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2015-04-28T17:26:00.004+02:00

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Assange says to stay in embassy until U.S. backs off: CNN

2012-10-26T07:00:00.001+02:00

(Reuters) - China's largely rubber stamp parliament has expelled disgraced former senior politician Bo Xilai, state news agency Xinhua said on Friday, paving the way for formal criminal charges to be laid against him.

The expulsion removes Bo's immunity from prosecution as a member of parliament. Xinhua said the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's parliament, "announced the termination of Bo Xilai's post" as the deputy to the parliament.

The announcement comes a fortnight before the Communist Party holds a key congress, which opens on November 8, that will unveil the country's new central leadership.

Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, and his former police chief, Wang Lijun, have both been jailed over the scandal, which stems from the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood while Bo was Communist Party chief of the southwestern city of Chongqing.

The government last month accused Bo of corruption and of bending the law to hush up the murder.

Before Bo is charged and tried, investigators must first complete an inquiry and indict him, but China's prosecutors and courts come under party control and are unlikely to challenge the accusations.

A lawyer for Bo, who has been employed by the family to represent him, said on Thursday he was unable to say whether the government would allow him to represent Bo when the case comes to trial.

"It's theatre," said Nicholas Bequelin, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, a New York-based advocacy group, who spoke before Bo's expulsion was announced.

"The judiciary grinds into action only when the outcome has been determined. There is no indication we will see a genuine trial because Bo knows too much."

Bo, 63, was widely seen as pursuing a powerful spot in the new leadership before his career unraveled after Wang fled to a U.S. consulate for more than 24 hours in February and alleged that Bo's wife had poisoned Heywood.

DISAPPEARED FROM VIEW

An official account of Wang's trial in September said Wang fled to the U.S. consulate in Chengdu, southwest China, after Bo beat him and stripped him of his police job following Wang's decision to confront Bo with the murder allegations against Gu.

Bo, a former commerce minister, used his post as Communist Party chief of Chongqing in southwest China since 2007 to cast the sprawling, haze-covered municipality into a showcase for his mix of populist policies and bold spending plans that won support from leftists yearning for a charismatic leader.

Wang had spearheaded Bo's controversial campaign against organized crime, a prominent plank in Bo's barely concealed campaign to join the topmost ranks of the Communist Party.

Bo was dismissed from his Chongqing post in March, and suspended from the party's top ranks in April, when his wife Gu was named as an official suspect in the murder in November of Heywood, a long-time friend of the couple who also helped their son Bo Guagua settle into study in Britain.

Bo has disappeared from public view since he was dismissed and has not had a chance to respond publicly to the accusations against him.

The removal of Bo has disrupted the Communist Party's usually secretive and carefully choreographed process of settling on a new central leadership.

Sharply dressed and courting publicity, Bo stood out in a party of stolid conformists, and he promoted Chongqing as a bold egalitarian alternative to China's current pattern of growth.

But Bo's promotion of "red" culture inspired by Mao Zedong's era and his campaign-style crackdown on crime prompted fears that he was rekindling some of the arbitrary lawlessness of the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s -- a criticism that Premier Wen Jiabao spelled out before the public in mid-March.

(Reporting by Sui-Lee Wee, Ben Blanchard and Michael Martina; Editing by Paul Tait)

U.S. knew too little to deploy troops to Benghazi: Pentagon

2012-10-26T06:48:00.001+02:00

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The announcement comes a fortnight before the Communist Party holds a key congress, which opens on November 8, that will unveil the country's new central leadership.

The government last month accused Bo of corruption and of bending the law to hush up the murder.

Before Bo is charged and tried, investigators must first complete an inquiry and indict him, but China's prosecutors and courts come under party control and are unlikely to challenge the accusations.

A lawyer for Bo, who has been employed by the family to represent him, said on Thursday he was unable to say whether the government would allow him to represent Bo when the case comes to trial.

"It's theatre," said Nicholas Bequelin, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, a New York-based advocacy group, who spoke before Bo's expulsion was announced.

"The judiciary grinds into action only when the outcome has been determined. There is no indication we will see a genuine trial because Bo knows too much."

DISAPPEARED FROM VIEW

Wang had spearheaded Bo's controversial campaign against organized crime, a prominent plank in Bo's barely concealed campaign to join the topmost ranks of the Communist Party.

Bo has disappeared from public view since he was dismissed and has not had a chance to respond publicly to the accusations against him.

The removal of Bo has disrupted the Communist Party's usually secretive and carefully choreographed process of settling on a new central leadership.

Sharply dressed and courting publicity, Bo stood out in a party of stolid conformists, and he promoted Chongqing as a bold egalitarian alternative to China's current pattern of growth.

(Reporting by Sui-Lee Wee, Ben Blanchard and Michael Martina; Editing by Paul Tait)

Pussy Riot got what they deserved: Putin

2012-10-26T06:47:00.000+02:00

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(Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin flatly rejected on Thursday Western criticism of the imprisonment of the Pussy Riot punk protest band, saying its three female members deserved their fate because they threatened the moral foundations of Russia.

During a two-hour dinner conversation with a group of foreign Russia experts, Putin spent most of his time carefully explaining how his country was trying to improve the business climate and diversify the economy away from its heavy dependence on oil and gas by promoting high-tech industries.

