>>reporter: there's no doubt abu dhabi has ambitious plans. the thing is though - it can afford to make them happen. but the question remains whether there is the demand or necessity to fill an industrial zone the size of singapore. >>reporter: natural disasters this year alone have had a devastating effect on countries in the asiapacific region not least for the loss of human life but also the economic impact. australia was hitby a double blow - the worst flooding in queensland in 37 years and then a cyclone - bigger than hurricane katrina. but australians are nothing if not resilient. >>reporter: the lucky country's good fortune ran out in january when the sunshine state was inundated with torrential rain and floods...and then cyclone yarsi whipped up the misery even further. >>scott: the rosalie area of brisbane was one of the worst hit by the floods. all of this was underwater. yet many of the businesses are now back, up and running but they couldn't have done it withoutthe help of an army of volunteers. yet they say the trade is still ver

in fact, abu dhabi and markets are quite substantially up, both in dubai and abu dhabi. think one thing investors in the government and region are looking at is something we haven't gotten into to much in this program is the oil price. the oil price. that's something we'll look at. if you remember in previous crises, all prices have gone up sharply along with gold. today you've got gold going up and oil going down which i think is of a great worry to this region. >> okay. so let's unpack that a little bit. the middle east markets could be hit by a slumping oil price and essentially the end of the boon that we saw in some gulf states. >> well, i think certainly the high oil price has been the one redeeming factor of this global recession that we had for the past couple of years and certainly for this -- i'm talking obviously from the point of view from the middle east and exporters who have benefitted lately from the high oil price. now, if the one redeeming factor, the oil price were to slip away, that would certainly cause a lot of concern and potentially financial inst

john defterios joins us live from abu dhabi. it does seem there's a willingness to get the money to the rebels fair li quickly, john. >> this is a case with the money keeping pace with the change on the ground in libya, especially tripoli. let's take a look at what's at stake here. talked about initial transfer of money of $2.5 billion they're hoping to get released at the meetings taking place this evening. that's part of the $10 billion being held right now over all libyan assets. we know the uprising started six months ago. the asset freeze really started kicking in four months ago. two-thirds of the funds are being held by the governments of the u.s., u.k. and germany. the frirs tranche of money is supposed to be released shortly, $1.5 billion by the united states. let's listen. >> the u.s. government has taken honorable steps and very welcome steps of releasing about $1.5 billion of frozen assets, and the legal work is being completed to that end. this will be very helpful for the first injection so as to get us off the gro

thank you for joining me live from abu dhabi. thanks very much. >>> still a lot of questions out there. china appears to have made a choice in who it supports in the libyan conflict. up until recently, china had hosted pro and anti-gadhafi delegations inside libya. at the u.n. it abstained from voting on a no-fly zone over libya. let's see what china has been saying and what's the decision? >> andrew, it looks like beijing is turning into a fair weather friend of the libyan government. chinese foreign ministry spokesman said this. beijing respects the choice of the libyan people and "wants to play a positive role in rebuilding libya." that spokesman basically the translation here is that beijing recognizes that moammar gadhafi is on his way out and they're actually repositioning their allegiance. putting this into perspective against oil, basically, it's interesting to note that 11% of libyan oil went to china when the north african country was at peak production. first part, china is the world's second largest oil consumer after

response to the news that crumb abu dhabi's wife and three of these children have fled to algeria from libya. gaddafi supporters have reason to reconsider their loyalty. we spoke to the locals to find out. >> the green flags of colonel gaddafi wants to prod year. -- once flew probably here. this is a new rebel checkpoint. the supporters put up a fight here. you can see it on the buildings. the fires are still burning here. you can actually tasted. you can also feel the tensions as well. this was one of the last places in tripoli to fall. look at this market that lies in ruins. they saw some of the fiercest fighting of this war in tripoli. >> i used to support him. >> what changed your mind? >> i saw the truth. i saw the truth of our leader. >> what was the truth? >> he is not the right leader for libya. he said, i am a strong enough to protect you from anything. >> the attacks strength and some loyalty. >> he wanted to show us the destruction. >> we are all supporters of gaddafi year. no one can say that because we will be taken away here. >> there will be no revenge killings. do you b

these are lists of media organizations, cnn, abu dhabi. there is an exit here, a small little porthole that leads outside. the network of tunnels extends for miles. our colleague stephanie gosk saw more. >> there's electricity, there are telephones, it's even wide enough for golf carts that gadhafi used to rides around all the time. it's not clear if he used this one, but he will not be using one any time soon. these stairs lead up from the tums, it must lead up somewhere into gadhafi's house. but it tells how paranoid he was, clearly they sealed it off for security. >> reporter: the tunnels may have helped gadhafi escape, but now with a bounty on his head, it seems every rebel in libya is looking for him. richard engel, nbc news, tripoli. >>> when we come back, back here in this country, an update on our top story, getting ready for what could be and it's no longer an overstatement, the most devastating storm a lot of people along the east coast have ever seen. >>> an update tonight, we want to update you on the arrival of hurricane irene

