. >> protests in athens as politicians there. on the line, another $130 billion -- another 130 billion in loans. >> europe's record deepfreeze. >> the syrian president is willing to cooperate with all efforts toward stability in his country. >> that is according to the state news agency in syria. bashar al assad has met with the russian foreign minister, who says the talks were very useful in promoting peace. >> meantime, europe is stepping up pressure with six nations withdrawing their ambassadors for consultations. among them, france and britain. >> the eu also considering new sanctions to cut the regime's access to cash as crowds lined the streets of damascus today to get a rapturous welcome to their russian visitor. >> a hero's welcome for the russian foreign minister. pro-assad supporters lined the route as the russian foreign minister made his way through. >> we thank russia and china for their veto against international intervention. for god, syria, and bashar. >> he headed straight to the presidential palace. he said the

cnn's matthew chance is in athens and we'll go live to athens in a moment and check in with him. >>> now to the other top story we continue to follow. new information now about whitney houston's death. the los angeles coroner confirms to cnn that an autopsy could happen as early as this afternoon. police say there are no obvious signs of foul play. tmz quoting informed sources says the singer was found unconscious in the bath cub tub her hotel room in beverly hills. these are some of the last photos of houston taken thursday at a hollywood nightclub. joining us now, live from los angeles, cnn's casey wian. there are reports also about whitney houston's daughter and that she, bobbi kristina, was rushed to the hospital. what can you tell us about both of those fronts? >> that's right, fredricka. the beverly hills police department confirms to me that in fact bobbi kristina brown was taken to the hospital just before noon today, rushed to the hospital, cedars-sinai hospital, here in los angeles with what they're describing as a nonlife threatening medical transport situation. they will

we will spoke to our correspondent, mark lowen who is in athens now. it has been a very tricky few months and a very tricky 24 hours. >> it has, naga and it looks set to continue. greece may be one step closer to unlocking its bailout money, which it needs to stave off bankruptcy, but many feel that this country took another big leap towards breaking points last night. ordinary greeks feel deeply horrified ofeply angr the cuts. i have not seen such violence in athens. buildings set ablaze. troops sending teargas into the air. molotov cocktails. for a couple of hours, the whole of the central square was cloaked in teargas. the government says that this is the lesser of two evils, that the idea of greece leaving the euro and declaring bankruptcy would put misery on this country, and worse than the pain this country is having to suffer in order to meet those austerity measures. >> mark, how likely is it that greece will be able to implement these new measures? >> i think there will be a lot of resistance and the pressure will continue from the european un

where without it athens will go bust in march let's not talk to economists. he's live there in the greek capital where we've already seen four greek ministers resign the previous government collapsed because of the debt crisis how likely is it that the greek politicians can reach an agreement on sunday or could indeed this. government collapsed before then. well let me say that this government was always expendable the point of putting it in place was to ensure that this deal goes through. it's my prediction that it will go through and there is govern with the lapse once it. is done brussels is of course questioning whether greece can implement these measures you say it could well go through an agreement with the greek politicians but we're seeing such strong opposition and the current general strike in the fall and the moment in athens will people allow these cuts to be implemented. it's not up to the people the people have been demonstrating consistently for eighteen twenty months now and we had a series of such cuts and impositions upon. the very weak gree

greece athens. tell us what you think about greece's financial woes at r.t.dot com we ask what more rescue funds will mean for the country if the bailout is handed over half of you think athens is already doomed and more cash will make no difference a lot of you also believe the bailout and the cuts needed to secure or it will only make people's lives harder just six percent of you say the e.u. will not let greece collapse and even fewer believe bailouts are the only way for greece to stay afloat let's now talk to your home van overtveldt who is the editor in chief of trends and belgium's leading business publications we've been asking our viewers how they think the next bailout will impact on the greek economy what do you think. well i think to put it to summarize it's very briefly that it will make things worse for the greek economy the greek economy is in a deep recession at the moment the austerity program that is imposed on the country will worsen the recession which in its turn will worsen the budget outlook and so the negative spiral in which we breed

