“Asian currencies had their biggest weekly loss in six months as an exchange of artillery fire on the Korean peninsula deterred investment in the region and Europe’s debt crisis bolstered demand for dollars. The Bloomberg-JPMorgan Asia Dollar Index slid for a third week, its longest losing streak since February, after North Korea shelled a South [...]
“At least 23 people have been killed in five days of clashes as Brazilian security forces seek to crush drug gangs and impose law and order in the violent slums of Rio de Janeiro. The gangs are fighting back by opening fire on police stations and setting cars and buses ablaze, police said. Police have [...]
“South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young resigned Thursday, according to the South Korean presidency, two days after North Korea shelling left four South Koreans dead. ‘The president has just accepted the defense minister’s resignation,’ according to a spokesman for the Presidential Blue House. Kim, a former general, came under heavy criticism after the March sinking [...]
“Chinese experts said the move reflected closer relations between Beijing and Moscow and is not aimed at challenging the dollar, but to protect their domestic economies. ‘About trade settlement, we have decided to use our own currencies,’ Putin said at a joint news conference with Wen in St. Petersburg. The two countries were accustomed to [...]
“North Korea on Wednesday blamed South Korea for driving them ‘to the brink of war,’ a day after the North shelled a South Korean island and killed four people. South Korea provoked the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island by holding a military drill off their shared coast in the Yellow Sea, North Korea said. Pyongyang made [...]