i am joined by the director of the abu dhabi center. i will talk about the lives of muslim americans in a second. but first, mubarak's trial -- how important is it for patching up the disunity in egypt now? >> this trial is extremely important. 75% of egyptians say they need to see mubarak go on trial, and believe this is an essential part of completing the revolution. i think having him go on trial will give people some closure. >> do you think it will bring the factions together? >> i do. this brought them together on january 25. i think it can bring them together again. it is important to step back and look at egypt. just like any society, there are lots of voices and avers views. different people have different views. that is essential as a characteristic of democracy and should not surprise or scare us. >> let us turn to the work of your center that you have been doing, this huge pall of muslim americans. tell us what the headlines were. >> one of the most interesting things is that muslim americans are the most likely in the unite

money well there is a first of all quite a bit of light is that has been managed in for example abu dhabi investment authority to manage and manage a sort of six hundred billion quid investment office managers over two hundred fifty billion and we've been in discussions with both of them and they're very much interested because what russia has to offer and we believe that russia offers. awards of interesting investment opportunities to arab investors but they were just not so much focused on as the region they preferred to invest in other parts of the world so being able to attract them as well as china and european finance and american france is actually good for the russian economy in the one of his speeches one of his recent speeches as a matter of fact prime minister putin promised that he would be protecting for investors and i think he even said personally taking care for investors is enough to convince foreigners that their money in your hands are safe well i think once again we could have very positive meeting with mr porter and we came very energized and very much for course spec

everybody in syria and out of world will immediately respond back on by one tenement banning about abu dhabi and the rest of the afghanistan situation all of these things so dreams hallow and it doesn't give any comfort generally speaking the world seems to be content with condemning and making these wild crazy statements well that it's you know the regime is less than it or not or whether it should be it's using use of force the world can play on all but i think the present moment it's not playing that i cards. poses any u.n. resolution against damascus warning that such a step could lead to a libya. where the nato operation stands accused of exceeding its mandate russia's calling for dialogue provide the solution to syria's internal political problems. but the man we realize the city is going through a very difficult stage of development which is similar to few other countries in the region and internal civil conflict between the government and part of society political social and economic problems and arguably to both in terms of numbers and complexity we think the best way to deal with t

a few minutes from the business team we'll bring you the latest financial news stay with us from abu dhabi but with a summary of the news in about five minutes from now. for the full stop we've got. the biggest issues get a human voice face to face with the news makers. in moscow she's available in hotels i'm going to know over those are all it takes to keep a promise it is called as much as east west never told. no but. rather soon to say yes sloviansk on. historical hotels of a culture in the city. called small. elegant up until the strength for us to tropicana hotel. here on our gold has suffered the biggest drop since late two thousand and eight after hitting a record peak of nineteen hundred dollars earlier this week the precious metal lost some signed as the comics exchange raise slated margins by the most in over two and a half years and that was done. but some mccutcheon from gold says lucent sue hundred dollars and forty eight hours doesn't necessarily mean that the fundamentals have changed. people have to realize that you know prices of any assets they go up they go down because

in the middle east is abu dhabi at 78.e lance berg is africa's most livable city, but that's way down the list at 92. finally, the report found that buenos aries is south america's best place to live overall. it ranked 62nd. so now you know where you need to live. let's turn our attention to what's been going on in the weather picture. a tropical storm swept into southern china on wednesday bringing heavy rains and causing damage. let's get to jen delgado at the cnn weather center. certainly this storm does seem to have a long life span. >> absolutely. we've been talking about it for well over a week. we do know it caused flooding problems through taiwan as well as the philippines. it was a deadly storm. we saw flooding in china when it made landfall around 2:30 local time. it also created very strong waves right along the coastal areas of china. let's go to the video. look at what's happening there. you can see the waves. this actually -- talking about the tropical storm, made landfall and was approaching right around hig

now, this administrative roles being taken care of right now at this courthouse, we want to go to abu dhabi to monitor not only this trial taking place right now, but of course the regional reaction so far. one would assume that people within the region, not just the people, but the leaders in the region are watching this even though they may not have publicly reacted so far. reema? >> reporter: it's history in the making, this image that we see on arab media, aljazeera and el arabiya, the two channels in the region, the movers and shakers here. these images of the egyptian president who was a hero in ooj into behind bars in a courtroom is a very significant image. it's ramadan, as you know, people are fasting. some of them are sleeping during the day to avoid long hours of fasting. however, people have been waiting for this moment. we've been talking to the people in the region, and some of them were skeptic that this would even happen and it has happened. this moment is as important as the moment that we saw saddam hussein being tried in front of a courtroom. however, the importance of th

