it's going to be one of the biggest in hong kong in macau.about 1,000 people inside. >> reporter: back then the scaffolding was still up and the floor bare. still francis was keen to let his employees what needed to be done. >> drywall, thinner and the width here will be wider. >> reporter: today francis is getting a feel for the new space. making sure it's been done to his taste and specifications. >> this time when i walk into it, the scaffolding is already gone. the stone has been laid down. the lighting is done right. so far, so good. i think we're going to have a very exciting product. >> reporter: but francis doesn't like the excitement get in the way. he's focused throughout. and his eye for detail leaves nothing to chance. including this. >> you guys should put in a mat here to stop people doing this. so when i see things not done right, i want to kacascade this culture to everyone with me. if they see something not done right, they have to see it instantly and rectify it right there and then. i have many instances where i was the one

taipei, hong kong.ng long term and you're playing the global luxury brand game, it's very different. >> we are increasing our investment in china. we are seeing a large demand for chinese companies to become global companies and grow internationally, and obviously s.a.p. is the preferred choice. we want to capture this opportunity with the increased investment in china. >> now, another global brand making a greater push into asia is bayer. the company specializes in making health care and agricultural products. it employs more than 100,000 people worldwide. now, bayer's forecast sales in asia will reach nearly $15 billion by 2015. that's a big jump considering that's an increase of about 60% on last year's level. earlier i spoke to the ceo to find out whether bayer's expansion into this region is meant to compensate for the weakness in other parts of the world like the u.s. and europe. >> so much of compensating for weakness, but, of course, as a large global company, you have to invest where you think

yes, sad to say, it's hong kong.w, a new report examining air quality in hong kong found levels that put it eighth from bottom if it had been included in a recent global rankings put together by the world health organization. the study looks tiny par tick lates. hong kong's air is filthier than cities such as manil in the p l phillipines. and sao paolo, way ahead in 81st place. where the cleanest air is? think about whitehorse, population 26,000. population density, 49 people per square kilometer. hong kong, population density here is 6.4. bear in mind, hong kong, 75% of its is countryside. enough to take your breath away. >> no pun intended. >>> let's see if we can expect brighter skies also. rain and snow is lighting up the radar through parts of northwestern europe now. let's get more from the meteorologist who's standing by at the cnn international weather center. >> good morning. across parts of northern part of england, some showers and some storms. more importantly, wintry precipitation out there. a little bit

. >> and from cnn hong kong i'm andrew stevens. top stories this thursday, november 17. >>> china on his mind. the u.s. president outlines the new u.s. push into asia. >>> the cleanup is under way in asia as factories get back to business as usual. >>> yes, the camera does lie. benetton is creating controversy already with its new unhate campaign. it's already been forced to pull one of its images. >>> first up, the european debt crisis. it's not a story that's likely to go away any time soon. france and spain prepare to sell billions of dollars of debt in separate bond auctions later on today. let's have a look at how the markets are faring at the moment. we're about an hour into today's trading session. red arrows right across the board. one of the markets in the big four hit the hardest is the cac in paris down .8%. this is how italian and paris and french bond yields doing at that. the italian bond yield has once again passed that crucial 7% mark, beyond which many an economist say this really is unsustainable in terms of finan

hong kong banks suffering once again. not helped by a warning on france's aaa credit rating as borrowing costs continue to rise. in japan, exporters making up for lost ground. they were down yesterday making a bit of that today. not enough to avoid a new low for the year. the nikkei down by a fraction by about -- at the numbers at 83. that weighed on stocks in the australia market. the s&p down .72%. nina. >>> while asia's markets take a hit, the blame game is in full force in washington after the super committee's inaction. republicans say democrats were unwilling to consider overhauling key entitlement programs without tax increases. democrats on their part say they doomed negotiations from the start by refusing to raise taxes for the wealthiest of americans. >> there's one big, big hurdle to get over. the republicans have been insisting that we make permanent and extend the tax cut to the wealthiest americans. we cannot, in good conscious, extend the bush tax cuts at the higher end when we're at a 60-year low in terms

here in hong kong. the days are drawing in, sunset there in hong kong. welcome back.'re watching "world business today." we're live from london and, of course, hong kong. >>> let's turn now to the latest developments from india and kingfisher once touted itself as india's fastest-growing airline. now mounting financial problems are pushing it to scale back. the cash-strapped airline has canceled 40 flights a day as it scrambles to pay employees as well as meet its debt obligations. ma what's going wrong, malika? >> reporter: it certainly was a fast-growing airline. it was the airline which offered you the good times. the owner of the airline is known as the king of good times. it was the airline that tried to bring the fun and romance back into flying but it really is in quite a mess these days. it has a massive debt burden. some estimates say its debt burden is to the tune of $1.3 billion which is heavily cash strapped. some people say it is on the verge of bankruptcy. you've mentioned it had to cancel a number of flights last weekend. passengers are angry. king fish

