' or the third time in a row the coalition government's candidate for presidency. he received only 168 votes falling far short of the 180 needed. the prime minister has announced the country will now hit the polls on january 25. it is a move some fear could endanger the debt ridden

country's international bailout. >> quite interestingly, he didn't even manage to up the votes from last time. pretty much the same number he got this time around, surprisingly, not even former conservative lawmakers voted in favor of him. what we are hearing now is parliament adjourned. the premier is holding a cabinet meeting. he has 10 days for parliament to be dissolved. the general elections should be called in the next days as well. what we are hearing is they are likely to meet either on january 25 or february 1. this could change as well in the coming days, depending on when

they dissolve parliament. >> for more on this story, i'm joined by economics and politics -- by an economics and politics specialists. greece is facing national elections next month. which political party is leading in the polls? >> it is very difficult to predict. however, there is a trend in favor of -- it proposes an alternative economic policy. we cannot imagine what might happen. 60% of greek voters didn't like this election. they would like to have elections during the end of last year, next year, or the beginning of 2016.

so, i don't know how this feeling can be expressed through the votes but it will leave a very interesting debate between two economic policies, one which suggests it will relieve and another one which proposes -- >> what impact will the is a quote -- will this instability have on the bailout? are we still looking at a possible exit from the euro? >> i think it is a situation which cannot be faced. probably this situation --

the drachma is not a currency. there is no drachma. the euro is the euro. all of the economic house on -- economic policies are in favor of the euro. i cannot imagine any kind of european monetary system can survive, even during this period even during the best periods. we can probably discuss the exit of one country out of the euro. the euro must know how to go through the good and bad times. so there is the euro in europe, and we have to face problems in member states. >> we will have to leave it there. thank you so much. staying in greece.

schools are still awaiting rescue off of a fairy. -- ferry. at least five bodies have been evacuated from the site. helicopter crews have been lifting groups of people to safety despite deal force winds and -- despite gale force winds and freezing temperatures. the italian government has announced it will open a criminal investigation into the fire. oliver farry has more. >> it is carrying some 50 passengers wrecking -- rescued from the greek ferry. the passengers were among almost 400 people lifted from the ferry after it caught fire early sunday morning. a few dozen passengers running on board -- passengers remain on board, but the situation appears to be under control. >> at the moment, the situation is good.

a doctor is going on board to check if some of the passengers need to be transported to the hospital or the emergency center that we have established of the cruise's terminal. >> some of the rescue have been taken to southern italy hospitals to be treated for hypothermia. film shows fires blazing aboard the vessel. >> it was impossible to understand what was going on. the captain could not control it, because there was too much movement. we did everything that we ourselves could do. >> many passengers were asleep when the fire broke out on the car deck during the sailing from greece to the italian port. several people are believed to have died and several others injured. greek, albanian, and italian naval personnel have cooperated on the rescue effort. >> moving on the search continues off the coast of indonesia for that missing airasia flight.

the country's vice president says objects spotted in the area are not connected to the plane. the head of international search and rescue agency said that the plane is likely to be at the bottom of the seat in the flight with 162 people on board has now been missing for more than a day. >> new teams joined the search for airasia flight -- for the airasia flight a day after. disappeared. -- a day after it disappeared. indonesian authorities say they will not suspend the search. >> we have given instructions to all our peoples to do the best fast, no limit to find the plane and the passengers. >> the plane dropped off radar

minutes after its pilots requested permission to climb to 38,000 feet, almost its maximum certified cruising altitude. they said they wanted to avoid a storm cloud. by the time clearance could be given, the plane had disappeared. the malaysian-based budget carrier has maintained a good safety record since its launch. after the suspected crash, the airline resumed normal operations. >> [inaudible] >> most passengers and crew were indonesians heading for one of their most popular holiday destinations. six other nationalities were also on the list, including the french copilot. >> joining me now from jakarta a journalist. what is the latest with the search? >> well, earlier this afternoon,

there was some hope about some object spotted by an australian search plane, but it has been confirmed by indonesian officials that they were not from the missing airasia jet. for now, the search and rescue operations have stopped because it is getting too dark at sea. the sun is setting in indonesia. the indonesian government has deployed a huge number of ships, planes and helicopter to the location where they believe the plane must have last gotten. it's an area east and southeast between the islands of borneo and sumatra. international health is quite massive. -- the international help is quite massive. the authorities hope to find the plane very soon. the search area is much smaller than the one set up for the mh370 earlier this year in the

