not accusations. >> piers: well, mr. cain, you're very welcome come on this show any time and tell your side of the story or, indeed, take lie detector test, live why not? that is all for us tonight. hello, i'm monita rajpal. italy's prime minister has said in an interview with a newspaper that he will not run for re-election. silvio berlusconi had previously announced he will step down once lawmakers approve a new budget which contains key reforms. on tuesday, berlusconi lost his majority during a parliament vote on the previous year's budget. a greek government official says an announcement will be made today about forming a new government. signing a bailout is at the

center of negotiations between the political parties. the international atomic energy agency says it has, quote, serious concerns about iran's nuclear program. the u.n.'s nuclear watchdog says it has credible information that tehran may be developing nuclear weapons. iran's president calls the report a fabrication. u.s. officials say they'll use the report to lobby for new sanctions. the vote is under a year away, but controversy is already swirling in the u.s. presidential campaign. four women accuse republican candidate herman cain of sexual harassment. cain flatly denied the accusations in a news conference tuesday saying the democrat machine was behind a ploy to derail his presidential bid. those are the top headlines from cnn. i'm monita rajpal. "world business today" starts now.

good morning from cnn london, i'm nina dos santos. >> and a good afternoon from cnn hong kong. i'm andrew stevens. welcome to "world business today." the top stories this wednesday, november the 9th. >> investors are back in a buying mood after the italian prime minister, silvio berlusconi, says he will not run for re-election. slowing slowly, inflation continues to call on the world's second biggest economy. and shares in olympus plunge yet again as speculation mounts that the company may have a to-do list. speaking of stock markets, let's have a look at how the action is faring here in europe. about an hour into the trading session, we've had positive sentiment in response to berlusconi, the italian prime minister's pledge to resign and to not stand again for re-election. he's predicting that elections may come in february here. now, silvio berlusconi said that

he plans to step aside once the government approves austerity mesh eschasures in parliament. of course, italy is the world's eighth larger economy, the fourth largest in terms of debt and markets, of course, hinging on the government's promise to try and contain and reduce that debt which stands at $2.6 trillion and counting. we'll be live in rome for the latest on that in a moment. let's also look at how the european stock markets are faring as a whole. a bit of a higher open. it's the dax that is powering ahead, up this excess of 1%. all of this follows gains of around 1% across the board on tuesday. the current numbers show us that we could be seeing a second day of gains. in particular, if we move along to italy's main index, the ftse closed higher yesterday. it's also opened up about 1% higher on the day at the moment. though we're not showing you that yet. we also want to show you the price of gold.

this commodity has been rising yet again. rose above $1,800 to hit a seven-week high on tuesday. safe haven for investors amid all of this uncertainty. it's actually slipping in today's session, down to $5.83, price $1,783.10. andrew. nina, they've been calling it the berlusconi bounce in that anticipated exit by the italian p.m., certainly acting asian markets today. they, of course, now closed. two days of losses as global fears about europe's sovereign debt crisis. china's slowing inflation, this is a big number, and it was fueled in large part by declining food prices. now, china's national bureau of statistics says that consumer prices, that's the broad index of inflation, went up 5.5% in october. that compares with a 6.1%

increase the previous month and july's three-year peak of 6.5%. that's boosting expectations that beijing will begin to loosen the screws on monetary policy to boost economic growth. basically switching its focus from containing inflation to worrying about growth. now, the high inflation rate in china certainly has depressed markets across asia for most of this year. and today showing that sharp drop in inflation, giving investors some cheer pretty much across the board here as you see. now, hong kong was the top performer today. the hang seng index up by 1.7%. it actually opened 3% higher. there's still lingering concerns about just how this european debt crisis will play out. brought down a little bit as europe towards the end of the day's trading. the nikkei up by 1.1%, shanghai, 0.8% and australia up 1.2%. the situation in europe really is a global problem. news of mr. berlusconi's possible resignation led to a

