and what we are hearing is that investors are now starting to look forward, looking forward to possible action by the fed at some point when the u.s. wakes up tomorrow. and what they're also looking for are bargain. we're starting to see more bargain hunters coming in and buying up at the end of the day. it is almost swooping in and saving what could have been a very, very bad day here in

tokyo, but ending up not a great day, but certainly not as bad as it could have been. when we look for what all of this means, because investors are looking for the long-term prognosis, what does all this volatility mean, you have a number of opinions, a wide variety of opinions. a lot of people are feeling negative overall about the global economy, certainly negative about the u.s. economy. but a theme we keep hearing repeated over and over again is that what this is representing to a lot of investors is that asia may be a flight to liquidity that some investors are looking at how solid some of the asian economies are and moving away from the united states. perhaps this is, again, one of those teachable moments that shows world economies that the axis of economic power is beginning to move away from the united states and closer to asia, namely china. rosemary? >> all right, a little glimmer of hope there coming from cnn tokyo.

always happy to grasp any good new questions get. let's find out how the other markets across asia are faring today. and remy joins us with the latest from hong kong. so, not so bad by the close of trading there in tokyo. that's good news. a little glimmer of hope coming out of australia too. we grab what we can. >> that's right, rosemary. market across the region are down by as much as 4% now. let me take you first to the nikkei over in tokyo. it is down as you mentioned about 1.7% there. and this is its fourth straight days of falls. it did cross this 9,000 line barrier today, first time since mid-march after japan's earthquake here. banks and exporters, autos, electronicsmakers, those were taking the index down hard. in hong kong, the hang seng is down about 4% now. it is the biggest loser in the

markets now. earlier it traded at a low not seen since last year in may. hsbc is down 7%. bank of china, down about 4%. over on the mainland, the shanghai composite, flirting back and forth. inflation fears are going to stay front and center in the national dialogue over here. and finally down to australia, the ask 200, it did a surprise turn around at the midday, pulled into the green and is now trading up as you can see, about 1%. still miners and banks are the usual suspects. bhp billen to, rio tinto flirting back and forth, now both up more than 1%. >> nice to end on a high note there. you've been looking at bear markets. what have you been finding? >> yeah, exactly. some interesting stuff happening here. basically with the bear market,

let me bring this up, basically china, hong kong, and south korea, these countries in red, these are officially in bear market territory. that means their markets have fallen by more than 20%. the shanghai composite is down 21%, falling off an april high. the hang seng is down 20%, also off an april high. south korea down 20%, more recently since early may. as far bear watch territory, that's what i'm calling that, australia is very close to bear territory right here. down about 19.8% since early june. any lower and it will be in that bear club. india over here is down 15% since early may. and also, trending down are these other countries in green. japan, singapore and new zealand they are all down about 13% off of their latest highs. >> all right, thank you so much. appreciate that. of course, as we mentioned, australia's stocks had slumped

at their open earlier today. they rallied back into positive territory a little while ago. and let's see how the market is doing now. kylie merit from sky news australia joins me now from sydney. this is good news, a little bit of good news coming out of australia. we heard that from tokyo too that maybe now the nations are moving forward. what are you able to tell us and reveal to us about what is happening there in australia? >> well, it has been quite an incredible day here. we all woke up this morning, heard the news out of the u.s., came to work with our tin hats on yesterday afternoon. we closed the day right on the cusp of bear market territory. came in this morning, the market just fell away. we were down 5.5% at one stage, the biggest interday fall we have seen here since late 2008. we're talking the middle of the crisis type thing. and then around lunch time, 1:00, things started to come back. we started to hear word that

potentially at the u.s. fed meeting tomorrow morning our time that there will somebody sort of qe-3 and the market took heart from that. traders looking at the prices that were going on in our market and thinking it is way too cheap because, you know, our corporate balance sheets here are very, very strong. so we started to see a bit of a rebound by about 2:00 this afternoon. we tipped into positive territory. the market just closing now, our benchmark index up nearly 28 points. just an incredible turn around. the banks led the gains. some of the banks came out this morning and cut fixed mortgage rates. we have got cba, one of our biggest banks reporting profits tomorrow. we had cash earnings out from them today which were very strong. all this good news coming out of the corporates. i think investors they're thinking it is too good to stay away. we had the pa ratio of the market down four points off its

