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LONDON, Aug 17, 2007 (Thomson Financial via COMTEX) -- The yen reversed some of its earlier steep across-the-board gains after hitting a fresh 14-month low against the US dollar, with analysts citing Japanese investor buying and speculation of possible Bank of Japan intervention.
The yen has witnessed sharp increases in recent days as the credit crunch crisis sparked a massive flight from risk and caused carry trades to unwind. Carry trades are a risky strategy -- popular until recently -- where money is borrowed in low-yielding currencies in order to invest in higher-yielding assets elsewhere.
Given the level of risk aversion that has flooded the market, however, any rebound is unlikely to be maintained, merely encouraging investors to move back in and buy the yen on dips.
"The inability to sustain the highs is not a reflection of the yen but more a reflection of the volatile markets we currently trade within," said Matthew Foster-Smith at Thomson IFR Markets.
Analysts also noted speculation that the Bank of Japan could intervene to stem the yen's rise. Reports have already emerged that the BoJ could hold off from raising interest rates again for the time being.
"In the short-term, yen weakening intervention has become a strong possibility as it would help stabilising international capital markets and would allocate liquidity to where it is mostly needed," BNP Paribas analysts said.
The reversal of the yen's gains also allowed some reprieve for high-yielding currencies, including the Australian dollar and the pound, but this again is expected to be short-lived.
"While the sharp sell-off over the last two days imply that a bounce in the pair (Australian dollar/US dollar) is possible, investors seem nervous and happy to unwind their long Australian dollar positions," BNP Paribas said.
The Australian dollar's steep declines over recent days have prompted action by the Reserve Bank of Australia, which announced it had intervened to stem the losses. RBA governor Glenn Stevens said intervention was small and that the central bank is prepared to intervene "from time to time" if conditions are "disorderly".
Meanwhile, focus this afternoon will centre on the release of the latest US University of Michigan consumer sentiment index, which could provoke more interest than usual given the high sensitivity of US consumers to developments on financial markets.
"It will be interesting to see whether the recent slide in equity markets and, for that matter, house prices have already started to weigh on consumer confidence with the preliminary University of Michigan index due this afternoon," analysts at WestLB said.
London 1209 GMT
London 0820 GMT
US dollar
yen 113.76 up from
112.67
sfr 1.2064 down from 1.2091
cad 1.0711 down from 1.0759
Euro
usd 1.3461 up from
1.3417
stg 0.6791 down from 0.6802
yen 153.09 up from
151.20
sfr 1.6244 up from
1.6223
Sterling
usd 1.9818 up from
1.9719
yen 225.25 up from
222.27
sfr 2.3907 up from
2.3841
Australian dollar
usd 0.7811 up from
0.7771
stg 0.3940 up from
0.3938
yen 88.74 up from
87.62
New Zealand dollar
usd 0.6825 up from
0.6749
yen 77.50 up from
76.27
COPYRIGHT
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LIMA, Peru, Aug. 16 — A powerful earthquake shook Peru Wednesday night, killing at least 337 people, Civil Defense authorities said today. Another 1,350 were injured, according to Peru’s Health Ministry
Most of the reported dead were in the region near Ica, south of the capital, which emergency workers said appeared to be the area that was hardest hit. The earthquake, whose magnitude was estimated at 7.9, was centered off Peru’s Pacific shore near Ica.
Many people were killed in the rubble of their homes, and some 300 people were in a cathedral when it collapsed. Emergency workers said the overall death toll might be even greater.
Ica was blacked out, as were smaller towns along the coast south of Lima. Rescue workers reported difficulty getting to Ica because of cracks in the highway and downed power lines.
A cathedral in the hard-hit port city of Pisco was destroyed, according to local media reports, which said some 300 people were inside the structure during a mass at the time of the earthquake.
Mayor Juan Mendoza Uribe of Pisco said that 70 percent of the port city of about 60,000 people, located 135 miles south of Lima, was leveled by the quake.
“So much effort and our city is destroyed,” he said, crying audibly, in comments broadcast on radio station RPP in Lima.
The city remained without electricity this morning.
