shia compound where many gather on this important holiday and the photographer we spoke to describes how the explosion inside this crowded compound, bodies fanned out and were decimated. the death toll we're hearing could be in one to two dozen but given the scene where we heard from witnesses we are expecting it to rise in the coming hours. zain? >> nick paton walsh. i'm zain verjee. "world business today" starts now. hello, i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. >> and from cnn london, i'm charles hodson. this is "world business today" and these are our top stories much there had a cautious mood on the markets after a downgrade warning in europe. >> a change of tact by china breathes new life into climate change talks. and a trickle of tourists return as thailand recovers from devastating floods. the timing could hardly have been worse. just as leaders of the euro-zone's biggest economies put on a united front standard & poor's threw a big spanner into the works and put 15 euro-zone nations under review for possible downgrade including germany and france an put the brakes on the rally we've been seeing. >> we'll bring you numbers and detail in a moment. suffice it to say europe apart from the uk is off by 1%. have a look. these are the 17 that all use the euro. greece's credit rating reflects a high rick of default and cyprus which was already under review. as s&p mentioned they placed the remaining on review for gowngrade. that means there is a 50% chance of a downgrade in the next 90 days. the countries under review include these six which have the top rating aaa, austria, fin lapd, france, germany, luxembourg and the internet l netherlands. and as you said, the timing is odd, here we are making progress on the political front an now s&p has dropped this enormous thing into the works. >> absolutely. it will be interesting to have been a fly on the wall when sarkozy and merkel saw those. they're doing what they can to break the deadlock of the frefrp and german leaders both finally agreeing on a plan which they'll present to the eu later this week. nicolas sarkozy and angela merkel want a new treaty by march that includes tough budget restrictions and includes penalties for any countries would go too much into debt an want all 27 nations to sign up for it but the treaty could go ahead if the 17 euro-zone countries came on board. >> standard & poor's warning is keeping caution on the markets but no clear direction after an hour of trading if you look right away across the whole continent. it's been a wobbly start. investors want to see what will transpire after that building on the paris lunch between mrs. merkel and sarkozy. borrowing costs for spain and italy, they remain well below the levels we saw a couple of weeks ago and, in fact, have been flirting with going down below 6% for both of those countries. so there we are. in terms of the dax that really has been off all the way through and explains the picture for the paris cac 40. the ftse at the flat line, andrew. >> yeah, charles, interesting in asia-pacific, there was a much stronger reaction to that s&p downgrade. perhaps that had something to do with the fact that the u.s. markets came off from their highs once that was announced but certainly sent jitters pretty much through all the markets through asia-pacific. after several positive sessions they all fell and banking stocks taking a hit and australian stocks broadly lower after the central bank there had a warning. they cut interest rates by 0.25 to 4.25%. it is the second time in as many months that australia cut rates to stabilize the economy, so the fears about growth are outweighing the optimism that an interest rate cut will get the economy going again. out of japan this tuesday, trading of olympus was investigated after investigation of their recent cover-up found in evidence of criminal participation and by that time the cameramaker was up 9% on the nikkei but olympus didn't come out looking too bright from this. this is what the independents said, the core of management was rotten and surrounding management was contaminated talking about olympus hiding those transactions on its book, transactions which amounted to something like $1.4 billion. they will report earnings by december 14. if it misses that it faces delisting. charles? >> well, u.s. markets came down off their highs for the day after the news from standard & poor's filtered out. they stayed in positive territory, s&p 500 finished up over 1% with the nasdaq higher still and the dow ended monday up by almost exactly 2/3 of a percent. >> so what's gregory to happen today? u.s. futures looking cautiously positive ahead of the trading day on the street. currently up by a fifth of 1%. up endown over the past hour so still a long way to go before the markets on wall street open and a lot depends on what happens in europe but certainly fair to say europe remains front and center pretty much everywhere once again. >> indeed, testament to the seriousness in which washington views that. timothy geithner is in europe and will meet mr. sarkozy in paris but today being hosted in germany ahead of meetings with the president mario draghi. i wonder what he will say, diana. >> reporter: