Yen weakens Versus Euro on prospects of Central Bank interest rates

April 25, 2011, 6: 43 pm EDT by Keith Jenkins and Masaki Kondo

April 25 (Bloomberg) - the yen fell versus its major counterparts on the speculation, the Bank of the Japan signal this week it will maintain a monetary stimulus while the policy is tightened elsewhere.

The euro climbed against the yen for a second before day of data this week that can display arrested in the currency bloc accelerated industrial growth in developing the case for the European Central Bank to increase interest rates. Malaysian Ringgit strengthened below 3 per dollar for the first time in over 13 years on the speculation, the Central Asian Bank will its interest rate month next to help damp inflation. The motto of the United States weakened against most of its major peers. "" The Japan and the United States are the countries that can move towards a monetary tightening, the yen and the dollar will be weak, "said Daisaku Ueno, President of Gaitame.com Research Institute Ltd., in Tokyo, a unit of the largest enterprise of margin money of Japan. "The yen will continue to depreciate until the global economy is recovering gradually."Currency of damped Japan 0.3 per cent to 119.64 for one euro as of 6 pm 27 in New York from 119.24 weakened last week to the 81.98 per dollar of 81.88. The euro traded at $1.4595 to $1.4561 after touching $1.4649 on 21 April, the highest level since December 2009.Financial in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and London markets are closed for a holiday today.Industrial Bank OrdersThe of Japan will hold interest rates of reference to a range of between zero and 0.1% at its meeting of 28 April, according to 13 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The Central Bank may cut its forecast for growth in fiscal year 2011 to 0.8 1.6% following an earthquake record on March 11, the Nikkei newspaper reported.The euro has gained 3.4% this year, the second best performer after the Crown of Sweden among the 10 most widely traded currencies followed by Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted currency Indexes.ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet, said last week that the stability of prices remains the first mission of the Central Bank and this credibility maintain inflation is critical. Member of the Executive Board of ECB Jose Manuel Gonzalez-Paramo speaks tomorrow followed by Member of the Board of the Bank Central Athanasios Orphanides on April 27. the ECB, which aims to keep inflation below 2% this month raised interest rates by a quarter to 1.25% percentage point. He left the door open for rates to increase even as a sovereign debt crisis tempers growth in peripheral as countries the Greece, the Portugal, and Ireland.Swedish Crowns "Currencies of nations are hiking rates are attractive," said Hideki AmikuraDeputy Director General of currency in Tokyo at Nomura Trust & Banking Co. a unit of the Japan largest brokerage. "There is a possibility for an appreciation of the euro."In addition to 2 1/2 years now after the Riksbank increased interest rates, last week, the Swedish Crown rose to its strongest against the dollar. The Crown is passed to 6.0701, a level not seen since August 2008, before the Exchange on the orders of 6.0796.Industrial, in the euro area rose 1.5% in February from the previous month when they increased a revised 1.2 %, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg before that report on April 27.The dollar has reduced the previous losses against the euro. Stochastic Oscillator of 14 days of the European currency against the rose to 82.3 on 22 April, above the threshold of 80 to some traders think the price of the greenback increased too quickly and is poised to reverse the course.'Oversold' dollar "the dollar is probably oversold, given its recent economic crisis," said Lee Wai Tuck, a strategist of currency prediction Singapore Pte. "This is probably contributing to some back purchases of the greenback in the middle of the markets thinned vacation."Futures traders cut their bet that the euro will rise against the dollar, according to data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The difference in the number of updates in hedge funds and other large speculators on a gain in the euro than on a drop - soi-saying net long - been 62,195 19 April, compared to 64,985 a week earlier.The ringgit led gains among Asian currencies. A Government report showed inflation this month in Southeast Asia in the third - most large economy accelerated the fastest pace in 23 months. "We could expect the ringgit to strengthen to counter inflation, because there is always a small probability of an increase in the rate in may,"said Saktiandi Supaat, head of research in foreign Singapore to Malayan Banking Bhd."It is also helped by the weakness of the dollar. "Consumer price of Malaysia increased by 3% in March from the previous year, the most since April 2009, the Department of statistics, said on April 20. Bank Negara kept its rate on the day the day at 2.75% since July, after raising three times earlier in affected stipulated ringgit 2.9910 against the dollar, the level harder since October 1997, before trade 3.0045 2.9920 last week.

-With the help of David Yong at Singapore. Editors: Rocky Swift, Matthew Brown.

