hello, i'm monita rajpal at cnn london. here are the headlines this hour. greece has set the wheels in motion for a new international bailout. the country's parliament approved a series of deep spending cuts. there's been an angry reaction on the streets of athens. at least ten buildings were burned on sunday night and riot police deployed tens of thousands of people turned out to voice their outrage. the syria observatory for human rights says one civilian was killed by sniper fire in hama. the arab league on sunday proposed a joint u.n. peacekeeping force for syria.

the first prime minister has been indicted. mr. gilani entered a plea of not guilty. the court demanded he ask swiss authorities to revive corruption charges against president zardari and others. an autopsy of whitney houston has revealed no signs of foul play but could take eight weeks to get toxicology result. attempts of resuscitation failed on sunday after she was found unconscious in the bathroom of her hollywood hotel room. those are the world headlines. i'm monita rajpal. "world business today" starts right now. good morning, from cnn london, i'm nina dos santos. >> and very good afternoon from cnn hong kong, i'm manisha tank. amid anger on athens streets,

politicians try to pull greece back from the brink, approving a new round of deep spending cuts that may help the country head off a messy default. rupert murdoch to the rescue. the news corp. chief flies into london while journalists at his best-selling british tabloid are arrested. and friends and colleagues pay tribute to whitney houston as fans buy up her albums in bulk. they left it late but finally they did it. greek lawmakers last night approved a range of cuts designed to try and secure a second bailout for this one. greece's national unity government secured the backing of most politicians inside the parliament but, however, the mood outside the parliament wasn't n.e.a.r.ly as supportive. tens of thousands of greeks turned out to protest against a further $4.4 billion worth of

spending cuts. as these images show, the demonstrations turned violent in many places. at least ten buildings in athens were set on fire. at reason for this atmosphere is clear. greece has an unemployment rate of 21% and 48% of this country's young people are currently out of work. greece as such is stuck in its fifth year of recession. it's a case of desperate times, desperate measures and increasingly desperate people here. matthew chance watched the events unfold in athens overnight. he joins us live from the greek capital. matthew, first of all, describe the anger on the streets to us. was it pat atable, similar to the demonstrations we saw many months ago when the last bailout was approved? >> reporter: it was similar to those demonstrations but much bigger, much more intense. over 100,000 people are estimated to have turned out on the streets of the greek capital last night. many thousands of them

absolutely furious that the mps inside the parliament building where they protested in front of, right behind me here, in the center of athens, were debating yet more austerity cuts. greeks, as you mentioned, have already withxood two years of deep cuts to their public services, their wages and their standards of living. the country is in deep recession. many people here have lost faith that more austerity cuts are the way forward. so that's why there was such intense anger and violence on the streets of the greek capital last night, you know. >> matthew, let's go into those cuts, in particular, the greek government are put on the table here, hoping, that is, that the troika will actually approve this and give them the next bailout 560 euros a month is what the minimum wage has been cut to there, about $730. that is very, very small. is there a sense that the greeks are going to say enough is enough, perhaps a future outside

the euro is better for us after all? >> reporter: i think that's the point of view of an increasing number of greeks. actually with the tax that has to be paid on the minimum wage, it goes to 450 euros a month in the pockets of a great many people who operate on the minimum wage in this country. you can imagine living in a european capital with 450 euros a month in your pocket. very difficult, even basic necessities are difficult to buy, if not impossible in some cases. in fact, we've seen the hardship of some of the people already, soup kitchens in the city is teeming with hundreds of people every day, just looking for free food. they can't afford to buy food for themselves. now they're being told that, you know, they'll have to endure more austerity cuts. i think the overriding sentiment in athens right now is that the medicine for what's wrong with greece is far, far worse than the disease itself.

