i'm pauline chu. >> from cnn london i'm charles hobson. anxious investors dump their stocks as europe struggles to contain its growing debt crisis. >> macarthur coal rallies on a $5 billion buyout bid. >> politics, high finance and criminal allegations, the whirlwinds rocking rupert murdoch's mighty mediame empire. >>> markets in europe are deep in the red on heels of steep markets across asia. how are things moving where you are? >> down, a third session of losses and quite heavy ones. let's check in with the markets. really quite heavy, off by more than 2%, comfortably more than 2%, and with the paris and zurich off by 2.1%, zurich off by more than 2.1% and the same theme as we saw in monday's session which is the banks very heavily being sold at the moment heavily, there is clearing great deal of worry about the contagion spreading to italy about this moving into a generalized crisis with a lot of banks really coming under pressure with non-performing government bonds on their books, and just one other theme, thomas cook is down on a pr

i'm pauline chu and this is "world business today." these are the top stories on this thursday, july 14th. running on empty and running out of time on both sides of the atlantic. there's a tense stalemate in washington as lawmakers fail yet again to head off the looming debt default. >>> meanwhile, italy races to push through austerity measures and restore confidence in the country's economy. >>> plus, rupert murdoch is in damage control mode as the crisis at newscorp continues after he ditches his bid for bskyb. >>> but first, a tide of debt trouble seems to be rising on both sides of the atlantic with lawmakers in a number of countries, frantically trying to cope with their country's financial woes. in the united states, as we speak, talks to raise the country's borrowing limit have once again, it seems, hit the buffers. and moody's says as a result of that it's putting the united states on sovereign's on credit watch negative for potential downgrade. here in europe, italy is grabbing the headlines. it's planning a $7 billion bond sa

i'm pauline chu at cnn hong kong. >> i'm nina dos santos at rome. here are the top stories on wednesday, july 13th. italians set their differences aside to pass painful austerity measures, but bankers are still betting on a bailout. >>> china's economy cools slightly, but still hot enough to beat the forecast. >>> uk lawmakers close ranks to try and block news corp's bid for bskyb. first up though here in the italian capital, the government is preparing to speak to parliament for a marathon debate over the next couple days, designed to gain the necessary approval for painful austerity measures. these are ones designed to prevent this country from becoming the fourth eurozone nature to go cap in hand to the imf, the eu and the ecb. pauline. >>> european stock market investors are watching italy's debt crisis very closely. here is where they stand at the moment. let's take a look at the moment. the london ftse making some gains, so is the xetra dax t. zurich smi is pretty much flat at the moment on this wednesday morning. nina? >>> pauline, of course,