FOREX-Yen dollar hold onto gains on pour out from risk

Wed Feb 24, 2010 1:09am EST Related News Yen and U.S. dollar firm on rush from riskTue, Feb 23 2010FOREX-Dollar falls vs yen as consumer confidence dropsTue, Feb 23 2010FOREX-Weak U.S. consumer confidence sends dollar down vs yenTue, Feb 23 2010FOREX-Dollar adds to losses vs yen on U.S. consumer dataTue, Feb 23 2010FOREX-Dollar slips on risk demand, Aussie climbsTue, Feb 23 2010

* Yen retains gains as risky trades unwound

Currencies

* Bernanke"s testimony in focus after discount rate rise

By Rika Otsuka

TOKYO, Feb 24 (Reuters) - The yen retained hefty gains onWednesday, aided by safe-haven inflows after a slide in U.S.consumer confidence to a 10-month low stoked doubts about thepace of a global economic recovery.

The data pushed stocks and commodities .CRB lower, keepinghigher-yielding currencies such as the Australian AUD=D4 andNew Zealand dollars NZD=D4 under pressure. The rush to safetybenefitted U.S. Treasuries, with 10-year yields down a steep 10basis points the previous day.

"Risk aversion moves are providing support for the yen andthe dollar," said Tsutomu Soma, senior manager of the foreignsecurities department at Okasan Securities.

"There are few options but Treasuries for investors to buy asdata has shown the U.S. economy is not as strong as previouslythought," he said.

The fall in U.S. yields kept the dollar subdued against theyen JPY=, at 90.20 yen, having shed nearly 1 percent onTuesday. The yen gains when risk aversion rises as investorsunwind trades financed with the low-yielding Japanese currency.

But the dollar held onto sizable gains against other majorcurrencies with the dollar index .DXY =USD at 80.75, not farfrom its eight-month peak of 81.34 hit last week.

The euro EUR= pared some losses made the previous day butremained under pressure after the German Ifo index of businesssentiment dipped unexpectedly, while French household spendingand Italian consumer confidence turned lower. [ID:nLDE61M0LN][ID:nBAT005149]

It was further hurt by a downgrade of Greece"s four largestbanks by Fitch, bringing back the country"s woes back to theforefront. [ID:nLDE61M27R]

The euro edged up 0.3 percent to $1.3543, having lost nearly0.7 percent on Tuesday.

Traders said there could be a test of support around $1.3480,which is a 61.8 percent retracement of its move up from $1.2457to $1.5145 last year on Fibonacci charts.

The euro inched up 0.3 percent to 122.18 yen EURJPY=R,lifted by speculation that hefty buying linked to launches of newJapanese mutual funds would boost higher-yielding currencies andassets in emerging countries. Still the gains were not enough tomake up for its 1.7 percent dive against the yen on Tuesday.

"With the action taking on a more impulsive bias and thedaily patterns forming bullish reversals, the short term riskspoint to additional U.S. dollar strength," JPMorgan said in adaily note.

"We continue to see risk for the European currencies toextend their recent trends while holding current short positionsin euro and the pound."

Sterling GBP=D4 was up 0.2 percent at $1.5458, having lostover 0.4 percent on Tuesday after Bank of England policy makerssaid further asset purchases under its quantitative easingprogramme were possible.

The focus now shifts to Federal Reserve Chairman BenBernanke, who testifies before Congress on Wednesday andThursday. Traders say demand for beaten down risk assets andcurrencies could recover if Bernanke is upbeat about growth.

Investors will also be looking for any comments on the Fed"sdecision late last week to raise its discount rate -- the ratecharged to banks for emergency loans.

"Bernanke is likely to reaffirm the Fed will carry out itsexit strategy in a straightforward manner," said MasafumiYamamoto, chief FX strategist Japan for Barclays Capital, addingthat steps in this direction would lead to tightening liquidityfor the dollar and be dollar supportive.

St. Louis Fed President James Bullard on Tuesday said that,if the economy performs as expected, rates were probably on holdinto 2011 and that moves to take back some quantitative easingwere the natural path. [ID:nNAT007288]

The market showed muted reaction to the comments from Bullardas investors awaited Bernanke"s testimony, traders said. (Additional reporting by Anirban Nag in Sydney; Editing by ChrisGallagher)

Currencies

Portsmouths destiny looks grave as Premier League endorse they wouldnt concede sales outward of the send window

The Premier League have rejected Portsmouth"s appeal to sell players outside ofthe usual transfer windows, a decision that could spell the end of the club.

