a survey by the thompson reuters foundation has called pakistan the world's third most dangerous country for women afghanistan and the democratic republic of congo. from the screen to the stage now. a troupe of actors in afghanistan has begun rehearsing a play by shakespeare. they aim to perform at london's legendary globe theater. this version of shakespeare's comedy of errors has been recreated using the afghan language. actors wear local costumes. the music, story line and characters have all within given an afghan twist. the troupe plans to join a culture festival leading up to the london olympics. >> translator: three decades of conflict destroyed our artistic culture. gradually we are trying to rebuild the arts. hepfully, one day, we'll regain our glory days again. >> the group has been targeted by islamic militants who say what they're doing is unislamic. actresses especially have been threatened. in you happen to be in london in late may, why not go and show them your support. that's it for our bulletin today. >> researchers around the globe are working on a vaccine against the m

a survey by the thompson reuters foundation has called pakistan the world's third most dangerous country for women after afghanistan and the democratic republic of congo. from the screen to the stage now, troup of actors in afghanistan has begun rehearsing a play by shakespeare. they aim to perform at london's legendary globe theater reaching an international audience after decades of persecution and conflict. this version of shakespeare's "comedy of errors" has been recreated using the afghan language. actors wear local costumes. the music, story line and characters have all been given an afghan twist. the troup plans to join a culture festival leading up to the london olympics. >> translator: three decades of conflict destroyed our artistic culture. gradually we are trying to rebuild the arts. hopefully one day we'll regain our theatrical glory days again. >> but acting isn't a risk-free profession in afghanistan. the group has been targeted by islamic militants who say what they're doing is un-islamic. actresses especially have been threatened. >>> and if you happen to be in london in

reuters thompson -- thompson reuters? >> thompson reuters. 's our name day. >> we just call it reuters, lovingly. i hear you've got a great book called "how to be black" no one gets, it's satire, but i love the book. it's awesome. will cain is back as well. i have to explain to our new panelists that we have an all request musical day, which means if you want something played, you have to e-mail our producer who will then eventually get on the air probably by 8:45, five minutes before 9:00. welcome. that was stevie wonder, "superstition." you knew that, though. >> i know all that, soledad. >> he lives it, yes, he does. >> superstitious dude. >> we begin this northemorning iran. defense secretary leon panetta says there is a growing likelihood, quote, that israel will attack iran this spring and try to destroy its suspected nuclear program. israeli defense minister ehud barak said this, quoek, iran must be prevent fred becoming nuclear and no option should be taken off the table. let's get right to barbara starr this morning at the pentagon. go

let's bring back charles below of the "new york times," and also welcome david kay johnston of thompson reutersso glad to have you both back. but let me finish a quick conversation before i get to you david, with charles. are any of the policies that the republican candidates offering policies that would address this inequality gap? >> not in my opinion, because what the republican policies tend to want to do is skew the tax code more in favor of the wealthiest americans in this country, so that you would lower in some cases investment -- taxes on investments. you would lower taxes on business owners so -- and -- and on the other engineer of the spectrum if the taxes did not go up on the lowest earnings they would go down only modestly so they would receive something less than a hundred dollars a month or a year. so that doesn't rectify the problem in america. what we need to do is to look at how people make their money. and that is different from work. the way -- we have a leading presidential contender in mitt romney who does not have a job. he man does not work and yet he makes $20 million a

. >>> david johnson is a columnist at thompson reuters.hat our individual income tax system is as out of touch with the era as digital music is with the hand cranked players. if the tax code is unfair what would you do to change it? >> well, fundamentally i think we need to recognize we have a tax system allowing companies to earn profits in america and siechen those out of the country and hold the money offshore on tax, what the 1 had the 4 trillion offshore is invested here in the u.s. just owned offshore. companies shouldn't be able to take money out of their american pockets and put it in another pocket and pay no taxes on it. we need a system that encourages investment in creating things. there is something we can do outside the tax system and that would be lowering the value of the dollar relative to other currencies to lead to more importing and less exporting. [ male announcer ] lately, there's been a seismic shift in what passes for common sense. used to be we socked money away and expected it to grow. then the world changed... an