and we can return to those live pictures from the center of athens if you just joined us just to remind you that thousands of protesters have gathered outside the greek parliament today they've been protesting all week but now we know that the more makers are debating the austerity measures at the moment in parliament and we're seeing those events developing there in athens by the way we're actually streaming the events in greece at the moment all website you can see continual coverage of the events there in athens by simply going to r.t. dot com. well still ahead this hour here on r.t. a year since the toppling of barack but instead of celebrations across egypt a general strike has people feel betrayed by the military rulers and want change that still doesn't come. also still to come a group of politically active russians take the matter of election transparency into their own hands by organizing the voters league. the first iran says it will soon reveal some major advances in its nuclear program speaking on the thirty third anniversary of the islamic revolution president ahmadinejad's

. >> athens needs cash to pay bills and avoid default. word from brussels is that there is confidence a deal will be reached, but some issues still need to be worked out. >> arriving for the talks, the greek finance minister expressed confidence a deal would be reached to secure greece's future in the eurozone. the president of the eurozone agreed. >> agrees has fulfilled many of the demands we made of it. in my opinion, we really have to get moving. there is no time to lose. >> but there were some unanswered questions. greece cannot afford to service its national debt at current levels, and it is not in a position to reduce the debt to sustainable levels by itself. >> there are a range of details we have to speak about. we need clarity on the participation of private investors and a program to secure a reduction of greek debt to no more than 120% of gdp by 2020. >> some eurozone countries favor a plan that would pay greek government income into a trust account, with a debt reduction take -- taking priority. there are calls for stricter m

far bombs at them have been reports of several injuries during the scuffles outside parliament in athens lawmakers are debating a choice between tough new cuts all and imminent default which the country's prime minister says would lead to chaos while we bring you live pictures of the events unfolding there in athens as they're discussing those are starting measures in parliament at the moment and we're also seeing a little earlier clashes between the police and protesters but at the moment many protesters they're gathering outside parliament in greece live pictures there from athens where the creditors want an unpopular new a sturdy bill passed in return for the one hundred thirty eight billion euro rescue package the cabinet has cleared the plan but lost six ministers or deputies in the process some coalition and piece of threatened to vote against it if it goes ahead though fifteen thousand civil servants will lose their jobs and the minimum wage will be slashed thousands of greeks have been protesting the deal throughout the week and as we can see they continue to protest there in ath

there's been an angry reaction on the streets of athens. at least ten buildings were burned on sunday night and riot police deployed tens of thousands of people turned out to voice their outrage. >>> the syria observatory for human rights says one civilian was killed by sniper fire in hama. the arab league on sunday proposed a joint u.n. peacekeeping force for syria. >>> the first prime minister has been indicted. mr. gilani entered a plea of not guilty. the court demanded he ask swiss authorities to revive corruption charges against president zardari and others. >>> an autopsy of whitney houston has revealed no signs of foul play but could take eight weeks to get toxicology result. attempts of resuscitation failed on sunday after she was found unconscious in the bathroom of her hollywood hotel room. those are the world headlines. i'm monita rajpal. "world business today" starts right now. >>> good morning, from cnn london, i'm nina dos santos. >> and very good afternoon from cnn hong kong, i'm manisha tank. amid anger on athens streets, po

tom thanks very much indeed for that artie's tom barton reporting live there in athens well let's now turn our attention to spain where people are angry at their government's deep cuts and the effect they're having on their own bleak future prospects today students and teachers are out in force railing against the strong impact austerity has had on education and sara firth is in madrid where crowds of gathered to voice their frustration. well the students have gathered at this hearing that in the faith tests are expected to continue for a while you can see groups of the students sitting around here we've been speaking to them they said their faith is to keep this demonstration peaceful but they want to get the point across that they're not going to accept these spending cuts affecting public services such as their education they feel it is unfair that at a point when the country is on the brink of another recession that they're being asked to pay for the debts and they say the price that they're being asked to pay is simply too high that it's their future that rests speaking to the pe

