i am george alagiah. the headlines -- the arab league is holding a historic summit in iraq, ending the violence in syria is at the top of the agenda. a general strike is underway in spain. a test of strength as the government prepares its latest austerity measure. time now to catch up on all the business news. let's just start with -- brazil, russia, india, and china. >> and south africa. >> they have a summit going on. they're talking about using their muscle in a little bit more. >> absolutely. i do not think we can stress how important this group is. bric's account for 45% of the world's population. they account for a quarter of the world's growth. george, you talk about them getting louder and bigger. that's because they are being the up with these financial and political institutions that were created six decades ago. the imf, which is typically always led by a european and the world bank, which is typically led by an american. a nice little deal. we've had many stories. the voices from these emergin

i am george alagiah, with a world of news and opinion. also in the program, preparing for the biggest solar storm in five years. airline navigation systems and power grids could be affected. japanese farmers trying to make a living a year on from fukashima. 2:00 in the afternoon in damascus, where the regime is no doubt trying to digest the news that abdo hussameddin defected to the opposition. it raises the possibility that others might follow. regime as assad's barbarism. speaking in cairo, he seemed to give the impression that there were still room for negotiations between the opposition and the government. here is jim muir. >> coming out the meetings in damascus, valerie amos did not say much, but what she did say did not pull any punches. >> i was devastated by what i saw. excuse me. >> the un envoy was only able to visit the stricken quarter for 45 minutes, but it was clearly enough to impress on her the scale of the destruction wrought by nearly a month of bombardment. much of the superficial damage has been cleared away. the under

i'm george alagiah. the syrian president is accused of systematically detaining and torturing children. an american man has been given a new face in the most extensive facial transplant operation ever performed. time for business news with aaron. >> hello. lords of london.o >> they've had a bad year. 2011 was disastrous in terms of natural disasters. thinking about the devastation by the japanese earthquake and the tsunami. the floods in australia and thailand. a second earthquake in christchurch, new zealand. all that at resulted in a costly year for the insurance company in terms of natural disasters. the company paid $7.5 billion in disaster claims. the company lost in 2011 a hundred $20 million. -- 820 million dollars. the company sells to underwriters and the and the underwriter sells to retail insurance, which then sells to us. given the extent of the claims made in 2011, the company believes it is inevitable around the world that are premiums will increase. >> when you see claims of this level, yo