he called it an inadvertent error. that has not quieted the protests in afghanistan. the taliban's calling on muslims to seek revenge. who's going to be the prime minister of australia come monday. the stage is set for a showdown. the governing labor party will vote on monday. rudd says ms. gill lard can't win the next election. we'll have more on that story in just a moment. i'm zain verjee. "world business today." good morning. from cnn london, i'm nina dos santos. this is "world business today." these are the top stories on friday, february the 24th. greece's debt burden has been lightened but its debt holders are about to see the value of their bonds drop. the u.s. takes on organized crime in japan imposing sanctions on high ranking members of the yakazu. what does google know about you? new privacy policies make it harder to keep your information under wraps these days. first up, to our top story today. today is the daze day that greece finally unveils its proposal to swap existing government debt with new bonds worthless than half the value of those previously issued. greece's creditors are bracing themselves for a hit of some 53.5% on just the face value of the investments that they hold, however, the actual loss here that'll be implied will be closer to 70%. this is largely because the new bonds will have lower yields and also maturity. the writedown is a voluntary one. it's not officially a default for greece, but some of greece's big creditors aren't exactly thrilled by this deal. take for instance the chief of come mer rants bank. one of the biggest lenders. it says this writedown was, quote, about as voluntary here, the chief executive martin blessing has been saying, as the spanish inquisition. on thursday they released earnings which revealed billions of dollars of losses on exposure to greece's debt. but if greece's creditors had signed up to the deal at gun point, so, too, it seems has athens. a report by the financial times says the european creditor countries wants 38 specific changes including taxes, wages, and spending. these changes must be made within just the next five days to come. one on the list quoted in the newspaper also says that the measures are so sweeping that they amount to the kind of state building seen in the world's developing countries. as a look at how this is affecting the european stock markets, 19 minutes into today's trading session. this is where we stand. largely a positive picture with the exception of the zurich smi. we've also had some german gdp figures coming out of europe's largest economy. they're showing a contraction of.2%. the fall was largely driven by a decline in exports of this country. those exports dropped by .8%. we should focus on ftse 100. we've had fourth quarter gdps that will come out in 1/2 hour. in light of that, a little bit of nervousness on the ftse 100. that market is only up by .1%. that's a look at how things are fairing in asia on friday's session. these markets, of course, have now closed for the week. they managed to put on a gain in the final hours of trading supported by better than expected jobs and housing data coming out of the united states on thursday. there was some positive news out of south korea. the consumer confidence had been climbing to the highest level. the surging price of oil has helped lift some of the asian energy as well. now let's take you over to wall street and see what happened there on thursday. the major indices all closed in positive territories as investors reacted to better than expected data on u.s. employment. the dow jones industrial average ended .3%. it was shy of the 13,000 mark closing. level of 12984. remember, it surpassed that crucial psychological level on tuesday's session. that brings us back to the levels we've seen before the credit crunch in 2008. when it comes to the s&p 500, the broader indej, that edged up by .4% and ended .8%, the nasdaq. they'll add to some of those gains when they get trading in five hours from now. the final session of the week looks like this, at least according to the early indications of the future markets. all three of those trading in positive territory. the s&p putting on the biggest fwan at least for the moment. now in australia there's a power struggle a the the very peak of politics. the former foreign minister kevin rudd has announced he's going to be challenging the prime minister for the leadership. she replaced him as prime minister in 2010. it seems as though it's pay back time between these two. >> reporter: he is back and he is running. >> julia has lost the trust of the australian people and starting on monday i want to start restoring that trust. >> reporter: kevin rudd says he wants to finish the job he was elect today do in 2007. without him, he says, labor is doomed. >> if we're honest to ourselves, all indications are that we're heading for the rocks at the next election. >> reporter: he flew in this morning still teasing about whether he would challenge at all. after barricading himself at home with his wife and key advisors, he emerged to declare he alone can defeat tony abbott, the most negative political force we have ever seen. >> beating mr. abbott is vital and beating mr. abbott is achievable. he's entirely beatable. >> reporter: the prime minister was among community workers who recently gained a major pay increase under the fair work process. >> isn't that fabulous? >> reporter: kevin rudd has called for people power, for