could take a little rhythm. that's all for us tonight. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com at least 26 people have been killed by an explosion in northwest pakistan. the car bomb at the market left more than 50 other people wounded. the government and officials told cnn the device was placed in a vehicle belonging to a local militia group. state-owned media said the president will speak to the nation on tuesday. he will talk about domestic issues as well as local and regional developments. meanwhile anti-government protests and al as sad protests

will begin. a.m. ma din any jad will head to latin american. hugo chavez vows to fight poverty. western powers are stepping up their efforts to put the brakes on iran's nuclear program. those are the headlines from cnn. i'm anita rajpal. world business starts right now. good morning. from cnn london and welcome to "world business today." i'm nina dos santos. very good afternoon from hong kong. i'm andrew steechvens. the u.s. treasury secretary now tries to convince china from buying iranian oil. india's most colorful businessman is backing a key part of his empire airborne.

can king fisher airlines survive? and detroit's big three have refound their magic but it's the overseas car makers that are winning the prizes. stocks are creeping higher this tuesday and it's down in part at least to alcoa, the producer kicking off the u.s. earning seasons with results that make estimates even though it was in the negative and also a bright outlook which is keerks and that certainly helped boost asia early despite disappointing data coming from china. it's lifting european stock markets as well. it is indeed. we're one hour into the trading session here. take a look at the picture. it's a sea of green. quite a different perspective, let's say, from yesterday's sea of red when the markets closed down not by quite as much as this in percentage terms, but still feeling the pain of ongoing concerns about the eurozone. as you were just saying, andrew, the news with companies like

alcoa has taken the focus off the economic agenda. having said that in the united kingdom we've had some buoyant retail sales index. they've risen by 4.1%. having said that, if you look again further down into the statement the devil is in the detail because some of these retailers have been getting a bounce from that, but they have been having to cut prices throughout the crucial holiday shopping season to try and rein in customers and make those sales. let's go back to the topic at hand that has dominated the markets over the course of the last 1.5 years. niklas sarkozy and angela merkel did meet yesterday. it didn't do much to boost market confidence. as can you see, some of these gains are gains but they're pretty muted. so far a lot of people have been saying that we have a lot of way to go to try to get this so-called fiscal compact and

austerity rules in place. investors were more concerned with the outstanding issues. the pressure is being ramped up in particular on greece to restructure its own debtor otherwise miss out on crucial bailout money that this country needs to stay afloat. merkel and sarkozy have been saying that this fiscal pact that we've been talking about that was agreed in december of last year could be signed later on this month. it could come in effect as soon as march. the deal gives the eu more clout in setting individual members' nation's budgets. absolutely. let's take a quick look at what's been happening here in the asian markets this day. pretty positive, too, following that outlook from the u.s. bell weather company, alcoa. this is an alamenian company. it's key for understanding the global growth. a bright outlook means it's not such doom and gloom as we go ahead. that's helping to boost the markets here. in the asian region, big

exporter moves to beijing t. will boost investor rights. in china we had the trade numbers out both imports and exports rising but slower rates than expected. financials moving higher in shanghai and hong kong on the hopes of a possible cut in the reserve ratio requirement at least in broad money, monetary policy after those trade numbers which does suggest that chinese growth does continue to slow. now the nikkei, take a look at that. it was closed yesterday. up by . .4%. we've also go the a couple of big moves to show you coming out of tokyo today. take a look at that. olympus up nearly 20%. that's after the nikkei newspaper reported it would remain listed on the tokyo stock exchange. they are a big mover. a stock we've talked about as

with olympus as we've talked about all year, tepco. the government will buy a majority stake in the floundering company. that was the company that was running the fukushima daiichi nuclear plant that has just been stabilized after the tsunami back in march. that is when the tsunami hit march 11 last year. that has been the following story. no confidence at all in tepco stock. it's down something like 90% since then. we're going to now take you to a live event happening in syria. the syrian president bashir al-assad is giving a very rare address. this is the first address he has made since late last month when the arab league sent in observers to monitor a peace plan in syria. let's listen in to the syrian president.

