learning. you have to learn how to read. where do you begin? your parents. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com hello. here are the top stories this hour. the u.s. marine corps says it knows the identity of two of the four marines shown in a video urinating on dead bodies. an official says they were apparently part of a sniper team inside of afghanistan. afghan president hamid karzai wants those responsible to face the harshest pun nishment possible. myanmar and former prime minister, they report 651

prisoners are scheduled to be released starting today. also, the government has signed a cease fire with the current ethnic group to try to end a 63-year armed conflict. u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton is calling for an end to the arab league's work. they've criticized the mission as ineffective and understaffed. there's been no letup in the fuel price protests paralyzing my gear yeah talks between the labor unions and the government ended without an agreement to restore fuel subsidies. they're threatening to stop production if the nigerian government does not reverse its position. negotiations are scheduled to resume saturday. those are the top stories. "world business today" starts right now.

happy friday to you. welcome to "world business today." i'm nina dos santos in london. >> and i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. welcome. top stories this day, apple fans in china turn angry and skuffle with police after sales of the new iphone are shelved. kristie will he gallon tells hungary to get its finances in order before it cuts a check. and can japan's new cabinet push through the unpopular changes needed to fix the economy? first up let's go straight to the european markets. they've been open for about an hour today. as you can see, this is how the main indices are performing on track to have four straight weeks of gain. when it comes to the broad 50 index which tracks 50 leading stocks around this particular region, i can tell you that it's at its highest level in two months. when it comes to the volatility index which measures fear based

on the euro stocks 50, that has been going in the right direction. it's fallen to its lowest level in about five months on the back of worries about the eurozone decreasing, let's say. investors cheered the success of two particular events in yesterday's session. on the one hand we had bond auctions by italy and spain and those yields have come right down and that is one of the reasons why these stocks are doing quit a bit better than expected. banks also saw the main gain as an early trade. bit of weakness in the metals and mining. the ftse 500 is outweighed by the optimism that europe's leaders have a grip on the crisis in the eurozone. >> it's a big call, isn't it? certainly that optimism may be reflected here in asia as well this friday, nina. there is a feeling, as you say, that maybe the worst could be behind the eurozone crisis. very early to say that though. it has been a tore tore rouse past. this is how the asian markets

ended. three green arrows. that was all about europe. the bond auctions, those encouraging comments from the acb. commodity stocks were higher. that helped the aussie market as well. see the australian market up by a third of one percent. shanghai down 1.3% today. that's the third day in a row it's fallen. you'll see there that it really came fairly sharply. it came back a little bit but it's on a down note again toward the end of the day's trading. the concern in shanghai remains that even though we saw those inflation numbers coming down yesterday, they're not coming down fast enough. the government still doesn't have enough room to ease the policy to get the economy stimulated if it needs to. there's still concern about the state of china's economy, nina. >> andrew, the united states the main indices ended broadly speaking with some modest gains on thursday. this is how they're set to begin when trading opens in just under five hours from now.

feeding off the kind of optimism that we've seen here in europe and the optimism that reflected the markets where you are. the s&p 500, the broader index there, that one up to the tune of about .13%. not huge gains. we have many hours before trading starts state side, but for the moment it's green arrows across the board, andrew. now china has had a long love affair with apple. the company reporting sales revenues there reached nearly $9 billion for the first three-quarters of last year, up six fold from the previous year. but those fond feelings turned a little sour early on friday after a long awaited official iphone 4 s release failed to happen. angry crowds erupting in violence outside a flagship store in beijing. apple says it will stop selling the apple iphone 4s for the time

being to protect employee as well as customer safety. stan grant was there. >> reporter: it wasn't supposed to be like this. eggs pelted at the apple store. people furious. then tempers reaching boiling point. angry potential apple customers viciously attacking security. security are running down here now and the mob are continuing to follow them. this is what happened when they didn't open the apple store. the crowd are getting angrier and angrier. punches have already been thrown. they're still following security. look over here. >> reporter: it didn't start this way.

