19/11/2012 World Business Report

at a security barrier in Karachi. Those are the headlines. Now it is

time for World Business Report. Thank you for joining us.

Scandinavian airline SAS sides to avoid bankruptcy. Intense

negotiations continue. Name morning flights are cancelled. Another

crucial week for Greece as eurozone ministers try to resolve a row with

the IMF over how to contain the debt crisis. And I am Rico Hizon in

Singapore. Barack Obama visits one of the few economic bright spots in

the world. He wants to strengthen business and trade relations. We

start with news about the Scandinavian airline SAS. It is

fighting to prevent bankruptcy. Negotiations were expected to end

around midnight. They are continuing. Bower one union has

signed a new agreement. The company and wants to cut its employees. It

was to cut salaries by 15 % for flying staff and 17 % for

management. The staff will receive longer working hours if they agree

to the demands. Many SAS flights had been cancelled this morning. We

will bring you up to date with the latest developments as they

happened. If you are travelling throughout Europe, check with the

airline. Greece has gone through many make-or-break weeks. This is

the latest. The country is hanging on without its next injection of

bailout cash. At a meeting to raise more support, an IMF meeting has

begun to overshadow the issues. -- IMF disagreement. The public health

system is close to collapse. Patients are returning to charities

for essential health care while the country tries to stay afloat on

temporary loans raised by the state debt be easy. TRANSLATION: We are

at the end of the precipice in Greece. No surprise, no money.

Hospital funding is reduced. As a result, basics applies are always

missing. The Finance Minister appealed for

bailout cash. He was battling a faulty microphone when he described

the predicament. A country has no liquidity. We must at last have a

decision for the next instalment. vote for the disbursement was

promised for Tuesday this week. Lenders may only be ready to close

the gap for a temporary two years. Christine Lagarde regards this as a

real fix. It would involve the Government writing off some of the

debt to them. What will emerge? most likely scenario is that over

the coming days, they will be some sort of partial agreement. That

will avoid bankruptcy but have a high debt burden. They will have to

default at some point. For those waiting for medicine and essential

care, even two years more financial support will not come a moment too

soon. As we have been hearing, Barack Obama is the first sitting

US President to come to Burma. Let's get more. A low. Let's talk

about what Barack Obama will be expecting in terms of business

deals. South-east Asia is one of the

world's few economic bright spots. Barack Obama is visiting this

economic bloc to try to strengthen business and trade relations. He

will visit Burma, Cambodia and Thailand. He wants to work on

emerging markets. This is high on his priority list. It is a market

of 600 million people. A GDP of more than two trillion dollars. The

US's pushing this partnership. Thailand is America's third biggest

trading partner behind Thailand and Japan. It is becoming the 12th

country to join the initiative. Barack Obama is pushing this. The

region is relying more on trade with China. 150 billion US dollars

worth of goods were exported last year. That is a 30 % increase and

2010. Imports grew by 30 %. They want to counteract the strength of

China in this region. The US may benefit from the regional bloc. The

Chinese will be torn by geopolitical disputes and the

desire to force deeper integration of South Korea and Japan as a

counterweight to any US trans- Pacific partnership. Thank you for

the upbeat. Moving on to something different,

we talk about the machines. The new Nintendo Wii has gone on sale. It

is the first in the next generation This model is much more complex

than the original. Will consumers buy it? If they do not come off

where does that leave Nintendo? Thank you for joining us. What are

your thoughts on are the new Nintendo Wii. --? Is it

complicated? A lot to get your head around. Nintendo at the forefront

of innovation again. It tends to move the market along when it

brings out a new console. They will use a touch-screen game pad to

control what goes on on the screen. Consumers will get their head round

game pad and the television. It could confuse people. Is it going

gaining from the age five to the age of 95. This is set to continue

that but they are trying to bring This is a game you can play after

the kids have gone to bed. Hardcore shooting based games. That put the

thing. They are trying to appeal to everybody. A lot of the launch

titles, it looks like they will try to carry on the huge fan base of

people to what used to dealing with the Nintendo Wii. How important is

it for them to get this right? They face huge competition. This is a

different market this time. Last time it was just about games. This

time they are competing with lots of on-line systems were people can

organise content through the device. Nintendo made a loss last year.

This does not define their future existence but it defines what shape

it will take. Thank you for that. Other stories making headlines.

Cisco Systems, the largest maker of networking gear, is buying Meraki

for $1.2 billion. That is to allow customers to compete in the cloud.

Meraki is based in San Francisco and has offices in New York, London

and Mexico. The company was founded in 2006 by students. Jaguar Land

Rover and Chery, the British and Chinese car makers, formally laid

the storm for their new partnership. The companies will accelerate plans

to build a joint manufacturing plant in Shanghai. It is part of

for investment that will include a new research and development

facility and engine production. On the markets, trading is

continuing throughout Asia. A better performance for the main

Japanese stock market, the Nikkei. It is up by 1.5 %. It is held by

the US on Friday. Barack Obama had been having talks with

congressional leaders surrounding the budget deficits. There was a