rally on u.s. stock markets on tuesday. all of the major indices ended up finishing the day higher with banking stocks doing especially well. shares of citigroup, goldman sachs and jpmorgan chase all rising more than 2% in the session. these are the closing numbers for tuesday. we saw all indices putting on pretty substantial gains. and as i was saying, around the 1% mark, maybe even the 2% mark, boosted in particular by those banking stocks. andrew. >> yes, wall street on track for a lower opening when trading begins a few hours from now. that's what the futures look like so far. you see the dow down by about 0.5%. all eyes very much still on what's going on in europe. and whether the berlusconi resignation plan will bring an end to anything, nina. yeah, let's take a look at how it's affecting the bond markets because what i want to show you, andrew, is that right throughout the course of the last week or so when, of course, we had that brussels summit

during which mr. berlusconi was basically backed into a corner by the leaders of france and germany and also pretty senior figures within the government of the european union as a whole and told, well, you really have to get your finances in order. take a look at how the italian yields have been doing. because this is the real problem here. it's becoming increasingly expensive for italy to keep borrowing to sustain its enormous debt pile out on the open market, debt stands at $2.6 trillion and is becoming even more expensive every day. what i'm showing you is a one-week chart of the ten-year italian government bonds. as you can see, they've been ticking up towards 6.8%. in fact, they hit a high of 6.7% yesterday. that is a high for this country. the yields have ticked down a tiny bit since we knew that silvio berlusconi said that he was offering to resign once he saw these badly needed austerity measures passing through parliament. a tiny bit down. but let's have a look at how things go when you pass that so-called cutoff point of 7%

which, as you can see, italy is getting perilously close to. yields start spiking after that. this is how greece's ten-year bond is doing today. 27.77%. and also portugal and ireland, these are the two countries that received bailouts from the eu and imf. they also had to apply for bailouts when their yields surpassed about 10% and portugal still stands above 11.6%. ireland still well above 7% as you can see there. i also want to show you the spread because one thing that's really important to note is that the difference between italy and germany's borrowing costs, italy is perceived to be, aside from greece, portugal and ireland, the most risky of the euro zone bonds at the moment, while its yields are going up to the highest levels we've seen for the euro zone, germany is paying virtually record low borrowing costs. what i want to show you here is the spread or essentially just the difference between these two. it currently stands at about 495 basis points.

this is actually equal to 4.95%. so we're really close to a 5% difference in borrowing costs between the riskiest economy in the euro zone and also the least risky one. and this is what i want to show you, andrew. for every 1% move in this spread, it costs italy 3 billion euros every single day. we're learning that silvio berlusconi will not run in italy's next set of elections. let's go to matthew chance who's standing by in rome. matthew, it seems as though berlusconi won't be running for re-election when they do come, but what happens between now and february when he's predicting those elections to happen? >> reporter: well, he's saying that his vision is that there will be elections in february, and he doesn't see that he will be standing as a candidate. what happens before then, of course, is there has to be a decision for there to be elections. and that's not a decision that rests with berlusconi but the

italian prime minister, th napolitano. that's the condition essentially that berlusconi attached to his resignation. that could come very shortly, at the ends of the month, perhaps, perhaps earlier than that. the time line isn't absolutely exact. after that silvio berlusconi will step down. the italian president will then embark on consultations, decide what course of action he wants to take, whether it's to call for fresh elections or ask a member of the opposition, or whether it's to call some kind of technocratic government. again, that's something that will be decided later on by the italian president. nina. >> isn't there a bit of concern, matthew, though where you are in rome that even if they do get a

technocratic government, there isn't the political will to put forward to implement these austerity measures? >> reporter: yeah, i think there is that concern. certainly if there is a technocratic government that's put in place, one that would depend on support from the current parliament, the divisions that have been so important in preventing the administration from passing the austerity measures that they wanted to get through would still be very much evident. it would mean the technocratic government might not be able to get anything done either, particularly for international markets who are looking for a sort of new mandate to get through the austerity measures they believe the economy needs. so i think there is a sense that that's not a very strong option for the italian president to go to. you mentioned berlusconi has

always wanted elections, that that's what he's saying he wants again since his commitment to redesign. the opposition said they wouldn't be against fresh elections. the opposition is divided on that point. it certainly looks like that's the scenario that italy is heading towards. a scenario, of course, that would potentially see silvio berlusconi taking the position of caretaker prime minister at least after he steps down, possibly up until march after the election result has been confirmed. >> okay, matthew chance joining us from rome. many thanks for that. andrew. nina, government officials say that greece will announce the makeup of its interim coalition in the coming hours. the prime minister, george papandreou, is also expected to meet the country's president for another day of talks about the government. members of the opposition have failed to produce an agreement. we'll be live in athens in the

