last night, the irish police received a warning about a device which would be on some form of public transport. it was discovered on a private bus just outside dublin. the passengers were evacuated and the devices made safe after about two hours. it was defused. this can is coming now three hours before the queen is supposed to touch down at the girng of a four-day states visit. this is the largest security operation in the history of the irish state. some 10,000 police and army are guarding various roots and vantage points around dublin city and beyond. there is a serious disruption to commuters trying to travel into dublin to work this morning. they've been asked to use only public transport. the government is hoping that this visit will do so much for the country of ireland in terms of tourism and relations between britain and ireland that they're hoping the irish public will be able to forgo the disruption to their lives over the next few days. >> thank you. those are the headlines. i'm zain vergee at cnn in london. "world business today" starts now. good afternoon from cnn hong kong and a very warm welcome to "world business today." i'm andrew stevens. >> and i'm nina dos santos at cnn london. these are the top stories on tuesday, may 17th. from a $3,000 a night suite to a notorious new york jail, imf boss dominique strauss-kahn is denied bail, the spotlight turns to his successor. finance ministers in brussels are giving portugal cash in a crisis and turning the screws on greece. ♪ real estate was booming homes were on the rise ♪ ♪ that ain't right and don't just blame the bankers for the mortgage mess. the wall street rappers hoping their lyrics will hit home. just before dawn in new york where imf chief dominique strauss-kahn will be waking up after a second night in custody. strauss-kahn is facing criminal charges including attempted rape of a maid at this new york hotel on saturday. further allegations of past sexual misconduct are emerging. including an attack on a young female. the woman at the center of the claim is apparently considering filing an official complaint. cnn is seeking comment from strauss-kahn's lawyers about these allegations. we'll bring you more as we get it. meanwhile, the fight to replace strauss-kahn at the international monetary fund is under getting under way. we'll be looking at the contenders for the job later in the program. nina? his status -- the international monetary fund chief was denied bail in new york on monday and confined to a jail cell on rikers island, just off manhattan. >> dominique strauss-kahn. >> instead of a glittery financial conference in europe, dominique strauss-kahn entered an old new york city criminal courtroom facing sexual assault charges, looking haggard after more than a day in police custody. one of the world's most powerful financial titans spent the night in a prison cell after authorities did a forensic examination of him, looking for scratch marks and physical evidence following the allegations. in addition, he underwent a humiliating perp walk publicly handcuffed. he was charged with attempted rape and sexual abuse. the alleged attack was on a 32-year-old black woman, reportedly an african immigrant in a luxury hotel suite. the prosecution said he shut the door and prevent the victim from leaving, attempted to remove her panty hose and forcibly grabbed her between the legs. prosecutors argue that bail should not be granted for the wealthy frenchman because he could leave the country and never return. >> the defendant has additional motivation to fly. we also know that the defendant has personal and financial resources to in fact flee. >> reporter: the defense says strauss-kahn called the hotel asking that his cell phone be delivered to the airport, proof he wasn't fleeing. strauss-kahn's attorney says he has a daughter in new york, that strauss-kahn could stay with her and offered to post bail. >> he's a well respected international person. he's also probably the most easily identified individual in the world today as a result of the publicity that has been generated during the past 72 hours. >> reporter: judge melissa jackson says the law applies to strauss-kahn as in any other defendant. >> we are disappointed but this case has just begun. he's still presumed innocent. i would ask all of you to please allow him the presumption of innocence so we can hopefully still get a fair trial when that happens. >> reporter: prosecutors say they believe strauss-kahn engaged in similar acts previously and could become like film director roman polanski if set free. he will appear in court on may 20th. >> strauss-kahn's attorney says he is innocent of all the charges. he's expected to appear before a grand jury but will wait it out in a prison cell in isolation on rikers island off manhattan. the man himself who helps countries get bailed out with cash could not himself get bailed out. >> from that cell in rikers island, dominique strauss-kahn is probably wishing he was back in europe. that's where he was supposed to be on monday as an ecofin meeting got under way without him. we go to jen defterios in brussels. that was weighing heavily on the minds of the delegates there. what sort of reaction were you picking up yesterday on this shocking piece of news? >> andrew, it wasn't part of the quote, unquote, official agenda but you can safely say it was discussed. administrators arrived this morning after burning the midnight oil last night on what was a full agenda. in fact, the trials and tribulations of dominique strauss-kahn prompted an emotional response from a senior european official. >> i didn't like the pictures i've seen on the tv this morning. it was deeply saddened. but mr. strauss-kahn is part of the american justice system. it makes me deeply, deeply sad. >> mr. yonker called dominique strauss-kahn a personal friend and was dismaid by what he saw. he didn't agree with the walk of shame that dominique strauss-kahn was put