Well, first up, a twoday meeting of eu leaders has been drawing to a close in brussels, and there have been some serious and divisive issues on the agenda. Not least, the question of if the eu should abandon its arms embargo in syria and start providing military support to the rebel forces fighting against the regime of bashar al assad. Both britain and france say the time has come to get more involved. It is a position that could lead to a major rift in the eu. He is prepared to go it alone. The french president was unequivocal in his comments over farming Syrian Rebels, with or without his partners. There could be one or two countries who want to block this move because they are reluctant. And i cannot speak for any other country than france. France will accept its responsibilities. Britain has also indicated it would consider forming the rebels, but there is resistance from others. Consider farming the rebels. I am against it. I do not think you can solve a conflict by delivering weapons. That would only lead to others supplying more weapons to the other side. That position is shared by germany. Ive made germanys position clear. We have a number of doubts about such weapons deliveries to the opposition. The question has to be asked as to if it will worsen the conflict. The Council President said there was a determination to find a common european stance. There is a growing feeling of frustration about the humanitarian situation, of course, in syria, and it is a growing frustration about the lack of progress on the political front, but we again are working in the framework of a common foreign and defense policy, and our intention is to continue to work in that kind of framework. The question of if to lift the arms embargo on Syrian Rebels will now be discussed by european Foreign Ministers when they meet in a weeks time. Lets pick up right there. Our European Affairs correspondent has been watching all of this for us. Have i understand this correctly . The eu is divided over the issue, so they pass the buck to the Foreign Ministers . Well, yes and no. It think about it, the normal procedure is that the Foreign Ministers discuss these topics, so a vast majority of countries in brussels were surprised when they heard britains cozy and frances push because it was not on the agenda. It was also something that you need more time to discuss, and that is why it has now been made a very vital topic on the agenda of the Foreign Ministers meeting next week. But there is very strong opposition still. People are reluctant to go through with france and britain s push. The question was why they even put it on the agenda. Is that not also some kind of sign that National Policies are becoming more important again in his current state of crisis that the European Union itself is in. Thanks very much for that first update. We will be coming back shortly to talk about another explosive issue. We will be going back to our correspondent shortly. The issue im talking about is cyprus, but as we have seen already today, people are marking the second anniversary of the outbreak of civil war in syria. Tens of thousands have lost their lives. Men, women, and children. And there is no end in sight to this bloody conflict. Air strikes by Government Forces on rebel positions, filmed by the opposition. Two years on, there is no end in sight. Syrias civil war rumbles on, and the number of dead continues to mount. It began as a peaceful protest. Thousands of to the streets, not demanding regime change but political reform thousands took to the streets. The Assad Government reacted with brute force. Demonstrators were killed, jailed, and tortured. That galvanized the opposition, and they took up arms. The battle lines are now clearly drawn troops loyal to assad on one side. On the other, the Free Syrian Army anti hottest militias who are growing rapidly in strength. Both sides are fighting for their survival. They will throw everything in this to win, or at least not to lose. Both sides still get support from outside the country, so they have access to resources and can carry on fighting. The rebels are strongest in the west. They have brought large areas under their control. Fighting is still raging in aleppo and homs. The situation is approaching stalemate neither side appears able to outgun the other, but that could change if western nations were to meet the demands of the Syrian Opposition leader. He wants them to supply heavy weapons to the rebels, but there are fears that could make matters worse. There are concerns that you could create something you do not want. No stable system, no partner for the International Committee community. Instead, a safe haven for jihadism, a new hotbed for instability and all of the associated risks. The path of diplomacy, now in the hands of the United Nations envoy, has so far led nowhere. Bashar alabaml assad refuses to comply with rebel demands, and allies, russia and china, won him to stay put. The conflict looks like it will go on indefinitely with devastating longterm consequences for syria. You can see how the structures of the syrian state are disintegrating. It is not just the regime itself that is crumbling bit by bit. It is the state as a whole. That is a big danger to the unity of the country and the region. We are seeing an increasing fragmentation of the syrian state. 1 Million People have fled the country. Many more have been displaced. 70,000 have lost their lives, and much of serialized in rubble. Even when the guns fall silent, it will be many years before the country is rebuilt. This brussels summit that we went to at the top of the bulletin was originally called to address the European Unions economic and financial concerns. Thats right. Although there is broad consensus that progress has been made in dealing with the financial crisis, there are still serious worries about unemployment and stagnant growth. And then there is cyprus. With a population of less than 1 Million People, it is one of the smallest countries in the eu, but it is still too big to fail, and it needs up to 17 billion euros to stay above water. The new president of cyprus is the man many hope will put the country on a new track. He has assured his partners that his approach will be different. He says he wants to Reach Agreement quickly. Cyprus may be small, but its situation is complicated, especially when it comes to its banks. They have taken huge losses on greek debt, yet they have also attracted large amounts of russian money. In 2011, for example, it was moscow that granted cyprus and loan when it was no longer able to tap International Financial markets, but cypress is now also facing allegations it launder dirty russian money cyprus is now facing allegations it launders 30 russian money. These concerns have held up an agreement for months, and in this case, time really is money. The longer you wait, the more difficult the problem becomes. Because the investors who could have perhaps taken some of the losses have naturally been getting their money out of the country as quickly as possible. Cyprus accounts for just 0. 