toulouse. israeli officials say all four bodies will be flown to israel for burial. a gunman shot and killed three french soldiers of north african descent in two separate attacks and the shootings are connected, they say. opposition sources are saying that 14 people have been killed this tuesday following clashes in the syrian capital on monday. rebels attacked a neighborhood home to some of the regime's inner circle after 34 were killed nationwide. those are the headlines. i'm monita rajpal. "world business today" starts right now. good morning, i'm nina dos santos from london. >> and hello from hong kong. i'm andrew stevens. welcome to "world business today." top stories, china jacks up the price of fuel. how will that go down with those on the road? the internet makes up a bigger chunk of the global economy. which is getting the biggest boost. pitching in when the chips are down. how villagers in spain are pulling together to provide for themselves. >> straight to the european markets. these have been open for 2:30 and it seemed we're poised for another second down day. it seems as though it doesn't matter what you call it, we've been calling it profit-taking. some calling it taking money off the table that the fundamentals haven't been keeping pace with market optimism. one developing story here. in the world of the stock exchange because the stock market operated, deutch is planning to sue the european commission for its merger. just last month brussels objected to this saying it would lead to a monopoly and now d-boerse says several are incorrect and as a result it will attempt to have that overturned by the court. nyse declined to comment on the case which at this case deutch boerse is taking on. tnt agreed that dutch logistics, not all deals can get through if they can't overcome the regulatory hurdles at eu levels. >> shows perhaps a bit of spirit, as well, that it's back on the table. another straw in the wind to suggest the markets could go up from here i was listeni ining a there's a lot of money on the sidelines because of the fear and as a result of what we saw in greece and et cetera, et cetera, so there hasn't been a huge tumble of money into the markets yet, so with the treasu treasury performing, equities are on a roll so that could be a reason to see the correction we've seen so far and it's similar in hong kong being fairly short-lived. a little bit of profit-taking but the emphasis is on the trend which still is very firmly up at the moment. so that's how the numbers ended up here. hong kong down 1%. shanghai 1.3. australia down a third and the kospi was down by a quarter of 1%. investors cautious. one of the reasons for their caution today is to do with china. the chinese government raising the price of fuel up by the most it's risen, increased in more than two years. more in a moment. didn't provide any boost for the chinese refineries. petro china finishing 0.8% and one stock dragging on the market was one of the biggest property companies here down 2%. its executive director, one of its directors has been charged with connection with bribery. an investigation by the anti-corruption board. very interesting and unusual to have that sort of level of corruption being investigated at that level in such a big public company here in hong kong. japan today, closed, nina, for the public holiday. >> yeah, andrew, you know how we were talking about how perhaps the optimism isn't underpin the by fundamentals and it's been the recent spike in 9 price of oil however it is finally abating a little after weeks of concerns over supply caused by western sanctions imposed upon iran. if we take a look at most reactive contract, the european contract, the brent crude for may delivery, this sunk 72 cents to less than $125 a barrel as libya left production to preconflict levels and saudi arabia has been stepping in to deliver on its promise to fill the gap. last month the united states and europe did that after tehran refused to end its uranium enrichment program and had ten-month high, shy of $125 a barrel but going slightly in the right direction. now, as we know china has declined to impose sanctions on iran but in the face of rising oil prices worldwide, consumers there are paying more attention to the pump this tuesday. and that's because the government in beijing raised the price of gasoline by 6% and by diesel by 7%. that's all in an effort to safeguard domestic oil supplies. eunice yoon investigates. >> reporter: china has decided to raise fuel price, the biggest jump in nearly three years and means taxi drivers like mr. wong are going to have to pay 6% more for gas. that's about $4.42 a gallon. >> translator: of course, we are being affected. with this increase i will only earn 4500. >> reporter: truck drivers will pay 7% more for diesel. the government can hiking prices here because of the rising costs of oil worldwide. chinese government controls fuel prices to keep costs manageable for its people. but the nation's state-owned refiners are struggling. buying expensive oil on the global markets and selling below cost a policy good for people who drive for a living like mr. wong. >> translator: of course, the subsidies are helpful. maybe the government will come out with new rules to help us. >> reporter: the government has been worried about inflation and been slow to raise prices at the pump. however, most people say that private car owners are probably not going to be majorly affected. they're just happy to have a new car and analysts say this latest price hike is really more of a signal that chinese authorities are less concerned about inflation than before. eunice yoon, cnn, beijing. well, china certainly not alone in having to stump up more at the pump. the united states is now into its tenth straight day of rising gasoline prices. the american automobile association has been saying that the national average is now more than $3.84 a barrel. sorry. yeah, a gallon. $3.84 a gallon. i think that should be and nudging closer to that politically potent $4. mark it's already well above that in terms of the most expensive state, hi high consider consumers can expect to pay $4.48 but the people of oslo where the price is more than twice that, 9.