politics. and look on the bright side. at least he didn't doze off to an interview with me. that would be ten times worse and possibly irreparable damage. tomorrow night, excellent talk show host, montel williams on keeping america great. that's all for us tonight. . hello, i'm one neat at that, cnn london. this hour there has been another high profile defection. this video appears to show a message from the country's deputy oil minister. he doesn't want to, quote, retire serving the crimes of the regime. valerie amos visited homs wednesday. she entered the besieged area

from the besieged arab red crescent. western diplomats say that iran is trying to clean up something at its military base. inspectors believe the site may have been used to test triggers for nuclear bombs. this is what a solar flair looks like up close. the flair erupted and was captured by scientists in this dramatic video by nasa. we should be feeling its effects today as radiation distorts the magnetic field possibly disrupting the gps signals. those are the headlines from cnn. i'm juanita raj paul. "world business today" starts now. good morning from cnn london, i'm nina dos santos. >> and a very good afternoon from cnn hong kong, i'm andrew stevens. welcome to "world business

today." the top stories this thursday, a boom town in the midst of devastation. we'll tell you about a japanese city doing brisk business as its neighbors struggle to rebuild. the deadline for the greek debt swap is fast approaching. the signs so far are good as people sign up to push the deal through. and apple ceo says the ipad is the poster child of the post pc world. we'll check out the third generation, the company's tablet computer. first up though, a new greek bailout hinges on the success of a debt swap and the deadline for this very debt swap is just hours away now. the signs it seems are pretty promising at the moment. that's because largely 30 prominent creditors have publicly backed a plan that will be costing them three-quarters of the value of their bonds. it could mean eventually they'll see something back on their investments. the group includes hsbc and it

holds a combined greek debt worth about $107 billion. that's about 40% of the total private debt. with many of us set to follow suit, what it does, this kind of move by these creditors sends a positive message to those bond holders. they're still wavering over the terms of the deal. greece already has warned them that they won't get their money back if they don't sign up. what we're seeing here is a 75% subskrupgs rate required to make this particular plan work. at least for the moment investors are hoping that that will be sorted out by the end of the market trade today. there's confidence that that kind of figure can be reached and exceeded and that would pave the way for the bailout funds to reach athens before it's likely to default on its debt. it has $18.5 billion worth of bonds coming due on march the 20th, hence the deadline here that they need to clear with that debt swap before that.

this is how the markets are fairing. a little optimism ahead of this. we should point out that the paris cac is the highest. the aerospace group eads is up almost 8% in paris. this is after this couple doubled its dividend and also in paris we have heard that one of those banks has accepted the greek debt swap. it has seen its shares rise above 2%. it was a price tag of $2 billion. on the flip side for this market as well, we should point out the klm, air france, it has swung to a loss of over $1 billion. andrew, as you'd expect, a lot of that is basically down to the persistently high oil price that it has to pay. yeah, that's hurting a lot of industry now, not just the airlines, all industry using oil. certainly it was a good day here in asia today. investors joining the global

move to push markets higher. pretty muches as you see across the board. it was, as you point out, the growing optimism about the bond holder deal being done in greece. getting a fairly upbeat number on private sector jobs out of the u.s. that's adding to optimism about the overall u.s. economy. this lagged the other key markets. that's because the unemployment rate in australia rose slightly, up to 5.2% in february. those numbers coming out today. it wasn't in line with the forecast, but even so a little bit of concern. that pulled the aussie market back just a fraction. a relative sense of course. the big performer today, the nikkei up by more than 2%. a weaker yen helping there. revised gdp, this looks at the broadest measure of economic growth, and it said that the

economy in the final three months of last year in japan shrank by over 2 tents of a percent. it shrank by .7%. people are talking about a 2.3% slump in japan's economy this year because of what happened in march, the tsunami, the nuclear meltdowns as well. to get .7% is actually quite a good number. that has quite a bit of optimism for investors in japan. it wasn't all good on the japanese front. japan's economy isn't in top shape yet. it shows that the country's current account hit a record deficit in january. here is the number. $5.4 billion. that's the biggest monthly deficit since comparable records began back in 1985. it accounts mostly due to japan's increased demand for