Pompey, who are reportedly 60million in debt and facing a winding-up petition from HM Revenue and Customs in the High Court early next month, had sought permission to deal in a bid to stay afloat financially.

However, the Premier League have this morning confirmed they will not give the go-ahead to such a move.

In the mire: Portsmouth manager Avram Grant

A Premier League statement read: "The Premier League board can confirm they have been actively considering a request from Portsmouth to transfer players outside of the Transfer Window.

"We are grateful for positive assistance from FIFA and the FA but, having given the matter further consideration and taking into account all factors, the Premier League board have decided that this would not be an appropriate course of action at this time."

The likes of Algerian left-back Nadir Belhadj and promising centre-half Marc Wilson had been linked with moves away to balance the club"s books.

Manager Avram Grant did not like the thought of his already threadbare squad being further depleted, but accepted it is a financial fact of life for Pompey, who take on Stoke in the Barclays Premier League this evening.

He said: "I don"t even want to talk about this because I came to this club to do something. But every week, or every day sometimes, there is a new thing and I don"t know whether these things are sad or funny sometimes.

"We got a good result against Southampton and I thought nothing could happen now because there is no transfer window. You cannot say there is no creativity at this club."

More...Pompey transfer request rejected by Premier League before reaching FIFAGold: West Ham want debt-ridden Pompey relegated on the pitch not offBoateng desperate to quit Portsmouth after blasting "amateurish" medical carePORTSMOUTH FC NEWS FROM ACROSS THE WEB

Tory wheeling and traffic let Ashcroft mangle non-dom agreement writings reveal

Dominic Kennedy, Roland Watson and Sam Coates & , : {}

Lord Ashcroft unsuccessful to finish a taxation form on that his nobility depended, it emerged yesterday, as the billionaires non-dom standing in jeopardy uninformed difficulty for the Conservatives.

Whitehall writings suggested how William Hagues Chief Whip waged a four-month debate to capacitate the counterpart to equivocate millions of pounds in UK tax. The negotiations with a comparison polite menial authorised the emissary Tory authority and donor to mangle his executive guarantee to authorities to take up permanent chateau in the UK.

The sum emerged as the recover of the formerly trusted writings offering the initial full design of the Ashcroft affair. It emerged that:

• a key direct of the Political Honours Scrutiny Committee, that laid down despotic conditions for his peerage, was that Lord Ashcroft was domiciled in Britain definition that he paid taxation on his abroad income to the Treasury;

Related LinksAshcroft debate a vote-loserThe tract thickens in the Ashcroft swamp QA: Lord Ashcroft taxation row

• the cabinet postulated his nobility in the transparent idea that he would pointer a consequential Inland Revenue form, IR DOM1 (Domicile);

• Sir Hayden Phillips, the polite menial who was the match for James Arbuthnot, the Tory Chief Whip, and the inspection committee, certified that he competence have authorised a disagreement to movement over the last agreement.

Baroness Dean of Thornton-leFylde, a part of of the inspection committee, that vets new peers, told the Public Administration Select Committee that she was repelled when she listened this month that Lord Ashcroft was a non-dom. Former aides to Tony Blair indicated that Downing Street believed at the time that the bargain endangered Lord Ashcroft profitable full tax.The revelations left a array of ungainly questions for the Tories, who insisted that Lord Ashcroft had met the conditions of the bargain as they eventually emerged. It authorised him to explain that he was a long-term proprietor rather than a permanent one a eminence with outrageous taxation implications.

Mr Hague insisted that he knew zero of the sum negotiated by his Chief Whip on interest of his treasurer and arch donor even though Mr Arbuthnot wrote in a minute in Jul 2000 that Mr Hague was confident that the bargain met Lord Ashcrofts undertakings.

The former Tory leader, violation his overpower in the non-dom row, pronounced that he had been wrong to state in a minute to Mr Blair in 1999 that creation his crony a counterpart would good the Treasury to the balance of tens of millions a year in tax. One Blair help said: What on earth was that minute about if it wasnt about tax?

Yesterday the cabinet expelled an unusual set of correspondence, divulgence how the bargain that Lady Dean thought that she had struck was unpicked after assertive lobbying by Mr Arbuthnot.

The letters show how Mr Arbuthnot, operative for Lord Ashcroft directly, as well as Mr Hague, put vigour on Sir Hayden to shift the conditions of agreement on that Lord Ashcroft was postulated a peerage.