To contact the reporters on this story: Keith Jenkins at London, kjenkins3@bloomberg.net. Masaki Kondo in Singapore to the mkondo3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Daniel Cuddies to dtilles@bloomberg.net

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Pirate air with nail clipper mastered by Alitalia crew

A passenger restless on a flight Alitalia in Paris to Rome Sunday evening attacked a flight attendant and demanded the plane diverted the Libya but other officers subdued the man, said the airline.

The flight landed safely in the Italian capital as planned, Alitalia said in a news release. All 131 passengers on flight AZ329 landed safely in Rome.

"A clearly agitated passenger attacked a flight officer, requesting that the flight be diverted to Tripoli," Alitalia said.

"Thanks to the rapid intervention of the servants, the aggressor has been immobilized and [kept] in his seat, and the flight continued to Rome," where it landed at 9: 55, as expected, the company said.

Alitalia did not identify the passenger. The Italian ANSA news agency reported that he was a man of average age of the Kazakhstan with step of criminal records. ANSA, said that the man had brandished a clipper nail against flight attendant.

Police took the man into custody for questioning at the airport of Rome Leonardo da Vinci, said Alitalia.

Alitalia, said female flight attendants has been verified by the staff of Office of first aid from the airport as a precaution, but it has been reported as free.

Human reason did not immediately know. Italian police have been in contact with French authorities over the incident, said ANSA.

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Harper mainstreets backyard of BC.

Stephen Harper takes his campaign to a dead end Victoria Sunday, where the conservative camp and the media descended on a suburban house.

Conservative leader spent the morning of Easter baskets and decorate eggs with a group of children and participated in an Easter egg hunt. Owner Rose Cowles runs a studio of small artist out of the back of the House where she teaches children's art classes.

Harper used the backdrop to talk about tax credit for children arts first announced on the 2008 campaign trail and has promised in the budget on March 22.

Stephen Harper and Laureen Harper wife help Ava de Souza find eggs during an Easter egg hunt in Royal Oak, b.c., Sunday. Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press

Harper is in the hope of gaining ground in British Columbia Colombia may 2, where several swing constituencies could hold the key for a conservative majority.

After the Easter holiday, Harper took the crowd outside where he took questions from the media.

Harper has yet responded to questions about Vancouver-southern conservatives, Wai Young candidate, who came under fire for accepting an endorsement of Ripudaman Singh Malik, businessman local Sikh linked to individuals convicted in the bombing of Air India.

It sticks to its candidate, and his explanation that it simply did not know that Malik was when she accepted the endorsement, Harper said. Young has since the endorsement of Malik was dismissed.

Harper was also questioned on the issue of whether he can be trusted with a majority government. Harper has said that his file and the sound management of the economy prove there are trustworthy. It did not address the question of whether Canadians can be trusted, because several campaign promises - including a commitment to not run a deficit - were broken.

Conservative leader participated in a rally Saturday with conservative candidate John Duncan of Campbell River, part of the North of the island of Vancouver riding.

Duncan recaptured its former headquarters in the apparition of Vancouver Island in a tight race in 2008, beating NDP incumbent Catherine Bell.

"We know about the NDP here." "And we know better," Duncan told supporters at the rally.

Harper also blown Democrats, criticizing the party leader Jack Layton on the register of firearms.

"Mr. Layton and his partner says no to new to the waiver of rights because they support the firearms registry," Harper said. "Do not register of weapons fire and should not be your taxes to pay for it."

The NDP took heat from all sides as the Liberals, the Conservatives and Bloc Québécois after a series of polls suggested increased support for it.

Mario Canseco, Vice President, Public Opinion Angus Reid, said he expected that the apparent rise in support of the NDP will be a major issue in the last week of the campaign.

"One of the main things that has happened in the last 48 hours, now we have advertisements tories attacking NDP," he said. "" "". It is something what we never thought would be possible a few weeks ago. ?

The Conservatives held 21 seats 36 of the Colombia-British title in the election, while the NDP held five Liberals and nine. A single seat was vacant.

Harper has been developed to make appearances in Victoria and Vancouver Sunday before heading to Ontario.

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Kid brother of Starbucks grew up quickly

By Leslie Patton

Stir by Hue: Best of Seattle coffee its color codes

As a brand and later as a strategy manager world leader at the Starbucks (SBUX), Michelle Gass defended these popular innovations such as the Green straw shaped dome covers strikes and the Frappucchino. In August 2009, Director General Howard Schultz returned Gass a challenge well away from the heart of Starbucks: Best Coffee in Seattle Remake, the tiny brand, the coffee giant had acquired eight years earlier.