voters to urge their labor people to back them. she dismissed that with barely concealed contempt. >> this is not an episode of celebrity big brother, this is about who should be prime minister. >> reporter: later she made her pitch as the leader who was delivering hard reforms. >> talk is easy. getting things done is harder and i am the person who gets things done. >> reporter: julia gillard repeated that phrase getting things done numerous times. she had another crack at kevin rudd over undermining her government and she won't be written off as a loser. >> i am confident i can lead labor to a victory at the next election. >> reporter: julia gillard believes she will win on monday. the prime minister is holding around 70 caucus votes with 29 solid for kevin rudd and four undecided but that is fluid. so what if he loses? >> i will go to the back bench and i would not challenge julia a second time. >> reporter: that is what they all say. hugh recommending ton, 10 news. still to come on "world business today," things may be grim in greece, but in europe's economy one industrial giant is celebrating. stay with us on cnn. i don't want healthy skin for a day. i want healthy skin for life. 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[ female announcer ] daily moisturizing lotion. and for healthy hair every day, try new pure renewal hair care, with balancing seaweed extract. only from aveeno. yoyou u wawalklk i intna coconvnvenentitiononalal ms ststorore,e, i it't's s ry nonot t ababouout t yoy. ththeyey s sayay, , "w"weleu wawantnt a a f firirm m bebn lilie e onon o onene o of ff yoyou u wawantnt a a s sofou cacan n lilie e onon o onene o " wewe p prorovividede t thet inindidivividudualalizizatat yoyourur b bodody y neneede. wewelclcomome e toto t thehe slsleeeep p nunumbmberer . nonot t jujustst o ordrdininaran sasalele, , bubut t ththe e bn chchanangege y youour r lilifef. ththe e slsleeeep p nunumb. ththisis i is s yoyourur b bodo. yoyou u cacan n sesee e a a lile prpresessusurere i in n th. nonow w yoyou u cacan n fet hahappppenens s asas w we e rarr slsleeeep p nunumbmberer s seted alallolow w ththe e bebed d totr toto y youour r inindidivividud. wowow!w! ththatat f feeeelsls r reae. itit's's h huguggigingng m. itit's's n notot a abobt sosoftft o or r fifirm. itit's's a aboboutut s supuppope yoyou u fifindnd i it t momost. huhurrrry y toto t thehe f fif ththe e ulultitimamatete s slelr evevenent,t, w wheherere n mamattttreresssseses n nowot jujustst $ $59599.9. anand d sasaveve a an n asag 5050% % onon t thehe f fininalat ofof o ourur i innnnovovatae lilimimiteted d ededititio. yoyou u cacan n adadjujustst i r yoyou u wawantnt s so o yoyoue toto w wororryry a aboboutg ththe e wrwronong g mamat. ononlyly t thrhrououghgh s. ononlyly a at t onone e ofo0 slsleeeep p nunumbmberer s. that's a look at thecurrent price of brent crude, the main european contractors. you can see it's down abo about .23%. prices have been climbing by more than 5% over the course of the last week. that's due to the ongoing concerns about iran's nuclear program and also oil supplies coming from that crucial country. hello. welcome back. you're watching "world business today" live on cnn. now the corporate axe hit the chopping block for two companies. the u.s. postal service agreed to close postal plants. these changes will be affecting up to 35,000 jobs and the move is all part of a strategy trying to save the company $20 billion over the next three years to come. we also saw the household goods giant proctor and gamble saying that it was going to be slashing some 5700 jobs. those kind of cuts will be coming by june of next year. this company is well known because it owns several household brands such as tide, gillette, and pringles. the layoffs will be saving it around $800 million by the year 2014. we also had shares of proctor and gamble finishing about 3% higher after that particular announcement. a whole raft of job cuts there. on the other hand, we did have better than expected employment figures coming out of the united states yesterday as well. that helped to mitigate those kind of issues. now in another part of the united states big recruitment drive is underway. several asian airlines have been taking part in the all asia pilot job fair in florida. the event aims to entice pilots. they're offering pretty lucrative salary packages worth around $170,000 per year. the u.s. bureau of labor statistics says the average american pilot earns about $116,000 a year. asia is the fastest growing aviation market. to meet the demand they will need 180,000 new pilots over the next two decades. >> coming up on world business, the united states treasury has sent a message to the god father of japan's most powerful mob family yamagu ch hi. we'll tell you what they said on "world business today." 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"world business today" live on cnn. welcome back to the show. now there hasn't been much good news coming out of europe these days. one bright spot is in the corporate sector. it's released its latest earnings. basf. its net earnings here up almost 36% year on year. this company also managed to squeeze about $8.2 billion out of its sales and those sales were up about 15% from 2010. this result comes in that dip in german gdp. it's also encouraging news for europe's biggest company nonetheless because basf is a huge player. for more on these figures let's go to the chief executive of basf, kurt bach. thanks for coming on "world business today," mr. bach. >> good morning. >> let's start by digesting these earnings figures. earnings up, as we were just saying, and also your sales up. you managed to squeeze more money out of those sales. how are you managing to do so when german gdp is falling? >> let me just say we finished 2011 with record sales. we increased our dividend very nicely by 30 cents. i expect our shareholders will be quite content with that decision. 