>> i really like the apple store. >> reporter: 18-year-old tom was among hundreds who cued in the freezing cold overnight for the official china release of the apple iphone 4s. this store was supposed to be open at 7:00 a.m. as the time ticked past, the mood turned sour. then an announcement. the phone would not be sold here today. as people refused to leave, police moved in. >> reporter: so we're here in the middle of the crowd. the police have been thinning them out slowly. as you can see here now, they're moving in -- they're shouting on the megaphone for people to leave. over here they're trying to force people to leave now. >> reporter: those who wouldn't leave peacefully were hauled away by force. >> people are pissed off, and that's for sure.

>> reporter: some people blamed apple. others holding the united states to account. but anger also directed at china itself, a country they say too quick to attack its own people, too ready to use force to impose order. >> this is china. we just need it. the press push us. >> reporter: you don't like china police. >> china police is not good. >> reporter: what should have been a day of celebration has backfired for apple, its customers, even the state itself. stan grant, cnn, beijing. certainly extraordinary scenes there in beijing, nina, but as stan points out, it's interesting, the level of frustration generally in china. you talk to people and you talk to people who travel there a lot. there is a lot of anger not that far below the surface. obviously apple is a passionate object -- object of passion i should say in china.

it doesn't take much to sort of reveal the level of frustrations there. in those official numbers for 2010, there were 180,000 protests logged in china in 2010. gives you the level of frustration going there. >> they're gathering momentum. going back to the apple scenario, andrew, i wonder how much all of these publicity stunts, let's say, to get people cuing overnight at the release of the latest product has had a hand in all of this because i followed many of those cues myself here in london when they launched the ipad 2 and people have been cuing overnight in the freezing temperatures. there were hundreds of them and you've just got to wonder, perhaps that might have something to do with those scenes as well. >> yeah, it would certainly shorten your temper if you had been standing around in freezing temperatures and then be told that. i'm sure apple is appalled.

still here, "world business today," we've got our eye on japan. the prime minister says the solution to the dent load is doubling taxes. not everyone is happy about that. they'll be hearing from the people minister's spokesman. nearly a year after the world was shocked by scenes like this. we'll be asking him about the rebuilding process as well. daddy, come in the water!

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the government's removing fuel subsidies at the start of the year. prices doubled virtually overnight. negotiations between labor unions and government officials ended late on thursday without any agreement. if the decision is not reversed, workers from nigeria's main oil union are threatening to walk off the job starting on sunday, nina. in the meantime, the japanese prime minister yoshihiko noda has been sacked or he sacked five of his cabinet ministers to push his controversial sales tax policy. he's proposing to double the sales tax to 10%. this is designed to tackle the country's debt burden. this is to pay for post tsunami reconstruction. the cost of rebuilding japan weighed heavily on the country's fragile finances. >> so far it's a policy that's not proving popular to the japanese public. just to clarify, the entire

reason to reshuffle was to apiece the opposition so they would support this tax increase? >> reporter: absolutely. this is largely a political move. the goal being to pass this tax. this tax, the reshuffling of the cabinet, that is, those five members who were eliminated and then replaced, among them were two who were censured by the opposition last month. this was seen almost -- those two were seen as political sacrificial lambs. appease the opposition, get them on board and get the measure through the parliament. the sales tax doubling from 5% to 10% if the prime minister can get it done, what would it pay for? japan needs to fix its financial house beginning with a very large debt to gdp radio. it's nearing 200%. that is among the highest of developed nations. japan also has the fastest aging society on the planet as well as

trying to pay for all the reconstruction after the tsunami and the cleanup of the fukushima daiichi nuclear disaster. a lot to pay for, andrew. the sales tax certainly wouldn't fix everything but may begin to start addressing it. >> and just the reaction on the streets. do the japanese now accept that the finances of the country have gotten to a position where this sort of -- these sort of measures have to be taken or are they still opposing it? >> you know, you actually can actually sense that there is a slight shift. part of the reason is because this past year was so tough. japan sees, and people here on the streets see that there is a lot to pay for, that they have to reconstruct the country. even though this measure is not directly squared at tsunami reconstruction or the disaster at the nuclear plant, there has been a shift in the mood of the people as well as they are paying attention to what is happening in europe.

