thank you. >> my thanks to you, piers. thank you. >> that's all for us tonight. i'm zain verjee. senior pakistani official tells cnn that the government is not sure whether it will put a doctor on trial. the doctor hemmed the c.i.a. collect dna samples from people in osama bin laden's compound. three afghan immigrants have been found guilty of killing four family members. the honor murders took place in june 2009. they found that mohammed shafia killed three of his teenage

daughters and his first wife. all three were sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole. bloody sunday in syria. 64 people were killed. heavy clashes were reported right outside the capitol, damascus. limited access to the country prevents cnn from independently verifying these reports. those are the headlines from cnn, the world's business leader. i'm zain verjee and show sh""wo business today"" begins right now. welcome to another week of wbt. i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. i'm nina dos santos in london. debt talks deja vu. european leaders try yet again to save greece and the single currency. ryanair dedefies forecasts.

we take these jobs at the pleasure of the president. at a time when he faced so much challenge, so much pressure, if the president asks you to do this, you have to do them. treasury secretary timothy geithner talks exclusively about america's economy, the eurozone and laying the groundwork for growth. forgive us if you've heard this one before. eu leaders will gather in brussels this monday to secure the future of the eurozone, but there is going to be an elephant in the room, and that elephant is called greece. now we may be close to an agreement on writing down one lot of greek debt, but big questions remain over athens ability to repay its next bailout installment. the country's creditors are demanding that it live up to its

promises on implementing straight austerity measures, but a german suggestion that greece needs supervision to put those measures into practice has created another rift. the appointment of an eu budget commissioner to oversee greece's plans would compromise national dignity. jim is the head of the treaty talks. let's deal with greece. are we any closer to get some sort of agreement that is going to once and for all draw the line on greece's debt problems? >> it certainly seemed over the weekend that we got very close, indeed, to an agreement. it wouldn't be a great surprise if today or tomorrow we were able to say that a preliminary agreement has been reached between greece and its private sector creditors. but that's only one tick in the box, andrew. that's only one step forward. that would be something the

markets would be looking for. it would be a disaster if they didn't agree, but then we have to see the details of that agreement, then the people who will be arriving here in brussels today, the leaders of the european union, all 27, would then be discussing this and then deciding whether to sign off on that agreement depending on the details. as we know, the european commissioners did not like some of the talk last week about the interest rate on the 30 year bond that the creditors would be getting from greece. it's a bit detailed, but the devil is in the details. once that happens, then greece can have further negotiations with the imf, european central bank, and the eu about that second bailout. so we're a long way from greece getting that second bailout. we do have this deadline. we talk all of the time on the deadlines and they keep moving. the next one is march 20th. they have to pay back 14 million euros to bond holders. that's the deadline we're

working toward. this summit is sort of an informal meeting today of eu leaders later this afternoon. we don't expect a lot of news coming from here but it's another step that the markets will be looking for from eu leaders here to give positive statements if they can about greece, andrew. >> yes. so much is sort of hoped for from these eu summits and very often there is disappointment, if not immediately then a couple of years later. the fiscal discipline pack, it's getting all eurozone leaders to agree on the way forward about the rules they have to deal with with their own internal finances to make sure the eurozone stays buoyant. is there likely to be any agreement on that issue today? >> reporter: there could be some further agreements, some further details ironed out. what we're looking for is the 17 countries that use the euro, possibly some others like poland

and sweden, possibly denmark, certainly not the u.k., agreeing to things like putting a balanced budget into their law, so that would be the kind of thing a fiscal compact would be a pledge between these countries. some call it a treaty. i'm not sure that's the right word. a pledge for each of them to have similar rules so that they can be binding within those who use the euro. that's a long term solution but it's another positive solution. we shouldn't say that's a simple decision but it is something we'd be looking for here. >> jim, thanks very much for that. jim bowleden joining us live from brussels. he'll stay with that story to see how it does evolve. nina, i guess the markets, obviously they're watching to see what happens in brussels. there must be quite a lot of cynicism these days that the incremental steps never get us to where we need to be going. >> yeah. the numbers speak for themselves, don't they, an draw. take a look at this just behind