Hundreds of families were sleeping on the streets of the city this morning, according to Andina, Peru’s state news agency, and 25 bodies were placed in front of municipal buildings after the morgue filled to capacity.
Office workers in Lima fled tall buildings that shook in two waves that lasted around 20 seconds each and cut power lines, Reuters reported.
“I was in class on the fifth floor, and suddenly everything started to shake and glass began falling,” said Carolina Montero, 37, a banking administrator and finance student who lives in Callao, a coastal city near Lima. “People got extremely nervous.”
Fernando Calderon, an American in Lima, said he was in his hotel when the quake struck. He described the scene as unreal, with buildings swaying from right to left, and the ground shaking.
“We realized everybody was out, and the ground was shaking for a minute,” he said by telephone in an interview with CNN. “Finally we started hearing glass breaking, and things falling out of the building and that’s when everybody started screaming, praying, children crying. It was just awful.”
Electra Anderson, another American, told CNN by telephone from her apartment in Peru that it seemed when the quake began that many people had no idea what was happening, and ran into the streets screaming and crying.
“We’re used to earthquakes,” said Ms. Anderson, who is from California. “But it just didn’t stop; it kept going and going, and it kept getting stronger and stronger.”
She added that she counted about 70 aftershocks: “It’s just been non-stop.”
Her belongings in the apartment went flying and the glass windows appeared to be bending in. “People really thought they were going to die,” Ms. Anderson said.
The United States Geological Survey said the earthquake struck about 90 miles southeast of Lima at a depth of about 25 miles. Four strong aftershocks ranging from magnitudes of 5.4 to 5.9 followed.
A tsunami warning was issued for coastal areas of Peru, Chile, Ecuador and Colombia, and a small tsunami was detected, but it posed no major threat and the warning was later lifted, news services reported.
The last time a quake of magnitude 7.0 or larger struck Peru was in September 2005, when a 7.5 magnitude earthquake rocked Peru’s northern jungle, killing four people. In 2001, a 7.9-magnitude quake struck near the southern Andean city of Arequipa, killing 71 people.
Dimitar Penev has been reappointed coach of Bulgaria for a third time on a contract to run until the end of UEFA EURO 2008™ qualifying.
Second place
The 62-year-old replaces Hristo Stoichkov who resigned in April to take charge of RC Celta de Vigo in Spain, leaving PFC Levski Sofia boss Stanimir Stoilov to oversee the home-and-away victories against Belarus in June. Those results left Bulgaria in second place in Group G, two points behind leaders Romania and one clear of the Netherlands having played a game more than the Dutch.
Golden period
Penev's first spell in charge was for one match on an interim basis in 1989, although his full-time appointment in August 1991 coincided which a golden period which saw Bulgaria reach the semi-finals of the 1994 FIFA World Cup and qualify for EURO '96™. Penev, who will be assisted by goalkeeping coach Lyubomir Sheitanov and former PFC CSKA Sofia defender Krassimir Bezinski, will return to the helm for the friendly against Wales in Burgas on 22 August, with an 8 September trip to the Netherlands to follow.-uefa.com
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Bulgarian nurse Valya Cherveniashka celebrates with a relative.
The medics, who were sentenced to life in prison for contaminating children with the AIDS virus but now maintain their innocence, arrived on board a French presidential plane after the EU agreed a deal with Libya on medical aid and political ties.
The round of negotiations that freed the medics began over the weekend and involved European Union commissioner for foreign affairs, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, chief French presidential aide Claude Gueant and French first lady Cecilia Sarkozy.
The group, accompanied from Libya by Cecilia Sarkozy, was immediately greeted by a delegation of government officials and family members.
"I waited so long for this moment," nurse Snezhana Dimitrova said before falling into the arms of her loved ones, The Associated Press reported.
"I know I am free, I know I am on Bulgarian soil, but I still cannot believe it," 48-year-old nurse Christiana Valcheva told Reuters as the medics and their families wept and hugged each other at the airport.
"This is the result of very tough and long negotiations ... between the European Union and Libyan authorities," Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin said. "It has been a long discussion and debate with Libya until we reached this agreement."