imported fuel. that's, of course, in relation to nuclear power going off line in japan following the fukushima disaster. that crimped a lot of japanese industry. all but two of their reactors are operating and they're going to close in a month or two. weakening demand is hurting the price of oil in that that price of oil just keeps going up which, again, hurts japan. now our special coverage of japan's recovery one year on from the disaster continues today. we're visiting the northeast

city of sendai. this one seems to be making the strongest come back. anna reports on how their massive rebuilding efforts are quickly turning it into an economic boom town. >> reporter: the guests come one after another to check into this hotel in sendai, northern japan's largest city. >> we are happy to tell you our rooms are fully booked here. he has twice as many customers now compared to a year ago before the devastating earthquake and su nam mi struck the region. with sendai becoming the hottest area, this place is full. >> reporter: it's saturday night and shops, bars, restaurants are busy, a sign of the economic resurgence that is underway. recovery work as government compensation checks and families relocating from disaster jones are bringing added life to this city.

>> reporter: construction workers are coming from as far away as kobe and still they need more. carpenters say they get nonstop calls from people who want to rebuild their homes. >> honestly speaking, i developed a hard problem in the beginning because i got so many calls my phone didn't stop ringing. they all needed me to work. >> reporter: before the earthquake many of his competitors had left the industry, but now builders say there is enough work to last them ten years. sendai retailers have seen sluggish sales turn to a brisk business. last quarter sales were up 10% on the year before, especially benefitting the luxury sector as consumers take on a new attitude after the trauma of march 2011. >> translator: we used to think, let's wait, even though we wanted to buy, says this shopper, but after such experience we learned that such an idea was no use. >> reporter: the director of the

local fugisaki department store said in the initial months after the quake customers were looking to replace lost goods. now the high end brands and jewelry are the best sellers. >> translator: some people buy things to treat themselves after experiencing a hard time or they buy expensive stuff to prove to themselves they are still alive. >> reporter: but sendai's bounce back is the exception, not the rule, for japan. in other cities there are still piles of abandoned cars and depress debris and rebuilding plans are only just beginning to come together. japan's national economy is still struggling to grow with hampered sflie lines, declining exports and the heaviest debt burden in the developing world. only a structural overhaul of the economy, experts say, would lead to a real and lasting boom for japan. but for now, sendai is a surging city amid the ruins of japan's

coast line. anna koran, cnn, sendai. >> their quick recovery is even more impressive when you consider the full scale of the destruction. to give you a better eye deep cnn.com has compiled a series of interactive before and after photos. take a look at this one. this is a satellite shot of sendai taken in 2008. you'll see the beach here, a strip of the city there going into the green folds. look at the shot now after the tsunami. this was taken immediately after the tsunami. the color is this tore rent of mud and debris that swept right across the whole region. these green fields reduced to really just this black sort of muck. let's go back to that first picture if we could to give you an idea. look at the difference there. the only thing you can see if we move back again is the canal. the canal is quite visible. the devastation is visible. it wasn't just sendai, this

whole region took a hit. this is in me yag gi free if he can prefecture. virtually everything has been wiped out. the whole beach is gone. all of this development which rings the coast line here, again, if we can come back and get a sense of that development. come back ghagain and you'll se it's been absolutely devastated by what happened there. so many more photos on the website showing in stark detail, stark contrast just the size of the destructive power of that tsunami. go to cnn.com. take a look at them for yourself. now one of the biggest concerns following the disaster was radiation leaking from the damaged fukushima nuclear plant. workers still had to report to duty. >> reporter: there's no way you won't be radioactively

contaminated if you work at the nuclear plants, he says despite disposable gear, daily decontaminati decontamination, workers will be exposed to radiation. >> certainly a high price to pay to protect your country. we'll bring you a special report on that tomorrow right here on "world business today." nina? andrew, still to come on the show it's decision day for greece as the debt deadline swap approaches. we'll tell you who's in and who's holding out. and mr.'s plenty of swagger at apple following the release of its new whatever you call this new tablet, it's not the ipad 3. we'll tell you why and give you a look at it just ahead. roc® retinol. found in roc® retinol correxion deep wrinkle night cream. it's clinically proven to give 10 years back to the look of skin. now for maximum results, the power of roc® retinol is intensified with a serum to create retinol correxion® max.