a lot of people here are aware of that, and they are aware that the debt here in japan is higher than in europe although the debt certainly here is less risky because it is domestically owned. there is a shift in the streets. there's also the sense that the people here want the politicians to get something done. they want the feeling that something can be done to move the country forward even if it's something, andrew, that they don't want like an unpopular sales tax hike. >> understandable when i see those images of what's happening on the streets of greece. they don't want to see it in their own hometown. well, the proposed sales tax increase has already cost the prime minister yoshihiko noda in political capital. it may cost him more than that. we'll have to wait and see. the japanese prime minister's approval rating is down at about 30% and his political career depends on selling this plan to voters. take a look at this. this is the revolving door of japanese leaders.

it's notoriously fickle. these are some of the former prime ministers that have ruled japan going back only 12 years beginning in 2000. in total, nine men have held the job during that time. nina? some amazing statistics there. then one wonders what's going to happen next in japan, don't they, andrew? up next, we'll be speaking to a spokesman for the japanese prime minister about the reshuffle and the future for the country as we've been seeing its struggles to pay for the post-tsunami reconstruction.

now it's nearly a year since a massive earthquake rocked northern japan sending tsunami waves tearing into the coast. almost 20,000 people -- 200,000 people are believed to have been killed. buildings ripped from their foundations and cars tossed around like toys. soon after the nuclear plant of fukushima went into meltdown. higher than usual levels of radiation were found in surrounding areas and in food. thousands of people living nearby were evacuated. industrial production plummeted. exports slow for the first time in more than a year. an initial $78 billion in emergency funds were approved to help with the recovery, but reconstruction efforts appear to have stalled in many of the disaster hit areas. the task at hand, of course, is a colossal one. much of the debris was cleared

early on. tens of thousands of people are living in temporary accommodations. they're for the most part uncertain about when or indeed if they're going to be able to return home in the future. many are blaming government red tape for the holdups and distributing money that would be helping to reconstruct and get that process into gear and get people back into their homes, andrew. >> certainly is, nina, a lot of pressure on the japanese government at the moment. the prime minister yoshihiko noda announced a cabinet reshuffle. that happened earlier today. his spokesman is here now. thank you very much for coming in. >> you're welcome. >> i want to pick up on the reconstruction first of all. i think the figures are around about 100,000 people are still in temporary accommodations. the debris has been cleared up. there are villages that still have the debris cleared up but no work is going on. there's a lot of frustration with red tape. what is the government doing about that.

>> of course 3/11 was a major, major disaster. the government has been trying to help those people who are affected by tsunami and other quake-related disasters. we are moving on from recovery to reconstruction phase. the government just passed the $150 billion reconstruction supplementary budget. >> do you think you need to cut the red tape to move things faster? certainly that is the message which comes from many of the people in the area. >> right. so the tohok region, we are coming up with new special zones where there will not be regulations being applied as is usually the case there. will be special measures being implemented so that there will be rejuvenated tohok region with

creative reconstruction. >> there's really two separate disasters here. there was the tsunami and the nuclear meltdown. talking about the tsunami zone, when does the government think that the affected area will return to normal? and from here, how much more is it going to cost to get there? >> as a region, we are talking about supply chains being recovered. we have seen already over 90% of supply chains have recovered. of course, you know, there are still work to be done in the coastal areas. that's more challenging. we are talking about relocating some of the residents, making use of high land areas. so those are the kind of projects we are making use of this supplementary budget. >> do you have a time frame? will it take ten years from here to get back to where it was pre-tsunami? >> we are talking about next several months to come in terms