forward with. he also said he didn't know the details of the charges. another thing they did add, they went ahead with a full agenda with dominique strauss-kahn's replacement. they sent off a package of $110 million to portugal. they are convinced that portugal has turned a corner. ireland at 10.5% is quite high. they think ireland cannism port their way out of trouble. portugal there with a deficit targeted at 6% for the year. the real problem and all of a sudden the screws have been turned on greece at this meeting with the deficit target of 9.5%. it was supposed to be below 8% this year. there's extreme concern right now that the debt, soaring to 157% of gdp is a problem. the minister of greece, minister s santino will have to make a decision. they want to come back to the table and finish an audit that's taking place on greece and revisit this issue in luxembourg in june. >> this weighs heavily around the world. another issue is the replace had the, the new chief of the european central bank. much talk about that? >> there was, in fact at this late press conference which happened late last night, mario draghi, got the full support. there's a process that needs to play out through the european council and a vote within the european parliament. they don't expect much resistance. the new head of the central bank taking that position in the autumn. it does raise a huge question about this international monetary fund position. angela merkel said the job should go to a european. she said it already, and that an emerging market candidate could have it in the medium term in the halls and the meetings here, one of the names being floated is christine lagarde. fluent in english and well respected in international circles. i would imagine this debate, and this is interesting to watch here in the hall, some of the earl yi candidates don't normally survive. it will be interesting to see how this place out in the next 30 to 60 days. >> she'd be the fifth french person to be the head of the imf since the founding in 1944. the emerging markets, particularly the chinas, indias and brazils would have a lot to say about that. john defterios, thanks so much. nina? let's look at the european stock markets. all of this uncertainty that john was eluding to in brussels is having its effect on stock markets and currencies. second day of losses for some of these european markets, a number of them down by 0.5% in the first hour and ten minutes of trading. one company we're focusing on is vodafone. it posted full-year net profits. that stock is rising about 1.5%. the reason to are that is because revenues came in ahead of expectations. bp also in the mix. we'll be telling our viewers about that after its planned share swap. they seem to have missed the deadline. those are the things hitting home on the markets. the euro zone debt crisis continuing. we monitor the situation in brussels, andrew. >> absolutely. that debt crisis still creating ripples in israel as well until greece gets sorted out. there's still a lot left in this story, no doubt. here in asia, the picture you see there, mixed, generally on the upside, though. hong kong's hang seng the only loser. benchmarks in tokyo, shanghai and sydney all making gains today. they are, you can see the numbers there, australia up by 0.75%. the best performer here. but if you look at that, it was a reasonably flat day across the region. nina? let's turn our attention towards america now. trading over there and a choppy session on wall street on monday after weak manufacturing data and also below estimate earnings from the home improvement retailers such as lowe's. the end of the session, losses were across the board, mirroring the passing we've seen here in europe for at least one or two days so far. it was an especially bad day for the nasdaq. take a look at that. it lost 1.6%. that was thanks to heavy losses on yahoo! stock. that's continuing, obviously that situation with the ongoing dispute with the largest esst e-commerce website. now, is bp's proposed deal off altogether? the deadline for the talks have seemed to pass. we'll tell you what we know so far. and the truth behind the tragic death of 228 people is at the finger tips of investigators. the latest on the 2009 air france crash, just ahead. let me tell you about a very important phone call i made. when i got my medicare card, i realized i needed an aarp... medicare supplement insurance card, too. medicare is one of the great things about turning 65, but it doesn't cover everything. in fact, it only pays up to 80% of your part b expenses. if you're already on or eligible for medicare, call now to find out how an aarp... medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company, helps cover some of the medical expenses... not paid by medicare part b. that can save you from paying up to thousands of dollars... out of your own pocket. these are the only medicare supplement insurance plans... exclusively endorsed by aarp. when 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gone ahead, bp was looking to buy out its existing partner in tnkbp. this venture was started on january 14th, the first such agreement between a private international oil firm and state producer. the core of that deal was the 1 billion share swap between bp and rosneft. on february 1st things took a dramatic turn. the deal was blocked by tnkbp, bp's russian partners. on may th new terms were put in place for an arbitration panel giving bp just ten days to find a new way to finish the deal to put shares into a trust fund and to keep tnkpb on board. let's go straight to moscow for an update on exactly how this is going to happen. cnn's matthew chance is standing by. matthew, is this deal dead in the water? >> reporter: it seems to be at the moment. in fact over the course of the past few hours there's been a statement issued on the bp website, a joint statement from bp and aar, this con sosortium confirming that the deal with