is not related to the birmingham d'alessio club.

>> at the same time, birmingham's acting chairman posted a statement on the club's website saying, quote, members of the previous board were placed on bail for a significant amount of time and nothing came of it. the law says a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty. according to afp, he said the fact that prosecutors declined to identify the allegedly criminal origin of the money actually showed the weakness of the case and that is how things stand now. nina? >> you know, ramy, the arrest of carson yeung seems to be a new blow for this football club. birmingham city was recently relegated to championship football in the uk, presumably this is bad news for its finances? >> you know, when you're saying

that, football fans are thinking back to late may when that relegation happen. birmingham losing e ing ting to, 2-1. carson yeung's arrest comes as an own goal to a football club that's feeling down on its luck. nina. >> thanks. ramy inocencio, our asia business analyst. up next on "world business today," a tropical storm churns off the coast of mexico. we'll be right back with all the details. let me tell you about a very important phone call i made.

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get help paying for what medicare doesn't... and save up to thousands of dollars. call this toll-free number now. live from cnn london, this is "world business today." welcome back. the first named storm of the atlantic season is beginning to make landfall in mexico. our meteorologist jennifer delgado is at the international weather center with the latest. good morning. tell us more. >> we are talking about tropical storm arlene. it's located roughly about 100 kilometers to the east of the mexico coastline. we're talking about tampico as i show you on the satellite imagery. it's been blowing up over the last several hours. it is moving towards the west, beginning to make landfall. there's the center of circulation offshore. we continue to see weather conditions deteriorating across the region. we're talking about the threat for a flooding with the excessive amount of rainfall and

the storm surge. as i show you right now, the winds at 97 kilometers per hour, about 60 miles per hour. it will be moving over towards the west. it looks like it will be making landfall to the south of tampico and moving over. it will continue to weaken. as it weakens, it's still pulling out a considerable amount of moisture. that's why we've been talking about the threat for mudslides and landslides. here's a look at the warning. this is the hurricane warning area to have this in place for brief intensification. the area in blue indicates the tropical storm warning. that is in effect right now for the central coastline of mexico. that's going to continue. again, we're expecting the center of that circulation to make landfall within the next few hours. here's giving you an idea of where the heaviest rain is going to be, 25 to 50 centimeters, rough by 10 to 15 inches of rainfall and some of those locations that we've said about 15 inches, that's going to be the area that will be leading to landslides and the moisture will

be streaming down towards the south. because it will be pulling in all the moisture from the pacific as well. we'll be looking at heavy rainfall for areas including parts of southern mexico, including acapulco. more "world business today" in just a moment. stay with us.

from cnn london, i'm nina dos santos. welcome back to "world business today." now, all of the talk is still firmly fixed on greece. let's see whether those uk and greek -- we've got strikes in the uk as well. let's see what the uk strikes are affect the markets and also

what's going on in greece. europe, we're 90 minutes into the trading session today. as you can see, we have pretty modest gains. ftse 100 pushing past the 0.7% higher marks today. lloyds banking group announced it will be cutting 15,000 jobs by the year 2014. let's go back to the topic of uk strikes. here in britain, hundreds of thousands of public employees are walking off the job today. they're upset over austerity measures and more. dan rivers is in london and joins us live with more on that particular story. dan, for the benefit of the viewers, tell us, what's their beef today? >> reporter: this is all about pension reform, against a backdrop of austerity measures that are rolling out across different sectors of the public sector here. this is particularly about changes to pensions for a variety of public workers, including teachers and university lecturers. we're being told up to 750,000

people will be going on strike today. one of the biggest strikes since the general strike in 192. with me is andy brown, president of the atl union representing teachers. some of your members, 80,000 have been -- >> we did renegotiate our pension scheme in 2007. we negotiated it in such a way that the taxpayer never has to pay any more. no matter how long we live, it's the employees who will be asked for extra contributions. however, one of the deals at the end of that was in 2009 our scheme would be revalued to see how it was doing and it was believed at that time in light of the changes that the scheme would be found to be healthy. we can't understand, therefore, because we've been given no figures, no financial rationale why we need to pay such a huge increase in employee contributions. >> if you look at the context here across europe, almost every country is having to make dramatic cutbacks in the public

