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>> uncovering the latest al qaeda plot, the would-be suicide bomber was a double agent. a victory for intelligence agency that keeps travelers safe for now. the agent is apparently recruited in saudi arabia. >> welcome to "g.m.t." with a world of news and opinion. also in the program, mission improbable in greece. left wing meet twos mainstream party but can he persuade them to drop their austerity program? where british pageant meets british politics. the queen's speech outlines the government's plan for the next year. it's midday here in london, 2:00

in the afternoon in athens and 7:00 in the morning in washington. the intelligence committee is not given to self-congratulations but there must be a great deal of satisfaction over the c.i.a.'s latest victory over al qaeda. it's emerged that the latest plot to blow off a plane using an updated underwear bomb was uncovered because a double agent have infiltrated the ranks of a group in yemen. >> yemen's lawless here, al qaeda in the arabian peninsula fights the territory and fights the recruit. u.s. authorities say an undercover agent gets hold of an explosive device. >> it's quite an accomplishment to be able to pass yourself off as an al qaeda terrorist to the

terrorists when in fact you're working for a u.s. or allied intelligence agency. >> it's said the bomb was an improved version of this device, known as the june pants bomb which failed to detonate on a passenger plane in detroit on christmas day 2009. but there are still many unanswered questions. how did this anonymous agent infiltrate al qaeda? how did he leave yemen? and who actually recruited him? information from the agent appears to have led to the killing of fahd al-quso in a drone strike on sunday. al qae operative and had escaped from prison having been convicted for involvement in the -- for the bombing in the warship. but this man is still at large. he actually designed and makes this ever more sophisticated bombs. it looks like airport security is going to have to be reviewed

yet again. the latest device now being analyzed have no metal parts and might not have been discovered on a simple body search. >> let's take a look at some of the other stories making headlines around the world today. ukraine's jailed opposition leader has been taken to a hospital. he has agreed to end the three-week hunger strike and will be treated by doctors after authorities banned her from going aboard. she says she was beaten in prison and needs treatment for chronic back pain. in the u.k., a gang of pakistani have given long prison sentences for their involvement in child exploitation ring. the men, mainly taxi drivers and fast-food owners fly girls as

young as 13 with food and drugs before sexually assaulted them. the ringleader has been sentenced for 19 years in prison. the oil paintings set a new record selling for nearly $87 million at christy's but it's a far cry for world records for artwork set last week for nearly $120 million. now here in london, britain's queen elizabeth has been delivering her speech setting out the government's plans for the year ahead. it's one of parliament's set piece of event. it is written for her by the prime minister. one of the most trivial -- controversial pieces of legislation is to reform the house of lords but she stressed the economies at the top of the

coalition government's agenda. >> my lord and the members of the house of commons, the government program will focus on economic growth, justice, and constitutional reform. my minister's first priority will be to reduce the deficit and restore economic stability. >> with me now is our political correspondent naomi which is what the rest of us are talking about, economy. it's eccentric and worldly. >> this is the 59th time that the queen has written accompanied by the household calvary. it is eccentric but at the role where they have to bang on the door of the house of commons to summon and peace and there's one outspoken one who likes to put

his own stamp on this occasion. >> to attend your majesty immediately in the house of -- >> jubilee, what a start. >> i suppose you describe him as an old lefty. there were groans there. let's go back to the speech itself. there was talking about reforming the house of lords rather, arcane stuff. the trouble for this speech is that the government can't really give any details on what it's going to do about the economy. it can say it's going to do something but no details. >> the problems, first of all, we don't have any money to change reform asks the big thing they need to concentrate on is getting the message on the

economy across and introducing new laws doesn't really help them on that. david cameron is under the microscope at the moment because across europe, there was this question of whether or not austerity is a good idea and he's really having to defend his plan of having -- of cutting his deficit and the opponents say that's the wrong path but they should be spending things like infrastructure. >> i mentioned lord's reform. the trouble for cameron is he's part of the coalition and the other side of the coalition, they're keen on things like reforming the upper house. >> absolutely. the liberal democrat is an article of fate. it is one of the biggest legislative chamber it is the world. so they're all grounds for reforming.

but when there's a prime minister in the past have try to do this, they get so down on this. traditionalists don't like it and many conservatives worry that it just looks like an ivy issue. what people are worried about is their jobs and how old finances. >> it's been a rather difficult open for the year, for this year for the government. >> it's been a terrible year. and last week, they've got hammered in local elections and they're trying to relaunch the government. but the opinion polls are showing that things are just going in the wrong direction for him. one opinion poll today gives the labor opposition a 13% lead. they've not seen a lead like that yet in this government. >> naomi, thank you very much. >> greece is still in political deadlock after sunday's election pushed out the parties due to the terms so the e.u.'s bailout

package. the leader of the left wing, the syriza bloc is continuing to tressel the government. they will try to form a coalition based on tearing out the terms of the bailout which he describes as barbaric. well, the director of the national retail confederation joins me now from athens. thank you for being with us here on "g.m.t.." i gather your colleague has seen alexis a few minutes ago. any idea of what happened to that meeting? >> well, in the beginning, you said that for the cabinet in greece is mission extraordinary. right now, it seems to us more like mission impossible. we don't see any cabinet permlation at the moment.