of just addressing the major work for reconstruction. of course, there is going to be the immediate reconstruction work during the next few years to come. >> i want to ask you about an issue involving the reports we've had a while ago about contaminated food. for example, here in hong kong there are people i know who won't go to japan because they worry about where the food in japan being contaminated by the nuclear disaster. can the government now guarantee the safety of food in japan everywhere? >> right. the japanese people, i think, one of the most sensitive people in terms of food safety. and the government is putting the system in place to guarantee all the food safety in terms of when those products are distributed. so when japanese food products are exported over seas, we can

guarantee 100%. >> what about people in japan? >> of course. we are eating and drinking all the food coming from tohok region. i don't have any worry about the food safety issues. >> let's turn to the new consumption tax that the government is pushing through at the moment doubling the consumption tax. the previous japanese government did this increase of consumption tax in the mid 1990s which resulted in an economic slowdown because people stopped spending. are you worried this could happen again? this is a much bigger increase this time. >> this is something we think is necessary in order to maintain sustainable social security system and prime minister noda is tackling integrated reform of the social security system. our consumption tax rate in terms of 5% is pretty low by global comparison.

mr. noda is committed to implementing those reforms, which is very important in the context of maintaining viability of our economy. >> there's a huge amount of spending going on. there is reconstruction. there is dealing with an aging population. there is dealing with the massive debt, sort of overall debt. if this tax goes through when will we start to see a meaningful cut of that deficit? it's at 200% of gdp. >> when we are talking about social security and taxation reform, we are talking about, say, 10% in the year 2015 and it's medium term issues. before that we are taxing the issue of reconstruction during the next few years. our economic growth forecast is not that bad in comparison to other economies like eurozone or the united states. we are talking about 2% growth

for the japanese economy this year. >> okay. thank you so much for coming in. he's the spokesman for the japanese prime minister. nina? andrew, still to come in "world business today." as one gears up for a close fought election could best be the best next president. the country is holding an election in democracy could be in danger. we'll take a look at the efforts to bring hungary back could be in danger economically and politically. i wake up in the morning with no back pain. i can adjust it if i need to...if my back's a little more sore. and by the time i get up in the morning, i feel great! if you have back pain, toss and turn at night or wake up tired with no energy, the sleep number bed could be your solution. the sleep number bed's secret is it's air chambers which provide ideal support and put you in control of the firmness.

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i'm nina dos santos in london. i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. welcome back. you're watching "world business today." taiwan holds presidential and legislative elections on saturday and flights from main land china to taiwan are booked almost solid. extra flights are being arranged. taiwan doesn't allow absentee voting. with about a million taiwan citizens living and working in mainland china, their votes could make a huge difference in this election. that he will chose from three presidential candidates. there is the incumbent who is no longer thought to have the edge in the race which is now being described as too close to call. he's the chairman of the party that has a great relationship with the mainland china. in opposition is the first woman to run for china. this woman chairs the

progressive party. the independent candidate, james sung, is making his second bid for the presidency. he is considered a long shot. analysts say even if an opposition candidate is elected, they'll likely adopt a moderate policy towards china. that's because there is an enormous amount of money on the line. take a look at this. mainland figures show that two-way trade with taiwan last year topped $160 billion. that's about ten times that of u.s.-taiwan trade according to the recent figures from the u.s. government. big money indeed at stake. >> there's big money and there's also a lot of political brinkmanship at stake, isn't there? the relationship has notoriously been fraught, hasn't it from a political point of view, economic and military one? >> yeah, absolutely.

china regards taiwan very much as its own territory. taiwan considers itself as a break away, independent even though it's not recognized by the global community as an independent country. china is very, very sensitive towards whatever happens in taiwan. taiwan is seen as a close ally to the u.s. both china and the u.s. have a vested interest in taiwan. china, in fact, keeps hundreds of miss siels aimed at taiwan. it's an ominous threat to the island which to not formally declare independence. if war were to brake out in the taiwan strait. it would trigger a china u.s. standoff. the u.s. sells taiwan billions of dollars worth of arms every year. it's done by a treaty to defend the island. earlier jim clancey spoke to kevin wright and asked him what's at stake in the taiwan

elections on saturday. >> reporter: with every taiwanese election we take a deep breath and hope for the best because this is one of the red line issues for beijing, that is, the future status of taiwan. we all know mainland china's policy, which is that taiwan's part of china. and they want to see it back as a formal part of the motherland. as your reporter's just indicated on taiwan itself, you still have a significant move for a local identity and ultimately some form of local independence. so the key thing with this election is obviously if the democratic progress party wins, there will be an audible sucking in of breath in beijing. if the kmt win, then it will be business as usual. so i think we're in for a few rocky days as the taiwanese people go to vote.

