the honor murders took place in june 2009. they found that mohammed shafia killed three of his teenage daughters and his first wife. all three were sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole. bloody sunday in syria. 64 people were killed. heavy clashes were reported right outside the capitol, damascus. limited access to the country prevents cnn from independently verifying these reports. those are the headlines from cnn, the world's business leader. i'm zain verjee and show sh""wo business today"" begins right now. welcome to another week of wbt. i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. i'm nina dos santos in london. debt talks deja vu. european leaders try yet again to save greece and the single currency. ryanair dedefies forecasts. we take these jobs at the pleasure of the president. at a time when he faced so much challenge, so much pressure, if the president asks you to do this, you have to do them. treasury secretary timothy geithner talks exclusively about america's economy, the eurozone and laying the groundwork for growth. forgive us if you've heard this one before. eu leaders will gather in brussels this monday to secure the future of the eurozone, but there is going to be an elephant in the room, and that elephant is called greece. now we may be close to an agreement on writing down one lot of greek debt, but big questions remain over athens ability to repay its next bailout installment. the country's creditors are demanding that it live up to its promises on implementing straight austerity measures, but a german suggestion that greece needs supervision to put those measures into practice has created another rift. the appointment of an eu budget commissioner to oversee greece's plans would compromise national dignity. jim is the head of the treaty talks. let's deal with greece. are we any closer to get some sort of agreement that is going to once and for all draw the line on greece's debt problems? >> it certainly seemed over the weekend that we got very close, indeed, to an agreement. it wouldn't be a great surprise if today or tomorrow we were able to say that a preliminary agreement has been reached between greece and its private sector creditors. but that's only one tick in the box, andrew. that's only one step forward. that would be something the markets would be looking for. it would be a disaster if they didn't agree, but then we have to see the details of that agreement, then the people who will be arriving here in brussels today, the leaders of the european union, all 27, would then be discussing this and then deciding whether to sign off on that agreement depending on the details. as we know, the european commissioners did not like some of the talk last week about the interest rate on the 30 year bond that the creditors would be getting from greece. it's a bit detailed, but the devil is in the details. once that happens, then greece can have further negotiations with the imf, european central bank, and the eu about that second bailout. so we're a long way from greece getting that second bailout. we do have this deadline. we talk all of the time on the deadlines and they keep moving. the next one is march 20th. they have to pay back 14 million euros to bond holders. that's the deadline we're working toward. this summit is sort of an informal meeting today of eu leaders later this afternoon. we don't expect a lot of news coming from here but it's another step that the markets will be looking for from eu leaders here to give positive statements if they can about greece, andrew. >> yes. so much is sort of hoped for from these eu summits and very often there is disappointment, if not immediately then a couple of years later. the fiscal discipline pack, it's getting all eurozone leaders to agree on the way forward about the rules they have to deal with with their own internal finances to make sure the eurozone stays buoyant. is there likely to be any agreement on that issue today? >> reporter: there could be some further agreements, some further details ironed out. what we're looking for is the 17 countries that use the euro, possibly some others like poland and sweden, possibly denmark, certainly not the u.k., agreeing to things like putting a balanced budget into their law, so that would be the kind of thing a fiscal compact would be a pledge between these countries. some call it a treaty. i'm not sure that's the right word. a pledge for each of them to have similar rules so that they can be binding within those who use the euro. that's a long term solution but it's another positive solution. we shouldn't say that's a simple decision but it is something we'd be looking for here. >> jim, thanks very much for that. jim bowleden joining us live from brussels. he'll stay with that story to see how it does evolve. nina, i guess the markets, obviously they're watching to see what happens in brussels. there must be quite a lot of cynicism these days that the incremental steps never get us to where we need to be going. >> yeah. the numbers speak for themselves, don't they, an draw. take a look at this just behind me. right a krots board the stock markets down in the first couple of hours of trading. take a look at the cac 40. you hit the nail on the head, andrew, yourself, as did jim. what we're talking about here is a lot of pessimism over those eu talks and the greek debt fallout. we still haven't had that agreement even though the private creditors they're saying they'll agree. some of the banks, particularly the french banks that own large parts of greek sovereign debt are some of the worst performers dragging down these. there's the paris cac 40 and the frankfurt markets. they're down. phillips electronics. that company is now down after reporting a fourth quarter loss and a total of $1.7 billion during the year. that was the figure that came out. this kind of thing dragging the markets down. all the focus as you said, andrew, is firmly fixed on those greek debt talks and the talks between the ministers in brussels. >> yeah, that's very much the background music in the arab shane markets. this is how the asian day finished. start of a new trading week. all red arrows across the board. still very much concerns about what's going on in the eurozone and how long it will take to get some sort of binding and significant agreement. it's not just the eurozone. there's disappointment in