long-term average and everyone started coming back in. it is good news from australia. i couldn't tell you what is going to happen tomorrow because it is just all over the place, but fingers crossed, we'll get a little bit more stability. >> we'll just be happy and grant this good news when we can. kylie merit from australia. thanks so much. we'll talk to you later. up next, a developing and dangerous situation in several cities across britain. we'll have a live report from birmingham where the violence appears to be spreading. do stay with us for that and a whole lot more. but not in my ne. ♪ [ female announcer ] we're throwing away misperceptions about natural gas vehicles. more of the vehicles that fuel our lives use clean american natural gas today. it costs about 40 percent less than gasoline, so why aren't we using it even more? start a conversation about using more natural gas vehicles in your community.

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it is a new day in britain and several cities are holding their breath. that's because fires burned out of control in several neighborhoods in and around london on monday. then riots broke out to the west in bristol, birmingham, and liverpool. in the capital, at least eight neighborhoods were rocked by renewed violence. in peckham, police chased rioters and looters who attacked officers with stones, clay pots and bottles. and now it all began late saturday when a march protesting the police shooting of a man in north london degenerated into violence. but now police say those rioters are simply houoligans engaged i sheer criminality. we want more on where things stand across london and beyond.

and british prime minister david cameron's response to it. atika shubert is in london for us. we hear the prime minister has returned to england. >> he has returned earlier this morning and he's expected to chair what they call the coburn meeting which will be meeting around 9:00 a.m. local, a little under two hours from now. but, you know, many people will feel that this is too little too late at this point. we had three days of looting and rioting on the streets of london. now it appears to have spread to other cities, more than 300 arrests have been made. and residents are now waking up to the aftermath and we have seen in some areas such as south london, enfield as well, that massive fires have broken out and destroyed businesses. the sony distribution center in enfield caught fire late last night. police are still investigating

what exactly caused the fire. but in the minds of many people, it is connected to the kind of general lawlessness that has been happening around the city. >> atika, as we're talking, we're looking at these aerial pictures from hackney in london. hackney particularly, a very multicultural part of london. how worried are police that ethnic violence could actually develop from here? >> it is a worry and it is not just ethnic violence. there are a lot of gangs that operate in that area. i actually live near hackney. i'm in -- near that area now. there are concerns. however, what seems to be the biggest concern is just the sort of youth gone wild that are essentially going around in packs attacking police, looting areas, that the police can't

seem to get a control over and there have been running battles in the street of hackney. so there are concerns that this could then turn into either gang warfare or, for example, you could start to see, you know, people -- local residents trying to form vigilante groups to protect their own property. that is also a concern for police if people feel that they're not being protected, are they going to take the law into their own hands. >> and, atika, that seems to be the very point here that we're talking about three days of violence here. the police don't seem to be able to contain this. it is out of control. so there has been some chatter about bringing in the army. is that what it is going to take? >> well it a good question. that's what a lot of people in london and other cities are asking, what is it going to take? people do want to see stronger action being taken, whether it is a curfew that makes sure that, you know, anybody who is out after a certain time, you

know, that the police check in on them, see whether or not they're causing disturbances, whether or not it is bringing in extra resources from other security forces, the police, whatever it is, people are saying the government has to get control of it. of course, the problem now is it was much more contained on friday when it was tottenham or sunday when it was north london and south london. it now spread to so many areas that the police are finding themselves so stretched thin that they really aren't able to respond to everything. i came home last night through east london and found there was looting on one of my main shopping streets, a very small shopping street. but there were no police around at all because they were too busy responding to much bigger emergencies happening in other parts of the city. and it is that kind of lawlessness that is really frightening people. on the bus at home, people were really concerned and trying to compare notes, how are they going to get home, how are they