The Kremlin chief said he had "mixed feelings" about a $55 billion state-sponsored takeover of the country's number three private oil producer TNK-BP last week because it increased state-controlled Rosneft's domination of the energy sector.

But Putin said he acted to help BP and put an end to "fistfights" between the British oil major and its four Soviet-born oligarch partners. "We tried not to get involved, but when BP managers came to me and the government and said we want to cooperate with Rosneft, we could not say no," said Putin. Rosneft is run by a longtime close Putin ally, Igor Sechin, and the deal will give BP a stake of nearly 20 percent.

Putin said he was implementing new laws and reforming the courts to reach a target of moving Russia up from its 112th place in the annual World Bank rankings for ease of doing business - below Pakistan - to a top 20 place by 2018.

PUSSY RIOT

But the president, now in his 13th year running Russia, became animated only when asked about Pussy Riot during the seven-course meal with the Valdai Club of foreign journalists and academics at his Stalin-era residence in a wooded compound outside Moscow.

The Valdai members were kept waiting in a separate room for an hour and a half for the meeting, while Putin met a group of factory workers and teachers from the Volga region to discuss religious cults.

Two young women from Pussy Riot received two-year prison sentences for "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" after performing a crude anti-Putin protest song in Moscow's main cathedral. A third band member was released on a suspended sentence.

At Thursday's dinner Putin raised his voice, looked straight at the questioner and asked why Westerners who criticized Russia for sending two of the young women to labor camps far from Moscow had not come out in support of a jailed American who made an anti-Muslim hate film.

"Do you want to support people with such views? If you do, then why do you not support the guy who is sitting in prison for the film about the Muslims?" the president shot back.

This was an apparent reference to "The Innocence of Muslims", a crude hate video that triggered violent protests across the Islamic world when it was aired on the Internet.

An actress in the film has identified an Egyptian-born Californian, Mark Basseley Youssef, as its author. Youssef is currently detained on suspicion of violating his probation terms for a bank fraud conviction.

"We have red lines beyond which starts the destruction of the moral foundations of our society," Putin went on. "If people cross this line they should be made responsible in line with the law." He described Pussy Riot's protest as "an act of group sex aimed at hurting religious feelings".

CLAMPDOWN ON DISSENT

Putin's comments came amid a wider clampdown on dissent in Russia, which has included arrests of opposition leaders on criminal charges and tighter controls on media.

This has led to fears that the political system, which is highly centralized under the Kremlin, is becoming increasingly ossified and intolerant.

Putin deflected a question about the possible stagnation of the system by saying Russia was re-introducing direct elections for state governors, making it easier for political parties to register and allowing citizens to petition the state Duma (parliament) directly with proposals.

Many of the same faces who worked with Putin when he was deputy mayor of St Petersburg in the early 1990s are still in senior positions in Moscow in the government and in state companies.

But Putin said around two-thirds of the members of the government had been changed when he returned to the Kremlin earlier this year, swapping places with his protégé Dmitry Medvedev, who is now prime minister.

"I prefer to choose qualified, experienced people who have proved they can do well," the president explained. He rejected suggestions that there were any disputes inside the government in the wake of the departure just over a year ago of long-time Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin.

TRADE GOALS

Putin insisted that Russia would continue to give a high priority to growing its trade with its top business partner China, aiming to boost bilateral business to $100 billion a year from current levels of $83.5 billion.

Beijing and Moscow were also keen to do as much trade as possible in their national currencies, he said, noting that the rouble was fully convertible and that it was a "matter of time" until the yuan was, too.

By contrast, he berated the European Union for its "ridiculous" slowness in agreeing a visa-free regime for Russia and attacked Brussels for not taking him up on an offer of cooperation on a new satellite navigation system between the European Galileo system and Russia's GLONASS project./p>

"The EU has a visa-free regime with certain Latin American countries, and I don't think their crime levels are any less than ours," he said. "I don't understand this approach."

Putin also had a ready answer for a questioner who enquired how he would stop an exodus of talented, qualified young people to the West. It was entirely normal, he said, for young people to study and work in other countries where there was more money or a good education on offer.

And what would the president want historians to highlight as the greatest achievement of his third term in the Kremlin?

&"You know, I am never guided by a possible assessment of my work," Putin said, before highlighting how the economy had doubled in size under his stewardship, average incomes had soared, gold reserves were the world's fourth biggest, the birth rate had increased - all what he termed "modest, positive changes ... but not enough".

"We need to create a democratic, effective system of governance so that people feel they are participating," he said. "We need to create an effective economy which is looking forward and to guarantee the country's security. I am sure we are capable of solving all these problems."/p>

(Additional reporting by Gleb Bryanski; Editing by Will Waterman)

In campaign money race, Romney wins October, Obama leads overall

2012-10-26T06:43:00.000+02:00

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(Reuters) - Mitt Romney and his Republican allies raised more than President Barack Obama and the Democrats in the first 17 days of October as both presidential campaign efforts approached the $1 billion mark, with Obama in the lead, disclosures showed on Thursday.

The tight 2012 presidential race has become the costliest in U.S. history thanks to massive spending on advertising and get-out-the-vote efforts by the campaigns and by outside groups that have no fundraising limits.