2012, we are cautiously optimistic. we expect the global economy will continue to grow at last year's level. we see europe is in a slump muddling through. north america is regaining some strength. in asia, frankly, it's too early to say. we have just finished the chinese new year. our assumption is good 8% growth in china. if that happens we will be able to grow our sales and we also strive to increase earnings. what is not possible, frankly, is to beat the record numbers of earnings of the first half of 2011 when we had a restocking effect in the global economy because actually what we saw in q 4 was decreased of volumes and now they are coming back very, very slowly. >> i haven't actually -- >> if we get some tail wind over the course of 2012 then we should finish the year strongly. >> i hadn't gotten to the issues of dividends. let's talk about the high input prices. we've had the price of oil staying at a very high level because of the concerns surrounding iran. also significant currency factors here. how are you managing to weather that kind of storm at the moment? >> i think the oil prices is our biggest concern. the oil price has gone up as we all know. it's our biggest input factor. it has squeezed our margins a little bit over the course of the fourth quarter and we are fighting very, very hard to get our prices before volume strategy. i think that's very important to continue to be a healthy company. our assumption for 2012 is that the oil price will be at about $110. if it goes above that level significant lib, i think that will change the picture quite a bit but, again, it's too early to say. currency fektsz really not that important for basf. we have a fair balanced global structure. we basically produce where we sell so we are not really that much affected by those currency disruptions. >> okay. the chief executive of basf. thank you for joining us. japanese investment firm aij has been ordered to suspend business for a month because of concerns that it's lost most of the 2.6 billion u.s. dollars in pension funds it manages. they belong to more than a hundred japanese firms. public investigators says aij could have been covering up losses for years. it's prompted an investigation which will assess the finances of 260 such similar companies. this comes on the same day as the united states again a crackdown on the funds of organized criminal gangs in japan. the u.s. treasury is going after the financial interests of gentlem yakuza. >> reporter: he is the god father of japan's most powerful mob family. a swaggering, law scoffing, and always hat-wearing crime sind kate leader. now 70 year old kinichi shinoda. they are blocking them from any u.s. trans be actions in an effort to freeze them out of the global financial market. the treasury department announced the crackdown in order to flush them out of global markets. >> there is also a dark side to globalization. while the world now seems smaller and commerce and transactions have become freer and faster, trans national criminal organizations have exploited these advancements to expand their operations and influence and to evade justice. >> the first message is to the yeah ma gu chi and to the yuza. we won't tolerate this. we will come after your money and you. >> reporter: jake addle steen is an investigative journalist in japan and the author of "tokyo advice." he tracks japan's mob. the two mob leaders operate so openly in japan fan magazines and comic books are dedicated to them. their syndicate, the yeah ma goo chi has a far reaching presence. he refers to that as goldman sachs with guns. >> the yakuza set up their own auditing firms and investment houses. they are japan's largest private equity fund. when they're being manipulated, that's not a fair deal for u.s. investors. >> reporter: do you think that this move will be effective? >> as a symbolic gesture it will have an effect, but in real time without the aid of the japanese government it won't have much of an effect at all. >> reporter: japan's national police agency says it is sharing information with the u.s. about organized crime, but japan doesn't have a system to freeze the assets of crime cindy cates like the u.s. does. the u.s. treasury estimates 80,000 mob members operate here in japan using front companies to work in the areas of finance, construction, and real estate. cnn, tokyo. as temperatures in europe continue to rise these days, so do concerns about major flooding along the danube river. we're monitoring these conditions from the cnn weather center. ivan, we've been talking about this. it seems the big thaw is underway. >> it's a big postponement of what could be a disaster for southern europe. at some point all that snow has to melt and go somewhere. you have to get some flooding. now the -- essentially the level of flooding that we get, that's going to be determined by how fast the temperatures warm up. the last few days it has not been good. take a look at this. this is our