hostages and freeing jessica buchanan and poul thisted. emergency officials are looking in a brazil collapsed building. they don't know why the adjacent high rises crumbled. one person heard a cracking sound before they fell. french police tell cnn they've arrested the founder of the breast implant company. our affiliate france 2 tv said this man was arrested around the same time. p.i.p. became the focus of an international health scare over the implants. those are the top stories from cnn, the world's news leader. i'm zain verjee and "world business today" starts now. hello, and a very warm welcome to "world business today." we're in hong kong. >> i'm nina dos santos at cnn london. >> i'm john at the world economic forum in davos, switzerland. on the markets today they take the rough with the smooth as america's central bank holds steady on interest rates. this signals a long road towards recovery. >> in europe angelo merkel says there's only so much germany can do to save the single currency. >> and online sharing isn't always caring for the google users upset about that company's courtesy policies. start on tuesday barack obama pro krams that america it seemed was on amend but on wednesday, the federal reserve, the company's central bank, claimed that it was all but not on amend. the u.s. central bank vowed to keep the interest rates the same through 2014. for the first time it set a cause for the inflation market at 2%. that's good news poor borrowers. the feds long-term plan is unusual but chairman ben bernanke says that it's a move designed to avoid destabilizing surprises. he says that while unemployment should continue to fall, wide economic growth will be slower than expected. >> stronger economic recovery, to help ensure that inflation over time is at levels consistent with our statutory mandate, the committee will keep the same highly accommodatetive stance. we continued to keep it at 0 to .25%. we think it will warrant exepgsly low levels for the federal funds late until at least 2014. ben bernanke three. let's get more detail. the feds message appears to be slowly but surely. while there's still no word on a new round of kwaun at thattive easing or qe 3, he's keeping all options open to ensure that he doesn't have to lower the costs yet again. let's just have a look at how things are looking right now. the imf rec cons the u.s. economy grew by 1.8% in 2011. we'll get a better idea when the figures are released on friday. the fed predicts this growth will rise gradually to as high as 2.7% this year and 3.2% next year and 4% then in 2014. the problem, though, is that the central bank doesn't think even this constitutes a full recovery. and there's another catch. that's the fed's tactics don't actually tackle in the current economic climate many individuals and businesses simply can't get loans. there's not enough money to go around. rates have limited meaning anyway. nina? >> bernanke's opening statement was enough to send the markets into positive territory. some traders sounded a familiar note of caution here. >> we'll run either way with the story, right, and say it's great. the fed is going to be there. on the other hand, you're going to say things aren't as good as the way the fed says. it opens the door for the fed to help stimulate the economy more. that's the overriding factor. we've rallied 100 points. we were down 50, we're up 60. the market likes that. do i necessarily agree with it? it's another manufactured rally. it's frustrating and confusing for investors. the truth; it's confusing for the market. let's take a look at how those markets are fairing in light of what that trader was saying. while it's confusing, and it's also very difficult, you've go to remember, to figure out how to play a market when you know that interest rates are going to be steady at the historic lows for another three years to come or two years according to ben bernanke's statement. as you can see, these markets mainly positive taking the cues from the rallies that we saw on wall street but these gains aren't particularly substantial. these three markets, with the exception of switzerland, they're only up four-tenths of 1%. the debt crisis has engulfed europe so long is still lingering in investors' minds as that impulse hasn't been broken from private creditors to greece and the government. we had angela merkel making the opening comments at the world economic forum on wednesday, and she pleaded with the markets to give them the space to tackle the problems at hand. in light of those markets let's talk about another debt auction we have on the cards today. often these debt auctions are a barometer of how things are going. italy will be doing the same later. >> wow, nina. angelo merkel having to plead. things are not looking good. so far as the markets go in asia, things were looking good much earlier in the session. they turned mix. the hang seng doing fairly well. this pickup here in asia has been off the back of what we saw in the u.s. that decision on keeping those interest rates low right through the next couple of years. some of these markets were still shut for the beginning of the year. it was australia day. india is closed for public holiday. hong kong doing well. trading resuming here. closing high. now there's this optimism around about the fed's projection of these interest rates. there are also some major market movers to speak of in asia. a bounce in property stocks following the fed's announcement on interest rates so closely linked. tepco is up. we all know the problems that tepco has been having at that plant, the nuclear plant over in japan. >> the annual world economic forum is currently well underway. the topic on everybody's lips is the european debt crisis. that's a problem that still remains unresolved from the