behind me which is the most fortified entrance into dale farm is still currently at an impasse. we understand it's because some residents have chained themselves on the inside of that gate. last time when there was threat of an eviction, there had been concern that some of the residents had chained themselves by the neck to the gate, which is one of the reaps that police are trying to move very slowly here, monita. council said they wanted this eviction to be as safe and dignified as possible. we're past the point of dignified where already we've been seeing these altercations, but safe is still something they're hoping can be brought about here. >> nima, thank you very much. well, there's been a deadly attack today in southeastern turkey. authorities say kurdish guerrillas struck security forces and military sites in hakkari province that borders iraq. reports say guerrillas fired rockets and opened fire with automatic rifles. cnn turk is reporting at least 24 people have been killed. and reuters has been reporting that turkish planes have bombed kurdish rebel bases in northern iraq. tuesday's republican presidential debate in las vegas looked more like a fight night than a discussion. texas governor rick perry frequently targeted milt romney over issues like immigration. perry is trying to win back some support after dropping to third in the polls. those are the headlines from cnn, the world's news leaders. i'm monita rajpal. "world business today" starts right now. good morning from cnn london, i'm nien that del santos. >> and good afternoon from cnn hong kong. i'm andrew stevens. you're watching "world business today." the top stories this wednesday, the october the 19th. >> united against austerity as a general strike begins in greece. we'll take a look at how the crisis has affected the national psyche. goldman sachs posts a loss for only the second time in its history as a listed firm. but what does it mean for companies' bonuses? and how is australia managing to weather the global slowdown? we'll hear from its prime minister, julia gillard, later in the program. first off, let's get straight to what's moving the stock markets especially here in europe. largely it is due to optimism over the euro zone debt crisis. well, "the guardian" said late on tuesday that germany and france were about to reach an imminent agreement to try and beef up the rescue fund for struggling euro zone nations. although reports seem to dismiss elsewhere that any deal is actually near at the moment. the efs says according to this "guardian" article, it's likely to receive a boost. let's remind you that the euro zone bail yountd fund currently stands with a lending capacity of 440 billion euros, but it could be boosted to about $2 trillion -- excuse me, 2 trillion euros, that's about $2.7 trillion. that would be the new lending capacity to try and shore up any country, for instance, like italy or spain that could have troubles. and in the meantime, what we've had is ratings agencies again coming out with more downgrades. s&p has downgraded 24 italian banks. we've also seen moody's cut the spanish debt rating by two notches down from "a" to "a" 1. the question is how it all this affecting the markets? cautious optimism across the board. cac 40 and the dax, again, the ones that are the most pronounced on the up side, largely thanks to optimism that the leaders of france and also germany can come together to try and hammer out some kind of agreement to ring fence the greek problem and prevent contagion from spreading elsewhere. andrew. that "guardian" report reverberating around the global financial markets, nina, it's interesting that the u.s. markets got a big pop right towards the end of trading basically on the back of those reports from london. and that, in turn, rolled on to asian markets. stock markets ending moderately higher across asia. i'll bring you the numbers in just a moment. it was a lot of financials getting quite a decent boost. before we go to the broad numbers, i want to talk about one specific number, and that is olympus. now, if you look at what happened today, that stock was down 2% as the war of words continues. this is the former ceo, michael woodford. he was fired last friday after he aired concerns overpayments made during acquisitions before his tenure. now, olympus has fired back. they say that woodford's research includes, quote, assumption and speculation. but certainly at the moment, if you look at what the markets are wanting to believe at the moment, they seem to be coming down pretty much in favor of what mr. woodford has been saying. this is a chart going back just over the past few days. it was down, as i said, 2% a day. he was fired on friday, you remember. that was there. started trading on friday, and since then the stock has fallen 44%. and that is certainly hurting -- well, it's hurting olympus stock, obviously, and pulling back the income kay on the broader 25 index. the nikkei closing up by about 0.35%, hong kong, up 1.3%, shanghai down about 0.25%. the question is whether or not that "guardian" report is right or not. >> yeah, it's very difficult, isn't it, to eclipse the corporate agenda. we've certainly seen these companies earnings figures are basically pushed by the wayside, andrew, because all the focus is on sorting out the euro zone. a turbulent session on wall street ended with u.s. stocks surging during the final hours of trading on tuesday. and that again came largely thanks to traders reacting to indications that the european bailout fund might be getting a boost to the level that economists generally say would be enough to solve the euro zone's problems. when it comes to the dow jones industrial average, that market rallied about 180 points, a pickup of more than 1.5%. pretty much the same percentage gained for the technology of heavy nasdaq