18/10/2012 BBC World News

As Europe's leaders gather to tackle the debt crisis, Germany's

Chancellor calls for closer financial integration.

Anger on the streets of Athens. A general strike over spending cuts

is underway in Greece. And growth in China slows, but

could the world's second largest economy be ready to bounce back?

Welcome to BBC World News. Also in the programme: Taking on the

traffickers. The British police struggle to stem the flow of people

lured into modern-day slavery. The mother of con-joined twins

describes her joy after a successful operation to separate

them. The Germany Chancellor, Angela

Merkel, has called for the European Union to have powers to veto Member

States and budgets. Addressing the German Parliament, she said

Europe's finances chief should be able to intervene if the budget

rules are in place. She acknowledges that many don't want

to hand more powers to Brussels, but said that the German government

would push for it. The two- day EU summit begins in Brussels. I asked

about the planned banking union and the eurozone Treasury that many

countries are resisting. Blank banking union is about

regulating the banks, but these are two separate things. They are part

of the same discussion. That discussion is about what

instruments, what measures the eurozone needs to put in place in

order to create a stable and viable single currency. If you think back

to a decade ago, setting up the eurozone in the first place, the

politics then was really getting into the way of the economics.

Everyone agreed that they set up a viable economic single currency,

but not a perfect one. Those imperfections are in part, at least,

the root cause of the current crisis and the inability of the

eurozone to get out of it. You have to look back ten years to see

exactly what they are trying to fix today.

13 years ago, unlucky for some, this was the world as it looked to

the European Commission. The launch of the Euro system,

apparently flying in prosperity for all who signed up to it.

But as the courts to -- corks popped, they knew they were setting

up an imperfect system, a system they are trying to fix right now.

Fast-forward to the same building today, where leaders will continue

their debate on what they are willing to do to create a viable,

single currency. One step on the road is a banking union to cover

the eurozone it would have a single supervisor, a common bank deposit

scheme for customers and a common rescue scheme.

Opposite, in the European Commission, the top floor, the

President believes that the first of those can happen soon.

What I still expect is possible to do, is to have an agreement until

the end of this year on one very important element of the banking

union, a single mechanism, a single supervisory mechanism. We have put

forward for the proposals, I expect the koun sill -- court of law to

agree on this. The debate that is taking place

here will have impact on theaway that the European Union is set up.

The measures discussed relate to the countries in the eurozone.

Otherwise outside the single currency, like Britain, will have

to decide how much if at all, they wish to be involved. The club

within a club is being strengthened. For now it is fixing the single

currency that is the key. The debate is fierce, the main

players are divided, but they do want to find a solution.

We started to talk about Angela Merkel, and what she had to say

this morning. In her words, there is really the

expose that the differences between her position, the German position

and broadly speaking, the French position. There are several

differences, the Germans are reluctant in pushing ahead quickly

on a banking union as Jose Manuel Durao Barroso was saying, the

European Commission wants to see the first stages of that by the end

of the year. The Germans are wary. The French do want to move ahead

with it. The Germans, as Angela Merkel was saying, that they want

to see firm and solid rules put in place to govern the budgets, the

spending and the tax policies of individual eurozone members

countries with a strict truck tower able to enforce the rules in

Brussels, but the French are reluctant about that. So come

Peting visions of how to get to the ultimate prize which is a stable

and viable single currency area that cannot fall into the kind of

trap that it is in at the moment and within the competing visions

there are danger, of course, that the politics, once again, will get

in the way of delivering a viable economic solution to the current

crisis. Our Europe Correspondent in

Brussels. We are to show you the scene in the Greek capital, Athens,

where the general strike is underway. The demonstrators are gar

gathering in the square outside of the Parliament building. Waving

bans -- banners and slogans. The 20th strike to take place in two

years. Taxi drivers, ferry workers, doctors, teachers are among those

striking across the public and the private sectors. It comes as the

Greek Prime Minister meets EU counterparts in Brussels to discuss

13..5 billion Euros of savings, that's the main condition, for more

rescue funds. The analysts are saying the same thing, which is

that Greece will run out of money next month if they don't get the

next amount of bail out money from the eurozone countries.

China's economy is continuing to slow down. Beijing has released the

latest figures showing that the growth in the last quarter was down

from 7.6% in the previous quarter, but there are signs that the

economy is restabilising and rebounding. Chinese leaders have

said they will boost low levels of domestic consumption.

They have just got hitched and they are big spenders. Since the summer,

this woman and her husband have plurpblged on sofas, TVs and

computers. A cool $15,000 on Furnishing their new home.

TRANSLATION: We spend a lot of money. We want to have a good

quality of life, but it is expensive here.

Care-free consumer spending is what China's leaders want to see.

In the town of Chin Yen, the orders are piling up.

These goods would have once been shipped overseas.

But this town is a major centre for online shopping. It caters to

millions of Chinese consumers. Every day, they sell 10,000 pairs

of underwear. This woman says by targeting the domestic market, her

business is now booming. TRANSLATION: We have ten staff in

the office, but I am looking to take on new people. I think that

this business has a very good future.