After several months of lagging Obama in fundraising, Romney, the Republican National Committee and allied state parties overtook their Democratic rivals in October with $111.8 million raised from October 1 to 17, his campaign said, a period that included two of the three televised presidential debates.

Obama's campaign raised $90.5 million for itself and Democratic Party allies during that period, becoming the first in history to raise a total of more than $1 billion for an election effort together with his party.

Romney and the RNC were close behind, taking in a total of $919.4 million throughout the 2012 campaign so far.

Obama's campaign hedged on the $1 billion figure, saying the total was still short of that mark - at about $988 million - based on a tally of the cash raised since April 4, 2011, when Obama's team and the party officially became one campaign.

Reuters totals are based on a more commonly used calculation method that includes campaign funds starting on April 1, 2011, and party efforts dating back to January 1, 2011.

"As the Romney campaign and their super PAC allies continue to outspend us on the air, we're making every effort to expand our donor base heading into the final stretch," said Obama campaign spokesman Adam Fetcher.

Romney's campaign said it had $169 million left in its own and the party's bank accounts at the end of October 17 - a hefty sum for use in the last leg of campaigning before the November 6 election and more than the $123.9 million available to Obama and the Democrats.

"There are less than two weeks left, but we still have much hard work to do to ensure that Mitt Romney and (running mate) Paul Ryan win in November and bring real change to Washington," said Spencer Zwick, Romney's national financial chairman.

With the two men running neck and neck in polls, Thursday's money disclosures are the last glimpse into the campaigns' finances before Election Day.

"In an election this close, they're certainly going to try to put every dollar to use," said Anthony Corrado, campaign finance expert and government professor at Colby College in Maine. "They're building up cash because they want to have as much money as they can for the big final push."

Obama voted early in Chicago on Thursday to encourage other Democrats to do so as both campaigns were in a hectic last-minute dash through the handful of crucial states seen as determining this year's winner.

WAR OF THE AIRWAVES

In a record-breaking spending spree, both campaigns have devoted the bulk of their cash to blanketing the airwaves with advertising.

In the first three weeks of October, the latest tally by the academic Wesleyan Media Project found that Republicans - Romney, his party and outside "Super PAC" groups - spent more than Democrats on ads, but Obama and his allies actually ran more ads.

Only candidates themselves are promised the cheapest rates for ads, meaning parties and outside groups have to pay up. While Romney has held a cash-on-hand advantage over Obama in recent months, it is thanks to strong fundraising by the Republican Party. Obama's campaign on its own has dwarfed Romney's in the money stakes in recent months.

That has afforded special prominence to the deep-pocketed Republican "Super PACs," outside spending groups that can raise unlimited funds and buy ads on Romney's behalf as long as their work is formally uncoordinated with the campaign.

The main pro-Romney Super PAC Restore Our Future on Thursday reported raising $20.1 million in the first 17 days of October.

Of that, $10 million was a new infusion from billionaire Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and wife Miriam, financial disclosures showed on Thursday. Harold Simmons, who is a Dallas banker and another top donor, gave $1 million.

The "super" political action committee had $24.2 million sitting in the bank as of October 17, the filing showed.

The pro-Obama Super PAC Priorities USA Action raised $12.7 million and had $10.1 million left in the bank on October 17.

The group received last-minute help from Silicon Valley start-ups, getting $1 million donations from LinkedIn co-founder Reid Garrett Hoffman, Zynga CEO Mark Pincus and Silicon Valley venture capitalist Vinod Khosla. Prominent billionaire financier George Soros also gave $1 million.

Another strong outside money group on Romney's side is American Crossroads, a Super PAC that is part of the effort spearheaded by veteran Republican operative Karl Rove, a former top aide to George W. Bush.

The group brought in $11.7 million in the first 2-1/2 weeks of October and had $6.4 million in cash on hand at the end.

After months of staying on the campaign sidelines, natural gas advocate and billionaire CEO of BP Capital T. Boone Pickens gave his first $1 million to the group earlier this month.

Other notable October contributions came from top Republican givers and the group's perennial donors Simmons, who gave $4 million, and Texas home builder Bob Perry, who gave $1 million.

(Additional reporting by Patrick Temple-West; Editing by Alistair Bell and Eric Walsh)

Firings Reach Highest Since 2010 as Ford to Dow Face Sales Slump

2012-10-25T07:06:00.001+02:00

Resource : Bloomberg News

Ford Motor Co. (F) and Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) joined a growing number of companies firing thousands of workers as sluggish U.S. growth and Europe’s deepening recession lead to a persisting slump in sales.

North American companies have announced plans to eliminate 62,600 positions at home and abroad since Sept. 1, the biggest two-month drop since the start of 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Firings total 158,100 so far this year, more than the 129,000 job cuts in the same period in 2011.

Ford is closing its first European car-assembly factories in 10 years, adding to more than 5,500 cuts announced by Dow Chemical, DuPont Co. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) in the past week. The reductions coincide with a majority of U.S. companies missing analysts’ third-quarter revenue estimates and a focus on jobs in the final weeks of the U.S. presidential campaign.

“Companies are saying, ‘Let’s not build up inventories, let’s be lean and mean until we know until we have a better idea of what 2013 is going to look like,’” said Janna Sampson, who helps manage more than $3 billion for Oakbrook Investments in Lisle, Illinois. “There is a fear now as companies see that the economic recovery is not picking up.”