next half hour with the latest there. coming up next on "world business today," we've got more questions than answers as more dubious deals come to light at olympus. the chief executive of the company that was sacked, he says that it's time for its accountants to start talking. we'll bring you an update next. [ dr. banholzer ] every once in awhile there's a moment where everything comes together. where there's magic. and you now understand what nature's been hiding. ♪ at dow we understand the difference between innovation and invention.

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selling of its shares on the tokyo exchange has now been suspended. now, olympus fired mr. woodford after he questioned the company's payment of almost $700 million in advisory fees on a takeover deal. and since then further revelations of impopriety have come thick and fast. well, misdeeds coming to light are so widespread, the questions are now being asked about how they could have gone unnoticed. one of the people asking those questions is the man that olympus fired. he told charles hodgson that the company needs to start talking. >> i've seen some of the documents and release some of them myself. i think there are fundamental questions for the two large companies involved, both kpmg and ernst & young. both qualified the u, accounts which paid the $620 million from the uk to cayman islands on years 2009 and 2010. there was nothing in the

accounts. why is that? those questions need to be answered by both kpmg and ernst & young. >> do you think it goes hand in gov with old-school japanese bosses which seems to be he and his old-school bosses who like this kind of subterfuge? you know, might, as a result of the questions you want to ask? >> i think after enron, there is a great sensitivity in relation to auditors. certainly in the uk. the partners did their duty. they qualified the accounts. and i think they have to answer. they have to stand up, both of those large firms, and explain their part in this. >> former ceo michael woodford. olympus has admitted that three of its top executives concealed losses from investors. their departure is unlikely to satisfy their shareholders and calls are growing for the scalps as well as the entire board.

but is olympus in good enough shape to weather this crisis even under new leadership? we asked david, chief investment officer at the wealth management firm harris associates. >> i believe it is. and i say that because they have a world-leading business. they have roughly 70, 75% market share. they're a technological leader. this is a very good business that's very profitable. they have unique technologies. they have a really strong business in their endoscope business. they also have a camera business which most people associate olympus with. this business isn't quite as strong. it was stronger. it does need cost cuts because they don't possess a lot of the necessary technology necessary to be competitive with the likes of canon and nikon. so it's a much smaller business. it currently is not making much money, if any at all. you know, and it's a question mark. it needs to be restructured.

however, that endoscope -- >> whatever happens to olympus, it is going to involve more than corporate housekeeping. we, of course, will bring you all the latest developments as the story continues to unfold. nina. andrew, a hedge fund owner has been ordered to pony up nearly $93 million in the case brought forward by the securities and exchange commission. well, that's three times the profit the rajaratnam made, and it also comes on top of some $63.8 million that he's already been ordered to pay in other fines following his conviction. rajaratnam says that the fine is unfair and that he's already suffered enough. now, as of this week, western europe is getting its gas straight from the fields of siberia. while some say the north stream pipeline improves energy security in europe, former

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let's check on oil prices now. they have been on the rise, but they've come off slightly at the moment following gains on tuesday. crude currently at $114.94 a barrel. that is brent crude, of course. here's what nymex is doing. it's also been moving around.

it was up a bit earlier and is now down by just about half a dollar, $96.35 will buy you a barrel of nymex. welcome back. you're watching "world business today" live on cnn. >> well, it cost more than $12 billion to make, the nord stream gas pipeline at a time of increasing demand for gas imports. it also has pretty important political implications. cnn's fred pleitgen reports. >> reporter: german chancellor and medvedev say it's one of the most important energy projects, the nord stream pipeline. >> translator: this is a long anticipated event. we are launching the first stage of a nord stream gas pipeline that opens a new page in our

