is diana magnay. >> reporter: the death toll has been revised downward and now they're searching the island to try to find out what kind of ammunition he used and what the chronology of events on the island was. as you say, breivik himself is starting his period of solitary confinement. he hasn't seen his son since he was 16 years old. was horrified to hear the news. let's listen to what he said. >> translator: no, i'll never have more contact with him in my darkest moment. i think rather than killing all those people, he should have taken his own life. >> reporter: norwegians yesterday had a moment of silence, and last night a huge rose parade through the streets of oslo. more than 200,000 people. this is still a nation in shock and grieving. >> and, diana, breivik has said that he did not work alone. >> reporter: that's right. he's been talking about two groups supporting his action and he told the judge presiding over the case. that's the reason why the court was closed so that he could not give any kind of signals out to possible co-coa elaborators. he's trying to grandeurize his mission. questions will still have to be answered as the investigation goes on. >> i'm zain verjee. "world business today" starts now. good morning from cnn london. i'm charles hodson. >> and a very good afternoon to you from cnn hong kong. i'm manisha tancht this is "world business today." these are the top stories on tuesday, july 26th. >> the u.s. president takes his case to the people as the country edges closer to default. >> and as the united states spends billions of dollars, some ends up in enemy hands. bp lost its record last year but it's still somewhat business as usual. let's go straight to the stock markets first of all. many analysts were expecting a bit of a selloff yesterday. guess what? it didn't happen and that has actually boosted confidence in asia this tuesday. we've seen some pretty good trading across the board, really a bounceback from what we saw on monday when people were really very cautious. in europe, meanwhile, a positive start there, but we're going to have to see how markets hold up. markets have been trading for a touch over an hour now, and we're going to have much more on that a little bit later on the show. we'll keep getting updates every time we see those numbers, charles. obviously still persisting over the debt ceiling issue deal or i should say the lack of such deal even though there is really little sign of any progress. the markets are are, as you say, shrugging it off. wall street looks as if it's looking for a higher open. on top of games. that is despite the clock ticking down slowly but surely to default deadline day. tuesday, august 2nd is the day the united states could run out of money. that's tuesday of next week, seven days from now. now, if the debt ceiling isn't raised above its current level of 14.3 trillion dollars. >> a few hours ago in a prime time television address, president barack obama urged congressional leaders to reach a deal. without a deal, the president said, the future will be bleak. >> we will not have enough money to pay all of our bills, bills that include monthly social security checks, veteran benefits, and the veteran contracts we've signed with thousands of businesses. for the first time in history our country's aaa credit rating would be downgraded, leaving people to wonder whether the u.s. is still a good bet. interest rates would sky rocket of on credit cards, mortgages and car loans, which amounts to a huge tax hike to the american people. we would risk sparking a deep economic crisis, this one caused almost entirely by washington. >> quite an appeal from the president. since 1960 congress has raised the debt ceiling 78 times, would you believe on average. that's more than once a year or seven times per president, than's the point mr. obama underlined as he explained exactly what raising the ceiling me means. >> the ceiling does not allow congress to spend more money. it simply gives our country the ability to pay the bills that congress has already racked up. in the past, raising the debt ceiling was routine. since the 1950s congress has always passed it and every president has signed it. president r president reagan did it 18 times. george w. bush did it seven times, and we have do it by next tuesday, august 2nd, or else we won't be able to pay all of our bills. >> now, meanwhile the speaker of the house, john boehner, also addressed the nation late on monday and he took the opportunity to reiterate his point, that washington has a problem, they spend more money than they bring in. >> i always believed the bigger the government, the smaller the people. right now we've got a government so big and so expensive it's sapping the drive out of our people and keeping our economy from running at full capacity. the solution to this crisis is not complicated. if you're spending more money than you're taking in, you need to spend less of it. there's no symptom of big government more menacing than this. we're up to the task. i hope president obama will join us in this work. >> all right. love that home-spun economics. the key is to make money through higher taxes. that's the other approach, the one that speaker boehner says is destined to fail. >> the president says we need a balanced approach which in washington means we spend more and you pay more. i mean run a small business? i know those tax increases will destroy jobs. the president is adamant that we cannot make fundamental changes to our entitlement programs. as the father of two daughters i know the programs won't be there for them unless significant action is taken now. >> the political