so to locate a person, it would always mean isi and cia together. so they would know already. and if they don't know, yes, indeed, i would like to inform them but capture himself. >> mr. president, thank you very much indeed. i'm zain verjee at cnn london. a court in belgrade will continue to question war criminal ratko mladic on friday after yesterday's proceedings were suspended due to his ill health. the serbian president said mladic will be transferred to the u.n. war crimes tribunal in the hague next week and explains how he avoided capture for so lo long. >> the beginning of that

process, i'm totally sure people from the armed forces had been protecting him. after that, he changed the people who were protecting him and at the end of the day i mean that he was protected by very small group of the people from his family. but we'll check everything. we'll investigate everything. we'll announce what happened in the past 16 years. u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton has arrived in pakistan, aimed at talks repairing the nations between the two countries. large parts of the u.s. had severe thunderstorm warnings overnight. two people died in atlanta, georgia, when trees fell on two vehicles in high winds. those are the head lines. i'm zain verjee at cnn london. "world business today" starts now.

good morning from cnn london. i'm nina del santos. >> good afternoon from hong kong. i'm andrew stevens. japan's auto industry stalls. honda and toyota unveil the full extent of post-quake production cuts. dollars for democracy. g-8 nations pledge to help egypt to foster freedom and economic growth. and find out why mark zuckerberg may have dropped a killer clanger. >> first the european markets. they are performing quite well this morning. we're well into today's friday session. the last one of the week. let's look at that some indices up around the 1% mark is a number of them buoyed by gains in the banking sector this is after citigroup analysts

upgraded european banking stocks to overweight, and that has helped the likes of the cac 40. that index up over 1%. and the ftse 100 is pushing towards the 1% mark as well. andrew? the financial stocks have been dragging australia down this week after a downgrade. the winners, though, in this part of the world, hong kong led the way. petrochina was among the companies giving the hang seng a boost. that after the oil producer's parent company boosted its stake in the business. the hang seng up by almost 1%. the nikkei down in early trading after sony dropped pomore than . on an ls of almost 3.2

billion. in the past few minutes, sony announced it start a phased -- services in japan and other agencies on saturday. pejapan's big three automaks are saying the earthquake and tsunami in march slammed the brakes on honda, toyota and nissan's vehicle production. kyung lah joins us now from our tokyo bureau. kyung, how bad was it? >> reporter: well, we knew, andrew, all of these numbers would be bad, throughout the earnings season, all of the ceos and the president said we are hurting, specifically in sales and production because of the

tsunami. we are now, though, getting the exact figures. we now know exactly how badly they are hurting when it comes to production and exports. take a look at these figures. these are the figures just released this afternoon. the april 2011 figures, as compared to the year previous. toyota down 47.8%. honda down 52%. nissan down 22%. this is for worldwide production. now look at the export figures. all of the automotive big three here in japan, as they are known, they are down more than 70% in april, the first full month that they are seeing the real impact of the tsunami. down more than 70% as compared to the april the year previous why is this all happening? the tsunami knocked out some key suppliers, some key partsmakers in that tsunami zone. they make those parts, so there

is a parts shortage. they simply don't have the parts they need to make vehicles. that's impacting production and exports. what else is happening is that what the automakers are now having to deal with, especially heading into the hot summer months in japan, they're looking ahead at having to curtail production or shift their workdays because of the looming energy crisis in japan. andrew? >> just taking away the energy problems that the carmakers are facing, when do they expect to be back at full production? when will the supply lines be back working properly? >> it's really coming in phases. toyota, for example, said they want to start in june coming back to full production. if you look at nissan, they're saying in some areas we're back in full production, it's coming back slowly, but it's something we have to watch throughout the year. much of it will depend on how

much energy there is to go around, to keep those production lines moving. >> just can't win at the moment. kyung, thank you very much for that. nina? now, let's have a look at how things fared on wall street. we'll hear the closing bell at some point now, you should be able to hear it. there we go. trading on thursday was overshadowed by gloom about the u.s. economy. weekless jobless claims came in at about the 400,000, and the government's revised reading on gdp stayed at 1.8%. strength in the technology sector did help stocks stay out of the red. for the day the dow jones eking out a small gain, the nasdaq gains three quarters of a percent, and the s&p 500 rising by 0.78%. day two of the g-8 summit in

france is just getting underway, and libya, the middle east, japan's earth quiquake are some things that the leaders are discussing. the group of 8 asked russia to try to mediate the conflict in libya, and they asked for support for japan and they talked about the capture of radco mladic. the leaders of tunisia and egypt also arrived at the summit. much of the discussions going on there are focussed on the uprisings in north africa and the middle east and how the world's economies can support some of these countries, and in doing so they plan on doing that with billions of dollars.