country's cooperation with the eu. russian gas has been coming to e kurks countries directly, and the 1224-kilometer long underwater pipeline crosses five countries of the baltic region. >> reporter: six years in the making, at a cost of more than $12 billion, and the shareholders say ultimately capable of supplying around 26 million homes with gas. the nord stream pipeline runs from vyborg, in the baltic sea to lubmin germany, the longest in the world. for the first time gas is pumped straight from the fields in siberia to western europe without passing through transit countries. >> translator: what this project and also the presence of so many representatives of european countries, we are showing that we are counting on a secure, on a resilient partnership in the future with russia. and i believe this project is an excellent example of this. >> reporter: the pipeline is a joint venture by russia's gas

prompt, germany's as well as french and dutch companies. proponents say it will increase western europe's energy security and ultimately make gas cheaper. but critics point to environmental concerns. and former transit countries like ukraine and poland fear russia could now escalate gas disputes with them. miranda is an energy expert at berlin's free university. >> they are concerned that russia might actually use this also to blackmail either the ukraine or poland. they could threaten gas cutoffs because there won't be the demand as strongly anymore from western europe saying you need that natural gas. >> reporter: the inauguration marks the opening of the first of two gas lines that make up the nord stream pipeline. once the second line is opened in a few years, the heads of nord stream say the pipeline will transport gas to western europe for the next 50 years. cnn, ber line. now, a rare tropical storm

in the mediterranean has battered parts of europe. let's go to our meteorologist, jen delgado at the cnn weather center with the look at the damage the storm left behind. first of all, jen, just how rare are these storms? >> the last time we saw one was back in 1995, and there's only been six of them since 1934. so certainly a very rare sight, especially in the western part of the mediterranean sea. as i show you on the satellite imagery, this tropical storm has quickly been fizzling out. but we're talking about hurricane-force winds in some parts of france as well as into italy. you can see on the satellite imagery, it's really losing steam. we're still picking up tropical storm winds across parts of southern france. it's going to continue to improve. and those winds will continue to weaken. but as i said to you, tropical storm conditions and those wind gusts up to 149 kph. that's roughly about 95 miles per hour. let's go to the video to show you some of the damage left behind in addition to the strong

winds. we're talking about incredible amounts of rainfall. flooding across parts of italy as well as into france and into spain where they dealt with mudslides as well. some locations picked up about 90 centimeters of rainfall. that is the result of the flooding that's through parts of italy. as i take you back over, there's proof that the system is fizzling out. you can see for yourself, things will be dying down. meanwhile, we will see a weak storm developing right on top of sicily and another one coming in from the atlantic. but another area that we're watching, right on top of parts of russia. we'll be dealing with snow there. but it would be nice to get some of that precipitation into parts of the ukraine as well as romania where they've been dealing with drought. let's go to some video to show you how they're dealing with fires burning through parts of the mountainous region. and it's so bad they're actually, helicopter are flying in water to try to put out some

of these fires. again, this is video coming in out of romania, and that is the southern part of the region. finally, we'll leave you with video coming from space. and this was an asteroid the size of an aircraft carrier that passed within the moon's orbit today. the closest approach we've seen in more than 30 years. it passed within 200,000 kilometers of earth. as we said, the size of it, an aircraft carrier. pretty scary but not so close. i can tell you this andrew. the aircraft -- i should say the asteroid's going to be much closer back in 2029. it's going to be roughly, it looks like, about 100,000 kilometers away. and there's the graphic right there. >> 2029. i'll mark it on my diary. >> here it is. looks a little closer. we've got some time. >> thanks so much for that. wow. yeah. i will, too. thanks, jen. nina. well, government officials

say that greece will announce a new coalition today. discussions to decide a new government are entering a third day. the question is, what's the holdup? we'll be live in athens in a few minutes' time. stay tuned.

hello from cnn london, i'm nina dos santos. >> hello, i'm andrew stevens at cnn hong kong. welcome back. you're watching "world business today." now, the head of the international monetary fund is sounding a grim warning about the state of the global economy. speaking in beijing on wednesday, christine laguard said the world is at risk of entering, quote, a lost decade.