So far, out of 204 S&P 500 companies that have released third-quarter earnings, 120 have reported sales that trailed analysts’ estimates, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

More Cuts

Those results, similar to the S&P 500’s second-quarter performance, signal employers may increase firings over the next two quarters, according to John Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., a human resources consulting firm based in Chicago.

Sales misses are “a sure prescription for layoffs starting to heat up as companies take immediate action to show their shareholders how responsive they are,” Challenger said yesterday by telephone.

The U.S. unemployment rate fell below 8 percent in September for the first time since January 2009, and a surge in firings may counteract job gains elsewhere in the economy.

The technology hardware and equipment industry has announced the most job reductions among North American companies this year with 41,200, led by Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ)’s announcement in September that it plans 29,000 cuts, more than it originally disclosed. Banks are next with plans to eliminate more than 19,000 positions, according to Bloomberg data.

AMD, the second-largest maker of processors for personal computers, said last week it will cut 15 percent of its staff, or about 1,665 jobs, after forecasting fourth-quarter sales that fell short of analysts’ estimates.

‘Necessary Steps’

Restructuring measures designed to trim annual costs by about $190 million are “difficult but necessary steps to ensure our plan has the right scale and scope to address the market and competitive challenges we now face,” Rory Read, chief executive officer of the Sunnyvale, California-based company, said on an Oct. 18 conference call.

The closing of about 20 plants in the U.S. and abroad will eliminate about 2,400 jobs, Midland, Michigan-based Dow Chemical said this week. DuPont, based in Wilmington, Delaware, plans to trim 1,500 jobs after third-quarter profit trailed analysts’ estimates and it reduced its full-year forecast.

Earlier this month, Cummins Inc. (CMI), a Columbus, Indiana-based engine maker, said it expects to erase as many as 1,500 jobs by the end of 2012 and lowered its forecasts for sales and profit.

“A lot of companies have been positioned for continued growth and we’re seeing some stagnation or a modest decline,” Andy Kaplowitz, a New York-based industrial analyst for Barclays Plc, said in a telephone interview on Oct. 24.

Ford Factories

U.S. companies are also restructuring European operations to stem the slowdown. Kimberly-Clark Corp. (KMB) said this week it plans to cut manufacturing and administrative operations as it exits the diaper business in western and central Europe, except for Italy, to concentrate on faster-growing regions. The Dallas- based company didn’t say how many workers may lose their jobs.

Ford, the second-largest U.S. automaker, is closing a factory in Genk, Belgium, by the end of 2014. A second plant in Southampton, England, will shut as early as next year, said two people familiar with the situation, asking not to be identified revealing internal plans. In contrast, the Dearborn, Michigan- based automaker has added more than 6,500 hourly jobs in the U.S. this year through early September, Todd Nissen, a spokesman, said in an e-mail.

European Recession

Companies based in western Europe have also accelerated large-scale job reductions this year as the recession in the European Union worsens. Services and manufacturing shrank more than economists forecast in October and business confidence in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, dropped to the lowest in more than 2 1/2 years.

“We’re seeing uncertainty about whether Europe will make it or not,” Diane Swonk, chief economist for Mesirow Financial Holdings Inc. in Chicago, said in an interview.

Among western European companies, there have been 47 job- cut announcements so far this year involving at least 1,000 workers, compared with 32 in the same period of 2011, according to the data compiled by Bloomberg. The peak month was July, with 39,800 firings. That brings the year-to-date total for the region’s companies to 165,700, up from 162,420 in the same period a year earlier, the data show.

Alcatel-Lucent SA (ALU), the Paris-based phone-equipment maker whose stock is trading near a 23-year low, said last week it plans to trim 5,500 positions worldwide, including about 1,400 in France. The reductions will primarily affect sales, marketing and administrative employees, said Simon Poulter, a spokesman.

Philips, Siemens

Lighting company Royal Philips Electronics NV, based in Amsterdam, is eliminating 2,200 additional jobs to wring out an extra 300 million euros ($389 million) as economic conditions deteriorate. Munich-based Siemens AG (SIE), the maker of high-speed trains, turbines and medical gear, has identified about 8,000 potential cuts globally, and the number that may reach 10,000 by year-end, a person familiar with the plan said this month.

Back in the U.S., companies are hesitant to expand until they know the result of the presidential election and how lawmakers will handle the so-called fiscal cliff, or the $607 billion in tax increases and spending cuts set to take effect in January if Congress doesn’t intervene. Inaction probably would cause a recession in the first half of 2013, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

The world’s largest economy probably grew at a 1.8 percent annual rate in the third quarter after expanding at a 1.3 percent pace in the previous three months, according to the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg before an Oct. 26 Commerce Department report. It would be the first back- to-back readings lower than 2 percent since the U.S. was emerging from the recession in 2009.

“We are operating in a world where demand is still very weak,” Jeff Fettig, CEO of Benton Harbor, Michigan-based Whirlpool Corp. (WHR), said in an Oct. 23 interview. The world’s largest appliance maker boosted its 2012 adjusted earnings forecast this week, helped by the elimination of 5,000 jobs in the past year.

Canadian Dollar Fall as Carney Says Increase Less Likely

2012-10-25T07:04:00.001+02:00

Resource : Bloomberg News

The Canadian dollar fell against most of its major peers after Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney said the need for higher interest rates has become “less imminent,” a day after strengthening the case for tightening monetary policy.