>> translator: i have been longing for all these meetings and direct meeting with the citizens, but i've always been following events and anything that i have seen. brothers and sisters, i greet you with the arab greetings which we belong. we will always be hard, and i salute you with the -- i salute your resilience for syria will

remain the castle of endurance. i salute you now after ten months of events that have affected our beloved country. these events that can be confronted by hard work, with believing in god and trusting our people throughout history. these events have cost us lots, very dearly, and which made my heart cry, but it was imposed on the syrian people and those syrians will seek wisdom in confronting these events.

to live out the challenges for our national problems, this is our destiny and this is how our country is look and everybody knows that the conspiracies that has been conspired in dark rooms is quite evident now. they are quite exposed now. the merchants of freedoms that have conspired to spill blood so they can trade with them. it wasn't easy from the start of the events since things happened. and because in the absence of

wisdom that was the prevailing attitude, but now the folk has gone and it's quite clear. now the mask have fallen on these faces to push the syrians to such events. this should have been a defeat for them. we have from this media, we should have confronted in the way that we should. now we have more than 60 television stations -- more than 60 television stations are working against sir yeah now somebody working against it

domestically and some were trying to spoil the syrian image outside and there are other media newspapers, we are talking about hundreds of media, they were hoping that such methods will crumple the syrian from inside. one of the events that they try to work on when i give interview with the american channel, but i did not see it until now i did, but i just heard a while ago when i saw myself, i believed what i was saying. if they try to convince me. what about the others? but fortunately they had

original copy. because there was original copy we can show it to the citizens and they can draw comparison between what i said and what i haven't said. and also the fabrication of such editing when they failed to bring down the syrian situation. to tell the people that this person lives -- he is alone and he's running away from his responsibilities. there are many events. sometimes they say the president has fled. so many of these things. we tell them, shame on you.

i am not the person who runs away from these responsibilities. when i was drinking water in my last speech they say the president was tense. people like to fish in muddy waters. then they get confused about responsibilities and running away from responsibilities. the official position is just

something that i have to do. but this job comes the responsibility of public support. all my stances i always seek for public support. i just want to say something about the interview i give to the american channel. so many people from people inside and outside. a month or two months into the events there was a hindrance on the media movement.

forging the events. at the time, at the start of the events, we decided not to -- we do not close the gates on the media but we had made it selective allowing media people into the country to cover the events. this makes a lot of challenges that determine we can resist and knowing the weak opponents and your public awareness that built on facts, not on -- that was

important to expose the conspiracies and make them fair. we talked about transparent criticism of the situation and to stop also the international interactions. we did not minimize the conspiracies. no wise person denies these international conspiracies that being done in order to spread the fear inside.

but this time it was done from people enside. your revolution was against them, but people got far short sand when your unity became confronted them, they tried to use arms against such unity. when they lost hope to fulfill their objectives, they resorted to terrorist methods and also used peaceful demonstrations and also to cut out assassinations, to cut off cities and public building -- damage public buildings.

they did not find a chance to find other victims. now comes the help. when we say they have fallen. and such conspiracy we refer to the western, but now unfortunately it's arabian as well as western. some arab countries, they don't have foreign policies but some people try to play a constructive way, but there are countries who do not care of what happened in yemen. there are also arab countries,

some arab officials are without heart but in policies they are against us. we review but there are a lot of pressure exerted on us. we will not -- we will not be surprised that the time will come for these countries that will connect their currencies with the basket of other currencies when we move from the first independence, when we liberated our country, the country of the second, when we become independent in our thinking, what we see official policies of con tris do not

reflect what's happening on the ground. that there is such policies only seen when there is a conflict between arab countries and the west. this is what happened in iraq and libya. that's what we see in the arab rule against syria and we felt in the syrian security council to convince the world with their lies. there was an -- there had to be an arab cover so that they can work from.

but the arab initiative, when we said international organization to syria, and so the facts on the ground. we do not say all facts are positive. it would be nice of them to send delegations to look and see on the grounds what's going on. in any events, we continued with all balance and the foreign minister spoke in his press conferences. we are concentrating on that the

sovereignty of syria. we know that arabs, whether officials or citizens, they have their own feelings. why did they started the arab initiatives? those that were concerned about the syrian people, about we -- they talked about reforms. they don't know anything about democracy. they thought we would not be doing any reforms and they would be taking it as a spring board in order to jump into something else. when we started our reforms it became confusing for them and then they went to the arab league and started with the arab initiatives. if we go to these countries that

are fighting us for advice. if we go back in history, we go a century, century and a half and we are part of the ottoman empire, there was a parliament which opened in 1877. in 1999 we had a parliament in syria. where were these countries at the time? their situation is just like a doctor who advising people against smoking and when he have a cigarette in his mouth. as far as the arab league, why would i angry from a country that has no -- they don't own their own -- making their own decisions. we are struggled with -- not

with these people but the people behind it. why didn't arabs stand with syria? i'm not going back long in history, but let's talk about the few years back. why was all against iraq when it started? when the assassination occurred. the so-called international a tatomic fire, wateria. but things need to be explained

