is handshake with jose manuel barroso was short and businesslike. after the meeting,barro -- barrosso mentioned other agreements. >> earlier, he was at the parliament. >> the point i raised to the prime minister was my feeling is the loss should not be changed. >> that tough talk seem to have had the desired effect. >> i thinker is going >>f his cnt tbelill have news fr this news forcese. am hemeerofy rtto folw to oreciar sllt t dthse hantbe them beneath it. >> aoparccs r to locationgh a t of people were on the slopes. sintre not behaving recklessly. >>he mountain faces steep. there are big banks of snow eiln avalanche. but we had no reason to expect an >> fren i the deadliest avalanche to strike the alps in recent years. >> the economy may me than originally forecast in italy. e adfhe bins lobby in italycts the n be 2.5%. >> the most recent calculations forecastth sin-- that the economy would shrink by only half that amount. buthitti is likely to get even moreha >> the economic climate in italy is bleak. domestic businesses are expecting gdp-shrink

is handshake with jose manuel barroso was short and businesslike. after the meeting,barro -- barrosso mentioned other agreements. >> earlier, he was at the parliament. >> the point i raised to the prime minister was my feeling is the loss should not be changed. >> that tough talk seem to have had the desired effect. >> i think our partners and friends in europe -- it is going to be a european and democratic country. >> if ponta does not make good on that promise, his country will face sanctions from brussels. >> we will have an update on that later in the program. now we have news from syria where a singer has defected to the opposition. >> this news was welcomed by washington. the white house said the defection was a sign that assad felt regime was -- assad's regime was weakening. the shelling of certain areas is continuing. >> the town and in the north of the country has been caught in a crossfire. rebel fighters and syrian armed forces clashed in a fierce battle. the town was destroyed in the onslaught, reduced to rubble. amid the ongoing violenc

barroso called on samaras to follow through on promises to implement the austerity package.he measures include spending cuts and reducing the number of civil servants. >> the main issue is implementation to deliver results, to maintain the trust of your international partners, the delays must end. >> greek government leaders are asking their eu counterparts to ease the conditions for implementing the austerity measures. >>> all right, well you know that tokyo stocks are up, let's see how south korea and australian stocks are doing. >>> people across japan are honoring a culinary custom, many will spend their lunch or dinner eating eel. it's the day of the ox. people believe the food will give them ox-like stamina in the heat of summer. there's just one problem, fewer eels, so fisheries authorities in japan, taiwan and china agreed to work together to preserve the declining population. japanese and taiwanese fishery authorities met in taipei. they want to bolster catches of baby eels known as glass eels. the japanese even taiwanese say they'll work together with their counter

the president of the european commission, jose-manuel barroso, will also be there. they'll all be assessing the country's progress in slashing its debt. european union spokesperson says barroso will meet with greek prime minister antonis samaras, hoping it will help greece get out of its debt crisis and a request to ease the cost-cutting condition that is a prekan for bailout funds. >>> inspectors from the eu, the i in, f and the european central bank arrived tuesday in athens. they'll be looking at how greece is implementing debt-cutting measures and report their findings to the eu. european officials hope the report will speed up talks with greece and lead to a revised aid package in september, but negotiations are expected to be difficult, because greek leaders have been unable to cut the number of public sector workers and privatize state-run firms. >>> and now it is time to get a check on tokyo markets. wall street ended lower for a third day in a row on renewed concerns about greece, as well as lackluster earnings reports, as we just went over. to see how stoc

that is what i told jose manuel barroso this morning. other countries might have a different perspective. for example, on adjusting for inflation in terms of prices or wages. >> cypress has been badly hit by the crisis in greece. in addition to help from brussels, it also hopes to get a loan from russia. the two countries have shared business interests and president christofias, who speaks russian fluently, has defended the request. >> russia is a capitalistic economy. no one should worry that we're bringing communism to cyprus just because we're working with russia. >> the handover ceremony for the eu presidency was held in an ancient amphitheater, a relic of the country's past. cyprus is not taking the reins at a critical moment for the eu's future. >> here in germany, a former member of the gang has been sentenced to four years in prison for her role in the murder of for a vote -- federal prosecutor siegfried buback 35 years ago. >> verena becker was part of the red army faction terrorist germany in 1970's and 1980's. prosecutors said

not only the greeks that seem to be commenting but even the euro commission president jose manuel barroso said that britain seems to be taking delight in the euro crisis. yes that has come from jose manuel barroso and of course david cameron has to be very careful here because the u.k. is not part of the euro zone so any comment he makes of this nature looks like somebody who's just on the outside looking in watching from the sidelines as some commentators is saying and and commenting you know rattling everything by commenting in this way of course david cameron again is under increasing pressure internally to set up a referendum on whether britain whether the u.k. should remain a part of the e.u. as a whole all whether to downgrade the relationship with brussels and has done a lot he stood back until about a month ago and then about a month ago he really stepped in there attracting a lot of negative commentary from euro zone leaders who said that he is blaming the eurozone for britain's own economics trouble economic troubles of course although britain isn't part of the euro zone it is d