dan rivers is in deauville live with that story. talk to me about the solidarity expressed by the main g-8 countries towards egypt and tunisia. >> reporter: that's right. we will get some sort of communique, according to white house officials here, separate from the main g-8 communique which will deal with money for emerging democracies in north africa, called deauville partnership. reuterses is reporting that it may involve up to $20 billion of aid. that's something we are working to confirm but a significant chunk of money for these countries, because the imf has pointed out that egypt alone has lost about $15 billion just in the first quarter of this year in lost tourist revenues and lost economic activity because of the revolution there. there is a desperate need in the countries to get their economies firing on all four cylinders

again after all this turmoil. president obama just came out of a bilateral with president sarkozy of france. here's what he had to say about events in north africa a short time ago. >> enormous opportunities as well as challenges that are presented by the arab spring. shortly we'll be discussing in depth how we can fully support countries like egypt and tunisia, not only as they transition to democracy but also ensuring that democratic transition is accompanied by economic growth, which can provide more opportunities for all the people, particularly the young people in the region. >> we're seeing more of the kind of arrivals here this morning. but we're being told that the egyptian and tunisian prime ministers will be here in one of the sessions this morning. that may well be the kind of

headline that comes out of deauville today. this huge aid package for tunisia and egypt initially but open to other north african and middle eastern countries who, you know, embrace democracy. so potentially that could be made available to other countries. there was also mention of finishing off the job in libya. there's talk in britain this morning of sending apache attack helicopters into the fight in libya. that would be possibly a slight ratcheting up of the air campaign there. low-level helicopters going in to target particular groups of fighters the that's another element that may be talked about at the g-8, how they can enforce that u.n. resolution 1973. >> as dan was speaking, you are getting the chance to see live pictures of some of the

delegates arriving for this important meeting. the g-8 meets about twice a year. support also appears to be building among western leaders to elect the first female director of the international monetary fund. the french finance minister, christine lagarde is a candidate for the position after dominique strauss-kahn resigned to fight criminal charges in new york. hillary clinton gave lagarde a boo boost. a french court is considering investigating lagarde, but the french president nicolas sarkozy says he has complete confidence in lagarde. >> translator: especially when

it comes to christine lagarde, who is an outstanding woman with a fairly predictable, foreseeable character and the risks that you were referring to in our view can be easily taken care of as is understood by mrs. lagarde. the russian president, dmitry medvedev said he wants the brick nations to have a greater voice in managing the imf. that's a view thailand's finance minister shares. >> madam lagarde is highly qualified. she said she should not be barred of the job because she is european, our thought is the imf

is a global institution and shouldn't be limiting its chance from one area or one nation. >> on tuesday, brick representatives to the imf said europe's traditional role in providing the managing director "undermines the legitimacy of the fund." since europe and the u.s. have the most votes on the board, electing a noneuropean to the post may prove difficult. it is going to be a very interesting battle. >> it certainly will. one of the most important candidates, andrew, is french and france actually founded the precursor to the g-8 when it was the g-6 back in 1975. coming up, fighting talk from the lawyers defending dominique strauss-kahn. find out what they have to say about the maid who accuses the former imf chief of sexual assault.