so, yes, i think there is a growing attitude that perhaps the future is not further austerity cuts and a growing resentiment toward the eurozone. we should talk about the hurdles that lie ahead here, yes, we've heard the greek parliament agreeing on this particular set of cuts but it's not yet known whether that will be pal atable to the imf and the rest of the troika lenders. then it has various hurdles to go. is there a sense that people in athens recognize that and are worried about that? >> i think there's a sense that, yes, even though there are hurdles in the future on the european level, on another level, banking levels for these measures to be accepted. i think that's the main concern. i think the biggest concern isn't that the european union finance ministers on wednesday aren't going to approve this and in the short term give greece

the bailout funds it needs to avoid bruchs in march. i think it's clear they'll get that. nobody wants to see greece go bankrupt at this point. i think the big problem is when it comes to implementing these austerity measures in greece. there's intense resistance to further public spending cuts and wage reductions. there's also an inertia to get the cuts actually implemented. they haven't fully implemented the austerity measures in previous bailout plans. i think that will be the big obstacle here. you saw the anger on the street last night. there is a sense that this government, which has deep austerity cuts to implement has kind of lost the consent of the greek people. if that's the case, it may prove impossible to get those cuts implemented. >> okay. matthew chance there, live from athens where he was witnessing the demonstrations that went on over the course of the weekend. we'll have plenty more on the greek parliament's approval of

those austerity measures in around about 30 minutes time. michael houston will be joining me to talk about what it means for the world's stock markets. let's take a look at how those said stock markets are doing just an hour or so into the trading session. today as you can see, a bit of a bright start, relief that this first hurdle is being cleared. manisha, as matthew was telling us, there's a number of other hurdles that have to be cleared before they get the next disbursement of badly needed bailout funds. >> absolutely, nina. though the stock markets here in asia have finished with gains, on some of this open mix that greece will avoid a debt default. if you look at the figures, they are, like i said, very muted. the kospi up just a fraction -- a little bit more than 0.5%. similar story for the nikkei. we saw interesting news on the economic front and other news on

corporate front and the hang seng moving up 0.5%. yes, it's positive but still cautious over here. i talked about tokyo just a second ago. shares in tokyo electric power were up 0.5% this session. the japanese government threw tepco an $8.9 billion life line. without that extra aid, tepco didrying delisting. it reported an $8 billion net loss in the third quarter. in some senses, no surprises there, simply because we know they've been dealing with the disaster and the heavy costs that have been involved in that. the government very much having to get behind tepco on this one. now, elsewhere, shares of cameramaker olympus, those rose about 0.3% this monday. it will take more than that to off set the loss of $412 million that it is forecasting for the current fiscal year. the estimate exceeds analysts

expectations and follows what has been a terrible chapter in this country's history. they were forced to admit a $1.4 billion fraud. questions were raised about the firm's accounting practices. the shares are worth only half of what they were before that scandal was exposed. bad news for all the japanese corporate sector. i'm afraid that bad news doesn't stop there for japan. new government data shows that the country's economy contracted in the fourth quarter, shrinking at an annualized rate of 2.3% between october and december. that reverses growth that we saw in the previous quarters. in the previous quarter in fact. it was worse than analysts were expecting. they say a strong yen, sluggish global demand and a drop in exports led to that slowdown. we'll be speaking more about that later in the program. because there is a lot to talk about as far as the japanese

economy goes. >> there certainly is. greece and japan, two of the biggest stories of the day, manisha. coming up next on "world business today," another scandal faces news corporation. this time it's the "sun." and linsanity hits new york. stay with us here at cnn if you can. we'll have all of those stories coming up soon. i don't want healthy skin for a day. i want healthy skin for life. [ female announcer ] don't just moisturize. improve the health of your skin with aveeno daily moisturizing lotion. the natural oatmeal formula goes beyond 24-hour moisture. it's clinically proven to improve your skin's health in one day, with significant improvement in 2 weeks. for healthy, beautiful skin that lasts.

i found a moisturizer for life. [ female announcer ] daily moisturizing lotion. and for healthy hair every day, try new pure renewal hair care, with balancing seaweed extract. only from aveeno.

welcome back. you're watching "world business today" live on cnn. rupert murdoch is flying to london following further arrests at his biggest up in, five senior journalists arrested at the "sun." these arrests are part of operation elvdon.

