juncker noted the greek government has not presented the details on this year's spending cuts. eurozone members will finalize the plan at a meeting next wepz at the earliest. greece could default on its debts unless it receives aid by march toth, when the country is due to repay a huge volume of government bonds. toug posed by other eurozone members are generating frustration among the greeks. >>> in the u.s., retail sales are up by just a little. january saw an increase, but the pace of growth has begun falling short of expectations. retailers posted combined sales of slightly above $400 billion last month. that's up .4% from december. it's still only half the growth rate predicted by observers. by category, key apartmedepartm and volume retailers saw a rise of 2%, restaurants 1.3% and electronic stores half a per stent. sales of cars and auto cars fell by 1.1%. focus is on whether the improved sale figures suggest an upturn in consumer spending which is a key economic driver for the u.s. >>> tokyo stocks are extending their gains this wednesday morning. the nikkei is currentl

juncker said the meeting scheduled for wednesday is cancelled. a teleconference will be held instead. he said although they approved austerity measures, the governing parties haven't handed in written pledges to implement them. he also noted the greek government has still not presented the details on this year's spending cuts. eurozone members will finalize the greek bailout plan at a meeting to be held next monday at the earliest. greece could default on its debts, unless it receives additional aid by march 20th when the country is due to repay a huge volume of government bonds. but tough conditions imposed by other eurozone members are generating frustration among the greeks. >>> in u.s., retail sales are up by a little. january saw an increase, but the pace of growth has again fallen short of expectations. the u.s. department of commerce said on tuesday that retailers posted combined sales of slightly above $400 billion last month. that's up four-tenths percent since december, but half the growth rate predicted by observers. department stores

plan by sunday and find a further 325 million euro spending cuts by ne after the talks, jean claude juncker said that the financial ministers will approve extra funding for greece as early as wednesday. greece needs more money from the eu and the international monetary fund to cover government bond payments worth 14.5 billion euro. the payments are due march 20th. >>> that's all for this edition of "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. do stay with us.

this man, jean claude juncker, the current chairman is not satisfied that greece is keeping its side the deal. greece is to avoid default, time is running out. it was revealed that greece's economy shrank by 7% in the fourth quarter of 2011. it has to repay 14.5 billion euros in bonds by march 20. reasons why the euro-group is demanding they come up with 325 million euros, $400 million in budget cuts. the euro group once the people running greece to state in writing that should they come into power, they will stick to promised austerity measures. all of the violence at the weekend against the latest austerity package shows that patience is running out. >> greece is making all the efforts required. the people cannot take it anymore. the government is operating with superhuman effort. we are past the prado of exhaustion of the social and economic system. i think europe should take its responsibilities. >> there are big hurdles to clear before the bailout money can be transferred. otherwise, it is looking like a stark choice -- make the desired promises or face more financial uncertaint

euro group president jean-claude juncker said in a statement monday night that the downgrade of that debt rating was within the scope of assumption. he said he was prepared for the downgrade when a plan to ask private investors for a writedown was formed. >>> german chancellor angela merkel has rejected a call by g-20 finance ministers to expand the european bailout fund. merkel told germany's parliament on monday that her government sees no need to debate increasing the capacity of the european stability mechanism. she cited unimprovement in the finances of italy and spain. the group of 20 finance ministers and central bank chiefs on sunday called on the european union to strengthen its system to support severely debt stricken counties in the eurozone. expanding the mechanism's capacity is high on the agenda for the eu summit starting on thursday, but without the backing of the fund's largest contributor, germany, eu leaders are likely to struggle to agree on an increase. >>> and on the tokyo foreign exchange, the yen is regaining ground against the dollar and the euro. the dollar i