hong kong and shanghai, they're the two markets sharply lower today acting on the same reason. disappointment over the failure of the beijing authorities to take soem sort of decisive move on easing of monetary policy. basically trying to kick start the economy. we had been expecting it after those worse than expected growth numbers we got a couple weeks ago. it hasn't happened. during the chinese new year break it might have happened. it didn't happen. financial talks not surprising. the worst performers here, not only on china but what's going on in europe. in japan moody's is warning about japan's decision to delay its fiscal target. the government has decided to push back public finance repairs until 2016. that has negative implications on japan's credit rating. cannon is posting a rise in operating profits, up 14%. it does forecast weekening expected growth for this year, 2012. one other stop to tell you, hon hai is up. it is a major production company of apple products. the reasons that hon hai is up is that investors are reacting to impressive earnings last week by apple. >> andrew, as you said before, asian stocks may have been on the slide. these stocks are up 2% right now and 12% so far this year. the european air carrier has raised its four year profit from 440 million euros to 480. that's roughly equivalent to some $630 million. ryanair says increased fairs have made up the profits. the airline's third quarter earnings also beat estimates coming in at nearly 15 million our rows or $20 million here. that compares to a loss of more than 10 million our rows in the same period last year. the ceo is joining us live from the london stock exchange. good to see, u. thank you for coming on "world business today." you must be happy with this set of earnings especially how they compare to last year's earnings. how are you managing to ride out the euros storm? as we've got these ministers converging on brussels for a summit, what would be your message to them? >> i think what we want is we need decisive action. europe is limping along. there's nobody really in charge so we need decisive action to stimulate european economy so we can get europe back working, get people back spending more money which would be good for business and for industry. >> now you have changed the way how you've done business. been quite flexible here. you've been reducing the number of planes that you're putting on the tarmacs during the winter months when traffic isn't quite as pronounced. has that helped you to weather the storm, so to speak. >> yes, it has helped significantly. this winter we're paying almost $90 a barrel. we've hedged our fuel nearly a year forward. we felt it would be better for the business not to fly some of our aircraft. we are much more of a seasonal airline than we were a number of years ago. it's paid dividends in terms of increasing profitability. >> having said that, the high fuel cost really is an issue not just for yourself but for all airlines and transportation industries across the board. are you going to be raising prices to contend with this oil price but many analysts say is going to stay high for some time to come? >> well, obviously fuel prices in the last quarter went up 18%. average fares rose by that. if we want to maintain profitability we have to pass on the fuel price increases in the form of higher average fares, however, our average fare in this fiscal year ending in march will be the same as 2007. >> i must ask you about new routes. will you be taking routes from span air's existing routes? >> we're very interested in some of the routes that span air operated. we competed on some of them. we think we partly helped them out of the industry ourselves. certainly we would see more opportunities in the spanish market with the demise of span air. >> thank you very much for joining us there. that's the deputy ceo and cfo of ryanair. >> interesting ties for the airlines in europe as they deal with a lack of demand there. just as ryanair is enjoying a boost. things not as cheery for the royal bank of scotland. this gentleman has turned down a bonus of $1.5 million but only after a storm of public criticism and before an em bare rays british vote. his bank was bailed out $70 billion in the crisis. it remains 83% owned by the british taxpayer. their bonus payments are not quite out of the spotlight yet. take a look at this. rbs is still planning to shell out this much in bonuses of its banking division where it's still laying off staff, by the way. it's going to spend $786 million. you can bet that that won't go down too well with the hard-pressed british public, nina. >> you can bet, indeed. you certainly couldn't avoid that particular story over the course of the newspapers this weekend, andrew. coming up on "world business today", cnn speaks exclusively with u.s. treasury secretary, tim geithner. he shares his thoughts on the outlook for the u.s. economy further ahead, and plenty more. we'll have that interview next. ♪ tonight ♪ we are young ♪ ♪ so let's set the world on fire ♪ ♪ we can burn brighter ♪ than the sun ♪ carry me [ male announcer ] the all-new chevy sonic. from your first time... to the time of your life. chevy runs deep. talks are over and now it's time for the so called great transformation to actually begin. transformation, of course, was the key thooem eme in davos, switzerland. tackling europe's debt crisis dominated the discussion. some of the key take aways from this conference this year are the need to forty phi the eurozone's bail out fund as well as the urgency between sealing a deal between greece and the bond holders and new measures to create more jobs. >> tim geithner was in davos and he spoke to our fareed zakaria and spoke about prospects for economic growth in the u.s. this year. >> there are no auricles in economics. it's still a pretty uncertain world, but i think the conventional view of the u.s. now is that we're greeg between 2 and 3% and i think that's a realistic outcome for the united states economy as long as we see a little more progress in europe and as long as we don't see a lot of risk dprom iran on the oil front. >> reporter: that scenario of 2 to 3% growth seems a little bit different from what ben bernanke thinks growth is going to look like. if you read the statement the fed put out it was a very bearish statement. to be willing to almost guarantee that rates will