in hong kong the market finishing .4% in the black. shanghai interesting developments out of china following the weak manufacturing number from the hsbc survey yesterday. the central bank authorities in china have eased lending restrictions for some rural banks. these are the small rural banks, not the big four pillar banks in china. it's a move nonetheless to ease the tight monetary conditions in china to keep the economy rolling. six of those 20 banks were in the eastern province, there's been a big credit squeeze there hurting small business. authorities in beijing are realizing they do have to make some moves, being helped by the weaker than expected manufacturing number and low inflation. >>> know, a showdown at the japanese optics maker olympus is in the offing. michael woodford, the firm's first foreign ceo is back in japan to face off with former colleagues. six weeks ago the board unanimously fired him after he questioned billions in past takeover fees. ramy inocencio is following the story. >> in the past few minutes michael

live from london and hong kong.world business today." >>> let's take one final look at how the european markets are faring this hour before we wrap things up for "world business today" later in the show. let's have a look at how they're faring in terms of the major picture, as you can see, it's still mixed. but we're actually heading further on the down side last time we looked as these four markets were rising. now it seems even the dax is up, now shedding some of those gains. two reasons for this, and for once they're not linked to the euro zone debt crisis. on the one hand, there has been a cut in the u.s. gdp forecast reading and also chinese pmi manufacturing data coming out, weaker than expected. those are the kind of things that are causing some of the weakness in the european markets for the moment. >> pretty much the same reasons that the asia-pacific markets are down this wednesday as well, nina. the main trigger here, those provisional manufacturing numbers from china showing a substantial slowdown in out

hong kong up by 2%. the s&p in australia up by more than 2%.he numbers were helped in asia by what happened in the u.s. on the black friday shopping frenzy, big numbers we spoke about earlier. that certainly helps the exporters here in asia. it could be a slightly better christmas for them. other things to talk act here, very quickly i should mention that olympus is down 10% today. that's the story we've been following pretty closely, a bit of profit taking going on at ol lum pus after a big rally in the stock over the last ten years. another company we're speaking our our eye on this morning is qantas, it's announced a 66% drop in pre tx earnings, and there are reports it's planning to float a premium asian company. qantas made a big thing about this, ramy, they were going to launch two airlines. >> qantas definitely looks like it's headed for some tougher and turbulent times ahead. first off, to the earnings that you just mentioned. the first half of its 2010-2011 fiscal year, qantas checked in this much amount of money, $417 million in profi

he at one point went from hong kong to japan to recuperate.the one that wanted to be an artist and wanted to paint. i thought about that because it must have been hard growing up in hong kong to be far away from everything and have a dream and get sick at this point. i thought u is there a story here? that's the way it begins for writers. people think things jump out and we have it in our head. it's the opposite we have nothing in our head. we turn on the machine and praying for something to come. with women of the silk i researched for 6 amongs and read and read and read. in one book i found 2 lines about the woman silk workers and knew immediately that's hai wanted to write about. it came to me like a dream that every writer prays for that you just knew you wanted to write about this. with the second book it was difficult i sat down and didn't know what i was going to write for about 6 months. which was fearful for me because of the fact i knew i didn't have the second book. steven's story, i asked myself questions. a lot of writers do that

on friday, hong kong is expected to report it has fallen into recession. >> hong kong is one of the world's most open, business- friendly cities. that makes it easily susceptible to a global economic downturn. donald trump, the chinese territories chief executive, -- donald chung, the chinese territories at cheap executive claims the downturn in europe for what is happening in hong kong. it has cut demand for asian exports. the shipments from hong kong fell to the lowest in september in almost two years. and exports from taiwan have been declining as well. but for some unknown, a recession may be welcome. years of growth have put property prices out of the reach of many. even a few months of negative growth may help with housing costs, giving consumer prices a chance to fall. >> here is a look at what has been happening on the financial markets. these austerity measures pushed through and implemented that will help. >> the nigerian group boko hersman -- boko hiram, the country admitted that their troops were caught by surprise. that may be the best way to do with the militants. here's a rep

no room in hong kong hospitals for local women to give birth. all the places are booked up. >> reporter: china's rapid economic growth has led to growing unrest and since couples are only allowed to have one child, they are prepared to spend as much as possible to provide a better future for their children. it can cost $6,400 to $16,000 to give birth in hong kong, but many couples are prepared to pay that much, because children born in the territory of eligible for special privileges such as visa-free travel to more than 140 countries. >> translator: 60% of the babies at our hospital were born to mothers from the mainland, and the number has grown in the past few years. >> reporter: this chart shows china's population by age group. in 1980, soon after the one child policy was introduced, young people were in the majority. but 30 years later, the number of children has plummeted. by 2050, the younger generation will be far outnumbered by the elderly and will be unable to support them. the situation is particularly acute in rural areas with young

hong kong getting the biggest boost. 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