But despite the growth, Chinese consumption is just half of that of

the US. That will be one of the biggest

challenges facing China's next generation of leaders. Boosting the

domestic consumption will not be easy. It will involve carrying out

painful economic reforms, but it is a process that China must go

through in order to ensure more sustainable economic growth.

They like the comforts of life. This woman spends what she earns

and is fine with that. China will need millions more like

her if its economy is to change. OK. It continues to slow down, but

why do the markets like that? Is this about stability? It is.

Because the slowing of the Chinese economy, the pace of that slowdown

is declining. This past quarter, the past three

months, the economy grew 7.4%. The previous quarter it was 7.6%. So

there are drops in the economy, that is slowing. That is good news.

It is stabilising, but add into there, was the good news on the

retail side of things. That is very important. That refers to domestic

consumption. What the Chinese themselves are

buying and spending on the ground. Retail sales for the quarter grew

by 14.%. That is really important. We saw productivity at Chinese

factories, that was up. productivity in Chinese mines was

up. So this bodes well. This is what has been facing Beijing for

some time, the dilemma in moving away from an export-driven economy.

Not to just rely on exports as then we are relying on the rest of the

world to buy Chinese stuff, but it is about getting the Chinese to

spend money on the ground. The retail figures suggest that this is

working. The markets are up. The analysts are saying that the

numbers are positive. Most of the analysts have have been

speaking to. The year on year growth number was down. That was

very much expected. The signals are indicating that the economy is

gathering momentum. I think in particular with focusing on the

September numbers which were slightly better than connected. The

retail sales number showing that the monthly growth in retail sales

was the strongest figure this year. That is good news for the

government, trying to make the economy more driven by domestic

consumption and less reliant that had driven the boom in the wake of

the global financial crisis. It is interesting, the opposite of

what we are doing here we are rebalancing in favour of

manufacturing, they are doing it the other way around? Absolutely.

Chinese has been suffering from a surplus in areas such as

infrastructure and housing. The Government has been bringing in

those structures and maintaining the tight controls on the housing

sector as it loosenings up the policies in other areas. This is a

signal for the government that the policies are working. We are

optimistic that the economy is strengthening moving into 3013.

Is this good -- 2013. Is this good for British business?

It is good news. Chinese consumers are seeing their incomes rising

rapidly. It is double digit figures for a long time. It sees them with

more income to spend on the foreign products that are imported into

China. Let's have a look at the general

strike in Athens. That has kicked off there, if you will. Oh, there

is a fire-bomb. There is tear gas being dropped. This is the second

or third general strike in a number of weeks. Of course this is a big

general strike, we are talking taxi drivers, air traffic controllers,

the thousands that are protesting. The protesters are of course

protesting against the austerity rounds. An interesting question we

are talking about this morning to exports, is who is the target

audience for, for these strikes. Some will say that Athens has their

hands tied, but a lot of these ro tests are directed to Angela Merkel

and some other eurozone leaders who are insistent... Dramatic shots

there, but these are insistent, these leaders, that Greece stick to

tough measures, but you are talking about huge numbers of unemployment

and huge human hardships on the ground in Athens.

Let me talk about Nokia. The finished mobile phone giant, former

giant that announced dire results this morning. The business lost

under $1..3 billion. Worse than the $1 billion loss expected from

Nokia's shares. The shares have more than halved. Investors warn

that they have further to fall. Let's join Stewart Miles. Let's

start with the same old, same old, another quarter, another set of

horrible numbers from Nokia? Yes, they are in the waiting game. A

holding pattern. They have new phones, but they will not come out

until November. There is an announcement on Windows 8. They are

put in a situation by Microsoft as they are now. They are not selling

the current phones as everyone is waiting two weeks for the new

phones to come out and it is all guns ablazing, but not a great

timing. Can I ask you this. We cannot

stress enough how much hope the company and others are ping on the

new models, but surely, some will say that a few new models on the

With every week that has gone by, we have had new announcements. The

big problem they have is Microsoft of announcing a new system, the big

launch event for sat -- for that side of their business. At the end

of October, then their new phone system. Just as you think, maybe

this is the moment, Google have announced their new phones on 29

October. Apple are saying they will be launching something big next

week which we are expecting a many tablet, which will take away from

the excitement that Nokia is trying to build up. Every time it tries to

do something and seems to be getting some headway, another major

player comes in. They have something to say as well.

You're watching BBC World News. Coming up: Keeping his eye on the

ball. Why this endangered tiger travelled over 6,000 kilometres, to

meet his match. A man who spent a week adrift in

his own boat after its mast was ripped off, has arrived back on dry

land in Australia. Glenn Ey was reunited with his mother in Sydney

after the pilot of a commercial flight over the Tasman Sea

instructed his passengers to help the search and rescue. From Sydney,

Duncan Kennedy reports. Bearded, barefoot and bedraggled.