it's clinically shown to be 4x better at smoothing lines and deep wrinkles than professional treatments. new roc® retinol correxion® max. nothing's better than gold. can you get me out of it? of course. travelocity? that's amazing. but i'm still stuck. come on, man. dig it! [ female announcer ] travelocity. get great deals on all kinds of beach vacations. owe

splenda® essentials™ no calorie sweetener with b vitamins, the first and only one to help support a healthy metabolism. three smart ways to sweeten. same great taste. splenda® essentials™. . the new ipad. and it is amazing. we've taken it to a whole new

level and we are re-defining the category that apple created with the original ipad. >> apple ceo tim cook there. he's so confident about the company's latest ipad it seems he hasn't given it a number. is this really the definitive tablet that the company pioneered -- from the one the company pioneered i should say. >> reporter: i'm dan simon at the apple event in san francisco. we got our hands on the new ipad. it's just called the apple. when you hold it in your hands, it looks and feels like the previous version, the ipad 2, but it actually has a much better screen. it's a retina display so pictures and text look a lot

crisper. the other new feature is the camera on the back. an all new camera, five megapixel camera. theoretically you could use this as your primary camera for taking pictures. there's an iphoto app. one thing you can't see is the new chip that supports faster downloading speed. the ipad now supports the 4g network that's available on at&t and verizon. it's going to go on sale for march 16th. the starting price will remain the same at $500. dan simon, cnn, san francisco. so were there any surprises in the latest apple unveiling or did we know pretty much what was coming in it anyway? here to analyze it is cnn's resident tech expert, kristie lu. >> i think the biggest surprise is that it didn't have a number. it's not called the ipad 3, they're saying there's not going to be anymore numbers. >> why? >> it's not going to be mack

book 1, 2, 3. what apple is trying to do is just to create a new, better, more enticing tablet computer. it will be available on sale in hong kong next friday, the united states, seven other markets. in asia, that would include australia, singapore and japan. it will have faster processor, better resolution. five megapixel camera. is it enough to entice customers, those who haven't purchased one yet or those who are considering an upgrade? we ended up hearing from some people who saw it in an apple store in california. let's hear what they have to say. >> well, i'm interested in getting it because i only have the first one. the speed has been slowing down a little bit so i'm looking to upgrade. >> i'm currently very happy with my ipad. it's the third one that i've bought, however, i will buy another one. >> i know you probably think i'm mad, but i'm not. i just love it and i don't care -- i'm not one of those

people that has to have the latest, absolute, most upto date recent one. it actually doesn't bother me. i still love this one. i'm going to hang onto it for a while. i'm going to enjoy this. i don't think about it much. >> so to upgrade or not to upgrade, that is the question. also, maybe just to buy into this. it's your very first ipad experience. what's very interesting is an angle of the story that's happening here in hong kong. over the weekend a young hong kong blogger, 21 chris chang, he posted a video of what he said were actual components of the ipad. he released this days before the official launch. the video had 2 million hits and counting. we invited him over to our bureau to ask him to show us the components and what it means to apple. >> if you take a look carefully you will find some difference with the ipad 2. there's a camera right here at the top and these are 3g model.

and you see it's thicker and much tapered edges. the feel is compared to the ipad 2, it looks slightly different. >> that was chris chang of mic gadget. it seems like he did get his hands on the real deal. he said that it would be thicker. sure enough, it is 0.6 millimeters thicker. now how did a 21-year-old blogger get his hands on this? by cultivating and using his supplier sources in shenjen. what's really interesting is even though he uploaded the video and the blog, he had all these components from apple sources two months in advance. >> so these are the sources who are actually making the next ipad? >> apparently so.

of course, we want to get our hands on the next ipad here and also get the components from chris, compare and contrast. in the meantime we have these allegedly ipad 3, your latest cases already on sale in main land china. sure enough, bigger hole for the bigger camera. >> they don't miss a trick. i guess we shouldn't be surprised. i want be to ask you quickly. ipad, believe it or not, is not the only tablet game in town. it just seems like it because we talk so much about it. are apple's rivalries making any inroads or with this new ipad have they totally sealed it? >> yes and no. you see a number of people trying to get into the game. frankly, there isn't a viable alternative to the ipad. that being said there was a lot of excitement about the amazon fire. windows osh so windows tablets could gain traction. the numbers speak for themselves. how many android tablets have been sold worldwide? 12 million. how many apple ipads have been