temperature map here. we have been talking about now the temperatures in southern europe. the warmest we've seen in about a month. that's saying a lot. we do have some cooler air that will return i think towards the latter part of this week and into next week. that will halt a little bit as far as the quick thawing which would be the problem here. this is the danube. of course the main water way here in europe. all that snowfall that has fallen here across the region, the record snowfall, once it melts it's going to go into this water body and that essentially eventually will flow into the black sea. as that happens those river levels could rise dramatically here. the worry is is that areas that don't have significant flood management infrastructure are going to suffer here some great economic losses if not life as we take you into the next few weeks as a result of all of that melting. so we're going to monitor those river levels very closely here. we'll keep you posted through the next couple of weeks. again, temperatures here normally we would be in great shape because this is great warmup here that we are deserving after a horrible winter. again, the problem is that melting down of the south and so we have to halt that. i think we will begin to see temperatures cooling off a little bit with that surge from the north, nina, as we take you into the latter part of the weekend there. i know in london you have been basking in sunshine out there with temperatures about 17 degrees you hit on thursday. just unbelievable here. we don't want those numbers down to the south. too soon too quick. >> yeah. we certainly have had some pretty mild weather here, although as usual, true to form, ivan, it never lasts for the weekend. on that note i'm going to wish you a very good weekend. we'll see you at this time next week. now in our connected world we leave digital footprints everywhere we go these days. next we'll take a look at why google's tracking of our internet use is shocking experts. i'm always looking out for small ways to be more healthy. like splenda® essentials™ no calorie sweeteners. this bowl of strawberries is loaded with vitamin c. ee b vit coffee doesn't have fiber. unless you want it to. line of sweeteners with a small boost of fiber, or antioxidants, or b vitamins in every packet. mmm. same great taste with an added "way to go, me" feeling. splenda® essentials™. get more out of what you put in. hello. i'm nina dos santos at cnn london. welcome back. you're watching "world business today." let's take a look at how the european stock markets are fairing. we have germany fourth quarter gdp figures confirming a contraction to the tune of .2%. that's not affecting the dax or the frankfurt. that market is putting on a gain of some .8%. now we should also mention that the united kingdom will be having gdp figures out later on. imminently, in fact, in the next couple of minutes. despite that you can see the ftse 100 hovering more or less flat. not too much movement before we get any confirmation of which way the gdp will have gone. asian markets closed higher on friday session supported by better than expected jobs and housing data coming out of the united states. on thursday we had the south korean central bank saying that consumer confidence had climbed to its highest level in about three months. we should also mention that the surging oil prices have been lifting some of the asian energy plays and as you can see in light of all of that we have a pretty good picture across the board on friday's session with the biggest gains being seen on the shanghai composite. that market up by 1.25%. let's have a look at wall street on thursday. all of the major indices closed in positive territories. investors reacted to better than expected data on u.s. unemployment. those figures were also boosting the asian markets in today's session i was telling you about before. when it comes to the actual figures, the dow jones industrial average ended the session at .3%. standing at 12,984. do remember that it sur piesed the crucial 13,000 mark on tuesday, and that brings us back to pre-credit crunch levels. the s&p 500 edged up .4% on the day. technology heavy nasdaq added .8%. google's new one for all policy on how it uses your information is facing some pretty strong criticism these days. as cnn dan simon demonstrates, it's even harder to get control of your own private information these days. take a look. >> reporter: in the morning i check the headlines on google news. send some personal e-mail using google's g. mail. i may check google maps for driving directions. later at work i remember to do a google search for plumbers. i also need to do research for this story. more searches. later i'll glangs at my google calendar for appointments, upload some videos to youtube, and maybe i'll log on to google plus, the company's growing social network. and some variation of this happens almost every single day. >> google knows almost everything about you. >> reporter: that's why privacy watchdogs like peter eckerlesly are sounding the alarm about their privacy. beginning next month they'll keep track of all of your activity across all of the sites and build a profile. they'll use the information to improve its services, services where, for example, a user is likely to get better search results. >> we'll understand that when you search for jaguar, you're lacking for a jaguar. >> reporter: they say it's stomping on privacy