last time that the world's leaders and business chiefs gathered in davos, switzerland, a year ago. at the heart of that crisis is, of course, greece. overall the mood appears to be one of doom and gloom, but germany is still being seen by many as a leading light. angelo merkel attempted to lead the charge. on wednesday, the day after the international monetary fund, decided to lower its outlook for the global economy, she opened the proceedings with a warning that the block's richest member would not be making any promises that it says it couldn't be keeping. >> reporter: angela merkel told europe to stop diluting itself. it said reducing debt levels is the only way to maintain credibility. >> translator: the real message of the f diluting this and this is obvious because otherwi we'll lose credibility. >> reporter: channels lor merkel said although germany is ready and able to help, it won't res r risk everything to deliver against that promise. >> the trouble is the longer the problem persists, the more everyone suffers. we spoke to steven king, a chief economist, who had a warning for the channels lor. >> they want to be faced withholding a bill for bailing out the eurozone. if it's not sorted out, then germany's economy will suffer. time is running out because ultimately if spain, portugal, italy, etc. will really suffer. >> reporter: were you surprised that angela merkel actually said that germany couldn't make promises that she couldn't keep? there's a view she's not doing enough to start with, never mind going all the way? >> i think it's unlikely she's going to make a major announcement in davos. she has to be answerable to germany not necessarily the international community. what i think is important is if you have a problem coming through southern europe, it will spread through northern europe. germany thinks it's immune without having change during the course of the year. >> reporter: once again, steven king with richard quest. much of the talk here is about the future of the eurozone. one person said it's much to do with not very much. may not be the general consensus in davos. a breakup of the eurozone is the single most overrated happening in 2012. i'm joined by our rash sha's president in davos. let's cover the concept of why everybody here in davos is so worried about the eurozone. could you have greece default with you not fall out of the euro? isn't that still the likely probability? >> i think that's very clear, but there's been the sense and a lot of ceos have been saying on the sideline the euro will fall apart. we can't make the kind of bets with all this money that we have sitting around because the worst case scenario in europe could transpire. i think that's a massively overstated risk. politically there's no mechanism for it and no one supports it either in the periphery or in the core never mind all the masses of european bureaucrats. they are going to maintain a commitment to the core of consolidated economy. >> it's interesting because merkel tried to strike two audiences last night speaking to the ceos we can build confidence and credibility. also speaking to germans saying, look, we have to deal with unemployment and we can't spend all of our savings trying to rescue the euro. that's hard to strike a balance. >> first of all the germans are showing they are willing to compromise however incrementally on some core issues. the willingness to support fiscal union sounds great as a headline term but the reality is they're going to accept much less stripping. the actual fiscal union agreement is going to look a lot softer when everyone's gone through it than what the germans have originally talked about. they've been willing to support the european central bank to buy up a lot of paper. the private sectors haven't been willing to. they haven't made a big story about it, but it's been happening. i'm starting to hear some cautious i wouldn't call it optimism, but an understanding that the worst isn't going to happen on europe. i'm absolutely hearing it here. i'm hearing it after merkel's speech, a bunch of serious european players that understand this is not a disaster. >> reporter: before we let you go we want to know if the rest of the world can grow with the eurozone crisis taking place. decoupling or not from the emerging markets in the developed world. are they still shackled in your view? are they tied to western europe because it's such a large market and the united states or have they broken free, can drive global growth in the future? >> they're in the process of breaking free. they want to break free but if you look at what chinese growth is still all about, the state has had to step in. it's not undermently rebalanced. so the kinds of things they have to do to grow because of european weakness and even american softness is unsustainable. so in that regard they're still very much shack zblld bremer goes with shackled. >> proven. >> we saw his growth come down. that's ian bremer. we'll take a short break and come back and focus on russia and its view of the euro crisis. certainly is a frightening crime. after all, bank robbers stole $43 million in one year. but identity thieves? try 37 billion! and guess how identity thieves are getting some of that money. by taking over our bank accounts. they may not even need your social security number anymore. all an identity thief may need are a couple of simple pieces of information, like your mother's maiden name or the city you were born in, and they could add their name onto your bank accounts in order to make your money their money. you need help. 