02/11/2016 World Business Report

in several cities across the country.

He was crushed to death in a rubbish truck.

Now for the latest financial news with Sally Bundock

Investors await the latest earnings news from Alibaba as the worlds

biggest on line retailer gears up for "Singles Day."

US coal miners say they won't vote for Hilary Clinton as she pledges

to move away from fossil fuels if she becomes President.

Also in the programme, we'll cross over to Asia to hear how

markets have been reacting to news of a new Prime Minister.

A reshuffle of top jobs in South Korea.

We start with news of a true titan of the business world,

The Chinese firm is one of the biggest e-commerce companies

So, when it reports its latest results in a few hours' time,

it's going to attract a lot of attention.

This gives you a sense of its enormity.

Last year, transactions on Alibaba sites totalled some $462 billion.

That's more than eBay and Amazon combined.

The company became one of the globe's most valuable tech

firms after raising $25 billion from its US stock market launch.

Investors will be looking for news of its plans for global expansion.

It's mobile payment system, Alipay is key to that,

with plans for it to be introduced in Europe,

Alipay is also important for the company's desire

to capitalise on the shift by consumers to shopping

Nick Hood is a business risk advisor at Opus Restructuring.

Good morning. Good morning. Alibaba will tell us how it is doing soon.

It will come out with quarterly earnings of $1 billion according to

some analysts, making it four times as profitable as Amazon, despite all

sorts of questions about on line profitability. This is one business

doing well. It is interesting. It has been doing well, up 77% since

being listed in the US. But there is a lot of talk about how short

sellers and speculators are shorting the stock. They are playing with the

stock, thinking it could be wobbly in 2017. Why is that? The issue

facing it is the doubts about where the Chinese economy is going to be

there is no doubt that at this stage in its developer and it is heavily

linked to the Chinese economy. And depending on how that goes, Alibaba

will follow. It is about size and scale. The population of mainland

China is enormous and so is Alibaba at the same time. On Singles Day

last year they made more than $14 billion in one day. What about

Alibaba outside of mainland China? It is certainly gearing up to move

offshore, if you like. Outside the behemoth that China is. At the same

time, Amazon is attacking it in its own home market, launching Amazon

Prime. This is a game played between these two enormous companies, with

Alibaba trying to move out of China and vice-versa. Where the youth

think buying things outside of mainland China might go to Alibaba

first? We are a bit away from that. There is no indication there is a

shift. If you look at millennial is in the US at the moment, Amazon is

there most trusted brand. It will take an awful lot of time and effort

to shake that. Thank you for your time, Nick. That is interesting. We

will get the results from Alibaba... It is about 11 o'clock at the UK

time. We will hear it it then and update you.

With less than a week to go before the US Presidential Election,

let's turn our attention to the Republican stronghold of West

The Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton has trailed

there after comments she made in March.

"We are going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies

It's a reflection of her goal of moving away from fossil fuels

But the coal industry is one of the state's biggest employers

and her remarks alienated miners, many of whom are already

Michelle Fleury reports from Boone County, West Virginia.

The mountains of West Virginia, with a thick canopy of trees. It is hard

to believe this is the heart of American coal country. In just seven

years, coal production in the area has dropped 50%. David lost his job

in April. Now he runs a farm stand. I need money. I need to make good

wages. It is a little risky but it is good money. I would not support

Hillary Clinton because she is against coal. Donald Trump is the

best of the two evils. Many here feel left behind and forgotten. Coal

jobs has been left behind by tougher environmental rules and cheaper gas.

With each bankruptcy and mine closure there has been more jobs

left and more pain in communities like this. Pro-coal West Virginia

used to be out and out unionised Democrat area, but the Clinton was

the last definite democratic candidate liked by them. There is

more talk about President Obama's war or on coal. Many like this man

blame him for closures of mines. When you have a president that says

we will not make it illegal but we will bankrupt those for using coal

fired power plants, it is quite personal. When you have a candidate

that says we are going to put a lot of coal businesses and miners out of

business, that is very personal here. Lot there is no compromise.

Many people in the region feel abandoned by politicians, even those

fighting against the coal industry, like this activist, Maria. We built

this country. We built this country from the coal my dad of the ground.

-- mined out. We are owed something back. We are needing something more

than the pollution and poverty. Few here expect the coal industry to

return to its glory days. But Donald Trump is offering hope to a group

who don't feel politicians in Washington speak for them. Michelle

Fleury, BBC News, West Virginia. It is all changing in South Korea!

In the last few hours, South Korean President Park Geun-hye

has named a new Prime Minister and Finance Minister.

She's looking to contain the scandal surrounding her and her confidante -

a woman alleged to have had an inappropriate influence

The plot thickens. Will this help are? It looks like it may or may

not. We will find out over the next days and weeks. But this influence

scandal is rocking the South Korean government. There was a policy

adviser under the former president and he is the new Prime Minister. He

will be the fourth to serve under President Park Geun-hye. And another

will be taking over the tough financial role. He will be her fifth

Finance Minister in four years. The moves are not likely to result in

any positive changes according to analysts. But the uncertainty of how

much longer she will remain in power is impacting market sentiment. Her

approval ratings have sunk to single digits in the wake of these

allegations. The markets are continuing to retreat, with one of

the worst performances over the past month, falling by another 1.5%. The

currency is down by 1% against the US dollar. Certainly, all the

changes, the scandal, they are impacting the South Korean market

and the government. Sally. Thanks a lot, Rico Hizon. These are the

markets. All our trading lower, losing quite a bit of ground. The

Nikkei is down. The Swiss franc and the yen and gold are getting

stronger. People are getting worried about the outcome of the US

election. We in the US as well. We will talk about that more in a few

minutes. -- we are seeing declines in the US as well.

Politicians and business leaders from both sides of the Irish border