According to Kalfin, the deal includes treatments for infected children and humanitarian assistance for their parents. Tripoli and the EU were also to begin discussions on the normalization of political relations.
Kalfin said medical checkups would be the first order of business after the group was welcomed in Sofia.
The nurses and doctor were twice sentenced to death for allegedly infecting more than 400 Libyan children with the virus that causes AIDS. Fifty of the children were reported to have died.
Last week the six medics had their sentences commuted to life in prison, following a $1 million per family payout to each family.
At one point, the nurses all confessed to the crimes, but later said they were coerced into making those confessions.
The children were infected through transfusions. During the trial of the nurses, a French scientist testified that poor hygiene at the hospital likely led to the contamination of the blood used in the transfusions.
He said the contamination dated to 1997 -- two years before the Bulgarians were hired to work in Libya.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Tuesday the EU could now move to normalize trade and political ties with Libya, AP reported.
"We hope to go on further normalizing our relations with Libya, our relations with Libya were in a large extent blocked by the non-settlement of this medics issue," Barroso told reporters. He said the 27-nation bloc could move to include Libya in regional trade and aid ties with other Mediterranean countries.
Meanwhile, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday he would visit Libya following the release of the six. "I will have the chance tomorrow, with Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, to make a political visit to Libya to help Libya to reintegrate the concert of nations."
SOFIA, Bulgaria (Reuters) -- Bulgaria and the European Union called on Libya on Wednesday to transfer six foreign medics to Sofia, after Tripoli lifted their death sentences for infecting hundreds of children with the HIV virus.
The five Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor, who have spent over eight years in jail already, could be pardoned by the Balkan country's president once they are sent to Sofia under a 1984 prisoner exchange agreement with Libya.
Following hectic diplomatic talks and payment of hundreds of millions of dollars to the families of 460 HIV victims, Tripoli commuted the death sentences against the six to life imprisonment late on Tuesday, paving the way for their release.
EU newcomer Bulgaria and its allies in Washington and Brussels, who say the medics are innocent and have pushed for their release, reacted with relief to the Tripoli ruling but cautioned it was not the end to the eight-year ordeal.
"I am calling for calmness and a little bit more patience, Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev said. "We are taking and will be taking all steps to bring this whole case to an end as soon as possible and see our compatriots very soon on Bulgarian soil".
Chief Prosecutor Boris Velchev said he would send to Libya a request for the medics' transfer by the end of the day.
The EU, which took part in negotiating the compensation deal with the HIV victims' families, said it had hoped for clemency but would now focus on helping to send the medics to Bulgaria.
"We hope now that the legal proceedings can start immediately for the transfer of the nurses and the medics back to Europe," EU Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner told Reuters.
The six were sentenced to death last year after being convicted of intentionally starting an HIV epidemic at a children's hospital in the Mediterranean port of Benghazi.
The medics say they are innocent and confessions central to their case were extracted under torture.
Sofia's Western allies have suggested that not freeing the nurses would hurt Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's efforts to emerge from decades of diplomatic isolation, a process he began by scrapping a prohibited weapons programme in 2003.
In Bulgaria, where people wear ribbons saying "You are not alone" in a campaign to support the medics, reactions to the Tuesday ruling were ranging from relief to disappointment.
"I expected the nurses to be pardoned and fully acquitted, because I am sure they are innocent. The Libyans took all they could, I feel really sad about our nurses," said theatre director Katya Popova, 50.
But the victims' families, who received $1 million each in compensation, have said the case was part of a Western attempt to undermine Muslims and Libya. Fifty-six of the children have died, arousing widespread anger there.
A spokesman for the Libyan children's families, Idriss Lagha, said the funds for the financial settlement had come from the Benghazi International Fund, which had been financed by the European Union, the United States, Bulgaria and Libya.
Bulgaria, the EU and the United States say Libya has used the medics as scapegoats to deflect criticism of its dilapidated health care sector.
Foreign HIV experts testified during the case in Libya that the infections started before the six arrived at the hospital and were more likely to be the result of poor hygiene.
Last month, Bulgaria granted citizenship to the Palestinian doctor to help bring him out of Libya if the death penalties were commuted.
