canceled flights in scotland and northern england. mr. obama will be visiting buckingham palace where he'll spend two nights. the president left ireland for the uk ahead of schedule last night due to that cloud of volcanic ash. in the u.s., the tornado that blew through missouri has claimed 116 lives and left a trail of destruction. the u.s. national weather service says it was the most deadly tornado in more than 60 years. those are the headlines, i'm zain vergee at cnn in london. "world business today" starts now. good morning from cnn london, i'm charles hodson. >> and good afternoon from cnn hong kong. i'm andrew stevens. you're watching "world business today." the top stories on tuesday, may 24th, under the weather, travel trouble looms as volcanic ash blows towards europe. meanwhile, investors on the continent have caught debt contagent fever. the scramble in the cockpit to save the airliner. >> they don't have ability to go anywhere. they don't have ability to escape. and forced into a life of slavery as part of the cnn freedom project we'll look at one of the most disturbing aspects of human trafficking, sex tourism. now, the skies have been darkening over northern europe in recent days thanks to iceland's latest volcanic eruption. perhaps that's fitting given the mood in the markets. policymakers tried to conquer the debt crisis. it continues to rattle investors. wall street closed sharply on monday after markets in europe dropped 2% for a range of reasons. europe has been moving to new lows and meanwhile, greek debt yields obviously a key measure of confidence in the greek economy and its ability to conquer crisis. those hit highs. standard & poors issued a warning on italy's credit rating. spanish voters gave their government a drubbing in rejecting mat drid government's handling of the country's economic problems and then just what european business needed least, the threat, just the threat, of that icelandic volcano throwing continental air travel into chaos. anyway, we're about an hour into stock trading here in europe this tuesday. we're seeing a bit of a buyback across the major markets after the plummet we saw in monday's trading. worth pointing out italy's benchmark index, the ftse mib fell 3.3% on monday. that came after standard & poors lowered its outlook on the country's debt. it's back in positive territory as indeed are all of the other markets with a little bit of relenting going on and a sense that the market may have overdone the amount of selling it did on monday. up by about half a percent for the ftse and the paris cac current. the dax, again, investors feeling they've overpunished that particular index. that's up by 0.66%. it's doing the best, really. the euro very much hit hard by this continuing debt crisis. it hit a weekly low against the dollar on monday and indeed a record low against the swiss franc. here's where we are at the moment. 1.4079. 1.6114 against the dollar and the japanese yen, 81.70 in europe. >> that sense that you had, not really the same here. markets across the asia pacific pretty close to where they started on monday. we had a big sell-off yesterday and the continuing weak close on "wall street journal." there are the numbers. the nikkei up just a fraction, less than a fifth of 1%. that came after sony stock was up 2% would you believe after that warning of a $3.2 billion loss in the financial year ending march 31. investors bought that stock because they're betting that this finally could be rock bottom for sony. what's been a terrible year for them. and that better times are ahead. a couple of banks have upgraded sony stock after the loss announcement yesterday. a bit of a pop for sony. the hong kong hang seng up just a fraction, the shanghai down 0.25%. australia down because of europe. also because of china. goldman sachs lowering its growth forecast for china from 10% to 9.4% this year as policy tightening measures start to kick in. interesting, had one research note from boc, bank of china, which said stagflation could be on the horizon. it's rising inflation and slowing growth. that one could spook the markets further. i tell you who are watching china closely, ramy inocencio, our asia business analyst. you have a slightly more longer look at the declines in asia pacific. >> those numbers you were talking about is showing investors are being cautious especially after the past two months of clear declines of asia pacific. let me show you the trend in a few major markets. first to hong kong, march 11th, right here is a reference marker, that is the date of the japan quake and tsunami. we saw it climb back up over the course of a month up until april 8th. april 8th gold hit a record as well as oil hitting a high of 113 per barrel. gold was 1473 per ounce. for oil that's a price not seen since 2008 by the way, then we saw the markets start to fall. here, new gold set a record around april 19th. 1,500 ads nounsed. that hit the psychological barrier as investors pushed more money into the safe haven. over the past few weeks we've been talking about the euro zone and those debt fears there. that's been second shock waves to the markets. that's where we're at now. a quick look at australia's asx as well. we see a similar picture here. march 11th, the quake there. we see the highs in commodity prices, gold and oil, along with the euro zone debt fears as well. as for japan, a slightly different story. we do see the march 11th plunge over here because of the quake and tsunami but since then the nikkei has only been able to weave up and down this 10,000 mark over the past few months. news that the country's back in lee session, too, because of the quake and tsunami is only adding to the worries. that comes on top of today's news that the annual growth is slowing down. overall it's not been a happy picture for the