it issen inquiry into alleged phone hacking. cnn's atika shubert has been following this story and joins us live from london to talk more about it. the "sun," it's a british institution, this is extremely damaging. >> reporter: it is an institution. it's the country's most widely read paper. we're not just talking about a few lower-level journalists. we're talking about senior level people at the "sun," deputy editor, chief correspondent, chief foreign correspondent, just to name a few. nonetheless, today on the newspaper stands it's business as usual from the "sun," as you would expect, a front page about whitney houston's death. if you turn to page 12, there's an editorial by trevor cavanaugh. this perhaps shows the way "sun" employees are feeling at this point. the headline, this witch hunt has put us behind ex-soviet

states on press freedom. basically it complains that those people who have been arrested have done nothing wrong. these stories sometimes involve whistle blowers, sometimes money changes hands. this has been standard procedure as long as newspapers have existed here and abroad. clearly they're very angry and see this as part of a politically motivated investigation. they point out in this editorial that no one has been charged yet. we don't know exactly what the allegations are that the police are investigating at this point. all we know is that a number of arrests have been made. as you point out with operation elvdon, which does involve payments to police or government officials, alleged payments. now, we don't know any more than that. we don't know if this is perhaps buying somebody drinks or dinner or if this is something far more serious. we'll have to wait and see what the police have to say on that. in the meantime, rupert murdoch himself is expected to come here to london to try and calm down

some of the tensions within the "sun" paper, trying to reassure him that he does not intend to sell off the newspaper like he did -- or shut it down like he did the news of the world. he's facing angry employees at the moment, as you can imagine. >> not just angry employees, atika, probably angry members of the public. with all of the inquiries beginning on, the police investigation and the levenson inquiry, the public are basically saying we're tired of being duped. he's up against that as well. >> reporter: he's facing a public backlash as well. all of the dirty laundry of the tabloids is being aired out, whether in police investigations, three of them that are ongoing or with the parliamentary and the levenson inquiry. in the levenson inquiry, the public has been watching every day, almost, this sordid details of how the tabloid works, using near blackmail tactics to secure

interviews. the way they handle the different celebrities, for example. and celebrities in particular have really taken aim at the tabloids, feeling that they have really been sort of abused by the tabloid press. and now they're taking the opportunity to lash out. so this is the environment that we're seeing. it's interesting, in the sun editorial, one of the points that trevor cavanaugh makes is that there is this huge handling and soul searching process going on about the british tabloid press over hacking allegations and yet, when it goes to the banking industry, there hasn't been massive investigations or at least on the same scale as the press investigations. and this is one reason the "sun" employees say they feel like they're being targeted. >> well, it's going to be interesting to see how many nerves rupert murdoch can calm

and on what side of that fence. atika shubert, thank you. live in london. nina? manisha, staying with the media and technology side of thing, the battle between apple and samsung is escalating these days. apple has its sights set on the galaxy nexus phone. apple claims that the galaxy violates no fewer than four of its patents. it wants a ban on sales in the united states of this particular device. back then, apple had claimed that samsung illegally copied design features from some of its products from, for instance, the iphone and ipad tablet computers. that case is still ongoing. apple will get its day in court probably later on in the year in summer. there's still no love lost between these two companies. apple and samsung are waging at

least 20 legal battles across ten countries and all of it hinges on the lucrative handheld device market, manisha. still ahead, basketball's overnight sensation. we check out the linsanity surrounding the new york knicks latest star. remembering a singing sensation as the music world mourns whitney houston fans are snaing up her legacy.

you're watching "world business today" live on cnn. from hong kong and london. welcome back to the show. yes, indeed. new word on the street in new york, linsanity, it's been coined to describe the remarkable rise of this guy, the basketballer jeremy lin. he's an off the bench player who has fans of the new york knicks buzzing with excitement. as richard roth reports, he's big business. >> reporter: jeremy lin says he's a low key guy. he looks unassuming at practice with the new york knicks. when the lights go on at the world's most famous arena, madison square garden -- >> jeremy lin does it again. >> a magical night for jeremy lin. >> reporter: a rare asian-american in the nba is an