let's get a reaction from athens now. we can speak to a journalist. thank you very much for joifpk us. -- joining us. we just heard from the e.c.b. president mario draghi saying that it is a very good deal for greece. perhaps no surprise there, but what is your reading of it? >> we don't know what happened in there. we don't know what they finally agreed to. we know they are probably going to accept greece's a deeper haircut. we know there has been talk of the e.c.b. taking a haircut. on the greek debt it holds. however these details are not finalized. what we know is that greece's outlook isn't that great. we have seen the least reports from the troika on the sustainability of the greek debt which pretty much sums up what everybody here appears to know that greece's position has deteriorated in the last few years. it has deteriorated because the austerity packages haven't done what they were supposed to do. so far they have turned the country into an ever deepening recession which is obviously making greece very, very unhappy. they are afraid that ye

that the german money is invested wisely and shovelled doesn't see greece with its capital city of athens on fire suicide rates skyrocketing and unemployment at twenty percent as a wise investment so before folks forking over the money szabo is making some outrageous demands of greece the main one being the greece should postpone their elections so a new government will come to power that may do it iceland has done in two citizen referendums say hello to the banks toure's including the german banks there's a think about that for a second here's one sovereign nation in europe germany trying to prevent another sovereign european nation greece from holding democratic elections. that's what this financial crisis has brought us to as expected shovels demands have been met with anger and animosity from greece the greek president called it an insult the greek finance minister suggested that a conspiracy was underway to have greece kicked out of the euro zone and greek newspapers are routinely publishing political cartoons portraying the germans as nazis so things are getting pretty nasty in euro

and athens fulfills the last of the e.u. bailout amounts but many greeks feel the nation vote for cover from austerity measures which harm their health care system leaving the military on skating. south of four pm here in the russian capital this is r.t. now the syrian opposition have accused the government of stepping up attacks on rebel held areas with the city of daraa the latest target meanwhile a high ranking religious leader was assassinated in the capital damascus reportedly for his political views now this comes after the president's announcement of a referendum on a new constitution which could create a multi-party system in the country but the proposal doesn't seem to have helped curb the violence as artie's body of financial reports from syria. says a damascus has started with a new so this is a nation to shake up one of the mosques over done one of the districts of the capital was killed as far as local we do is reporting he was shortened with five shots this area may dawn where we are right now he's famous to be

from athens, gavin hewitt has that story. >> in athens, a department store destroyed.refighters still inside. this had been a health food store. burned out. this was a fabric shop -- all ruined in hours of burning and rioting. >> it's a bunch of people who destroyed everything. they destroyed greece. >> this was one of the major department stores on one of the busiest stores -- streets in athens. it is one of nearly 40 buildings that were set alight during the disturbances. a protest or against parliament approving new spending cuts -- the protests were against parliament approving new spending caps. -- cuts. some believe the greek economy cannot stand any more austerity. these rights are the most serious in the years and they raise questions as to whether the latest round of cuts can be implemented, such is the level of resistance. government supporters insisted greece wants to stay in the wrote it has to go along with demands made by the eu -- in the euro, it has to go along with demands made by the eu and the imf. >> the disorder over the default of greece would be

this as the parliament debates austerity measures, several buildings in athens are on fire and policeergency crews could not reach the buildings because protesters were blocking the streets. matthew chance is there to give us a bird's eyeview. what can you tell us? >> it's like a war zone in the streets of athens in the center square here in the greek capital this evening. you can see there are thousands of protesters that continue to clash with riot police, stun grenades exploegds, actual bombs have been thrown, tear gas, the air is thick with this really acrid smoke which up until a few minutes ago, i couldn't come out on to this balcony and speak and do the reporting that i needed to do. i can tell you it's an absolutely chaotic situation down there. people are hacking up bits of the marble pavement into chunks to throw them at the riot police. it's this running street battle, open fires, kiosks have been vandalized, shops destroyed. there are fires in at least five buildings in athens as well you can hear that, an enormous stun grenade fired by the police in an attempt to disperse