$9.28 as of ten ds ago. the price of oil, with the exception of today is only gone one direction. that has been up from that level. >> absolutely. and it's becoming ever for for the election race, the price certainly always has it rises. quick look at how the markets closed monday. that's after apple's board decided they would get a payback in the form of di tend and stock buyback as well spending $45 billion of its $100 billion war chest. the s&p broader measure closing 0.4% to the good. now, tuesday's trading will begin on wall street in 5 1/2 hours from now. this is what futures are looking like at the moment. u.s. housing start, those figures are out later today, one economic number. one of many numbers outlined this week in the u.s. but so far all to the sup side for futures, nina. >> very different picture, isn't it from the way things ended where you are, andrew and also we have things started the day where i am. up next, apple shareholders get a bite of the company's big bang. the most valuable firm paying out out its first ever dividend in 17 years. correct myself. more on that bite of the apple in a moment. golly! that is deep snow! can you get me out of it? of course. travelocity? that's 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[ female announcer ] travelocity. get great deals on all kinds of beach vacations. welcome back. you're watching "world business today" on cnn. monday was yet another shall we say fruitful day on the nasdaq for a company that can't stay out of the headlines, i am, of course, talking about apple. ending above, you'll see there, the $600 mark for the first time ever. closing there at 601.10. now, they briefly broke the barrier in intraday trading last week on the first, the actual intraday went above 600 there. it was enough to see them close at $601.10 and continue to close in after hours trading as well. why it's looking strong. the reason for that jump is -- one of them anyway is flat, it's mul multifunctional and flying off the shelves. probably know what i'm talking about here. no fewer than 3 million units of its ipad was sold on the weekend launch despite that launch being limited to just 10 countries. the company will be hoping for more of the same and the second round of sales starts this friday. 25 territories are included this friday and london, new zealand, macaw and many countries in europe. >> indeed, but, of course, andrew, the ipad sales weren't the only thing pushing apple share prices higher. as we forecast company's ceo tim cook is giving shareholders what they wanted. the first dividend payments since back in 1995. not everyone is happy with the size. each of these shares will be yielding a dividend worth $2.65 per quarter starting in july. however, it may be seen arguably as the moment when tim cook stepped out of the shadow of his predecessor, apple's late co-founder steve jobs and made the novel move of announcing a $10 billion share buy-back. but that was shifted just a fraction of the roughly $100 billion that apple has available in cash and investments and so you can bet that a lot of investors will want to know about that. both domestically and abroad. we have used them to increase research and development. acquisition, new retail store openings, strategic prepayments and capital expenditures and building out of our infrastructure and you will see more of all of these in the future. even with these investments, we can maintain strategic opportunities and have plenty of cash to run our business. >> that was tim cook there, the new ceo of apple speaking on the company's investor confidence call. coming up next on "world business today" it's been call ed marmite-gedeon. er ] if you believe the mayan calendar, on december 21st, polar shifts will reverse the earth's gravitational pull and hurtle us all into space, which would render retirement planning unnecessary. but say the sun rises on december 22nd and you still need to retire, td ameritrade's investment consultants can help you build a plan that fits your life. we'll even throw in up to $600 when you open a new account or roll over an old 401(k). so who's in control now, mayans? a gray day in hong kong, welcome back. you're watching "world business today" from hong kong and london. when it comes to the internet south korea is often said to lead the world but when it comes to the internet economy, well, it turns out it's the united king come danning out. a new report says it accounted for more than 8% of britain's total gdp in 2010. as can you see that's the highest in the g-20 and it also which beats the pretty big uk economy. we have a guest who compiled that report and earlier he spoke with our richard quest about how the uk is ahead of the pack. >> britain is a nation of digital shoppers and digital shop keepers and took advantage of it to ship goods around the world to go into global markets as well as to shop online. >> but if you analyze the reasons why some countries have taken to it like the uk, south korea and so and those that haven't, what do you discover as the difference? >> so there's several differences, first of all internet access and quality of the infrastructure and do they have basics in place for e-commerce? does the government provide consumer protections on fraud? do they have the