this is "world business today." welcome back. let's bring you up to date

on some other stoririey on some other storiristorys we' follows. lawyers for dominique strauss-kahn say they have evidence that could undermine the credibility of the maid who said he had tried to rape her. strauss-kahn is now living under house arrest in manhattan. the french economist faces huge media scrutiny and a string of leaks from the new york police case against him but his lawyers claim they could easily demonstrate his 32-year-old accuser should not be believed. we're just hours away from hearing details about what led to the fatal crash of an airbus two years ago. this is the tail wing of the plane. later on fridays, investigators will publish a time line of

events leading up to the failure. they need more time to examine the data found from the black boxes. a more detailed report will follow in july. the former boyfriend of the late hong kong billionaire nina wang has been charged with forgery. this photo shows tony chan with the heiress in happier times but events since her death have turned ugly. chan is accused of forging a 2006 will that made him the sole beneficiary of wang's estate. a court ruled last year that the will was not genuine and that wang's family always maintained the authenticity of a 2002 document leaving most of her fortune to charity. he has been released on bail of a million. money often the source of many an argument. on this subject, tired of pulling out your wallet and swiping your credit guard?

google says it has the answer. it's teaming up with mastercard, citigroup and sprint to launch a new mobile phone-based payment system. they are calling this offering the google wallet. phones will have special chips embedded in them and you'll also -- and all you have to do is scan your handset in front of the reader. right now the system is only available on sprint phones, but most new android phones that are going to be going on sale later this year will be able to use this google wallet system. >> amazing stuff. if you got your laptop open, you can watch our google wallet demo online. just go to cnn.money.com. coming up next on "world business today" we're off to africa. just like growing numbers of chinese tourists, we'll be having more on the link straight ahead. [ doctor ] here's some health information for people over 50.

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this is "world business today." welcome back. this past week we've been looking at life in africa, specifically we've been examining how chinese investment in the continent is changing a whole raft of things there. some see china's influence as a positive, bringing things like improvements to infrastructure, many others also say africa is getting a raw deal. they point to a huge trade imbalance and an influx of chinese workers doing jobs that africans could otherwise do. but another influx of chinese has been more welcomed, it seems, that's the growing number of tourists from china and the money they bring with them. now, when it comes to which asian countries spend the most tourist dollars in africa, none stands out like china and the sum is growing. we have a report from south africa about tourism from china jumping more than 60% last year.

>> reporter: tourism is more precious than gold so south africa. it's a key foreign currency earner and an important job creation vehicle. europe is the top overseas market with over 1 million europeans visiting south africa every single year, but the global economic crisis has seen the majority of them spend less money while here, so tourism authorities are aggressively courting new markets. a 60% annual increase in chinese visitors to south africa has citizens of the world's second largest economy firmly in the sights of tourism officials here. no expense has been spared in selling the south african experience to them. >> we've just finished a global

ad where we actually brought in two couples from china. they actually did experience these things in south africa. we call it 20 experiences in 10 days. what they did is what a typical traveler from china would love do in south africa. >> which is what? >> safari, of course. they love capetown. they love scenic beauty. and diamond shopping is one of those things they love. >> reporter: but the campaign has one big problem there are currently no direct flights from china to here. for now, travelers have to go through hong kong. national carrier south african airways launches its johannesburg/beijing route in september. chinese credit card holders spend over 3 million u.s. dollars in this country. >> however this announcement is

a positive thing, i don't think they have been caught napping because it's a developing market. >> reporter: what about the language barrier? >> that's still our biggest challenge in terms of making sure that in south africa we have enough guides that speak mandarin and those are the things that as a country we need to prepare ourselves for in ensuring that we give the chinese traveler a fabulous experience. so we still have a long ways to go in terms of making sure that service providers in south vick are actually equipped to service the market better. but so far so good. >> reporter: cnn, johannesburg. coming up next, a trend that's boosting uk retailers and creating a fashion frenzy. we'll tell you more about the middleton effect. that and plenty more to come on the show. when i got my medicare card, i realized i needed an aarp...