asia pacific. europe does need to get its zone in order. and the u.s. has to figure out their debt problems and that will help keep asia afloat. the euro zone crisis continues to threaten some of the bigger euro economies and, of course, the u.s. looking waeshg these days. ramy inocencio, asia business editor. let's talk about the u.s. a bit more. as we mentioned a moment ago, the debt crisis ntaking center stage. who do the futures look like today? all the major indices look set for a higher stat nonetheless. charles, it could be worse. >> it could be worse but i tell you, it's bad enough. let me give you details on where we stand in europe. clearly this debt crisis is, again, dominating everything on the financial markets. more than's market sell stems largely african creased fears that greek bailout repayments will have to be extended or restructured. on friday, the ratings agency fitch pushed greece further into junk territory. that prompted a rise, naturally, really in greek bond yields pushing ten-year rates to their highest level. the greek government is fighting the tide by announcing an asset sale with stakes in domestic corporations, et cetera be up for grabs. with greece struggling to recover its repayments, fears naturally extend to ireland and portugal. it's unlikely that one country could get dispensation without the others demanding to follow sut. in times of turmoil, contagion does not discriminate. >> this is where it could get critical in the euro zone. we talk about portugal, ireland and greece, the peripheral economies. there are big economies, i'm talking about italy and spain which are threatening to be sucked into this. standard & poors, the credit rating agency threatened to cut italy's credit rating. it did that last friday. it lowered its outlook from stable to negative. while there's no doubt italy's finances are in better shape of those, than say, greece, they are tied by their neighbors. the other concern is spain, the volatility has been no secret of late. around lifts are watching that country particularly closely right now. we saw the elections of the weekend, a big public backlash about the government's handling of austerity measures. do they pull back? which has the effect of delaying, sorting out spain's own economy. charles, there's an awful lot going on. and this creeping into the bigger economies, that is a real key for investor nerves at the moment. >> while protests in madrid continue, the cost of financing the country's debt is not sustainable, it's been warned. as far as austerity is concerned, something's got to give. al goodman joins me live from the spanish capital. i don't think any of us would want to be in the shoes of the madrid government right now. they have very few options and it seems little political capital after the elections of the weekend. >> indeed, charles, the prime minister, the socialist prime minister clearly had a plan which was to try to work his way out of this financial crisis, lower the debt, and bring spain in line and especially keep spain really at arms length from portugal, ireland and greece. now that plan seems to be unraveling. last week there were major pro tests in madrid, barcelona, a bunch of people camped out in those public plazas saying the austerity measures, the high rate of unemployment, 21% in spain and the political and economic establishment they blame for all of this mess, they say that has to all change. on snund local and regional electi elections, the ruling socialists thought they would take a hit. they took a very bad hit, the worst showing in 30 years. the prime minister quite isolated at this hour. charles? >> i think the question that people are asking themselves is how stable is the political situation in spain? clearly these were not parliamentary elections. they were regional and local elections. the government can tough it out. but will it, can it hold the line, al? >> the socialists have just short of a majority in the national parliament and the prime minister worked a series of deals with smaller parties which he thinks will guarantee him to be in power until march of next year, which is the latest the elections can be called. the prime minister said he's not going to stand. he's obviously been squeezed by this economic crisis. there's a leadership battle brewing in the socialist party. the markets and everybody is watching this, a return to the instability that we saw months ago in spain, people are getting very nervous again. although we should say, for instance, there's a treasury note auction happening at this hour for three and six-month notes. these bond auctions and notes have been oversubscribed but the problem is, where will it go? charles? >> okay, al goodman joining us live from the spanish capital, madrid. many thanks to you. andrew? charles, we were talking at the top of the show about the gathering gloom from the volcano as well. that's the one erupting in iceland which formed a massive cloud. the question is how big a threat to air travel is it or is it just a lot of hot air? we find out the latest in just a moment. stay with us. welcome back. you're watching "world business today." air travelers are keeping an eye on that cloud of volcanic ash drifting east from iceland. it prompted dozens of flight cancellations in scotland on tuesday morning. just in the last few hours, now the question is whether the cloud will keep moving and threaten flights further south in england and also continental europe. it's forced one prominent traveler to change his plans. u.s. president barack obama left ireland for great britain a day early on monday night in case the ash led to airport closures. now you may remember it was almost this time last year that an ash cloud lingered over european air space, messing up travel plans for millions of people. and indeed cost