going to avoid the lootings and make it home safely? >> this is the worry, isn't it? atika shubert reporting there from near hackney in london. as atika mentioned and as we have been reporting, this has spread. we want to update you on conditions in birmingham, after violence broke out there monday. and covering the rioting there is daniel wainwright, a correspondent for the express and star and he's on the phone right now. thanks for joining us once again. let's go over what the situation is in birmingham now as we speak. >> well, it seems to have calmed down a little bit now. we have not heard any updates of any more violence since around 2:00 a.m. british time, about five hours ago for us. what we saw last night was violence that fled in the city center of birmingham. we had over 100 people that have been arrested, that being 34 people injured. and it essentially has been

people smashing the windows of shops, taking what they want, helping themselves to sports wear and even more mindless vandalism than that, smashing the fronts of fast food restaurants. >> let's look at the core of this. as we spoke last hour, the initial trigger was the police shooting of the 29-year-old man in london. but it has become bigger than that, hasn't it? now it is all out violence across parts of london and we're seeing now in birmingham, as you're reporting from there, what is right at the core of this? what is the problem? >> to be honest, your guess is as good as ours. there is absolutely no reason that we can see for why this violence has flared up well over 100 miles from london and indeed reports of it happening in places further afield like liverpool.

there is no connection that anybody here can see to the shooting of mark duggan in london. this can only be put down to greed and mindless mob mentality. >> yeah. when we look at this situation, of course, we're seeing a lot of people are suggesting that what is at the core of this is the jobless community, these teenagers, and these young people who are without jobs and have been without jobs and without a future and without hope. do you think that this is the problem here, that is happening not only in london, but across parts of england here? >> i think it is more than that as well. certainly, yes, but that has been a huge issue. certainly in the region where birmingham is, unemployment is very, very high. the highest in the country.

i think as well as that, the lack of jobs also leads one to a lack of responsibility. and i think also to a great deal of resentment. what we have here are people helping themselves to things that do not belong to them and destroying property that other people have worked hard for. other reports from parts of the country, those -- some journalists have managed to attempt to ask some of these people why they're doing it. they have been giving absurd reasons such as they're getting their tax back which just doesn't seem to make any sense at all. >> this is the problem when we're looking at economic times. the woes that people are confronting. but also, too, i want to look at the point that this has been three days now and this does appear to be out of control. when you look at aerial shots of parts of london, and other parts of england on fire, like here we're looking at waltham abbey

in england, are people worried there is no security there, that it appears at this point it can't be brought under control? >> i think there is that worry. and we are awaiting for the prime minister, david cameron, to chair the emergency committee called cobra a little later today. so we're hoping to hear something to what is actually going to be done to take this under control. it has been several days now. there appears to be no end to it. it is certainly no longer contained to areas of the capital. and word st of all, there appea to be no actual motive or reason for the violence anymore, which will make it harder for the emergency services be able to predict where it is going to happen. they're essentially having to monitor the social networking sites such as twitter and, of course, a lot of this is being

organized through the blackberry mobile phones, through the bbm network. >> correspondent daniel wainwright talking to us there from birmingham. thanks so much. coming up, the calls for reform are getting louder. but will syria listen to its arab neighbors and end the bloodshed? we'll take a look.

in syria, president bashar

al assad's forces continue their crackdown on protesters bud the brutality has been criticized. saudi arabia, kuwait and bahrain, members of the gulf cooperation counsel recalled their envoys from damascus and the 22 arab league called for an end to the bloodshed. saudi arabia, kuwait and bahrain are all taking a stand against the crackdown. arwa damon is tracking developments from beirut. >> reporter: despite all of this international condemnation and what we're hearing from some arab leaders as well on sunday morning, troops entered the eastern city, residents reporting as we have been hearing indiscriminate tank shelling, arrests appearing to happen at random, snipers being station on rooftops, people being prevented from accessing hospitals. in hama, the city we have been talking about for over a week now, the siege there continues. there is disturbing video posted to youtube.