overnight star and talk of the big town. >> what we're seeing in new york is something i have never seen and we haven't seen for generations really, a guy who can excite the garden like this out of nowhere. >> is this overwhelming for you? >> yeah. >> reporter: fans have agreed how to describe the lin phenomenon. >> linsanity. >> have you seen the alleged affects of linsanity. >> i've seen it everywhere. i'm from the west coast. it's sweeping the nation. >> there's a fever going on in new york called linsanity. he is just an electrifying player. >> reporter: lin was a star at harvard university, not a tragsal launching pad for nba stars. he wasn't drafted and was later cut by two nba teams before the nose-diving knicks picked him up. >> we had an idea we liked him and it worked out. you have to have luck and we have a bunch of luck. it worked out for us. >> reporter: at first, souvenir

stores weren't prepared for linsanity. >> let's go knicks! >> reporter: lim is amazed at his instant fame. >> things are changing so much. everyone wants to talk to me and my family. we're very low key people and private people. and so sometimes -- >> go j-lin. >> he's the man. >> reporter: lin's parents immigrated from taiwan. the chinese media offers nonstop coverage here and games are shown back to asia. >> it's huge back in taiwan. people are crazy about him, even my grandma asks him about. my grandma is 90 years old. he's like you're covering jeremy lin? good for you. >> reporter: he's a marketing bonanza, drawing fans like first-time ticket buyer chris lee. >> more reason to go when you have a chinese-american going. >> i'm a home body. i stay inside. >> reporter: he sleeps at his

brother's apartment while trying to revive the knicks. richard roth, cnn, new york. >> what a guy. the true extent to jeremy lin's potential as a player ands assay brand isn't yet known. there are plenty of big numbers being bandied about. when i tell you he earns just short of $789,000 a year, you might think it sounds like a lot but it's pocket change in comparison to the nba's highest paid player, mr. kobe bryant at some $25 million. he also makes an extra $10 million in endorsements. this is where things get really interesting. lin is big news among the asian-american population. that's a lot of community with money to spare. a branned with access to lin makes $18,000 more than the average american. it is certainly growing fast,

his popularity. he has almost seven times of twitter followers as he did five weeks ago. linsanity is working for the knicks, too. the average ticket price for a home game is some 20% higher than it was before he made his debut. so a lot to talk about. you know what, nina, apparently he has a degree from harvard in economics. maybe he can sort out the world economy as well. >> yes, perhaps we should ask him what he makes about the situation in greece. he seems to be somebody who is making money whereas there are people that need a little bit of money, certainly in the millions, perhaps the billions. coming up here on "world business today," wee revisit topic of greece. the parliament's approval of the austerity measures over there are moving world stock markets today. we get a read on that from one analyst, just ahead on the show.

from cnn hong kong, i'm manisha tank. i'm nina dos santos at cnn london. a warm welcome back to "world business today." greece has set the wheels in motion for a new international bailout. the country's parliament has approved a series of cuts here but there's been an angry reaction on the streets of athens. at least ten buildings were set on fire and riot police were deployed right across the capital after tens of thousands of people turned out to voice their outrage. the country is already suffering its fifth straight year of

recession here and unemployment has risen to a record high with one in five greeks now out of work. 150,000 public workers are likely to lose their jobs as part of the new cuts and measures and the minimum wage will fall by 22%, just 560 euros a month. that's about $740 per month. greece may have avoided a disorderly default but public disorder is just one of many byproducts of a result of these austerity measures in the country's new reality. let's see what's going on in the european stock markets. 19 minutes into today's trading session, they're enjoying optimism as a result of the kind of measured passed in greece. must stress this is one hurdle that the greeks have yet to clear. we also need to see whether the eurozone fellow countries approve of what they've put on the table as well as the other lenders that are part of the troika as well. greece is certainly the most important word on the minds of investors as we start this trading week. michael houston from cmc markets

joins us live to discuss the week ahead. we'll start out with the topic of greece. >> good morning, nina. >> good morning to you. how convinced are you about what's been put on the table, the fact that the vote has gone through but still could face more obstacles. >> the vote is besides the point. it still has to be approved by the euro group finance ministers on wednesday. more than that, i was intrigued by what samaras said that he wanted sign up to the austerity measures irrespective of what the outcome of an election would be in april. he said that he would look to renegotiate the terms of the bailout in april in the event are the of a new government. that's completely at odds with what junka said last year. >> do you think that would cause the euro group to reject this again? >> i don't think anyone wants to be blamed for letting greece go.