airlines and the economy a bundle. let's go to emily reuben for more on what could turn out to be another expensive cloud. how much it cost last time? >> charles, let me go to that in a minute. we have information coming in from the civil aviation authority. they said the weather is on our side, the ash is moving quickly and subsiding which is good news, i suppose. we're also getting information from euro control, the european organization for air safety who have just said that 252 flights have been canceled. let's take a look at the 2010 volcanic ash cloud. because that did cause economic havoc as you say. around 10 million passengers were left stranded. there were more than 100,000 flights canceled, airlines lost around $1.7 billion. and according to the eu, transport minister, the total cost for european business was more than $3.2 billion. and tourism was also affected, countries emerging markets where their currency is affected by tourism. the schilling and the turkish lair also fell. international consolidated airlines and easy jet were down yesterday about a%, air france and klm were down. they're marginally up this morning. the european airlines have been affected, their share price. >> emily reuben, many thanks. what about the cloud itself? jennifer delgado has more on who might be affected by the spewing volcanic ash. she's at the cnn weather center and always knows which way the wind is blowing particularly when it comes to icelandic volcanos. jen, what's going to happen? >> we got a good practice out of the last eruption. as we're looking at this graphic, this is flight radar 24.com. it shows you and tracks all the planes in the skies. the yellow are the planes out there. you don't see much activity through areas, including scotland as well as northern parts of england. that's because an ash cloud causing some disruption. as we go over to our next graphic here and hopefully we can pull this up. we'll show you the ash cloud as it's moving from iceland. you can see down towards the south and east. anywhere you're seeing yellow and that orange shading, that is actually the ash being reflected back. certainly there is that out there in the atmosphere. now as i take you back over to our weather graphics here, and we talk a little bit more. anywhere in red, we have this advisory for ash, from anywhere from the surface up to about 35,000 feet in the air. now, if you notice it extends for areas including southern parts of england and all the way over to areas including parts of russia. how is this going to affect air travel? anywhere you're seeing yellow, this is where we're dealing with light ash in the atmosphere. anywhere in the red and orange, that's where it will be heavy. if you're anywhere from the red say from parts of scotland to denmark, potentially you'll be dealing with delays because we're just going to have too high of a concentration of that ash in the atmosphere, again, coming from iceland and then eventually spreading over towards the east. you can see east of the north sea as well. this is going to cause some problems and we'll be watching it for the potential to spread south as well as east as we go through next several days. the upper level winds right now are favorable as emily just mentioned. you can see the winds coming from iceland and notice the winds from the surface up to about 35,000 feet coming out of the south. so right now, things are cooperating but still, check ahead for delays as we go throughout the day. we'll have more "world business today" in just a moment. stay with us. and the pollen outside. but with 24-hour zyrtec®, i get prescription strength relief from my allergy symptoms. it's the brand 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[ male announcer ] get up to $6 in savings on zyrtec® products at zyrtectv.com. live from cnn london and hong kong, this is "world business today." welcome back. reports say that investigators have found new evidence concerning former imf chief dominique strauss-kahn. media sources say in new york the tests confirm that traces of strauss-kahn's dna have been recovered from the clothes of the hotel chambermaid he's accused of sexually assaulting. the transfer of dna seems to be skin the with the defense that sexual activity did occur but that it was consensual. now, out of jail, on bail, strauss-kahn is currently confined at a new york residence and expected to be moved to a permanent location. his next court appearance is on june 6th. let's follow up cnn's exclusive of yesterday, monday, excerpts from an e-mail sent by dominique strauss-kahn to his former colleagues at the imf, obtained by cnn as you'll remember, strauss-kahn e-mailed his former colleagues telling them he decided to resign as managing director last week so the imf would not share in his, quote, personal nightmare. new internal documents also obtained by cnn reveal what some in the fund believe the imf needs to do. nina dos santos has that. >> reporter: as the imf searches for a new managing director, internal documents obtained by cnn offer a unique insight into dominique strauss-kahn's relationship with his staff and their mood following his resignation. the scandal surrounding strauss-kahn has provoked hefty soul searching with some economists telling cnn the fund now feels like a ship that's lost its captain. as politicians rally around potential candidates, some female staffers have their own view. one female imf worker writes to colleagues maybe the only way to put an end to such a negative image of our institution is to get a female m.d. at least one prominent economist agrees. >> i certainly think a female head of the imf could be a good thing. it's a good thing to have a different perspective and i think externally it could project the right image. >> reporter: last week, "the new york times" described the