rosneft has not been found. the statement says both bp and aar will intensify efforts to ensure tnkbp's continued success. the statement goes on to say a solution wasn't found. the statement also says talks will continue about closer cooperation with rosneft. rosneft for its part has not made any public statements so far. there have been reports on the interfax news agency, though, saying it hasn't renewed its deadline. the other statements we're getting from the other parties says the deadline has not been extend. for the moment, this lucrative, important share swap deal between bp and rosneft is currently off the table, nina. >> and the future of those companies obviously to secure new oil supplies also very much in question. matthew chance, thanks for that update there. andrew? nina, for the families of those killed in the crash of air france flight 447 two years ago, answers could at least be on the horizon. investigators say that they have retrieved all the information on flight data recorders recovered two weeks ago, including conversations in the cockpit during that flight. two bodies were also recovered from the fuselage of that downed plane. they're being examined to see if there's enough dna evidence to identify who they were. now, 228 people lost their lives when air france flight plummeted into the atlantic ocean. go back to june 1st, 2009. three hours into that flight from rio de janeiro to paris, the brazilian air force lost radio contact with air france 447 and a short while later, the airline says the plane had crossed through a, quote, thunderous zone with strong turbulence. if you look at -- fast forward here to april of this year, investigators found hundreds of pieces of the plane, including the torn-off tail wing. the flight data recorder were found in early may but they were record by robot submarines more than 4,000 meters below the surface of the ocean. and on may 5th, just days later, came the discovery of some of the passengers' bodies, still trapped in their seats. two were brute to the surface, as we said before judges in paris say the rest should be left undisturbed at the bottom of the atlantic. so with retrieval of all the information on those flight data recorders, a preliminary analysis could not be weeks away. we spoke with an aviation expert about the french investigation. an attorney is a former inspector general for the u.s. department of transportation. >> the system is different in france than other places in the world. it's different in france from the u.s. they do start their investigation with the possibility of criminal charges and people are in -- and corporations are criminally charged. that process can lead to remuneration afor the victims. criminal charges are very rare. there's a real difference of opinion. many people think that the criminal charges get a much more realistic response and people are more concerned and it sends more of a message. france, that's the way they do it in other crashes as well. >> those recorders were discovered after a search operation that cost from $50 million. finally, nina, it looks like we may be getting some answers. >> it seems as though we are. coming up next, we'll be investigating scenes of destruction at japan's fukushima daiichi nuclear plant crippled by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami on march 11th. just ahead, the latest in the commercial fallout for the company that runs the plant and other firms hit by the disaster. e with crunchy oats and pure honey. nature valley -- 100% natural. 100% delicious. live from cnn london and hong kong, you're watching "world business today," welcome back. tepco is to provide a road map today for bringing its quake-hit reactors under control. that would likely include booking billions of dollars in net losses and the decommissioning of its crisis hit reactors. tepco's share price certainly taking a hit on that news. ramie inocencio joining us. ramy, investors didn't like what they heard. >> the thought of billions of dollars in losses as well as the loss of the future reactors would make investors nervous about tepco. that's what we're seeing in reaction to tepco shares today. let me bring up this chart right here. today tepco shares tumbled the most since april 5th, closing down more than 9.5% at close, 380 yen a share. this is adding to massive decline since march 11th, the day of the quake and the tsunami. shares are now down about more than 82% since that fateful day of the quake and the tsunami. this follows tokyo's call to tepco's lenders to forgive precise is loans as the utility tries to recover. the share price in japan's three largest banks also slid. the president of mitsubishi fj, said those comments came out of the blue and i felt there was something wrong about them. the financial times estimates that the damage caused is estimated at $25 billion. japan's major companies decided not to issue numbers because of supply chain problems. >> you mention toyota there. ramy, i want to ask you about toyota. it's had major problems with its supply chain, not the only one, of course, because of quake and the tsunami. it's not just that which is a problem for toyota. there's consumer problems still in the united states. >> yes, toyota just got word that u.s. car owners have gotten the green light to sue them and this revolves around the accidental acceleration problems we've been reporting. a u.s. federal judge ruled that owners can directly blame toyota for causing the value of their vehicles to fall. that's because toyota didn't disclose or fix the defects. toyota tried to, of course, get this group of lawsuits dismissed saying owners couldn't prove their action or inaction caused a decline in vehicle value. now that's not going to happen. the company is afraid if these claims do go ahead, it might open the door to more lawsuits based on similar arguments. knowing the u.s. love for suing people, i think all of us are expecting that just might ha