so given the firm line that we've seen from european politicians recently, they could be trying to force guess's hand a bit in terms of pushing them out of the euro. what greece has done now, they've thrown the ball back into euro group's court. they'll ratify the measures and release the funds on a piecemeal basis from an escrow account or something like that. >> which is similar to what they've done in the past. that could mean more reinforcement for the greeks going forward. the economy just isn't growing. >> absolutely. you've seen the economic data. 15% year-on-year contraction in manufacturing, 11.3 in industrial production and obviously a contraction in growth and rising unemployment. i think what we've seen over the weekend is just a taste of what could come going forward if we continue down this path. everyone knows that greece really does need to default on its debts and it needs to be a much more two-handed approach.

austerity alone will not solve this problem. >> what does this mean for the markets? the equity markets have been actually robust of late in the first couple of months of the year. is this a false dawn given the risks that lie ahead for the eurozone and greece? >> i think so. we've seen the bank of england pumping more money into the uk economy and this talk that the federal reserve stands ready to act, to pump money into the u.s. economy. that will underpin stock markets. if the markets are thinking that a greek default can be contained, they could be in for a rude awakening. you need a mechanism in place to prevent a contagion to portugal. they could be the next domino to fall if this is not resolved very, very quickly. >> is there a sense that we are facing something akin to a lehman brothers, where people will perhaps get fed up, there

won't be enough political will and momentum to keep greece in the eurozone. do you think it's likely that greece will drop out? >> i think it's very likely to happen. greece needs to leave the euro. you've seen the euro rise on the back of the austerity deal. the last thing greece wants is a high euro. if they need to regain competitiveness, they need a lower exchange rate. part of that would be leaving the eurozone. you don't know what the effects of that would be, the contagion within the the banking sector. look at the french banks and their exposures to greek debt. the french dpoft would have to bail out those banks. it could lose its remaining aaa rating with fitch and moody's. the esfs could lose its aaa rating as well. then you look at portugal, the list goes on. i could go on. >> michael houston, we'll have to leave it there. even if you could go on.

we could debate this topic ad infinitum. >> absolutely. >> you're hearing a bleak prognosis about what's going to happen from here on out with greece. >> it's quite understandable the way things are going right now. there's a lot unknown. here in asia, investors breathing a sigh of relief. there are the numbers for you now. although looking pretty muted so far as the gains go. the big news was coming out of japan this session. we spoke about this earlier. there's a lot to talk about, the economy contracted in the fourth quarter at an annualized rate of 2.3%. to put that in focus for you, that's nearly twice what many analysts have been expecting. it's a big reversal of growth seen in the previous quarter. here for a closer look at that, is ben caulick.

let's not talk about what's happened. what do you do when you're in this situation in japan? >> there's one thing on the numbers. it's important to remember that the previous quarter growth was revised up. consequently, that's why it was such a shock. it was 2.3%, which is about 1% more than we were expecting. it's not that significant impact. the problem is what we do now, what japan does now. the issue, i think, for the data that's really quite worrying, there's an export year to date or certainly in the first 20 days of 2012 have shown a continuation of the net export shrinking trend. which is if you remember, revealed a net trade deficit. the problem remains that they're a country with a shrinking population, a shrinking demand. the boj forecasting a lower cpi, up to 2013 and even ignoring this quarterly number and even

if we annualize it, it's forecast at 1.4%, which is in line with most of the street estimates, too. this is a blip below positive growth. we do expect that to improve and we expect that the trade balance is going to move to positive territory. so far the data indicates that this situation is getting worse and not better. >> like you said, there was a revision for the last quarter, what are the chances we might see another one? >> the difficult thing obviously gdp numbers are always backward looking. what we need to account for sin creased expenditures in terms of reconstruction post the earthquake last year. we have also the export data that's actually suffering because of the domestic demand is taking the ability to fulfill export orders to. that will provide positive numbers in the next quarter. i think currently on the information we have, we still expect the numbers to show positive growth for 2012.