imf as a place with men on the prowl and women on their guard. women on the staff denied the newspaper's suggestion, that they avoided wearing skirts because of unwanted attraction. they say of course the fund is male dominated and it would be naive to pretend that there is no glass ceiling. top management seems to acknowledge as much. william murray, a spokesman for the imf said on monday were we're not satisfied with the level of diversity in senior management and we're working to improve this. the imf informed staff it want 30z% of senior positions to go to women bit year 2014. nina dos santos, cnn, london. >> nina has been following closely how the strauss-kahn scandal, if it is, i suppose we have to say it's an alleged scandal. it's been affecting the international monetary fund. more details on the imf and the strauss-kahn case, check out nina's blog at our cnn website, that and lots and lots and lots more at cnn.com. andrew? charles, one person who is standing firmly behind dominique strauss-kahn is his wife, the american ann sinclair. reports say she's using her family's fortune to try to clear his name. when he was release from rikers island last friday, it was sinclair who posted her husband's $5 million insurance bond. reports say she's temporarily rented a $4,400 a month apartment near wall street and will pay for strauss-kahn's expensive round the clock security. charles? just ahead on "world business today," we'll show you how the markets are responding after monday's global sell-off and more. and new information implicates air france's pilots in causing the crash of flight 44 in the south atlantic two years ago. we still have details just ahead. stay with us. ow#ç3 from cnn london, i'm charles hodson. >> i'm andrew stevens at cnn hong kong. you're watching "world business today." air france's share price has rizen in paris so far this trading day. a short time ago it was up a little under 1%. that ash cloud is still making investors nervous here in the uk. british airways stock fell about 1.75% in early trading. have a quick look at the market numbers. we did see a little bit more strength at the opening but nevertheless, we are seeing all of these markets in positive territory after the big sell-off on monday. up by about 0.5% for the paris cac current. the xetra dax still holding up reasonably well, up by about 0. %. andrew? here in asia not quite the rebound you're seeing in europe. still a lot of concerns about what's going on in europe, about the weakness on wall street and a slowdown in the chinese economy as well. that's how the day finished. the nikkei up by 0.2%. sony aexpensing yesterday that it expected a $3.2 billion loss for the financial year that ended the end of march. its stock is up by 2%. a lot of analysts saying better times are on their way. sony up 2%. the rest of the markets, not much going on. shanghai down 0.25%. still concerns about the strength of the chinese economy there. just want to update you on a story coming to us from south korea. hyundai has found itself handicapped after a strike by workers at a major supplier. they make piston rings an other parts for hyundai and kia. they stopped working almost a week ago amid calls for better hours and payment. hyundai says the strike must stop, claiming it stands to lose more than $4 billion worth of units if it continues into next month. now, needless to say, the news has hit hyundai's share price. it fell almost 3 rers on monday. it's back a little over 1% today. amid reports that police may be set to tackle that strike. now, meanwhile authorities in japan now say there may have been more reactor meltdowns at the fukushima daiichi right after the earthquake and tsunami on march 11th. let's go to kyung lah. >> this is something many international agencies have suspected for some time. what we're hearing now from tepco is that it's not just reactor one, that there are two additional reactors where in laying out what tepco is defining as the worst case scenario also had full meltdowns. tepco says a major part of the fuel rods in this worst-case scenario in reactor number two may have melted and fallen to the bottom of the pressure vessel about 101 hours after the earthquake and tsunami. in reactor three it happened 60 hours post-disaster. this melted fuel, if this scenario is correct, is sitting at the bottom of the pressure vessel in each reactor building. the fuel is being kept cool at the got o the pressure vessels. tepco also simultaneously released a slightly more optimistic scenario in which the rods did not melt but broke. a partial meltdown it if you will. if you follow the worst case plan across the board, they believe a meltdown did indeed happen, not just in reactor one but two and three as well. >> kyung, thanks very much for that update. two more reactors suffering a meltdown after the march 11 catastrophe with the tsunami and earthquake. charles? andrew, the mystery concerning the crash of air france flight af-44 in 2009 two years ago may soon be solved. that's coming from sources familiar with the preliminary findings from the plane's recorders. both the cockpit voice recorder and the data recorder. various news agencies are reporting that the pilots apparently became distracted with faulty air speed indicators and failed to properly deal with other vital systems. we must stress this is not official. there's been nothing official released as yet. obviously this is not the definitive. far from it. for the families of the 228 people who died in that crash over there in the south atlantic, it's been a long two-year wait for answers. joining me now from paris is jim bitterman. jim, what do we know and what are some media suggesting that we know? >> reporter: the reports that have been coming out, basically are leaked reports from inside the bea investigation, the