as the ongoing debt crisis in europe takes a toll on both growth and confidence right around the world. investors remain worried that italy may be the next domino to fall. on tuesday, the yield on italian ten-year bonds jumped to its highest level since the euro was introduced in 1999. the yield has fallen slightly today. but nina, it's still in that critical level, isn't it, just below 7%. >> just below 7%. and it's only fallen by about .01 of 1%. not too much movement on the way down. we need it to come right further down for it to have any kind of positive effect on italy's total debt load. let's move along to talk about stock markets. we have had at the beginning of trading some sort of positive sentiment towards berlusconi's pledge to resign. we've had news that he won't be running in the next set of elections that he expects to take place early next year, possibly in february. the italian government is set to approve austerity measures in

parliament. no date for that yet. we have been hearing it could be perhaps on friday, the 18th. italy is the world's eighth largest economy. the euro zone's largest economy. markets, of course, hinging on the government's promises to try and contain its debt load, bring that down, and also to make the country more competitive. let's have a look at how all this is faring on the european stock markets because they did open higher. just in the last 34 minutes of trading, take a look. they've taken a real plunge in today's session. last time we looked, just 25 minutes ago, the dax was trading up about 1.15%. take a look, it's down by 1.5% at the moment. also, the price of gold. this commodity has been continuing to rise for much of this week on the back of all of these concerns surrounding italy. but as you can see, it's actually slipping back after rising above $1,800 a troy ounce to hit a seven-week high just yesterday. take a look at that safe haven,

the ultimate safe haven is now down by $6 and falling even more at a price of $1,783.76 at the moment, andrew. >> yeah, that's quite a steep turnaround in the equity markets. luckily, i guess, it came after the markets here in asia had closed. investors in this part of the world focusing on the berlusconi resignation. that put them in a buying mood as asia's markets showed gains pretty much across the board. and this was one other big influence at play today. a sharp slowdown in china's inflation rate. and that came for the third straight month, too. the national bureau of statistics says that consumer prices, that's the broad measure of inflation, were up 5.5% in october. that compares with 6.1% up the previous month. and it also compares with the july three-year peak of 6.5%. so it is coming down and coming down quite substantially. and all that is boosting expectations that price pressures -- in downtrend of the

pressures could lead to a slight easing, if you like, in monetary policy. the high inflation rate in china, of course, has depressed markets pretty much across asia for most of this year. seeing a fairly sharp drop with today's numbers, giving investors at least some cheer. and that's how the markets here in asia finished. hong kong getting the biggest boost. perhaps not surprising, it has a big exposure obviously with the chinese-based companies listed here in hong kong. the banks got a big boost today, particularly the chinese banks and the hang seng up by 1.7%. japan up by a little over 1%. shanghai up slightly under 1% and australia also up 1.2%. certainly that inflation number in china is very good news. and if policymakers do so, we should see -- if we do start to see some movements on easing of monetary policy in china and more of a focus on growth, that should also help underpin markets certainly in this part of the world. >> everybody's trying to tackle the rising inflation and low growth scenario, aren't they,

even here in europe. let's move over towards wall street because the markets there did fairly well year on the back of news that silvio berlusconi was saying that he was going to be stepping down once he got these austerity measures through parliament. and wall street is on track for a lower open when trading begins a bit later on today, mirroring perhaps the situation we're seeing in the first one hour and 37 minutes of trading where i am here in london. as you see the futures are currently indicating, the s&p could fall about 1% at the open. similar scenario for the nasdaq and dow jones industrial average as well. andrew. okay, let's turn back to one of the big stories which has been convulsing europe now. and we're talking, of course, about greece, not italy. and greece may be taking a back seat for investors on wall street at the moment. but the political maneuvering in athens is certainly casting a shadow over europe. talks on choosing a new leader and an interim government to avoid economic collapse are now entering their third day.

let's go to our reporter live from athens with the latest word on what's been an increasingly difficult decision. we're in our third day of talks. it's supposed to be wrapped up by now. what seems to be the sticking point? >> reporter: well, i think it's not a job that anyone wants to particularly have. if you look at what this government is tasked to do and what this new leader is tasked to do in the four months that they've been given to do it, they have to implement another round of extremely punishing austerity cuts. they have to allow for foreig y ministers, and that seems an affront to greece's national sovereignty. and then they'll simply be pushed aside presumably when the elections come in february. and forever tarnished with what they have to do in the interim. when it possibly won't work in the first place. so that is possibly why, for example, papadimos who was