so far there's no reason to dispute that. but growth certainly was anticipated to be much better than this. so given the data we have, given the actual export orders fulfilled, that export number will weigh on sentiment certainly. one thing to note, though, the other issue and the significant part of current account was income, foreign income. the income account balance was in excess of 9 trillion positive. in terms of national accounting it's still a net receiver of cash. which is good, obviously. unless the yen gains can be adjusted and can be addressed to an absolute -- to an absolute level, they're still going to continue to see problems. >> maybe you can come back sometime and we can talk about the longer term problems feeding into this. ben collett, thanks for joining us. >> thank you. investors in the united states have been keenly awaiting a resolution to greece's showdown with its creditors.

the dow and the nasdaq and the broader s&p 500 were all lower when they ended the week but things are looking brighter as we start to approach the start of a new trading session on monday. all three of those major indices are set for a higher open. for a look ahead of what could move the markets on wall street, here's alison kosik. president barack obama unveils the budget plan this week for the next fiscal year. at the new york stock exchange i'm alison kosik. the president is expected to call for $3 trillion in cuts over the next ten years. the plan will be very similar to the one laid out in september which called for tax increases on the nation's wealthiest along with tax cuts to increase manufacturing and investments in education. the president is also expected to offer spending cuts on medicare and medicaid. on economic calendar, retail sales for january are due

tuesday. we'll see if shoppers were shopped out in january after the holiday shopping season. we'll also get a pair of reports on inflation, at both the consumer and producer levels. the producer price index declined in two of the last three months. later in the week we'll get u.s. import and export numbers, both of which fell slightly in december as well as statistics on u.s. housing starts. the earnings season is winding down but general motors will release its report on thursday. it's expected to post a record annual profit of about $8 billion. if so, it will be the first time in seven years that the big three u.s. automakers, gm, ford and chrysler, are all profitable. that's a look ahead at the week in u.s. business news. i'm alison kosik in new york. >> so the big question is, how are the markets indicating the open could go? take a look at this. the futures at the moment seem to indicate a positive picture. obviously taking their keys from what's going on in europe, it's the nasdaq, the tech heavy index

that's up the most. the other two up also by about 0.5%. >> that's quite interesting, strong showing on futures. so far, so good. you foe what they say. just ahead on the show, one of biggest voices in music has fallen silent. but we'll tell you how whitney houston's legacy is living on. that's thanks to surging music sales. online dating services can get kind of expensive. so to save-money, i found a new way to get my profile out there. check me out. everybody says i've got a friendly disposition and they love my spinach dip. 5 foot ten. still doing a little exploring... on it. my sign is sagittarius, i'm into spanish cheese, my hairline is receding but i'm getting a weave. (falsetto chorus) getting a weave.

who wants some ronald tonight!? geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more.

live from cnn hong kong and london. this is "world business today." welcome back to the show. as the world continues to mourn the loss of whitney houston over the weekend, friends and colleagues paid tribute to the legend at 594th annual grammy awards on sunday.

♪ and i will always love you ♪ i will always >> jennifer hudson sang her own rendition of whitney houston's billboard hit, "i will always love you." changing the last line to "whitney, we will always love you" drawing applause. whitney houston sold around 170 million albums single and videos. her debut album released in 1985 kicked off a string of number one singles. she enjoyed film success in the 1990 starring in "the body guard," "waiting to exhale" and "the preacher's wife." fans have been showing an outpouring of support online

here. hergreatest hits album is now number one on amazon. her hit single became the most downloaded song on itunes. still to come on "world business today," the chinese vice president touches down in washington. later today, it's not just diplomacy and trade on the agenda. we'll tell you why he's also visiting iowa. that's up next on cnn. so what do you think? basic.

at meineke i have options... like oil changes starting at $19.95. my money. my choice. my meineke.