we have to warn our viewers they might want to turn away at this point. it is showing how gardens, residents are being forced to turn their gardens into graveyards. in this video, you see makeshift gravestones crudely etched with the names of some of the victims of the regime's brutal way of handling these demonstrations. you see a number of bodies also being buried there. so the image that continues to emerge from syria is one of just growing and spreading brutality by this regime. >> well, huge explosions lit up the night sky over tripoli monday night. this was one of the most intense assaults on the libyan capital in weeks. our correspondent there says he saw multiple blasts and says a chemical plant to the east may be on fire. meanwhile, the rebellion is continuing its march east to tripoli. the opposition is now in control of bir al ghanam.

let's turn to jennifer delgado to find out more about weather conditions in somalia. and across east africa. >> yeah, absolutely, rosemary. we have been talking about this drought and, of course, dr. gupta as well as anderson cooper, they're broadcasting from east africa this week, covering the drought. want to update you on weather conditions across the region. you can see for yourself, we're still dealing with a bad drought across the region for areas including somalia and ethiopia, sudan, anywhere in that orange shading as well as red shading. this is a problem spot. it looks like there is no relief anytime soon. as i take you over and show you on this satellite imagery now, things are -- you can see a little bit of scattered shower activity for central africa republic, as well as sudan, up towards ethiopia. for somalia, those areas aren't picking up any rainfall. as we go through the next couple of days, nothing significant.

you have to keep in mind, we're talking we need widespread rainfall across the region. the other flip side to that is if this came down heavy, that could cause serious problems with flooding across that region. as we go through july and december, for the outlook, this is according to the u.n., the july harvest will be less than 50%. displacement, this may impact crop cultivation as we go even further down the road. less pastures will be available and that means fewer livestock births as well as less milk available. and, rosemary, we have seen images out of east aftrica and they're so heart breaking. it doesn't look like anything will be cooperating weatherwise across the country. protesters wreaking havoc across london. we will look at the multiple reasons behind that and whether it could have been prevented. also ahead, small signs of

hope despite drought and famine in africa. we'll take you there.

welcome back to world report. i'm rosemary church at cnn

center. want to get you caught up on the headlines now. asia markets are taking a beating as fear grips global investors. japan's nikkei, hong kong's hang seng, shanghai's composite and seoul's kospi plunged at the beginning of trading, but the markets have made up some of the day's losses. we are just seven hours away from a new trading day on wall street. this after the dow jones industrial average lost a staggering 634 points on monday. world markets are struggling with last week's u.s. debt downgrade and fears of financial instability in europe. another round of nato air strikes pounded tripoli monday. much of the city is suffering from fuel shortages and rolling blackouts. the gadhafi government has accused nato of bombing electric power stations and pipelines. but the military alliance denies the charges. it may be the calm before the storm early this tuesday morning in britain.

rioting rocked london and has moved west to the cities of birmingham, bristol and liverpool. on saturday, violence sparked by the shooting death of a man by police has now become more violent and less focused. police call what is happening sheer criminality. gangs of young people are roaming streets in several neighborhoods. they're burning cars and businesses, looting buildings and confronting riot police. prime minister david cameron has ended his vacation in italy and has now arrived back in london. and he will chair a meeting of britain's emergency response committee and hold talks with other officials later in the day. well, earlier our phil black was near one store in hackney as marauders looted the place and they attacked police vehicles, personal cars and shops. and here's his report. >> reporter: it is a street in hackney, london. several hundred people on the

street here and just meters away, just over here, if you can have a look, there is a store being looted as we speak. it looks like local convenience store. people are taking out what they can. mostly local food stuffs. and so forth. for the moment, the crowd seems to be reasonably tolerant about our presence here, which is unusual. but as i say, looting taking place right here on the street. no police to be seen on the street. as we're walking around, we'll take a look, move away from them because some people are getting a little tense, this vehicle here, we have been seeing these all up and down the street. we had to stop recording at that point. some of the crowd turned, tried to take our camera. we returned to the same street five hours later. this is the same store being looted at that time. if you have a look inside, it really has been cleared out. literally, the shelves have been