then the opposition is worried that the eurozone is asking too much of athens. it is warning that cuts could prove too much for the greek economy to bear. >> f the pasyearnd-a-half, we have seen promises of spending cuts and reforms that have not been realized because the economic foundations are crumbling. that is why the demands currently on the table are unrealistic. in greece, the economy is collapsing, tax revenue is sinking, and unemployment rising. >> lawmakers are due to vote on the next three bailout package at the end of the month. >> considering everyone was thinking that the greek debt debacle could be resolved by this week, the disappointment on stock markets is no big surpri. >> the debacle goes on, and equities around the world have taken a dive. here's our man at frankfurt. >> investors were on the retreat. they took their money out of equities, looked for safer places to put it. among them, german bonds. financial shares especially hard hit. that was already up in the air what would happen with greece in the next week, but then, the head of the

questioning right countries like germany holland and finland have to criticize athens but british. says brussels is trying to bring out the us to heal. what will you is now doing it's trying to influence the outcome of the greek general election not satisfied with getting rid of the last democratically elected prime minister and putting in a puppet in the form of us to papademos it now says it's now saying to the greek people unless you vote for the right party is unless you vote for parties that are happy to be subjugated do you control we will not give you the rest of the money and you will go bankrupt i suspect that despite the dissatisfaction that is felt by many german politicians i think the german parliament just as the greek parliament did last sunday will continue to toe the line and continue to say the bailout so the answer as far as i'm concerned it's rather like saving the cancer and not saving the patients we saw one of the commissioners. commissioners and he cruz said the other day that if greece left it wouldn't be a man overboard situation so even at the top there i

violent as protesters including fringe anarchists clashed with police again leaving their mark on athens. the day all this is the remnants of public anger big losses and the only thing that's been broken as governments past increasingly unpopular austerity cuts will be left asking who can they trust serve their interests to the measures are very very tough part of the poor people especially and this is the reason that we feel. today i think more measures have been taken and they're it's not going to work in the end it will be another bill here clearly bad and oh i hope for the best but i don't see it coming. under pressure from brussels and the international monetary fund the greek government has cut more jobs to slash funding for the nation's pensions a minimum wage but current policy appears to mainly expose those most vulnerable to crisis conditions is a mindset some feel is doomed to fail and they already have destroyed the whole generation of young people and their dreams destroyed the structure of the sabian the infrastructure of the whole country we know that it is. a day that we

greeks worried about their pensions and jobs they responded with more protests on the streets of athens jacob greaves reports. system under siege m.p.'s drowned out the pleas of tens of thousands of demonstrators amassed within a short passing another round of unpopular cuts. the results proved incendiary. uganda protests turned violent as protesters including fringe anarchists clashed with police again leaving their mark on athens. a day on this is the remnants of public anger but glass isn't the only thing that's been broken as the government's past increasingly unpopular austerity cuts people being left asking who can they trust serve their interests the measures are very very tough part of the poor people especially and this is the reason that they feel. today i think more measures have been taken and they're not going to work in the end they'll be another bill. and. our our hope for the best but i don't see it coming. under pressure from brussels berlin and the international monetary fund the greek government has cut more jobs and slashed funding for the nation's pensions a minimum

this takes it over the full year for the athens composite.t's been a pretty tough year, 50% down, hitting its lowest a little earlier this month as the greek debt talks stalled. >> let's have a look at the overall markets here in europe. actually, you know, you would have expected a little bit of buy the rumor, sell on the fact. we're seeing buoyancy. the dax is up the most, up about .3%. you did see it selling at the start, but we're pushing it back up a xwit. i expect that's really anticipation of a slightly rozier picture than could have been expected given the write-downs a larger than expected, andrew. >> this is an interesting one to try to pick, isn't it? there's so much talk about the need to get this deal done that we had to get the deal done. otherwise there would be a default. otherwise the eurozone was in crisis. it could be the end of the eurozone. we get the deal and yet the skepticism continues. this is what -- just ignore that, we'll try to get rid of that, if we can. there we go. that wasn't supposed to happen. i hope you saw