wrangling. both obama and boehner were trying to get them to strike the deal. the sun has set on yet another day without agreement, meaning a default may be just a week away. two very political speeches from president obama and house speaker john boehner, who back two very different plans to raise the debt ceiling. from president obama he clearly endorsed the plan that has now been backed by senate leader harry reid. president obama aligned the democrats' plan with balance and fairness, the principles the president has endorsed throughout these debt negotiations. he quoted ronald reagan on the importance of raising the debt ceiling and he said the american people cannot afford to become collateral damage to washington's political warfare. he said it's time now for compromise. speaker boehner, well, he endorsed once again the principles that he said he stood for all this time, cutting spending, no new taxes, and republican unity. so where does this leave us? both men were appealing beyond washington to their bases, to the american people to pressure congress to act, but in the end time is running short. you have two different plans moving through congress but it's not clear that either has the votes to pass. so some form of compromise needs to emerge and there's about a week left. so all sides are looking for someone, somewhere to pull a rabbit out of their hat and come up with a compromise that will end this debt deadlock, and there are about seven days left and counting. jessica yellin, cnn, the white house. >> the white house being a rather large white rabbit. let's take a closer look at the debt. cnn's tom foreman breaks it down for us. >> this is a dollar spent by the united states government right now. 6% of it is interest on the debt over here, 20% is defense, discretion nair spending, 19% nondefense discretion nair and 55 is mandatory. they say we have to provide these programs. this is where those entitlement programs are that john boehner was talking about earlier that there's been so much discussion of earlier. social security, medicare, medicaid, add them up, and it's close to 75% of mandatory spending is in the programs but over here in the nondefense spending, social security, transportation, veterans benefits, justice department, international affairs, 40%, others. figuring out how you squeeze money out of this is all part of the equation because as long as these debts keep mounting up over here, then our deficit rises like this. it gets higher and higher. that adds to the collective debt, which right now is right at $14 trillion. now, i'm going to widen out here and have you look at the important part of this. this is the dollar we're spending right now, where it's all going. but the simple truth is 40 cents out of every dollar we're spending right now is bore ohhed money. this is what has washington scared. 40 cents is boroughed. and if we see in the coming years what we expect to see, which is an increase in those entitlement programs because the population gets older and older, then what you're likely to see is the result. even if we lower the debt in effect by increasing ceiling, it's the same debt, only we get more head room on it, if we keep spending the way we are, we don't come up with a way to reduce revenues, what happens is the deficit keeps pushing up and we close in on another debt ceiling. the fear is this becomes an even bigger portion of this which means the interest in the previous graphic gets bigger and bigger. >> well, government spending is a key issue this week, of course, as we've been hearing as the u.s. lawmakers try to avert this debt meltdown, but some of that spending is unbelievably finding its way into the hands of some of america's worst enemies. we'll take a look at that just ahead. from c nnn london and hong kong. this is "world business today" today. while the u.s. grapples with tax cry says, they're using a huge chunk of change to fund the war in afghanistan. that bill is almost 1$118 billion. that's for base security, reconstruction, foreign aid and other related expenses. manis manisha. >> is all that taxpayer money really going where it's supposed to go? a source with knowledge of that tells cnn they've uncovered a scandal. part of it was diverted into the hands of afghan power brokers and also into the hands of -- get this -- itself. what's the story? >> well, this is coming from an internal document that has yet to be released. effectively what it's saying is rufrly three quarters of the cost allocated to eight companies here in afghanistan, trucking companies, has been miss appropriated in some ways. there seems to be a sears of contracts and subcontracts in which the money had been funneled down into different groups and in some cases ended up in the hands of the taliban. the question is how could something like this happen? well, it seems pretty clear that keeping track of subcontractor dollars even in washington is difficult. in afghanistan, however, it's a different story. trucking companies often deal with very davis situations in this country. they'll often subcontract out to smaller companies which will further subcontract to smaller entities in the country. those groups will often pay security firms or local groups for safe passage. what we've learned, however, is that some of those payments have funneled in between travel groups and has made their way into the hands of insurgents. manisha? >> david, i know this is an investigation right now but is there any talk on the ground about what you can do about a problem like this? i imagine it must be very difficult. >> it certainly comes as a great surprise to many people who were not aware