torn from the walls. all the produce and goods that were on sale here have been taken. the locals here told us the people have been in and out all night and they tell us that this store belongs to a family with young children. why did they do it? this is one of three properties along this street that have been looted. we spoke to one resident. this is what he said. >> i am quite proud of what we have done tonight because what we have done is pretty tasty. we have to live up to that. >> reporter: in the surrounding streets, i counted six or seven vehicles like this that have been torched by the rioters. all this damage we have seen is representative of only one community in one of the areas across london that has been affected by violence tonight. the residents of this city are wondering whether or not this third night of rioting and violence will be the last. phil black, cnn, in hackney, london. there are many questions that must be answered about how and why this unrest burst forth

across the capital and into other citys? as dan rivers reports, the saturday police shooting of a man, 29-year-old man, may have simply been the match that ignited smoldering discontent. >> reporter: scenes that have shocked britain, parts of london engulfed in rioting and looting with the police apparently caught off guard, bearing the brunt of the violence. tottenham has been trying to restore its reputation after similar riots 26 years ago. then it was provoked by the death of a local woman during a police raid, a policeman was hacked to death in the ensuing violence. this time it was the shooting of a local man, mark duggan, by the police on thursday that sparked the protests. the subsequent lack of information from the police angered some locals. sharon grant is the widow of former local politician bernie grant who represented the area in the 1980s.

she blames the police for failing to spot the signs. >> the past in tottenham, all the ingredients were there. if you are running the tottenham police, the alarm bell should have sounded and you should have triggered the community consu consulting and had manpower in the background waiting to nip any trouble in the bud. >> reporter: everyone is acutely aware of what happened here in tottenham in 1985. many people think these disturbances differed in one crucial way, they spread almost virally through london. and some people are attributing that to modern technology, in particular, blackberry instant messaging. this is one example of an inflammatory message wrongly claiming that there had been a second shooting of a black man. this one is even more sinister, calling on people to gather in another part of north london apparently inciting looting. local people though think the troublemakers are from outside

the area, and have hijacked their concerns in order to stir up trouble. >> a mixture of things now. i feel some people are using excuses as to why they can go out and do that and other people have a genuine frustration for the fact that there is no answers. >> reporter: duggan's death is being investigated by the independent police complaints commission, but some think the violence has more deep seeded causes amid sharp budget cuts and high youth unemployment. >> can't get work, can't get housing, can't do nothing. >> reporter: with so many politicians away on holiday, it was left to the deputy prime minister, nick clag, to visit tottenham. some blame the violence on austerity cuts which closed local youth centers. >> they need much more support than they have been given in the past. >> reporter: by monday evening, the trouble was still spreading with those in authority struggling to contain it. dan rivers, cnn, london.

>> you can learn more about this story at cnn.com. we have images and video of the riots and background on the areas affected. go to cnn.com for the very latest. up next here on world report, it is a race against the clock in the horn of africa. we'll speak with a doctor about the constant stream of starving refugees he's trying to help. and why some survive and others don't. stam ee ee een famine stalk la land. [ female announcer ] this is not a prescription. this is kate. [ kate ] can't believe i have high blood pressure. what's that thing? another medication. ♪ i really should have taken my shoes off before i got weighed. [ female announcer ] you've got a lot on your mind. that's why every walgreens prescription goes through a 10 point safeguard check that reviews your current walgreens health record

for allergies and potentially harmful drug interactions. [ kate ] i can do this. [ female announcer ] the 10 point safeguard check from walgreens. there's a way to stay well. excuse me? my grandfather was born in this village. [ automated voice speaks foreign language ] [ male announcer ] in here, everyone speaks the same language. ♪ in here, forklifts drive themselves. no, he doesn't have it. yeah, we'll look on that. [ male announcer ] in here, friends leave you messages written in the air. that's it right there. [ male announcer ] it's the at&t network. and what's possible in here is almost impossible to say. ♪ hey, gramps, what do you got in there? well, a trout lure, a set of dentures, broadway albums. you know -- stuff. yeah. about that. that big wheel behind us... yeah? he's got a flat-screen, swivel chairs, and a fridge. oh. hey, man! can we come over tonight?