The warm Sir Hayden found himself at the centre of the conflict in between Lord Ashcroft and the inspection cabinet since he shouldered an problematic and mostly rite role: Clerk of the Crown in Chancery. This done him obliged for arising letters obvious the heraldic papers confirming that a nobility has been awarded giving him carry out of when Lord Ashcroft could take up his peerage.

The open proclamation that Lord Ashcroft had been awarded the honour was done on Mar 31, 2000. In an rare note to editors concomitant the announcement, the inspection cabinet done it transparent that he would take up permanent chateau by the finish of the year and usually after this would he be introduced to the House of Lords.

On Apr 12, 2000, the inspection cabinet wrote a in isolation minute to Sir Hayden creation it transparent there was to be no coercion in handing Lord Ashcroft the nobility until he became a permanent resident. A month after the cabinet spelt out to Sir Hayden what this meant: notifying the Inland Revenue on his attainment and stuffing out Form P86 (Arrival in the UK) and IR DOM1 (Domicile).

However, stuffing in IR DOM1 could have cost Lord Ashcroft millions in taxation on his oversees income. On Jun 13, Sir Hayden sent the cabinet the breeze agreement that he was proposing to send to Mr Arbuthnot to endorse his bargain of Lord Ashcrofts position.

The diction appeared to take liberties with the inspection committees demands. It done no discuss of DOM1; indeed, it sought to bless Lord Ashcrofts box for avoiding full UK tax.

Mr Ashcroft does not hold that his dwelling for taxation purposes is applicable to the subject of his peerage, carrying undertaken to be proprietor in the UK, Sir Hayden due writing.

The cabinet cabinet member wrote behind 9 days after to contend that they were rather endangered that Lord Ashcroft was disappearing to fill in DOM1. In their perspective the endeavour since by him did engage domicile, as well as residence. Sir Hayden attempted this out on Mr Arbuthnot, usually to encounter even some-more stubborn resistance.

This time the Conservative whip argued that the executive issue had zero to do with taxation but, instead, was about an endeavour that Lord Ashcroft would be accessible in Britain to lay continually in the House.

Mr Arbuthnot does not hold that the subject of dwelling is or can be applicable to the achievement of the undertaking, the mandarin wrote in his reply to the inspection committee.

Sir Hayden done transparent that he was dire for a deal. Assuming the purpose of fixer, he proposed arguing for a center approach that would prove the technical mandate of the inspection cabinet whilst permitting Lord Ashcroft to save millions in tax.

He detected that the Inland Revenue did not design a new residents IR DOM1 form to be finished until the finish of the monetary year. This meant, in his view, that the issue of the IR DOM1 form could legitimately be paid in instalments until after Lord Ashcroft had turn a peer. Critically, that would additionally be the point at that Sir Hayden had liberated his avocation and was no longer obliged for the matter.

I do not think I can pretty continue, he said, by right away sounding similar to a man underneath pressure, to secrete permission. The inspection cabinet responded that the subject of Lord Ashcrofts dwelling does not assumingly have to be resolved at this stage.

By similar to the deal, the cabinet let Lord Ashcroft disguise himself in ermine and entrusted the signing of DOM1 to his personal honour.

The key passages

May 9, 2000 While it is for Mr Ashcroft to confirm how to forewarn his receiving up permanent residence, a minute to the Inland Revenue that provides them with a organisation date (and would embody or lead to the acquiescence of their forms IR Form P86 (Arrival in the UK) and IR DOM 1 (Domicile) would appear to be poignant in discharging the declaration he gave in March.

Letter from Anthony Merifield, cabinet member of the Political Honours Scrutiny Committee, to Sir Hayden Phillips

June 2000 Mr Ashcroft does not hold that his dwelling for taxation purposes is applicable to the subject of his peerage, carrying undertaken to be proprietor in the UK.

Sentence after private from minute to James Arbuthnot, the Tory Chief Whip

July 12, 2000 Since the subject of Mr Ashcrofts dwelling does not assumingly have to he resolved at this stage, it competence be preferable to replace the third judgment (Mr Ashcroft does not hold . . .) of the second divide of the breeze minute to the Opposition Chief Whip that you sent me on thirteen June.

Letter from Gay Catto, inheritor to Anthony Merifield, to Sir Hayden

hair wig

Latvia in misunderstanding after hacker exposes investiture salaries

Tony Halpin, Moscow & , : {}

To the abhorrence of Latvias domestic establishment, a puzzling organisation of computer hackers is melancholy to display the incomes of tip officials after hidden millions of supervision taxation records.