accident investigation authority here in france. they are confirming none of them, although they say by friday they expect to have something on their website that would indicate one way or another. the reports suggest that basically the senior pilot on board flight 447 was, according to standard procedure, was basically not not cockpit when things started developing. on these long-haul flights there are three pilots. the senior pilots takes the landing and takeoff while the other two fly the plane in the space in between. he was on a rest break when things started happening and, according to the reports, he could be heard rushing into the cockpit, trying to take charge of the situation. of course, that failed and the plane broke apart. the question i think that investigators will be looking at before they rush into blaming the pilots necessarily, is whether or not there should have been more done by airbus before this to replace the peto tube which is were frozen over, apparently. peto tubes give part of the air speed process, became frozen over. this was in the initial scenario that was outlined after the crash. in any case, that those tubes should have been replaced earlier. air embassy dulles and a airbus and air france have been arguing about this, trying to say the other is to blame, because there are huge lawsuits involved here. >> jim bitterman, joining us there live from paris. andrew? charles, turning now to the biggest initial public offering this year. and the london stock exchange largest ever flotation. shares of glencore are changing hands here in unconditional training. let's bring back emily reuben on whether glencore can keep its magic but shake its image. >> reporter: the share interest, in an issue public offering. glencore has been the talk of investors for months. the offering of shares at 8.60, values a 37-year-old commodity producer and trader at $59.3 billion. today in london, it becomes only the third company to join the ft-100 share index on the first day of trading. though the price has fluctuated since unconditional trading began last week, demand has been extraordinary for the biggest ipo since general motors re-entered the stock market last november. >> it's certainly exciting that glencore's coming to market, that they have to become less secretive. there's only a few global trading houses like this on the planet. >> reporter: before having to open the books ahead of this ipo glencore was known for what wasn't known. it was never clear how much precious metal it owned, how much oil and coal it traded and how much agricultural commodities it owns. glencore is one of the world's largest suppliers of the majority of the metals and minerals is trades. it trades a huge amount of agriculture commodities. with it's willingness to work in places like zambia and the democratic republic of congo, it's not without its critics f. you're looking to invest in commodities, there are certain risks you have to be willing to take and there are certain strong personalities in the mining world and equity investors either need to be okay with that or willing to look elsewhere. >> reporter: the ipo will make the ceo a multibillionaire and hundreds of millionaires will be created out of glencore employees. the boom in commodity prices has helped glencore, despite the recent softening of some prices. retailers will have to decide if glencore will ride a commodity bull or be the ultimate sign that a commodity bubble is about to burst. >> unconditional trade in glencore stock in hong kong on wednesday. that was emily reuben reporting. charles. still ahead on "world business today," cnn's freedom project shines a spotlight on the dark side of tourism. we'll take you to thailand, next. host: could switching to geico really save you 15% or more on car insurance? host: would foghleghorn make a really bad boonaor? foghn (stammerg): it was the best of time it was the wor - y worst of times. and by worst i'm talkin athat stuffl yone.ad asau nny' p engineer: ok that was a little... foghorn: you gettin' all this in there son? i just added that last part it's called "adlibbin..."anyway...it was, i say it was... vo: geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurae. welcome back to "world business today." >> now, all this week we're putting the spotlight on travel and tourism as part of cnn's freedom project. that's our year-long initial tifr as we join the fight to end modern day slavery. we will find out how to travel responsibly. we'll also be looking at companies, what they're doing to combat the problem. from airlines to tour operators who are in a position to recognize those using tourism facilities to commit crimes to hotels that are making sure that their premises don't become venues for this kind of exploitation. and then there's the government action, the growth of tourism has given international travelers easy and affordable access to potentially vulnerable communities, those experiencing high levels of poverty, high levels of debt and low levels of education. charles. >> we look at one of the most disturbing aspects of human trafficking, the exploitation of children by sex tourists. the united nations defines sex tourism as trips that are organized for the purposes of prostitution. thailand estimates that 40% of that country's sex workers are children. from changmi in the north. >> reporter: in this house, they find nine boys age 13 to 18 years old. a buddhist monk is among those admitted abusing the children. police footage shows him in possession of several fake guns. experts working the case say he and another thai man, bought boys, held them prisoner and sold them to westerners for sex. >> they are scared of them. they don't have ability to go anywhere, they don't have ability to escape. they wait there, for help. >> reporter: ricky offered that