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