it's surprising just how affordable an rv vacation can be. visit gorving.com and get a free video. or see an rv dealer. go affordably. go rving. inancial control - well, or see an rv dealer. like you haven't had before. wow. ( bike bell) unbelievable. well, the u.n. refugee agency airlifted more than 30 tons of relief supplies to victims in somalia. widespread drought and famine has forced tens of thousands of somalis to flee to mogadishu, or across the border to kenya. anderson cooper visited a hospital there to see how patients are faring. >> reporter: it is a place of hope and horror. the children's ward of the

international rescue committee hospital, extra beds have been brought in for the kids whose lives now hang in the balance. h ax hanad weighs six pounds and should be twice that. >> this child came in with diarrhea and vomiting. was unable to maintain fluids and has been like this for two weeks. >> reporter: this doctor has taught his mother how to feed him milk with vitamins and protein. but so far it is not working. you have to stop the diarrhea. >> we have to stop that. >> reporter: before you can treat the malnutrition. >> we have to stop the diarrhea and vomiting. >> reporter: but that's not easy. ladan is 4 years old and is too wasting away. once kids can maintain fluids, many are able to quickly come back to life. nazro has been here for five days. the fact she can sit up -- >> can sit up and drink on her

own is already telling you progress. >> reporter: with severe malnutrition, doctors can never be too sure. even if a child is drinking milk -- >> even a normal looking child, they can tip over to the other side. >> reporter: and they go very fast. >> they go very fast, very fast. in fact, what dehydration can do to a child in an hour -- >> reporter: an hour -- >> an hour, it is horrible. it is horrible. >> reporter: many of these kids spent weeks on the road. their mothers fleeing somalia. it took this woman two weeks to get here. he is so dehydrated, he needs a feeding tube. >> if they can get to a hospital, the chances of survival are -- i give it 80%. >> reporter: the key is getting here in time. >> the key is getting here in time. >> reporter: malnutrition is an age old problem. the doctors now is a new weapon

that revolutionized how they treat kids. once a child can eat, this is the first thing doctors give them. >> this is a miracle. >> reporter: it is a miracle. >> a miracle. >> reporter: nice to know miracles can happen even here. >> even here. even here. >> reporter: there are miracles and there is misery. but the doctor doesn't have time to dwell on either. >> our biggest clink is that they will keep on coming. how do you respond to that or rise to that occasion? it is very challenging mentally, i would say, because you lose life. but what do you do about the next one who will come. >> reporter: you can't mourn for the people who pass because more are still coming. >> more are still coming so we have to do something about that. >> reporter: anderson cooper, cnn, dadaab, kenya. >> the humanitarian crisis in somalia is growing more dire by the day. here is what the undersecretary

of general for humanitarian affairs said about the number of children affected. listen. >> just in the last month, 29,000 children have died in somalia. we are projecting that 600,000 children are -- may die because the situation for them, the outlook is so bleak. >> 600,000 children at risk. that number is hard to wrap your mind around. let's put those numbers in perspective. that's six times the seating capacity at soccer city stadium in south africa. that number is also equal to all the children in the chicago and houston school districts in the united states. and it is eight times the number of children in japan that were left homeless after the earthquake and tsunami in march. hard to imagine. starvation isn't the only threat to children there. malaria causes 800,000 deaths worldwide each year, most of them in africa.

