and slovenia's first in three years. croatia's election administration committee says that with about 70% of the votes counted, opposition coalitions left by the social democrats had taken 78 seats in the country's 151-seat parliament. slovenia's seats said that they have won 28 seats while the government and social democratic party has won only 10 down from its current 29. since the end of the conflict in the former yugoslavia, croatia and slovania enjoyed sharp economic growth but the economies have weakened in the wake of the european debt crisis and they are saddled with massive debts. they face a difficult task of restoring the economy's fiscal health. myanmar is opening routes to revival. the country has reopened a checkpoint on the bridge at the border with thailand after it was unilaterally closed after nearly a year and a half. government officials from the two countries gathered on the bridge on monday morning to mark the occasion. >> reporter: daylight spreads over a poor village in uganda. people here like ma

. >>> opposition blocsneral elections in croatia and y insured croatia's firs and slovenia's first in thre administration committes counted, opposition co had taken 78 seat. have won 28 seats while the governmentwon only 10 down from onflict inia and slovania enjoyed sharp economic growth but the ke of the european debt crisis e debts. they face a difffiscal health. myanmar is opening r revival.e change affects some oorld, many of them resid environmentally friendly how they live. nhk woy.ads e in uganda. continent have more than their of e evening in darkness. light. this f buoke can fill the room. there is alwoning. n the house. now, some women are trying to lighting their neighbors have a name fo them, solar engineers.this village has no electricity t the solar energy is changing people on houses. this panel catches energ the day.for up to five hours at rose othieno finishe she knew nothing about y. learned something how to to build a c an engwith the power supplies w >> i like helping pe and volunteering. >> reporter: the veir parents they used to face. light of a solar lantern. e

slovenia has been targeted for a cut and so has -- its rating is just above junk status. another cut would be a blow. the only good news is that fitch says france will keep its aaa rating for now. the long-term outlook went to- which means she could be downgraded within two years one -- said his comments were not representative of the french government. >> it is difficult to conduct in the eurozone currency policy which could be adopted to weach country. this is why the eurozone may not survive. >> in greece, shopowners are slashing prices. but money is really tight and people are loathe to spend it. "we see a big difference. it is sad to see it this way." he says of the first days of december has passed and sales have been next to nothing. last year was a bad year but this year is a disaster. the national confederation of greek commerce says he warns another 60,000 could go to the wall in 2012. >> financial regulators have charged the six executives of fannie mae and freddie mac with a civil fraud. there are accused of misleading investors about all level of exposure to

they're considering a downgrade for countries that use the euro -- italy, spain, ireland, slovenia, cyprus. people have been arrested for sharing videos of the sexual abuse of children. the investigation spanned 22 countries an investigation into a year to complete. in holland, it has emerged that tens of thousands of children in the country suffered sexual abuse while in catholic institutions. a report by independent commission found that the church failed to deal with the abuse or help the victims. the commission received more than a thousand accounts from victims. >> the claims escalated to reveal a network of abuse. during the course of this independent investigation, they found one in five children were abused while in the care of catholic institutions. not only that, but catholic officials knew of the abuse was happening but did nothing to help the victims or stop the people who were abusing them. the commission estimates between 10,000-20,000 children were abused between 1945 and 2010. they identified a hundred people working for the church were named in the complaints. also, 105 ar

russia hopes to pump billions of cubic meters of gas per year from markets stretching from italy to slovenia. the deal gives south stream a jump on the nabuku pipeline. negative economic news from japan. the government says the unemployment rate is refusing to budge, and industrial production has fallen. the drop of 2.6% last month is bigger than expected. manufacturing of cars and consumer electronics took the biggest hit as factories located in thailand were knocked out by the massive floods there. japan is also struggling with unfavorable exchange rates and falling demand. but the slowdown, tokyo expects to regain some steam in the coming months. in germany, small and medium- sized firms are quite optimistic about their prospects in the new year. a poll shows half expect business as usual, and 1/3 expect improvement. most of these firms are privately owned and ask -- are seen as forming the background of the german economy. a large majority of them planned to spend as much on investments in 2012 as this year and every third company plans to create new jobs. a major blow to the italian maf

