united states, and spying for the cia. ven ne swale len president chaff vez -- mahmoud ahmadinejad is going to cuba, ecuador and nicaragua. he's hoping to shore shore up support. an american pop star surprised her fans when she announced her pregnancy to the world during the mtv video awards back in august. beyonce and her husband, jay-z, welcomed their baby girl into the world in new york on saturday. her name is blue ivy carter. the official announcement has not been made yet, but their industry friends tweeted their friends. those are the top stories from cnn. "world business today" starts now. welcome to new week of "world business today." i'm nina dell santos. >> i'm andrew. in hong kong the top stories this monday, january the 9th. zbroo europe takes center stage on the markets as we have another big week for the struggling currency. new zealand tries to contain its worst ever environmental disaster after a cargoship marooned for months splits in two. we'll speak to the country's transport minister. and an indefinite nationwide strike is underway in nigeria. after fuel prices double in africa's biggest oil producer. so we're seeing a little bit of cautious optimism creeping into the markets at the start of a new trading week. asian markets were broadly higher. european markets are broadly mixed and it's europe that is likely to once again dominate this week. the germ man trans ler angel la merkel and nicholas sarkozy are holding more talks today on rescuing the eurozone. across the atlantic it's the unofficial start of corporate earning season. nina, it will be europe outweighing the u.s. as far as investor interest is concerned this week. yeah, that's one of the consistent themes that we've seen over the course of the last year. as you ring in a new year, andrew, it's difficult for the corporate earnings to move the economic agenda. let's talk about the things we've got moving in the market. broadly speaking it's a question of two up, two down. we should point out it is a very big week here in europe with the ongoing concerns about debt once again in the forefront of investor's minds. they're weary ahead of a planned meeting between the leaders of france and germany. they're also concerned about things like, for instance, spain and italy holding debt sales later on in the week. italy in particular will be holding its first debt sale of the year and that has been the particular country when it comes to bond sales that people have been worried about. we've also got the greek prime minister papa dame mows saying he needs to secure more bailout reforms for that country. we've got another interest rate decision in the back of this coming from the european central bank. it's expected to keep interest rates on hold at 1% when it meets thursday. those are the things that are weighing in the back of investors' minds. they haven't made up their mind today. absolutely. a very similar picture, very similar sentiment, they haven't made their minds up in asia either. much like hong kong, clawing back, it was down more than 1%. it had losses late in the day. the hang seng was up by 1.5%. debt concerns are leading investor sentiment across here. we have the good jobless numbers from the u.s. on friday. jobs being created pretty much across the board. 200,000 new jobs for the month of december. certainly didn't help the u.s. market, wall street much on friday, but a bit of a delayed boost coming in asia today. shanghai, they're up. he is vowing to protect investor rights in china. some investment houses are talking about a 30% pop for the china markets this year. watch that space. now australia, interesting number here. down just a fraction, but we had some retail sales numbers out of australia today showing that consumer buying virtually stalled in november. it was flat after a .4% rise the month before. this flat retail sales is now fueling talk of another interest rate cut in australia. japan was closed today. finally there in india, notice they're down another .25%. it was down 1% before. news out of india today, reaction out of india, is to the indian prime minister announcing a cut in the country's economic growth down to 7% for 2012 from 8.5% last year. that is a big cutback. it's lower than the 7.5% currently which was predicted by the government just last month. the actual reserve bank is still predicting about 7.6 percent. mr. sing admitting india is going through difficult times. no kidding. there's virtual policy gridlock in parliament. not just the u.s., also in india as well. very high interest rates which has been pulling back growth. so the government figures what we've seen, we've had growth in 2008 of 6.7%. i don't know if we can get the numbers up. no, we can't. basically it has been one of the best growing economies in the world in recent years. so 7% is quite a long way off the pace. also the stock market down something like 25% last year. interesting to see how it responds to these pronouncements from the government. certainly, nina, doesn't look likely we'll see much of a pop in india this year. andrew, let's go from one of the world's fastest growing economies like india to the world's largest growing economy. i'm talking about the u.s. futures markets. this is how things stand at the moment when it comes to u.s. equities futures. wall street looks like it's poised for a slightly higher trading. anything can change between now and then. this positive sentiment is largely falling off on the back of friday's job support. that appears to have been carried over into the new week outweighing any concerns of a new europe. job figures is one of the reasons why we're seeing the figures up. we have five hours before trading starlts on wall street and anything can happen between now and then. absolutely. the way europe's going these