:00:04. > :00:14.acted out of anger at politicians. Those are the latest headlines. For
:00:14. > :00:23.
:00:23. > :00:27.this latest financial news, here is No longer a job for life - a
:00:27. > :00:31.radical overhaul of the Civil Service in Greece is made law so
:00:32. > :00:35.that 15,000 jobs can be cut. The baby to cost of austerity - at
:00:35. > :00:42.the swearing-in of it easily's new Prime Minister is Mas de -- marred
:00:42. > :00:46.by the shooting of two police officers by an unemployed man.
:00:46. > :00:49.Welcome to World Business Report. Also in the programme - Carson
:00:49. > :00:55.Yeung, the owner of Birmingham City Football Club - pleads not guilty
:00:55. > :00:59.to money laundering charges. We'll have the latest.
:01:00. > :01:04.The tough times continue in Europe. So late last night, Greek law
:01:04. > :01:08.makers agreed to cut thousands of jobs in the civil service to Secure
:01:08. > :01:12.another 8.8 billion euros in bailout funds. The vote clears the
:01:12. > :01:16.way for 15,000 government workers to be fired by the end of 2014.
:01:16. > :01:22.Approval means that Greece will receive a new range of rescue loans
:01:22. > :01:29.from its creditors, the EU and the IMF. The lay-offs will come at a
:01:29. > :01:35.time when unemployment has skyrocketed -- started -- reached
:01:35. > :01:39.27% and the same legislation has also extended and are unpopular
:01:39. > :01:42.property tax. This is an important moment for
:01:42. > :01:47.Greece -- Greek democracy because it is the first time that that
:01:47. > :01:50.sacred cow, the jobs for life for civil servants, has been challenged.
:01:50. > :01:57.Never before have they been lay- offs from the public sector but now
:01:57. > :02:04.there will be.. 15,000 to go from next year. Principally it will
:02:04. > :02:08.breakers. -- it will be rule breakers. There will be replaced by
:02:08. > :02:13.a younger workforce on a lower salary. This is not away to reduce
:02:13. > :02:18.the bloated public sector but to upgrade it. There is also a
:02:18. > :02:25.parallel process in which the public sector will be reduced by
:02:25. > :02:28.150,000 jobs mostly by replacing one out of every five retirements.
:02:28. > :02:32.This is something that has gone down relatively badly among many.
:02:32. > :02:36.There was a process outside Parliament earlier in the evening
:02:36. > :02:39.as parliament debated the ball. There was a small protest compared
:02:39. > :02:42.to previous ones but people there who feared that they would be
:02:42. > :02:47.earmarked for dismissal by the government was under a three-line
:02:47. > :02:50.whip by international lenders who said that the Civil Service reform
:02:50. > :02:56.would have to be passed in order for Greece to get almost 9 billion
:02:56. > :03:00.euros. Critics say that this is long overdue. That the public
:03:00. > :03:06.sector of the country has been notoriously bloated for a long time
:03:07. > :03:10.under a client list state that emerged in the 1970s and 80s. That
:03:10. > :03:16.is tackling the civil service jobs for life and reforming the public
:03:16. > :03:21.sector is a long overdue. He will update us as to day
:03:21. > :03:27.progresses with reaction. The fall- out, really, on that decision that
:03:27. > :03:32.is -- was made law late yesterday. The move on to Italy. The bitter
:03:32. > :03:35.costs of austerity were felt there. News bulletins who should have been
:03:35. > :03:39.dominated by the swearing-in of a new government were dominated by
:03:39. > :03:43.the fact that an unemployed man shot and wounded two police
:03:43. > :03:47.officers. He was driven by frustration and anger towards
:03:47. > :03:51.politicians. They had been warnings about increasing social tensions in
:03:51. > :03:55.Italy which is in the middle of the worst recession in 20 years. The
:03:55. > :04:02.new Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, is due to outline his strategy for
:04:02. > :04:07.cutting unemployment later today. It currently stands at 11.6 %.
:04:07. > :04:12.Nice to see you this morning. The new government is in place.
:04:12. > :04:18.Whenever we talk about Italy and politics, we want to know about the
:04:18. > :04:24.strength of the government. In this case? This government may be able
:04:25. > :04:29.to pass reforms because the people who have been chosen include a
:04:29. > :04:35.couple of technocrats. Other managers from the banks. Safe hands.
:04:35. > :04:42.They had been chosen to get on and a greedy and work together none of
:04:42. > :04:46.the political heavyweights can watch what is going on from the
:04:46. > :04:51.sidelines. In the case of Silvio Berlusconi, he seems to Paul well
:04:51. > :04:58.so he may decide to withdraw from the government which then triggers
:04:58. > :05:02.an election and more uncertainty. In the meantime, Enrico letter will
:05:02. > :05:08.outline his plans today to Parliament to try and fix the
:05:08. > :05:16.Italian economy. What will he say? -- Enrico Letta. He will focus on
:05:16. > :05:21.our unemployment. He needs to address the voters who voted for
:05:21. > :05:25.the anti-establishment protest movement in order to try and calm
:05:26. > :05:30.the country down. Otherwise we could have more incidents such as
:05:30. > :05:39.the wind yesterday. I think that he has to focus on structural reforms.
