Results

At least 50 people have been injured in Belarus after a bomb exploded during a concert in the capital, Minsk.

The event was taking place in the centre of the city to mark the ex-Soviet nation’s independence day.

President Alexander Lukashenko, whose rule has been denounced as autocratic by the US and the European Union, was attending the concert.

Police later found an unexploded device in Minsk, Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted the interior ministry as saying.

[Source]

At least 38 people have died after a ferry sank in Myanmar’s Irrawaddy Delta region, the country’s state media has said.

The New Light of Myanmar newspaper says the boat was carrying 80 people when it went down.

The cause of the sinking is not yet known.

The accident happened in the Yway river on Tuesday, but details have only just emerged.

[Source]

TAIPEI/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Historic regular flights between Taiwan and China began on Friday, in a show of conciliation between the long-time rivals that could bring large numbers of mainland Chinese visitors to the island.

The first of the flights, a China Southern Airlines plane, landed at Taipei’s Taoyuan airport after leaving Guangzhou in southern China early in the morning.

It was followed a short time later by a flight from the southern city of Xiamen that arrived at Taipei’s Songshan city airport. Flights from China will be leaving from a number of cities, including Shanghai.

[Source]

LONDON (Reuters) - World stocks slipped back towards this week’s five-month low on Friday as oil prices near record highs kept inflation concerns alive a day after the European Central Bank raised interest rates.

The euro failed to benefit much from the ECB’s quarter point rate hike on Thursday and the region’s government bonds rose as President Jean-Claude Trichet said he had no bias on monetary policy, dousing speculation about aggressive rate hikes this year.

A less hawkish tone from Trichet, followed by U.S. job data which came in line with expectations, provided only short-term solace for equity investors.

[Source]

Eurozone interest rates have increased for the first time in a year in an attempt to control inflation, which is at record levels.

Rising food and fuel costs encouraged the European Central Bank (ECB) to put its key rate up from 4% to 4.25%.

Inflation in the eurozone hit an annualised rate of 4% this week, the highest rate since official records began in 1996.

[Source]

Turkey’s ruling party is in the country’s highest court defending itself against charges that it had sought to undermine the secular system and should be closed down.

Representatives of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) arrived at the Constitutional Court on Thursday at 0700 GMT to present their case.

Cemil Cicek, the deputy prime minister, and Bekir Bozdag, a senior politician from the AKP will deliver their arguments to judges in a closed session.

[Source]

The Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party has been declared the winners of the country’s disputed parliamentary elections, two days after violent protests swept the capital, Ulan Bator.

The MPRP, which ruled Mongolia in the communist era, won 47 of the 76 seats in parliament while its main rival, the Democratic Party, took 26.

Electoral officials rejected allegations of fraud and vote-rigging, which sparked violent protests earlier this week in which at least five people died.

[Source]

Ingrid Betancourt, the French-Colombian politician held hostage by Farc rebels for more than six years, has thanked the Colombian army for rescuing her.

Television images from a military base near the Colombian capital, Bogota, showed Betancourt, who appeared to be in good health, embracing her mother and husband after landing at the base.

“Thanks to all Colombians and those worldwide who made it such that we are alive,” she said at a news conference.

Three US hostages and 11 Colombian soldiers were also freed on Wednesday in a “special intelligence operation”, Juan Manuel Santos, the Colombian defence minister, said.

[Source]

LONDON (Reuters) - A weaker dollar cannot be blamed for soaring oil prices as policymakers around the world tussle with the twin specters of rising inflation and slowing growth, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Thursday.

Some of the world’s leading oil producers and market analysts say the weak dollar is a key factor spurring many dollar-denominated commodities — including oil — to record highs, pushing the cost of living higher across the world.

It is rare for the United States government to say anything about the greenback beyond its mantra that it believes in a strong dollar, but developed nations are ramping up the rhetoric in an effort to get oil producers to increase supply and help tame inflation.

[Source]

LONDON (Reuters) - A global sell-off knocked world shares to a five-month low on Thursday as surging oil fanned concerns about inflation and slowing growth, just hours ahead of an expected euro zone interest rate hike and a key U.S. jobs report.

The gloom was rampant everywhere with Tokyo stocks setting their longest losing streak in more than half a century while the dollar hit a two-month low against the euro. Government bonds largely benefited from a global risk aversion.

The European Central Bank is set to become the first G7 central bank to raise interest rates since the credit crisis erupted in August. The decision is due at 7:45 a.m. EDT. At 8:30 a.m. EDT, ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet gives a news conference and at the same time the U.S. non-farm payrolls data is due.

Tightening comes as the global economy struggles with the chilling effects of an almost one-year-old financial turmoil.

[Source]