me. right a krots board the stock markets down in the first couple of hours of trading. take a look at the cac 40. you hit the nail on the head, andrew, yourself, as did jim. what we're talking about here is a lot of pessimism over those eu talks and the greek debt fallout. we still haven't had that agreement even though the private creditors they're saying they'll agree. some of the banks, particularly the french banks that own large parts of greek sovereign debt are some of the worst performers dragging down these. there's the paris cac 40 and the frankfurt markets. they're down. phillips electronics. that company is now down after reporting a fourth quarter loss and a total of $1.7 billion during the year. that was the figure that came out. this kind of thing dragging the

markets down. all the focus as you said, andrew, is firmly fixed on those greek debt talks and the talks between the ministers in brussels. >> yeah, that's very much the background music in the arab shane markets. this is how the asian day finished. start of a new trading week. all red arrows across the board. still very much concerns about what's going on in the eurozone and how long it will take to get some sort of binding and significant agreement. it's not just the eurozone. there's disappointment in hong kong and shanghai, they're the two markets sharply lower today acting on the same reason. disappointment over the failure of the beijing authorities to take soem sort of decisive move on easing of monetary policy. basically trying to kick start the economy. we had been expecting it after those worse than expected growth numbers we got a couple weeks ago. it hasn't happened. during the chinese new year

break it might have happened. it didn't happen. financial talks not surprising. the worst performers here, not only on china but what's going on in europe. in japan moody's is warning about japan's decision to delay its fiscal target. the government has decided to push back public finance repairs until 2016. that has negative implications on japan's credit rating. cannon is posting a rise in operating profits, up 14%. it does forecast weekening expected growth for this year, 2012. one other stop to tell you, hon hai is up. it is a major production company of apple products. the reasons that hon hai is up

is that investors are reacting to impressive earnings last week by apple. >> andrew, as you said before, asian stocks may have been on the slide. these stocks are up 2% right now and 12% so far this year. the european air carrier has raised its four year profit from 440 million euros to 480. that's roughly equivalent to some $630 million. ryanair says increased fairs have made up the profits. the airline's third quarter earnings also beat estimates coming in at nearly 15 million our rows or $20 million here. that compares to a loss of more than 10 million our rows in the same period last year. the ceo is joining us live from

the london stock exchange. good to see, u. thank you for coming on "world business today." you must be happy with this set of earnings especially how they compare to last year's earnings. how are you managing to ride out the euros storm? as we've got these ministers converging on brussels for a summit, what would be your message to them? >> i think what we want is we need decisive action. europe is limping along. there's nobody really in charge so we need decisive action to stimulate european economy so we can get europe back working, get people back spending more money which would be good for business and for industry. >> now you have changed the way how you've done business. been quite flexible here. you've been reducing the number of planes that you're putting on the tarmacs during the winter months when traffic isn't quite as pronounced. has that helped you to weather the storm, so to speak.

>> yes, it has helped significantly. this winter we're paying almost $90 a barrel. we've hedged our fuel nearly a year forward. we felt it would be better for the business not to fly some of our aircraft. we are much more of a seasonal airline than we were a number of years ago. it's paid dividends in terms of increasing profitability. >> having said that, the high fuel cost really is an issue not just for yourself but for all airlines and transportation industries across the board. are you going to be raising prices to contend with this oil price but many analysts say is going to stay high for some time to come? >> well, obviously fuel prices in the last quarter went up 18%. average fares rose by that. if we want to maintain profitability we have to pass on the fuel price increases in the form of higher average fares, however, our average fare in

this fiscal year ending in march will be the same as 2007. >> i must ask you about new routes. will you be taking routes from span air's existing routes? >> we're very interested in some of the routes that span air operated. we competed on some of them. we think we partly helped them out of the industry ourselves. certainly we would see more opportunities in the spanish market with the demise of span air. >> thank you very much for joining us there. that's the deputy ceo and cfo of ryanair. >> interesting ties for the airlines in europe as they deal with a lack of demand there. just as ryanair is enjoying a boost. things not as cheery for the royal bank of scotland. this gentleman has turned down a

bonus of $1.5 million but only after a storm of public criticism and before an em bare rays british vote. his bank was bailed out $70 billion in the crisis. it remains 83% owned by the british taxpayer. their bonus payments are not quite out of the spotlight yet. take a look at this. rbs is still planning to shell out this much in bonuses of its banking division where it's still laying off staff, by the way. it's going to spend $786 million. you can bet that that won't go down too well with the hard-pressed british public, nina. >> you can bet, indeed. you certainly couldn't avoid that particular story over the course of the newspapers this weekend, andrew. coming up on "world business today", cnn speaks exclusively

with u.s. treasury secretary, tim geithner. he shares his thoughts on the outlook for the u.s. economy further ahead, and plenty more. we'll have that interview next. ♪ tonight ♪ we are young ♪ ♪ so let's set the world on fire ♪ ♪ we can burn brighter ♪ than the sun ♪ carry me [ male announcer ] the all-new chevy sonic.