sector. >> absolutely. we sympathize entirely, tdan. we teach the children of the people losing their jobs. >> your pensions are some some of the most generous. an article suggests a teacher would get a pension of $800,000. that's not sustainable anymore? >> the average teachers pension is 10,000. if you're a woman, 9,000, a staff member, 4,000 a year. >> a lot of these pensions are defined benefits, aren't they? final salary. >> this swuchb t-- is one of th worries. we're worried about those who would leave the profession, we estimate up to 50,000 and we're

worried most importantly about those who can't afford to join the profession. this is about the future of the education profession. being able to attract the brightest and the best into the profession, to do the best for our nation's children and young people. >> i suppose one of the arguments would be for people like you that people go into teaching thinking that, okay, the job is not perhaps as well paid as the private sector but you get a big pension. >> absolutely. i made a pact with my government. i took my skill set. the opportunity is offered to our colleagues who went through schooling and university with us who were earning big money. we said, this is our calling, this is our vocation. we are public servants. we'll have a modestly comfortable salary, some of which we don't get paid each month because it goes into our pension pot. that pact has been betrayed and teachers today are angry. >> that anger will be shown on the streets today.

750,000 public sector workers will be out on strike, not just teachers and lecturers but people at the immigration border of the uk, there are expected to be big -- at heathrow and even driving tests will be postponed today as i say, hundreds of thousands of workers go on strike. back to you. >> dan, let me just quickly ask you how people who you're speaking to there on strike are seeing the situation in other countries like greece and spain. i mean, one thing we can certainly see is there's a broad-based trend, people aren't happy about austerity measures and tax hishgs ahikes and they' getting to the streets to march on it, aren't they? >> they are. i've just come back from italy where there is a similar context that is beginning to happen where public sector workers on short-term contracts are being let go there. you have the situation in greece where 20% of the public sector

are facing losing their jobs completely and here, we're at the beginning, perhaps, of this process where the first thing that's being ax ready pensions or some of the better pensions or reform pensions. going forward, as andy mentioned, people aren't just worried about the pensions. it's bigger than that. it's about the whole of the public sector and the jobs that are there. people worry they are not going to be protected going there. the anger comes down to this underlying point that many people feel the deficit has been run up to bail out the banks and the bankers. they feel why should they be picking up the tab for the mistakes of the financial industry? >> lloyd's saying it will be cutting 15,000 staff members over the next two years. dan rivers, many thanks. let's get back to the stock markets now. we brought you up to date five minutes ago with what's going on across uk and the european continent.

the big banks, banks that dan rivers was talking about, had quite a good day. events in greece boosting investor confidence in that sector. all of the major indices ended the day in positive territory with the hang seng and australia's s&p asx 200 performing especially well, the latter putting on a gain of 1.75%. in the meantime, in the united states, financials once again were in focus and optimism again was in foot. felicia taylor gives us a wrapup of the day on wall street now. >> stocks popped wednesday as investors welcomed the awe tear sta -- austerity vote in greece. at the close, the dow industrials rose 72 points to 12,261. the nasdaq added 11 points. the s&p gained more than 0.75%. shares of bank of america rose 3%, helping to lift the financial sector.