for more, we're joined on the lne from athens by brian williams.hat exactly is on the table this evening? >> well, the cabinet meeting is still going on. the prime minister is a briefing the other political leaders on what has taken place in brussels. and then from the cabinet meeting, what is expected is that the first bills linked to the deal will be presented to parliament. so greece is trying to keep up the momentum of this deal. >> we have seen the anger receiving on the streets. is there any sense of the people of greece will accept the terms of this new deal? >> i think the made the deal has been received as one of relief, a fleeting relief perhaps. but there is always a shadow over it. because, tomorrow, the main public and private unions have called a demonstration. if you remember the demonstration a week ago was a very violent. there will be another demonstration tomorrow which will be outside the houses of parliament, and that could be a flash point. >> you mentioned the mood and the fleeting relief, but tell us, do greeks appealed that

prime minister flies to brussels for last minute bailout talks as thousands take to the streets of athens to express their anger over fresh austerity measures. and broadcasting live from our studios in central moscow this is r.t. this is a recap of your week's top stories and your top headlines iran has to cut its crude oil supplies to french and british firms it is a move seen by many as retaliate for the e.u. decision to impose sanctions on the country the e.u. says the ban was it needed to force iran to resume talks over its atomic program meanwhile a team of u.n. nuclear inspectors is on its way to the country the second such visit within a month earlier the european commission claimed that the block has enough oil reserves to last for around one hundred twenty days saudi arabia has also stepped in by saying it is prepared to supply extra oil if needed but some experts fear that this move nonetheless will have a negative impact on already struggling european economies historian webster tarpley says iran is imposing its own oil embargo to show that it won't be bullied . economic sancti

. >> fiery debate as the smoke clears in athen sathens.he debt deal prompting rioting in the streets. >>> apple shares cross a magic mark to all-time high. business news ahead. o >>> this morning, people of athens are sifting through rubble after fire set during the night of rioting, ripped through at least 93 buildings and injured more than 100 people. nbc bay area's stephanie gosk is in athens with a look at landmark debt vote that prompted all of this rage. >> reporter: the response on streets of athens was dramatic and destructive. while a majority of parliament approved the measure, the center of town went up in flames. tens of thousands protested, the most violent taking on the riot police with rocks and fire bombers. officers drove them back with stun guns and endless barrage of tear gas. dozens of buildings torched include two history ex-theateic and businesses looted. after five years of recession, higher taxes and unemployment the newest alwausterity measure are a bitter pill. minimum wage will drop by a fifth, and 150,000 jobs c

athens. the day on this is the remnants of public anger but glass isn't the only thing that's been broken as governments past increasingly unpopular austerity cuts will be left asking who can they trust serve their interests the measures at the heart of the poor people especially and this is the reason that we feel. we today i think. will be taken and it's not going to work in the end it will be another bill. and. oh i hope for the best but i don't see it coming. under pressure from brussels berlin and the international monetary fund the greek government has cut more jobs and slashed funding for the nation's pensions a minimum wage policy appears to mainly expose those most vulnerable to crisis conditions is a mindset some feel is doomed to fail they already have destroyed the whole generation of young people and their dreams they will destroy the structure of society and infrastructure of the whole country we know that it is impossible to repay this debt that we have now signs that the easy

greece athens. but it's been no secret that from the onset of the euro crisis germany has spearheaded the ease austerity drive the original argument was that cuts were necessary and pain a consequence of thirty g.m.t. max and stacey focus on that. well actually wolfgang schauble cording to this article he was actually quoted caught on tape anyway talking to a portuguese finance minister in which he said to the portuguese minister don't worry we're not going to do this to you this our treatment of greece is in order to appease our population at home right exactly this is amazing it's coming through now that the policy makers in germany that are applying the scorched earth policy to greece are doing so to appease their local constituents who want blood for some reason they're just bloodthirsty which then brings up all kinds of other questions about who is the germany of all is this to germany we remember from world war i wanted to is this the imperial genie out of the bottle once again. simplified to