abu dhabi, its main stock market lost 2.5%. arabia's main index initially lost 5.5%, but ended back up in the plus column. the federal reserve's decision to keep interest rates low until 2013 restored some confidence. but the sharp losses across wall street, europe and asia, meant there was plenty of nervousness in the middle east. one of the biggest concerns here is the price of oil. nymex crude fell sharply, down below $80 a barrel at one point. there's concerns that economic weakness could impact oil demand. that has ramifications for the middle east's main oil exporters. one bright spot, gold. many investors headed for cover under safer bets. the price of the precious metal rocketed this week, above $1,800 an ounce. the volatility that's created a crisis of confidence around the world, is being felt on the cash-rich shores of the northeast. >> aside from outside concerns, the region's stock markets have been grappling with the impact of the arab spring. violence throughout the region has led to key indices trading down. egy

these countries, i mean what they're doing -- you go to saudi arabia, you go to china, you go to abu dhabi, you want to see structures, roads, it's unbelievable. they're paved in gold. then la guardia airport, like a third world country. kennedy airport, newark airport, los angeles, l.a.x -- >> greta: how did that happen? that predates president obama. >> it does, it does. we've had bad leadership -- hey, look, was i ever a big fan of bush? you know i wasn't, okay? the fact is we've had horrible leadership, but right now we probably have probably the worst leader we've ever had, especially when it comes to rebuilding our once great country. we're not a great country anymore. everybody's talking about investment. here's where you should invest. where? china, india. what about the united states? well, well, invest in china, invest in india, invest in -- every country but our country. now these are wall street geniuses, and they say put your money here. they don't want to invest money in this country. they have no confidence in this country. >> greta: what about steve wynn? >> he's a good fri

>>> "anderson cooper 360" coming up at the top of the hour, after three days in africa, he's in abu dhabirates, joining us with a preview, what do you got? >> reporter: the latest in somalia, the crisis just escalating, the u.s. said it will donate even more money than they've given so far, but still a lot more money is needed. a lot more aid is needed. not enough in the pipeline, as you know. the world food program saying they'll run out of food in three weeks. we've got more, john, tonight on the breaking news, the new republican presidential contender, texas governor rick perry said this is what i'm supposed to be doing when i run for the white house, we'll talk about how it will affect front-runner mitt romney and for that matter president obama. paul begala, eric ericsson joins us on that. and keeping them honest, is mitt romney trying to have it both ways with the budget deficit and taxes, he's on board with the gop plan of cutting the federal deft sit without raising taxes, and we checked his record and his administration highlighted state tax increases to try to get a debt upgrade

other gulf markets were also down including abu dhabi and cut tar. >>> 7:36 now, and world market stability is the goal of a new round of talks by the g.7. this morning financial ministers from britain, canada, france, germany, italy, the u.s. and japan discussed the historic down grade of the u.s. credit rating. they're worried that the downgrade is a major blow to consumer and business confidence around the world. >>> all right. coming up on face the nation, washington has figured out how to raise the debt limit, but can it fix the economy, and can it create jobs? today's guests include former white house senior advisor david axle rod, and republican lindsay gram from south carolina. face the nation starts at 8:30 right here on cbs 5. >>> one benefit from the economic turmoil is the price of crude oil has dropped more than 9% this week. and likely will mean lower prices at the pump. the bay area could see 3.50 a gallon by tend of august. currently the average price in san francisco for a gallon of gas is about 3.89. 3.80 a gallon in oakland and san jose. lower gas prices could lease to ch

manchester city, the billionaires from abu dhabi, they will come in second. the off-season is their manager. the doogy houser of soccer. >> thank you so much. >> roger's got it all wrong, i was to say. >> mika piece been studying the books. >> chelsea! >> and then man u., then liverpool, then tottenham. >> i think reverend al has been helping you with these. >> willie, she picked the miami heat first. >> and the redskins. >> i'll give you my top five, roger. manchester united first, chelsea second, liverpool third, manchester city fourth, and arsenal fifth. but their fortunes are falling. >> i think that's possibly true. beautiful soccer doesn't always win. looks like a grim, grim, grim season ahead in london, where the riots will be the only warm thing. what's the state for the -- >> what is he saying? >> what's the state for the bet? >> we'll figure it out. >> if you win, i will take you to liverpool. >> i want to go! >> i'll wear a liverpool shirt. if you win -- >> i want to meet your mom. >> the -- on a body part of you choosing. >> coming up, does michel