bank of america is paying $8.5 billion to settle a mortgage-backed securities claim. the money will go to investors who were burned back in 2008. b of a says it will post a net loss of more than $9 billion in the second quarter due to the settlement. without the charge, the company would have turned in a solid profit. investors are happy that basically the issue is over and the company can move on. on the u.s. economic front, pentding home sales rose more than 8% last month. that's a solid rebound. and encouraging sign for the struggling u.s. housing market. coming up thursday, the economic focus turns to jobs. a tally of weekly claims for unemployment benefits is due before the opening bell. analysts are expecting a drop from the previous week. that's a wrap of the day on wall street. i'm felicia taylor in new york. that third day of gains in the u.s. comes amid a wild ride for u.s. stocks this year. after six months of see-saw trade, the s&p 500 added just a

little over 4%, which really isn't much more than inflation. if you have cash in the bank and thinking of trying to avoid inflation, perhaps putting it in the stock market with those returns aren't necessarily an attractive proposition given the risks. looking ahead to thursday's session on wall street, the u.s. markets look set to open slightly high as you can see. a little bit higher than we were when we looked into the u.s. future markets 20 minutes ago. we have the dow jones industrial average leading the charge in terms of the futures. last time we looked it was the s&p 500. now, in greece, the government has given the go-ahead to hash budget cut in order to get more bailout money from the eu. now the politicians have to figure out how they're actually going to be implementing those cuts. that's on parliament's agenda in athens today. boy will it be painful. we'll be bringing you an update on that, just ahead.

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♪ sing polly wolly doodle all the day ♪ ♪ hah

this is "world business today" on cnn. welcome back. this is the square in front of parliament wednesday night. the parliament is set to finalize those measures in just a few hours from now. as we speak, the streets of athens seem to be calm and workers are cleaning up the littered streets. athens is not the middle east, nor is it north africa. but after the first austerity vote on wednesday, the city streets resembled many of the violent scenes that we watched during the arab spring. becky anderson was caught in the middle of the rock bottle throwing and round after round of tear gas. >> reporter: here's the parliament building just there. this is been an hour after the vote. it was extremely violent for a period of time. go a little bit further down

there. this is just off the main square. somebody's been injured down here. they are trying to help this guy out. he was hurt in one of the attacks. >> and this is not only for greece. this will happen in other countries, too. this is just the beginning. this is an experiment. >> reporter: and what about the vote today? >> nobody wants it. nobody. it's based on selling away our country. >> reporter: this is called a suicide vote. earlier on by the bank of greece, he said if we don't pass this, the country's gone. so it's understandable that people are very, very angry. you can see the tear gas now. it's in my eyes as well. there you go. there's some rock throwing. what you're seeing is these guys lobbing bricks, pretty much anything they can get their hands on. stuff like that.

just pieces of concrete. they're also moving them back this way. we're going to move back this way. we're moving out of the way to avoid some of these rocks. be careful. and this has been going on throughout the day. it's tense. these guys go up against the police, they're now in all corners of the square. i moved behind joe, the cameraman now, because of rocks being thrown towards us, or in this direction, certainly. we're going to move away from

here. this is our hotel, just here. given that it's -- we're going to go back in. >> well, this is the trouble with greece. its national debt is close to 500 billion u.s. dollars. that in turn works out as being worth $45,000 per person. it's still $1,000 less per person than the u.s. debt for the moment. for greece to secure the next bailout installment worth $17 billion, which is needs, of course, within days, this is what the government is promising in turn. it will be selling public assets from bank shares to beaches valued at no less than $73 billion. here's why the greek public is getting so angry on the streetlights of athens. an extra $41 billion in taxes

and spending cuts will be imposed for the greek population over the next four years to come. if that sounds tough, bear in mind it comes already at a time when public sector employees wages are currently being slashed by no less than 15% and they're arguably among the lucky ones in the country. unemployment is rife, having risen to more than 42% among the 15 to 24-year-old age group. compare that to 30% unemployment among tunisian youths in the runup to this year's uprising there. it does help to explain the xech extent of the greek anger. some people are wondering where the euro will fail and take europe's economies with it if it does. we'll take a closer look at that in just a few moments time when we return.

welcome back to "world business today." now, it's one vote down and one to go as greece tries to secure its latest tranche of bailout funds from the imf, the eu and the ecb. they will vote on the particulars later today. on the streets in athens, the priority of the people is near subsistence.