The loonie, as the currency is known for the aquatic bird on the C$1 coin, had gained earlier after the Bank of Canada’s quarterly monetary policy report repeated the central bank’s forecast for a gradual reduction of stimulus to prevent rising household debt from threatening the economy. Carney spoke to reporters in Ottawa after the report was released.

“Carney’s statements that a rate increase is ’less imminent’ pushed dollar Canada into unwinding,” Jack Spitz, managing director of foreign exchange at National Bank of Canada (NA) in Toronto, said in a phone interview. “We’re back and forth now trying to discount when the next rate hike is going to be.”

Canada’s currency fell 0.1 percent to 99.36 cents per U.S. dollar at 5 p.m. in Toronto. One Canadian dollar buys $1.0064. The loonie gained as much as 0.3 percent following the release of the Bank of Canada report.

Speaking to reporters in Ottawa, Carney said that over time, interest rates are more likely to go up than not. He didn’t elaborate on the timing of any moves. /p>

The currency climbed from a more than two-month low yesterday against the greenback after Carney kept the bank’s benchmark rate at 1 percent and said that withdrawal of stimulus may become appropriate.

Household Risk

TThe central bank highlighted record household debt that may trigger a sudden drop in consumer spending in the world’s 11th largest economy in the policy report today.

The risk is “two-sided” because the household debt burden is already forecast to grow to new records before stabilizing by the end of 2014, and a new surge of housing investment could boost it further, the Ottawa-based Bank of Canada said today.

Government bonds were little changed with the Canadian 10- year benchmark yield falling less than one basis point to 1.85 percent. The bond ended the trading session at C$107.89. Two- year bonds advanced, with the yield on the 1 percent note falling two basis points to 1.12 percent.

A so-called doji candle formation on the daily chart yesterday implied a high level of indecision in the market and a loss of the strong upward direction that was in place, Shaun Osborne, chief currency strategist at Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD), said in a note to clients.

“It is notable that this has happened around key retracement resistance and just ahead of the 200-day moving average,” he said. /p>

The loonie strengthened beyond its 50- and 200-day moving averages today.

The loonie has gained 1 percent this year against nine developed-nation currencies tracked by Bloomberg Correlation- Weighted Indexes. The greenback has dropped 2 percent, one of the top three decliners along with the yen and euro.

India Rate-Cut Odds Climb as Policy Revamp Aids Rupee: Economy

2012-10-25T06:58:00.000+02:00

Resource : Bloomberg News

India’s central bank will consider reducing interest rates for the first time since April after government efforts to pare the budget deficit stemmed a slide in the rupee, boosting scope to stimulate the economy.

Governor Duvvuri Subbarao will cut the repurchase rate to 7.75 percent from 8 percent, 10 of 26 analysts said in a Bloomberg News survey ahead of an Oct. 30 decision. Two predicted a reduction to 7.5 percent and the rest no change. A majority of respondents in another poll forecast Subbarao will lower banks’ reserve ratios to spur lending.

Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said Oct. 12 that India needs cheaper credit, following a revamp of economic policy that included fuel-subsidy curbs and helped make the rupee one of Asia’s best-performing currencies in the past three months. While Subbarao has signaled that a narrower budget gap may provide more room to join nations from Brazil to Thailand in extending rate cuts, he also faces inflation of almost 8 percent.

“There is blatant pressure from the government to ease and it’ll be hard for the central bank to ignore it,” said Rajeev Malik, a Singapore-based senior economist at CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets. “Our case for cutting rates rests on the RBI making a reciprocal gesture to the government following its initiatives in the last one month. But more needs to be done on the fiscal deficit.”

The Reserve Bank of India unexpectedly reduced the amount of deposits lenders must set aside as reserves last month to boost growth, even as it kept interest rates unchanged as expected by the majority of economists in a Bloomberg survey.

Rupee Appreciation

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s administration unveiled an increase in diesel prices on Sept. 13 and limited the supply of subsidized cooking gas to cap a budget shortfall that has raised the odds of a credit-rating downgrade to junk status.

The next day, it opened industries such as retail to more foreign investment, snapping months of gridlock over how to bolster a struggling economy.

The rupee has risen 3.1 percent versus the dollar since Sept. 13, when the first elements of the overhaul were announced, paring its one-year fall to 6.9 percent. It is up 3 percent in the past three months, the biggest gainer after the Korean won and Malaysian ringgit among 18 Asia-Pacific currencies. The BSE India Sensitive Index of stocks has climbed more than 9 percent in the same period, outperforming the MSCI Asia-Pacific Index.

Stocks Gain

Asian stocks advanced today for the first time in five days after the Federal Reserve said yesterday it will maintain stimulus, while a report showed sales of new U.S. homes rose at the fastest pace in two years. New Zealand’s new central bank chief kept the official cash rate at 2.5 percent as a stronger housing market offset a fragile global economy, boosting the currency as traders pared bets on interest-rate cuts.

The Philippine central bank may cut its benchmark rate for a fourth time this year to protect growth as the peso’s gains threaten exports, with 14 of 21 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News expecting a quarter-point reduction to 3.5 percent. Singapore and Thailand will release production data, and Hong Kong’s trade report is due today.