same region. >> is there any indication at this stage of what actually happened? >> as we said, the pilot was requesting to change the route due to the weather. the authorities in charge of the search and rescue operations are still not saying it could have been a technical issue. they still believe the weather is to blame. the plane had issued no distress call. there was bad weather over the island at the time. the aircraft had been flying at 32,000 feet before asking the fly at 38,000 feet to avoid clouds. the monsoon season has started in southeast asia, so the weather conditions are highly unstable in the region. the airline has confirmed the indonesian pilot was really experienced and that the plane last underwent maintenance in november. what's on everyone's mind is that malaysia airlines has already suffered two disasters

this year. it's good to remember that airasia has no major accident or plane crash on record up until the disappearance of this flight on sunday. >> thank you so much for that. in other news, bahrain's main opposition movement says its leader has been arrested. he was arrested after being summoned for questioning by the country's interior ministry. he has been accused of inciting hatred against the regime. >> they released this footage on the internet a few actors their leader was arrested. it appears to show demonstrators calling for the immediate release stuff -- release of sheikh ali salman, who is accused of incitement and seeking to overthrow the regime, according to his lawyer.

the opposition group called the arrest a perilous and arbitrary adventure, which will seriously congregate the political and security seen in bahrain test seriously complicate -- seriously complicate the political and security scene in bahrain. there were demonstrations in the capital, where thousands call for the dismissal of parliament and government. they called for the reelection of salman as the leader of the opposition group. bahrain is ruled by a sunni dynasty, though the majority of the population are shias. in november, they parliament -- they boycotted the first parliamentary elections. the movement crushed at the time by authorities. >> this monday marks the first anniversary of the arrest and imprisonment of three al jazeera journalists in egypt.

in december, 2013, ejection authorities arrested and swiftly -- egyptian authorities arrested and swiftly tried the journalists. they were sentenced to seven years in jail on terrorism-related charges. >> it is a grim anniversary. the three have been behind bars for an entire year. all three al jazeera journalists were arrested on december 29 last year, when police raided the cairo hotel room they were using as an office. following the sentence protest were held -- protests were held worldwide, supporting the jailed journalists. >> is a tough bugger -- he is a tough bugger. he is determined that this whole experience isn't going to break him. >> egypt accuses the qatari-owned news network, al

jazeera, of supporting the muslim brotherhood and the ousted president, mohamed morsi but now that the islamists are banned in egypt following the election of al-0sisi, qatar and egypt are finding ways to reconcile. al jazeera shut down its egypt channel. a move that the three journalists could soon be released. >> the channel having been shut down or going to be shut down in egypt is also a significant th ing. i would like to think it has removed the political aspect of the reason why peter was arrested. >> the three journalists are to appear in front of the court to appeal their case. >> a reminder of what's making news this hour. search continues for that missing airasia flight off the coast of indonesia. the country's vice president

says that objects found in the area are not connected to the missing plane. amid freezing temperatures and gale force winds passengers still being lifted from the deck of the ferry off the coast of greece. five bodies have been recovered so far. greece is set to go to the polls on january 25 as parliament rejected the government nominations. it is time now for business. we will take you through some of the day'd top stories -- day's top stories. >> greece has failed to vote for the coalition government's candidate for president. he failed to secure enough votes in parliament. under law, athens has 10 days to call for general -- to dissolve parliament and call for general elections. a thrid belt -- a third bailout

could be looming. we look at the state of the economy. >> six years of austerity measures have taken their toll on greece society. at the annual christmas feast held in athens organizers say poverty is on the rise. >> the situation is getting worse. people come here for plates of food. unfortunately, instead of having fewer people every year, we have more. >> in athens, around 1500 meals are distributed on a daily basis. 1 in 4 greeks out of work, 1 in 3 living in poverty. many lame government for their -- many blame government policy for their woes. >> they made changes and the pension was cut. that's how i felt into absolute poverty -- how i fell into absolute poverty. >> the country received a

bailout package of 240 euros. -- the country has received bailouts of 240 billion euros. greeks are saying enough is enough. >> i see that we have a lot of difficulties in our lives, and maybe things are more difficult than at the start of the crisis. the main problems i have at the moment are the entity -- our liquidity and, obviously -- at the moment are liquidity and obviously, tax. >> the economy grew 1.7% last year. with new elections to be held, greece is again facing an uncertain future. >> the election results have left some people wondering if greece could leave the eurozone, a so-called "grexit." the radical party is a front runner for the elections, slated

for january 25. their leader has warned that markets will have to "answer to the tune of their government," but he has something on anti-bailout -- he has soft ened on anti-bailout statements. he promised to boost of expanding, reverse -- boost public spending, reverse privatization. many eyes will be watching greece for the foreseeable future, as its fate once more seems to be called into question. germany has declined to comment but said it would be closely monitoring events in the country. markets are sliding on greece's political uncertainty, erasing earlier gains from the holiday season. london's ftse opened up, as did the paris cac 40. athens has tumbled to as low as