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live from cnn hong kong, i'm andrew stevens. >> i'm nina dos santos. welcome back to "world business today." >> the u.s. has suffered terrible weather and it has taken a toll on the wheat crop. the wheat trade group said in the u.s., which is the world's top wheat exporter, winter crops are suffering from drought and farmers planting this spring have been delayed by

water-logged fields. ivan has more on this it's extraordinary that the winter crop is suffering from drought and in spring there's too much water. >> i'll show you what's going on in north dakota, the top wheat grower. it's raining there, and that's a problem for growers, but it's happening all across the planet. the top world wheat exporters, the uk, he germany, france, all suffering from drought. we've been talking about the lack of rain over the last several weeks and months across the region here. now, to make things worse, we have had significant temperatures there, temperatures above average which is not helping the situation there at all. in the u.s., we were having drought, now an issue of rainfall here. that's not looking good for our north dakota friends that are trying to plant the spring crop and are having a tough time

doing so because the fields are essentially wet, too wet here. that's going to be a problem. now, in the uk and france and germany, it's actually raining, so that's good news. but this is just short-term stuff. the damage has been done. but it's good. i like to see the rain where we need it in the european region. north dakota with more heavy rainfall on the way, another system moving in. we will get into dry weather as we head into the extended period here, but for now they're having some issues there as well in north dakota with the heavy rainfall here. it's just a bad coincidence that we can't depend on the european wheat exporters because of the u.s. problem, and vice versa because of the same reason. so kind of stuff. andrew? >> it's not good, is it? >> not at all.

>> such a staple. a thank you very much for that nina? let's turn our attention towards equities. european equities have been trading for about 90 minutes today. the story for once is not about commodities. after a down day on thursday outside of london, here's how things stand. rising almost 1%, and many times we have been talking about the metals underpinning this gain, today it's the financials, that's largely because citigroup has come out with an upgrade to european banks. some of them really powering ahead, the cac 40 up by 1.5% almost. that's the index gaining the most. also substantial rises for the ftse 100. in clear trend emerging in asia this day, nina, though

there is one trend in one specific market, i'm talking about shanghai, down yet again today. it was a bit of mixed picture. the nikkei down a half percent, sony not helping the nikkei. that's reaction to their forecast for weaker than expected profits in the current year. hong kong almost up by 1%. australia down by almost 1%. it's been a choppy week across the global investment world this week. strength in the tech sector stemmed some of the losses on wall street after weekly jobless claims came in above 400,000 for the seventh week in a row. the revised reading on first quarter gdp stayed at 1.8%. at the close the dow was up a fraction. the nasdaq gains 0.75%. the s&p 500 up 0.40%. nina?

andrew, you will tell us about how the tech sector steamed ahead to stem some of the losses on wall street, i believe, right? >> yeah, i did. basically there's quite a lot of action in the tech world. texas have generally been outperforming the broader markets, any way. we sort of saw a bit of that continue yesterday, nina, but it's still difficult to get a grip on the direction. there's a lot of churning at the moment. it's a difficult one to pick at the moment. >> okay, andrew. let's talk about how things are progressing in terms of the retail sector in the united kingdom. britain's trends seem to come and go in the blink of an eye, especially if you're a woman like me and need to update the wardrobe, but no one is accelerating the way women change their outfits than the royal family's newest member. you could call it the kate

effect as i discovered. she may be the duchess of cambridge, she's also the queen of britain shops. the girl once called kate middleton is undeniably a fashion icon with huge influence. and she has the tills ringing at retailers across the country. everything she wears, seemingly everything is scrutinized, analyzed and promptly sold out within hours. like the blue dress that she chose to announce her engagement to prince william. its maker saw sales soar 45% as a result. then the blouse she picked for the official photos from chain whistles that went out of stock soon after the snaps were released. the middleton effect is worth big money, especially in a premium clothing market that will be worth a third more by 2014, reaching just shy of $15 billion. the duchess of cambridge turned

heads when she wore a nude satin dress to meet the u.s. president, barack obama and his wife at buckingham palace. i'm here at the flagship headquarters of the designer that makes that item. let's see whether they got any left. how important is the kate middleton factor for the high street in the uk. >> there's no question it's had a significant impact. i think she's got to be one of the most watched women in the world at the moment. >> how important has this been for your business? >> it's been phenomenal. it's really heightened brand interest and awareness. obviously it impacts the sales but more importantly it introduces us to a new customer. >> reporter: that means stores have to be ready to recommission certain item at a moment's notice. >> i stopped here because i spotted something. this look familiar to me. this is one of the dresses that kate middleton wore when she did her official engagement photo. >> yes, that's correct.

the dress wasn't currently available. it was a previous season. we re-released it. it sold out very, very quickly. this is the second order. >> it must be challenging replicating something like this within a short space of time to keep the demand heightened. >> well, obviously it does take some weeks to get it in, you need to produce it. so, i mean, luckily people are prepared to wait. >> reporter: a dream for the bottom line but a nightmare in terms of i.t.. >> this sold out completely across all of the stores and online. we received such a demand that the traffic surge we had on our website caused it to crash. >> reporter: so we know the newest member of britain's royal family loves these high-fashion garments, but she's also keen on the mid-range price tag, too. i've been given a tip by the people in this store, they told me the duchess of cambridge bought this dress but has not worn it yet, which means i'm getting my purchase in early.