we don't see any unity government, although this is our desire. the business sector deeply desire stability and we look and ask for a formulation of a government, but this doesn't seem to be the case at the moment. >> and forgive me, you may have misunderstood my question, when your colleague men with alexis sipras, he got the impregs that he was not in the mood for what compromise over the idea of the bailout? >> well, this doesn't seem to be the case. what mr. cipras told us at the meeting is that more or less that's not conform with what the other winning party leaders are referring to now in greece.

so an agreement does not seem possible. and it seems that we have come to a dead end and we are heading to another election. >> what would that be like for the business community which you represent if you have this political vacuum that goes on for another election? what's going to happen to the real economy? >> we don't like it at all. the real economy have come to a standstill and we were looking forward to the setting up of a stable government that could bring the whole of the country forward. this doesn't seem to be the case for the moment. >> ok. thank you very much. >> we are actually -- oh, all right. >> sorry. thank you. and still to come on "g.m.t.," the home of you're vision

contest. why some people want the event canceled. >> judges from the european court of human rights will meet later whether they can appeal against deportation against britain. they launched a large appeal contest the court's ruling he would not face torture in jordan. >> qatar leading his home in london last month. he was on his way to a legal hearing which resulted in him being returned to prison. ministers hoped this was the first stage on a one-way journey out of the country. but then his lawyers launched an 11th hour appeal. today in strasburg, a panel of judges will meet to decide if he can go ahead with an appeal to the highest here of the european court. the grand chamber. the appeal centers on whether he will be at risk of torture if he

is deported to jordan. the home secretary has denied her department, jumps the gun when they began the deportation process. there's been questions about whether they should have waited another 24 hours and this has led to a dispute over whether or not he was inside the deadline for an appeal. >> he has to get over two significant hurdles. first is he has to convince the court that the appeal was brought on time for the time limit issue. and second, he also has to convince the court that this is an important win of law that they want to hear more about in the grand chamber and only a very, very small performance of cases reach the grand chamber on that basis. >> for a decade now, he has been battletology stay in the u.k. now once again, it will be europe which decides his fate. >> van der sloot will fight ex

tradition. he is serving a 28 prison if peru for the murder of a young woman where he met in a casino in lima. this is "g.m.t." from "bbc world news." the headlines. u.s. officials say a double agent posing as would-be suicide bomber helped bring down an airliner. a radical left lead for the greece challenged the mainstream party to ditch their commitment to austerity. time now to catch up though business news. aaron is here. let's start with to it ka. last year, a couple of times you talked about how this economy and so on affected the floods in china and now they're back in business. >> a huge u-turn. the japanese car maker is firing on alstons.

a fourth quarter profit accelerated at five-fold coming in at $1.5 be. let's remind everybody how tough it was last year. the tsunami, the floods in thailand pretty much crippled regional production. toyota's profits last year fell by 30%. it is now firing or on full throttle on the moment. toyota expects to make a profit of some $10 billion. it's going to make 8.7 cars. that's 1.5 million more cars than it's made last year. it's going to see growth in all of its regions, u.s., asia, and europe. earlier, i asked one expert what is it that toyota does well to get back on track? have a listen to this. >> what you're trying to do is divert a wave from excessive inclinician vertical integration from japan. looking for example, united states and china where the growth has come back for a lot

of hybrids. they're not being adamant about obsessively staying in japan but introducing other vehicles. so they're really trying to match the marketed needs and take advantage of this. >> let's stay with transport but of the flying kind. >> yeah. >> easy jets. they're recording some profits. >> they're bucking the trend. i talk about the trend because let's not kid ourselves. there's been a horrible winter for europe's airline industry. you've got much of the region still bogle down. and you've got the soaring costs of jet fuel that no airline likes. so much, two smaller airlines gone. hungary's national carriage is gone. and the hard work by management

is paying off. 22.5 million people flew easy jets, that's up by around 2%. you combine that with management tightening control and that cost easy jets to post up smaller losses. >> oh, wow. that's a big chunk. that's still a lot of money but compared to this time with the loss of $230 million and easy jet forked out an extra $100 million on fuel cost, still a good job to bring those costs down. jet fuel and the eurozone, that's the question that i put to it. the boss of easy jet, which one poses the greatest jet. listen to what she had to say. >> both of these things are unprintable and uncertain and what easy jet has done over the last few years with the new management team is we are very good at controlling what we can control. so our entire mantra internally is we have a great team. we have a very clear strategy. we know what we have to do to