logistics infrastructure to ship the stuff to your home? >> do you get the feeling that policymakers understand that what is -- what is there and what needs to be done? is this given the same priority as say, roads, schools and hospitals because it seems to be as important to economies? >> some get it. they're making the investments and the legal framework and incentives for them to go on line. in others they look and ask why are we not growing at the same rate and tell them over and over again the internet. you've got a two-speed economy, the internet and rest of the economy, makes investments, with the incentives in place, teach people how to use it and your economy will grow. >> paul there with the boston consulting group speaking to richard quest earlier. that's just the tip of the iceberg. this kong sulting group says the g-20 nations the internet is likely to grow 10% annually over the next four years to come. >> here's the story that's moving new zealanders today, you're probably seeing, a marmite crisis in new zealand. because of damage caused by the earthquake and the company says there's going to be no new supplies for that plant at least until july. now, there are some reports of panic buying, speculators snapping up remaining stocks and putting them on the auction site trade me trying to get a few dollars. one i saw is that they were trying to get $100 for a jar which is five times -- sorry 20 times what am i talking about the normal price of marmite. their advice is to make it go further, spread marmite on hot toast. it thins it out, makes it go further. don't put it on bread but your toast, the best part is the new zealand prime minister has got involved in the crisis. his suggestion, which i'm astounded he made is that maybe people should consider, nina, buying vegemite, australia's staple. i can't seeing that going down too well. >> who would have thought? we're talking about how oil is such a good commodity. marmite is the black stuff to go. black gold in new zealand, not oil. >> i know some who would say that it would probably taste better if you put the oil on the toast anyway. better keep moving, i think. let's go to the north island of the country battered by a severe severe weather on monday. more may be on the way. let's get the weather. living there in atlanta, are you familiar with either marmite or vegemite. >> i've looked it up because of that story. i think mother nature is familiar with it, andrew. the storm system not happy about marmaageddon. tropical origins but made its approach as a subtropical storm system mining lost its characteristics but still produced tremendous amount of rainfall and coming out, central region and also the southern region of the north island of new zealand. flooding concerns, of course, know some 200 to 300 millimeters have come down in the last couple of days. that's two months' worth of rainfall in the last few days and, again, this is what happens, december through april, we get tropical features that come in with copious amount of moisture and you see the floods that have taken place and the rainfall was widespread. folks up in auckland, the airport had to cancel some 24 flights because of the runway being wet and the dangers there associated with landing but, again, the storm system on the move satellite imagery maps in motion shows another storm system. rainfall totals 150 plus millimeters near the cook strait and bay of plenty, 97 millimeters and round one of what we hi is a two-punch feature as another rolls in by wednesday on into thursday perhaps more rainfall so if you're going out to auckland certainly worth watching the forecast as wednesday could be active. andrew. >> okay, pedram, thank you. coming up on "world business today," we're in spain where the sovereign debt crisis has left some towns unable to fund basic municipal services. tell you how one village has taken matters into its own hands just ahead here on cnn. from cnn hong kong i'm andrew stevens. >> i'm nina dos santos from london. welcome back. you're watching "world business today." where the european stock markets are 30 minutes into the trading day, two days into the trading week and seems as though we're stuck more or less on a negative note. this is the picture we saw across the markets this time yesterday. things haven't changed. we're seeing a second day of declines largely on the back of weakness in the metals and mining sector but banking, as well. as we've been talking about throughout the course, oil, though it is coming down remains a concern. that could hamper the economic recovery currently under way in the states. >> also a chain on the price, china has decided it's going to increase the price of petrol at the pump by 7 or so percent and diesel as well to keep domestic prices in line with the rising oil price. there are subsidies in china. they're trying to get the gasoline price to somewhere near world levels. that's going to have an impact on the chinese economy. didn't help the mood across the region. shanghai by 1.4%, hong kong following by more than 1% and seoul and australia down. japan closed today for a public holiday. now, a well-known u.s. public radio show retracted a broadcast alleging poor working conditions at the chinese electronics company foxconn. it had an actor and fabrications. maggie lake has more. >> reporter: very details that brought mike daisy's story to life was responsible for its unraveling. details with handicapped workers and plant guards with guns just didn't sound plausible to rob smits who decided to dig deeper. >> there were a lot of points in that didn't ring true to me. i mean one of them was that he mentions guards at the gates of foxconn with guns and several factories, you would never see security guards with