days, everything probably will happen between now and the opening of wall street. have a busy week ahead. the fate of the euro may overshadow the fourth quarter earnings. they kick off the day with alcoa. let's go to randy on what investors are going to be focusing on this week. no shortage of news expected. >> that's exactly right. the leaders of germany and france will be meeting this week. they'll be talking about how to save the euro over the next three months. the euro is at a 16-month low against the u.s. dollar. then on wednesday ms. merkel is going to be speaking with mario monti, the italian prime minister. that is in advance of italy's first bond auction of the year. that is set for friday. in its last bond auction of last year yields on its ten year debt sort above the crucial 7% mark. that level makes investors nervous because that has forced other countries in europe to seek bailouts. aside from those meetings we have loads of financial data this week too. from the u.s. and china in particular. on wall street alcoa unofficially kicks off earning season today. they're expected to report a loss of 2 cents a share. on friday jpmorgan chase is the first of big financials to report. they are the earnings are expected to be 17% lower than the same quarter last year. china, we have trade surplus numbers coming out on tuesday. the country's sin want news says it the surplus will be down. looking ahead to thursday. well, china releases its december inflation data. the cpi. you knew that is expected to come in at around 4%. if true, that would be its slowest rate of inflation in 15 months. looking ahead to the second half of the program we have an interview with imf chief in the face of a falling euro, she is confident the currency will stay afloat. >> i have no doubt in my mind that the euro partners be determined to keep it alive and to keep it solid. with a different architecture than two or three years ago. >> and there's much more of that. cnn's robin ker now has that later in the show. thanks very much for that. nina? drew, it's try to focus on some of the other top business stories. u.s. treasury secretary timothy geithner is in asia this week. part of the discussions will include encouraging both countries, china and japan, in putting financial pressure on iran to stop its nuclear weapons program. "wall street journal" is reporting that the japanese camera maker olympus has filed lawsuits against current and former members of its board. the move is based on advice from a panel set up to give the company legal guidance. owe lum pus says it will announce its full plans on tuesday. the company admitted to kofrlg up $1.7 billion in losses last year after the former ceo michael woodford made the scandal public. on friday he said he would give up his effort to return to the ceo's job of olympus. the nation court has found opposition leader an war ibrahim not guilty. his political career han been plagued by accusations of sodomy and corruption. an war served six years in prison on sodomy charges beginning in 1998. that was until malaysia's highest court overturned the conviction. they say it also proves malaysia has an independent justice system. now in new zealand they're bracing for another oil spill after the breakup of a stranded cargo ship. coming up after the break, what authorities are trying to do to prevent another environmental disaster. only from visine®. just one drop instantly soothes and revives tired, overworked eyes. and comforts them for up to ten hours. visine® tired eye relief. try now and save $3. d you need a little help with your mortgage, want to avoid foreclosure. candy? um-- well, you know, you're in luck. we're experts in this sort of thing, mortgage rigamarole, whatnot. why don't we get a contract? who wants a contract? [honks horn] [circus music plays] here you go, pete. thanks, betty. betty: we're out of toner. announcer: if you're facing foreclosure, talk to the right people. speak with hud-approved housing counselors free of charge at... they're bracing themselves for another environmental disaster as they're trying to contain an oil spill from a cargoship that ran aground three months ago. it broke in two because of bad weather at the weekend. about 150 shipping containers and other debris has fallen into the sea and have now begun washing up on beaches in the area. the reason a ran aground on the reef during what should have been a routine entry into the north island port of toranga. it quickly became new zealand's worst ever environmental disaster. the captain and first officer were arrested a week later. now since then salvage workers have managed to pump off most of the remaining oil and begun to remove the ship's cargo, but that work was stopped on saturday when the rena finally split in two. the transport minister joins us from the capital of wellington. minister, thanks very much for joining us. what is the biggest risk -- environmental risk that the rena now poses? >> well, it's just a matter of how much oil still remains in that ship. worst case, it could be 100 cubic meters. it could be contained in a tank that's in the ar shall section of the ship which may possibly move off the reef and sink and could be released at that point. that would be a worst case. if we are able to control it sinking, then the oil may be still on one of those tanks, it could be pumped out from below sea. >> can i just ask, what is 100 cubic meters? how much oil is that? >> that would be i suppose a cubic meter must be 1,000 liters so it's 100,000 liters. >> does the containers that are coming off the rena now pose a threat for shipping in the area? >> at the moment most of those containers have been identified. there's still i think it's 40 containers that have not been located. most of them have buoys or anchors