of this. authorities that we've spoken to say that they've completely and radically revamped the system, allocating now 40 different companies to sort of lessen the degree to which the united states is reliant on any one single trucking company. all eight of these trucking companies, however, are are still on the u.s. payroll. so what transpires next really remains to be seen. manisha? >> and what are the chances that this sort of a problem isn't just confined to trucking companies? what about other sorts of contracts getting around local communities there can be an issue and we've already found that after this investigation. >> great question. this task force was put together beginning of last year, june of last year by a national inquiry that wanted to trace some of the traceability of u.s. contract s and international contracts operating here. trucking is such a massive industry. it constitutes roughly 70% of the transportation costs that brings supplies, food, weapons to soldiers and civilians but there are many other industries that u.s. contracts fund here in afghanistan. the nature of contracting and subcontracting is something that's difficult to uncover on its own. here in afghanistan with the different interlocking tribal allegiances and the variety of different firms that are operating down here makes it very difficult to track this money both in trucking and in other industries generally. manisha? >> i'm sure, though, that american taxpayers will be pleased at least this investigation is going on. we'll leave it there. david ariosto in kabul. charles. this the "world business today." the hotel maid allegedly sexually assaulted by the former chief of the international monetary fund is speaking out. we'll hear from her today. with. acuvue® oasys for astigmatism. he said it's the only lens of its kind designed to realign naturally with every blink and created with hydraclear® plus. i'm seeing more clearly, crisply, comfortably, all day long. now life doesn't have to be a blur. [ male announcer ] learn more at acuvue.com. acuvue® oasys for astigmatism. you're watching "world business today." we're live on cnn. she's due to meet with new york prosecutors later on tuesday and strauss-kahn himself goes back to court next week but it's still not clear if the case will ever go to trial and now in an extraordinary move the alleged victim is talking to the media. susan candiotti has details. >> reporter: she was told luxury suite 2806 was empty. instead she said she saw naked man appear out of the blue. >> i was like i'm so sorry. i turned my head. he come to me and grabbed my breasts, no, you don't have to be sorry. i said -- stop, stop, i don't want to lose my job. >> reporter: deal adiallo told was like a crazy man and sexually violated her. >> i said stop this, stop this. i didn't say nothing. he kept pushing me, pushing me. i was so afraid so, scared. >> reporter: especially of being fired she said, even though she's much taller than strauss-kahn, raising questions about why she didn't fight him off. >> the threat of losing your job or the fear of it is just like having a gun to your head. >> reporter: she was labeled a prostitute. >> i'm not and i've never been called that since i was born. god is my witness, i amteling the truth from my heart. god knows that. >> reporter: by going public, does she gain any ground with prosecutors? >> the d.a. office is not looking for -- they don't take polls as to whether they're going bring a criminal case. it's not who has the favor of the public. it's a determination really of whether they have credible evidence to present to jaur and can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime was committed. >> reporter: in a statement strauss-kahn's lawyers lashed out at diallo and her civil attorney, accusing them of trying to inflame the public saying, quote, the cause of justice here is served only when criminal charges are drop and this unseemly circus comes to an end. he shot back with a quote of his own. ms. diallo was forced to come forward in order to put a face to the brutal crime perpetrated by dominique strauss-kahn. for an alleged sexual assault vick time speak at this stage is remarkable. he's pleaded not guilty and has yet to tell his side of the story, but so far there are no indications he will. susan candiotti, cnn, new york. >> you're watching "world business today" on cnn. this time last year oil giant bp was hemorrhaging oil in the gulf of mexico and also money from its bottom line and now it's announced a profit. stay with wbt for that. it's just ahead. [ female announcer ] what if your natural beauty could be flawless too? discover aveeno positively radiant tinted moisturizers with scientifically proven soy complex and natural minerals. give you sheer coverage instantly, then go on to even skin tone in four weeks. aveeno tinted moisturizers. from cnn london, i'm charles hodson. >> and i'm manisha tank at cnn hong kong. a warm welcome back to "world business today" today. >> let's take a look at the stock markets here in europe. we're a little over 90 minutes into the trading day. we are really kind of seeing a mixed picture there. slight gains for the ftse, even slighter gains for the dax but losses of a third of the percent for the paris cac currant and on the swiss market there, the country's largest bank has seen its second quarter profit cut in half. ubs has reported that its earnings were down 49% as its revenues slumped. it has ditched its profit target and cost-cutting measures to a tune of $2.5 billion. so just a short while ago, its stock was down almost 3% on the exchange. it has clawed back some of those laws and is