well, yes, this is his third visit since september which is testament to the severity in which they see the crisis and president obama asked him to come ahead of thursday and friday summit's of course to put pressure in the way that the u.s. has been over the last few months on european leaders to try and really find some resolution and some force to stop this sort of unraveling of the euro-zone which, of course, president obama has characterized as the strongest head wind slowing down the u.s. economy in the past. so it is incredibly serious given the interconnected nature of the u.s. and european financial systems and, of course, of the two zones as trading partners that europe gets its act together and we'll see whether the steps that mr. sarkozy and mrs. merkel announced yesterday are enough to satisfy the u.s. treasury secretary. he will be talking to mario d g draghi. mario has made it clear he may be prepared to act more aggressively in the european bond markets if there is a fiscal compact agreed across europe and that is certainly what the french and german leaders are trying to achieve. and i suppose the pressure put on by timothy geithner over the next couple of days has caused the pressure from the s&p downgrade may serve to put pressure on other euro-zone leaders on thursday and friday so that they do put their signatures to what's the french and german leaders have proposed, charles. >> diane magnay, many thanks to you. >> still ahead on "world business today" following a bailout and collapse of its government we'll look at how one of the secrets of the debt crisis is now starting to get back on its feet. stay with us. 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[ 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. ♪ welcome back. you are a watching "world business today." >> as the future of the euro hangs in the balance ireland can making plans for its own future. details of its budget have been drip fed to the nation over the past couple of days with tax increases expected today. the standout figure, though, is the total amount that the government is slashing from its spending programs. more than 2.2 billion euro, more than $2.9 billion getting on for 3 billion. more than half is coming from cuts in health, social welfare and education. the total value of the 2012 austerity package is expected to be about 3.8 billion euros or $5.1 billion. andrew? >> the prime minister says the island faces years of economic hardship but as our jim boulden found out, it's not all doom and gloom. >> reporter: reflecting on turbulent times. few places were hit harder by the economic crisis than the irish capital. for two long years the emerald isle was down on its luck as banks and bailouts dominated national headlines. >> we had an awful tough time because there was one financial catastrophe after another and when someone would get their confidence back we'd get hit with another. >> reporter: a year after the eu and international monetary fund bailout there is a sense that the worst may be over. in the city's center retail is picking up. while the odd shop stands empty acting as a reminder others have been given a new purpose. at the height of the boon, this was a lux which furniture shop. now it serves as a pop-up art gallery. irish economist david mcwilliams says in the aftermath of the crisis dublin's entrepreneurs are seeing new opportunities. >> as rents come down it gives people the opportunity to set up ventures they never did in the city. i think it's fantastic for the city that rents are falling. >> reporter: the much maligned property market is also seeing signs of gradual recovery. take the suburb of valmain. it was constructed at the height of the boom. it was a goes estate. half the houses were vacant. since then belmayne has become a success story, 99% occupied because the original plan to sell the homes is dead. most people here rent. the property market is adapting to circumstances and it's paying off. david mcwilliams is convinced the rest of the city will follow suit. >> what happens after big disasters, people dust themselves down and they reinvent themselves and i have no doubt that dublin will do exactly this. >> reporter: it is beginning to shake off its hangover from the party that went too far. the next boon may be far off but when it comes they want to be ready. jim boulden, cnn dublin. >> ahead on "world business today" election riots in russia. people in the country, it's much less than before. >> we'll tell you why people are angry over the latest elections and why support for russia's ruling party is waning. alright emma, i know it's not your favorite but it's time for your medicine, okay? you ready? one, two, three. 