clinton will meet myanmar's president along with the pro-democracy party leader. these are live pictures from occupy wall street in los angeles. riot police are blocking off streets around the movement's camping ground. protesters were ordered to evacuate city hall grounds by midnight on monday but have refused to leave. of course, we'll bring you more on the standoff as it develops. the former leader of ivory coast is now in custody in the netherlands for an appearance before the international criminal court in the hague. gbagbo was arrested in april by forces loyal to the current president. the icc is probing allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity. those are the top stories from cnn. i'm monita rajpal. "world business today" starts now. hello and welcome to another packed edition of "world business today." i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. >> and i'm nina dos santos in london. here are the top stories. save our pensions. a massive public sector protest kicks off right across britain, shutting down schools, and also threatening chaos at the country's airports. a bad day for the financial sector just got worse. as s&p downgrades dozens of banks. and nine people are left dead after a blaze breaks out near a popular hong kong tourist spot. first off, though, here in britain, people are facing a day of massive disruptions as 2 to 3 million public sector workers walk off the job to protest against cuts to their pensions. it's set to be the biggest labor stoppage in decades across the country. and trade unions say that what's at the heart of it is practically a general strike here. schools will be closed and workers are staying away from government offices, airports, also law courts, and even away from hospitals. let's go now live to jim boulden from london's heathrow airport which is set to be disrupted by this. jim. >> reporter: yes, nina. so far, the people here at heathrow airport tell me it's not so bad. thatqueues for immigration lines airport so bad. this was a strike that was expected. so some of the airlines yesterday did pull back on some of the flights coming in and out of heathrow today. british airways tells me they did not cancel any flights. things are as normal. we don't expect that to last for long, especially with the immigration workers being one of the groups that have walked off the job. the owner of the airport says there could be some queues up to two or three hours, but as of now, things are pretty calm. the larger issue, as you say, pension reform, something other countries are dealing with as well. this is unprecedenteded. teachers, health care workers, many unions who don't normally strike are all off today with this 24-hour strike. so 2 to 3 million people could be off the job today, something britain hasn't seen for a generation, though it is expected that it will be peaceful marches through london later today and then people will get back to work tomorrow. but, of course, the government says it will not back down on pension reform. they say this is something that must take place in order for it in the long-term sustainable budget, of course, britain like many countries in europe are cutting the deficit, cutting public sector workers, reforming pensions, and saying there is no other option. the unions say they don't get paid enough, many low-paid workers who work for local councils simply cannot afford to have their pensions cut, to have their pay froze and to have to work longer into their life, nina. >> especially with inflation rising to about 5% and those salary caps really kicking in. jim boulden, many thanks from heathrow. and cuts in pensions aren't all that these public sector workers. they're also talking about a cap on salaries which i was just alluding to there with jim. even after a pay freeze expires in 2013. the chancellor, basically the uk's finance minister, george osborn, on nounsed tuesday that pay increases for government workers will be limited to 1% until 2015. many workers say that they're being squeezed to pay for the bailouts given to banks after the financial crisis. but as the government forecasts an increasingly bleakout look for the uk economy, george osborn is saying that the crisis in the euro zone could drag the uk into an even deeper hole than it's already in. >> this central forecast seems in their words that the euro area finds a way through the current crisis and that policymakers eventually find a solution that delivers sovereign debt sustainability. if they do not, then there could be a much worse outcome for britain. i believe they are right. we hope this can be averted, but if the rest of europe heads into recession, it may prove hard to avoid one here in the uk. >> so andrew, you know, we've got the united kingdom facing many similar situations to those other countries in the euro zone, which it's not part and not least, we're talking about strikes swm. as well. >> absolutely. all looking depressingly familiar, isn't it? speaking of, we all know how tough a year it's been for the banks this year. they've only just started to recover from the global financial crisis of 2008/2009 when they got hit by the european sovereign debt crisis of 2011. and now dozens of those banks are reeling again after standard & poor's downgraded their credit ratings. jpmorgan stanley, all downgraded by one notch. and shares of the major u.s. banks took a hit in after-hours trade on the back of that. it really only adds insulted to injury in what's been a pretty tough year for banking stocks in general. take a look at some of these numbers here. these are obviously the big u.s. banks, the big wall street banks. we're talking goldman sachs, down by nearly half. jpmorgan, third. citigroup, nearly a half and morgan stanley just a fraction. value being shredded by what's been going on in europe this year and also the ongoing weakness in the u.s. economy. these downgrades not obviously restricted to u.s. banks, the