our correspondent, jim muir, following developments for us from beirut. he joins us live from our bureau there. jim, has this mission been a success, do we think? >> well, obviously, there are different readings. some of the observers have jumped ship during the process over the last few weeks obviously don't think so. the chinese have commented very favorably on it. the syrian opposition believe it's been a bit of a farce, with them being basically led by the nose and having the wool pulled over their eyes, mixed metaphors there. so, as i said, depends which side of the fence you're on. but the key thing will be what exactly the commander of the force on the ground -- i say force, i mean, the observer deployment, actually reports back to the arab league. and that will be considered on saturday, and they will draw the relevant conclusions. they may belief that their presence on the ground has helped to ease some of the violence. a very troubled town over near the border with lebanon, syrian troops are reported to have pulled back from the town, leaving it

jim muir is following events from there. we're waiting for an arab league press conference to begin in cairo on this, but we have seen split over the weekend effectively between the position that saudi arabia is taking and qatar. >> yes, indeed. basically the arab league is quite strongly divided too, and you can see that from the fact that the saudis have called out, qatar is kind of leading the charge, as it were, against syria, but the syrians are lashing back, saying that these countries who are in the forefront of the effort of the arab league are very far from being done regarding themselves, and yet they're preaching democratic formula to syria. so, the arab league is deeply divided, but so is the international community. just in the last very short while, we've heard that the e.u. has imposed fresh sanctions on syria. that's now 10 or 11 rounds of sanctions, which is starting to bite, while russia has announced it's about to sell military jets to damascus in its show of support for the syrian regime. so there's no cl

go to our website and you'll find further analysis from jim muir who examines the ongoing defiance by the rebel forces against the syrian regime. go to bbc.com/news. >>> now let's take a look at some of the other stories making headlines around the world today. is there too much focus on aus austerity and not enough on growth? that's the question the eu leaders will discuss when they meet in brussels to talk about growth of job creation. the new pact discussing discipline will be on the agenda. latest from brussels live to our europe correspondent, chris morris. over to you. >> thanks, george, good afternoon. the official agenda like this is overshadowed by a rau of one kind or another. but this time they'll have to spend quite a bit of time talking about growth and job creations as it's such a huge issue across europe. more than 23 million unemployed in the eu. more than 5 million and rising in spain alone. and if you can't reverse that trend, there is very little hope that the eurozone crisis will start to ease on an old industrial site in northern france, a new kind of business, ma

jim muir is the new mayor here. he just took office this morning. he says the key word for what people are going to be looking for out of a presidential candidate is leadership. >> they are looking for somebody who will give them the straight answers. their looking for somebod who knows how to energize and get people and leadership. that's one of the things that i hear over and over and over again is they don't think they have effective leadership. >> there is really no question here in marion county. they went for john mccain in 2008. so it is likely they will go for the republican in 2012. the question is, kelly, across iowa which is a critical swing state, are they going to vote for the same type of change they were looking for in 2008, or will they vote for a different kind of change in 2012? >> well stated, john roberts. he is talking about the economy and values and what the voters in iowa were looking for as they brace themselves for the first iowa caucuses that will take place of course coming up on tuesday. fox news is your home base for co