>> rocky days and let us not forget, too, that mainland china will see a handover of power this year. it's going to be an interesting 2012. the government of hungary has come under intense criticism for introducing a congress city tugs that critics say pays the way for autocratic rule. they say it puts almost all the power in the hands of the current ruling party, that it also limits media freedom and threatens the independence of all sorts of institutions crucial to government like the courts and the central bank there. whatever imf chief christine la gallon thinks of those changes, it's the bit about hungary's central bank that she's been focusing on. she spoke with the ministry in washington on thursday to discuss conditions for a loan to the country that has been cashed out of late. she said, before the fund can

determine when and whether to start negotiations, it will need to see on the one hand tangible steps that show that the authorities there have a strong commitment to engage on all of the policy issues that are relevant to macro economic stability for hungary. she also said that the support of the european union would be required before any kind of funds could be pledged to hungary. one senior figure in the eu that hungary will have to convince of its economic credibility is the european central bank. dragge has joined a chorus of critics speaking about hungary's central bank. >> i have to say that we are really very concerned. we are really very concerned. the ecb is extremely careful about signs of pressure being

put on the decision-making bodies -- by the decision-making bodies of any member state. >> earlier this week the european commission threatened legal action against hungary unless it ensures its new constitution and accompanying laws do not violate eu treaties. the hungarian government has been prickly in its response to criticism from the european commission and elsewhere. a little earlier on richard quest got the chance to sit down with the country's communication's minister. he defended his government's new constitution and also blamed the previous administration for economic difficulties across hung gary. >> reporter: hasn't the government to some extent taken its very large majority and rammed into law a whole raft of legislation that subsequent governments will find it

difficult to overturn? for instance, the fiscal rule, two-thirds majority required to change tax law. it's going to make it difficult in the future? >> that doesn't set the amount. it has said that -- >> why have that anyway? why bind successes, whether it's on prosecutorial appointments, judges, fiscal laws, whatever it is? >> please don't have the worst reading of every and each legal piece we have been through the last year. the new constitution is providing a new framework institutionally and constitutionally for the country to be able to run on a sustainable basis. that's the main goal of the government, to provide the foundations for the country in the constitution in terms and then apply that in the field of economy as well. >> to the economy now. you'd have to agree, surely, it is slightly embarrassing for a government to say two or three months ago two fingers up to the imf. we don't need them. next thing we're on a plane to

washington to borrow money from them. >> if you bring the debate to where it belongs to the professional level, we know we were against the imf. we wanted to go on our own. we have to in an independent way. we wanted to do the structure changes we are in the midst of from our own will and best interests. that's a major constitutional restructuring for the better of the country. >> every banker says the headline numbers look great. deficit's coming down, but if you look underneath questions of growth, questions of confidence, questions of structural deficit, let me read you something from the hsbc this morning. policy making brings a credibility blow to the hungarian government and significant market weakness. isn't that your real problem now in hungary financially, you've got to convince people you've got it right and you haven't? >> that's right. we were cleaning up the mess the

past year and a half. that was a huge fight, i've got to tell you. in the midst of the protests we are trying to show best will how we are going to pull the country out of this huge pile of what was left behind by the socialist government. >> let's bring our viewers into news. we've had reports that the united states embassy on friday in bang dock has warned its citizens of imminent terrorist attacks on terrorist parts of bangcock. local police are telling cnn that they are not aware of any particular threat, we are told that over the course of the last weekend thai officials at the main airport have been conducting more stricter than usual security checks, particularly on u.s. bound flights. that's the latest, the u.s. embassy in bangkok has been