The group, job itself the Peoples Army of the Fourth Awakening, claimed to have downloaded some-more than 7.5 million documents, together with VAT profits and income taxation returns, from the State Revenue Service (SRS) after exploiting a security loophole on the website.

One hacker used the name Neo, in strong reverence to the favourite of The Matrix science-fiction films, in that a immeasurable complement for enslaving amiability is exposed. He or she claimed that the papers suggested the border of central pomposity over belt-tightening reforms introduced as Latvias economy reeled underneath the stroke of the tellurian mercantile crisis. The role of the organisation is to expose those who gutted the country, Neo told the Latvian radio stream affairs programme Kas Notiek Latvija in an talk posted on the website.

Neo has been hailed as a digital Robin Hood by discontented Latvians after posting sum from the papers on the internet to contrariety the gain of tip officials with cuts experienced by alternative workers.

Related LinksLatvia fears lead to bank insurance in SwedenLatvia pulpy to pull by bill cuts

Latvias economy shrank by roughly a fifth last year and is the weakest in the European Union. The Government slashed state salaries by up to 50 per cent and lifted taxes in lapse for an EU-led bailout that saved the nation from failure as revenues slumped and stagnation jumped to twenty-three per cent.

Neo published the salaries of Latvian military chiefs and urged rank-and-file officers to break down into parts the interpretation and establish either the income remodel is fair. Another trickle showed the compensate of managers of a bank that was bailed out, divulgence that most did not keep promises they done to cut their salaries.

The arch senior manager of the state-run heating association in the collateral Riga was additionally broke when Neo showed that he had paid himself a 16,000 lat (20,000) reward last year as city workers were fast compensate cuts. The executive, Aris Zigurs, certified to Latvian media that the figure was accurate.

Judging by the reaction, it seems that Latvians are removing a little new heroes, a sort of Robin Hood, pronounced Maris Kucinskis, the head of the parliaments inhabitant security council.

Neo has turn a cult favourite and Latvias domestic chosen are watchful to see who will be next.

hair wig

Clinton assembly with Kirchner adds to British confusion over Falklands

Giles Whittell, Washington, and Hannah Strange, Latin America Correspondent & , : {}

A late shift to Hillary Clintons transport plans resulted in a assembly in Buenos Aires last night in in in between the US Secretary of State and President Fernández de Kirchner giving the coming of taciturn US subsidy for Argentina in the brawl with Britain over the Falkland Islands.

Mrs Clinton has offering to mediate, even though Whitehall is against to any negotiations on the government of the islands. While it remained the US on all sides that Britain and Argentina should finalise the brawl themselves, if we can be of any assistance in facilitating such an effort, we mount ready to do so, Mrs Clinton said. What we wish to do is promote them articulate to each other.

Were not meddlesome and have no genuine purpose in last what they confirm in in in between the dual of them. But we do wish them articulate and we wish them perplexing to finalise the superb issues in in in between them. We recognize that these are quarrelsome counts that have to be resolved and we goal that they will do so.

Her assembly with Mrs Kirchner, creatively scheduled as a 10-minute shared in Montevideo, came as British officials conceded for the initial time that the denunciation used by US officials responding to the brawl and in sold the make make use of of of Las Malvinas to one side the British name for the islands had caused consternation.

Related LinksNew Falklands advance won"t be from ArgentinaArgentina seeks US subsidy over FalklandsTension in Falklands rises as supply arrivesMultimediaPICTURES: Falkland brawl

The US has signalled that it intends to make make use of of Mrs Clintons five-day brush by Latin America to seaside up Argentine and Brazilian await in the Iranian chief dispute. Yet by unwell to suggest pithy await for Britains position, the Obama Administration could be indicted of contrast the faithfulness of the staunchest ally.

State Department officials pronounced yesterday that Mrs Clinton would not lift the theme of the Falklands in her assembly with Mrs Kirchner in the presidential offices of the Casa Rosada.

Her revisit was, nonetheless, a second tactful delight for Argentina, after the Foreign Minister, Jorge Taiana, cumulative unanimous subsidy for his countrys explain to the islands at a assembly of 33 South American heads of state in Mexico. British officials in Washington steady yesterday that US neutrality on the Falklands was longstanding and constructed justification dating from 1947 to infer it.

Britain to sense if it has forsaken behind in to recession

Suzy Jagger and David Charter in Brussels & , : {}

Britains economy faces an additional vicious impulse today, when total exhibit either the nation unequivocally has eventually recovered from recession.

Statistics published last month referred to that Gross Domestic Product had grown by the majority slim of margins during the last entertain of 2009, technically imprinting an finish to the longest retrogression given the 1930s.