off by only 1.8%. somewhat of a kinder picture at bp. they've announced a second quarter profit. but it's still missed analysts' predictions. our john defterios joins us to look at the figures, a company with great past. you might say jammed the day before yesterday. jammed tomorrow? because it says if things get better. but not very much jammed today. >> we're right in the midst of a major restructuring. let's look at the actual number, charles. at $5.6 billion, not bad. but they were expecting revenues on the market of $5.9 billion to $6.1 billion. there was a $17 billion loss last year. selling off u.s. refinery capacity, $25 billion and overall asset sales going forward. there's a statement out to the market today. the stock is down 2.5%. he's suggesting the payback will come in 2012 and 2013 as in terms of the jam in the future. >> let's be clear about this. this isn't just a humbler b.p. this is actually a physically smaller b.p. which is pumping significantly less oil and gas. >> if you look at the output, it's 3.4 barrels a day. it's down 10% because they lost the production in the gulf. he's moving quite progressively. in fact, the deal for a $7 billion investment into reliance industry in india, it was clear last friday, hit all three exploration blocks but 21, they're hoping it pays off in the near future. they have challenges in russia. as you know, they've been trying to go into the arctic with a new partner. that's still tied up in the courts in russia. we don't know the payback in russia. so far, as of last week, he's moving aggressively because he's picked up new fields in the caribbean which he thinks are going to hold big promise for deep water. again, he's moved aggressively. he's an american ceo but a british company trying to turn things around. the payback hasn't come just yet. it's interesting to know the peak of the stock came two weeks before the spill and we're down 27% from the peak of 2010. so he had the wind in his sails then. >> and 2.5% today actually. >> yeah. so we're looking at a 27% drop before the results came up today. the real proof in fuding is what's going to happen in the year forward. can he get the new contracts in india to produce? can the russian clarity come to turn around this target of 3.4 billion barrels danld get it above 4 billion barrels a day of production. >> the damage from the bottom line of that gulf oil spill is still there. >> the legal fees have gone up, but it looks like they've broadened the net. b.p.'s not carrying the can on its own right now. so while the cost of the legal fees are are going up by another billion, the contributions are up by another half a billion. so it looks better on b.p.'s bottom line. the verdict is still out. vis-a-vis, it's in the market shell has gone up. the stock of b.p. is still down 27%. so they haven't seen the benefits just yet. >> yeah, i mean a lot comes down to dudley. he is the new broom, he is the new guy, clearly investors want him to have a strategy that works. you say it's a clear one but doesn't seem really to be endorsed by the markets as yet. i think one of the things that people are noticing is that b.p. benefits less than its rivals from this rise in crude prices. the jury seems to be still out on whether dudley is a good thing at the head of b.p. >> he has the wind at his sails right now, in his sails. the average price of crude in the quarter was $113 a barrel for north sea brand. that's significantly up $78 so he should be doing much, much better because the oil prices on average are up nearly $30 a barrel but it's easy to recover from things of this sort. he sold fields to focus on some of the emerging market and deepwater wells in india, russia, and the kar becaribbean. that's not something you can do overnight. i think institutional investors are going to have to be a bit more patient to see if he can live up to the payback of 2012/2013. >> is he fixing the roof while the sun is shining? that's the key thing. we know the sun's going to go in and maybe the rain's going to come down. at least that's what we're hoepg. those of us who prefer slightly slower oil prices. okay, john defterios, thanks very much indeed for joining me here live. manisha. >> yeah, we've been watching oil prices, gold prices but definitely stock prices as well, especially in this part of the world, charles. asia-pacific trading marginally higher on this tuesday. only modest losses on monday. classic case of well it wasn't as bad as it could have been so we decided to buy. all those as debt talks continued in washington. ramy inocencio has the latest. how is it looking? >> there's a belief or at least a hope out there that washington's going to come through with a debt deal at the last minute. with that the tokyo nikkei did close up about half a percent. investors there jumped into company companies reporgt some solid earnings, things like camera maker canon and cow. at the same time the yen reached its strongest point against the u.s. dollar since just after the march 11 quake and tsunami. investors are still flocking in as a safe haven as that u.s. debt deadline looms. right now trading. here in hong kong the hang seng closed at 1.25%. that closed more than 1% higher. as for loss makers, still we're talking rail. rail stocks falling hard after last saturday's bullet train collision in mainland china. other in shanghai it eeked out a half a percent. air clie na, the largest airline by market value rose 7%. china eastern soared more than 10%. but csr fell for a second day in a row, down more than 3.25%. the company was one of the makers of the trains involved in saturday's fatal crash. down under to australia, the