warning of imminent terrorist threats. the local police have been saying they're not aware of any such threats at the moment. let's take another quick look at how the european stock markets are fairing. we're 90 minutes into the trading session. this is where the leading indices are. they're leading the charge. they're up about .25% and .75% largely void about optimism about the eurozone debt situation after countries like italy and spain managed to raise quite a bit of money on the bond markets yesterday. that's it from us here at cnn london. i'm nina dos santos. thanks for joining us. indeed, thanks for joining us. i'm andrew stevens at cnn hong kong. we'll be back with ali velshi for the next edition of wbt. it includes the opening bell on wall street. we'll see you then.

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this week on "marketplace middle east." they pay a visit to latin ameri america. we sit down with the ceo of asia latin american middle east partners.

after trading threats and counter threats with washington for weeks, iran seems determined to push ahead with its controversial nuclear program. this week's the u.n.'s watchdog agency has confirmed that iran has begun enriching uranium at its facility. it's situated in the mountains south of tehran. the government says it needs the fuel for medical purposes, not to build weapons, something western nations don't believe. as iran fights for a nuclear autonomy, the country is lobbying its allies. the president was in latin america this week on a four nation tour to venezuela, anything car walk wa, ecuador and cuba. cnn's rafael romo has the story. >> reporter: this is the sixth time mack mud ahmadinejad has visited latin america. he paid visit to four countries in his five-day tour.

venezuela, anything car walk wa, ecuador and cuba. the main reason for his visit is attending the swearing in ceremony of the commander who has been re-elected. with ahmadinejad we'll be reviewing policies. on previous visits ahmadinejad promised iranian investment in the region, the biggest a $350 million deep water port off the atlantic coast of anything car wag wa. that promise remains unfulfilled. >> he's been there every two years or so since 2005. there's always a big gap between the rhetoric of promise of large-scale investment and what actually is delivered. >> reporter: since 2005 iran has opened six embassies in latin america. the islamic republic has also doubled trade with brazil, the region's biggest economy. analysts say this visit is more show than substance. >> i think this is for domestic consumption in his own country

to show that he is not isolated despite sanctions and despite u.n. resolutions along those lines. in latin america generally he doesn't really have much of a political base. >> reporter: ahmadinejad's latin american tour worries some leaders in washington. a critic of venezuela's socialist policies calls it a tour of tyrants and is calling for an investigation on iran's dealings in latin america. the u.s. government has already imposed sanctions on the venezuelan state's oil company for defying sanctions for selling products to iran. hearings are expected to be held this month to investigate the ties to them. from ongoing tensions to iran to the continuing violence in syria, political instability and oil price fluctuations cloud the region with uncertainty, a cause for concern for the region's oil exporters. the imf say oil rich nations are

expected to grow about 4% this year. this growth could be hammered by a global economic downturn and the eu debt crisis. it is the oil importers who are suffering the most. two nearby yeah's economy is expected to grow 3.9% following zero growth last year. egypt's economy is expected to grow 1.8% this year, a dramatic fall compared to 5.8% in 2010. middle east and capital partners, which is a private capital firm, i spoke with them about what's going on with the arab spring and when he thinks the economy will regain momentum. >> my view of the arab spring and the opportunities that it presents is, number one, very favorable. i believe that these opportunities will become available in the next 18 months. i am a firm believer to be a leader rather than a follow

lower. i think a lot of institutional money may come much, much later. i think those that are savvy investors, those that are focused, those that work in partnership with these governments i believe they have a huge potential opportunity in front of them. >> on this program we often look at the challenge of youth unemployment in the range of 25 to 30% in the country. this could be tapped as a resource and in the future will it be seen as a resource for faster growth? >> i think that you have thought about a very important point. what was an asset in the past has become a liability. what used to be a liability, meaning large populations, have become the most prized asset in the world today. all asian countries with large populations and other countries that have significant population of the correct profile that needs to consume as they grow are in a very, very good position because consumption has peaked in western economies.