just to give you another example, there's a small business lending survey that thompson reuters puts out, the most recent in november of 2011, which showed the volume of small business lending loans is up nearly 20%. from a year ago. now, there are also promising bipartisan efforts in congress designed to improve the ability of small banks to access -- or small businesses to access small capital in both the private and public financial markets. earlier this week the president sent congress his startup america legislative agenda to help move this process along. even as conditions improve in the broader lending markets for small businesses, we want to make sure we continue to be focused on helping small businesses, a crucial engine of job growth, get better access to capital and credit. in the housing market, many americans trying to buy a home or refinance their mortgage are finding it hard to do so, even for fha and gse-backed mortgages. we've been working very closely with the fha, and the fhfa to encourage them to take additional measures to remove unnecessary barriers. they're mak

. >> david johnston is a columnist at thompson reuters and won the pulitzer prize in 2001 for enterpriseting that uncovered loopholes and inequality and inequities in the u.s. tax code. you wrote that our individual income tax system is, quote, as out of touch with our era as digital music is with the hand cranked control of music players of 1912. if the current tax code is unfair and again i don't want to get caught up in language whether unfair or not pro growth, what would you do to change it? >> well, fundamentally i think we need to recognize we have a tax system that is allowing companies to earn profits in america and then siphon those profits out of the country as tax deductible expenses and hold the money offshore untaxed. that's what that 1.4 trillion is offshore. it's invested in the u.s. owned offshore. companies shouldn't be able to take money out of the american profits that's pockets and put it in a cayman islands pocket and pay no taxes on it. we need a system that encourages investment and especially investment in manufacturing and creating things. and there's something

. >> christopher is the editor of thompson reuters digital. this is the point where you're working out, trying to lose weight, nothing is happening and a few weeks in all of a sudden it starts to kick in and you're saying how do we not mess this up. what is the way in which we don't mess this up. >> actually, and stephen is going to be shocked, but i agree with him. i think that you don't want to increase taxes too quickly. i think in the medium term you are going to have to increase taxes but i don't think you want to do it until the recovery is really in place. the other thing that i don't think you want to do is cut government spending. what's opinion very interesting about the jobs picture is it's been this fine balance of private sector jobs growing, but the reason the numbers aren't looking more robust is public sector jobs have been falling. so i think what you really don't want to do is repeat the mistake that was made in the 1930s, where as the economy was coming out of the great depression, people celebrated too early and decided, ok

kris ya freeland editor of thompson reuters digital. stephen, newt gingrich says $2.50 a gallon. president obama laughs it off as insincere election speak. i guess if the president could do that, he might have done it. we know the problems americans are paying more to fill up their cars and trucks, what part does a president or washington play in the solution? >> well, ali, i know this is going to absolutely shock you, but i agree with newt gingrich on this one. look, i think -- look, in the short term the president can't do much about the price of oil and gas at the pump. you know, this is a result of a lot of the disruptions that are going on in the middle east. but it is also true what newt gingrich and some of the president's critics are saying, that this is a president who's been very hostile to domestic oil and gas development. a good example being the reduction in permits to do offshore drilling. we also saw what happened with the keystone pipeline. if you want to see the chickens come home to roost, that's reflected partly in higher gas prices. of course yesterday when th

much better than expected according to thompson reuters, but individual results were mixed. look at saks, but nordstrom disappointing. limited another stellar month, up 9%. triple what was expected. this one all over the map but zooming past expectations this time around up nearly 11%. now, a very disappointing december. target posted an increase of 4.3% for january estimates, better than expected, big disappointment out of wet seal. you can see here down 13% for the teen retailer. and while december was a great month for macy's, january wasn't. disappointing there as well. the volume of earnings updates today greater than expected. abercrombie & fitch, ann taylor and wet seal guiding lower and trading lower as well. abercrombie & fitch, one of the retailers blaming that warmer than normal weather for weakness in sweaters, fleece and outer wear. slashing fourth quarter and full year guidance assuming flat comps, piper jaffry downgrading ann taylor to underweight. now, gap, limited, kohl's, macy's, ross stores, tjx and big lots, all higher. gap shares up more than 9%. one of