aux 200 was up. anz and commonwealth bank rose. india, down about one and a half percent. the biggest fall in two weeks. the central bank just two hours ago raised interest rates by 50 points. the expectation had been for just a 25-point hike. it's been above 9% for much of the year. it's actually the highest among asia's major economies. >> ramy, apart from some of the fundamentals, let's talk about earnings reports. we've had pretty notable companies here in asia putting out numbers. >> turns out some companies in japan are recovering faster than they thought from march 11's quake and tsunami. today canon pushed up export sector prices -- export sector -- basically export sector higher. the world's largest camera marek closed up about 2 2/3 percent there. that's because it posted better than expected q2 profits despite the disaster. it boosted its net profit forecast for the entire year citing that faster than expected recovery. and one china tech firm is also the talk of the town. b bidau is one of the laencht. it closed at 1$156 a share on monday. this stock price popped by another 9%. that's because baidu announced a second quarter profit jump, m t mostly due to growth of search advertising. some companies here in asia are still doing well. >> there are a lot of companies everywhere still doing well and we have in some senses seen that applauded in some markets, haven't we, charles? >> yeah. more than usual u.s. has placed it on wall street. allan chernoff has the numbers. >> they showed frustration on monday but not panic over debt negotiations in washington. most analysts think lawmakers will get it done before washington has to default on its debt payments. the stock market suffered only a modest selloff on monday. the dow industry average was down 80. the nasdaq and s&p 500 east lost about one half of 1%. shares of research in motion fell 4%. this was in the face of falling sales. r.i.m.'s blackberry market sales has fallen. of course, the am iphone. the shares have lost half their value so far this year. a different story at apple which had another milestone day on monday. apple shares touched the $400 mark for the first time before closing at $398.50. apple shares are up more than 20% year to date and more than 50% over the past 52 weeks. coming up tuesday, investors will dig into earnings from 3m, ford motor, and ups, and more bad news is expected from the u.s. housing market with reports on that. that is a rap on the day at wall street. i'm allan chernoff after the new york stock exchange. now, a tax break on airline tickets? coming up on "world business today," we'll find out how some u.s. airlines are pocketing a savings instead of passing it along. that story and more in just a few moments. ♪ sing polly wolly doodle all the day ♪ ♪ hah welcome back. you're watching "world business today" today on cnn. >> from billing for blankets to putting a price on peanuts, who would have thought, so it may come as absolutely no surprise that most airlines now getting a break from some taxes are not passing the savie inings on to customers. jeanne meserve finds out why. >> reporter: what might not have been a windfall for airlines is a gold mine for airlines. the failure of congress to reauthorize the federal aviation administration has left the agency unable to collect about $200 million a week in taxes. that could reduce the price of an airline ticket by about $25 to $50, but most consumers are not seeing the savings because airlines have seized an opening to increase fares. >> they're charging the public for a tax that doesn't exist. >> and pocketing the money. >> and putting it on their bottom line. and almost every airline except for one made money last year because of baggage fees, because of pillow fees, because of blanket fees, because of food fees. but what i've said to the airline association is you need to start thinking about the customer. >> reporter: a handful of airlines including spirit and alaskan air are passing savings along to consumers and one travel expert believes those who have increased ticket prices will eventually have to change course. >> my guess is going into the fall season, which is a little bit softer, they would almost be forced to drop their airfare prices back down. >> reporter: it's not impacting flight scheduling or safety. air traffic controllers remain on the job. but the faa has furloughed about 4,000 other employees and halted airport projects around the country, jeopardizing construction jobs. the main okbstacle to an agreement is a program that helps maintain service to out of the way airports. a key house republican says faa subsidizes tickets to the tune to up to $3,700 per person. >> it's the same problem we face in washington. no one wants to stop spending. no one wants to stop wasteful programs. >> reporter: secretary lahood says the issues should be dealt separately with the reawization extension but most experts believes congress isn't going to revisit the issue of the faa until they resolve the much larger dispute, the debt ceiling in washington. >> as jeanne mentioned, three airlines are showing a bit more generosity and passing the savings to their customers. they are alaska air, spirit airlines, and virgin america. charles. >> okay. time to check your business traveler's forecast now. speak of flying our meteorologist jennifer delgado is at the weather center. >> it is bringing heavy rainfall and certainly this is going to be causing delays, especially if you're trying to fly into or out of the philippines. as i show you, you can see right there, the center of circulation is located about 75 kilometers to the east of manila. that's bringing