and the s&p had risen just over 2% by the close of trade. so, again, you're seeing the follow-through today. this is what it's set to do when trading opens a few hours from now. that's the futures, as you see there, all red arrows. the dow down 0.3%, nasdaq by 0.75%. looks like there could be a bit of profit taking, nina. back to that top story of the day, to greece where the parliament is set for a first vote on a new round of austerity measures later today. and the battle line's already being drawn between the government and greek workers as a 48-hour general strike gets under way. diana joins us live from athens, a city that seems set to grow to a halt as many sectors in the economy prepare to walk off the job. diana, what's the atmosphere like at the moment? are we going to see any violent protests here? >> reporter: well, it would be, i think, interesting if you didn't see violent protests. all the strikes that i've followed here in greece since that first bailout was agreed may 2010, also the second bailout in july this year, there has been really quite a lot of violence. so i think that that is something that can be anticipated. but generally that violence is provoked by a small group who come specifically to provoke. the vast majority of people out on the streets are here to protest against further austerity. and here where i am, this is the union. and interestingly, they are the people who say that greece should have left the european union a long time ago, and that that is the only solution to greece's problems. i've got to add that they are not in a minority. two-thirds of the greek public believe that greece should and must stay within the european union. and it's the eu's responsibility to help greece out of its current problems and to try and alleviate the austerity which these people say is crippling them and which will be further enforced if parliament does actually vote through that bill in today's session, nina. >> to the average viewer, we've heard so many bits of different information about different austerity votes and greece. is it still the scenario where the greek economy is shrinking so much that they have to keep reinforcing the austerity measures to pass those deficit targets for the imf? >> reporter: well, that's the trouble. the troika when they came here a couple of weeks ago and their latest assessment of whether greece was fulfilling its obligations in terms of cutting the public deficit, they said the recession is far deeper than we anticipated. growth is simply not coming back to this economy. and the debts are accumulating more than was anticipated in that second bailout back in july. and the greek people feel, you know, this is a never-ending cycle of debt. how are we ever going to pay it backes specially if there's no growth? so the sort of arguments you're hearing from the unions is that cuts have to be made but in different ways. you know, the average worker zn does not want to feel he's being squeezed whilst the so-called fat taxes are still evading their taxes. they say the rich should be taxed. we are being squeezed and we can't cope with it anymore. in fact, there were some interesting figures from eft yesterday that said if you look at the average household here in greece, the austerity is cutting their income by 14%. that's twice as much as in ireland or portugal, for example. >> diana magnay, many thanks for that update. as diana was just reporting, austerity measures in greece deeply unpopular. as the cuts take more hold, people are increasingly worried about their financial future on the ground across various areas of greece, not just the capital. in a few moments' time, we'll be taking a look at the effect that's had on people in greece psychologically speaking. how a once happy-go-lucky people has turned instead into a nation of worriers. and later on as tourism in greece gets a boost, we'll be asking the greek tourism minister if this is just a one-off or a vital life line for greece's ever-so-badly battered economy. andrew. let's talk about a company that's been in the headlines a lot lately. it is no doubt the darling of the tech world, of course i'm talking about apple. and apple has just missed its profit estimates for the first time for at least six years. now, even though apple set new sales and profit records for its latest fiscal quarter, its fourth quarter, investors were not impressed. and the company's stock was actually down more than 6.5% in after-hours trading on the nasdaq yesterday. that's after closing daytime session trading at an all-time high of $422.24. now, it's largely down to its flagship product. and i am, of course, talking about the iphone. if you look at this, this is iphone sales. now, they had been climbing during each of the previous three quarters of the financial year, breaking the 20 million iphones sold for the quarter. that happened in the third quarter. and apple had been expecting to sell 20 million iphones for the fourth quarter. but this is what happened. sales falling well short of that 20 million figure, coming in, in fact, at just 17 million. and that's because many people delayed buying an iphone instead of waiting for the new model to be released. even though analysts were let down by the figures, the company's net income, remember this for the quarter, up by 54% from last year. it still brought in $6.6 billion. nina. andrew, let's stay with the earnings pictures stateside, cleaned out by the crisis. for only the second time since going public 12 years ago, goldman sachs has actually posted a months. loss. it's quite a big one at that. goldman sachs lost some $393 million in the third quarter. most of its operations did pretty much okay, but the problem came from its own investments. and that led profits to be down about 120%. in just three months, the bank's lending and investment