and there are treatments available, but they have to be used with caution. gary striker looks at the problem of resistant strains in the battle against malaria. >> reporter: go to the pediatric ward of a hospital in many african countries and a large percentage of the children there are likely to have malaria. here in western kenya, it accounts for about one in three deaths of those under the age of 5. the standard treatment for the most deadly strain of malaria used to be caloric clean. over time, the parasites adapted and became resistant, rendering the drug ineffective. the next medication suffered the same fate. but in both cases, the resistance did not start in africa. it started here, far away, in rural cambodia. now it is happening again, this

time with acts, the gold standard in malaria treatment. we went there in 2009, when evidence of resistance was mounting from scientists conducting studies locally. >> we here as well as other researchers in southeast asia noted that not only are the parasites coming back, in doses that should clear them, but the amount of time it takes for those parasites to clear is creeping up over the last six to 12 years. >> reporter: it is unclear why resistant strains take root here. but the government is cracking down on counterfeit drugs and educating the population to take acts correctly. substandard drugs can lead to resistance because they fail to kill the strongest parasites, which learn how to adapt. counterfeit drugs are also a major problem in east africa.

raising additional concerns about resistance. there have been several raids in recent years in which thousands of kilograms of unlicensed medications have been seized. the cdc and kenya says stamping out counterfeit drugs and getting the real acts to people is paramount. >> what needs to be done is we need to monitor for drug resistance. at the same time, use an access of good quality acts. i cannot stress the importance of that. i don't think all countries in africa really have succeeded in doing that. >> reporter: if they fail, and resistance develops yet again, the result in the words of the world health organization would be catastrophic. gary striker, global health front line news for cnn. and if you would like to help any of the victims of the famine or help the fight against

malaria, go to our special impact your world website and we have direct links to legitimate organizations working to help. that's all at cnn.com/impact. do take a look. medical workers treating malaria patients in places like kenya and cambodia are putting themselves at risk. many travel to the front lines of wars to save as many lives as they can. cnn's atika shubert reports, those health workers may face more risks today than in the past. [ gunfire ] >> reporter: the libyan rebel fighter collapses to the ground

during a fire fight in misrata. shrapnel has ripped through an artery in his leg and he's rapidly losing blood. he's dragged into an abandoned building that doubles as an emergency operating theater. as medics battle to save the man's life, they come under fire again. the patient dies moments after being smuggled from the building. these graphic images captured by freelance photographer andre leon provide a startling insight into the conditions that health workers have to operate under in current conflicts. a report published by the international committee of the red cross claims that attacks on health facilities and personnel are becoming increasingly common. the spotless buildings and manicured grass of its headquarters in geneva are a

long way from the war torn streets of misrata. but the staff here are all too aware of the changing nature of conflict. the organization has been chronicling the effects of conflicts on all aspects of life since its formation. pictures from its archive reveal that health workers have always been at the heart of most major battles. its director of operations believes protecting health workers and the infrastructure they need to work is essential in any civilized society. >> we have become increasingly concerned about the high levels of violence that affect the provision of health care in war zones around the world. based on the work we do in many conflict zones around the world, the close proximity to people, we have come to believe that this is one of the biggest humanitarian challenges and at the same time one of the most overlooked that we currently face. >> reporter: the former surgeon

general of the british armed forces says one of the main challenges health workers face is convincing warring parties of their neutrality. >> there is no wounded enemy. there is no wounded taliban. there is but a wounded patient. that is not that difficult to actually maintain that neutrality as defined in that sense. those doctors, they see things happening that ought not to be happening, that they don't think should happen, and perhaps there will be general agreement they shouldn't happen, do they speak out? because the moment they speak out, they have become partisan. >> reporter: during our conversation, he recalled conditions during a battle in world war ii. >> the main british hospital in the battle was actually on the front line between the germans and the british. and the hospital occupied the top floor and carried on functioning and the fighting occurred on the bottom floor.