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can you walk away, fly back to moscow, and say i think the worst is over? do you report back to the president and say i'm not sure. >> let me start with your figures. we ended up, russian economy, last year with a growth of 4.2% which is not bad. we ended up with the lowest inflation ever in my country of 6%. the lowest gdp around 10%. our economy looks pretty good. we definitely are tied to the eurozone because europe is our main partner in two perspectives, both trade and investment. as far as our full costs are concerned, i can't be too optimistic as i wish to be. >> what are you saying for 2012? i know the imf had concern about a downgrade. >> our forecast was 3.7%. imf came out with 3.3%. this kind of difference doesn't make much sense. >> the other thing i wanted to talk to you about, how much foreign direct investment is being withheld because i know you don't have clarity of putin 2.0. also the protests that we saw at the end of the year, people woke up and said i didn't realize it. it almost seems like arab spring ii. how would you explain what we see on the ground? >> in russia it's a completely different story. it's the active middle class which has grown greatly. no one predicted that growth. we now have almost 30% of people which are middle class. >> they're not happy though, you know this? >> they are not happy. >> educated population. >> absolutely. >> what's the problem? what's the disconnect here? >> the problem is that we grow too fast. we grow too fast in economy, democracy. we learn. what is going now, our political system is getting more mature, you know. that's what's going on. just to remind you, comparing to the soviet union 20 years ago, it's a completely different country with almost 0 fdi ratio. now we have you know almost 300 million of fdi. coming up with the figures again, even taking into account this political situation, the fourth quarter shows the growth of fdi of 20% and we ended out this year of 52 billion of fdi which makes us in top seven countries, i believe, if we take the award. >> that's part of the builtout going on here because of the world cup that's going to be taking place. i want you to weigh in if you can come over here. we had this discussion whether the emerging markets, you're one of the largest emerging markets and growing right now, lower than expected. you admit you're linked to the eurozone. do you still feel you're overly tied to the developed world, g-7 economies or has russian broken free and can trade with china, africa? >> russia's position for centuries has been that we trade with everybody, but of course i believe that every country now is linked to the situation in the united states because it's the main importer of everything in the economy, to the eurozone because it's a very large economy. i would say that we are all tied to all countries. >> globalization has made you still shackled is what you're suggesting here. >> just to remind you, 2 trillion dollar u.s. economy. number 6 based on purchase parity. >> when would you say you're broken free? another 10 years you won't be as dependent on the united states and europe? >> let's see. >> by then you should be prime minister. we're going to take a short break. we'll be up with more here from "world business today" in davos. thanks. a little bird told me about a band... ♪ an old man shared some fish stories... ♪ oooh, my turn. ♪ she was in paris, but we talked for hours... everyone else buzzed about the band. there's a wireless mind inside all of us. so, where to next? ♪ when i got my medicare card, i realized i needed an aarp... medicare supplement insurance card, too. medicare is one of the great things about turning 65, but it doesn't cover everything. in fact, it only pays up to 80% of your part b expenses. if you're already on or eligible for medicare, call now to find out how an aarp... we'll be up with more here from welcome back to "world business today." we're live here on cnn. >> it's been quite a week of wild weather for australia with a tropical cyclone, monsoon rains and major flooding occurring there. let's go over to the international weather center to explain all. >> good morning to you, nina. it's interesting because all of this culminating now on australia day being today across this part of the world. we know back in 1788 on this date across sydney cove when the first landing fleet was made. line of storms. one of the prominent features right there on the corner of your screen off the northwest coast of australia. that's the next tropical see clone in line. this is the time of year you begin to see these storms. tropical cyclone iggy going to approach this weekend. winds close in on 160 kilometers. this is a prominent tourist destination, exmouth. up to 6,000 people could visit this destination at any time. a lot of precautions being made as that system begins to approach the region. as nina was just telling you, more moisture exiting on to portions of carpentiera. heavy winds, power outages, all associated with this storm system over the next 24 to 48 hours. quickly i want to take you out into europe. good start here to thursday morning if you're a fan of a few rum bls of a few storms. again, on and off showers. the main concern with this going to be gusty conditions. and if you've got travel plans out of dublin, going to see moderate delays. amsterdam will see a few problems with upwards of an hour delay. all the way out to the southeastern portion of europe we do have yet another storm system. heavy snowfall in turkey, ukraine. we know delays around sofie are going to be 2 plus hours the expected delays on thursday with the storm system exiting the region. >> thank you. good to see you as always. >> we just want to update you on a story out of brazil. at least four people are injured after two buildings collapsed in a busy commercial and financial area of rio. we're told that 11 people are missing. it's not clear what caused the two buildings to colla