2 of the eurozone economy, but what happens in cypress will have repercussions far beyond its shores, affecting overall confidence in the euro. That is why european leaders are feeling the heat. Lets go back to eu headquarters in brussels, back to our correspondent. We heard in that report, time is money. Nevertheless, eu leaders are passing the issue in this case to their finance ministers. Grazing when you see how it works, but that is just the way it has been done. There are a lot of Technical Details that need to be discussed, and a meeting of eu leaders is simply not the right platform. That is why finance ministers are arriving this afternoon to discuss how exactly this bailout package can be put together. Also it means possibly involving russia, the russian state. Possibly also involving private creditors from russia, from other countries, from the very beginning, that they would have to accept that they would lose money, but all of this needs to be discussed in detail, and we are expecting a very long discussion, but hopefully, we will have a package and finance ministers can come together again next week to seal it off. We look forward to hearing from you later. Thanks very much. To another difficult to solve problem who can govern italy . That is the question on the mind of lawmakers convening in rome. It is the first time the Italian Parliament has come together since last months inconclusive election. Pier Luigi Bersani [applause] centerleft bloc has a majority in the lower house but not in the senate. The potential comedian and lager that a grillo comedian and blogger beppe grillo has refused to join. We all know that protracted political wranglings like those in italy can have an impact on the markets. We go to the Frankfurt Stock Exchange for more. How are these negotiations in italy affecting the countrys credit . Those discussions and negotiations lead to uncertainty, and the discussion about cypress leads to this uncertainty, but the situation in italy is the problem because the fact that italy is the Third Largest country in the euro area. This really leads to the fact that the yields go sharply up for italian bonds, which means that it will be more expensive for the Italian Government to get fresh money, and nobody really knows how long this may go in this direction. Any other stories moving the markets today . Investors waited for new economic numbers to come from the u. S. , and there they are. Consumer confidence dropped sharply in the u. S. , which leads to a drop in share prices as well. The dax is down by 2 3 of 1 . There is also some profittaking going after reaching into a fiveyear high. Dow jones opened up in negative territory, loses 0. 3 . The euro stays above 1. 30. This is the good news. Thanks much for joining us. Staying on the markets now, regulators in the United States say they are concerned about how gold and silver prices are fixed. The u. S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission says it has had a few conversations about if the daily setting of the prices by a small group of bankers in london is open to manipulation. It says there has been no firm allegation of wrong doing so far. Oh, boy. Well, we are going to be taking a short break, after which we will be seeing something about hope frances, what he has been doing and saying about pope francis. We will also be looking at who is playing in the soccer champions league. Formula one, too. Formula one, too. Welcome back. There is no rest for the faithful. Pope francis has been giving an audience to the cardinals. He urged fellow catholics to return to the roots of their faith. He continued that theme on friday, urging cardinals not to give in to pessimism, which he called the devils temptation. He also praised his president predecessor, saying his resignation was a courageous and humble act. The new pope looked to be in good spirits as he began a two of his audience with the cardinals, including those over 80 who were not allowed in the conclave that elected him. The 76yearold pontiff urged the cardinals to stay strong as the Catholic Church sets out to restore its image, tarnished by years of abuse scandals and vatican in fighting. Let us not give in to pessimism, to that bitterness that the double offers us every day. Let us find the courage to persevere and also to find new ways to bring evangelization to the ends of the earth. The pope paid tribute to the elderly cardinals, saying that young catholics can learn a lot from them. Old age is peaceful and pious. As the worlds 1. 2 billion catholics look back at years of uncertainty, all eyes are on pope francis to set out a clear path going forward. In germany, a Parliamentary Committee investigating how a rightwing terror cell went undetected for more than 10 years has been hearing testimony from former german interior minister, who says he bears at least partial responsibility for the failure of investigators to find the link to the right wing group. The neonazis killed 10 people. He says a grave error was made when police and intelligence agencies did not recognize that the cell was behind a 2004 bombing in cologne. That attack in a mostly immigrant neighborhood injured more than 20 people. To find out a little bit more, we talk to our political correspondent. I suppose it is important to mention at this juncture that he has been a real heavyweight down the years of german politics. He has taken political responsibility for these killings. Does that mean he also accepted personal role in the failure of the german investigation to catch up with this right wing sell . He certainly did not go that far today. He said he