to bolster its advertising and increase profits. >> if there are things you want to keep private about your life, those records are all in there. if there are things that you actually need to prevent other people from knowing about you, those will be in there. >> reporter: those already nervous about the company's influence pounced when it became known last week that google exploited a known weakness in apple safari browser bypassing the privacy settings. >> when i first found what google was doing, i thought i had it wrong. >> reporter: jonathan mayer is the one who uncovered the breech. on the surface he says it may not seem like a serious transgression. google's code was only being used to target ads. for some web searches believed to be private were not and that, mayer, opens the door to private information being exposed by rogue employees, internet hacking and more. >> doesn't get disclosed because an employee is evil, because a company messes up. does it get disclosed because the government demands it? >> reporter: as for the new policy google acknowledges that, quote, people have different privacy concerns. our goal is to be clear about what information we collect so that you can make meaningful choices about how it is used. the bottom line, people use google because it offers important and useful services that are free. >> at this point absolutely have to trust google. in a sense google is probably more trustworthy than a lot more of the other companies. because they know so much about us we have to hold them to a high standard of trust. in the u.s. another state looks set to ban the sale of a controversial food. legislators in new york are working on a bill that will ban shark fin, trading, distribution of these fins. scientists estimate that up to 73 million sharks are killed every single year to satisfy the appetite of shark fin soup putting some species to the brink of extinction and destabilizing the entire marine ecosystem. new york is the latest state to move against the shark fin trade following these states shown here in orange which have already passed laws banning it. they include california, hawaii, oregon, and also washington. these states, florida, maryland and virginia have legislation pending. one's appetite for fine wines appears to be waning. chinese wine investors are also contributing to the slump as well. >> reporter: it's here, nestled under the trees and in the high hills of hong kong island that we find this, crown wine cell lars. we're here because it bills itself as hong kong's first high end fine wine repository that's devoted to the collection and the future trade of fine wines. founded in 2004 using pre-world 2 weapon storage bunkers today it stores some of the finest wines in the world. right now i'm 30 meters underground with greg ebb of crown wine sellers. chinese wine investors are sourg on some bourdeaux. >> three reasons. the economic downturn. i would qualify and say there's been a downturn in younger vint tajs rather than older vintages. third of all, there is a problem with counter fitting. it's more difficult to couldn't ter fit the older vint tajs. >> reporter: if chinese main landers are balance being, some are moving to a more expensive old wine, burgundy. >> burgundy appears to be platinum. production is far less. the prices achieved recently are quite phenomenal. >> we have a drc i understand. can you tell us about that? >> yes. drc, this is the acknowledged big boy amongst burgandy. this 1961, for example, is 104,000 hong kong dollars, so about $12,50 o per u.s. bottle. >> they're not only looking at old world wines, but new world wines. >> leading the charge, california wines from napa valley. we have screaming eagle which is one of the old acknowledged grates. even great movie directors have bought in. this is his rubicon wine. >> to what extent are main land chinese buyers driving the market here in hong kong and around the world? >> i would say they're a significant addition to the markets but top end buys are hong kong dese from this area. >> bottom line diversified portfolio, little bit of all of them. >> absolutely. >> thank you very much. >> my pleasure. that's remi in hong kong reporting on wine sales in asia. we've had the second gdp reading. we know now that it shrank by.2%. what this does is puts the u.k. on track perhaps towards a recession because if we get a second quarter shrinking output, that would technically put this economy in a definition of a technical recession, which is two successive quarters of shrinking output. u.k. grows domestic product decreasing by .2%. asia, the feud between the u.s. casino mogul win and o 'carter has taken a twist. he has been booted off the board of the win makou, the chinese based subsidiary. it comes after carter is said to have -- carter made 110,000 on unauthorized payments in the philippines where he wants to build a gambling resort. >> it's shaping up to be a fight to the finish in some of the key categories for this year's academy awards. the ceremony will be held this sunday. entertainment correspondent karen winter sizes up the competition there. >> george clooney and brad pitt are going toe to toe. melissa mccarthy and octavia spencer are neck to neck. "showbiz tonight" can tell you these academy award nominees and long time pals make up the hottest oscar showdowns this year. >> i hope you were the groom. >> they were teaming up in oceans 11. >> we're going to shake things up. >> pit