on them. they can be lifted out of the sea. we're trying to manage it as much as possible, but it's one of those things, it's a pretty dynamic situation. if you get calm days, you can do a lot. if you have rough days, over the weekend we had 12, 16 meters hitting that ship that caused the ship to break in two. it's calm today and it should be okay for the rest of the week. progressively calm for the rest of the week. if it does flare-up again at some point it will do further damage. you're into the same sort of thing. try to manage the debris that comes off a ship like that. >> how many containers are still on the ship and do any of the containers that may actually fall into the water, is there any sort of chance that they're containing toxic material which could also leak out? >> we understand there's about 300 still left on the ship. i'm sorry, 800 still left on the ship. there are some on there that do have dangerous goods in them. there's a by-product on the ship that dilutes quickly when it comes in contact with water. there's not too much that can cause any of the sort of problems that you might get from more dangerous substances. >> just very quickly, minister, given the vagaries of the weather, how long do you think it will be before this situation is fully controlled and you have secured the area, if you like? >> well, that really is the million question. we simply don't know. at the moment i think it's fair to say that we're going about the treatment of the issues that come from a rig like this in as environmentally responsible a manner as we can, but the thing is lodged past the reef. the debris that's lodged away is clinging on. you could sink it. it's a great question. it's one we'd like to be able to answer. it's a day-by-day treatment that's required on this circumstance. >> thanks very much for joining us. nina? there's been more drama on the high seas off the coast of western australia. about 25 kilometers off shore three activists bored a japanese vessel. the men boarded the ship under the cover of darkness and were subsequently detained. they boarded the ship in support of the sea shepherd conservation society which patrols the southern ocean which tries to prevent the whaling fleet from operating there. >> short break. we'll be back after this with a check of your global forecast including conditions around the rena off new zealand's coast. welcome back to "world business today." it's been an abysmal ski season for north american resorts as a dry, mild winter continues. it's the same reason you have not been able to take part there in the skiing in the alpine region in europe. we'll explain what's been happening as far as the atmosphere is concerned. want to focus in on north america. take a look at this map. dramatic stuff. this is from january of this year and take a look at the very little snow cover that is across the west. watch what happens when i put this back a year. this is the way it looked this time last year. about almost 50% north america covered in snow whereas today we're running at 50%. not just in the west, but here in the north. the northern tier, this is the present, right? we have no snow in the ap pa lash shas. you have to go well to the north to get into some snowfall here. this time last year we had plenty of snowfall. we were covering the snow that stranded many passengers in the uk. the jet stream is in charge and when it does what i'm about to show you, things can go awry. this happens. vail resort is operating, 15% your shares are down since christmas weekend. 15 is a big number there. that is how many less people are visiting. you don't have snow, you don't go skiing. that's the way the math is going to work. the way the jet stream has been working is we are in what's called a positive arctic oscillation. what that basically means is that we do not allow the arctic air, it's there, it is not allowed to come down. we haven't opened the flood gates here as far as the jet stream is concerned. we have continued with this mild winter in north america and in europe. the exact opposite is what we had last year which is weaker polar winds. that allowed for the arctic air masses to spill on in. you had the significant amounts of snow again in the uk. we cannot predict these oscillations but we can tell you when they're happening. europe, beginning to see some changes here. we are snowing here so some changes in europe as opposed to north america. i think we'll be looking much better. as you know, the alpine region here has been getting snowed on the last few weeks. certainly some good news there in europe but not so much in the western u.s. nina? ivan, as always, many thanks for that. andrew? nina, i don't know what ivan was up to yesterday and i don't want to know to be honest. sunday was pants free metro ride day. that's right. on subway systems around the world commuters stripped to their underwear in an annual prank that began in new york city a decade ago. if you're wondering why, organizers say it was just a bit of fun. doesn't look like it's specific either. bottoms up from passengers all the way from washington to poland. you've got to wonder why they'd want to do it in the winter though. nineteen that? must be rather chilly out there in one's underwear. one would have thought. still little snow in the united states as ivan was telling us. still to come on "world business today," we'll hear the head of the international monetary fund's progress on saving europe's economy just ahead. welcome back. you're watching "world business today." i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. i'm nina dos santos in london. it's been a big week in the world stock markets. after some early optimism, take a look at at markets. you can see there's debt worries coming to the forefront of