Today best of Seattle, who has 325 namesake cafés (against more than 17,000 to its larger sister), is sold at over 50,000 locations in the United States and the Canada 12 times much as a year ago. While the mark remains several years away from sale Schultz billion target, Gass made progress repositioning as a middle-market offering to the people would not be caught dead in a Starbucks. As President of the best of Seattle, she put his coffee on airliners, in vending machines, ships of cruise and grocery stores. This month, the chain will open 10 cafés inside stores Wal - Mart (WMT) in the Canada. "She brought great energy and focus for a mark which exercised not to expectations," said Olden Lee, Member of the Council of Starbucks.

A chemical engineer with an MBA from the University of Washington, managed Gass brand toothpaste crest to Procter & Gamble (PG) prior to joining Starbucks in 1996. She says that his training has helped to pioneer of the new menu items while keeping a close eye on the bottom line. She quickly earned cred within the company for data-driven presentations. "When everyone talked about off the coast of headlines, Michelle had the numbers," said Gerry Lopez, a former leader of Starbucks, which is now CEO of cinema operator AMC Entertainment. She was also aren't afraid to deliver bad news meetings, Monday afternoon with Schultz said. In 2008, when testing of a new drink of sherbets to Starbucks "has not quite pan out", Lopez said, she had the numbers to prove it. After drilling costs higher shipping and how long it took baristas to clean the stuff, Gass says that she went to Schultz and recommended pulling the stopper of sorbets - what he did.

To the best of Seattle, Gass has attempted a direct approach to the sale. Gone are the scenes of long stereotypical coffee featured on bags: steaming cups of joe, cats in windows. Instead, Gass best cafes placed of Seattle in five levels - with numbered packaging designed to quickly explain the differences. No. 1 (bag of gold; a light roast "for those who like to look intently at the blue sky, and then drink") offers a much softer than no. 5 experience (purple bag, a dark roast requiring "courage and confidence to add to your own"). The idea, Gass, said, is to appeal to Americans who drink brew generic and can be encouraged through a premium brand less Starbucks class declaration. "People do not drink without name colas, but many people drink without coffee name", she said. "It is because of that person come in and said,"do not accept a bad Cup of coffee."" "

To achieve the objective of revenue of 1 billion Schultz, Gass wants to put the infusion in 100,000 stores. Main objectives: retailers and convenience, drug and grocery stores, and mass MOM-and-pop companies. Gass persuaded Lopez to BREW best of Seattle in the CMA 300 cinemas. In February, Delta Air Lines (DAL) has agreed to serve on all flights. It is also sold to the subway, Burger King and Royal Caribbean Cruises (RCL), and it is currently deployed in vending machines in the campus of colleges, hospitals and offices throughout the country.

Relentless push of Gass is risky, explains Jack Russo, an analyst with Edward Jones. "When you have shops belonging to the company, they are your stores, it is your baby," he said. "When you essentially give control to someone who pays you a monthly fee, you lose a little bit of control." Gass said that it must scale up to compete with Starbucks: "with our big sister on the floor who is owner of coffee, the only way that we have a chance to get a piece of which is to be disruptive."

The bottom line: Starbucks attempts to perk up best of Seattle - and meet a goal of $ 1 billion revenue - targeting drinkers who never visit cafés of Lighthouse.

Patton is a journalist for Bloomberg News.

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REALITY check: Prescription book, the promise of a plan 2004 national drug

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Before we get to what the parties are saying, it helps to understand what this national strategy entails, at least as it was envisioned when the federal, provincial and territorial governments signed a 10-year health agreement in 2004 that was supposed to be a "fix for a generation."

The strategy is comprised of the following elements.

(1) Develop, assess and cost options for catastrophic drug coverage;

(2) Establish a common national drug formulary for participating jurisdictions based on safety and cost effectiveness;

(3) Accelerate access to breakthrough drugs for unmet health needs through improvements to the drug approval process;

(4) Strengthen evaluation of real-world drug safety and effectiveness;

(5) Pursue purchasing strategies to obtain best prices for Canadians for drugs and vaccines;

(6) Enhance action to influence the prescribing behaviour of health-care professionals so that drugs are used only when needed and the right drug is used for the right problem.