considering a downgrade of the credit ratings for six countries -- belgium, italy, spain, ireland, slovenia, and cyprus. more than 100 people have been arrested in raids across europe on suspicion of sharing online videos of the sexual abuse of children. the suspects arrested by the european police agency euro poll -- europol. tens of thousands of children in holland suffered sexual abuse while in catholic institutions. the inquiry found that church officials failed to adequately deal with the abuse or help the victims. the inquiry found more than 1000 cases. >> the claims quickly escalated to reveal a network of abuse right across the country. during the course of this investigation, they found one in five children were abused while in the care of catholic institutions. not only that catholic officials knew of the abuse was happening but did nothing to help the victims or stop the people of using them. the commission estimates between 10,000-20,000 children were abused between 1945 and 2010. they identified 800 priests, brothers, lay people working for the church. of those, 105 are still a

most recently we were together at a trade fair in slovenia, where we talked with specialists from austriai know a lot in theory, but nothing about the practical aspects, unlike the people here. and here in eastern bosnia, people know how to manage on very little money. the unemployment rate in the region is 68%. >> before ekomozaik i was unemployed for four years. sometimes i worked illegally on construction sites in montenegro and other countries. now i'm in regular employment again. my social security contributions are being paid, and everything's going according to plan. >> i was registered unemployed for 28 years. this here is a new beginning for me. finally i have work again. i just used to keep my head above water by doing odd jobs. >> the farm has been in operation since 2009. in the autumn and winter, 15 people work here. in the peak season, that number jumps to 70. the farm is owned by a foundation in sarajevo that receives most of its funding from abroad. some of the money was used to build this greenhouse. because warm temperatures can be constantly maintained here, plants can

and in korea in slovenia. qualifying for third spot in green day so in the end meanwhile finished bottom of the table the sylvania side ending up looking worse in last place in the end of the season just one victory ninety six. to i second and you gotta have posted their sixth consecutive victory in the k h l after coming from behind to into on a spot at moscow the siberian team only joined the elite league last year and they're already causing quite a stir but one closer effort courts. ice hockey club you grow up from siberian city of hunted man ceased was founded in two thousand and six and spent the next four years blowing its way into russia's elite and its rookie cage show year the team which was certainly lacking in star power still managed to end the regular season in center place and what if one for the playoffs one first example do you grow was knocked out cold for his work finals in twenty to end hunger for postseason action is evidently as strong as ever. we have a very close knit squad which is vit

fact you can travel from one end of the century it i mean you can go from france all the way to slovenia without basically showing your passport that's magnificent but the problem we've heard is that all the way through this period people have not been willing to balance the books on their economies and we are going to have another loss i think the problem is what's not being said and that is you can stick pieces of duct tape over an exhaust that's breaking in an old car or you can stick it over the europe but some time or another piece of duct tape is going to split and you're ultimately going to brick and i don't see that you're a conservative no lateral what murky and sarka have actually managed to say today or what's going to be said at the brussels conference we are still looking at the disastrous scenario for the euro and that is going to be a big problem not just for the europeans but for the whole world trivia executive director of the investment firm t.v. advisors thank you for your thoughts. if you drove afghanistan there's a stake conference in germany with delegates from key

they're going all over the place and asking for extra money from countries like slovenia, italy, spainon't have that money. they're suffering significant austerity and keeping their one ace card in their hand and expecting everyone else to pony up for their problems. you couldn't make it up. >> on the ace card, happened to note, you and i have talked a few times, as you put it, putting european central bank off the leash and allowing them to do the job of dealing with this crisis. >> yeah. that's absolutely right. >> okay, michael. we have to leave it there. >> okay. >> thanks very much. thanks for joining me live from cmc market here in london. >>> charles, just ahead on "world business today," the president of the philippines declares a state of emergency. tropical storm washi passed over the weekend but the devastation and the death toll continue to grow. we'll have an update and a look at the world weather picture coming up next. ings. savings? progressive was the first to offer online quoting. you can do better. first to show comparison rates. ding! the "name your price" tool. oh!

moody's ratings agency has given slovenia a christmas present this country really could have done without. it downgraded the country's credit rating by one notch from aa-3 to a-1. moody's highlighted and particular concerns over the banking sector as well as limited growth opportunities in that country. all of this comes on back of another downgrade. we're talking about hungary's downgrade by standard & poors on wednesday. this particular ratings agency cut hungary to junk status or speculative grade, less than a month after moody's took the same decision for this country. perhaps understandably the man on the street is far from happy and in keeping with the theme for the year, hungarians are, it seems, once again protesting. head of the economics unit for hungary's lmp political party told us where the problems stem from. take a listen. >> i think it starts with the financially unsustainable measures which created a precarious situation with the budget. and i think one of the top causes is the new taxation system which created a deficit of around 500 billion. the government had unorthodo