they have no further internal growth left in them and therefore for all of these countries, the youth unemployment, while it may be a problem today, it will be an opportunity of tomorrow. >> you broke down the world within the g 20 as the g 3 offering opportunity. it's indonesia, saudi arabia, and turkey. why do you like the three of them together? >> the three most important economies of the muslim world that have been given membership in the g 20. i believe that when i combine all three of them into one asset class, i have reduced the risk appreciably. i have tripled the opportunities available to investors. i think we have to think in those kind of strategic ways to carve out in this growth environment that exists between middle east and asia how you can maximize the new opportunities rather than is it more of china and more of india. i think those are now overpriced and overinvested and i think for investors that lead rather than

those that follow the countries that i have mentioned offer tremendous opportunity. it just has to be put together in the right way. >> there seems to be a near-term challenge right now for example in dubai and the regional financial centers. some of the major money centers of europe and the united states are pulling out because they don't see the deal flow. how much of a challenge is that would you say? >> i would say the challenge belongs to the west. the region here is very, very well positioned i think for long-term investors it is a very good place to be in. i think that what you're seeing now is a separation of those that have a long-term view of the region, such as us, that are looking to establish partnerships and bring them into asia and vice versa, bring in asian capital, bring in asian technology into the region. for all of those regions the middle east and its countries of the arab spring provide a very, very solid and a very attractive platform. up next, the darker side of

business. the trafficking of black market body organs. we take a look at a dangerous encounter in egypt's sinai peninsula. for my arthritis, i use new capzasin quick relief gel. (announcer) starts working on contact and at the nerve level. to block pain for hours. new capzasin, takes the pain out of arthritis.

a black market for human organs. the sands of egypt's sinai peninsula has given rise to a private illegal organ trade. fred pliek ken uncovered horrific evidence of organ trafficking with some refugees having vital organs stolen while still alive. we want to warn you that some of the images shown in this report are, indeed, disturbing. >> reporter: according to israeli authorities, more than 14,000 refugees from africa cross the border from egypt in 2010 alone. most came via the sinai peninsula from places like sudan. many of those who try never make it to israel. instead, they are held captive by bedowin tribes. we managed to speak with bedowins who claimed to know very little about the people

smuggler among their ranks. >> where do you want to go? what's your goal? >> i want to go. >> why? >> because i want to work and help my family. they are suffering a lot in sudan. i give organ. >> reporter: with the bed doe wins keeping a close eye, these men claim they were being treated well. other bed doe win leaders admit that many afrikaans who are held captive here are tortured and slafd. many of the women raped and some even murdered. the bed doe wins insist only a small minority of their peers commit such crimes. the claims go even further. he heads the new generation foundation for human rights. he says some of the refugees even have organs removed while still alive which are then sold on the black organ markets. >> after they take whatever they like or the doctor takes it from the body, they take the body and

take it away to the desert. >> reporter: we took the photos of bodies which were collected to a forensic expert in cairo. he says the scars on the bodies show they were operated on shortly before they died. >> translator: there are two kinds of scars. one is from a postmortem autopsy and one is from a surgery. >> the stitches here. >> reporter: this is also the area of liver and kidney? >> yes, this area here is the liver and here the kidney here. >> reporter: after cnn first aired a documentary on the plight of the african refugees in sinai, things have shifted. hundreds were freed by bed doe win smugglers. the unhcr says there is a surge of mieg grants making it to israel. >> what we've seen is quite a

substantial number of people who have crossed since november. what we've heard is about 1300 basically from the first two weeks of november, which is well over double the normal rate. >> reporter: the unhcr says the refugees now coming across also had to pay far less than the massive sums the bed doe wins usually try to get from them. it is unclear what role cnn's reporting played in all of this, but it seems evident something major might be changing in sinai. and that's it for this edition of "cnn marketplace middle east." . thanks for watching. thanks for watching. we'll see you next week. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com