parties in parliament called on murdoch to dump his plans to pursue it. at least four members of the u.s. congress want the government to investigate whether u.s. citizens were victims of phone hacking by murdoch s media outlets. international journalists were attempted to hack into the phone messages of 9/11 victims. > ruling party officials say mr. salih will go back after he s 4 surgery. those are the headlines. those are the headlines in cnn in london. world business today starts now. very good morning to you from cnn rome. and good afternoon from cnn hong kong. i m pauline chu and this is world business today. these are the top stories on this thursday, july 14th. running on empty and running out of time on both sides of the atlantic. there s a tense stalemate in washington as lawmakers fail yet again to head off the looming debt default. meanwhile, italy races to push through austerity measures and restore confidence in the country s economy. plus, rupert
errol, the story about the yen was definitely the talk of the business world today. a financial fallout continues to follow the crisis still unfolding in japan. early thursday morning in the wee hours of the morning, the japanese yen hit its strongest level against the dollar since world war ii and that was $1 to 7625 yen surpassing its highest level set back in 1995. now, right now the yen is trading against the dollar at 79 yen to the dollar. it s still broken past that 80 high yen mark, sort of the psychological barrier, a super strong yen is a big issue. exporters want a weaker yen and that s because japanese companies sell most of their products overseas. when they bring their earnings back home and convert them back into yen, a weaker yen means they make more in profits. now, take a look at what s been