touted as the front-runner really here seems to have backed away from the tasks. there were reports that he was uncomfortable not being able to put the people into the cabinet that he wanted, you know, heavyweights who could really push this kind of thing through. there are three other names in the fray right now. and we do hope, because we have been told that we may expect an outcome around noon afternoon today, but noon is approaching very rapidly, and we have not heard anything, andrew. >> yes, certainly the way you paint it, it is a poisoned chalice, that job. pushing it forward, though, if papadimos is not expected to take it, is the new leader, or does it mean that the new leader may not go through with the austerity plans to get this new bailout package in place? is that under threat? >> reporter: well, that is what greece's european lenders are trying their hardest to make

sure doesn't happen. that is why george papandreou said this new government has to be tasked with the job of pushing through the agreement of october the 26th. that is why you've heard from ali rehn that whoever's in this new government, the leader of the opposition, george papandreou, the new finance minister, the new prime minister and the bank of greece governor will have to put their signatures in writing to the october the 26th agreement so that it really is binding in order to restore the confidence he says that was lost when george papandreou called for a referendum. but you're hearing from new democracy, the opposition, that they're not very happy about putting their written signature to this document. that, in fact, we heard from the leader that as a verbal, he had already given his verbal commitment, why should he give more? that is perhaps there are factions within his own party who feel very angry that new democracy should be associated with these austerity cuts that

they have always resisted in the past. we must look ahead to the fact that elections are in february and that, of course, those in-party politics want to be re-elected, andrew. >> diana, thanks so much. joining us from athens with the latest on what looks increasingly a difficult position for greek politicians, nina. we've got two hours before we get some sort of resolution. we expect to get one, but will we? that's another question. politics definitely dominating at general da on this show. after a 17-year career and several political and personal scandal as long the way, it was the european debt crisis that finally brought an end to silvio berlusconi's own political career. after the break, we'll be taking a look at who italy's next prime minister may be.

you're watching "world business today." returning to our top story now, the italian prime minister, silvio berlusconi, says he will not run for re-election. a spokesman for mr. berlusconi says the government wants to shift its focus on passing a number of austerity measures to get the country's economy back on track. atika shubert reports it marks the end of a star-crossed career of one of the world's most colorful political figures. >> reporter: italian prime minister silvio berlusconi once called himself, quote, the jesus christ of politics. as well as the best political leader in europe and the world. so how did he end up resigning in disgrace? well, berlusconi made his name as a billionaire media mogul. at one point the richest man in italy. he was first elected prime minister in 1994, only to be quickly removed when his coalition partners pulled out. but ever the political operator, berlusconi came back to be

elected to the top job twice more in 2001 and 2008. the country's longest serving prime minister since world war ii. political stability delivered, but scandal was never far behind. berlusconi surrounded himself with beautiful women in parliament and in his private life. allegations of an inappropriate relationship with an 18-year-old aspiring model which he strenuously denied triggered a painfully public divorce. for a while, his popularity and his flippant sense of humor remained intact. but revelations about his infamous bunga bunga parties stocked with beautiful women who may have been paid for their presence, landed him in court on charges of corruption and paying for sex with a minor. the woman involved denied she had sex with berlusconi. and he said, quote, i've never paid a woman. i've never understood where the satisfaction is when you're missing the pleasure of

conquest. but his off-the-cuff remarks were also a national embarrassment. he welcomed the newly elected u.s. president in 2008 by complimenting barack obama on his suntan. and his moments caught on camera ogling various women made his critics cringe. but it was figures of a different kind that ultimately brought berlusconi down. with government debt equivalent to 120% of its gdp and borrowing costs of nearly 6.5%, italy teeters on the edge of an economic crisis. berlusconi promised to crack down on tax evasion, raise the retirement age, and introduce other austerity measures. but with berlusconi himself once charged with not paying taxes and his coalition increasingly beset by bickering, skeptics say he won't deliver. the public mood in italy has darkened. two years ago an angry protester smashed his face with a statuette, leaving his face