drive returns and we will do everything in our power to deliver that. >> i will just say critics will point to easy and say the boss are saying we put the measures in place for thin expected but the eurozone, nobody knows where that's going and the airlines are watching that very closely. >> they're very dependent on the eurozone. >> absolutely. it's the market for easy jet. thanks with the business news. >> thank you. >> in syria, a roadside bomb exploded near the united nations in the sown of deraa. the -- town of deraa. at least six syrian soldiers were wounded. the opposition has been quick to accuse the regime of being responsible to the blast saying they believe the reep is using the tactics to push the observers out. joining me from chiro is the middle east correspondent richard spencer who has just got

back from syria. thank you for being with us on "g.m.t.." i'm about to ask you about this convoy and the explosion. have you've got anything more to add on that? >> i talked to opposition spokesman who admitted that they were still taking military action against the regime. they admitted to assassinated candidates in the elections. it took place the other day, yesterday. but the bombing is a different issue. no one from the rebel side is admitted to carrying out bombings. that's something they say isn't in their motivation. having accusations that al qaeda being involved in bombing but it's pretty murky and al qaeda's exact role in all this is still not clear to me. >> i'm mindful that i'm asking you to speculate in a way, richard, but if you've got the

opposition blaming the regime, is there any credibility to that kind of accusation? >> there is some credibility. i think there's been a whole string of bomb attacks now. it started off in damascus in december and then they moved to -- and now quite regular bomb attacks and it's not quite clear what their purpose is. they finger out odd targets like the u.n. i looked into one bombing when i was in syria last week. there's been a bomb outside of a mosque in a rebel area which the government blamed on al qaeda. and i spoke to local who is said well, actually we're not quite sure what happened. certainly an explosion. the people who died were killed by bullet wounds which is not compatible with an explosion. but it's a very murky business. >> ok. let's look at the monitors now. you did spend some time with

monitors. do you think they're working? do you think having them there is making things better? >> i think whether it's making it better or not is a very subjective decision to say depending on what your long-term goal is. changing the pattern of the war, that's definitely true. it's brought some calm to the big cities which is being shelled to the regime forces. they're not doing that to the extent as they were. but all that's done is sort of set a routine of more of an insurgency where you have the regime in place in these towns but under very difficult circumstances and in deraa, in the old city of deraa, there are army in the streets but only behind incredibly sort of high checkpoints. very scared clearly of the rebels and the rebels are also

scared of them and the ordinary people are nowhere to be seen. they're all hiding at home. >> all right, richard spencer, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> human rights groups are calling on the organizers of you're decision contest to ensure this year's host country stops imprisoning the opposition, beating journalists and destroying homes in the name of development. with the event just two weeks away, the president says the accusations by amnesty international and human rights are part of a shameful campaign to tarnish his country's image. >> homes ripped apart in historical bacu linked to terrorists. thousands of people evicted unhappy with the compensation offer. this man is still living the

rubble. he told me one night a demolition gang caved in his roof as he slept with his wife and son. amidst the destruction, a brand-new concert hall, bacu is hosting you're vision and the government is using ---your-ing vision and the government is using it as a showcase. it has also brought an unwelcomed spotlight on to the country's poor human rights battle. ♪ >> this man himself a singer was arrested last month for insulting the president and then he says he was beaten. ♪ >> i had a bag on my head and handcuff from the bag and i was sitting on the chair and they were beating me in my heels with a stick.

with that stick. for three hours for the first time and two hours in the second time. >> in a hospital, we found a journalist with severe concussion and two broken ribs after guards from the state oil company attacked him. all opposition protests were banned for five years until three months ago. now in the eurovision spotlight, three have been allowed. but beneath the portray of the president's father, a senior official dismissed human rights groups concern sands claims that the government had widespread popular support. >> even among those whose homes have been demolished and among journalists, 99% are satisfied and only 1% are new hampshire. >> the regime is propped up by the country's huge oil and gas wells. the money is transforming bacu

but the crushing of descent has made this the most controversial host city yet. >> now, a reminder of our top story here on "g.m.t.." reports from the u.s. said the would-be suicide attack for the a foiled underwear bomb plot was in fact a double agent. we also look at the situation in greece where there are negotiates going on to try to find a political settlement. we tried to speak with someone who painted a gloomy picture and said it didn't look like the parties there were going to reach a settlement. that's all for the moment. stay with us on "bbc world news." more to come.

>> make sense of international news at bbc.com/news. >> funding was made possible by -- the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu, newman's own foundation, and union bank. >> at union bank, our relationship managers use their expertise in global finance to guide you through the business strategies and opportunities of international commerce. we put our extended, global network to work for a wide range of companies, from small businesses to major corporations. what can we do for you? >> "bbc world news" was

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