(7) Broaden the practice of e-prescribing through accelerated development and deployment of the electronic health record;

(8) Accelerate access to non-patented drugs and achieve international parity on prices of non-patented drugs;

(9) Enhance the analysis of cost drivers and cost effectiveness, including best practices in drug plan policies;

(10) Undertake research on expensive medications for rare diseases. (A measure added to the strategy in 2005)

The Health Council of Canada, an agency set up to monitor the promised has noted some progress: notably an initiative called "common drug review" is to establish ways of buying drugs more cheaply. as well as help for people with rare diseases.

Purpose as its 2009 report put it, the National Pharmaceuticals Strategy is "a prescription unfilled."

For health policy experts such as Steve Morgan, at the University of British Columbia, what has happened is simple: promises have been broken and your access to affordable drugs varies depending on where you live.

"If the same standards were to apply to medicare that are being applied to this, Canadians would be outraged," he says. "We would be going to the polls voting on this particular issue because it would be such a travesty."

So what went wrong?

The first thing to keep in mind is that the provinces are the ones mostly responsible for prescription drugs. They determine what drugs get covered and for whom.

The federal role is limited to drug approval and monitoring drugs for effectiveness and side effects once doctors begin prescribing them. (Ottawa is responsible for prescribing drugs for First Nation's communities.)

Of course, Ottawa also transfers billions of dollars to the provinces and territories for health care under the 10-year agreement, which should ensure it has some say in the process. Goal as Morgan and others point out, when it comes to pharmacare there are many players in the system.

The majority of requirements in this country are handled through private drug plans, so insurance companies determine which drugs they will cover. Most of these companies cover drugs for common branch, but not necessarily for drugs designed to treat rare diseases, which is why in 2005, this provision became part of the national strategy.

Doctors are participating key as well, and they have been sometimes criticized for driving up costs by prescribing too many pills, and favoring the more expensive name-brand products over the cheaper generic versions.

For their part, the pharmaceutical companies are often accused of flooding the market with brand or generic versions of what is already out there.

Given the number of players, it's no wonder that the Conservatives, Liberals and NDP talk primarily about the need to negotiate, a process that, thus far, has achieved little progress when it comes to extending the reach of the national program or even drug safety.

What are the parties saying?

The Liberals are promising to make prescription drugs a key component in the post-2014 health transfer talks with the provinces and territories, which the party vows to kick-start within a few months of coming to power.

"Prescription drugs are becoming a greater part of patient care," Michael Ignatieff, said in a news release. "we need to make sure all canadians, no matter where they live, have access to the prescription drugs they need."

But while access and affordability are important components of a national drug strategy, there are other elements as well. What would the Liberals do to improve the monitoring of drug safety? How would the party deal with the prescribing habits of physicians? None of these are directly addressed.

For its part, the NDP covers similar ground but also promised "improved assessment to ensure quality, safety and cost and health effectiveness of prescription drugs;" using bargaining power in pharmaceutical purchases; cutting administrative costs through public administration; "establishing science-based forms and clinical guidelines to advance evidence-based practice by physicians."

These are the kinds of ideas that many health policy experts are advancing. But the problem is that much of the administration would have to be carried out by provincial authorities and how would a federal government get them onside?

As for the negotiation, other than committing to "a universal public health-care system and the Canada Health Act, and the right of provinces to deliver health care within their jurisdictions," the party is silent when it comes to a drug strategy. The same is true for the Green Party and the Bloc Quebecois.

The way forward

When it comes to crafting a national pharmaceutical strategy, there has been lots of talk but little action, or political will, since the big heath agreement was signed in 2004.

Last year, the Canadian Institute for Health Information reported that prescription drug expenditures totaled $30-billion and represented the third most expensive element of the system behind hospitals and doctors.

Growing at a rate of 5.1 per cent a year, drug expenditures are slowing somewhat compared to previous years and other health-care expenditures. But they are still a big component and there are still huge regional gaps in coverage.

Experts like UBC's Steve Morgan suggests that if Canada is serious about getting a national pharmacare strategy together, we should look beyond our borders.

"Australia and New Zealand run interesting and quite efficient systems," he says. "There are examples that can be drawn from Europe where they have reasonably equitable and efficient systems for financing medicines."

You would think a federal election campaign would be just the place to raise some of these examples.

David McKie can be reached at david_mckie@cbc.ca

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More than 450 Kandahar prison escape

Taliban insurgents dug a more than 320 metres of underground tunnel and in the prison main in the city of Kandahar and taken more than 450 prisoners, with most officials, Taliban fighters and insurgents, said Monday.