>> exactly. >> in hong kong? >> right. third, immigration, we basically have a republican debate. who can put up the most electric fences? the message, is go away. we want to educate you here, then gets the heck out of our country. rulings for capital in very muching? and government funded research, have you seen that? is looks like an ekg heading for a heart attack. if you like at the five pillars of our success as a country, they're all heading in the wrong direction. and therefore, we're not getting the most out of the our system. we think america is the greatest political system in the world. china today is getting 90% out of an inferior system and we're getting 50% out of a superior system. >> so this is -- this is ledge time, go out on a ledge and take a jump, meaning is it that bad? on the wake of what buchanan says the problems r it's really a very dreary picture that is out there. >> i think it's all fixable. >> i think it's a get diagnostic and -- book full of worthy ideas. bill clinton also has a book out about how to put americans to work. but i don't think what either

hong kong up by 1.2. 1.25 and australia a little over 1% higher. >>> it's been nearly nine months since japan's fukushima nuclear plant was crippled by a 9.0 magnitude quake and following tsunami. the plant's chief has been directing on site operations. this thursday he'll resign because of an undisclosed illness. ramy inocencio joins us again. ramy, you've been looking at this story as well. obviously a key question here, is the illness a result of the radiation? >> that's exactly right, andrew. right now it's not clear if his sickness is related to that radiation exposure. the company has said there's no indication his health problems are connected. on the flich side, officials are not willing to say how much radiation he was exposed to. both doctors as well as tepco, the utility that runs the plant are being vague. yoshida revealed his condition was found as a result of a regular checkup. his statement is, he said i had no choice but to be hospitalized under short notice for treatment under doctors' de

i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. >> i'm nina dos santos in london.ou're watching cnn, the world's news leader. uh, i'm in a timeout because apparently riding the dog like it's a small horse is frowned upon in this establishment! luckily though, ya know, i conceal this bad boy underneath my blanket just so i can get on e-trade. check my investment portfolio, research stocks... wait, why are you taking... oh, i see...solitary. just a man and his thoughts. and a smartphone... with an e-trade app. ♪ nobody knows... [ male announcer ] e-trade. investing unleashed. when i got my medicare card, i realized i needed an aarp... medicare supplement insurance card, too. medicare is one of the great things about turning 65, but it doesn't cover everything. in fact, it only pays up to 80% of your part b expenses. if you're already on or eligible for medicare, call now to find out how an aarp... medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company, helps cover some of the medical expenses... not paid by medicare part b. that can save yo

in hong kong the market finishing .4% in the black.

kumquat that the team found, not in hong kong, but back in riverside.s using hundreds of different notes until they've created a symphony of taste. >> hagen: i mean, with a name like "hong kong kumquat," you need to really have something going on, i think. >> hassel: curious that... to see the carrot on top of the kumquat. >> hagen: that is interesting. that is very interesting. >> hassel: you get the citrus, but yet the... the carrot poking its head out. >> hagen: yeah, it's very complex. >> hassel: but not overpowering. >> hagen: that's really exciting. this is a home run. >> safer: there's no shortage of metaphors in the flavoring business. givaudan goes to the ends of the earth scouting for new flavors. in hong kong, givaudan convened their annual conclave of top chefs from restaurants around the world to demonstrate their latest creations. the goal-- to turn those creations into new commercial flavors. the chefs mixed, chopped, mashed, steamed, sauteÉed, and smoked for a week to create irresistible, cutting edge cuisine. hong kong chef alvin leung

all right professor john duis history of the chinese university of hong kong thanks very much indeed for being with us here in the program thank you for. asia pacific leaders in hawaii were also keen to shield themselves from the fallout in the euro zone in europe itself it's all change as technocrat governments take over greece and italy in rome commissioner mario monti is starting talks to form a new cabinet to tackle debt or to serve earth explores whether leaders that no one voted for will do a better job down the old crew. it was never going to be easy. to unite here at seventeen countries of which you know on the one currency from the very beginning attracted fierce criticism we've witnessed the beginning of a dishonest and downright dangerous german president yeah to revive the constitution but to do it in such a way that you want to avoid referendums in the key member states some might now be wishing they'd heeded the warnings to one after another the member states became too vocal and he's the latest country to come under scrutiny we have been witnessing in the last long. gr