sold last quarter alone, 15 million. enough said. >> pretty compelling number. christie will be back with that full story in her show later this day. still to come on "world business today," it may be the world's second biggist economy, but only a portion of its population is prospering. we'll look at the chinese growing wealth divide next. younger looking skin. [ female announcer ] new aveeno skin strengthening body cream helps transform dry, thinning skin, by strengthening its moisture barrier, for improved texture and elasticity in 2 weeks. reveal healthy, supple skin. aveeno skin strengthening. 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 you call now, you'll get this free information kit... with all you need to enroll. put their trust in aarp medicare supplement insurance. plus you'll get this free guide to understanding medicare. the prices are competitive. i can keep my own doctor. and i don't need a referral to see a specialist. call now to get a free information kit. plus you'll get this free guide to understanding medicare. and the advantages don't end there.

choose from a range of medicare supplement plans... that are all competitively priced. we have a plan for almost everyone, so you can find one that fits your needs and budget. with all medicare supplement plans, there are virtually no claim forms to fill out. plus you can keep your own doctor and hospital that accepts medicare. and best of all, these plans are... the only medicare supplement plans endorsed by aarp. when they told me these plans were endorsed by aarp... i had only one thing to say... sign me up. call the number on your screen now... and find out about an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan. you'll get this free information kit... and guide to understanding medicare, to help you choose the plan that's right for you. as with all medicare 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.

this is world business today live on cnn. welcome back. as chinese lawmakers continue economic policy talks at the national people's conference in beijing, there's one issue that's high on the official agenda, the growing divide between the rich and poor. as of 2011 about 128 million people were estimated to live under china's definition of the poverty line, meaning they earn $360 or less a year. now china's per capita income is also ranked far behind that of other emerging markets, including brazil and russia at around $8400. eunice yun gets perspective from two people at opposite ends of the wealth spectrum in the capitol district. >> reporter: he lives in the suburbs of beijing. he works and sleeps in this public toilet only steps away from the apartment buildings of

the city's wealthy. >> translator: of course the rich look down on us, he says. >> reporter: on a nearby street man is one of those enjoying the high life. he drives to work in his mercedes to a design job he got after moving to the capitol from the countryside years ago. i don't feel sorry for poor people, he says, because this is their reality. the reality is china is struggling with a widening wealth gap. this communist nation is now home to the second largest number of billionaires behind the u.s. while over 100 million here still live on $1 a day. over the past three decades the government has transformed the economy lifting 300 million out of poverty through policies that turned this country in the world's workshop. but not everyone feels they benefitted in the same way. the people in this neighborhood complain of corruption, discrimination against the poor, and generally feel left behind. jong is better off than many in this country earning $5 a day

yet he can't afford to shop at the mall that hovers over his home. he understands why discontent has led to an uptick of protests in the past year. i empathize with protesters, he says. now only powerful people can be officials. no one dares to report corruption. at this year's national people's congress the government wants to show it's paying attention to this politically sensitive issue addressing the rich/poor divide is a major directive in 2012, a year of transition to a new generation of leaders. to help bridge the wealth gap the authorities are building millions of low-cost homes, raising wages, and offering greater subsidies to the nation's poorest. but jong says lawmakers should do more. government officials should help people like us. it's their job, he says. yet mon says people should depend on themselves. you have to be optimistic about

life, he says. set positive goals and go after them because this world is fair. two opinions in a country grappling to reconcile communists and capitol lists ambitions, still much work to be done. eunice yun, cnn beijing. >> just ahead on "world business today," greece's private debt deal finally nears its deadline, but will enough people sign up for this swap? we'll examine the odds and the implications in just a moment's time.

from cnn hong kong, i'm

andrew stevens. and i'm nina dos santos at cnn london. welcome back to "world business today." let's return to big business headlines this thursday. stock markets worldwide are currently trading higher largely on the back of hopes that greece will finally complete a debt swap deal with its private creditors. the deadline is just a few hours away from now and most major bond holders look set to fall into line eventually. jim boulden tells us what's at stake. >> when it comes to greece and the euro crisis there is always a deadline. banks and hedge funds have until thursday, 8:00 p.m. london time to decide whether to take a big loss on the greek debt they hold and swap it for new debt. those banks and hedge funds are deciding if they should voluntarily take a 53% nominal loss on their holdings. in reality, many are losing more than 75% of the value of the greek debt that they hold, but that's, of course, considered

