let's go now live to jim boulden from london's heathrow airport which is set to be disrupted by this. jim. >> reporter: yes, nina. so far, the people here at heathrow airport tell me it's not so bad. thatqueues for immigration lines airport so bad. this was a strike that was expected. so some of the airlines yesterday did pull back on some of the flights coming in and out of heathrow today. british airways tells me they did not cancel any flights. things are as normal. we don't expect that to last for long, especially with the immigration workers being one of the groups that have walked off the job. the owner of the airport says there could be some queues up to two or three hours, but as of now, things are pretty calm. the larger issue, as you say, pension reform, something other countries are dealing with as well. this is unprecedenteded. teachers, health care workers, many unions who don't normally strike are all off today with this 24-hour strike. so 2 to 3 million people could be off the job today, something britain hasn't seen for a generation, though it is expected that it will

jim boulden, cnn, london. >>> the leaders of the eurozone's three largest economies are going to be gatheringrassburg, france, later today. french president nicolas sarkozy will be meeting with german chancellor angela merkel and italy's new prime minister mario monte will also be present. his inclusion is seen by some as a key sign of support for italy from companies like france and germany. diana magnay is monitoring the developments and joins us from berlin. i distinctly remembering mario monte clashing with nicholas sarkozy when he was finance minister. they're going to be meeting eye to eye as heads of state. it's going to be a tough meeting, isn't it? >> reporter: yes, nina. but i think there was no love lost between the german chancellor, the prime minister and the previous prime minister silvio berlusconi. and to see a technocrat trying to pull italy out of its current problems is a far more amenable partner around the table than perhaps mr. berlusconi was. in that sense they can at least all three work together with a shared understanding of what the problems are that europe faces if

jim boulden joins us now from athens, greece, where all of this is unfolding. what's the latest there? >> reporter: well, the latest is that this prime minister is trying to form a coalition government. it could take a couple of days. he is in negotiations with some of the minor parties. but that kind of nitty-gritty doesn't worry the markets too much. what worried the markets over this past week is just when this huge bailout had been agreed with the international monetary fund, the european union, there had been a big sigh of relief in the markets, stock markets rising around the world. it all came apart here in athens for very good reason because it looked like it was going to be difficult to get an approval through this parliament. now they're trying to rebuild a coalition and try to then get this agreement through parkingment. things are looking a little bit better this weekend than they did just a few days ago, fred. >> how might all of this impact the u.s.? what would be the real ripple effect? >> reporter: it's called contagion, isn't it? we saw it happ

jim boulden now shows us what thomas cook has been up against. >> reporter: it's been about 150 yearshomas cook and his son began providing package holidays. for people in britain who rarely, if ever, traveled on vacation before. the middle class. today's thomas cook is not just a holiday booking service. it has more than 30,000 employees under a number of travel brands. it's also a big uk airline and has operations throughout western europe. thomas cook sends europeans all over the world. but all that diversity hasn't made thomas cook immune to today's problems. a slowing economy and rising unemployment is hurting bookings from within the uk. thomas cook says the euro crisis is responsible for a 20% drop in bookings out of france and belgium compared to last year. and it says travel to its key north african destinations like tunisia has not come back as expected. and, of course, the scenes in egypt and these scenes in thailand with the floods have caused disruption to popular destinations. >> thomas cook has had quite a lot of bad luck recently or indeed bad decisions, depending how

cnn's jim boulden is there for us. jim, what happens next? >> reporter: well, don, what happens next is that the president of greece will meet with the leaders of most of the major parties on sunday and he will try to get all of them somehow to come together to form another government, maybe under george papandreou, maybe not. but what's really important here, as you said, is that whoever forms the next government needs to do it quickly and then they need to start debating and try to pass this very big austerity package. this is the package agreed to last week in brussels that fell apart earlier this week in greece. and this is the package that upset so many people, the g-20 summit when mr. obama and others were meeting in cannes a few days ago and why the markets were gyrating last week, because greece had a deal but then it fell apart. they had to try to rebuild that deal in the coming days. >> jim boulden, thank you. >>> up next, a preview of tonight's one-on-one debate between two of the gop candidates, herman cain versus newt gingrich. >

cnn's jim boulden has been following developments in athens. jim, what's the mood there now? are people as confused about what's going to take place with this referendum? >> reporter: well, i don't think people here expected mr. papandreou to make such a public announcement about the referendum. it's just that it caught everyone really off guard certainly after we thought that all the big decisions had been made in brussels last week. the interesting thing really is is that now it doesn't even have to be january, it could be december. remember, the decisions made in brussels, there still have to be things worked out. it's just that the big picture was decided. and while it was dramatic, there was not a lot of detail, and that could take several months. i think the thought was for greece to vote on something, that would happen in january after the greek christmas. but there was talk yesterday it could even be moved up to december if everything was lined up. really surprising, of course, and people here very much divided i have to say. you get a sense that some people think it'

our jim boulden is at london's heathrow airport. will transportation be affected, too, jim?, there was a worry that because immigration officials were on strike today, that there would be a backlog of passengers arriving at heathrow. but so far we're told that's not the case. one reason is the number of airlines did cancel their flights into heathrow overnight. we know that delta canceled some flights. american airlines certainly canceled six flights. british airways, however, did not cancel any flights from north america. but as the passengers have been arriving into heathrow, we are told it's been okay. it could get worse later in the day. but we've had a long time to plan for this strike, carol. so transportation not affected. you know, people, especially tourists in america, certainly used to underground strikes, tube strikes, bus strikes. this is not one of those. this is much more fundamental. these are people who don't normally strike. teachers, workers at hotels -- sorry, at hospitals, people who work at the archives and libraries. these are people who don't strike.