european banks also taking a hit as well. and they come just days after the u.s. federal reserve, the central bank, ordered the top 30 banks in the country to participate in stress tests just to see how they've handled another financial crisis, nina. performing even worse than some of those banks you were just mentioning, andrew, is, of course, this company i'm about to show you, bank of america. this is how its shares fared on tuesday. the session ended down to the tune of more than 3%. to a fraction of about $5 apiece. before eventually settling even further lower when it comes to the after-hours trading. take a look at this performance. this is exactly what i want to show you. this company's stock has actually fallen to, since the start of 2011, to about 61%. that's how much it's lost of its total market value. and that means that it's now at its lowest level, as you can see, since back in march 2009. now, one of the reasons that we have things affecting some of these markets, on the one hand we've had a downgrade of some of these banks. the s&p, as andrew was mentioning, affecting markets. there's also been talk about the finance ministers meeting failing to stem fears about the security, the stability of the euro and indeed the euro zone going forward. we've got more talks today. the esfs, the bailout fund, is coming under increased scrutiny. there's also pressure to try and do more to sort out the financial situation we're facing. of course, remember that the e krchl b has staunchly said that its mandate is to keep inflation or prices stable, not to stimulate economic growth or indeed to solve the euro zone's financial problems. we've also got financial stocks on the slide, as i was saying, after that s&p decision to do downgrade dozens of banks on tuesday. and that's hitting the dax, down by about 0.75%. ftse also suffering a similar fate. that country's banks are also falling significantly in today's session, andrew. >> yeah, very similar story in this part of the world. it was the banks leading most of the markets. you see australia bucking the trend today. stocks ending the month with a whimper. a two-day rally coming to an end as well. now, there were early gains, but that would not -- didn't last very long. certainly that european debt crisis still is a big concern in this part of the world. bad news impacting not just asia, pretty much anywhere you look. as i said, australia bucking the trend, up by about 0.5%. that's after a jump in business sentiment. as we said, financial stocks dragging the hang seng and the shanghai markets lower today. just take a look at this. it gives you an idea of what's been going on. i just want to focus on these stocks. hsbc, down 2%. that was one of the downgraded s&p banks. and that's reaction. we've also seen construction bank of china and also the bank of china, the big chinese banks, they're down but by not nearly as much. performing much better than the overall market. that's because they were upgraded by the s&p. this is really a sign of the times. these have been upgraded one notch to a straight "a" rating compared with hsbc which is at an "a" plus rating. yn t obviously the chinese banks have escaped the global crisis and there's no exposure to europe either. the eastern banks just getting stronger and stronger, relatively speaking. nina. yeah. in the meantime on wall street, let's have a look at how some of these s&p moves have affected things. most of the markets have got a lift for a second day when it comes to tuesday's session. that was not to be on the back of optimism about the euro zone leaders managing to eventually get a grip on the debt crisis. both the dow and s&p were off by about a percent -- maybe they were up by not quite 0.28%. only the nasdaq bucking the trend, closing down about 0.5%, andrew. one stock that experienced, nina, a big drop yesterday, american airlines parent company amr corporation. the company said it's seeki protective bankruptcy, basically it's called chapter 11. american airlines will continue to fly, don't worry, your bookings are safe. and wages and bills will continue to be paid. the airline also announced that this man is standing down as chairman and ceo. he had opposed the bankruptcy filing. but this man, his successor, thomas horton, says the company's financial position was basically untenable. >> virtually all of our big competitors in the u.s. took this step. and as a consequence, they lowered their costs and improved their capital structure in a way that simply made them much more competitive. and, you know, the folks at american have worked very hard and honorably to avoid that path over the last decade. but it became clear to us that that gap was just too wide now. >> that is not saying that you have to prepare markets for bad news. and quite obviously, amr didn't take a look at the stock price. it's taken a pasting on the news, down 81% on tuesday. it had already lost almost 80% of its value since the start of january. and that means all together, it's down 96.7% this year. if you take a look at the past decade, you can see back in 2007, amr stock was trading slightly north of $40 a share. now 33 cents a share. nina. >> it's a surprising move, isn't it? just like bank of america, down to its lows since 2009. still to come on "world business today," we hear from the man behind the claims of a conspiracy in the dominique strauss-kahn sex scandal as the fallout deepens from a new case, it seems, in france. and a fateful fire breaks out in one of hong kong's most popular outdoor markets. we'll have the report from the scene as traders and neighbors count the costs. act my age? -why? -why? -why? 