better than getting nothing. we already know that many banks have agreed to the swap. some big banks, including deutsch bank, allianz have said they will take part in the swap. greece was hoping to have 90% or more of their bonds swapped. that seems unlikely. there are holdouts. greece said tuesday that those who don't sign up should not expect greece in the end to pay them back in full. so lawsuits are sure to follow this process. now if less than 90% of the bonds are offered for this swap, then greece has the right to force the remainder to take this deal, like it or not. that's what's called a collective action clause or cac. if it falls below 75%, greece says the offer will be revoked. now that would create market havoc because this offer needs to go ahead for greece to get its massive $160 billion bailout. ideally the swap will cut

greece's $230 billion debt by half or more. that would save it some $4 billion a year that otherwise would have been spent on debt repayments that can, instead, go to help rebuilding the economy. jim boulden, cnn, london. greece is seen as a weak link in the euro debt zone crisis. germany has been seen as the school bully. austerity may not be popular as recent events in athens have shown, but germany's foreign minister says that it is the only option given the current climate. we sat down with cnn's frederick pliken. >> you cannot solve a debt crisis by making it he is easier to take up new debts. this is the one pillar, budget discipline. the second discipline is gross, and gross is not the results of new debts. you cannot buy growth with

public spending. we have to create and to stimulate growth with competitiveness. >> so guido not sounding like he's ready to head down the road any time soon. stocks, we're 90 minutes into the trading session. there's a lot of optimism that the greek swap will go through. the cutoff is around 8:00 p.m. london time this evening. we're awaiting ecb andback of england interest rate numbers. and we have eads announcing their earnings today. also air france klm, those are some of the winners in paris. if we talk about air france klm, that is the one downbeat statement that we've had over the course of today in the paris market. this company hasn't joined the positive party. it's actually been dropping by

about 2/3 of 1%. they announced a loss last year that's after boasting a profit of 380 million for a year earlier. all of this is due to high fuel costs that don't seem set to come down from the stratosphere anytime soon. >> absolutely. not with the continuing tensions over the iranian nuclear program. here in asia, nina, all the major indices joining in that party of optimism you were talking about there. first time we've seen green arrows this week. a pretty strong set of green arrows. the investor optimism is underpinning the mood. we have some upbeat jobs numbers out of the u.s. overnight that is raising hopes about the state of the u.s. economy. australia had a bit of a blip in the unemployment rate there. it was up to 5.2% in february. that was a bit of a drag on the markets in australia. the s&p up by about 2/3 of 1%.

the nikkei the biggest gainer. that was helped by some better than expected numbers on the broad economy. gdp growth for 2011 coming in at actually contracted, it wasn't growth, it fell by .7 of 1%. that compared with earlier estimates of a fall of 2.3% for the japanese economy in the wake of the march disasters. so not as badly hit, the japanese economy, as had been expected. they got a bit of a boost to the markets. we are under five hours from the opening bell on wall street now. investors hoping to maintain momentum there as well. at the close the dow was just over .6% higher. the nasdaq up by almost 1%. the s&p up by almost 2/3 of 1%. those gains coming on the back of investor sentiment on the employment numbers, the payroll processing firm adp said in its monthly report the private sector employees added 216,000

jobs in february. that was roughly in line with forecasts. adp also revising its job number for january, up to 173,000. of course, this all comes ahead of the big monthly non-firm payroll numbers which is out on friday. meanwhile, the u.s. treasury has begun disentangling itself from the insurer aig announcing it will sell $6 billion of the company's stock. it's the latest stage in the selldown of the 77% the treasury department still holds in aig following the bailout of the firm in 2008. the treasury stands to make a profit on that sale, aig's stock up about 26% so far this year. aig has said it will buy half its stock on offer. nina? andrew, i want to go back to the commodity markets now. the price of oil just continues to rise on the back of the supply concerns linked to growing tensions between the west and iran as andrew was