about the -- some countries voted against syria on the human rights and some voted with syria. the arab league is the reflection of the arab situation. the arab league is our miserable situation. the consensus that looks into the arab situation is going from bad to worse. it's happening in secret now. it's done in the open. has the arab league carried out its decision and managed to fulfill the aspiration of the

arabs or did it manage to implant a city of sedation? did it manage to bring back a tree of olives to the palestinians from the israelis? did it manage to unify the sudan? did it manage to stop the war on iraq or manage to feed a somali person? i am talking now because i managed to -- when you are

sitting around the arab summits and the people shouting in the arab -- between the arab are talking freely, therefore, to suspend the syrian membership of the arab league or throwing it out, dispelling it will sort of be losing or will arab be the loser? we have been trying for the past toop ma too many months our losses, but we need to ask -- and we need to ask can anybody live without a heart? and we say the arab -- i can also say that before.

>> so many arabs, they are convinced about this. arabism is not -- who did modern syria paid with so much blood? who did the modern syria cause? in education, who give to the arab causes more than syria?

syria insisted on using the arab language in its curriculum throughout the universities and schools. if those countries are trying to suspend syrian membership. if the arab league without syria, then not be an arab. some people can think that expel us from the arab league, those countries that you know, trying to get to the arab cause. they haven't got the history. they think that through their money that they can buy or import. we said to them that money cannot make nations.

as i heard from so many syrians, we are more free in our -- backing our arab which is quite clean, therefore, we can say from their attempts they are not concentrating -- they want to expel but they are trying to suspend syria from the arab league so it can remain arabic. it can be a false arab league. how do we explain? the reactions to the zionist acts against, and when we say

try to make the office by making israel more effective and we get response from them that such move is no longer effective. we wanted with our patience with these acts to prove to them that who have bad intention, we want to show them their bad intention and their evil deed. some who are supporting us in trying to bring back the good image of the arab league, and we did not close the gate on any asia tempt as long as they

respect our sovereignty and our decisions. >> our arab countries with its diverse ethnicitibility on two pillars, the arabism and islam, both of them are great and rich and important and, therefore, we cannot -- we cannot baddend them and also our arab image is built on the cohesion of the islamic

and christian getting together. we are acting based on those acting against us. we say we have great islam and there is the terrorism are using islam. who do we fight, fight islam or fight this terrorism? the answer is islam has nothing to do with it. christian region, what has -- what so many wars happen in the

name of kristie an knit at this in america or in europe those who are claiming to be adherent to the christian faith. there are things that found through history. this can be changed. first reaction was the syrian reaction. any person who loves this country -- every person who

belongs to his country, a city, every person who loves his village, that he will probably love it more than any other village or city and that will not stop him from being a nationalist who loves his country as a whole. we are syrians. there is no confliction between arab feeling and syrian nationalism. the division between arabism and nationalism is important and for the future f. we divide, if we separate such matters will know

that arab image is belonging not a membership, is an identity. arabism is an identity that you have. it's an honor with its arab nations. some people might say that about arab image and especially we talk about arab. if arabism is a -- arabism is a civilization, joy want history,

joyant religions between different ethnicities and the last thing is race. the strength of this arab image. arabism wasn't built on arabs and those that came and built this community. its strength in its richness. our strength in being arabs and on our openness towards the -- to the arabism.

if somebody is a chauvinist, then arabism doesn't mean the chauvinistic if he no, ma'am maine non. what happens in the past doesn't reflect on what happens in the current events that put so many questions and thoughts to find solutions to the current situation that syria currently undergoes. and thinks can be done without confronting the issues rather than running away from it and being brave rather than being coward. if we talk about the internal situation, we must specify. there are so many thoughts. some maybe good ideas.

let's put some definitions to it. we cannot do any reforms without the facts on the ground whether we like these facts or not. we cannot build hope on a -- some said because of the intense pressure, they are looking for any solution. we cannot take any solution. it has to be a solution that is wonderful defined. we want a solution that we will take to the abyss, to the dark tunnel.

even with the current situation we cannot take such extent of solution, we take it with such things. we are doing political reforms and also to confront the terrorists events, incidents that have taken place in so many places. the reform -- those who are looking for reforms in order to commit acts of sabotage, this is the thing which i have been foreseeing for a long time.