police fired rounds of tear gas. today's discussions are sure to prove no less divisive on the streets in greece. now, the country is set to make a raft of promises to its lenders. how exactly does it plan to raise the money required to satisfy them? let's take a look at that. the first and arguably least popular proposal involves a series of tax hikes. property tax, excise duty are all sectors with bar and restaurant taxes in particular rising from 13% to 23%. income tax will also be extended to some of greece's lowest earners. those tax increases are particularly bad news for workers. wages, it seems heading in the opposite direction across the country. a 15% pay cut will extend to all public sector workers an a high percentage of retiring employees won't be replaced either. there will be large cuts in defense, health care and education and crucially in

benefits. greece a will be taking a hard line on tax evaders. while the greek government wants to make billions of dollars out to the people, it's hoping to make even more out of its property. by the year 2015, state assets will be sold off in their hundreds, from port authorities to swimming pools to casinos to stretches of coastline. it will all be going internet hammer. a stake in the phone company -- it will take a herculean effort to raise the $73 billion the greek government is aiming for. the austerity measured approved on wednesday are part of a monumental effort to prevent the euro from failing. the battle isn't over yet. jim boulden takes a look at what might happen next. >> reporter: so project euro has

survived to live another day. now what? does the greek crisis hurt the euro concept and therefore the dream of united europe under a single currency or actually strengthen it? doom sayers could be warning greece could bring down the entire dream of the monetary union or default on its loans with huge losses to european banks. ♪ >> it's a far cry from the day nearlily ten years ago when the euro launched as a hard currency, backed by a treaty that has no provisions for a country to leave the euro. >> i'd be careful of ruling it out completely. i think it is still unlikely. >> reporter: unlikely to leave. instead, some say, the richer countries in the euro zone face years of simply transferring funds, not loans, to greece.

is that politically more parrettable than the messy breakup of the euro? >> if they face the choice of what could prove politically impossible providing ongoing transfers from the core of the euro zone to greece or negotiating, the countries would draw from the euro zone. it's not clear which way they'll jump. >> leaving the euro would only come years after pain and anguish for monetary union. efforts by the european central bank and germany to support the euro show there is no appetite within euro's power brokers to break up the currency. it's likely greece will soon get some sort of debt relief before ever being allowed to default. the question is will it be orderly or disorderly? >> we're talking the language here of some kind of order, voluntary rollover. >> help greece push its problems down the road a few years while building up the defenses to keep

greece from infecting other countries. >> so the strategy that's eme e emerging, that muddled through strategy, it feels just not quite right. it's an incredibly complex problem that the eu is trying to address. they're trying to do the maximum to help greece while at the same time minimizing the ramifications for other countries that. >> delicate dance could set in motion the eventual demise of the euro and could actually bulletproof the currency from any further shocks. jim boulden, cnn, london. >> let's just bring you news coming out of lebanon where the country's prosecutor general has received a sealed indictment in the case of the assassinated former prime minister hariri. he was killed in a planned explosion in the lebanese capital, beirut, six years ago. february 14th, 2005. a u.n.-backed court known as the special tribunal for lebanon was set up specifically to investigate the assassination.

we'll bring you plenty more on that developing story as it develops throughout the course of the day here on cnn. in the meantime, that's it for this edition of "world business today." i'm nina dos santos. i'll see you again in four hours from now for the second edition of "world business today." stay with us on cnn. ard, i realized i needed an aarp... medicare supplement insurance card, too. medicare is one of the great things about turning 65, but it doesn't cover everything. in fact, it only pays up to 80% of your part b expenses. if you're already on or eligible for medicare, call now to find out how an aarp... medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company, helps cover some of the medical expenses... not paid by medicare part b. that can save you from paying up to thousands of dollars... out of your own pocket. these are the only medicare supplement insurance plans... exclusively endorsed by aarp. when you call now, you'll get this free information kit...

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