The mass jailbreak of day to the next in the second largest city of the Afghanistan serves as a reminder of the continuing weak Afghan Government in the South, despite the arrival of international troops, financing and consulting. In particular, the city of Kandahar, has been a priority of the international effort to establish a strong presence of the Afghan Government in former Taliban strongholds.

1 200-Detainee Sarposa Prison is part of this plan. The facility has undergone upgrades security and procedures tightened following a Taliban attack 2008 blatantly releasing 900 prisoners. Regularly, afghan Government officials and their supporters of NATO said that the prison has greatly improved security since the attack.

But Sunday night, about 475 prisoners streamed out of a tunnel dug between the prison and outside and disappeared into the city of Kandahar, Ghulam said Mayar prison supervisor. He said that the majority of the missing is militant Taliban.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said insurgents on the dug out the tunnel in prison more five months, bypassing government control points and the main roads. The tunnel eventually reached prison cells Sunday night, and prisoners were inaugurated through her freedom by three prisoners who had been informed of the plan, said Mujahid.

He said more than 500 prisoners were released and that about 100 of them were Taliban commanders.

Four of those who escaped were provincial level Taliban commanders, said Qari Yousef Ahmadi, an another Taliban spokesman.

The highest profile Taliban detainees would be probably not held in Sarposa. Inmates in the custody of the U.S. he sees as a threat in a facility outside the Air Base of Bagram in the East of the Afghanistan. Other key Taliban prisoners are held by the Afghan Government in a wing of the main prison security in Kabul.

A man who spokesman Taliban said is one of the detainees who helped to organize the escape of the Interior, said that a group of inmates obtained copies of the keys to the cells in advance.

"There are four or five of us who knew that our friends were digging a tunnel from the outside", said Mohammad Abdullah, who said he was in the Sarposa prison for two years after having been captured in near the Zhari district with a stock of weapons. "Some of our friends helped us by providing copies of keys." "When the time came at night, we have managed open the doors of the friends who were in the other rooms".

He said they he was awakened inmates up to four or five at once to lift quietly. Abdullah spoke by telephone on a number provided by a spokesman for the Taliban. His account could not be verified immediately.

The Governor of Kandahar province confirmed at least 475 escaped and said that a search operation is going to resume their.

"Some prisoners have already been recaptured,", said the Governor Tooryalai Wesa. He provided no details.

(A) asked how the tunnel was dug without the person noting, Wesa said only that the incident was still under investigation.

In 2008, attack, dozens of activists on motorcycles and two suicide bombers attacked the prison. A suicide bomber triggered a tanker truck loaded with explosives at the door of prison while a second suicide bomber detonated an escape through a rear wall route. About 900 detained including 400 Taliban fighters escaped.

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Composed of Gaddafi's Tripoli hit in airstrike

A Libyan soldier looks at a building damaged in the compound of Bab Al-Aziziyah of leader Libyan Muammar al-Gaddafi in Tripoli Monday. Louafi Larbi/Reuters.

An airstrike on the residential compound sprawling Monday at the start of Muammar Gaddafi has seriously damaged two buildings, including a structure where the leader Libyan often held meetings, guards at the complex said.

Two large missiles or bombs exploded in Bab Al-Aziziyah Gaddafi's just after midnight, injuring compound slightly four persons in accordance with a security guard at the site, who spoke the condition of anonymity.

It was not clear who launched the airstrike, but Reuters reported a Libyan official saying that he was by NATO, which did not provide confirmation.

The same Libyan official told the agency that the attack was an attempt on the life of Gaddafi. But it did not provide details on its fairways and venues or condition.

The two bombs seriously damaged a several-storey building and a second structure was damaged by the explosions. The second building was apparently used for ceremonies more: sofas and chandeliers, and frames which had been thrown to the ground could be seen in the rubble.

In Washington, D.C., on Sunday, three members of the Commission of the armed forces of the Senate said that should do more to drive al-Gaddafi to power, including the targeting of his circle of friends with air strikes. Gaddafi "must wake up each day ask,"what will be my last?"" "Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican on the Committee, said State from CNN of the Union."

Attack Monday came one day after Gaddafi forces unleashed a barrage of shells and rockets to Misrata in a weekend especially bloody which has left at least 32 dead and dozens injured. The battle of Misrata, which has claimed hundreds of lives over the past two months, became the focus of the rebellion army of the Libya against Gaddafi since fighting elsewhere is deadlocked.

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