bruised and bloodied. this year has seen protests by thousands of women angered by his sexual peccadillos. at one point during an investigation into whether he was blackmailed, police recorded him saying, quote, i'm getting out to mind my own business from somewhere else, and so i'm leaving this crappy country of which i'm sickened. in the end, the great survivor sum coupled to a growing number of swirling crises. atika shubert, cnn, london. >> all of this leaves italy with a political vacuum, and that is affecting its bonds because the ten-year bonds of italy have been steadily ticking higher throughout the course of this morning, and they're currently standing about 6.956 in terms of the yield perilously close to 7% beyond which it becomes too expensive to sustain that debt on the open markets. let's have a look at who could fill that political vacuum. first up, these are the kind of candidates. gianni letta, 76, berlusconi's

right-hand man, he's widely respected, he could face opposition of leaders of other parties that have been too close to berlusconi. this man, angelino al f achano. mario monti is seen as the best option to push through those badly needed economic reforms. he was eu competition manager for many years, 68 years old. and also from the business arena, this man, luca di monezemolo. he could be one of the people who could stand forward during the next elections if we do see them in february, andrew. >> the boss of ferrari taking on the leadership of italy. it makes interesting food for

thought, doesn't it? anyway. well, it's a taxing time for the chinese artist and activist. the chinese government has accused him of tax evasion and ordered him to pay millions of dollars in back taxes. after the break, we'll meet the supporters who are donating money to help him out of jail. n] sitting. waiting. hoping. that's a recipe for failed investing. open an e-trade account and open doors, seize opportunities, take action with some of the most powerful yet easy-to-use trading tools on the planet all built to help you maximize the potential of every dollar you invest. successful investing isn't done by throwing ideas against the wall and hoping. it's done by lowering your costs and raising your expectations by using unbiased research and powerful screeners to build a diversified portfolio with stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and every etf sold. and we'll help you every step of the way. with 5-star research and free education

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you're watching "world business today." time now for our big number of

the day. the chinese artist is getting some help to pay an enormous tax bill. beijing says that he owes no less than $2.4 million in total. he was detained back in april and accused of tax evasion. supporters are rallying around him to make sure that he doesn't go back to jail. and so far they've actually sent him this figure, about $950,000, which isn't actually the figure i had behind me, but this you have it. he's committed to paying every penny of the bill which he says is government retaliation against a dissident. >> yeah, the artist says that supporters have been traveling thousands of kilometers to his beijing studios to donate money. we introduce you to some of them. >> reporter: outside the studio of one of china's most famous artists, citizens like this taking part in what they see as an act of defiance against the

government. she's donating to an outspoken government critic recently slapped with a $2.4 million bill for alleged tax evasion. "unimaginable amount of money," she says, "but china has 1.3 billion people. if everyone gives a little, we will have enough." they came to make donations. a lot of them don't have any work, and they're getting really frustrated with their life. just like thousands across the country. he was hit with a large tax penalty after his high-profile 81-day detention in what human rights groups say is a widespread government crackdown on political dissent here. all of these people have come here because they have a complaint and they want to show their support for him. and now we're in. as part of his release, he's not allowed to see journalists. though today we were able to speak to those around him. that's his mother. she's just talking with some of the people who have come here to show their support. his mother says she's worried about his health and what might

happen if he can't pay the bill by the november 16th deadline. i really want to thank you all because you helped my son, she says, someone who speaks out for ordinary people. across town, this man agrees. though the young ad exec has never met the artist. "it's like the government is helping him carry out performance art," he says. "a work of art that citizens are part of and can't be stopped." he and his friends sent at least $15 each via the internet, helping him amass over $800,000 so far. despite the government's take that the fund-raising could be illegal. the government says he's guilty of economic crimes, a charge his mother denies. "it's a political problem," she says. "he didn't evade taxes. they're just looking for a reason to crack down on him." his dog is looking for his master. but he's not home. he isn't allowed to stray far,

though. as part of his condition for his release, he's not allowed to leave beijing for several more months. and he's also restricted from talking to the media. but his mother isn't. "we should speak in our own voice. there's so much that is unjust, and no one talks, and everyone is mute, then what future does this country hold?" a question that resonates with many here. cnn, beijing. >> fighting back in china. that's it for this edition of "world business today." thanks so much for joining us. i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. >> and i'm nina dos santos at cnn london. we'll be back in about four hours' time. 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,

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