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talks are over and now it's time for the so called great transformation to actually begin. transformation, of course, was the key thooem eme in davos, switzerland. tackling europe's debt crisis dominated the discussion. some of the key take aways from this conference this year are the need to forty phi the eurozone's bail out fund as well as the urgency between sealing a deal between greece and the bond holders and new measures to create more jobs. >> tim geithner was in davos and

he spoke to our fareed zakaria and spoke about prospects for economic growth in the u.s. this year. >> there are no auricles in economics. it's still a pretty uncertain world, but i think the conventional view of the u.s. now is that we're greeg between 2 and 3% and i think that's a realistic outcome for the united states economy as long as we see a little more progress in europe and as long as we don't see a lot of risk dprom iran on the oil front. >> reporter: that scenario of 2 to 3% growth seems a little bit different from what ben bernanke thinks growth is going to look like. if you read the statement the fed put out it was a very bearish statement. to be willing to almost guarantee that rates will be kept where they are until the end of 2014 suggests they don't see any growth of any -- any

robust growth for a long time. are they wrong at the fed? >> i'm not a forecastor. my view is not worth much. if you look at the fed's proer cast and the sense of the private forecasters, people are pretty closely clustered in that area. but it's still very dependent on how the world unfolds. again, i think it's worth recognizing that we still face tremendous challenges as a country. we're still repairing the damage caused by devastating financial crisis. that still has huge lasting impact on the base of fortunes of most americans. unemployment is still very high. housing is still very, very weak. construction is very weak. people still have too much debt. they're bringing that down. that's still going to take a while to repair. that crisis came on top of a decade, as you know, where we saw virtually no growth in median income. very high levels of poverty in

this country. very high levels of inequality and an erosion in people's confidence in their mobility, their prospects over time. on top of that, of course, we face a more challenging world. just last year the combined effects of oil, japan, and the crisis in europe and the damage to the debt limit, those things were very damaging and they slowed things around the world when the world was still healing. we have a lot of challenges ahead in the united states and we're working very hard to try to lay the foundation for the political consensus that's going to make progress in those things possible. >> tim geithner there. now the u.s. treasury secretary recently announced that he will not serve another term even if the president obama is re-elected. he said there's still a long

year of work left ahead. he wants to make as much progress as possible during the remainder of the obama term. >> up next, salvage crews wo working on a capsized ship have a lot of work ahead.

welcome back. you're watching "world business

today" live on cnn. the wrecked "costa concordia" is at the mercy of the weather this week. that means it makes it harder for salvage crews to try and get through the operation. ivan is at the cnn international weather center with more on what they're facing. >> good to see you. we've got problems here, two storms on the way. this is the time of year we can do this and get these progressive lows that move in. the big concern at this point, again, is churning seas. you don't want big seas out there. we've had interruptions there with the rescue operations or the recovery operations at this point, right? that is going to be a concern. watch the spin here. this is the first low we're going to be talking about. there will be a second one coming in. this one is already causing problems. i'll get to the specific forecast in terms of winds. here's the ship location right off the coast. the concern is that the seas will get strong enough where this thing can slip. it's already slipped several

centimeters so far in the last few days where it can slip into a deeper sea bin. certainly don't want that. we'll be watching this closely as the crews that are attending to this. 30 to 50 kilometer winds. the winds potentially getting a little stronger as we head into the middle, latter part of the week with this second area low here. this is the same weather pattern that we had been tracking with the heavy snow across portions of western europe. for the concordia here it's going to be the seas that are going to be whipped up. look at the winds. these are going to be sustained winds. we could have some higher gusts, certainly expecting higher gusts, potentially upwards of 50 kilometers per hour. that will get the seas worked up here. a windy week which is exactly what we don't need. sure, the rain is going to be coming in, but if we had rain with less wind we would take that as opposed to what we're going to be getting here, nina, over the next three days at this point here. we're going to get a bit of a