Sweden will probably hold its key rate at 1.25 percent, a Bloomberg survey showed. The U.K. economy probably rebounded in the third quarter after one-time disruptions, economists said ahead of a report. Gross domestic product rose 0.6 percent from the previous three months, when an extra public holiday led to a 0.4 percent drop, according to the median in a Bloomberg survey. U.S. durable goods orders probably rose in September and initial jobless claims may have eased to 370,000 in the week ended Oct. 20 from 388,000 the previous week, a survey showed.

Fastest Inflation

Further rupee appreciation will help to damp India’s inflation, Chidambaram said earlier this month, adding that “if the fiscal policy steps that we are taking encourage the central bank to take monetary policy action which will result in lower interest rates, I think that will be good.”

Inflation quickened to 7.81 percent in September, the fastest in the BRIC group of major emerging nations that also includes Brazil, Russia and China. Food and fuel costs and costlier imports have kept the pace of price gains above the central bank’s comfort level of about 5 percent.

Asia’s No. 3 economy has the widest BRIC budget deficit at 5.8 percent of gross domestic product in the year ended March. Standard & Poor’s predicts the imbalance may widen to about 6 percent in the current fiscal year, compared with the government’s goal of 5.1 percent.

The country’s trade shortfall widened to $18.1 billion in September, the biggest in more than a year, as faltering global growth contributed to a drop in exports.

India’s economy expanded 5.5 percent in the three months through June from a year earlier, holding near the three-year low of 5.3 percent in the previous quarter.

World Outlier

Subbarao has said the combination of elevated inflation and weaker economic expansion makes India “somewhat of an outlier in the world.” The Reserve Bank has refrained from adding to a 50 basis-point repurchase-rate cut in April.

Price pressures may prompt the monetary authority to leave the policy rate unchanged and instead cut the cash reserve ratio for the fourth time this year, according to Madan Sabnavis, chief economist at Credit Analysis & Research Ltd. in Mumbai.

Fifteen of 26 economists in Bloomberg’s survey said the Reserve Bank will lower the ratio to 4.25 percent from 4.5 percent. Two predict 4 percent and the rest expect no change.

Monetary policy will be guided partly by the outlook for the fiscal gap, Subbarao said Oct. 4, adding “the effort will be to rein in inflation but support growth to the extent possible.”

India would join countries including Brazil, Thailand, South Korea and Australia in cutting borrowing costs this month if it lowers the repurchase rate.

“The RBI will ease policy on Oct. 30 as a pat on the back for the government’s recent reforms,” said Robert Prior- Wandesforde, an economist at Credit Suisse Group AG in Singapore.

23-Oct-2012 - Free Forex Signal

2012-10-23T08:31:00.002+02:00

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Yen Weakens Past 80 Per Dollar on Bets BOJ to Ease More

2012-10-23T07:40:00.000+02:00

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The yen weakened past 80 against the dollar for the first time in three months as signs the world’s third-largest economy is closer to contraction fanned speculation that the Bank of Japan (8301) will add further stimulus.

The greenback maintained an eight-day gain versus the yen, the longest winning streak in seven years, after yields on U.S. two-year notes rose to the most since June versus their Japanese peers, attracting money to dollar-based assets. The Australian dollar held onto three days of losses before data forecast to show inflation held near the slowest in 13 years, providing scope for the Reserve Bank to cut borrowing costs.

Japanese yen banknotes of various denominations are arranged for a photograph in Soka City, Japan. Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg

Japanese lawmakers are “applying pressure to the BOJ to further loosen monetary policy,” said Derek Mumford, a Sydney- based director at Rochford Capital, a currency risk-management company. “It can only result in more monetization of debt which will weaken the yen. A widening of U.S.-Japan yield gaps won’t help the yen.”

The yen touched 80.01 per dollar, the weakest since July 6, before trading at 79.90 as of 6:02 a.m. in London from 79.94 at yesterday’s close. The Japanese currency recovered 0.1 percent to 104.31 per euro from 104.41, after reaching 104.59, the least since May 4. The euro was little changed at $1.3057 after adding 0.3 percent yesterday.

Japan’s Economy Minister Seiji Maehara, who has been calling for more action from the central bank, said today he may attend the BOJ’s next meeting on Oct. 30 if his schedule permits. Maehara was present at the previous gathering ended Oct. 5, the first minister to do so for more than nine years.

Inflation Data

The BOJ will next week announce its policy decision and issue revised economic projections for the 2012 and 2013 fiscal years and its first set of forecasts for 2014.

BBefore the meeting, a government report on Oct. 26 will probably show that so-called core consumer prices in Japan declined in September for a fifth-straight month, according the economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. That compares with the central bank’s goal for inflation of 1 percent.

“The yen has been sold since last week amid expectations the BOJ will ease policy,” said Noriaki Murao, New York-based managing director of the marketing group at the Bank of Tokyo- Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd., a unit of Japan’s biggest financial group by market value. “It would make sense for the BOJ to take action if they revise down their inflation outlook.” /p>

Export Slump

DData yesterday showed Japanese exports slid 10.3 percent in September, the most since May 2011 in the aftermath of a record earthquake. Banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley and Citigroup Inc. expect the country’s economy to contract in the third and fourth quarters of this year, according to Bloomberg News polls.