help, taking in one of the boys to his orphanage. he shows me where he lives now. >> this is rainbow home. which is for boys who are hiv positive. >> reporter: the boy on the left contracted the disease after years of abuse. still one of 58 here too traumatized to talk about his imprisonment. most sold to traffickers by those they trust the most. >> mostly it's the family or the mother, if the child has no parents, it would be the uncle or aunties that would be negotiating and sell the child. >> reporter: orphanages like this plug a vital gap in child protection in thailand. they keep vulnerable youngsters off the streets, in school and out of the hands of the traffickers. the problem of child trafficking is huge in thailand. this is a police raid on a karaoke bar where five girls from laos were rescued. police have covered their faces because one was just 13 years old. they were sold to this bar for $300 each. this woman crusaded to stop sex slavery for 30 years and says the trade is spreading. >> in mayneighbors places, malaysia, other places. we're upset because they're so young. >> reporter: the thai police say they are making progress. >> put your hand away, please. put your hand down. >> reporter: this man bought two boys from the changmi trafficking ring. within they raided his house, they found several half naked boys. the number of child sex slaves in thailand vary from 10,000 to 200,000. part of a vast criminal industry which treats children as commodities. dan rivers, cnn, changmi. we have this update about that slave ring in northern thailand. the leader was sentenced to 84 years in prison for human trafficking and sexual abuse, a sentence that was cut in half because the judges said he had cooperated with investigators the monk you saw has been expelled from the buddhist order received a 21-year sentence. "world business today" will be right back. live from cnn hong kong, and here in cnn london, this is "world business today." welcome back. this week we're putting the spotlight on china's presence in africa. different economic needs, on different continents yet they're very much intertwined. a lost china's african business is done in south africa. on monday we took a look at the problems posed by the operation of some chinese factories there. workers say they don't even make minimum wage. yet those jobs may be all they have. south africans worry about what will happen if they go away, charles. >> just to the north, zimbabwe's relationship with china is become increasingly close as chinese businesses go overseas in search of natural resources. we explain why china has found zimbabwe so attractive and why not everyone is pleased with the way trade is developing. >> reporter: zimbabwe president places great importance on thinks relationship with the chinese. once a darling of the west, the southern african leader has in the last decade fallen out of favor with many of his country's traditional trading partners. a violent crackdown on opposition and a bloody land redistribution program have prompted foreign investors to leave in droves. but the chinese appear to be doing just the opposite. they're now the biggest buyers of zimbabwe tobacco, a key foreign currency earner and they've invested in some of the country's mines. china also recently granted zimbabwe a $700 million loan. >> the loan that china has granted zimbabwe will be used mainly to import chinese equipment. chinese vehicles, chinese materials. >> reporter: some economists believe that at their request, the chinese have been exempted from the country's controversial law which forces foreign companies to hand over majority ownership to locals. the government has denied this. >> most of them are inventors of the state. they came forward a long time ago and said let us re-organize zimbabwe. we are working with them on the basis of those relationships. >> if they would come in and create employment for the locals -- >> reporter: newspaper editor wolf bonga says they should be using its vast mineral resources to negotiate better terms. >> they should supply the industry. >> reporter: zimbabwe's list of needs is endless. but china says a lack of capital has inhibited the country's development. >> we believe that a lot more can be done in terms of agriculture. i know that electricity is another area where we can have good cooperation and roads, airports and so on. and so the important thing is to have the right kind of financing. >> reporter: for a cash-strapped country with very few options, more of china's conditional loans may be the only way to recover from economic ruin. cnn, johannesburg. we'll have more on china's growing economic influence in africa, this time in uganda where it's improving infrastructure and paving the way for more trade. improvements may be coming at a hefty price. join us for that tomorrow here on "world business today." now, some people polish and preen them and generally love them. only a small minority ever goes so far as to call their car a friend. but that detail isn't standing in the way of toyota's latest mission to improve relations between you and your motor car through social networking, of course. suppose you had a low power on your battery, your car might tweet you directions to the nearest service station. perhaps it's a cold winter's day, warm up your seats via iphone. the so-called toyota friend aims to do just that sort of thing. remember, it's a virtual service, unlike a real friend it can't drive you home from the part, not yet at least. if you want to comment on any of the stories you see, get in touch with your whole facebook team on our facebook page. facebook.com/cnnwbt. that's it for this edition of "world business today." thanks for joining us. i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. and i'm charles hodson in london. "world one" is next.