break through the next 48 hours and then we're going to get hit again by the time we get into the latter part of the week. we'll watch it for you closely again moving a few centimeters so far this week because of those seas that have been churned up by the winds. we'll watch it closely for you. we'll keep you posted. nina. >> certainly will. ivan, many thanks. this is just in to cnn. let's bring you breaking news. syria state news has been reporting that what it calls, quote, a terrorist group has blown up a gas pipeline near the country's border with lebanon. syria state news is reporting that, quote, a terrorist group has blown up a gas pipeline which is situated near the lebanese border. andrew? nina, still here on "world business today", talks to solve the great debt crisis continue in brussels but is greece willing to play by the eu's rules? that story is just ahead.

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from cnn hong kong, i'm andrew stevens. welcome back to wbt. in 50 days time greece needs to repay nearly $20 billion worth of debt, money that it currently doesn't have here. if athens is to avoid a disor r disorderly default, what it needs is of course another bailout. to get that bailout it must be playing by the eu's rules. that means ramping up austerity measures and proving more accountable for what this country actually spends. some european leaders meeting in

brussels this very monday doubt whether greece can do that. investors it seems have similar concerns to the politicians. european uncertainty not with standing, this was already shaping up to be a major week in the markets. economic data from these regions and a hint from facebook show plechbty of movement here on the markets. let's get a gauge of what's going on so far and what we can expect for the next four days. sonya joins me. she's a market expert. give me an idea how the earnings season has gone so far. we've had all sorts of mixed messages. in the united states stellar earnings coming out and on the other hand today disappointing earnings coming out of phillips in the netherlands. how are you seeing things? >> it's very difficult to come up with a general answer because

it's very dependent on the individual company because we had actually quite decent results from across several sectors but obviously we had some warning signs as well. people are kind of highlighting either pressure of margins or obviously the inevitable revenue slowdown or slowdown in orders. we have seen pockets of growth. i think net net so far the result season has been quite okay. again, i think we should put it in context that actually since the october lows we have seen a quite sizeable rally in equity markets around the world. its a he all to be put in context of eurozone uncertainty, the obvious slowdown that probably to some extent had been priced in already and so it really, you have to be very careful to use a broad brushed approach at looking at earnings. it really depends. we had quite decent results. for example, from general electric, now you've been highlighting phillips. there is differences across the

board but i think net net it's probably less spared than feared in most cases. >> let me ask you this, do you think that stocks across the board are fairly priced now at the moment given the kind of rally that you've said we've had and the concerns and uncertainties that still remain out there? are they fairly priced? >> no, i think you still find reasonable value out there. i think what has been happening since the october lows actually is a macro economic data has been quite robust, particularly in the u.s. and to some extent in the eurozone as well. i think given that we had the success of the ltro 10 in europe that created an environment where people all of a sudden felt that this overly pessimistic stance towards equity markets is probably overdone. if the macro picture is stabilizing and improving, then this should have a beneficial impact on earnings going forward. and i think as long as we are not seeing a major deterioration in the macro economic data, i'm

actually quite hopeful with obviously, you know, always discounting the risks in the eurozone that it's quite a reasonable environment for equities. >> briefly i do also want to ask you about the technology sector. we've had these amazing earnings coming out, we've got a hint of an ipo for facebook. is the technology bubble about to burst stmpt showing signs to the dotcom times? >> no. i thi the companies like microsoft and the intels of this world, the more mature companies, then you find very, very robust companies with amazing amounts of cash at hand and valuation levels are nowhere near as they were back in the dotcom bubble. obviously it's two different sides. i'm wondering whether it should be more discretionary, consumer stock rather than direct tech comparison. facebook, social media, again, has a touch of consumerism to it that maybe the likes of intel

and microsoft and the other purer tech stocks do not necessarily have. but net net i think valuations are nowhere near on average as they were back then but obviously, again, you have to be very careful because you have to look at it on a stock-by-stock level. >> many thanks for that. she's a global equity manage gefrmt she was telling us what she sees for the markets and whether the stock markets are fairly priced or not. in light of that, let's look at how the stock markets are doing. particularly in europe they've been open for 90 minutes. not a very good start i'm afraid to say. they're down. the cac 40 in paris, that one down about not -- sorry, down about 1.15%. it was down by a tenth of a percent heavier about 10 or 15 minutes ago. as you can see, andrew. things not looking great.