juncker never done that oh you know i remember one time. i think every time i guess. you could say he would get security for entering since you have six total resident sisters oh yeah hey jose everything's looking ok all right you can relax in the ok else we can do i'm a gator could be good. i will see going to later have a good day. a good station i think huge part i mean everybody's understanding what emergency is different but i mean people been called out for a bandaid thinking that all we are is you know a system that they can call and literally can you get a couple band-aids and i mean. look at the way it's called one hundred thirty. some of the programs that we do send to we have things such as boyle's can't sleep they're hungry constipation to think but if somebody says they're hungry what do you tell. what are we have to do is i've given five dollars cable local calls. we've been called to you know broken sprinkler system the lawn to a dog and need the chimney you know second of all and what is old and had to cause it always makes it all fun at the same time

kicked while it's down greece's juncker growth score was cut again by ratings giant standard and poor's the spied a massive bailout finally being secured. also rans envoy to the un atomic watchdog tells our t.v. agency's bias against his country accusing washington of trying to influence inspectors. and brochure. au-prince disputed we'll have the details in the business program in twenty minutes. of the action gavel you're watching r.t.m. arena joshie welcome to the program and the european union has hit damascus with its tough a set of sanctions yet they include more asset freezes against officials and impose restrictive measures on the country's central bank the e.u. continues to execute its strategy of putting political and economic pressure on the syrian regime to force president assad out of power tells maintaining support for the opposition recognizing the syrian national council as a legitimate representative of the population meanwhile speaking at the un human rights council the french foreign minister said austin will soon face justice for crimes against these people that's ami

billion are coming from that and we have this slightly modified psi deal on the table where jean-claude juncker and everyone else that was negotiating for a record breaking 14 hours, i think, because the press conference was only in the early hours of the morning. confident that the voluntary participation will be on track but in order to back it up, the greeks are going to put a collective action clause on track as well within the next two months, i.e., before the next two elections. mario draghi, head of the ecb, could be fairly happy with himself when he left this meeting in the early hours of the day. here is what he had to say. >> it's a very good agreement, and we certainly welcome first and foremost the commitment of the greek government to undertake the actions to restore growth and stability. we also welcome the commitment of the wror oeuro member countr help greece to come back on the path of growth and job creation. >> reporter: so i think what we can say he delivered what was necessary. anything else, no deal after last night's meeting would have really sent the market sort of on a

german cha german chancellor ange is schedu is scheduled to meet je juncker in juncker in the northern german city city for talks likely to focu on on the preparations for next week week in brussels. in an in in an interview with cnbc, the governori governoring councilmember said a haircut o haircut of greek debt is the cards. the cards. silvia silvia is on the g spoke to spoke to him in frankfurt. silvia? silvia? >> reporter: the no haircuts on greece, greece, i'm not surprised is the is the official ecb line and i daresay daresay at the moment it's not on on the cards because we've had the the decision out of brussels, of course, course, only last week when we -- we -- or was it this week? we we knew the ecb would the centr the central bank. the the interesting take is that they gave they gave us. we never we never said that. >> >> we always focus on price stability stability and that, to me, was very very important, the inflation expecta expec follow follow them in the immediate long long term and there the situation has not created. as long as they are, of course, then we are deliv

speaking at the end of the meeting in brussels euro group president jean-claude juncker outlined the steps greece must take to secure a new bailout package. >> firstly, the greek parliament should improve on something, the policy package agreed between greece and the try at that. secondly, expenditure reductions of 325 million in 2012 should be identified in order to ensure that the deficit target is achieved. >> well, those comments come as greece faces another wave of protests against austerity measures. up yons have called a 48-hour nationwide general strike that starts today. the greek finance minister venizelos says painful choices must be made now. >> translator: our choice is one of humiliation for a proud country, or even greater humiliation it will face if we act under the illusion of saving face with decisions that will have a much greater social cost. silvia wadhwa has more details. it looks like once again we're on the brink with greece. is this it this time? is this the last chance? >> reporter: i don't think it's fair to say they rejected it. it's not quite good enough.