investors' minds. this is how the european stock markets stood 90 minutes into the day. they're all firmly fixed in the red. the heavy losses coming from the dax. it's down nearly.5%. we had big gains in shanghai today and lesser degree in hong kong. hong kong turned around right towards the end. the shanghai boost coming from comments from the premiere. he says he plans to protect investor rights. this is a sentiment for investors there. the outlook for the economy in china is still pretty clouded with the tight monetary policy although there is hopes that there will be a rebound in equity prices this year in china after a pretty dismal year last year. looking at australia, the index closing just flat there. retail sales in november came out showing that consumers not putting their hands in their pockets. sales stalling after .4% last month. the aussie dollar is weakening today. japan was closed for holiday. in india, down by .5%. that's after the government revised its growth forecast for the year. down the second time in two months that india has actually revised its growth forecast down. the prime minister says he now expects gdp to grow around 7% to the end of the year. that's down from 8 point 5% from last year. it's also more than the 7.5 percent the government forecasted, mr. sing admitted that india is going through, quote, difficult times. high interest rates. a policy malaise in the parliament. very difficult for the government to get anything through. also the government facing a series of corruption allegations as well. that's what the growth rate has looked like in recent years. 6.7 percent up to 8 and more than 8.5% last year. that's a sharp fall. a little bit more than a dip. looking at the markets, the sensex last year, down some 25% through the course of 2011. nina? andrew, let's move on to another market. one of the world's laurgeest stock markets that's been, let's say, poised for a mixed review. we're talking about wall street. these numbers as you can see come back quite a little bit in the large half hour or so since we last checked these. we now have the s&p 500, the broader market out there, futures indicating a lower open. when it comes to the dow, they're virtually flat. nasdaq holding on to not quite .2%. with all the focus on europe, anything could happen between now and then. let's go back to what's dominating the stock markets here in europe at the moment, the european debt crisis. let's get a bit of an analysis. michael, first of all, let's talk about this meeting between the leaders of france and germany, yet another meeting. what is going to be said that'll make any difference this time? >> good morning, nineteen a. happy new year to you. i think we're going to see more of the same starting 2012, starting it the same way we ended it in 2011. more meetings. this will be the first meeting of three or four before the eu summit. the hope here is amongst investors merkel and sarkozy will start to outline some measures to stimulate growth in europe. the at moment its the focus has been on fiscal austerity. while haes all well and good, the focus needs to be on growth. here the european economic data last week really showed significant weakness. >> let's hone in on two particular economies that aren't growing and are facing big austerity measures at the moment, we're talking about italy and spain. these two countries have been at the forefront of investors' worries when it comes to raising money on the bond markets. they have more bond sales this week. what are you expecting? >> i'm expecting high yields, nina. they came out over the weekend and said they felt italy didn't require further austerity. investors remain to be convinced of this. we have seen these ltros by the ecb. we have a meeting this week. i think more than that, bond yields about 7% in italy are significantly unsustainable. as you quite rightly said on friday, there is a bond auction for both italian and spanish debt. i think what this summit really needs to focus on is trying to get those bond yields down by promoting growth policies within europe. >> one of the other ways that eurozone leaders, also the head of the ecb has been trying to control those yields, michael, has been the role that the ecb has been playing in buying up specialty bonds on the secondary market. we have another rate meeting coming. what are you expecting the head of the ecb to say? >> i'm expecting him to outline how successful the ltros have been. we've seen in recent data that it's been going on overnight deposit for the ecb. it doesn't help matters in europe. what needs to happen, i think, within europe is the banks need to invest this money in businesses within europe and at the moment it's been part of the ecb. what i think he'll do is probably outline the course of the next rate cut. i think we could see that may be in the next couple of months. >> okay. michael houston there, markets analyst from cnc markets joining us. andrew? nina, the imf chief christine lagarde is a long way from europe. she's on a trip to south africa. europe's troubles were never far from her mind even as she tried to put a positive spin on that. robin kerno sat down with the imf chief. >> reporter: we start off the year and it seems as if all those problems with the eurozone are back to bear. >> we need to be very taenttive to what is being done and effectively delivered in europe. if you look at what has taken place in the last 12 months, significant progress has been made in terms of bailout mechanism, in terms of acceleration of stability funds such as the european stability mechanism, in terms of collective determination to have common fiscal policies and sanctions and disciplines when it is not happening. so a lot is happening, and there is a slight tendency to sort of downplay and