:05:39. > :05:47.To a degree, fiscal austerity. The debate is shifting in Europe at the
:05:47. > :05:53.moment, however government debt is already close to 130 %. He spends
:05:53. > :05:57.about 5% to 5.5% of the GDP on servicing the debt. It must
:05:57. > :06:04.continue along that path to insure that bond yields come down and
:06:04. > :06:11.spreads narrow in order to reduce the debt servicing costs. On the
:06:11. > :06:19.employment front, on the unemployment front, they must be a
:06:19. > :06:22.revision of the law passed last year. In order to reduce more
:06:22. > :06:26.flexibility that make introduce more flexibility into the market.
:06:26. > :06:30.Thank you very much indeed. We will keep an eye on that today as it
:06:30. > :06:33.progresses in Italy. We move on. The owner of English
:06:33. > :06:37.football club the Birmingham City has gone on trial in Hong Kong
:06:37. > :06:42.today for alleged money laundering. Carson Yeung a property tycoon who
:06:42. > :06:44.began his career as a hairdresser is accused of moving almost $100
:06:44. > :06:49.million illicitly through bank accounts controlled by himself and
:06:49. > :06:57.his father. He denies the charges and has pleaded not guilty.
:06:57. > :07:04.We followed the trial in Hong Kong. Tell us more.
:07:04. > :07:13.I hope that you can hear me. It is noisy. About three hours ago. The
:07:13. > :07:18.prosecutor said that Carson Yeung moved and $93 million through
:07:18. > :07:24.accounts which were connected to allegations that these were
:07:24. > :07:31.criminal proceeds. The trial got under way today. The defence team
:07:31. > :07:36.have put in a fresh bid to halt the trial. The judges hearing arguments
:07:36. > :07:41.from the defence and prosecution as to whether or not that will happen.
:07:41. > :07:48.Give us a sense of what we can expect to happen. He has clearly
:07:48. > :07:52.pleaded not guilty - tell us what we are expecting in the near future.
:07:52. > :08:01.When you speak to the lawyer's, they say that this will be a long,
:08:01. > :08:05.drawn-out court case. They suggest that he will file... 25 days. The
:08:05. > :08:10.evidence is mostly documented. Just listening to the defence team, they
:08:10. > :08:15.say that many of those documents simply are not available. They are
:08:15. > :08:21.no longer accounted for after a seven-year period. The defence team
:08:21. > :08:26.was also saying that we are not expecting any... That was said
:08:26. > :08:30.during the trial which took place behind me. Nobody is expecting a
:08:30. > :08:37.quick result. Once again, this will highlight the issue of money
:08:37. > :08:41.laundering in Hong Kong. OK, thank you very much. He was outside the
:08:41. > :08:45.courtroom in Hong Kong. Apologies if you were struggling to hear what
:08:45. > :08:50.he had to say. Clearly a very important case.
:08:50. > :08:53.In other news: Chat apps such as WhatsApp and Apple's iMessage have
:08:54. > :08:56.overtaken the text message as the favourite way to tap out a note to
:08:56. > :08:59.friends, undermining the traditional SMS cash cow for mobile
:08:59. > :09:01.operators. According to the telecoms and media consultancy
:09:01. > :09:07.Informa, there were more instant messages being sent daily by the
:09:07. > :09:09.end of last year than there were text messages. The apps are seen by
:09:09. > :09:17.some as a potential challenger to Facebook's dominance in social
:09:17. > :09:20.networking. A two-year EU-wide ban on the use
:09:20. > :09:24.of three pesticides widely blamed for killing bees goes to the vote
:09:24. > :09:27.in Brussels today. Last month, Britain and Germany were among the
:09:27. > :09:30.nine countries who failed to back the ban. They argued that
:09:31. > :09:35.scientific trials on the impact of the pesticides on these are needed
:09:35. > :09:40.to be completed first. If the committee failed to agree free
:09:40. > :09:45.second time, the EU Commission has warned that it will go ahead anyway.
:09:45. > :09:49.-- for a second time. Let us look at the markets in Asia.
:09:50. > :09:56.The main market in Japan closed today for public holidays. That is
:09:56. > :10:00.the end of trade at the end of last week. Hong Kong is trading as is a
:10:01. > :10:05.South Korea. You can see some of the markets there. We have all
:10:05. > :10:09.sorts of stories. You have the gold price going up slightly, poet --
:10:09. > :10:13.royal going down. Everyone will look ahead to the US Federal