. >>> good afternoon from hong kong. you're watching "world business today." >>> police are moving protesters out of new york's zuccotti park. >>> australian prime minister wants to lift a ban on uranium imports to india. it may be economically sound, but it's also politically sensitive. >>> and the world's richest man tells us why there's always opportunity in the midst of crisis. >>> but first. >> the whole world is watching! the whole world is watching! the whole world is watching! >> you're looking at new video shot in new york just a short time ago. occupy wall street protesters began chanting at police and putting up resistance after officers moved in to evict them from zuccotti park in the middle of the night. a tweet the new york mayor michael bloomberg said the evacuation is only temporary and protesters can return after the park is cleared. the park has been a tent city since protesters moved in back in october. poppy harlow joins us live from the park. tell us what's going on. >> i've been here for about 2 1/2

emerald earrings sold for over $4 million at the christie's autumn auction in hong kong. setting a new world record. you can see why. among the jewelry auctioned was also a pair of perfect round diamonds that sold for $16.4 million. the highest price ever paid for colorless diamonds in asia. looking nice there. >>> in china, one massive vegetable may have come in handy at your thanksgiving table. a giant sweet potato measuring over 45 inches long and weighing roughly 77 pounds was discovered by a local farmer at over 70 times the weight of a normal vegetable. this big guy could feed even the biggest crowd. the farmer had to dig three feet just to unearth this oddly shaped spud. >>> and finally, this is pretty sweet. how would you like to live in ginger town? the fantasy city created by an architectural firm in the nation's capital uses everything from jelly beans to gum drops to accent delicious gingerbread houses. the handcrafted homes will all be donated to local hospitals and organizations around the area to spread a little holiday cheer there, which is such a great id

taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo, the nikkei sank 195 points, while in hong kong the hang seng plunged 491. >>> signs the fed is ready to act if needed helped stocks rebound wednesday and calmed renewed fear over european debt. in his quarterly news conference chairman ben bernanke left open the possibility of acting if conditions here or in europe worsen. the fed forecast growth over the next two years, but bernanke cautioned the pace will be frustratingly slow. meanwhile, european leaders vented outrage at greek prime minister george papandreou at a meeting in france after his call for a greek referendum threw europe's debt plan into chaos. german and french leaders and papandreou describe the vote as greece's decision on whether to remain part of europe. a revolt in papandreou's government may kill the referendum after a confidence vote tomorrow. >>> here at home, an october jump in private hiring also lifted stocks. banks led by bank of america recovered from recent losses. in earnings, mastercard hit its all-time high on soaring earnings. news corp.'s net inc

and the stock market in hong kong was off the most by getting on for 1%. hong kong hit sell-off in property stocks after wen jiabao said his government was committed to driving down property prices. shares in china resources land lost around 3% while china overseas land and have manies slumped by almost 5%. >>> let's have a look at the united states where the stock markets, the major ones finished last week lower. investors rattled by the uncertainty surroundsing greece's confidence vote which was in the future, i think, when the closing bell sound. financial stocks were down, trading off europe's concerns. the labor don't released its monthly job state on friday and that showed the rate of hiring slowed in october, slight disappointment from the nonfarm payrolls. closing numbers for friday off about 0.5%. >>> a street vendor says the tourists have vanished. fears of flooding are keeping thailand's hotels and shopping areas empty. are those fears justified? we'll take a look at how the floods have impacted thailand's lucrative tourist industry. so now, i'm

and that's our report from hong kong, back to you in tokyo. shery. >> julian, thanks.nd now let's go to nemo in seoul. nemo, we hear that the chinese vice premiere was in korea last week, what was on his agenda? >> that's right. during a two-day visit that started on wednesday, he met president lee myung bak, high-ranking government officials and business leaders. in an effort to boost ties between south korea and china. on wednesday, president lee myung bak and chinese vice premiere li signed an agreement to double just above $28 billion, to close to $57 billion this will raise korea's emergency foreign exchange facility to $450 billion. the following day, saw the chinese vice premiere meet south korean business leaders. he urged south korea to quickly conclude a free trade agreement with china. >> li added he made the same proposal to president lee myung bak on wednesday. but south koreans remain deeply concerned about possible flood of cheap chinese farm and manufacturing imports. if tariffs are lifted. formal talks on a trade pact have yet to start. and that does i

