he was dubbed osama bin laden's right-hand man in europe and had been in jail since 2005. the european court on human rights stopped britain from deporting him to his native jordan because of concerns he would be tortured. a british judge says unless the government manages to deport him in the next three months, the bail conditions may be lifted. whitney houston's body has been flown to new jersey on a private jet for a funeral service later this week. a gold hearst believed to be carrying her body left teterboro airport amid type security. police say she was found under water in her hotel room on saturday. there were prescription drug bottles found in the room but no evidence of foul play. those are the headlines. i'm monita rajpal. "world business today" starts right now. good morning, from cnn london, i'm nina dos santos. welcome to "world business today." these are the top stories on tuesday, february 14th. china's status as an economic power house is front and center this tuesday. the high-level talks talking place on two continents. ratings agency moody's fires a warning shot across the bows of six eu countries as it downgrades their credit rating and signals it could cut more. the second time around, the u.s. president lays his budget out, half of which may seem familiar. full details later on in the show. first up, there's no question on where china's priorities lie this week. it's all about the global economy. china is packing in a series of key meetings on opposite sides across the globe. first up in the united states, the country's vice president, likely next leader, xi jinping is in washington as we speak. he will be meeting with the u.s. president barack obama later at the white house and on tuesday to discuss ties between the world's two biggest economies. in the meantime, back home in china, well, we've got the beijing summit kicking off earlier on today. the chinese premiere wen jiabao and also the president hu jintao hosting high-level talks with leaders from across the european union such as france's barroso. the chinese officials are expected to reiterate the country's support for the eurozone while playing down concerns it may try to buy out or deep control the entire euro block. barroso is expected to address the summit in the next few minutes time. let's go to eunice yoon who is following all these developments. she joins us live from beijing. eunice, what do these talks focus on? >> reporter: the talks have been mainly focusing on the economy. one of the big questions here has been how china could really contribute and support the eurozone, ever since the chinese premier wen jiabao made a couple of comments during the visit of angela merkel to china. he said china was considering a way of contributing to the rescue funds of the eu. of course there weren't any details athe that time and there are still no details of what that potential investment could possibly be. a lot of people say china has reason to help out the europeans because china and europe have a very close trade relationship, also china with its trillions and trillions of dollars in currency reserves does have the financial flexibility and the financial firepower to help. in one of the conditions and one of the concerns here among the chinese have been that europe really needs to be able to handle its own crisis on its own. it was interesting this week because in the runup to this visit, the eu president spoke to the chinese press, was really laying the ground work for the european message, saying that the european members have been doing what they can to resolve this debt crisis on their own. nina? >> eunice, yes, the currency reserves is one excellent argument. already china started diversifying away from the u.s. dollar and investing in some of its money in euros a while ago. there's a lot of concerns about china potentially controlling the eurozone if it does help out. what's likely to be the outcome of these talks? any talk about that? >> well, there has been some talk about that, in fact there was another chinese paper which does try to deflect some of the concern about the chinese coming in and controlling europe per se. but in terms of the outcome of this, of this discussion, it's very difficult to say what the outcome would be. however, there were recent comments from the head of the chinese sovereign wealth fund that did seem to shed some light. the chairman of the cic, which is the china investment corporation, which manages about $400 billion, was at a forum recently and said that these types of investments would be very difficult for long-term investors to get into. he said that angela merkel had approached the sovereign wealth fund as well as other long-term investors suggesting they should buy in to european government bonds. he said that wasn't necessarily a good investment for them. there was also another central bank adviser who was at that same forum who also said that china wants to make sure that they invest according to their own proper principles and also they said that they want to make good returns. obviously there are concerns about investing in european government bonds, however, the cic didn't rule out investment altogether. the chairman had said that some chinese money should flow into industrial and real assets in europe. so that could be one way we could see the chinese invest in europe and help out. >> okay. eunice yoon, joining us live from china where the talks are taking place. many thanks for that. let's have a look at how the european stock markets are faring in today's session. we have a lower open,pairing some of the gains on yesterday's euphoric action. we have moody's decision to downgrade six eu countries. more on that shortly. there are also a number of big members affected, effectively earmarked for a downgrade. we're talking about this one, the uk's markets as well and also france. these two countries potentially have their credit ratings earmarked for another downgrade has not played out well in the markets. both are down by 0.25%. specifically in you hone in on the uk, another thing we're watching out for here in the next 20 minutes or so, uk inflation figures. it's expected the inflation across the uk, which has been one of the main bug bears of the central bank may come down for a second straight quarter to around about 3.6%. last quarter it showed a sign of declining to about 4.2%. that could be something that the markets are focusing on when it comes to france. one of the main concerns is exposure to sovereign debt, not not just greece but potentially france given what moody's said. news of