cnn's jim bald bou jim boulden. >> reporter: the reason it matters, the prime minister or whoever leads few weeks has to push through a bailout fund it agreed to with the international monetary fund and european union. what does that mean in it means if greece can't put their house in order and the government can't push that through, there's a very good chance europe's whole bailout plan of the year would collapse. that would mean europe in crisis, europe in recession, that could affect european banks, american banks, the american economy. even though the greece economy is tiny, t.j., very small, it matters because it's part of the euro. you don't want to see the euro go into crisis because that could be global recession, t.j. >> jim, we almost saw the most powerful leaders in the world get together at the g-20 summit. they produced a two-page action plan. well, how much action do you have in two pages and how much of that had to do with dealing with this eurozone crisis? >>. >> reporter: what was so funny, interesting, they went to the g-20, supposed to be a triumphant meeting. europe

. >> jim boulden, joining us live from athens. many thanks to you. >>> the spotlight now turns to italy where prime minister silvio berlusconi, as mentioned, will face the confidence vote in parliament tomorrow. it will be his 52nd such vote. investors are worrying about debt contagion spreading to italy. that's serious. italy has a lot more debt, about $2.6 trillion. nobody's going to pay that out in a hurry. the italian government will also vote on a number of key budget measures on tuesday which may be all but meaningless if mr mr. berlusconi fails to secure a majority in that confidence vote. cnn's matthew chance has been monitoring all the latest developments in rome. matthew, what's going to happen? there berlusconi is nothing if not a political survivor. but can he survive this 52nd confidence vote? >> reporter: every day when you read the up ins here, there are more people from his coalition who say they've defected to the other side. nips in ita s newspapers in italy saying 20 to 40 could have defected to the opposition.

let's head round the world with jim boulden, he's in athens, greece with morning. porter: good morning, carol. yes, it was quite a weekend, really, a lot of to'ing and fro'ing. what we do know, mr. papandreou, born in minnesota, believe it or not, the prime minister will be stepping down. we just don't know who will replace him. it could be a harvard professor named mr. papademos. whoever runs this caretaker government for the next few weeks has to convince the greek public that they have to have another round of tough austerity that cuts to the pensions, job cuts, and that's, of course, taking less pay if they do keep their job. the economy is in recession but europe says you have to do this to cut your budget deficit or we won't give you the money. remember what happened when lehman brothers went bankrupt in 2008. that's why we saw the markets so worried about what's happening here in athens. carol? >> so ugly. let's talk about italy. the political future of italy's prime minister, silvio berlusconi, now hangs in the balance. what can we expect next? >> reporter:

let's check in with jim boulden.y and clarify for us whether the prime minister will set this referendum in place or whether indeed he has backed off that? rr fredricka, what's happening right now is the prime minister is speaking to his party in the parliament building right behind me. literally he is on national television explaining to his party an to the people exactly what he's going to do he's been talking for about ten minutes. we haven't heard him say exactly yet. but it seems to be that he's trying to create some sort of national coalition government with the opposition parties and there wouldn't be a need for the referendum. we need confirmation from him whether he intends to go ahead with that referendum. he has a wafer-thin majority of two at the moment. right now he's explaining to his party why he's done that. we should hear any moment now whether the referendum will go ahead. it seems unlikely but things have changed every hour here today. >> while we await the prime minister's decision on that, jim, c

jim boulden is in athens. and jim, confidence vote just came in. what happened?on the confidence vote in the parliament behind me. he will later today on saturday go see the president, try to form a new coalition government. the bottom line is whoever runs the government here in greece has to push the very tough new austerity package through the parliament so that greece does not run out of money. that is what's been worrying european markets and world markets. now it looks like at least today and tomorrow the greek government will survive and try to push through a new austerity package. and that should be good news for the markets come monday morning. erin? >> all right, jim. thank you very much. and it will be if they really stick with it. >>> now, no verdict. after a full day of deliberating the jury just going home in the past few minutes after failing to reach a decision on whether dr. conrad murray caused the death of michael jackson. outside the courthouse the crowd was tense. they waited for the decision. that's where our ted rowlands is, "outfront" tonig

all right, sounds like jim boldin, we lost our connection with jim boulden, but we'll check back withim. this is a country in turmoil politically, trying desperately to show europe and the rest of the world that it is doing what it needs to do to, gosh, both appease its own people, but also the people in europe who will be, you know, behind this bailout. so there you go. >>> all right, new this morning, the search for a 2-year-old boy who's gone missing in washington state. the 2-year-old disappeared yesterday at about 10:00 a.m. in bellevue, washington. police say his mother left him in the car alone when she ran out of gas. when she returned an hour later, skye was gone. bellevue police have rescue teams searching the area where he was last seen. >>> singer andy williams is battling bladder cancer. he broke the news to fans during a christmas concert in branson, missouri, saturday night. williams says he's receiving treatment and plans to return to the stage in 2012. >>> and former heavyweight boxing champ joe frazier is fighting liver cancer at a philadelphia hospice. his manager s