The yen has weakened 1.2 percent in the past week, the biggest decline among the 10 developed-nation currencies tracked by Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Indexes. The euro and dollar both rose 0.2 percent. /p>

TTreasury two-year notes yielded 20 basis points more than Japanese two-year government debt yesterday, the most since June 27, making the U.S. securities more attractive. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.

The yen halted losses today as a technical indicator suggested recent losses were excessive. The 14-day relative- strength index for the greenback versus the Japanese currency was at 70.9, above the 70 level some traders see as a signal that a reversal is imminent. A similar gauge for the euro against the yen was at 68.7. /p>

Extend Facility

JJapan may extend its dollar-loan program beyond March 31 to help companies buy overseas assets and stem the yen’s rise, Vice-Finance Minister Tsutomu Okubo, a former managing director of Morgan Stanley, said in an interview yesterday in Tokyo.

The 10-trillion yen ($125 billion) program, which was introduced in August 2011 and was extended this year, provides dollars from Japan’s foreign-exchange reserves, the world’s largest after China’s, to companies and commercial banks.

In Australia, the so-called trimmed mean gauge of core consumer prices probably rose 2.2 percent in the three months ended Sept. 30 from a year earlier, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg before the statistics bureau publishes its inflation report tomorrow. That compares with a 2 percent increase in the previous quarter, the slowest pace since June 1999. The Reserve Bank of Australia targets average annual inflation of 2 percent to 3 percent.

Near Certainty

Interest-rate swaps data compiled by Bloomberg show traders are almost certain that policy makers will cut the overnight cash rate target by 25 basis points to 3 percent at their next meeting on Nov. 6.

Australia’s currency fetched $1.0322 from $1.0320, after falling 0.6 percent over the previous three days. /p>

DDemand for the euro was limited before a report today that may show an index of European consumer confidence remained at a more-than three-year low.

The European Commission in Brussels will probably say today its initial estimate for sentiment was minus 25.9 in October, according to the median estimate of economists in a Bloomberg News survey. That would match September’s reading that was the lowest since May 2009. /p>

““With all the troubles in Europe, it seems to be hard to buy the euro,” said Rochford’s Mumford. “The euro is defying gravity. The promise from the European Central Bank to support sovereign debt has had effect, and has been buying some time. The overall picture is getting worse.”

US Dollar Classic Technical Report 10.22.2012

2012-10-23T07:26:00.001+02:00

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US DOLLAR INDEX: Prices rose to test resistance at the top of a falling channel defining the down trend since June (9917) after putting in a bullish Piercing Line candlestick pattern above support at 9835, the 23.6% Fibonacci expansion. A daily close above this barrier may prove to mark a significant bullish trend reversal, opening the door for a challenge of initial resistance at 9977. Alternatively, a drop below support exposes the 38.2% retracement at 9765.

Hollywood Reacts to Final Debate: Obama's Horses & Bayonets vs. Romney's Very Strong America

2012-10-23T07:16:00.000+02:00

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Barack Obama and Mitt Romney threw down the gauntlet one last time tonight—and the Twitterverse was ready.

The politically inclined corner of Hollywood was again hanging on every word of the candidates' third and final debate before the Nov. 6 election, this one devoted to foreign policy and how the sitting president and his challenger plan to lead the United States forward./p>

HHere's what the celebs had to say in 140 characters (or much, much more):

Big moments from the third presidential debate

Michelle Obama: Barack's steady leadership has made us stronger and safer than we were four years ago. That was clear tonight. –mo#ProudOfObama

Bill Maher: OK, one last try: We have fewer Andrews Sisters and Ritz Brothers than we did in 1944. So glad we're done with THAT!...Plus: I've seen wider ideological differences between Jehovah's Witnesses...And: First debate, all agreed, Obama lost; second one, i say he won, but Romney not trounced. But this one? Only bubbledwellers can say Mitt won.

Alec Baldwin: Point goes to Mitt that China is a currency manipulator...And: O is cool, collected, Presidential. Mitt is throwing everything at the screen except the Pumpkin Papers.

Sarah Silverman: Leaders aren't leaders because they really really wanna be the leader you poor limited man/p>

Ellen DeGeneres Honored With Mark Twain Prize for American Humor

2012-10-23T07:14:00.001+02:00

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In case you didn't know, Ellen DeGeneres is funny, but she wasn't the one making people laugh tonight at John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Instead, the talk-show host's friends and colleagues—including Jane Lynch, John Krasinski, Jason Mraz and Kristen Chenoweth—gathered to honor the funnywoman for becoming the 15th recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

Emma Watson talks to Ellen about dating

"I'm flattered. It's fantastic. Of course I think, 'What took so long?'" she joked on the red carpet, according to USA Today. "You don't do it for awards, you do it to make people happy."

"I am very, very proud of Ellen. She's not only the funniest person I know, but she's such a good person," Ellen's wife, Portia de Rossi said.

Previous receipients of the Mark Twain Prize include Bill Cosby, Lorne Michaels, Will Ferrell and Tina Fey.

Piers Morgan Accused of Hacking Again

2012-10-23T07:10:00.000+02:00

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Piers Morgan has denied ordering any illegal hacking when he was editor of London's Daily Mirror tabloid—but now the paper is being sued by some who claim otherwise.