but both the germans and the british respected neutrality of the area that was actually reserved as the hospital. and it was on the basis that they did not participate in any military activities at all. >> reporter: the current conflict in afghanistan has been going on for almost a decade. for two years, mikhail hoffman was at the heart of the action. he believes that medics can only operate if there is no military presence whatsoever. >> the gun free hospital, this concept was there for a reason. once there are guns inside the hospital, the hospital is no longer a neutral zone and it is going to be attacked by different military forces. >> reporter: from the field hospitals that were in place during the russian turkish war in 1877 to the emergency operating theaters that are hastily created in modern conflict zones, medical staff

have always been at the heart of major battles. the majority of conflicts, the neutrality has been respected, but now the red cross believes health workers are in danger of becoming war's first casualties. >> still ahead here on world report, we'll update you on turbulent times in the world stock markets. there just may be some light at the end of the tunnel, though. we'll take a look.

a check of the headlines now and a fire overnight in the british town of waltham abbey as fire ripped through the london area for the third night. looting and skirmishes between police and young people were reported in eight london neighborhoods and in liverpool, bristol and birmingham. the prime minister, david cameron, returned home from a vacation in italy. and holds an emergency meeting on the crisis today. about 6 1/2 hours now until a new trading day opens on wall street. the dow jones industrial average lost a staggering 634 points monday. world markets are struggling with last week's u.s. debt downgrade and the fears of financial instability in europe. asian stocks have recouped some of their losses after a miserable start to the trading day. japan's nikkei, hong kong's hang

seng, shanghai's composite and seoul's kospi plummeted early. find out more about these and other top stories at cnn.com. time for a check of the global weather forecast once again and severe storms and heavy rain in the forecast for parts of europe. meteorologist jennifer delgado keeping an eye on all of that from the global weather center. >> it is that time of the year when we see storms popping up. and they're going to be doing that later into the afternoon through parts of europe. i'll show you on the radar now, light rain through parts up towards scotland, areas including parts of germany, some very light stuff out there. the real action is going to be popping up today through parts of eastern europe. satellite imagery, you can see that area of low pressure, that trailing cold front. that will be the fuel today for some severe storms as rosemary said. anywhere you see red, that includes parts of romania, bulgaria, you'll be dealing with this potential as we go through today as well as on wednesday.

then behind that, we're also going to see some cooler air working into parts of central europe. also want to point out to you, over towards parts of the uk, through wednesday, we're going to see some heavy rainfall working in. that includes parts of scotland. you've been dealing with some problems with flooding there. it looks like wednesday could bring some very heavy rainfall amounts. keep that in mind. we'll talk more about that as we head into tomorrow. but nonetheless, an area that has not been picking up rain, we're talking about parts of the u.s. once again, we have been seeing this graphic for weeks. anywhere you're seeing in yellow, temperatures near heat advisory, you can see excessive heat warming for parts of oklahoma. and for temperatures, they're going to be climbing once again into the lower 40s. some locates getting to around 42, 44 degrees. as we take you throughout the day on tuesday, little rock, kind of a hot spot there and the same for dallas. dallas, temperatures above 40. i think last check, about 33

days. oklahoma city, very hot there as well. and for memphis, we're talking 38. rosemary, we're not doing too bad, in the 40s. a high on tuesday of 36 degrees. we're going to take a look at your city by city forecast. we have something to talk about a little bit more how the heat is affecting parts of texas. stay with us. welcome back. looking at video of some water bottles. this happened in parts of kemp, texas. they have to rely on the bottled water because they're dealing with an extreme drought.

the mayor called for the water to be shut off. this is actually -- this is a move to help raise the water level. it has been so bad across the region after days and 33 days with temperatures on the triple digits, roughly around 42 degrees. this happened last year. they blame this to aging infrastructure and they said, of course, the heat and the drought, this is the big problem. people just running that water and they need water to cool off. really feel for the folks down in parts of texas. >> it is really tough, isn't it? and australia's been battling a drought for a long time. a lot of people have given up on having lawns and having more desert gardens. that may be something people have to consider in the future. >> absolutely. >> thanks so much, jen. the pairings have been made for the final major golf event this year, the pga championship. details on that just ahead on world sport after a news update. you're watching cnn, the world's news leader. we'll never stop sharing our memories,

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