this is bbc world news, the headlines. at least 29 people have been killed and dozens more injured in a series of explosions at a fireworks market on the outskirts of mexico city. similar blasts destroyed parts of the market in 2005 and 2006. german police have urged people to be on heightened alert as they search for the driver of the truck that ploughed into a christmas market in berlin on monday evening, killing 12 people. a pakistani asylum seeker arrested shortly after the attack has been released without charge. president 0bama has banned new oil and gas drilling in us arctic waters and introduced significant new curbs in the atlantic for the next five years. the move, one of his last major environmental protection actions, could prove difficult to reverse. at least 20 people have been killed in clashes in kinshasa, capital of the democratic republic of congo. there's anger over president joseph kabila's refusal to stand down — his term officially ended on monday. now for the latest financial news with sally bundock and world

business report. the bell tolls for the world's oldest bank. italy's banca monte dei paschi di sienna faces a deadline to raise $5.2 billion from private investors today. if it fails state intervention is unavoidable. living under a cloud — the millions in north—east china stranded by extreme air pollution — we are live in beijing for the latest. welcome to world business report. i'm sally bundock. the clock is ticking for the troubled lender banco monte dei paschi di sienna. the italian bank is seeking just over $5 billion in new investment to help it stay afloat —

today is the final deadline for existing investors and other retail investors to purchase new shares. the new italian prime minister has sought parliamentary approval for an emergency bailout package worth some $20 billion in the event that private sector assistance doesn't materialise. this would prove contentious as investors who have already lent to the bank will be penalised under eu laws which came into force earlier in the year. poor quality loans are one of the biggest issues facing italy's banking sector. in total, the country's lenders sit on around 370 billion dollars worth of bad debt. this accounts for about 40% of all the non—performing loans in the eurozone. ben kumar is investment manager at seven investment management. good morning, then. how this particular bank get into so much trouble? as you say, bad loans are

the focus. when you are the oldest bank in the world, maybe your regulations, maybe the way you assess loans, is a bit more of different to modern banks. it is based on relationships, how long they have been going and if you have been lending to a family or a business hundreds of years, the credit checks aren't of the same quality as some of the newer banks. the new banks have had trouble as well. banca monte dei paschi di sienna this year has had a problem lending money to people who couldn't afford to pay it back. it has been going on now for centuries. as we know, for some weeks they have been grappling together to try and save this bank. it has been reported that they managed to get around 500 million euros. that is nowhere near their target. will they raise the funds? element they have a few ways to do it. debt to equity swap, not appealing. they have some big

investors. 0ne appealing. they have some big investors. one of the biggest italian insurers owes about 180 million of shares. —— owns. there aren't many other big investors like that in the bond market who you can guarantee will swap into equity. explain why are swapping into equity isn't an attractive option. you are kind of swapping a guarantee for something that is not a guarantee. it is difference between a bond where you get what you meant to equity way you go over 100 euros and then you hope the bank doesn't go bust and you get some money back when you can. you can see why that is not attractive to people who thought bonds were stable. let's assume they don't get that money they need and required today. the ultimate deadline is december 30

one. it is not reached, the debt—to—equity swap is unwound and no one has to go through it and the italian government has to come through and bailout banca monte dei paschi di sienna. a lot of investors will find out their safe investment has become unsafe indeed. will find out their safe investment has become unsafe indeedm will find out their safe investment has become unsafe indeed. it will be difficult for the relatively new prime minister who has only been there since december 12. thank you for coming in. as you know, we will be across a story today as it developed. in other news: us president barack 0bama has permanently banned new oil and gas drilling in us atlantic and arctic waters, in one of his last major environmental protection actions before leaving office next month. mr 0bama invoked a provision of a 1953 law which will be difficult for president—elect donald trump to reverse. volkswagen has struck a deal with the us authorities over some 80,000 vw, audi and porsche cars with 3—litre diesel engines. the agreement is another step towards allowing the german car maker to put the emissions cheating scandal behind it. injune vw agreed to a $15 billion settlement for another 475,000 vehicles affected by the scandal.

the new agreement will cost volkswagen an estimated $1 billion. nike, the world's leading sportswear manufacturer, has posted better—than—expected profits following a rebound in its basketball business. profits rose 7.3% to $842 million in the three months to november, while revenue jumped 6.4% to $8.18 billion. nike's basketball category and thejordan brand accounted for about 15% of nike's wholesale revenue in 2016. another executive has left twitter. adam messinger who is chief technology officer is leaving just weeks after its chief operating officer resigned. twitter‘s shares have lost 23% this year, leaving the company with a market value of $12.8 billion. a strike by airport baggage handlers and check—in staff in the uk planned for friday and christmas eve

has been called off. more than 1,500 members of the unite union employed by swissport had been due to walk out for 48 hours in a row over pay and conditions. the strike was called off following talks at the conciliation service acas. swissport confirmed it had made a revised offer, which the union would recommend to its members. the chinese capital beijing has been blanketed in thick smog since the weekend leading the authorities there to take drastic action to minimise the pollution crisis. factories have been forced to slow down or pause production, flights have been cancelled and highways closed because of low visibility. yet, despite these red alert provisions the air pollution situation continues to deteriorate. stephen mcdonnell is in our beijing bureau. we can see behind you the live shot