guns. it's illegal for them to hold guns. >> reporter: the radio show that featured daisy retracted the story. he admitted some of his monologue was fabricated and apologized but went on to pose this on his blog monday. "i apologize in this week's episode to anyone who felt betrayed. i stand by that apology but understand if you felt something that connected you with where your devices came from, that is not a lie. that is art." he urged consumers to continue reading and caring. conditions at technology supplier foxconn had been in focus since a spate of suicides came to light in 2010. cnn has reported quite a bit on foxconn including examinations of working conditions at their plants. that report at cnn.com. apple itself joined fair labor association which is conducting an audit at overseas suppliers and apple told us it is providing regular updates on its website. maggie lake, cnn, new york. bond holders who ensured themselves against the greek default are set to receive a payout of $2.5 billion. well, it covers bonds not used as part of that exchange. a crucial point we should remember investors of course protected by these swap, contracts that are often used as a form of insurance against default will be receiving some 78.5% of the -- on the euro of their greek bonds. however, having said that after months of negotiations with international lenders this man who is the man who oversaw that recent debt swap stepped down as the country's finance minister on monday. he was elected to head the movement known as the party a day earlier and he'll be taking over from george papandreou and will gain support ahead of the general election late in april or otherwise in early may. despite a sense of optimism, the country's financial outlook remains uncertain and bank of greece reported that gross domestic product is likely to fall by 4.5% this year. that's compared with the decline of almost 7% in 2011 so things are looking slightly better but, andrew, the current prime minister said they're halfway there and these figures not telling that so far. >> yeah, extraordinarily five year falls economic performance in greece. another country in trouble in europe is spain, of course, the economic crisis there left many towns heavily in debt. some are so strapped for cash now that they can't even fund basic services for their inhabitants. the money has dried up. one tiny village found its own solution. cnn's al goodman reports. >> reporter: this picturesque village has a big problem. a municipal debt of a million dollars. mayor manuel garcia can't afford a full time staff so on sundays they hand out brooms to any of the 1,000 local residents who agree to work. and volunteer badges too. >> translator: interesting the support of the people makes you stronger and keeps you going. with the help. >> reporter: in this area they're gaining fame for their fight. they renounced their salaries. he fills this tank with water from his own farm to irrigate the town's newest pride and joy. they call it volunteer park. most suppliers haven't been paid for months. this gas station owner is owed $8,000 for fuel that heats the school and runs city vehicles. >> translator: city hall wants to get help to pay suppliers. they hope to pay me in may. >> reporter: this volunteers won't wait that long to fix up an old spring near town. this construction worker laid off a year ago is happy to help. >> translator: i'm worried about all those paying. things are not going very well. there's a lot of debt. >> reporter: across spain towns created expensive projects during the economic boom. this building is one of the biggest problems in town. it's the new nursing home that cost $2.5 million to build and they can't use it. deputy mayor manual tamayo says the previous administration built it and claimed it was ready to open but then health officials discovered the halls were built too narrow for stretchers to turn. >> translator: the stretcher is supposed to be able to turn to get through the door to take patients who are bedridden. >> reporter: yet the sickest patient of all may be spain itself with 8100 municipalities, 70% of them with less than 2,000 residents some should merge to cut costs, he believes. >> translator: sooner or later the structure of local government has to change. we can't have a country with 8,000 mayors. >> reporter: but this mayor celebrating with volunteers after the work ends says the key is not overspending the local budget. the volunteers put on the free lunch too. they'll try to get by hand to mouth until the bill for years of overspending is paid off. al goodman, cnn, spain. >> live from cnn hong kong in london this is "world business today." when we return, cruise lines back in the spotlight yet again. gist at a time when the industry needed something of a lift we're seeing another accident hitting its battered reputation. this time it takes place in asia. all the details after this break. and annoying account fee. at e-trade, our free easy-to-use online tools and experienced retirement specialists can help you build a personalized plan. and with our no annual fee iras and a wide range of low cost investments, you can execute the plan 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[ female announcer ] the travelocity guarantee. from the price to the room to the trip. you'll never roam alone. welcome back looking there at workers touching up the side of a cruise liner which is docked here in hong kong after an accident off the vietnamese coast. thick fog may be at least to blame for a collision between this vessel and another one as i said off the coast of vietnam. the incident which happened last friday actually, luxury cruise liner slammed into the site of a local container ship. the silversea played down