the moody's downgrade weighed heavily on the stock market in asia. in particular, the bank of japan announcing fresh easing measures. that as you can see here, gave the boost to the nikkei ending day up to the tune of 0.6%. energy and resource stocks across the region is one of the reasons we saw the sydney asx 200 not being hit quite as hard. that one ending down 1.2%. in japan, olympus did manage to recover some ground. it managed to close up to the tune of about 2%, one of the reasons the markets in japan did slightly better than the rest. the shanghai and the hang seng going in opposite directions with the shanghai composite down by 0.3%. well, in the united states, the three leading indices all ended the trading day higher on monday. investors were relieved by greece's adoption of austerity measures demanded by the eu. the dow and the s&p 500 each closed up more than 0.5%. when it comes to the nasdaq for its part it was slightly higher, closing almost 1% higher for its part. industrial stocks were some of the biggest gainers on monday's session. the day's standout stock was apple. apple stock broke through the crucial $500 level for the first time ever to close up about 2% and a price of $502.60 in total. just six months ago, let's remind you, apple share price was $100 lower than it is today. later today, the man who's likely to be china's next leader, xi jinping, will be meeting with the u.s. president barack obama at the white house. that meeting comes as the united states overhauls its foreign policy posture as well. cnn's white house correspondent brianna keilar has more. >> reporter: it's vice president joe biden who is formally hosting vice president xi of china here in washington. president obama and a number of senior administration officials will also meet with the incoming chairman of the chinese communist party and the president's interactions with xi are seen as key since he will be in power for years to come and this meeting could set the tone. it also comes at a time when president obama has tried to shift the focus of u.s. foreign policy from the middle east to asia. >> he has sought to rebalance our focus and our national security approach as well as our economic approach. international economic approach to reflect the important role that the region is playing economically. and the important role that our relations with china and with countries all around the region will play in the 21st century. >> reporter: xi's visit here to washington does not come without controversy. there were protests at the white house monday, also at the chinese embassy here in washington. and not far from the white house, at a bridge over the potomac river, some protesters were arrested, a few of them after repelling down the bridge to hang a banner. these protests in favor of tibetan independence and specifically protesting the recent clampdown by china in tibet. and there are more protests planned for tuesday, the day that xi will visit the white house. brianna keilar, cnn, the white house. coming up next on "world business today," we'll be going live to beijing where european leaders are meeting with the chinese government in an attempt to ease the eu's ongoing debt crisis. and risky business. moody's downgrades the credit ratings of six countries. we'll tell you who was targeted, next. @ [ male announcer ] what if you had thermal night-vision goggles, like in a special ops mission? you'd spot movement, gather intelligence with minimal collateral damage. but rather than neutralizing enemies in their sleep, you'd be targeting stocks to trade. well, that's what trade architect's heat maps do. they make you a trading assassin. trade architect. td ameritrade's empowering, web-based trading platform. trade commission-free for 60 days, and we'll throw in up to $600 when you open an account. can you get me out of it? of course. travelocity? that's amazing! but i'm still stuck. come on man, dig it! [ female announcer ] travelocity. get great deals on all kinds of beach vacations. we're taking you out to beijing where we have the chinese premier wen jiabao, as you can see, addressing an eu/china summit. we have the executive arm of the european union, josie manuel barroso there as well as v. the china-eu summit is currently under way in beijing. welcome back. you're watching "world business today" live on cnn. the european stock markets have had sobering news to digest. moody's cut its ratings on no fewer than six eu countries on monday. let's take a look at exactly which ones those entail. they include all sorts of pretty big name, for instance, italy, portugal, spain, malta, slovakia and slovenia towards the east. in particular when it comes to portugal over here, it's now rated ba-2 which means it goes even deeper into junk territory. we also saw changes for the outlook of really significant aaa credit rated countries. in particular these ones, as you can see highlighted in yellow on the chart behind me. moody's put these countries on credit watch negative, which means it effectively earmarks them for a downgrade doing forward, they include the likes of austria toward the east, france and the united kingdom. in particular, france and the uk saw their ratings -- they saw the ratings agency cut its outlook on the aaa credit ratings change from negative. moody's says this risk is largely because things are getting worse in the eurozone crisis and that represents a significant risk to growth for these countries. now, let's move along and talk about greece, because greece actually managed to escape another credit rating downgrade but the country's government is still on damage control immediate this very tuesday. this is after the aftermath of angry protests we saw over the course of the weekend in athens. tens of thousands of people clashed with people earlier on monday as anger over the austerity deal spilled out on to the streets of the greek capital. more than 100 policemen and dozens of civilians were injured as a result of those riots. greece is still a long way from securing all of the funding that it needs. its austerity plan must win approval of the eurozone finance minister's meeting which is slated for wednesday. but a final decision on any bailout money is unlikely to be made until at least march. that's because it has to come after the german parliament debates the new austerity measures put forward by this country. the former greek finance minister pis the man who took greece into the euro. richard quest asked him about his tough times ahead for his country. >> they pay the price for past failures, mr. quest. this is a