tom ashby joins us live from our studio in the capital of abu dhabi. should we expect the same thing later today as asian markets begin trading, the same thing as we saw in tel aviv? >> there's a similar story playing out here in the united arab emirates and across the gulf. one has to remember, the gulf, arabic economies are very tied to the dollar, both through oil exports and, of course, through their large holdings of sovereign wealth fund which is are most de-no, ma'dominate eed. we've seen very similar effects in the gulf arab countries. >> tom, your thoughts on the u.s. downgrade. will international investors look elsewhere, perhaps somewhere safer, some place that has maintained their aaa rating? >> well, there are only about three or four countries i think that still have a aaa rating. germany, the uk, amongst others. but really, one has to remember that this downgrade is only from one rating agency of three. and also the aa plus rating is still incredibly good rating and one that sovereign wealth funds and other investors should still feel ve

abu dhabi stocks down 2.5%.eighing in on the downgrade some offering differing views on who is to blame. steve centanni with the latest. >> reporter: it may come as no surprise, each party blaming the other for the debt crisis and downgrade of our credit rating. the man behind that downgrade david beers of standard & poor's appeared on fox news sunday and said in single party should take all the blame. >> congress and the administration are jointly responsible for the conduct of fiscal policy. this is really not about either political party. it is about the difficulty of all sides in finding a consensus around fiscal policy choices. now and in the future. >> reporter: beers says a further downgrade is possible because the u.s. government debt burden will likely continue for years to come. not everyone agrees that no political party is to blame. there's a heated debate on capitol hill whether tea party republicans are responsible. >> i believe, this is, without question, the tea party downgrade. because a minorit

a aa rating the same grade as abu dhabi, bermuda and kuwait. >> american hikers detained in iran couldverted as early as today. [ inaudible ] they've been held in iran for two years. the third hiker was released last year for medical reasons. >> the ladies of wisteria lane might be packing up. the drama desperate housewives is rumored to have one season left. abc has not commented. the network is scheduled to discuss the fall schedule at a news conference today. >> shannon: leaving a big hole in your sunday night viewing line-up. >> reporter: i know what will i do? luckily football is back. >> shannon: you men. >> right now invest for in the united states are watching -- investors in the united states are watching. >> panic might be the best word to describe investors of the tel aviv stock market opened this morning. regulators stepped in to prevent an all-out crash. here in tel aviv we were down just about 7%. because the tel aviv stock market is one of the only major world markets open sunday it does give us a little insight into the psyche of investors what they are feeling what the

abu dhabi. there is an exit here. a small little porthole that leads to the outside.phanie gosk saw more. >> there's electricity. there are telephones. it's even wide enough for golf carts that gadhafi has used to ride around all the time. not clear if he used this one. but he won't be using it again any time soon. these stairs lead up from the tunnels. must have been somewhere back up into gadhafi's house. but we can see just how paranoid he was as this indirection was going on around his country. clearly they sealed it off for security. >> reporter: the tunnels may have helped gadhafi escape. but now, with a bounty on his head, it seems every rebel in libya is looking for him. >> that was richard engel reporting from tripoli. for the second time in three years, billionaire warren buffett is offering a helping hand to the banking industry. the headline in today's "wall street journal" reads "buffett bets $5 billion on bank of america." the news giving a big boost to b of a shares which rallied more than 9% by the closing bell. but it wasn't the same for the broader m

are in north american organization but we have members from all over, u.s., canada, u.k., europe, abu dhabind others in the middle east. we have a financial base over 600 members witches for funding etc.. what we are here today -- and going to go briefly -- is the seat school improvement act being issued in congress and the house has had an omission, and that is one covering protecting children of size or fat children. it's something that needs to be altered to bring bullying into its proper space. next, this is why we exist. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> as you can see that as a small sampling of what people of size endure every day through the media is. naafa's message is one of the is the discrimination is wrong against in the individual. we are treated equal. the other is the health and a precise model. many organizations and the leading scientists have much evidence to put our side of it as it is not a felch battle when the civil rights comes in to read the messages to get through the education and support and how naafa exists and i put this message across to everyone. as we go forward on of the key

abu dhabi and other areas the middle east. we have financial base 600 members which is the for funding et cetera. what we're here today, the safe school improvement acting issued in congress and the house has had a omission and that is one covering protecting children of size. thin or fat children. we believe it is something that needs to be altered to bring bullying into its proper space. next. this is why we exist ♪ ♪ . ♪ . >> as you can see, constant bombardment is a small sampling what people of size endure every day through all media. naafa is message is one of politics and science. one obviously discrimination is wrong against any individual. we're all created equal. the other is health at every size model. major scientific organizations and leading scientists have much evidence to put our side of it, that is not necessarily a health battle when the civil rights comes in. these two messages together through advocacy and education and support how naafa exists and puts its message across to everyone. as we go forward one o