But politicians and economists have been nervously accessible todays announcement, when the frail liberation of usually 0.1 per cent could be revised to 0 or even worse.

The Office for National Statistics continually has to correct expansion interpretation given a little report is not accessible when the initial set of total is published. Both the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, and the Bank of England were given todays census data twenty-four hours prior to publication.

Related LinksSales unemployment awakens spook of recessionRecession fears lift CAB inquiries to a jot down

The revised GDP figures, that Mr Darling will have to embody in his subsequent Budget, will poise a large headache. Voters have turn carefully confident about Britains mercantile prospects, that Labour wants to have a key debate thesis to one side a notice not to risk the liberation with the Conservatives.

A downward rider would show that the economy had stagnated, forcing Mr Darling to confess in his last Budget prior to the choosing that Labour has still unsuccessful to lift the nation out of recession.

It could additionally means a couple of problems for George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, who argued this week that slicing the necessity was an obligatory priority. Slashing open spending prior to the retrogression ends could trigger concerns about undermining any recovery.

Economists were generally distressed yesterday given the EU had revised downwards forecasts for British expansion this year, whilst alternative total expelled by the ONS showed commercial operation investment plunging 5.8 per cent in the fourth entertain of the year.

The fright is that yesterdays investment sums, that typically comment for about 8 per cent of the British economy, could tip the economy in to the red again. The total show that genuine commercial operation investment is down 24.1 per cent in the last entertain of 2009, compared with the same duration in 2008 a tumble of �27.12 billion, and the lowest given 1992.

The European Commission yesterday pronounced it reckoned Britains economy would grow by 0.6 per cent this year, rather than the 0.9 per cent enlarge it had formerly forecast. Blaming bad fourth-quarter total and an finish to low VAT rates, Olli Rehn, the EUs Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner, pronounced Britain was the usually large part of state whose expansion had been revised downwards.

Not everybody fears a lapse to recession, however. Some economists think improved industrial prolongation total published a couple of weeks ago and the probability of upgraded use zone numbers currently could see expansion climb to 0.2 per cent. Yesterday the CBI reported the strongest sell sales expansion for roughly 3 years during the initial half of February.

Doctor to face GMC over Baby P check-up Society

Baby P Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

A alloy will crop up prior to the General Medical Council currently indicted of unwell to mark that Baby Peter was pang abuse dual days prior to his death.

Sabah al-Zayyat, a expert paediatrician, is additionally purported to have practical for a pursuit in Ireland but revelation her impending employers she had been dangling over the tragedy.

Zayyat saw Peter at a kid growth sanatorium at St Ann"s sanatorium in Tottenham, north London, on 1 Aug 2007. She motionless she could not lift out a full check-up since he was "miserable and cranky".

Two days later, the 17-month-old kid died in a cot in Haringey, north London. A postmortem conference found he had probably suffered critical injuries, together with a damaged behind and fractured ribs, prior to he was carefully thought about by Zayyat.

The doctor, who competent in Pakistan and worked in Saudi Arabia prior to entrance to Britain in 2004, was dangling from use by the GMC in Nov 2008. The GMC voiced this month that she was confronting bungle allegations over her diagnosis of Peter.

She is indicted of meaningful he was on the kid insurance register but unwell to lift out an competent examination, unwell to examine the reason offering for his injuries and unwell to jot down either she deliberate the probability that he was the plant of kid abuse.

It is additionally purported that Zayyat unsuccessful to diagnose that Peter had suffered earthy abuse, probable slight and romantic abuse, and did not prepare for him to be certified to hospital.

Zayyat had her stipulate with Great Ormond Street sanatorium consummated after sum of the box came to light. She has since launched a explain for indemnification opposite the children"s sanatorium over her dismissal.

A inform by health regulator the Care Quality Commission last May criticised staffing levels at St Ann"s. Zayyat had no hit with Peter"s amicable workman prior to or after the appointment and was since no sum about the child"s prior sanatorium admissions, the commission noted. She was one of usually dual consultants at the dilettante children"s sanatorium at St Ann"s, when there should have been four.

Zayyat will crop up prior to a GMC fitness to rehearse row in executive London today. The conference is listed to last until nineteen March.

Peter suffered 50 injuries notwithstanding reception 60 visits from amicable workers, doctors and military over the last eight months of his life. His mother, Tracey, her boyfriend, Steven Barker, and his hermit Jason Owen were locked up at the Old Bailey last May for causing or permitting his death.