mentioning about two minutes ago. let's take a look at brent crude. this contract has been trading at its highest level in about a year, trading at just over $125 a barrel. as you can see, it's up about $1.15 at the moment. $125.36 to be precise. the price has risen more than 23% in the last three months. the ripple effect of those kind of rising prices could be pretty serious. analysts say that it could close a real threat, especially to the united states. earlier i got the chance to speak to steve forbes, editor in chief of "forbes" magazine and asked him what he thought of the chances of that. >> they are the chief villain on that is not just the uncertainty in the middle east but even a bigger one is the federal reserve printing too much money? over time there's a very close correlation between what happens to the dollar and what happens to the price of oil. when the dollar gets weak, the price of oil, which as you know when other commodities are denominated in dollars, they go

up. we saw it in the '70s when the dollar was savagely weakened. it went from $3 to 40 dollars a barrel. president reagan brought down the inflation. oil fell in half to $21. so a lot of it's in the hands of the fed but a big short-term thing obviously is the middle east. if there's a real prospect of a blowup, insurance rates on the tankers going through the strait of hormuz will send up oil prices even if something doesn't come to a conflict. >> steve forbes there of "forbes" magazine. andrew, you've talked about this many a time on this show, it's a perfect storm for countries like japan. the dollar is weakening, the yen is strengthening. japan has a power supply crunch just at the time when it's still trying to rebound. >> absolutely. they're looking for something like 30% extra pound to make up for the short fall of their power supply. that's a big ask. as you say, with oil prices

heading towards $130 a barrel, it's not a good time to be looking for alternative energy sources in fossil fuel. still ahead on "world business today," steve forbes, the "forbes" magazine has just released its latest rich list. there are winners, and losers, if you believe that. as an argentine football player makes the grade. and if any of those bill airs just can't decide what to spend their pocket change on, how about this? the world's most expensive watch. we've got more on that in just a minute. take a guess how much it's worth.

he

[ woman ] a [ male announcer ] start asking real owners. ask me how to make your first move. ♪ it's the perfect time to save up to $300 on select mattress sets. tempur-pedic. the most highly recommended bed in america. welcome back to "world business today" live from cnn. it's often said that time is money and that certainly is likely to be the case if you're wearing one of these. inlayed with 1200 diamonds, this particular watch comes with a price tag of a whopping $5 million. if you're wondering what the

market is like for one of these kind of iconic time pieces, the answer might be better than you'd expect. as the ceo explains to me, business in the luxury watch trade is booming. >> you know, last year we did $3 million watch and it was sold in june to a customer in mont monte carlo. the year before we did a $1 million watch and we sold nine pieces. this year we have a $5 million watch. ica not tell you now who will buy it, but we have already a few people that are strongly heavily interested in buying it. even one asked us not to show the watch and to keep it secret for his customer, which we haven't done necessarily. we were so impatient at the 5 million watch that we showed it today. >> so how has the watch fair been so far?

is demand looking like it will be as strong as last year or is the euro crisis likely to curtail demand? >> yeah, it's a good question. we were also surprised to see that the demand is, again, very strong and probably we are heading to a next record year for our industry. and as far as it has been till now, for the first two months we are on track to reach another record. >> you must be worried about a curtailment of demand from people in the eurozone or on the other hand has that been more than ampy made up for in the rising demand from emerging markets? >> you're right. but we have also a stronger demand now coming from america. we have a stronger demand coming from japan. thp is a large compensation to a certain weakness of euro.

>> now some people have also cautioned that china may see its economy cool a little bit, albeit the kind of economic growth figures that would make many a developed country envious. even if china's growth does come down even say below 8%, what's that going to mean for hublot watches? >> for hublot, china is only a potential. why? because we are exporting. we did last year less than 3% of our turnover in china, which is a catastrophe because the swiss industry did 35% and we did 3, less than 3. so we have a catchup problem in china that is enormous and that gives us huge potential of growth. now if china has as little slowdown, if we do only 3% we are not hurt at all because we rely not on china. china is important for us for the future. >> now you might need quite a

bit of money to buy one of those watches. in fact, it might help if you're on the forbes rich list. at the top of that particular list for the third year in a row we find a similar character to the last two or three years. the mobile phone mogul. he's not quite as flush as he was this last year. he's worth $69 billion in 2012. that is $5 billion less than last year. a record 1,226 billionaires made this year's list including the likes of another famous character often there in the top slot, bill gates himself. that's 16 more in total when it comes to the total tally of billionaires than last year. their average net worth remain the same, which is the interesting point here. about $3.7 billion if you tally up what their on average worth. and in total, well, they're worth $4.6 trillion. that is up about $100 billion from last year.