what has the current reforms got to do with the foreign conspiracies? there are so many dialogues that are taking place in the west about the current situations here. no one is concerned about the number of the victims or the reforms. everybody is talking about the syrian policies from a long time until now, and those who came to make settlements, there is no connection between reform and the internal conspiracies because reform will make syria

strong and if syria strong, the syrian policies are not desired abroad. the other point, what's the connection between reforms and terrorism? if we do reforms will the terrorism stop? this terrorist will kill. is he looking for different parties, multi-party election? reforms will not stop the terrorist from committing his act of terrorism. there are large section of the syrians looking for reforms and though we didn't go and did not go out and commit act of sabotage, reforms is an actual

way of doing things. reforming the state aparathis in 2005, we talked about in 2005 there wasn't any pressure at the time on syria. they want about internal reforms. it's a natural need to make such reforms. whether we were late or not, this is a different matter, but it was a natural need. if reform is forced, then it will fail.

if you go from -- what about the coming decades? we need to connect what happened before the current events and what might happen after it. we do not build reforms on the current situation. we must agree on separating between the reforms and the current situation. i came to this home in june. i spoke specifically on the

logistical point and the constitutions and timetables. there were so many laws that have been issued within the timetable set forth. we had so many things from people on this point we did not feel any results, and i tried to talk quite transparently about all subjects. first law to the lift the state of emergency. how can a country to lift the state of emergency, but any country will impose the state. we insisted on lifting the state of emergency, and few syrian

citizens accused us of allows closeness. when there is a state of emergency there are certain rules to follow and there are certain procedures to be followed. no country would allow a lawlessness in their country. to lift the state of emergency there are the -- those, the police need to control it. some of those who are working for the security haven't taken leave for ages in order to see

their families. when there is act of sabotage and act against the laws that will get west hundred folds and that's why we need results. we need to deal with the reasons. we work to stop these act of lawlessne lawlessness. now i differentiate here between the mistakes and also the killing.

regarding the people's law who killed, they need evidence of people who committed acts of murder. looking for evidence looks for departments and the current situation hinders their work. i would like to confirm that there is no -- any orders by any department of the state to fire on people.

as far as parties, there was a law in which law was issued regarding the -- reforming the parties. there are one party who got its license and there are other parties waiting to fulfill the criterias in order to be given licenses. parties need time, but once the law -- party's law has been declar declared. there aren't so many blocks on issuing licenses on parties. it's a matter of time.

local elections was carried out in very difficult situation because participation was quite limited from both those who went forward and those under voters. there was the consensus that -- to postpone the local government until later. but there are those who -- a lot of complaints by the people about the efficiency of the local governments. no such results can be achieved without the participations of the voters so there can be

competition. this such responsibility lies with the citizens. the media law, there are so many applications for the establishment of many channels and newspapers. the ballot box is the decider in this country. the most important law is the fighting corruption that has been delayed for so many -- has been delayed because it's a very

important law. go very carefully with all those sectors. the government has finished from starting the law and has finished from the prime minister and will send to the presidential -- the current law which the committee for corruption. the search committee has been announced. came in its place the fighting corruptions committee. the search committee was looking into how the work committed by

different departments and giving suggestions as well as monitoring corruption. you cannot fight corruption on its own without monitoring the activities of the department. what's more important, what has search can be connection between search and fighting corruption. it's two committees can be amalgamated together or will they be separated or work together, then this matter has been referred to the prime ministery in order to find solution and then the law of fighting corruption will be

issued. fighting corruption from midway to the top is quite easy, but fighting corruption from midway to the bottom is quite difficult. people want the president to sort of confront these people. when the president takes the work of these committees, of search, we must work towards

making the work of these bodies more effective. i won't see fighting -- i won't see fighting corruption a legitimate cover more work. if i do fight corruption but now fight one case on its own, but i don't fight corruption as a whole. about a decree was issued about constitutional reforms and a time was given for constitutional reforms on the committee and its last effort is to prepare a constitution. the constitution will focus on one point about multi-party system. talked about the chapter 8.

the people as the source of authority, freedom, freedom of citizens, of so many issues, essential things. there was question, why did we wait the legal acts before dealt with constitution? because the country is serious in its work towards achieving this objective.

what's important with these issues -- these laws are issues that we will be in a new state. we talk about initiatives. talk we had about the government of -- government of national unity. it's quite divisive. there are those warlords meet around the tables. we do not national division. we do not have any national division.

, but i know they don't mean that. all governments in syria are quite -- there are those independent, but now we have new political map with the new constitution, with the new parties, there are political forces, we have to take it into account. people who would take these political forces into the equati equation. everybody will have to participate. it is the government of the country, not for one particular party. as long as we make the -- widen the participation, it will be good for the whole country.

we welcome all political forces. in fact, we -- and the results we got from these people quite positive. one point which i forgot about the constitution. this is very important point. after the committee finishes the timetable to prepare the constitutions, there are so many suggestio suggestions for the president to declare. i insisted on refr ren du