be kept where they are until the end of 2014 suggests they don't see any growth of any -- any robust growth for a long time. are they wrong at the fed? >> i'm not a forecastor. my view is not worth much. if you look at the fed's proer cast and the sense of the private forecasters, people are pretty closely clustered in that area. but it's still very dependent on how the world unfolds. again, i think it's worth recognizing that we still face tremendous challenges as a country. we're still repairing the damage caused by devastating financial crisis. that still has huge lasting impact on the base of fortunes of most americans. unemployment is still very high. housing is still very, very weak. construction is very weak. people still have too much debt. they're bringing that down. that's still going to take a while to repair. that crisis came on top of a decade, as you know, where we saw virtually no growth in median income. very high levels of poverty in this country. very high levels of inequality and an erosion in people's confidence in their mobility, their prospects over time. on top of that, of course, we face a more challenging world. just last year the combined effects of oil, japan, and the crisis in europe and the damage to the debt limit, those things were very damaging and they slowed things around the world when the world was still healing. we have a lot of challenges ahead in the united states and we're working very hard to try to lay the foundation for the political consensus that's going to make progress in those things possible. >> tim geithner there. now the u.s. treasury secretary recently announced that he will not serve another term even if the president obama is re-elected. he said there's still a long year of work left ahead. he wants to make as much progress as possible during the remainder of the obama term. >> up next, salvage crews wo working on a capsized ship have a lot of work ahead. welcome back. you're watching "world business today" live on cnn. the wrecked "costa concordia" is at the mercy of the weather this week. that means it makes it harder for salvage crews to try and get through the operation. ivan is at the cnn international weather center with more on what they're facing. >> good to see you. we've got problems here, two storms on the way. this is the time of year we can do this and get these progressive lows that move in. the big concern at this point, again, is churning seas. you don't want big seas out there. we've had interruptions there with the rescue operations or the recovery operations at this point, right? that is going to be a concern. watch the spin here. this is the first low we're going to be talking about. there will be a second one coming in. this one is already causing problems. i'll get to the specific forecast in terms of winds. here's the ship location right off the coast. the concern is that the seas will get strong enough where this thing can slip. it's already slipped several centimeters so far in the last few days where it can slip into a deeper sea bin. certainly don't want that. we'll be watching this closely as the crews that are attending to this. 30 to 50 kilometer winds. the winds potentially getting a little stronger as we head into the middle, latter part of the week with this second area low here. this is the same weather pattern that we had been tracking with the heavy snow across portions of western europe. for the concordia here it's going to be the seas that are going to be whipped up. look at the winds. these are going to be sustained winds. we could have some higher gusts, certainly expecting higher gusts, potentially upwards of 50 kilometers per hour. that will get the seas worked up here. a windy week which is exactly what we don't need. sure, the rain is going to be coming in, but if we had rain with less wind we would take that as opposed to what we're going to be getting here, nina, over the next three days at this point here. we're going to get a bit of a break through the next 48 hours and then we're going to get hit again by the time we get into the latter part of the week. we'll watch it for you closely again moving a few centimeters so far this week because of those seas that have been churned up by the winds. we'll watch it closely for you. we'll keep you posted. nina. >> certainly will. ivan, many thanks. this is just in to cnn. let's bring you breaking news. syria state news has been reporting that what it calls, quote, a terrorist group has blown up a gas pipeline near the country's border with lebanon. syria state news is reporting that, quote, a terrorist group has blown up a gas pipeline which is situated near the lebanese border. andrew? nina, still here on "world business today", talks to solve the great debt crisis continue in brussels but is greece willing to play by the eu's rules? that story is just ahead. 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? ♪ so, how much do we owe you? that'll be... $973.42. you know, your rates and fees aren't exactly competitive. who do you think i am, quicken loans? 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[ male announcer ] the epa estimated 42 mpg highway chevy cruze eco. from spending time together, to spending your lives together, chevy runs deep. from cnn hong kong, i'm andrew stevens. welcome back to wbt. in 50 days time greece needs to repay nearly $20 billion worth of debt, money that it currently doesn't have here. if athens is to avoid a disor r disorderly default, what it needs is of course another bailout. to get that bailout it must be playing by the eu's rules. that means ramping up austerity measures and proving more accountable for what this country actually spends. some european leaders meeting in brussels this very monday doubt whether greece can do that. investors it seems have similar concerns to the politicians. european uncertainty not with standing, this was already shaping up to be a major week in the markets. economic data from these regions and a hint from facebook show plechbty of movement here on the markets. let's get a gauge of what's going on so far and what we can expect for the next four days. sonya joins me. she's a market expert. give me an idea how the earnings season has gone so far. we've had all sorts of mixed messages. in the united states stellar earnings coming out and on the other hand today disappointing earnings coming out of p