andrew? extraordinary stuff, isn't it? i guess carlos wouldn't notice if he lost $5 billion when you've got that sort of money. one man who has almost as many column inches as he has dollars is this chap right here. barcelona, leonel messi. he came in 42 last year. last night he reminded us why he's worth his extraordinary wealth. >> messi scoops it in! >> if you could measure talent in dollars, he would be a billionaire many times over. what you're looking at there is one of the five goals, that's right, five goals that messi managed again the other team. the most any single person has scored in the champion's league match. at the young age of 24, he's only seven goals away from

becoming barcelona's all time highest scorer. according to forbes he's worth 32 million. that was in 2011. given that he earns half that annually on the football pitch alone, i guess the only way is up for this, well, a little man with an enormous talent, nina. yeah, and he's pretty young as well. envious position to be in, andrew. coming up next on "world business today," a voyage that's been 50 years in the making. we'll take you to a journey to the bottom of the sea. just ahead. stay with us. so what do you think? basic.

at meineke i have options... like oil changes starting at $19.95. my money. my choice. my meineke.

welcome back. live from cnn in hong kong beings you're watching "world business today." daring to go where only two men have gone before. the film director james cameron is getting closer to his goal of reaching some of the deepest parts of the ocean. that's roughly 11 kilometers below the ocean surface. cameron isn't the only sea pioneer here to have given this a try. others are funding missions as well, including the likes of the virgin sail, richard branson. as jason carroll reports, he looks set to achieve this monumental goal first. >> if you've ever dreamed of exploration or being an explorer, you won't be able to turn away from what is happening on the ship where i am now. i'm talking about james cameron

and his attempt to reach challenger deep. that is the deepest known point on the planet. it's located in the marianis trench. it's 36,000 feet down. that is seven miles from the surface to the bottom. how's he going to get there? well, over the past several years he's been working with a team of scientists, submarine engineers, and together with a partnership with national geographic, cameron has developed this technologically advanced sub that they've named deep sea challenger. cameron took me on a tour of this vehicle that will take him on this historic scientific voyage. >> reporter: when do you feel like it's real? does it feel real after you've accomplished something or is it right before? or is it during? >> it's the klunk of the hatch closing. that's when the rubber meets the road. >> reporter: okay. >> because now you've got to execute the whole task and finish the job. the trickiest part about piloting one of these things is that here we are at the equator, super hot and humid. there's so much in the way of

electronics in there dumping heat into the sphere that the temperature will spike up to sauna heat when you first close the hatch. >> reporter: okay. >> then the temperature slowly falls to arctic conditions, to freezing. and you have to layer up as you go through the dive. it's such a constricted space. >> reporter: cameron is one of the most successful directors around. he's just as passionate about deep sea exploration. he knows the risk. every bolt, every inch of deep sea challenger has to protect him from the extreme pressure. approximately 16,000 pounds of pressure per square inch. test dives have been completed. the goal here is for cameron and his team to collect samples from challenger deep and with luck to discover new forms of life and to see what we can learn from those new forms of life. you've heard about that giant leap for man kind. in his eyes, he's trying to take the deepest dive for man kind.

jason carroll in the solomon sea. >> what a fascinating story. on that high note, it's time to say good-bye from the two of us. that's it for this edition of "world business today." i'm nina dos santos in london. i'm andrew stevens. i'm trying to look at whether it's a highlight or a low light. amazing stuff, you're right. you're watching cnn. the headlines are just ahead. [ female announcer ] want to spend less and retire with more? then don't get nickle and dimed by high cost investment -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com [ female announcer ] want to spend less and retire with more? and experienced retirement specialis can help you build a personalized plan. and with our no annual fee iras and a wide range of low cost investments, you can execute the plan you want at a low cost. so meet with us, or go to etrade.com for a great retirement plan with low cost investments. ♪

like splenda® essentials™ no calorie sweeteners. this bowl of strawberries is loaded with vitamin c. and now, b vitamins to boot. coffee doesn't have fiber. unless you want it to. splenda® essentials™ are the first and only line of sweeteners with a small boost of fiber, or antioxidants, or b vitamins in every packet. mmm. same great taste with an added "way to go, me" feeling. splenda® essentials™. get more out of what you put in.