Led by the Bank of Japan

by lynk2510 May 10th 2011, 10:55 am

There was a rare outbreak of disharmony in RUSSIA'S ruling tandem. Vladimir Putin, the prime minister, compared the UN Security Council resolution authorising military action against Libya to a "medieval crusade". Dmitry Medvedev, the president, said Mr Putin's language was "unacceptable" and risked stoking a "clash of civilisations". Mr Putin downplayed the split.

FRANCE'S far-right National Front did well in the first round of local elections, reaching the second round in a fifth of the total districts and almost displacing President Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP party, which came second by share of the vote. The Socialists came first, with a quarter of the votes.

CANADA'S three opposition parties said they would bring down the Conservative minority government at the first opportunity and force an election, either by rejecting its budget or through a no-confidence vote. Polls suggest the composition of Parliament after an election would be unlikely to change much.

HAITI held a run-off in its presidential election. The vote went well by comparison with the chaotic first round. Both candidates, Michel Martelly and Mirlande Manigat, said they were ahead in the count.

Barack Obama made his first trip to South America, visiting BRAZIL and CHILE as well as EL SALVADOR. He advocated more trade between the region and the United States, and promised new money to fight drug- trafficking.

Google claimed that China was again interfering with its service in the country. This time the problem centres on GMAIL, with numerous frustrations reported by users. China has stepped up its censorship of the internet in recent weeks, after the uprisings in the Middle East and an anonymous campaign calling for a Chinese "jasmine revolution".

GOOGLE'S plan to put millions more books online was dealt a blow when a federal judge threw out a 2008 agreement on copyright reached with the associations that represent authors and publishers. The judge ruled that the settlement circumvented copyright law and would "further entrench" Google's dominance in internet searches. He suggested that the parties should revise their deal.

AMAZON opened an online store selling apps for Google's Android smartphone operating system. However, Apple claims that Amazon's "Appstore" infringes its own trademark "App Store", and has filed a lawsuit.

Led by the Bank of Japan, the central banks of the G7 countries undertook their first co-ordinated intervention in currency markets for more than a decade to stabilise a soaring YEN. The yen had reached a record high against the dollar amid speculation that Japanese companies would tap their huge foreign assets to help pay for reconstruction and insurance costs after the recent earthquake and tsunami.

Vietnam seeks to cure growth 'addiction'

AFP 23 March 2011

Vietnam is looking to balance its long-standing "addiction" to growth with measures to stabilise the troubled economy, but its success depends on restoring public confidence, analysts say. The moves follow months of concern from investors and economists over the Southeast Asian nation's rising inflation, struggling currency and other economic woes that accompanied the high growth rate. Strong action began only in February when the State Bank of Vietnam announced the country's largest currency devaluation in years, a 9.3 percent adjustment whose scale surprised experts. The government then proclaimed fighting inflation to be its number one priority, raising key interest rates and setting a series of targets to help stabilise the economy.
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