let's have a look at how brent crude is trading at the moment. as you soon see, it's up about 71 cents on the price of $117.77 per barrel. the reason? a weaker u.s. dollar and expectations of revival and demand. especially after greece approved its austerity bill. welcome back. live from cnn london and hong kong, this is "world business today." china's likely next leader is set to land in washington for a week-long trip aimed at strengthening economic ties between the united states and china. let's take you on a brief rundown of what that visit will entail. on tuesday, xi jinping will visit president barack obama. it will happen at the white house, to discuss a number of key issues including trade and

iran. there will also be a roundtable discussion with american and chinese ceos. then on wednesday, vice president xi is expected to travel west to muscating, iowa. he first visited in 1985 to learn about advanced hog raising techniques. this time around, he's holding a private dinner for the iowa families who hosted him years ago. later in the week, mr. xi will be in california for the u.s. china, economic and trade cooperative forum. a busy week ahead for him, nina. >> certainly is. here in europe, frigid temperatures and more snow, it seems, are on the way for eastern parts of europe but areas in the west will get a reprieve from the blast of wintry cold we've been experiencing for the best part of two or three weeks now. let's go to ivan cabrera at the cnn international weather center. good morning to you.

it's certainly gotten warmer here in london. >> yes, that's important for you. you're welcome. i'll take credit for that. the problem with what you said is that essentially in the east is where we need the milder temperatures. in the west we've been okay. so i can't bring up the temperatures in the east. that is going to be a problem. 32 below this morning in moscow, just brutal stuff, about 25 below in kiev. the sun is out but it is still brutally cold. that's where the heart of the cold air will remain. to the west, london at 3 degrees, my goodness, that feels like spring compared to what we've seen over the last few days. indeed, nina, milder to the west. although it hasn't been as brutal and it will be very cold to the east. look at these clouds here. that is producing snowfall. it snowed heavily through the weekend in the balkans. let's show you some of the pictures. i'll take you into the scene there as you can see some of the

stills here. incredible amounts of snow. you have to imagine, this is coming on top of what we've already had, meters upon meters of snow here. we're adding to the misery here. in all that misery, we talked about the avalanche that occurred, unfortunately, in kosovo, we lost several homes and folks as well over weekend. we want to take you to those pictures there. we have dramatic scenes as they rescued one of the victims. there you see her. that little girl came out alive, out of the avalanche. she was buried in 10 meters of snow, an incredible small miracle. unfortunately some of her family was not able to be rescued there. just amazing scenes. this is the topography that set the scene. a small town in kosovo, you see the steepness here of the mountains, incredible stuff. this same region, nina and manisha, will continue to see a

high risk for avalanche over the next couple of days and unfortunately, more snow on the way along with very cold temperatures. >> okay. ivan cabrera as always, many thanks for that. ivan cabrera, keeping us up to date with bitterly cold temperatures, particularly in eastern europe. let's bring you up to date with the markets before we say good-bye in five minutes time. let's talk to you about m & a activity coming back on the cards to, let's say, change the subject from the issues we've been talking about in greece. after news last week that two companies were planning a -- that's helping to lift the ftse as you can see to the tune of about 1%. the other european markets off their interday's highs. greece has managed to pass the austerity measure, question is will it be good enough for the troika and good enough to get the next chunk of bailout money, manis

manisha? >> big questions, right, nina? over here, we've had muted gains across the asian markets. there have been high hopes here. corporate news for the markets to get their heads around, particularly in japan, tepco, tokyo electric power company, full-year net loss of $8 billion for the fiscal year. they've been dealing with the problems at the fukushima daiichi nuclear plan the. also olympus forecasting a loss of $412 million for the current fiscal year. that's a company hounded by a scandal in the past year. disappointing news on the economic front for japan so far as the gdp figure went. it was a lot less than analysts were predicting after a revision that was higher in the previous quarter. like i said, the muted gains, you con see that across the board. that's it for this edition of "world business today." thanks ever so much for joining us. we'll be back in about four hour's time. we couldn't the you down to the opening bell on wall street.

in the meantime, i'm nina dos santos in london. >> i'm manisha tank in hong kong. you're watching cnn, the world's news leader. good-bye for now.