we're waiting for what those ministers saying in brussels. that's why the nervousness is out there. >> absolutely. it's all about brussels. it continues to be all about the eurozone, doesn't it? even with that rally we've seen, generally it's been very gloomy coming out of europe. this is interesting. you might be interested in this. i picked this up in the local new hampshi newspaper today. it's a way much looking at things different. private jets run out of parking slots. gives you an idea of the problems that some economies are facing here. this is hong kong i'm talking about here. the number of private jets has gone up something like 50 over the last ten years or so. running out of room. sign of the times. what happened in asia? stocks down pretty much across the region as they are in europe. the concerns in europe are weighing on the markets across asia. not the only concerns though. also as you'll see hong kong and shanghai down 1.5% each easily leading the losers.

that came in after disappointment that beijing didn't take any measures to ease some of the tough austerity it's put in on its own economy to try to take the heat out of the inflation story. expecting things to ease back over the chinese new year. that didn't happen. in japan, meanwhile, it's been run by moody's. quick on corporate news, cannon is reporting q 4 operating profits, earnings up by 14%. nina? andrew, let's take a look ahead to the new week on wall street. first off, here's a preview of what's going to be moving the markets over the next five days to come. >> the first report on job growth in 2012 and a slew of big earnings releases will direct trade on wall street this week. i'm felecia taylor at the new york stock exchange. about 200,000 jobs were added in december. that brought the total jobs created last year to 1.6 million. economists expect the upswing

will continue into the new year. the u.s. unemployment rate last month fell to 8.5%. the lowest in nearly three years. we'll also get a look at this month's auto sales after growth slowed in december. all of the major automakers except for honda posted sales gain. also on the economical lender we'll look at manufacturing and construction spending. both are expected to rise modestly after uneven growth in recent months. finally, readings on consumer confidence. it's another big week for corporate earnings. apple's excellent fourth quarter profit pushed it past exxonmobile. the oil giant will release earnings on tuesday. earnings from heavy hitters like farm suit calls fooidser, merk, u.p.s. and amazon.com. now maybe what's not officially on the agenda that's

keeping investors most focused this week. looking ahead to what may be the biggest tech ipo in history. we're talking about facebook. the social network could file registration papers as soon as this wednesday for an initial possib public offering in may. this is one hot ipo if and when it happens. we've been talking about it for a long time. >> it did he haefinitely does. it's the largest u.s.ipo. it's aiming to raise a whopping $10 billion. that would eclipse the previous one set by google. that was under the $2 billion mark. if that $10 billion goal is met it would give the company founded of course by mark suck kerrberg a value of between 75 and $100 billion. the big question though is facebook really worth that much?

it's not publicly known if the company is profitable, but it is pulling in billions in revenue, mostly from ads. in 2011 its ad revenue was estimated to be $3.8 billion. this is according to research farm emarketer. that's more than 100% jump from 2010. once facebook goes public many of its 3,000 employees are expected to become millionaires overnight. it will be a boon to the deal's lead underwriter. they're going to pick morgan stanley. that could net the bank tens of millions of dollars of fees along with impressive bragging rights. >> it would be impressive. let's take alike at ipos like facebook. many chinese tech companies have gone public. a lot of them used new york to do their listings. they haven't necessarily been that successful, have they? >> no, they haven't actually. chinese tech ipos have not done well in new york. take a look at renren.

it's a web sit. it's china's version of stays book. its stock has lost 70% of its value since it listed on the new york stock exchange just this past may. it's a similar story for this website known as yoku. its a a chinese version of youtube. this is called dongdong.com. it's similar to amazon.com. they listed on the new york stock exchange december 8th of 2010. since then both companies stock prices as you can see have stanked. yoku, that is down by just about 30%. then taking a long at dongdong, that's plummeted even more. that's down by 70%. reasons for this include lack of transparency in chinese companies. another reason is tighter restrictions. will facebook share price soar or fall? only time will tell.