downgrade anything that is being done at the european level because it happens more slowly than what markets would expect. >> do you agree with most people in the financial markets that really it's only the ecb, the european central bank, that has the real fire power to deal with this crisis? >> when it does engage, when it targets properly the instruments and the facilities, it has an immediate effect on the markets and the financial partners, the financial players, the bankers, know that and know how to seize the opportunity. so the ecb is a critical partner in addressing the crisis, there's no doubt about it. >> reporter: and the eurozone, do you see it surviving? >> the eurozone is a construction that defeats the sort of common understanding because it happens gradually, as europe did. that was predicated by the founding fathers of europe. they did say so in the first place 60 years ago. they said europe will progress through crisis. this is what's happening at the moment, and the eurozone is progressing, it's changing. its characteristics are going to be different from what it was two or three years ago. it is evolving throughout the crisis, but i have no doubt in my mind that the euro partners are determined to keep it alive and to keep it solid with a different architecture than two, three years ago but with a more solid one. it's just taking a bit of time to emerge. >> reporter: but it's fundamentally changing? >> it is changing, no doubt. no doubt. from a pure monetary and currency union, it's morphing into an economic union, a fiscal union with rules, with disciplines, with sanctions, with a bailout mechanism, with a european stability mechanism, and with a corrective determination to stay together. that's what we are seeing. that's what we are hearing. it needs to be implemented. >> reporter: exactly. and let's talk about the euro. should greece pull out of the euro? do you see greece still being part of the euro at the end of the year? >> i listened to what the european partners have said, and we have heard repeatedly the euro partners saying they want the zone to stay together to include the same number of partners f not more, and they are, you know, new partners knocking at their door. so if implementation takes place, if programs are implemented, that's what should happen. well, despite ms. lagarde's relatively optimistic tone she struck there, she does admit that 2012 will not be a walk in the park, in her own words, even if the eurozone countries manage to avoid recession. nina, at the moment most people are saying that there will be some sort of recession. it may be mild, but there definitely will be negative growth in europe this year. >> yeah, particularly considering as we've got unemployment standing at about 10.3% for the eurozone and growing every single day. 2012 it seems, as you were just saying, andrew, may not be a walk in the park for europe, but let's point out that some people are doing quite nicely. one of these people is the head of world banking scotland. john hurricane. the financial times is reporting today that this particular individual is in line of a bonus of almost $7 million. the package of shares and options will be thanks to his help in restructuring the bank, but that particular restructuring will be putting about 10,000 jobs at risk in the particular division that mr. hurricane himself runs. that's unlikely to impress british taxpayers who bailed them out by buying an 83% stake in it after its balance sheet blew out during the financial crisis. i should also point out that we had the british prime minister saying yesterday that pay packets like this will be coming under scrutiny as he pushes forward for tighter legislation on payouts. >> that'll be interesting to watch. i'm sure rbs will say we have to put numbers like that up to attract the talents like john hurricane, but it looks pretty hard to stack up when you put it against all of those job losses. coming up here on "world business today," running on empty. nigeria's government seems to have exhausted its people's patience as the costs of fuel rises. my wife and i have three wonderful children and they make my life just perfect. we were having too much fun, we weren't thinking about a will at that time. we were in denial. that's right. 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[ laughter ] [ shapiro ] we created legalzoom to help you take care of the ones you love. go to legalzoom.com today and complete your will in minutes. at legalzoom.com, we put the law on your side. mention crude who havering just over $101 an hour. the price of oil may be rising a little, but the numbers are actually moving quite a bit faster in nigeria. this is africa's largest oil producer we're talking. the price of pet troll has more than doubled since the government removed a fuel subsidy. workers around the country are going on the strike today for an indefinite period to force the government to resume that particular fuel subsidy. demonstrations have been planned to coincide with the strike and oil exports may be disrupted as a result. let's take a look at the context of that striet. nigeria is africa's biggest oil producer and the eighth biggest oil exporter. it's the number three crude oil supplier to the united states, but production is sometimes threatened by militant attacks on the country's oil pipe lines and platforms. oil accounts for 90% of the country's exports and more than 80% of the government's revenue. supporters of the subsidy's removal says subis he dieding it is a drain on public finances. those that want it restored said the money saved won't be used for the benefit of ordinary nigerians. given the key role played by oil in nigeria's economy, the dispute is likely to be a bitter one and a long one. we're in lagos. vladimir, first