The moment Glenn Ey thought would never come. Dry Land and a hug from

his mother. No idea of the difference between standing on

ground, and being up there, in massive seas, not knowing where you

are. For his mother, sheer relief. The drama began two weeks ago when

he set off to sail on a dream voyage to New Zealand. This police

video shows what happened to his boat, it bordered his plot to find

the last missing, it had been smashed last Sunday after it was

ruled by a giant wave leaving Glenn Ey adrift. He had thought he was

relatively close to the shoreline of Sydney but in fact he was 200

nautical miles out to sea, without any fuel. At that point, he set off

his emergency beacon. That is where the story takes another incredible

twist. Two commercial airlines were diverted to help look for him. The

Air Canada aeroplane descended down to 5,000 feet. Passengers were

asked to act as lookouts, eventually spotting Glenn Ey in the

ocean below. If the captain made an announcement they were so pleased

they had identified the yacht, they could see a person on top of it,

they had alerted search and rescue and were sending a rescue

helicopter. Police were sent and picked him up. I wasn't afraid and

I knew where I was. One minute I was 270 miles rather than 60, I was

concerned. By this time, I had been found. I was hopeful we could work

something out. Celebrations have come in the form of a pit -- of a

huge trench. Asked if he would head out to sea, he was blunt, No I am

This is BBC World News. The headlines: As European leaders

gather for talks, Germany's chancellor calls for more powers to

veto member states' budgets. Meanwhile, another general strike

is being held in Greece over the next round of government spending

cuts. A group representing some of

Pakistan's biggest journalism organisations have expressed

concern about threats made by the Taleban, in the aftermath of the

attack on the teenage girl in the country. One journalist joining us

now, it is at BBC Broadcasting House, what kind of threats were

levelled at you? The teenage girl first appeared on my TV show three

years ago in 2009. And participated many times thereafter. I condemned

the attack by the Taleban, I raised many questions. The Taleban were

angry, sending messages. Two days ago, at a Taleban spokesperson sent

me a six-page letter. He said I was the enemy of Islam and if I stopped,

if I did not stop my support for Malala, they would teach me a

lesson. They are calling my colleagues. No

security or intelligence agency in Pakistan is able to apprehend them

or intercept them. I do not think these people are hiding in the

northern region because they cannot operate in else, I suspect they are

hiding in a bid, urban area. In one of my TV shows a few days back...

The new threats that have been levelled in the past, against

people who are broadcasting the story of this young woman, this 14-

year-old, are those threats credible? Bob people really in

danger? Yes. They have issued threats not only to me, but have

mentioned the name of another TV anchor, to the TV channel. These

threats are credible. One of our colleagues, they have confirmed

they have received telephone calls from the Taleban leaders. There is

evidence the Home Ministry in Pakistan have issued a letter, two

days ago, saying in that letter that the Taleban leader has issued

orders on a landline telephone number to one of his commanders,

that operations be abandoned. That the media is more dangerous than

the security forces and the Army. That is why I think these threats

are really credible. The England defender John Terry has

decided not to appeal against a four-match ban and fine for

racially abusing fellow player Anton Ferdinand. Let's get more on

this with our sports correspondent, Andy Swiss, who is in the BBC Sport

Centre. What else do we know? It is worth

reminding you of the background, this goes back to a Premier League

match last October between Chelsea and Queens Park Rangers. TV cameras

seemed to show John Terry, the Chelsea captain, using a racist

insult towards the QPR Ranger -- player Anton Ferdinand. John Terry

said he was merely repeating an accusation made against him by

Ferdinand. He was charged by police, found not guilty in court, but the

FA charged him as well, they have a lower burden of proof. He was found

guilty by the FA, and banned for four matches and fined. He had

until today to appeal against that punishment but has decided not to.

He has apologised for the first time and said he wanted to take the

opportunity to apologise for the language he used end that game. He

accepts that the language he used was not acceptable on the football

field or in any walk of life. He has accepted his four match ban and

it will be interesting to see whether Chelsea impose any further

punishment. Let us go back lied to Athens. The

general strike going on. The German Chancellor a few hours ago in a

German Parliament saying we should get involved in the fiscal affairs

of other countries more than we have. She made those comments this

morning ahead of joining other leaders for their two day summit in

Brussels to work out how best to solve the eurozone crisis. Possibly

by putting together a banking union. A not a eurozone Treasury, and this

strike you can see right now. Greece is cuddly preparing an �11

billion package of austerity -- currently. In turn, the next

tranche of financial aid will be 31 billion euros, crucial, because

Greece will officially have no more money in the bank next month. The

trade unions say they hope to show a new wave of pension cuts will

only worsen the plight of Greek people. Their line is we cannot

take any more or austerity, with unemployment running at 25%, Greece

now is in its 5th consecutive year of recession, a quarter of the

workforce is unemployed, mirroring almost exactly what has been going

on in Spain for the past couple of years. Cracks are already appearing

in the coalition government, the party leaders are not on the same

page although the Greek Prime Minster has said on record they