a lot of investors will want to be facebook's new best friend. >> you hit it on the head, that transparency issue here in asia and china which has caused investors a lot of concern. been a lot of negative headlines coming out for chinese companies. >> still to come here on "world business today", we'll be moving away from china and talking about africa for the latest on the 18th african union summit. we'll tell you why china is still an especially important guest at the summit this year. do stay with us here on "world business today" only on cnn. ♪ tonight

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it's the third and final day of the african union leaders meeting. the focus is on boosting trade in the region. they see increased trade of the african countries as a way to improve it. the african union says that

intraafrican commerce makes up around 11% of all of the continent's imports an exports. they want to double that number to as much as 25% in the next decade. and as africa looks to its self for growth and development, it's also looking east to china. this year's african summit is being held at the bloc's new $200 million headquarters. it was built using chinese labor and it was paid for by china. we're joined from johan necessaryberg. how significant do african countries, the significance that african countries place in a growing relationship with china? >> you know, andrew, it is becoming more and important to africa as you alluded to. this downturn in europe. europe is in trouble and the

bloc europe has traditionally been -- it's fast part of europe. you spoke about this building that china has donated to the african union costing $200 million u.s. dollars. if you speak to ordinary people they'll tell you that a building is not what africans need. they need trade. a special on looking at african countries that do business in china and the main complaint is that the chinese bring in their own laborers. when unemployment is high on the continent. people on the ground would prefer fair trade with china and for local labor to be utilized, andrew. >> i apologize. we have to break off early. we're having problems with the

sound there. joining us live from johan necessaryberg. apologies for the quality of that sound. >> andrew, staying in africa and its relationship with china, choo in a's state run news agency is saying that the chinese embassy in sudan saying that they have rescued 17 chinese nationals. they're said to be in good condition but there's as of yet word of another 54 being held at the moment. the rebels captured them in the region. china is sudan's largest trading partner. trade between these two countries reached a total of $8.6 billion just last year. >> still ahead here on "world business today", we'll bring you the first cell phone in the super bowl advertising blitz.

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gold losing its luster today. down about $20 on the market. welcome back.

you're watching "world business today." tell you something that's not losing its luster. six days remain now until the u.s. super bowl. you don't have to be a sports fan to be excited about that. american's football's biggest night of the year is advertiser's biggest night of the year. the creative challenge they face is to tickle america's funny bone. you may remember the mini darth vader ad. if this year is anything to go by the automaker's happy to work with both children and animals.

what a racket. well, you just saw half of that volkswagen commercial. just those 30 seconds will set the automaker back no less than $3.5 million on sunday night. the cost of the full advertise am, a princely sum, $7 million. that's for one single run. you have to hope that your creative concept is a big winner. ad space is more expensive than ever before. over $1 million has been added to ad space. advertisers aren't the only ones spending big. it's a super sunday for the snack industry as well with about $180 million expected to be spent on potato chips alone. that's about 60 cents per american. take a look at this. more than $1 billion will be spent on snacks in total. that equates to 80 million kilograms of junk food.

staggering figures there. now let's take a look at other figures that aren't quite as positive. in the last few minutes this is how the european stock markets have done. we'll get them up in a second for you. i can tell you that it is red arrows across the board as leaders gather in brussels to try to map out the eu's fiscal future. there's no confidence that things will get better any time soon. that's one of the reasons the markets aren't shedding the heavy declines. they are up on their lows. we have the likes of the dax, the cac 40. two crucial eurozone markets down in excess of 1%. it all hinges on greece and of course that impasse over those private and public sector debt tolls. hinges on greece. i think i've heard that all before, nina. here in asia it was the same reasons dragging markets down on this side of the world. add one more in there, hang congress and shanghai down the

most because beijing hasn't taken any further measures to ease the monetary policy there. that's it for us. i want to say though, nina, i think it's been hard that you described 12 months' work as some of the finest minds in advertising as a racket. odd. >> a racket. let's say in terms of the decibels. i certainly only meant that in terms of the noise that was made. i personally love dogs so there you have it, but i've never heard them bark quite as much. >> i was going to say, yeah. for those of you who aren't familiar with the "star wars" trilogy, that was the song from the imperial march. that shows you how out of date and out of touchy. . thank you for joining us. i'm andrew steechks in hong kong. >> i'm nina dos santos in london. we'll see you a bit later for the opening bell on wall street. the opening bell on wall street. join us if you can.

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