and that's our report from hong kong, back to you in tokyo. shery. >> julian, thanks.nd now let's go to nemo in seoul. nemo, we hear that the chinese vice premiere was in korea last week, what was on his agenda? >> that's right. during a two-day visit that started on wednesday, he met president lee myung bak, high-ranking government officials and business leaders. in an effort to boost ties between south korea and china. on wednesday, president lee myung bak and chinese vice premiere li signed an agreement to double just above $28 billion, to close to $57 billion this will raise korea's emergency foreign exchange facility to $450 billion. the following day, saw the chinese vice premiere meet south korean business leaders. he urged south korea to quickly conclude a free trade agreement with china. >> li added he made the same proposal to president lee myung bak on wednesday. but south koreans remain deeply concerned about possible flood of cheap chinese farm and manufacturing imports. if tariffs are lifted. formal talks on a trade pact have yet to start. and that does i

and here's a quick look at the equities asia is in grad this hour hong kong's hang seng is losing more than a quarter percent this hour tokyo's nikkei has slipped into red losing less than a c. . and about an hour ahead of the opening bell in moscow russia neck resented once things trading session losses in knots despite better than expected manufacturing stats from the united states have partially offset concerns about the eurozone debt eager for higher fed troika dialog says investors are hungry to hear some good moves. this is fifty fifty chances that we can go up or down my personal feeling is that we should probably go up one of the positives as the world took involved russia one of the most positive things we heard last week that was w t o decision so maybe it's not changing anything from the first of january but it's very positive from some. sentiment point of view and the second thing is so the fund flows is changing suppose it's the third is enough number of december the markets usually fuel very well and i think investors also ready to see some kind of new year rally and diff

and a quick look at equities asia is in the red this hour hong kong's hang seng is losing more than three quarters of a percent tokyo's nikkei has slipped into red it's losing a bout of percent. and here in russia the markets are in positive territory in the first hour of trading the r.t.s. is that in a round of percent the my sex is up just a notch higher for troika dialog says investors should be going to proxy stocks for safety. the markets will be strong in coming two months. till the end of december i would probably be arrested you know which is the. sitting for example in casual inboards for example as for russian markets i think w two your decision is very important for proxy assures big sure it's like. glass or something like this it looks like that the stock is after all these negative. sentiment against from during the whole year and those changes are dry fuel that's more and more investors are asking about this of and multiples is a record too cheap probably won't find any other stalker with björk three so i think you can be wrong actually blowing us from right now. the growth

asia investors are buying into brushes white collar returned to hong kong based bank you reach of capital partners has agreed to invest one hundred million dollars to help build a new skin resort there however the money will come from its own funds the rest from chinese and korean investment companies the project includes the construction of hotels as well as sports and entertainment facilities. and that's it from the business team canal but you can always find a lot more stories online at artesia com slash best. of. the money. download the official ante up location join for the i pod touch from the i choose option. life on the go. video. on season one old comes an r.s.s. feeds now in the palm of your. question on the come. the way. to. the book. it is is. this .

hsbc shares have been diving 9.2% in hong kong on thursday's trading session.ter the company announced that its profits at its investment bank division had been falling by more than half. the bank also increased provisioning for bad loans as its u.s. uniut by about 23% as the american economy failed to recover, let's say. the hsbc's london listed shares now following that decline in hong kong, currently trading down 2.4% so far and going forward, the chief executive of this company, stuart gulliver says the bank faces significant head winds and it's largely, you guessed it, thanks to the crisis in europe. >>> a year ago she came in second. but can she take the top prize this round as the new york's global fashion awards? next, we go to the big apriling. guys, it's demonstration time. let's blow carl's mind. okay, let's say i'm your insurance deductible. every year you don't have an accident, $100 vanishes. the next year, another $100. where am i going, carl ? the next year... that was weird. but awesome ! ♪ nationwide is on your side >>> he had lone and welcome

from the chinese university of hong kong and told me political reasons in the u.s. are driving washington's criticism of beijing it created the difficult days before the u.s. had to raise employment rates. the current the difficulties of the us government creating jobs lysine the fact that the us has lost the compared to its competitive advantage in most of the traditional manufacturing industry so you hear china reduced to its exports to the us by increasing its rates on the low wage emerging market countries to quit the stampede to repress china so these kind of debate i think the chinese leaders are quite clear minded and upholding the chinese increased the national interests of the us the presidential election is approaching and china and the chinese case the chinese economy and the chinese currency. are used to ask a. scapegoat for us the difficult economic difficulties again so recent thread that's why i'm in the us it's nearing its theory i cannot gain. asia pacific leaders in hawaii were also keen to shield themselves from the fallout in the euro zone and la