shook up a lead actor nomination for "moneyball." >> clooney did the same. >> it sounds like the rivalry is heating up. >> what's up with this competition going on? >> there's nothing friendly about it. i'm going to tell you that right now. >> we're going to wrestle it out at the end. we're going to fight it out. last man standing takes it all. >> my money's on brad. i mean in a fist fight. >> they're not the only big stars squaring off on the road to gold. >> i can whoop meryl streep's bebehind in a good old-fashioned street fight. as far as the oscars, i don't know that. >> "the help's" viola davis may not know. "showbiz tonight" can tell you she's currently the favorite in the lead actress category despite being nominated against meryl streep. >> viola's co-star in the help octavia spencer tells us she's honored to battle it out. that big showdown pits her against her pal, brides made standout, melissa mccarthy. >> if it were people i didn't know maybe it would be a competitive thing. i know what she's been through and she knows what i've been through. we're thrilled to be there side by side. >> side by side or head to head, the showdowns will be decided on the oscar stage. no matter who ends up with the gold, the contenders seem to be enjoying it. >> he's really nice. it's fun. so the battle seems to be hotting up on the road for gold there. the oscar ceremony will be taking place on sun. that was kareen wynter reporting from california. in the meantime, that's it for this edition of "world business today." i'm nina dos santos. do join us again in about four hours' time in the second edition where we'll bring you the opening bell in new york. in the meantime you're watching cnn, the world's news leader. this week on marketplace middle east, as tehran turns up the oil taps in franz, we head for the straits of hormuz to get a look at the increasing tensions in the gulf. plus challenges in tunisia as the country drops a new constitution. we sit down with the prime minister to assess tunisia's political road ahead. i'm leone. a wave of international sanctions have been brought hitting iran's already struggling economy in retaliation tehran announces it suspended oil sales to britain. the united states nuclear watchdog visited tehran for the second time in a month. the group failed to reach an agreement with the government on how to verify the nation's nuclear program is peaceful. headed to the straits of hormuz off the coast of iran to get a firsthand look at the growing tensions in the gulf. >> reporter: it's the latest escalation in the standoff over iran's nuclear program. the country's president, mahmoud ahmadinejad is celebrating what it says is the installation of its first domestically made fuel rod. the announcement raised concerns that they could be closer to building anatomic bomb even as they maintain that it's for peaceful purposes. the west worried about tehran's next move is keeping watch. we're aboard the u.s.s. abraham lincoln as it patrols the persian gulf. iran has recently threatened to close the vital straits of hormuz in response to international sanctions imposed because of its controversial nuclear program. the abraham lincoln is here to prevent that. >> would he have' been operating in the arabian gulf, we'll almost on a daily basis interact with their small boats. they send maritime patrol aircraft out to observe us. things that you would expect them to do. they're very close to their home waters. we would do the same thing if we had foreign navys operating off the coast of california. >> in the super carrier transited through the strait of hormuz, iranian navy patrol boats were close by watching every move. the strait of hormuz is a narrow water way between oman and iran. about 20% of the world's oil supply goes through the congested shipping lane. shutting it down would drastically affect world oil prices slowing down exports from saudi arabia, the u.a.e., and also iraq where the country's deputy prime minister for oil affairs tells me baghdad is alarmed. >> all oil exporting countries of the gulf, including iran, should be concerned. much of the world oil export goes through the strait of hormuz. i think it's best to really calm down this situation and explain that it is not in anybody's interest to interrupt the oil flow through the straits. >> reporter: certainly not in iraq's interests. it's trying to boost its economy by, among other things, exploiting untapped oil reserves. one of the most exciting is in the south close to the iranian border. the field with an estimated 18 billion barrels of oil. >> reporter: this oil field is still in the early stages of its development but it's supposed to play a key role in iraq's efforts to drastically increase its oil exports and to play a major role in the world of oil supply. >> reporter: eye rag wants to increase its oil exports by 4 million barrels a day. almost all of the oil it sells, about 90%, goes through the strait of hormuz. >> iraq has tried in the past and continues to try to bring some kind of meaningful dialogue between the u.s. and the west in general and iran, at times we have almost succeeded, actually, to have a break through, but we'll have to continue to keep on trying harder. and to diffuse the current tension. >> reporter: it looks like a lot more effort is needed as iran has announced it will stop selling oil to various eu countries in retaliation for a boycott of iranian oil. while the u.s. keeps