off, what is this going to mean for nigeria's economy? >> nina, hi. i didn't hear your question because it's very, very loud here. we're in the center of lagos, nigeria, in a place called ghani, freedom park. there's over 1,000 people here. they are angry because, as you said, the government has decided to remove fuel subsidies thereby doubling the price of a liter of fuel here in nigeria. people are fired up. they're angry. they don't see any other benefit in living in one of the world's largest producing oil countries than the benefit of being able to buy a liter of cheap pet troll. the government, when they decided to remove those subsidies, has angered the population. they've taken to the streets. we started marching early this morning with the son of legendary singer and artist sanhoudi. what you're seeing is a lot of anger here in nigeria. >> slid mir joining us from nigeria. andrew? still ahead on "world business today," picking the right place to invest after a rocky start. the art market is proving to be more appealing for many. we'll look at some of the big returns for art investors next. i'd never ride without one now. and since my doctor prescribed lipitor, i won't go without it for my high cholesterol and my risk of heart attack. why kid myself? diet and exercise weren't lowering my cholesterol enough. now i'm eating healthier, exercising more, taking lipitor. numbers don't lie. my cholesterol's stayed down. lipitor is fda approved to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke in patients who have heart disease or risk factors for heart disease. it's backed by over 19 years of research. 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(announcer) starts working on contact and at the nerve level. to block pain for hours. new capzasin, takes the pain out of arthritis. live from cnn hong kong and london, this is cnn world business. while many stocks slumped in 2011, the art market has remained surprisingly resilient. the all art index says it rose more than 10%. the dow was up 5.5%, the s&p virtually flat. the index tracks art returns over time based on repeat sales of individual pieces. the public auction mainly in london and new york. creators may and moses say they use methodologies close to the case shil ler property index. here are two examples of big art sales last year. andy war who will's dollar sign sold for twice its original estimate at nearly $700,000. this roy lick ten stein piece sold for more than $40 million at christie's. the index got a strong left from returns on traditional chinese works that rose nearly 21%. . contemporary artists are still popular for some. >> this is a cute piece, but it's here. it's a work by le song song. this is a sculpture by wong gon ne. >> reporter: when you first saw this, did you fall in love with it immediately? >> you sort of need to look at it and then you sort of go away and ask yourself the next day, are you still thinking about it? are you still sort of thinking, oh, you know, wouldn't it be nice to own this? because you see so many things. more and more these days with consultants, with art dealers, interesting things going on and you just sort of have to be quite selective and sort of pick and choose things that you really love and you really enjoy. >> reporter: now because of the economy, the global economy with the u.s. and europe really struggling now, a lot of galleries and auction houses are looking to asia. >> for hong kong and for this part of the world, it's obviously healthy to see this gradual sort of increase in the level of interest to invest in these types of art. major galleries in the western world shifting their focus to hong kong and china. i certainly hope that the -- it's sort of collectively part of everyone's sort of long-term view that there is potential in this part of the world to develop the city into, you know, something more sophisticated, more savvy in terms of appreciating art. well, from one buoyant asset class to a rather mixed one, we're talking about equity markets particularly here in europe. this is the picture about 1.5, two hours into the trading session here in europe. we've got a heavy focus on two markets in particular, france and also in germany. as you can see, the dax is down by by.25%. the heaviest losses there. we have the cac 40 in europe rising at not quite 3% gaining back some of the earlier losses. there's a reason. the leaders of france and germany are meeting again for another bilateral summit to sort out the problems across the eurozone. big ups and downs here in asia today, nina. shanghai was leading the ups, you see there. up nearly by 3% after the chinese premiere certainly soothed investor sentiment by saying he would protect investor rights. shanghai coming off a low base at two-year lows. the sensex is up. hong kong was up by 1.5%. nina? well, speaking of things on a downward tra true and correct ji, andrew. this is a truly incredible story. a 22-year-old australian tourist is lucky to be alive. 25 meters above the zam beez zi river her bungie cord snapped sending her plummeting head first into the water below. with her legs still tied she was stuck downstream towards raging rapids. the young woman was only rescued after she managed to make it to rocks near the river bank. she was covered in bruises but thankfully suffered no major injuries. that's it for this jam packed edition of "world business today." thanks for joining us. still watching those shots. i believe the river was full of crocodiles as well. i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. thanks for joining us. if you're watching outside the u.s. we'll see you later for the opening bell on wall street. we'll look forward to your we'll look forward to your company then. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com