jean-claude juncker says funds will be withheld until another $430 million are saved and the revised plan becomes law. well, greece has just two days to make that happen. >> ministers are fully aware of the significant efforts already made by the greek citizens, but also on the line of further joined efforts by all parts of greece society are needed to return the economy to a sustainable growth path. despite the important progress achieved over the last days, we did not yet have all necessary elements on the table to take decisions today. >> lenders aren't giving athens any wiggle room, but while the greek government works overtime to stave off a default, it's already seeing an economic nightmare for the country. look at these staggering statistics. unemployment has risen across greece to a record high almost 21%. youth unemployment in particular stands at 48%. greece is suffering its fifth straight year of recession and the threat of more cuts has its unions, as you'd expect, up in arms. we're joined live from athens as a 48-hour strike gets under way across the greek capital. linda

juncker. how much of a worry is europe to you still? >> it's funny. we've had the same debate. a lot of the pressure points from last year. from the opening remarks, being cruel but fair, greece isn't the issue to me right now. when you look at what we're doing in terms of relative construct, psi will get resolved, greece will default. but with 352 billion in euros outstanding, i think 25% that contained within greece, another 35% of that between the troika and the ecb, and 40% residual sitting within the private sector to debate on what the psi reconciliation is, that really isn't the hot button. bigger issues for me are the tail risk events out there that we're not paying attention to. >> an important assumption you're making is if greece goes, it will not roil the markets, the bond markets in italy and spain and to a lesser extent in portugal. that's a very big assumption to make. >> i'm backing it with the equivalent of half a billion in ltros. the market is overemphasizing what we're going to get on february 29th. likely to see another half a trillion euros done between th

jean-claude juncker who heads up the group of finance ministers made the comment after last night's conference call. he said that significant progress can be made and ensured they are set to make all the necessary decisions now by monday. it always comes down to mondays. the troika has arrived in portugal to ensure the company is on track to meet the terms of its 78 billion euro bailout. silvia joins us for more. silvia, it's fair to say portugal has made progress in reigning in its big budget deficit but it still seems to remain an inevitability that it will need another rescue package. >> reporter: well, the big problem for portugal it's almost the poster child for a success story in terms of sticking to the program. everybody is always agreeing the po portuguese are doing what they need. they are consolidating their budget. they are privatizing. they are restructuring the economy. they are liberalizing the labor market, everything that they are supposed to do, they're doing, and yet the confidence is not returning to the markets not because of portugal but because simply a lot of people in

we had an interview with jean-claude juncker, the head of the euro group, where in a le leading question he was asked cynically wouldn't you all be happier if the greeks left the eurozone and, yes, i'm sure he was a bit annoyed and upset but it shows you the direction we're going at the moment. things are not improving. >> all right, stay with us, silvia. with us is the global strategist of ltg capital. peter dixon, senior economist at commerzbank. this new deal, peter, already the 120% target for getting debt down to gdp has slipped. we're looking at 120, 129% this deal goes ahead. i mean, this isn't sustainable anyway, is it? even if we agree this package isn't going to work. >> it certainly isn't. if you just roll the dime forward, it looks likely given the g it dp growth, interest rates and l balances, the ratio will rise quite sickly over the course of the next five years. it implies a bigger haircut or perhaps a widening volume of creditors. either way i don't think this deal will cut it in terms of a debt target. >> so we're still effectively throwing money to buy time. meanwhile

carriers new- paragraph s.4000 air marshal's juncker years, and have about 4000 air marshals.ey tried to do is try to figure out what are the "dangerous flights." a flight from pittsburgh to denver probably is not the hardest flight so probably not as much of a need. but from amsterdam to detroit it might be high risk of flight and maybe needs one. host: tom from minnesota. caller: i want to ask your guest what is his take on the fact that this underwear bomber was around to obtain a visa to start with? it seems on the face this is someone -- anyone with any common sense would not have let him in the country. the other thing i would like to ask him about is that this accent on more and more security in our society is incrementally leading us toward a police state. and the real problem -- annoying people -- host: around the globe annoying people? let's get a response from mickey mccarter. guest: generally denies as a huge visa vetting failure. at the united kingdom raised concerns about him before. his own father called u.s. authorities to report that his son was becoming radic