wayne swan has joined the fray of partisan commenters on u.s. politics saying the greatest threat to the global economy are the, quote, cranks and crazies that have taken over a part of the republican party in the u.s. we asked about this earlier on the 3r578. one viewer tweets in to say the problem isn't cranks and crazies, it's everyone's inability to get along. so with a do you think abohat d? you can e-mail us of course here on world wild exchange. and you can also tweet us, cnbc wex. >> and meanwhile if you're a blackberry user, you have more problems. vodaphone says customers in three regions have problems accessing internet or e-mail. so another major outage on this side of the world. europe, italy and africa, as well. r.i.m. stock yesterday down 4%. and they didn't need an outage like this of course on the same day that we have the launch of the iphone 5. >> apple's latest smartphone has already gone on sale across asia. crowds outside the store in sydney stretched around the block. and even steve wozniak had to wait in line to buy his i

in a conference speech in sydney on friday, australian treasurer wayne swan cited certain segments of the republican party as a leading threat to the world's economy and rebuked them in stark terms. >> let's be blunt and acknowledge the biggest threat to the world's biggest economy, the crazies that have taken over our part of the republican party. despite president obama is a good will and strong efforts, the national interest there was held hostage by the rise of the extreme to party of the republican party. there could be few things alarming the public policy than a political movement which was genuinely prepared to see the government of the united states default on its obligations in order to score a political point. >> and the canadian province of quebec, the new government has canceled a tuition hike that sparked mass protests earlier this year. the new quebec premier fulfilled a campaign promise less than 24 hours after the new government came to power by repealing the fee hike. students had launched a massive strike over the increase with hundreds of thousands taking to the st

wayne swan and his team have their work cut out for them as the government strives to deliver by 2013. mr. swan saying the recent economic headwinds and falling commodity prices eroded tax revenues and new savings measures will be needed if the promised surplus is to be achieved. >> as i've said on a number of occasions because of factors like the high australian dollar, a cautious consumer, subdued prices and investment boom, we don't expect taxes to return to pre-crisis levels over the forward estimates and we can see that in the numbers yet again today. >> the government's broadcasting the $1.5 billion surplus will fiscal year and we'll get another update on just how the budget is progressing when we get the media update in november. back over to you. >> matthew taylor with that. staying on australia in just a minute, rio tinto says it expects to cut coal jobs, retrenching in the face of increasing costs, lower coal prices and the company shares this morning down almost 2%. rio tinto just the latest big miner affected by the collapse in prices we've seen since earlier this year to

back in the tournament this season on the rebuilding my swan told me while the victims will also be remembered by canadian legends such as wayne gretzky and mark messier who arrived in russia to distort matches on friday their team will face former soviet greats morris level on wednesday a match will take place isn't petersburg to commemorate the famous summit series the two nations showdown was first held forty years ago and the canadian superstars are happy to reenact those battles. were just really excited and thrilled to be here and a chance to see all the great players that were part of knowing canada's team but the russian team also in the hospitality your has been tremendous and we've got a wonderful time thank you for the invitation coming over here and seeing everybody again sharing his experiences and this is really. a dream come true in many ways. tennis now in french open champion maria sharapova is looking to reach her third grand slam semifinal of the year she takes on marion bartoli at the u.s. open. all four previous matches against the french eleventh seed and a fifth victory would see the world number three f