heavy rainfalls as well as gusty wind. again, it looks like it's going to actually weaken within the next 24 hours and reintensify as it moves through the south china sea. winds right now at 55 kilometers. as it moves to the west, it's going to be heading likely toward hainan island. as i said, wind s peaking back up. rain has been coming down heavy. in the philippines we're talk 1g 00 to 300 millimeters of rainfall. more is on the way. anywhere you're seeing in the red as well as the burgundy shades, we're talking 50 to 70. it's going to move real slee and that will cause problems across parts of the philippines. as i look across north -- south america, i see problems. there were problems in bay necessary aries yesterday. you can read the graph iks right there. one person died, 15 people were injured, damage, you can see some of the structures were knocked down on top of cars, and this happened really in the flores neighborhood. winds were at 80 kilometers an hour and, of course, it brought very heavy rainfall. they said they came through and dropped temperatures about 10 degrees celsius in about a one-hour period. charles, as i take you back to the graphic, weather is going to improve. but look at this image coming out of china. charles, when you see this photoyou probably think it looks like a goal course. you can see what it is. algae blooming. this is a plume right on top of the yellow sea. in parts it's green. i guess in some parts yellow and green turns blue. the problem is this this happens and they don't know what's causing this. of course, algae sucks up the oxygen and this can cause a problem. of course, people are still heading out to the beach. look at this photo right here. this is not what you want to see when you go to the beach. you want sup, sand, blue water, not algae, not all of you. ugh. >> that looks horrible. >> horrible. >> we have a pond in our garden which tends to do that. high nitrogen, high nitrates in the water right next to a farm, yeah, and you have to keep clearing it out and it looks like that's all too far but eight's not algae it's what we call blanket weed. >> not too good. doesn't smell good either. >> thank you, jen. sorry to have to leave you on that image. coming up next on "world business today," it looks like a sports garden. it needs a bit of wind. a breath of fresh air in the motoring world just ahead on "world business today." he said it's the only lens of its kind designed to realign naturally with every blink so now, i'm seeing more clearly. [ male announcer ] learn more at acuvue.com. so now, i'm seeing more clearly. any questions? no. you know... ♪ we're not magicians ♪ we can't read your mind ♪ ♪ read your mind ♪ we need your questions ♪ each and every kind ♪ every kind ♪ will this react with my other medicine? ♪ ♪ hey, what are all these tests even for? ♪ ♪ questions are the answer ♪ yeah ♪ oh a wark welcome back. we're live from cnn in hong kong and lauchblt this is "world business today." now, from traveling in trarls to owning 52 turbines across britain, green tycoon dale vince has come a long way, and his company, ecotricity is moving along with electric sports cars, the nemesis. we have more. >> reporter: naut 200 in 8.5 seconds with a top speed of 170 miles per hour. faster than most sports cars the nemesis is an electric sports car powered by wind energy, built as the first of its kind, the nemesis is the creation of dale vince, founder of ecotricity, the company that sells green electricity. >> this is one of your windmills. >> yeah, our very first windmill. >> ecotricity has 32 windmills or turbines across the uk which has enough electricity to power about 150,000 homes or businesses. in the last seven years that have invested more than $8 million in wind electricity. that's where the nemesis comes in. >> we call our car wind-powered car because we think it's important not to lose sight. we need to switch to electricity, but the lelectriciy has to come from somewhere. there are 32 million cars in the uk. we burn 25 million tons of oil in the process and if we all had electric cars we could do with 10,000 of today's wind moils or 5,000 of tomorrow's because they double in size every ten years. we've got a tractor, it's quite different. it's very important that we consider how we grow food and that we use a lot of oil to do that. >> and this is where it all started. on top of this hill. when he was living in a trailer back in 1991. >> i'd just spent the last ten years traveling around in buses and trucks considering an ail tern tirch way to live. >> reporter: unemployed at the time he started from the bottom and worked his way up. >> i did everything for the wind turbine. i was even digging the hole in the foundation. it was like an olympic five-year journey to build this. i started realizing i needed to measure the win speed at the height of the machine. i build a wind tower. i learned about data, planning, grid, finance, one thing at a time. i understood the whole process and it became the blueprint. >> reporter: did you ever think you'd be able to go from your little dinky windmill to one that's 450 feet tall? >> once i had the idea i knew i could do it. what i hadn't thought is one day i would be running an energy company, supplying energy and stuff like that. i used to think why don't they build windmills to make electricity. then i thought, why not me, why don't i do it. >> that story is great one. we need more people with that kind of zeal for doing something amazing, but speaking of amazing, that's it for this edition of "world business today." i'm manisha tank in hong kong. >> and i'm charles hodson in london. you're watching cnn.