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>> yes, the overview of the public in russia is much less support to the party of party in united russia which is the party of mr. medvedev at the moment which is supporting mr. putin, but the support from the public and people in the country is much less than before. >> why is that, do you think? is that a problem with leadership or the fact that the economy having had so many fantastic years of growth is now starting to turn a little? s>> there are different reasons for that. there is no 21st century to live in russia without the rule of law. >> the official news agency reports that nearly 200 election protesters were arrested in moscow as well as in st. petersburg. >> even with claims of fraud they have a lower than normal turnout. a look at the the real economy is faring, the world bank says high energy costs will help their economy to grow 4% this year. far outpacing western europe and the united states. it's still less than previous predictions. the word bank cut its forecast for russia in september. warning that the country is leaking cab tall. you just need to look at their main stock index to see that. it's down 26% from its year to date high in april. though it did make some modest gains today, andrew. >> this week on cnn taking an in-depth look at thailand that's come through little struggles only to be hit by a social and economic disaster. recent floods hurt their manufacturing and services sector. but they've crippled what has been a thriving turism sector. paula hancocks took a tour of the capital and found many critical of their government's response to the crisis. >> reporter: floodwaters lapped around here. monuments and temples usually a tourist draw fell victim to the worst floods in half a century. most of the water is now gone, but so are the tourists. head south to bangkok and most of them escaped the floods. outside the royal palace some stalls have closed their shutters. one sells drinks opposite the palace. she tells me people are starting to come back but nothing like before the floods. nearby clothes shop owner says "i never saw it so quiet during the floods. the streets were empty." but not all tourists have been scared away. >> they told us they wanted the people still to come to get the money into the economy. that's the reason why we came. >> reporter: the luxury hotel here lost 50% of its business due to cancellations. chief executive shannon tonowanic says conflicting messages did hurt. >> i think maybe too many people are involved. we have all kind of people going out and giving speeches and many of them have different opinion on how things should be done. >> reporter: a number of countries issued travel warnings for thailand which was particularly damaging for the tourism industry. the united states and the united kingdom both recommending against all but essential travel to certain parts of the country. the tourism authority rolling out a strategic recovery plan to get tourists back and some airlines are dropping prices. thailand has seen dry tourist spells before and numbers have bounced back so experts feel there is no reason why they wouldn't this time, as well. paula hancocks, cnn, bangkok. >> and be sure to visit our special eye on website where you can keep up to date with all our coverage from thailand throughout the week. up next how emerging markets are causing europe's debt crisis. we'll be right back. but here's what i know -- td ameritrade doesn't manage mutual funds... or underwrite stocks and bonds. or even publish their own research. so, guidance from td ameritrade isn't about their priorities. it's about mine. straightforward guidance. that's what makes td ameritrade different. ♪ [ male announcer ] trade commission-free for 60 days. plus get up to $600 when you open an account. okay... uhh. the bad news, it's probably totaled. the good news is, you don't have to pay your deductible. with vanishing deductible from nationwide insurance, you got $100 off for every year of safe driving, so now your deductible is zero. the other good news ? i held on to your coffee. wow. ♪ nationwide is on your side ( laughing ) it's actually a pretty good day when you consider. that's great. from cnn hong kong i'm andrew stevens. >> and i'm charles hodson at cnn london. welcome back to "world business today." well, mixed news makes for mixed markets. on the same day germany and france said they had a plan standard & poor's announced it was putting 15 of the 17 nations on credit downgrade watch that has generated uncertain start to trade in europe in morning. the major indices in the euro-zone are swinging around but basically the dax and cac 40 have been down, modest recovery after a big gap down at the start, andrew. >> yeah, certainly investors not happy about that. the banks, exporters and property companies all suffering across all markets, australian stocks lower after a warning. they cut the key interest by 4.25%. down a quarter of a percentage point as australia tries to get its economy stabilized and growing more rapidly and certainly there is a lot of australians who are resolutely not spending not helping the broader economy. now, in japan you see the nikkei down by 1.4%. a reminder that olympus remains in the news and says it lanns to report its earnings on december the 14th. you may recall that's the deadline that the company must meet to avoid delisting after the scandal. the olympus stock was suspended in tokyo today after an independent probe into an accounting scandal found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing although it was scathing in its description of how the management has been performing at olympus and called for action to be taken against the management so watch that space. char