we go to meteorologist ivan cabrera standing by at the cnn international weather center. w bad is it looking, ivan? >> it's bad. not as bad as it could have been, as you heard. we were getting close to 15 meters. we are peaking today at 14 meters and the levees are being put to the test. st. george is where the river rolls through here. the levee is barely holing on. the record crest, 13.4 meters setback in 2010. we have reached 14.87. it's still slowly rising. we'll continue to see that approaching 14 meters today. we're at 13.87. we're approaching 14 by later on today. i think we'll be in much better shape. 10% of the cotton crop wiped out. this was going to be a record harvest so far this year. the reason the cotton crop was hit so severely this year was because, again, the flooding here has been the worst they've seen in 35 years. this is moree here. we're taking you into new south wales. this is where the cotton crop is going on. the floodwaters have been incredible. you can see them from space, an amazing picture here. from 21 january. there we are to 6 february. 45,

ivan cabrera as always, many thanks for that.n cabrera, keeping us up to date with bitterly cold temperatures, particularly in eastern europe. >>> let's bring you up to date with the markets before we say good-bye in five minutes time. let's talk to you about m & a activity coming back on the cards to, let's say, change the subject from the issues we've been talking about in greece. after news last week that two companies were planning a -- that's helping to lift the ftse as you can see to the tune of about 1%. the other european markets off their interday's highs. greece has managed to pass the austerity measure, question is will it be good enough for the troika and good enough to get the next chunk of bailout money, manis manisha? >> big questions, right, nina? >>> over here, we've had muted gains across the asian markets. there have been high hopes here. corporate news for the markets to get their heads around, particularly in japan, tepco, tokyo electric power company, full-year net loss of $8 billion for the fiscal year. the

let's get the details from meteorologist ivan cabrera. he's standing by at the cnn weather center for us today. good morning to you, ivan presumably crops suffering from the frost, and that could affect things a few months down the line. >> absolutely. travelers have been affected. as you well know we've lost lives in europe as a result of just the bitter cold and livelihoods will be impacted as well as a result of the frigid temperatures. not so much the snow. i'll explain in a second here. the temperatures are what we're afraid of as far as the significant impact on european agriculture. it has been bitterly cold, seeing temperatures between 25 and 30 degrees below zero, an unbelievable range of temperatures and they continue to be well below average, 5 to 10 degrees below average. we're back to normal across the west. it's the central and eastern part of europe that we're concerned with here, particularly the wheat crop that's been impacted from france to poland here. citrus also has been impacted across the mediterranean. in the easter

let's go over to our meteorologist ivan cabrera at the cnn weather center with all the details. >> we'reng our fingers crossed here. nina, good to see you. what a disappointment for the organizers, for the fans yesterday. just a complete washout. 54 years and they've never had to completely move the race. they had to yesterday because of this system here in the gulf that is bringing very heavy rainfall to florida. let's take you to the scene and show you. on the track it was wet all day. they were waiting and waiting and in fact, the drivers were in uniform the entire day. waiting around to see if they were going to be able to get it in. at some point the organizers decided we're not going to run this thing in the middle of the night. those guys are happy. that's a good shot there. but, yeah, it's going to be more rain for today. i think we're going to get some breaks in here so that the race has been rescheduled for noon. hopefully we'll get some of it in, my goodness, for today. a daytona 500 monday. that just sounds weird. it's never happened before. here's, again, the fle. we're not

meteorologist ivan cabrera is at the cnn center with the weather forecast. an, how bad are things looking now? >> big storm heading out of australia crossing the tasmin sea. we've been following this the last couple of days, and now it's crashing into new zealand. both north and south islands have to deal with this rainfall and strong winds. look at this, almost a hurricane here. of course, it's not. but we are looking at a significant storm system. gales not out of the question, especially for the west-facing coastlines here of the islands, over the next 24 hours, and then the heavy rain will commence and continue over the next 48 hours. some of the tallies could be upwards of 200, i'm thinking even perhaps 250 millimeters, not out of the question here. watch our wind map here. you see that center of circulation just crashing in almost like a hurricane there. we're going to see very gusty winds along the coast as well heading into the next 48 hours. so we are preparing and bracing ourselves as we mark this somber anniversary here in christchurch and all of n