>> cnn always first with the news. it couldn't come at a better time for the british retailers to have the duchess of cambridge becoming such a fashion icon. if you want to comment on that or any of the stories on the show, get in touch with our facebook page. you can find us at facebook.com/cnnwbt. mark zuckerberg is hungry for more. he won't be making many friends in the animal kingdom after saying he will only eat what he kills. on may 4 tth zuckerberg told hi friends the following "i just killed a pig and goat." now, being a millionaire, you would think he might want to stick to the choice cuts, but zuckerberg is vowing to scoff

the lot. he is increasing the size of his prey, also. zuckerberg probably won't follow the godaddy boss who was put down for killing an elephant. zuckerberg saying i see what the process is. i don't know, almost more politically correct. >> there's been a lot of that in the uk, too, with celebrity chefs raising their own animals, and then if you butcher them you know what the process is and you have a more direct link to what you put inside your mouth. i'm no vegetarian, but i find those kind of comments slightly unpalatable. >> indeed. i must admit, it might take a

while before i start bringing out the kitchen knife forever the animals that i'm going to be consuming. any way, it's an interesting topic of conversation if you want to talk about it. that's it for this edition of "world business today." i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. >> i'm nina dos santos. "marketplace middle east" is next.

defterio . this week on "marketplace middle east" g-8 leaders gather in france to put forth a package for the middle east. and how tunisia's youth is coping six months after the first uprising. and tunisia's prime minister talks to us about the challenges facing the new tunisia. g-8 leaders met in deauville,

france outlining support for regional governments in transition. topping the list, the most populous, egypt and one of the smallest, tunisia. all totaled the world bank and the international monetary fund will earmark up to $6 billion. 4.5 billion for egypt, the remaining 1.5 billion for tunisia. >> we have got a transition government in both egypt and tunisia, that adds to the challenge. the governments have to be able to own the process, we are working with them along with other development banks and the imf, but we also have to build in flexibility for questions for the future. >> the package follows a plan revealed last week by u.s. president president obama which combines debt relief and near-term loans. i asked former white house adviser, laura tyson if the gulf states should partner with the g-8 in the relief effort. >> this is a great opportunity for the countries in the region with significant surpluses, who

also have embraced economic reform and development and modernization to really work together with other members of the g-20 to come up with a package to support modernization and economic reform and development in these newly emerging democracies. >> isn't there a danger if you don't move fast enough and peep have expectations of a transition that goes smoothly and it falls flat on its feet? >> there's a huge amount of economic frustration, large amounts of poverty, large amounts of disappointed futures. now a huge expectation that the transition will lead to success and of course the process itself has made it more difficult. that is the instability created by the transitions actually has discouraged tourism as we all know, a major source of economic livelihood and prosperity for

many, many people in the region. >> there's the instinct in egypt to scrub the cupboard clean before they can move forward. >> yes. one of the downsides to transitions of government this way is that often happens. that it's out with the old and that includes the good and bad of the old, and in with the new, even when the new has not yet been built. and that's why it's so important, when the president says that what we should value is peoples right to express themselves, peoples right to ask for something different. and to do it in a nonviolent stabilizing way, so that you have time to do the transitions. and these countries and governments that have not done that in a slow path find themselves with a dramatic change and do they have time to get to the next stable preferable outcome.