this incident. another had to be toed to the seychelles. it's once again on cruise lines for all the wrong reasons. ramy inocencio reports. >> reporter: it's now in port in hong kong. you can see some of the damage inflicted to its hull after it collided with a vietnamese cargo ship off that country's coast. this physical damage seems minimal but one passenger described the psychological impact in the seconds before the crash. >> through the fog, we to our horror we saw this vietnamese container ship appear sideways on and it was as if our ship was perfectly like sideways on and itary pood and we did in fact collide right in the side of it very dramatically. >> reporter: on the port side or left side you can see more damage. it's at the front of the ship where you can see the point of first impact. right after that the silver shadow sheared not before taking out the bridge of the vietnamese cargo ship. the silversea later released a statement saying it was a minor incident. passengers say they were scared but commended their crew. >> it could have been a major disaster had we hit a big cargo ship. this one, the one that we hit was with one-fourth the size of silversea. >> it was extremely frightening and worrying and obviously in the light of the cost ka concordia that went down in italy. >> the cruise line is very nice and very professional. >> reporter: i spoke with the port operator. they say that the "silver shadshado shadow" is still taking on passengers going to set sail this evening. ramy inocencio, hong kong. >> silversea, owner of that, added another statement saying it insists passenger safety was never compromised. the incident is officially under investigation. nina? >> anyone from queens in new york will tell you it's not easy being a nets fan. today they got more bad news to deal with because it's probably a sport of good news for the holders of bernie madoff. so what do you think? basic. at meineke i have options... like oil changes starting at $19.95. my money. my choice. my meineke. welcome back live from cnn hong kong and london, this is "world business today." >> the new york met season just got a little worse and it hasn't even started yet. the major league baseball team agreed to pay this figure, $162 million to the trustees of bernie madoff's ponzi scheme for every game they were due to play. as felicia taylor explains it was probably the best case scenario for them. >> reporter: the argument would have been before a jury they were willfully blind, in other words, hear no evil, see no evil. they should have known because they're obviously wealthy savvy business men that madoff was running a ponzi scheme. it would have been against them they were willfully blind. the opposite argument is that they had no idea from their perspective a ponzi scheme was going on. they thought it was a legitimate business. for them they're not saying that. they're not admitting they've actually done anything wrong but willing to settle the case outsite of a jury because had it gone before deliberations not only would it have been highly publicized by the media but the jury might have sided with the vics as opposed with the wilpons. >> we acted and we're pleased that this settlement bears that out. >> so it's also good for the victims because now $162 million goes into the kitty for irving picard the trustee for the victims that he's collecting the money and the defense counsel had this to say with regards to that. >> most important thing is is that the victims now will receive the benefit of $162 million. ultimately that's the goal of all the litigation brought by the trustee is to enhance the fund for the victim. >> so at the end of the day this is a settlement that benefits the vics and, frankly, is the best scenario for the wilpons, as well. >> this is not the actual team that's paying the money, the 160 million, it is the owners of the mets. we'll stick with sport force a moment. and really it was just a matter of time, linsanity hit the highway and sponsorship big time. basketball surprise star signed a two-year deal with volvo aimed at the u.s. and the chinese markets. he'll act as a brand ambassador and marketing magnet. at least that's what volvo hopes. given it's thin as of late, its heard managers aren't lynninali. tea growers from the szechuan province pinpointed a unique selling point. a drop of his latest blend thought to be the world's most expensive at the moment benefits from a dropping. let me explain here. this rare treat is actually infused with the excrement of one of the world's rarest mammals. tons of panda poo and at $3,500 per 50-gram batch while the old groundbreaking will end up stinking rich. let's have a look at how the european stock markets are doing. seems under an hour into the trading session, well, no green leaves here for the moment. two days of decline and the xetra dax down to the tune of 0.63% and ftse being led lower. no much down down by 0.58% due to banking stocks. >> if you have coffee that passes through -- what's wrong with it having to pass through the bowels of asia. the run-up in the markets and how long it can be sustained. and don't forget. want to comment on any of the stories you see, get in touch with the whole team on facebook.com/cnnwbt. let us know what you think. also send your thoughts to us on twitter. follow us at cnnwbt and "world business today" team including nina and my sglfl that's it for this edition of "world business today." get in touch with us. let us know what you think. we'll reply to you. thanks for joining us for this edition. i'm nina dos santos in london. go i'm andrews stevens in hong kong. we'll be joined by maggie lake and have the opening bell. that's the latest from the street. plus europe and asia. see you then.