Sven-G?ran Eriksson, former coach of the English national football team; retired football player Garry Flitcroft; actress Shobna Gulati; and Abbie Gibson, who used to work as a nanny for David Beckham's family, have filed suit against Trinity Mirror, claiming that reporters from the company's papers hacked their voice-mail accounts.

"There might not be a documentary smoking gun, but we will show there is a smoking bullet, the consequence of the actions," an attorney for the group, Mark Lewis (who also represented plaintiffs who sued News of the World parent News International over hacking), told Britain's Sky News.

What did Rupert Murdoch just apologize to Hugh Grant for?

The lawsuit, filed with London's High Court, alleges that the hacking took place while Morgan was editor, between 1995 and 2004.

Trinity Mirror, which puts out the Daily Mirror, the Sunday Mirror and People magazine (not to be confused with the U.S. weekly), has previously denied engaging in the sort of behavior that tripped up the now-defunct News of the World after more than a century in business.

Testifying at a government inquiry into hacking last year, Morgan denied every ordering staffers to illegally acquire information.

Heather Mills slames Piers Morgan's phone-hacking denial

"It doesn't necessarily follow that listening to someone else talking to someone else is unethical," he replied when grilled over how he obtained recordings of Paul McCartney's ex-wife, Heather Mills.

In May, meanwhile, BBC presenter Jeremy Paxman told a media ethics panel that Morgan taught him how to hack a mobile's voice-mail account a decade ago—and Paxman told a story that involved Morgan teasing another TV personality about a conversation she had with Sven-G?ran Eriksson.

"I don't know if he was making this up, making up the conversation," Paxman told the panel. "But it was clearly something he was familiar with and I wasn't. I didn't know that this went on."

Fashion Debate Continues

2012-10-23T06:51:00.001+02:00

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Yep, there was another Presidential Debate tonight, which meant another opportunity for Michelle Obama and Ann Romney to show off their spectacular wardrobes.

So far, this duo seem to be neck-and-neck (and very similar in taste) when it comes to the fashion world, so what did they choose to strut tonight?

Both Obama and Romney love pink, that's for sure!

Romney got a little more risky than usual with her Oscar de la Renta outfit, which included a dark teal, pinstriped top with floral print bottoms and a chunky statement necklace, while Obama donned a gray, short-sleeved Thome Brown dress with black lace overlay that was fitted at the waist and topped with a bow.

They definitely didn't coordinate as well as they did during the last debate (which was probably their motive), but both chose to ditch the bright pink and go with darker hues.

Did you like what Obama and Romney were wearing tonight? Weigh in on the comments below!

Jessica Biel Shows Off Wedding Ring in Italy

2012-10-23T06:47:00.000+02:00

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Sure, Jessica Biel and Justin Timberlake's actual wedding might have been "magical" and "a fantasy," but the ring's not half bad, either.

The newlywed actress stepped out without her hubby in Fasano, Italy, over the weekend, emerging for the first time since becoming Mrs. Timberlake and showing off, for the first time, her wedding ring.

See what Justin and Jessica had to say about their star-studded nuptials/strong>

Of course, it may be slightly hard to see, falling as it does in the shadow of that gigantic boulder of a diamond engagement ring, but if you look close enough, it's there. (Justin, meanwhile, proudly showed off his simple gold wedding band while out in town Saturday.)

Dressing casually after her vow swap (but still in wedding white!), the 30-year-old was spotted walking along the grounds of the Borgo Egnazia Resort, where she tied the knot with Justin on Friday. She was accompanied by several members of her wedding party.

Later in the day, Jess and Justin were spotted at the airport in their first sighting together as husband and wife. Looks like the honeymoon's just getting started.

Amy Winehouse - You Know I'm No Good

2012-10-23T06:14:00.001+02:00

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Facebook Parenting

2012-10-23T06:12:00.002+02:00

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Annoying Orange

2012-10-23T06:11:00.000+02:00

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Talking Twin Babies

2012-10-23T06:10:00.000+02:00

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Justin Bieber - Beauty And A Beat ft. Nicki Minaj

2012-10-23T06:08:00.002+02:00

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Big Sean - Dance Remix ft. Nicki Minaj

2012-10-23T06:07:00.000+02:00

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Final presidential debate is set to be World War 3 between President Obama, Mitt Romney

2012-10-22T15:48:00.001+02:00

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US President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney have battled over national security, in the third and final presidential debate.

The rivals tangled over the Arab Spring, Iran, China's rise and more in a feisty 90-minute head-to-head.

Mr Obama said his challenger was "all over the map" on foreign policy, while Mr Romney said the president had failed to uphold American global leadership.

The two candidates are running neck and neck with two weeks until the election.

Mr Romney highlighted civilian deaths in Syria, the Muslim Brotherhood taking power in Egypt, the rise of al-Qaeda affiliates in North Africa, Iran's nuclear programme, and last month's Libya US consulate attack as examples of the "tumult" that the Obama administration had allowed to overtake the region.

"I congratulate him on taking out Osama bin Laden and taking on the leadership of al-Qaeda," the former Massachusetts governor said.

"But we can't kill our way out of this... We must have a comprehensive strategy."

Loona Vamos a la playa Clip Officiel

2012-10-18T23:50:00.000+02:00

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