bailout for athens was postponed. welcome to "bbc world news." i'm david eades. also coming up in the program -- times, they are a-changing, says one leading russian activist, as a presidential election looms. also, we meet kim jong il's double, who's looking for new opportunities after the north korean leader's death. >> hello. thanks for joining us. syria's state-run news agency says that president assad has set a date for a referendum on the country's new draft constitution. and that date is the 26th of february. amendments to the constitution were a key demand by opposition groups at the start of the uprising against the president last march. now, the announcement comes as the bombardment of the city of homs just goes on. 13 days of this now. this is the picture for you at the moment, vast amounts of spoken gulfing the city. now, this is believed to have come, well, possibly from an oil pipeline serving a refinery in the city, but there are a couple of views as to what precisely caused it. but government forces have continued their assault on the city. there'

athens fulfills the last of the news bailout amounts but many greeks feel the nation won't recover from a certain measures on their health care system while leaving the military on the scale. and fears of a pending confrontation between television and tehran wrote followed reports that reagan's arrested over recent bombings were targeting israeli diplomats. just after six pm here in the russian capital and you're watching our t.v. and also our top story the syrian opposition have accused the government of stepping up attacks on the rebel held areas where the city of daraa the latest target meanwhile a high ranking religious leader was assassinated and the capital damascus reportedly for his political views now this comes after the president's announcement of a referendum on a new constitution which could create a multi-party system in the country but the proposal doesn't seem to have helped curb the violence but if a national reports now from syria. so there's a damascus has started within you so this is the nation the shake of one of the mosques over done one of the districts of the ca

is demanding in return for vital funds police fired tear gas to protesters in athens who threw stones and fire bombs at them they're also been some reports now incoming of people being injured around seven thousand people gathered outside parliament while ten thousand communist supporters marched in another part of athens as a two day union strike brought the country to a standstill after a tough multi-party deal the parliament is expected to vote on the austerity package on sunday but a junior coalition partner says it won't back the new plan euro zone finance ministers put the second bailout worth one hundred thirty billion euros on hold saying they want to see concrete action first without it athens will go bust in march natural analyst max kaiser says the debt athens has to pay off was forced upon at. all of the toxic debt that has been accumulated on banks' balance sheets around the world in germany and the u.k. and the u.s. have been put onto the balance sheet of greece and now the government of greece wants the people of greece to pay for this toxic debt the debt in greece did

piling more tough conditions on athens while unions stage a forty eight hour strike. and russia's public figures come together to ensure a fair and free presidential vote by forming the voters' leake to monitor elections but the challenge now is to stay impartial. see how to shake off the chills and enjoy the russian winter to stay with us for some silliness in the snow with moscow out. well some people embrace the winter and all the frost filled days for teas that come with it others like to hide and was staying in from the dark nights a low temperatures. sleep and relaxation just like various animals that hibernate is an escape.

the windows of an athens building, belching flames. athens has been volatile for month. but these clashes took on new ferocity. battles ignited across the capital. officers responded with teargas. the chaos could not be ignored by lawmakers inside parliament. greek prime minister lucas papademos denounced the violence. a difficult session. >> we face a very, very tough but a very, very crucial decision. the greek parliament will send a message of responsibility. a message of sense of duty to the people of greece and to the people of europe. >> reporter: in the midnight hour, the parliament approved a bailout deal by a wide margin. under the plan, greece will receive $170 billion in rescue loans by the european union and international rescue fund. it's a life raft from agencies. but greek citizens will feel the blow. 150,000 public sector jobs will be lost. there will be cuts to the minimum wage by a fifth. and a reduction in pensions. some wonder if it's too high of a price to pay. >>> here's your first look at some of the other news going on around america today. a virg