10% in midday trading, now down 7.14%. the international monetary fund is also closely monitoring ukraine's economy. the imf said it will send a mission to visit the country from january 8 overnight. ukraine's parliament approved its budget for 2015. there will be significant changes coming down the pipeline. ukraine wants to more than double its defense spending. the economy is in crisis. they will shore up other streams of revenue, which will include slight me -- include sharply raising taxes on luxury items lowering the burden on some small businesses and low income individuals streamlining -- individuals, streamlining its unfriendly system, and closing loopholes that have long been exploited by oligarchs. ukrainian officials hope that this will knock the next bailout under one trillion

euros. they need the imf to expand the program after it is forecasted the economy will shrink 4.3% this year. time now for one last story, a bit of a change of pace. another use for all those christmas trees -- a novel use for all those christmas trees that get thrown out. they are recycling by needles into a silky soft fabric. it has been described as "soft as silk, when the feel of kashmir, and the coolness -- the feel of cashmere, and the coolness of linen." >> are you going to order samples? >> i will keep you posted. >> stay with us. it is time now for the "press review." welcome back. i enjoy here in the studio by nicholas rushworth -- i am

joined here in the studio by nicholas rushworth. most papers around the world are looking at that missing airasia flight. are you looking at the indonesian press? >> one of them is looking at a full-page about this airasia incident, whether it is a crass, we don't know at this point. the concern is that the vast majority of the people on board -- whether it is a crash, we don't know at this point. the concern is that the vast majority of the people on board are indonesians. we hear the anguish of various people in these incidents. we have the stories of those who have the lucky escape. one piece of this article is about a family of nine who missed an e-mail telling them to be at the airport earlier. they missed it. they were told they could go on the next one. they said they would think about it. as they were mulling that

decision, they learned the plane they were supposed to be on was actually missing. an incredibly story of a lucky escape. they are heaving a huge sigh of relief. >> you are looking at an editorial in the indonesian language press? >> all the papers are looking at this. i was able to get a translation of this story in the paper. it is saying that the government of indonesia must really secure psychological trauma support for the people going through the anguish as they wait, as the hours and days develop. it is arguing that what we've got here -- there are so many air accidents air incidents, the country's reputation is at stake, and it is saying the government must show it is hands-on, doing everything it can to limit any damage on the economy.

other papers are taking an ang le at the aviation industry as a whole and what a year it has been having. >> it has been horrific. >> the "business insider" in the u.k. says there have been very few crashes. there is a high death toll linked to those crashes. they are saying that, if we factor in this particular incident as a crash, it will be the worst year for aviation since 2005, approaching 1000 deaths. the malaysian airlines had two major disasters airasia malaysia-based. the whole of southeastern asia is feeling the horror of this problem. >> let's talk about what has been making headlines here in france. >> also, a transport chaos and nightmare story, happily not the

kind of scale we are seeing in southeast asia. they got snow over the weekend in the french alps, surprise, surprise. >> is this a big surprise at this time of year? surely, authorities would be aware we are having snow? >> the french press are all over this. it felt very heavily on saturday. "yes, it is a nightmare, but why all this chaos?" it quotes the transport ministry, saying there was a collective behavior problem. motorists stopped to try to put on snow chains not knowing what they were doing. people got out their manuals to work out how the snow chains worked. others did not either with the snow chains -- did not bother with the snow chains and just went forward. and russians were heading to the slopes in the french alps.

you can see they are waiting for the russians. it is one of the very chic ski resorts in the french alps, saying that the very wealthy russians are able to go. about 80,000 russians go each year to the french alps, and many of them are not looking. the fall in the ruble has been massive. >> it certainly has. one of the papers in france has been looking at this ongoing sony picture hacking scandal. >> look at that one. "hacking la faute?" you can see a grenade as a typewriter keyboard a brilliant one. washington has been quick to say that it is pyongyang's fault but it suggests there is something fishy here. it is not necessarily as simple

as that. the first rule for hackers is, well you don't leave a trace. the second rule for hackers is, of course you leave a false trail, so that story is ongoing. let me go to the "korea times," which has a picture of the supreme leader himself. "i hate npororth korea!" >>