a watchful eye and says it is prepared to step in should iran try to inhibit oil shipping through this important market way. i'm at the oil field in southern iraq. two nearby yeah is hosting the friends of syria conference this week to increase pressure on the president bashar al-assad. a dropped constitution based on islamic law was proposed this week sparking concern among the country's suck u lar lists. we asked what it would mean to have a constitution based on islamic law. >> translator: first of all, we believe the constitution needs to be liberal, moderate and open. it gives tunisian women the power to hold power. these are not only for alnada, they are for the whole tunisian nation and values for the whole world. these are universal values. that's why almost all the different political parties and the tunisian society agree on these values. >> reporter: this is a smaller scale in tunisia to pull off a coalition government, if you will. can you see this translating into egypt now that we've seen such a rise in the islamic parties throughout north africa? >> translator: we believe before anything arab societies, like all societies in the world, are becoming plural list societies. they don't accept one party or one opinion. for that you have to go into a coalition government that brings together the islamists, secular list, liberals and others. that's a goal in itself because any centralization of power will eventually lead to dictatorship. >> reporter: there's so much pent up frustration, if i can put it that way, with youth unemployment. it was the trigger point, the lack of opportunity through all classes of owe site. how do you manage expectations a year after the uprisings to create the foreign investments to create jobs? >> translator: now the challenge is that he we came during a time we call post revolution where there is a lack of security and a public demand for urgency. the capabilities of the country are limited. investments depend on security, which is only achieved by resolving the social problem. so it's a triangle. you need to invest to create jobs and investments need security. security is only achieved once you've responded to public demand. so with our humble capabilities, we will put together all our efforts and with the support of those who believe the tunisian model must succeed, we will try to respond with what we can to improve the social issues and protect the political initiative. up next, growing oscar ambitions. with the awards ceremony taking place this week end, we look at how the uae is aiming high to get a piece of the global film industry. 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[ male announcer ] engine light on? come to meineke now for a free code scan read and you'll say...my money. my choice. my meineke. when you think of the glitz and glamor of the oscars, the united arab emirates is not the first place that comes to mind but times are changing. films like the oscar nominated film "the help" and the filming of mission impossible 4 in dubai has raised the country's profile. >> action. >> reporter: the scene is now part of cinematic history. tom cruise's character, ethan hunt, scaling the world's tallest tower, dubai's bush alita. the death defying stunt is one of the scenes in the latest installment of the mission impossible series and brought new focus to dubai from international film makers. >> we were dumfounded that the city rose out of the desert. we knew we wanted to make a movie there. >> the united arab emirates has put new focus on the film industry. it's boosted by appearances from hollywood royalty. in 2011 the film industry is said to have contributed more than $40 million to dubai's economy. the mission impossible shoot in dubai was facilitated by the production company, film works, established back in 1998, the company's ceo has seen the growth in the uae's production capabilities. transitioning from business that largely focused on tv and commercial productions. >> reporter: what do you need to do to increase the growth in the feature film industry then? >> we just need more government support. >> reporter: you mean like incentives? >> incentives. film festivals. things to attract films. >> reporter: incentives not only to put the uae on the stage but also to develop its own talent. >> it requires every white home to have a separate bathroom for "the help." >> maybe we should build you a wath room outside. >> reporter: abu dhabi co produced the oscar nominee, "the help." >> we're blessed with having many financial resources. our most precious commodity is human capital. we can't afford to lose that. we need to provide young people with the opportunities to grow and develop here. >> image nation has invested in lolly wood block busters like con taj gown. it says the proceeds will be reinvested domestically. >> we want be to stand the same test that warner brothers or paramount or mca has to pass, which is we want to make films that other people want to see and make money. >> reporter: grand ambitions for a nation that has plenty of resources but it's a film industry that's still in its early stages. it's up not just against the western market but the more developed industries in the region like morocco, egypt, lebanon. for more about the program, visit our website cnn.com/mme. send your comments by e-mail to mme@cnn.com. check out our web page in arabic. that's it for this edition of marketplace middle east. thanks for watching.