simple question. the point is not to look back at history. the point is to look forward. only way to look forward is for us to work all of us to get the economy started again. and for this we need a productive economy, more confidence and we need more help from europe. not in terms of the liquidity but in terms of investments. europe definitely and desperately needs, south europe, italy, spain, must sustain economic activity and improve infrastructure. this is the real help the germans and others can give. >> he brought greece into the euro, he was speaking to richard quest yesterday evening. critics of spending cuts and austerity say such measures are making greece's troubles worse by strangling its own economic growth. instead of a seemingly endless spending squeeze, what they want to see instead is growth-led policies. emily reuben has more. >> these measures don't encourage the greek economy to go to recovery and growth. >> reporter: it's the only word to bring hope to the beleaguered nation of the eurozone, growth. how cancuns like greece, ireland, bailed out by the international community and still burdenened by huge deficits really achieve it? last month the world bank, the i many. f, the world trade organization called on european governments to stimulate growth. their appeal lacked precise suggestions. it said momentum could be regained by increasing spending on infrastructure. labor market reforms can both raise employment levels and ease fiscal adjustment. one solution, according to a broker is for countries to cut minimum wage. it's one measure greece agreed to this weekend. >> you can do policies at minimal cost. things like slashing the minimum wage, reducing regulation and bureaucracy, things like that. that's the standards or the measures you see in eastern european imf packages in the beginning of the crisis in 2008-2009. whereas they're only really coming up in greece a year or two years into it. >> reporter: changing tax regimes can also promote growth. in 2008, hungary cut labor taxes for corporations but hiked profit tax. keeping the tax burden the same but promoting employment growth. some say slashing wages can hurt consumption and, therefore, growth. and the irish government has opted for encouraging investment. it says it started upping r & d tax credit for attracting multinationals and bringing in jobs. into its own report into the global economy, the world bank urges countries to identify new drivers of growth. the question is where will they come from and will they come in time? emily reuben, cnn, london. just ahead here on "world business today," a surprise move by the bank of japan to fight deflation and counter the strong yen. we'll tell you everything you need to know about that. and barack obama's budget is out. we'll tell you why the u.s. president is limbering up for a fight over taxes. that's coming up next here on cnn. you're watching "world business today" live on cnn. welcome back. japan's central bank surprised and shocked many currency traders with a new multibillion dollar pledge monetary easing. the latest flood of funds is aimed at japan's chronic deflation and a super strong yen that's hurt exporters bottom line. ramy inocencio has more on the boj's interesting move. good morning. >> reporter: today's move by the bank of japan was unexpected but it ended up being a very welcome jolt. stock investors and currency traders reacting well. what are the details here in the bank of japan said it's going to add another $130 billion to its asset program and this latest amount here is going to be used to buy long-term government bonds. that means the entire program will have a war chest of more than $830 billion. in addition, the boj said it would fix consumer inflation at 1% for the time being. and that adds, of course, a sense of stability to the markets and echos what the u.s. federal reserve did last month and that it when it announced it would target a 2% inflation rate. the interest rate, the boj is keeping that between 0% and 1%. the yen weakened as much as 0.6% to hit an intraday low of this, of more than 78 yen to the dollar. a weaker yen, of course, is better for japan's exporters. it's trading at 79.72 to the dollar. as for the nikkei, it reversed out of the morning's red. it had originally opened down. that was after ratings agency moody's cut its credit rating on spain, ireland as well as portugal but the boj investment -- excuse me, announcement, changed all that. you con see when the announcement came at 1:00 p.m. local time. the index finished up more than 0.5%. it turned out to be the biggest gain on the down day of trading in the asia-pacific. nina? >> it does indeed. ramy inocencio, thanks for that. asia business analyst in hong kong. what better wa i -- way to spend valentine's day than with your trading partners in china's case? stay with us here on cnn. welcome back to the show. i'm nina dos santos in cnn london. let's take another look at how the european stock markets are faring. we're about 90 minutes into the trading session today. as you can see here, we are seeing a sea of red. this is largely thanks to moody's decision to downgrade six european countries and put another enormously important countries outside the eurozone and inside the eurozone like the uk, france and austria on credit watch negative which means they could be earmarking them for a downgrade. that's got the likes of the too ftse 100 down by 0.3%, the dax down 0.1%, faring slightly better than the other european markets. the cac 40 being weighed down by the french sovereign rating as well. that market down by nearly 0.5%. britain's finance minister has given his reaction to moody's warning the uk may lose its aaa credit rating. george osbourne says it's another clear sign britain needs to deal with its debt problem. >> if we don't deal with our debts in britain, there will be no growth, no jobs, people won't invest in our country. britain has to confront its problems. that is the clear message from the rating agency today. and that is a reality check to the entire political system that britain cannot duck dealing with its debt problem. >> in the meantime, it was a mixed finish to the trading day in asia as investors reacted to those ratings downgrades in europe. but we had the nikkei closing higher on back of news of the new monetary easing measures taken by the bank of japan to control the strong yen, give some of the exporters there a bit of a boost. the nikkei ending the day up to the tune of 0.6%. hang seng putting on a modest gain, let's say. the shanghai composite down for the day, about 0.25