the middle east began a drastic transformation just six months ago in search of jobs and a better life. the youth of north africa led the way. now amid the unrest their future remains uncertain. jobs are still scarce and growth has come to a virtual standstill in many areas. we went to tunis to see if the youth believe their prospects are any better. >> reporter: desperate and in despair, thousands march the streets of tunisia this year calling for political change, a better life and jobs. it was a revolution that forced the president to step down. today at one of the country's main universities, students say they have a new-found sense of freedom and the revolutionary spirit is still on display. at this college campus political debate is alive. something almost unheard of before the revolution. and though the young people here say they're concerned about jobs

and the uncertainty, they also know that they now have a strong voice in their future. many believe their voices have finally been heard. >> translator: i'm happy. i'm optimistic. this revolution came because of us. we have to continue this journey. >> i'm sure after this marvelous revolution, we will get many job opportunities. >> reporter: others are more cautious this july, 80,000 students are set to graduate from universities across the country and enter the work force that makes the need for jobs even more urgent. >> at the beginning of the revolution i was clearly happy. after that i was terrified by the fact that we don't know really what's going on here. i hope it will be okay and i can find a job. >> reporter: the labor ministry says nearly 20% of the population is unemployed, the number is even higher amongst the youth. >> it was the range of 500,000

unemployed people in the country. of this 500,000, more than 150,000 are going to graduate from university. >> reporter: in february the government launched an ambitious economic plan to create thousands of jobs this year. we have some regions with a rate of unemployment that is more than 40%. we need to find solution to have better balance between the regions. >> reporter: under tunisia's previous regime, investments were concentrated on the coastal areas which benefitted from tourism that left tunisia's inner regions neglected. this man is from one such region. 32 years old he graduated in 2006 but has never had a full-time job. >> translator: these regions have been deprived for a long time. all we heard is talk from different governments.

>> reporter: during the revolution, abassi marched the streets to show his frustration. >> i understand it is an interim government and cannot meet all our aspirations, but they need to follow up with true and genuine intentions. we are aware we need to be patient. >> reporter: patient force for people who say they already waited too long. up next, we'll look for answers about tunisia's unemployment crisis from the country's interim prime minister when we come back.

high unemployment was one of the main causes of tunisia's jasmine revolution, now it's up

to the interim government to tackle the issue. officials expect unemployment to rise to 19% this year, but it could be as high as 40% in some regions. prime minister beji caid essebsi was asked if he was satisfied with the steps taken to tackle tunisia's most pressing problem right now. >> translator: the challenges are quite numerous but we are working on tackling them step by step. there's no doubt there's a very difficult unemployment crisis. tunisia is a relatively small country but the unemployment ratio is extremely high, around 700,000 unemployed, and tunis tunisia's unemployed have high, professional degrees. >> you face a delicate balancing act. on the one hand there's a new

found freedom of expression in tu tunisia, but you are seeing strikes. how do you get people to go back to work and create some form of normality? >> translator: no one can expect a revolution to take place and not have calamity, but only tranquillity. we embrace that situation because we understood it was normal. bit by bit we managed to control it. there is no doubt these strikes and sit-ins, et cetera, present a problem. but i believe we are very close to having it all under control. they will gradually diminish as soon as the government start providing welfare and response to the aspirations of the people. >> it's a difficult position, because on the one hand there's very little economic activity. on the other hand the government will have to increase spending to deal with the welfare needs of your people. that also means your budget deficit will increase. are you concerned about that? >> translator: indeed there are

difficul difficulties, there's no doubt. in tunisia the government, and it is an interim government, have created programs to deal with this situation in the short-term and the long-term. in the short-term we will employ some of the unemployed. we will give priority for the inland regions because there was a disparity between the inland and the coastline regions under the former regime who gave priority to the coastline regions. >> there are many business dealings from the previous regime that are being scrutinized. how do you overcome the ben ali legacy and help the country move on? >> it is difficult for anyone to go from black to white. they should always go through phases. in regards to how the country is ruled, it's now behind us. this interim government has nothing to do with ben ali's government.

now in regards to the remnants of the former regime we will eventually get rid of them. we know very well many former officials face trials and some are still undergoing, even though it may have looked like we were tackling this a bit slowly, the direction is now very clear. >> once again, the interim prime minister of tunisia. for more about the program, visit our website, cnn.com/mme. you can check out our webpage in arabic as well at arabic.cnn.com/mme. that's it for this edition of "cnn marketplace middle east." thanks for watching, i'm john defterios. we'll see you next week.