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unitedhealthcare insurance company. a deadly fire broke out in hong kong before dawn on tuesday. firefighters backing the flames into the early afternoon. officials say they found charred bodies at the scene and said dozens of other injured people to hospital. there are no reports of any tourists being hurt by that fire. now, the cause is still being investigated. it engulfed a residential town in an area of hong kong known as mo mongkok. we have this report. >> reporter: it was a deadly day here in hong kong with dozens injured. that's after a fire broke out in this area known as mongkok which is one of the world's most densely populated regions. in this area right here, it's actually close to ladies mark which is a very popular tourist attraction. right behind me, you see this media scrum trying to get a better picture of what happened. now, if you take a look farther down the street where the blaze happened, you can see row after row after row of dense shops and homes. this is where the four-alarm blaze broke out among these densely packed apartments typical of hong kong. smoke is still rising from the buildings several hours after the blaze began. police earlier rushed residents away from the scene. they reported several casualties and at least 30 injuries. those were sent to four different area hospitals. evacuees told us they were scared. and many escaping down dozens of flights of stairs. one family said they waited on their roof for an hour before police came to their rescue. as for the cause of the fire, hong kong police said this. >> translator: police are treating the fire as suspicious, but we cannot do a full investigation until fire crews have put out the fire completely. >> reporter: the hong kong police department is saying that arson may be to blame for this fire, and that's because fires were set on both sides of the street. an investigation is now pending. they're calling it a highly suspicious event. cnn, hong kong. let's go back to one of the stories that we were telling you about before the break. we're talking about dominique strauss-kahn, the former imf head. ever since sexual assault charges were laid against him in new york and then later dropped, there have been rumors that he was the victim of a plot. the party of the french president, nicolas sarkozy, the ump has sent off some of those allegations. before the sex scandal erupted, strauss-kahn was considered to be the front runner to win next year' french presidential election on an opposition socialist party ticket. and now the latest fwtwist in t saga comes in the new york review of books. it's published by edward j. epstein. he suggests there may have been a plot to destroy dsk politically is and that he may have been spied upon. earlier he spoke with our richard quest. >> what is real is that his blackberry was missing. what is real is that employees of the sofitel hotel took actions to delay or deter the investigation including not questioning the maid for an hour, including one of the employees lying before a grand jury, concealing her presence in room 2820 which was across the hall. the supply did not supply the electronic key card records. what is real is actually what is missing from an investigation. >> all right. so if we boil this down to its brass tacks, as we say where i come from, without libelling or slandering anybody, what do you believe happened here? >> i believe that what happened is that dsk was very concerned that his blackberry was hacked. a concept not unknown in england these days. he paid arrangements to have that blackberry examined, and then that blackberry was missing. and we know from very substantial information from blackberry itself that it was pinpointed at the sofitel hotel when he was at a restaurant. so we know someone took the blackberry. >> nicolas sarkozy's party has dismissed the notion that it tried to ruin his political hopes. the deputy editor has said there are no facts to support claims of such a conspiracy. in his words, rumors, gossip, allegations and the party is, quote, not fooled by this, andrew. >> i suspect we haven't heard the last of this, nonetheless. just ahead here on "world business today," with so much instability in egypt, the jewel of the nile is losing prospective visitors. we'll find out if this week's elections are sending new hopes to the tourism industry. everything comes together. where there's magic. and you now understand what nature's been hiding. ♪ at dow we understand the difference between innovation and invention. invention is important. it's the beginning. it's the spark. but innovation is where we actually create value for dow, for society, and for the world. ♪ at dow, we're constantly searching for how to use our fundamental knowledge of chemistry to solve these difficult problems. science is definitive. there is a right answer out there. [ male announcer ] the same 117 elements do the fundamental work of chemistry. ♪ the difference, the one element that is the catalyst for innovation, the one element that changes everything is the human element. ♪ [ electronic beeping ] [ male announcer ] still getting dandruff? neutrogena® t/gel shampoo defeats dandruff after just one use. t/gel shampoo. it works. neutrogena®. you're watching live pictures of cairo's tahrir square. egyptian voters spent monday and tuesday casting their ballots for members of the lower house of parliament. they'll be drafting the country's new constitution. votes have been tallied, and preliminary results could be released this week. a third stage of voting is planned for january. and in the meantime, this was the scene in tahrir square on tuesday night. almost 90 people were hurt in fighting between vendors and protesters. one protester said it all started with complaints about vendors giving demonstrators a band name by selling marijuana there. welcome back. you're watching "world business today" live on cnn. the egypt economy has certainly been badly hit by the ongoing unrest. the tourism minister says the number of visitors is down 25% from last year, resulting in a significant slump in revenues. the tourism industry is a critical part of egypt's economy, accounting for about 11% of gdp. and it also employs around 2 millio