unit lost about $2.5 billion in total. and that includes $1 billion on the stock markets alone. now, the chief executive, lord blankfein, has been blaming the uncertain economic picture, and that uncertainty has hurt goldman sachs' own share price in recent months. let me show you how much it's hurt the share price. when the financial crisis originally hit back in 2008, the u.s. government actually helped bail out goldman sachs to the tune of no less than $10 billion as part of that t.a.r.p. program. later on that year, goldman sachs actually reported its first ever quarterly loss as a publicly traded company. that loss coming in at $2 billion. and take a look at what actually happened to the share price since that date. well, within a year, it seemed as though the good times were back again and rolling. record numbers, this company posted for the first two quarters of 2009. but this is where things get interesting. recently as you can see, goldman sachs' shares haven't been putting in a stellar performance. they're actually down by about 40% in 2011 alone. so it just goes to show, who says that goldman sets the tone? >> if you add that into a banking stock, you know you've got problems. goldman drew the attention of the world when it said it was paying colossal bonuses as well as compensation payments just months after it was helped to be bailed out by the u.s. government. now, there's no denying that many banker bonuses are huge, but there's also evidence to show that they are now on the slide. 2006 was a boom year for goldman sachs. take a look at this. goldman sachs pocketing an average of $540,000 each in the first three quarters of the year. fast forward four years. which is after the bailout, obviously, 2010. and goldman bankers' payouts were still looking pretty healthy, $370,000 each. and that came from a $13 billion bonus and compensation worth more than $10 billion in bailouts. now, this is what they're getting 2011 over that nine months. $292,000 each. that's down 22% on last year. but bear in mind that goldman profits for the first nine months of the year, down by 75%. now, the bank shareholders will not be too happy with that. you're watching "world business today." we're going to take a short break. we'll be back after this. i don't want healthy skin for a day. i want healthy skin for life. 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supplement plans, you can keep your own doctor and hospital that accepts medicare, get help paying for what medicare doesn't... and save up to thousands of dollars. call this toll-free number now. welcome back. you're watching "world business today." greece is at a standstill this wednesday as a two-day general strike takes hold. critics of the government's harsh austerity measures say spending cuts and layoffs have largely strengthened the battered economy. it wasn't always this way. at the start of the millennium, it was boom time in athens. as john defterious reports, it's taking a toll psychologically on the greek people. >> reporter: from many a vantage point, athenians could look to the acropolis to find inspiration from their rich past. but on the streets of the capital, three years of deep recession, unemployment and resistance have shane the foundations of its people. enter the city's central market, and you'll find michael. he has numerous pots on the stove preparing classic dishes for lunch. >> translator: i don't know if this side of us, that flame of hope, is being extinguished. at some point we hope we'll come back to our old way of life, but we believe there is no hope. >> reporter: michael, like many others in the market, reminisces about the short window in time. after entering the euro in 2001 and just before the olympics in 2004. >> translator: what i'll tell you is very simple. if you had come to this restaurant in 2002 at this time, there would be nowhere to sit. there wouldn't be a chair for you to sit and eat. you would have to wait 10, 15, maybe even 20 minutes. >> reporter: the central market has served as a meeting point for athenians for generations. the same sort of concept sprung up just a few blocks down the road. it is going to be the hub for artists and new media types. it blossomed during the olympics with all of the development funds coming in. now it's a bit tarnished. in this neighborhood, a bakery famous for its pastry, shares the same building with one of the city's most well-known designers. this once uber trendy part of athens is showing obvious signs of economic strain. behind the very public and vocal protests to the salary cuts and rising taxes are those who have tipped over the edge. this man was an assistant chef at a hotel and a homeowner. a product of the boom times after the euro when loans were easy to get. today he serves food to fellow homeless residents at a shelter. >> translator: if someone told me just a year and a half, two years ago that i would find myself in this situation, homeless, i would tell them they're joking with me. finally, i realized it in a very ugly way. >> reporter: those in the shelter are part of the new dark trend that social workers call the neo homeless, middle-class people who have joined the rank of those who can no longer cope. >> greeks were not desperate ever. it's a climate, it's a culture, that i have always been hopeful. right now because i don't work anymore, i am skeptic. >> reporter: and it is getting worse. as suicide rates in the country, according to the charitable organization, soared 40% in the first half of the year. >> we did not expect to face this kind of trouble. therefore, our mental services as a country did not expect to be so overburdened. >> reporter: in athens' oldest and largest state-run hospital, a new reality has set in. unable to trim doctors, nurses and staff due to labor contracts, its chief executive is trimmin