meteorologist ivan cabrera is live at the cnn weather center to explain. an, it sounds like we went from one huge problem to another different kind of problem. >> the warmer it gets, the faster the problem is going to be exacerbated here. we'll watch the temperatures closely. you're absolutely right. the danube is going to be the culprit if we have significant issues. this is the water weigh that has been frozen. we have the chunks of ice dislodging as a result of the thawing. my concern is not that. it's all the snow that has fallen in and around this region here. we're talking about meters and record amount of snow. we've been showing you the scenes from there. if we have enough rapid melting here, we're going to have some significant flooding across the river. that water has to go somewhere. once it melts, it's going to go into the danube. yes eve able to see oh this is a fascinateding picture from the last few days. you can see the time lapse of what is happening there, pauline. in the south, the sun is out, if temperatures are warming up. that snow is

ivan cabrera at the world weather center. >>> as the price of oil hovers near a nine-month high, middleastern supplies, what's being done to prevent an oil shock. we'll bring you that in a moment. >>> hong kong, i'm andrew stephens. >> i'm nina del santos at cnn london. welcome back to "world business today." let's see what's going on on the european stock markets. about 90 minutes into the trading session. second trading day of the week and this is how we stand. largely, well, it's a positive picture especially across the eurozone market. only slightly. a gain of a quarter of 1%. the can you remember ant is being boosted by boosted on talks that gm may take a stake in the french car maker. we're keenly watching that on "world business today." we're also watching the athens general index, losing half of 1%. this is mainly because this country is relegated to selective default and the ecb decided to temporarily suspend taking greek bonds as collateral as the famous private sector involvement swap now starts. andrew? >> here in asia, nina, it was a pretty strong day, actually. the key mar

. >> ivan cabrera, many thanks for that. >>> coming up on "world business today," we're on the campaign trail in the united states. we take a look at the rise of super pacs and what an impact they're having on the republican race for the nomination. >>> from cnn london, i'm nina del santos. >> welcome back to "world business today." >>> let's take a look at what's going on in europe. we're 90 minutes into today's trading session. what we're doing at the moment is tracking gains that have been going on in other parts of the planet, such as asia. not huge movements in these markets, but bringing back some of the losses we saw in yesterday's session. greece is paramount to many an investor today, this is because we've got a meeting of political investors going on later today, in which they're going to be finalizing the bailout. that meeting is delayed until today. as the talks resume, markets are nervous, but some of them still managing to push higher, particularly the eurozone markets, like the xetra dax, which is up just under 1%, and the paris cac, up .75%, manisha. >> we have hopes of

let's go to ivan cabrera at the cnn international weather center.d morning. >> good morning, good to see you. we've already had in zuric some moderate delays, but the bigger delays are in munich. this is not a widespread event affecting many airports. the last of the airports that are affected are seeing some problems here with takeoffs and landings as a result of very heavy snowfall. look at the surge of moisture coming in from the north. that, of course, is being cold air and we've got a lot of snow going on here as we check in with the wall here of the alps. that's where it will be snowing significantly here, but southern germany right now the bullseye with the heaviest of the snow, also switzerland getting in on snow as well. this will wind down later this evening. for the time being, we'll still have issues i think at the airports there, not just because of the snow, but we have wind coming in with the surge as well. so, you combine the wind, combine the snow and you get the visibility reduction here and that will be a problem for the airports,

>> okay, ivan cabrera, many thanks for that and have a great weekend. andrew. >>> that just about wraps up the show. before we go, though, a bit of a sad day here at "world business today." we're losing our producer, in fact, our founding producer, the woman who steered the ship of state that is known as "wbt" -- there she is -- through our new look, our revamp well over a year ago now. you're looking at the back of paula sayles now. yes, she did turn around. nina, it's been fun, hasn't it? >> it has, and i've only been on the show for about a year, as many of you and our viewers know, and paula's been a wonderful, wonderful producer to work with. [ applause ] really excellent. you can hear the round of applause going on there in the back. and she's actually telling me to wrap, which means in television language, stop talking nina! >> i think that's a wrap for paula, not so much for us. it's paula's final wrap. we'll miss you, paula. all the best. nina and i will see you on the next edition of "world business today." stay with us. i don't want healthy s