17/01/2013 World Business Report

government. -- are demanding.

Now for the latest financial news, A very warm welcome. The headlines:

Boeing overtakes arch-rival Airbus in the battle for orders, but the

crisis surrounding the Dreamliner means it could be a short-lived

victory. Did Greece's fallen leaders cover-

up tax evasion by their friends and family? Parliament votes today on

whether a full investigation is America's aviation regulator, the

FAA, has grounded the Boeing 787 Dreamliner pending an investigation

into a fire risk with its batteries. It comes after a battery failure

caused one of the place to make an emergency landing in Japan on

Wednesday. Today was supposed to be a moment of triumph for the US

plane maker. Figures from Airbus out later will confirm that Boeing

overtook its European arch-rival in orders last year to become the

world's top aircraft maker after losing the battle for most of the

past decade. That was before a slew of problems emerged with its

Dreamliner. Last Wednesday Japan's two main

airlines grounded all of their Dreamliner planes after smoke on

board one triggered an emergency evacuation. This follows a litany

of recent problems with the new plane - will weeks, fuel leaks,

battery fires and brakes. The Dreamliner is bowing's vision of

the future of air travel. A long range aircraft which can connect

passengers directly from city to city. It helped it win some talk

hundred plane orders in 2012. It does in stead -- Airbus instead

developed the A 380. It is the 787 Dreamliner which caught the

airline's' imagination and Airbus is now trying to catch up by

developing the long range 8350. When you look at the combined sales

of the 787 and the A 350, you're talking 1,400 in its, compared with

about 280 sales for the A 380. I think that says the market is also

coming to that conclusion that this 0.2 point direct service is also at

-- is actually the way forward. Airbus and Boeing make most of

their profits from more modest single-aisle planes used for short-

haul flights. Both companies are bringing out new versions of these,

with more fuel-efficient engines. Cost-conscious airlines have been

ordering hundreds of them. First they favoured Airbus, but more --

but lately they have been favouring bowling. Airbus was first off the

mark on the price of fuel spied a few years ago. It brought to a new

model which is very fuel-efficient. It was very popular with airlines.

Boeing was sh -- slow off the mark and it was not until last year that

he was competing. That proved popular as well. It has now got an

back lost ground. 2012 was bowling's year against Airbus, but

its grounding has been a blow to its reputation and may persuade

In the last few hours we have heard more countries have decided to

ground their planes. We go live to a bureau in Tokyo. You and I were

talking about this yesterday. More countries are now following suit.

That is right. This really Forres the FA a's decision in the US to

ground aircraft there. The US is the country where this aircraft is

made and so other countries will then follow a decision made by the

FAA. This is indeed what we're now seeing. The Japanese transport

ministry has come out this morning and said it is grabbing all the 787

planes here. They are already crowded, but that was voluntary.

The transport ministry has now made that official. It will remain that

way until they say they can fly again. We have seen India do the

same, grabbing this explains that are run by Indian Airlines. --

grounding that this explains. This is really spreading right around

the world now. Boeing has made another statement as well. What has

it said? The CEO has said, I will read out the statement, we are

confident the 787 is safe and we stand behind its overall integrity.

That is from the CEO of Boeing. They are now sending their own team

appear to Japan to join in the investigation here and it is

focused on the main battery pack inside the 787, which is thought to

have been the source of the problem that caused the emergency landing

yesterday. Very quickly, in terms of the implications of this, I know

yesterday hours looking at the shares are very -- yesterday house

looking at the shares are there is companies supplying parts for

Boeing and they were suffering. have seen a fall in the share value

of All Nippon Airways, about 1.7% down today. Japan Airlines down a

little bit. The one that is really taking the hit is a company which

manufactures the battery pack which seems to be the big problem with

these recent incidents. Their shares are down around 6% on the

It's now take a look at some other business stories in the headlines.

Citigroup is kicking of today's earning reports from the US. It is

hoping to follow it in the steps of other companies, reporting sharp

rises in profits. The CEO will take charge of his first quarterly

announcement. He took over last October. Just last month city could

cut 11,000 jobs. Bank of America and Morgan Stanley will also be

reporting today. Russia's state and gas company

reports results as well. It is expected to say third-quarter

profits almost doubled to some $9.5 billion thanks to the weakness of

the Russian rouble. That is despite weaker demand from the EU, -- gas.

Investors will be looking at the Intel share prices. They see the

launch of the new Windows system will give the company and much

needed boost this year. Greece has got approval from the

International Monetary Fund for the much needed next instalment of

bail-out funds worth over $4 billion. Christine Lagarde said its

economic programme was moving in the right direction, but today

Greece will be in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Its

Parliament will vote on whether to investigate a number of high-level

politicians, including two former prime ministers, for tampering with

the so-called list of suspected tax evaders. We speak to the lawyer who

defended the investigative journalist who published the list.

He was able to join us on the phone now. First of all, tell us in more

detail what is being tackled in Parliament today. We do have a vote

in Parliament regarding the prosecution or not of former

members of the Government. It is regarding the tempering or hiding

from the tax authorities names on the list. The affair is a glaring

demonstration of how the Greek government often addresses critical

issues regarding the risk of damage of the case, it is questionable

whether the inquiry will solve the issue. Too many senior figures and

which constituents stand to lose from an in-depth investigation.

Although I do not expect this vote to break the tradition when it

comes to taxation, there is an established tradition -- tradition

of the big state throwing all the burdens on the people and leaving

them out of the big picture. What we can say about this procedure

today is that it is a first effort, no matter how made it might be, for

responsibilities on the highest political will of the to be

attributed. This parliamentary inquiry which will include three

different ballot votes will show at the political level who is

responsible for not disclosing the list to the administration in order

to proceed to the same kind of tax investigation but France, Germany

and other countries have done with similar lists. What remains to be

seen is the Parliament to take, for the first time after many years,

and impeachment of a former member of government. Unfortunately we

have run out of time. I cannot ask you further questions about the

story, which, as you can imagine, is a very difficult story to digest