editor of thompson reuters digital. she's back. >> political scientist, professor at columbia university. nice to have you as well. will cain, columnist for theblaze.com. happy friday let's get to our "starting point." protests happening right now in afghanistan, protesting the decision of some nato trops to burn korans. hundreds of people to surround the embassy. five people have been hurt. nick paton walsh is live for news kabul. what's the latest? >> well, what we're hearing is that the west of the country, hurat, one of the main city there's. u.s. consulate in kabul, the u.s. consulate out there have a very angry crowd outside. hundreds of people, i had actually from an eyewitness could hear the sirens, the panic from that particular area. we understand that to the hospital in hurat, one dead body has been brought fr presumably from this protest. one injured and one lost their life. they are apparently close to the u.s. consulate, setting fire to police cars, clashes now breaking out police police and proteste prote

but i -- thompson reuters pen but i assume it was probably made in china.out many of the things we have. global supply chain connects us through the items every single item in our life, everything we touch as we move through the world connects us with a chain of stories of other human beings around the other side of it who are absolutely invisible to us, completely invisible to us, and who -- live lives that can be quite difficult and whether in long run that's the best thing for raising living standards or not and whether there there is a pathetic gap, a perceptual gap of where we stand and where we do. i feel like that's part of what your work has been trying to address. >> well, lot of fever and lot of what i have written is -- connecting the american and western attempt to keep the world the way it is through violence to -- you and me and -- in other words, the system that we have is actually not necessarily pleasing to the people who are on the bottom of it and they might very well change it if they weren't crushed by the threat of force. you could cal

thompson reuters put it up on some of the front pages.rtuguese are not doing that, though indeed it should be said that moody's today again warned what is good for greece may well be used in other peripheral nations in terms of the restructuring and the collective action clauses or the likes could be used by lisbon, the same they've been used in athens. that is one of the concerns. back to you. >> simon, thank you very much. here with bob pisani on the floor. we're here at midday talking about what's going to happen in greece. >> i know there's a groundhog day to all of this. simon had a good point. there is a sense that we are moving towards some kind of danumont. a lot of traders feel that merkel, angela merkel, the chancellor of germany, is getting more comfortable with the possibility of a greek default. look how tough she's been. digging in her heels. no money unless we get a clear deal on the austerity plan. all the leadership has to sign off on it. last week she floated a trial balloon about having the eu take over the greek budget

investment grade corporate supply, i thank thompson reuters ifr for this information., some fun things going on. on the week, approximately 26 billion. month to date, about 47 billion, year to date, 127 billion. why is all this important? here we are what the 10th day of february at 47, a record february from '09, 72 billion, we're on pace to test that. it's also something people have talked about that hasn't happened, maybe not happened for a while but think about all the governments and debt, could there be a tipping point? could this be the catalyst maybe. my last point on housing, i'll keep it short. i have real issues with yesterday's bailout because some entities involved like allied financial, which has gone under other names, owes the government a lot of billions of dollars. are they really paying to recycle the tax dollars? let's talk about something else. everybody wants to protect those and not let housing seek its true bottom has many pointed out might be the best medicine but think about young people, think about the military. you know, are we stealing opp

a great annual list at thompson reuters points out if you look at what happens late day, moves up higherver the last several weeks, he believes that it's been the fact that short interest, hedge funds out there are probably the most net long that they've been, so this late day in the tape, do you buy into that thesis? >> the two situations you talked about is generally considered bearish for the market. market has been looking tired for the last several days. that's certainly true. we talked yesterday about apple, about the euro, about material stocks, about home building stocks and about the transports. all not having a lot of energy. the fact that apple traded four times normal volume as it was moving down indicates -- >> just for the record, as i said it yesterday, apple -- the correlations between the overall market and apple, i don't buy it. apple is -- it's irrelevant. if you look at the correlation with copper and where copper should be trading right now given the levels in the s&p, copper should be north of 4 ths and it's not. and that tells a lot of people to look at the industr