did accept political responsibility. He is also not the first heavyweight politician in germany to do so. His successor as interior minister has done so before. What is interesting is that he also rejected an accusation, looking back at that specific case, of this bombing in 2004, which in hindsight, it turned out to be right in the middle of this killing spree. He went and spoke to the cameras about 24 hours afterwards and specifically ruled out a link to rightwing terror. Having said that, he qualified the comment, and instantly saying it is still open to investigation. Today, he faced an allegation that there could be an inherently, that somehow he managed to frame the investigation away from this right wing link, which was not unearthed until five years later. It is complicated stuff. Certainly, this investigation has been dragging on for an awful long time now. What we need is some sort of concrete indication as to why it took authorities so long to get behind what has been happening here. What is the explanation . When are we going to get something concrete . Federal authorities and regional authorities are still at pains blaming each other where failures actually took place, but authorities across the board failed to connect the dots. This is something that is being investigated in this committee of inquiry, which will report back in september. But we are still about four weeks away from the trial opening in munich. The only surviving member of this terrorist cell. The other two committed suicide. A to looks like the public will have the first real chance to get some scrutiny by the courts of evidence of actually coming up with some answers. For the moment, the questions are still mounting, but the answers are still few and far between. Thanks very much for keeping us up to date on this complex and important investigation. More than 300 flights have been grounded it two german airports at the security personnel walked off the job. The 24hour strike has left several thousand passengers stranded. Many flights have been delayed or canceled. The German Labor Union is pressing for a 30 pay raise of privacy to the workers in the region. In dusseldorf alone, that is the seventh strike since december. Saying on air travel, aircraft manufacturer boeing says it hopes its new dreamliner jets will be able to start flying again within weeks. U. S. Authorities grounded all dreamliners in january after problems emerged with the battery, causing several to overheat and catch fire. This dreamliner had to make an Emergency Landing and be evacuated after a battery on board caught fire. That incident and others led to the grounding of all 5787s in operation. Boeing engineers and parts suppliers began an investigation into the source of the problem. The company has presented a new battery. It has three safeguards against fire. Our solution is the result of literally thousands of hours of analysis and test, not only with our engineering teams across the boeing enterprise but also with experts across the industry and with the agencies across the globe. Boeing is hoping to get all dreamline is back in the air as soon as possible. Every week they remain on the ground is thought to cost the company 50 million. North korea has accused the United States of Cyber Attacks on its internet service. State media says News Services have been disrupted and some websites blocked. Pyongyang complains it is part of the campaign the u. S. And south korea are waging against the north. The countrys leader has been doing a lot of saber rattling including personally supervising a bachelor drill close to a disputed sea border with south korea. The north has already threatened a Nuclear Strike against the United States in response to new sanctions. Pyongyang state television has released images of a live fire artillery drill that has been going on for days now. North koreas dictated seeks to demonstrate his military muscle to the world. The exercise is being carried out close to the disputed maritime border between north and south korea and comes in direct response to a joint military maneuvers being conducted. Tensions on both sides are high. If the u. S. Imperialists and their followers ignite a spark on our land or sea, we will wipe out the aggressors from this land forever with our own methods in our own way. But analysts say pyongyangs aggressive stance may be aimed at building domestic support. South korean media say theres a power struggle within the north korean leadership, and kim jong un may be trying to shore up popular support. We take a look at other stories making news around the world. China has named its new premier. Missed that one. U. S. President Barack Obama Says iran is about a year away from being able to build a nuclear bomb. Obama told israeli tv that the u. S. Is willing to use military force to prevent iran from getting the bomb if diplomacy fails. Nearly 200,000 people have been killed in iraq since the u. S. Invasion almost 10 years ago according to a new study. Researchers in the u. S. Say the cost of the war has been more than 2 trillion. On a very different note, we have a look at sports now. And then there were eight soccer teams, that is left in the champions league. The draw has just been made for the quarter finals. Lets take a look. Bundesliga champions dortmind. Bayern munich will answer the chances. The fixtures will be played at the beginning of april. Over in formula one, the World Champion books read that to go into the new season. The german driver dominated the two practice sessions at malvern, ahead of sundays australian grand prix. He was quick is around the circuit. His red old teammate came in second. Mercedes was the best of the rest. Now, how about this for a stunt . A young man from sweden decided to drive his snow mobile off a ski jump. Well, this is what happened. The daredevil soared almost 20 meters up and touched down after a distance of 70 meters. He has been planning is done for six months. He is no stranger to extreme sport. He also holds the record for the longest backlit ever performed on a snowmobile the longest backlit the longest backflip ever performed on a snowmobile. That does not look any better the second time around. That is a great way to end the show. Do stay with us. More news at the top of the hour. Captioned by the National Captioning Institute www. Ncicap. Org