Forex / World news

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - The UK is to consult on a new regime for covered bonds to help mortgage lenders finance more affordable 20-25 year fixed-rate mortgages, said Prime Minister Gordon Brown.Outlining a draft legislative programme ahead of this year's Queen's Speech, Brown said Chancellor Alistair Darling MP will report by the Budget in spring next year "on how to overcome any barriers preventing lenders from offering people long-term mortgages"...

WARSAW (Thomson Financial) - Poland's ruling coalition is "hanging by a thread", sacked deputy prime minister Andrzej Lepper warned Wednesday, demanding proof of the corruption allegations which sparked his dismissal two days earlier.Lepper's populist Samoobrona (Self-Defence) party on Tuesday backtracked on a promise to quit the government, calming markets after a day of political turmoil following his sacking by Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski...

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - The Bank of England deputy governor John Gieve has stressed that UK economic growth remains in good stead despite the series of interest rate hikes delivered by the central bank, the Derby Evening Telegraph reported."The retail sector has tailed off in the last few months because of the recent bad weather, but on the whole, the economy remains quite robust...

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - The government is considering introducing 20-year fixed rate mortgages to help broaden home ownership, said Prime Minister Gordon Brown.The idea is part of a list of draft legislation Brown will present to parliament today...

WARSAW (Thomson Financial) - Polish financial markets lost ground today after the sacking of a deputy prime minister late yesterday plunged the country into political crisis and opened the door to new elections, possibly as early as this autumn.The zloty fell around half a percent against the euro, while the stock exchange's main gauges slumped almost 2 pct as markets awaited confirmation from the populist Self-Defence party it was leaving the ruling coalition...

WARSAW (Thomson Financial) - Poland's second political crisis in a year is unlikely to threaten its ruling conservative cabinet before the autumn, leaving financial markets free to focus on the effects of a booming economy for weeks to come, analysts said today...

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - UK house price inflation continued to accelerate in the second quarter this year but showed further signs of cooling, research by Nationwide showed.In a quarterly survey of the sector, the country's biggest building society said house prices were up an annual 10...

WARSAW (Thomson Financial) - Poland's ruling conservatives are determined to keep public finances in check even if they have to rule in a minority and possibly fight new elections later this year, Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski's chief political adviser said today...

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling said Europe should no longer have the right to appoint the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, according to a report in The Guardian.Traditionally Europe has decided who heads the IMF while the US has selected the president of the World Bank...

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - The Statistics Commission has backed the Bank of England's warnings that the quality of key economic data may be damaged by moving the Office of National Statistics and reducing staff numbers, The Times reported.In an annual report released yesterday, the watchdog responsible for the integrity of National Statistics threw its weight behind the BoE's concerns that relocating the ONS to Newport from London risks damaging vital economic figures used to make decisions on steering the economy, the paper said...

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling has hinted that his first budget may include reform of the tax breaks enjoyed by the private equity sector, according to a report in The Guardian.The newspaper said that while Darling was reluctant to criticise private equity firms, he emphasised that the tax system had to be fair and that he would deal with any abuses in the autumn pre-budget report or next spring's budget...

WARSAW (Thomson Financial) - Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski warned Poland could be heading for new elections after he sacked his populist deputy prime minister in a corruption row, sending the ruling coalition spiralling toward collapse.Analysts said the political upheaval is this morning likely to prompt a fall in the zloty and local stock and bond markets, though most said the possible departure from the government of the leftist Self-Defence party could prove a bonus for public finances and markets longer-term...

WARSAW (Thomson Financial) - Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski today dismissed deputy Prime Minister and head of junior coalition party Self-Defence of Poland, Andrzej Lepper, Polish television stations reported.TFN.newsdesk@thomson.comjlc/dca..

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - The government has been severely criticised by a group of MPs for not outlining the costs of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and for spending in the current year without parliamentary approval.The House of Commons defence select committee said it was "entirely unacceptable" that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) refused to show all its estimated annual spending at the start of the financial year as other departments are required to...

VIENNA (Thomson Financial) - The UN atomic agency gave the green light today to send inspectors to North Korea for the first time since 2002 to monitor the communist state's dismantling of its nuclear weapons programme, diplomats said.The International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) 35-nation board of governors approved by consensus a request for a North Korea mission from IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, the diplomats said...

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he could see "no reason" for a referendum on the recently agreed EU treaty so long as Britain's so-called "red lines" were not crossed.Speaking at a joint news conference with Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, who holds EU presidency until the end of the year, Brown said he wanted to see the red lines "in detail" in the final document...

BERLIN (Thomson Financial) - European finance ministers meeting in the Belgian capital next week will discuss who will succeed Rodrigo Rato as director general of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in October, a spokeswoman for the German Finance Ministry said...

MOSCOW (Thomson Financial) - Russia warned on Friday that the entry of Georgia and Ukraine into NATO could affect its ties with the alliance and would do nothing to bolster trust in Europe, Interfax news agency reported."Georgia's and Ukraine's joining of the alliance cannot fail to influence our relations with those countries, and with NATO as a whole," Interfax reported Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Denisov as saying...

TOKYO (Thomson Financial) - Public support for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe slid further in the wake of his defence minister's resignation, which came just weeks ahead of a key election, a poll showed on Friday.The approval rating for his cabinet fell by 2...

MOSCOW (Thomson Financial) - Russia on Thursday officially refused a request from Britain to extradite the chief suspect in the murder last year of a former Russian agent in London, the Russian prosecutor general's office said.Russia's constitution prevents the extradition of Russian citizens, the prosecutor's office said in a statement...