of the smog. this is pretty debilitating and i know that business leaders i have spoken to who are considering china are thinking they won't have offices in beijing for this reason. as you mentioned, the view here from the bureau tells the story. normally there is a park and the cbd which you can see. we can't see it at the moment and that is because this huge city is covered in this toxic veil of pollution. as you mentioned, the provisions to try and reduce this. good knows how bad it could have been. —— goodness knows. you mentioned factory closures. we had a look at that and apparently some 1200 factories were told to stop producing. cars have gone on to an odds and evens and numberplate system which has cut the traffic in half and yet, pollution levels, if

we talked about pm 2.5 are still well over 400 in beijing and much worse in a nearby province when we are talking 600, 700. i think one date even registered as 1000. what will the authorities do next? at the moment, they are trying to worry about them getting through the next few days. many flights have been cancelled because of poor visibility. freeways shut down because of the same reason. schoolchildren have been told to stay at home. i think they are hoping that all of this can reduce the problem but really, theyjust need the wind to come along and clear this. in terms of long—term solutions, well, it's closing down the most clapped—out factories, it shutting down the worst of the

coal—fired power stations here which are still pretty terrible. beijing has moved a lot of industry out of the city area into other provinces and possibly that's why the problem gets worse the further you get from the city but it poses a big problem for people wanting to do business here. this is the centre of government in beijing. if you want to do business in china, you need to come to beijing and many large companies are based here for that very reason. all right. they have huge problem to deal with. banks we re huge problem to deal with. banks were your time and telling us what is going on. we will talk of that in more detail. a quick look at the markets. the us and europe had a good session yesterday so asia are riding on the coattails of that. japan is down slightly by one third ofa japan is down slightly by one third of a percent. you up—to—date with business stories. i will see very $0011. after the attack in berlin, authorities throughout europe,

including britain, have been revisiting their security arrangements for christmas and new year. here in the uk, the threat level remains unchanged at severe, which means a terror attack is highly likely. here's our security correspondent, gordon corera. the christmas events that are supposed to be a time ofjoy are now tinged with anxiety. the warning signs were there. just a month ago, the us advised its citizens to be careful around holiday markets in europe. so could the attack in berlin have been prevented and can future events be kept safe? we did increase security but we can't enforce them across all markets. there are so many possibilities to kill people with a

truck. france's bastille day, in nice, showed the carnage a lorry could cause, 86 were killed. so—called islamic state also claimed responsibility for that attack, although authorities never found much evidence of direct contact with the driver. although authorities never found much evidence of direct contact with the driver. in the uk, there have been years of work to protect crowded places. that included this project, developing bollards and blocks, which can absorb the massive impact of a truck and stop it reaching its target, but one former head of counterterrorism says we can't rely on these measures alone. at birmingham's christmas market, bollards were already in place. manchester police say they are now increasing patrols. in london, plans to shut off roads around buckingham palace during the changing of the guard have been brought forward because of berlin. security officials believe the uk is more prepared than the rest of europe, but they also caution that no—one should be complacent about the threat. gordon corera, bbc news.

coming up at 6am on breakfast — dan walker and louise minchin will have all the day's news, business and sport. the top stories this hour. at least 29 people have been killed and dozens more injured in a series of explosions at a fireworks market on the outskirts of mexico city. similar blasts destroyed parts of the market in 2005 and 2006. german police have urged people to be on heightened alert as they search for the driver of the truck that ploughed into a christmas market in berlin on monday evening, killing 12 people. a pakistani asylum seeker arrested shortly after the attack has been released without charge. president 0bama has banned new oil and gas drilling in us arctic waters and introduced significant new curbs in the atlantic for the next five years. the move, one of his last major environmental protection actions, could prove difficult to reverse for the incoming trump administration. now it is time for our news review.

more on the truck attack in berlin which killed 12 people. der spiegel online calls it "germany's nightmare, merkel‘s nightmare." the german chancellor's name is also trending online in the us. this article looks at how the attack will shake up the country's politics at a time when angela merkel is heading into an election. the philippine star has a call by the un human rights chief to philippine authorities to investigate president rodrigo duterte for murder, following his claims that he killed drug suspects when he was a mayor. the china daily looks at the smog problem sweeping beijing and the north of the country. it says researchers now suspect steelmakers are the major cause of the smog. the situation exacerbated by the rise in steel prices leading to increased steel production. how does earning £1 a second, or, say, $74 usd a minute sound? well, the mirror has done the sums and that's how much footballer carlos tevez stands to earn if he accepts a deal with chinese super league

team shanghai shenhua. and "surreal" is the 2016 word of the year. the washington post has looked into the story. the word was searched by people online after moments of great shock and tragedy, with the single biggest spike on november 9, the day donald trump was made president—elect. it was the most searched word, apparently, according to the dictionary merriam—webster. joining us is iain anderson, founder of the international communications agency, cicero global. words are very important to you. we will come to the word surreal in a moment. good morning. some of the more sensationalist media in germany have pictures of angela merkel