Report: Chinese currency not manipulated for gain
Washington – The Bush administration on Monday determined that China was not manipulating its currency to gain economic advantages but still pressed the Chinese to move more quickly to allow the yuan’s value to be set by market forces.
The administration’s determination, made in a currency report it is required to submit to Congress every six months, disappointed critics who contend that Chinese currency practices play a large role in America’s soaring trade deficits.
“The administration’s lack of action today hurts all Americans by refusing to acknowledge the obvious – that China manipulates its currency,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Schumer is a leading sponsor of legislation that would impose 27.5 percent tariffs on all Chinese imports unless China does more to allow its currency to rise in value against the dollar.
Treasury Secretary John Snow said China’s decision to allow a small revaluation of its currency last July had been a factor in deciding not to brand China a currency manipulator, but he said more must be done.
The United States had a trade deficit of $162 billion with China last year, the largest ever recorded with a single country, and this year’s deficit is expected to approach $200 billion.
American manufacturers believe that China has kept its currency undervalued as much as 40 percent, making Chinese goods cheaper for U.S. consumers and American products more expensive in China.
NEW YORK
Teen charged in death of friend on tracks
A Brooklyn teenager was charged Monday with pushing a friend onto subway tracks, where he was struck by a train and killed.
Richie Molina, 19, was arrested Sunday in the death of Edison Guzman, 22, police said.
Molina faces two counts of murder in the second degree, punishable by 25 years to life in prison.
The friends were arguing on an elevated platform. Police said Molina punched and kicked Guzman, knocked him to the ground and rolled him onto the tracks about 5 a.m. Sunday as the train approached.
Relatives of the victim said the two had been friends since high school and worked together at a Queens bakery.
OAKLAND, Calif.
Fire at store follows race-tinged vandalism
A liquor store was heavily damaged by apparent arson Monday, just days after it was trashed by well-dressed vandals who told the owners to stop selling to black people.
Police had no suspects in the fire, which was reported about 1 a.m.
They refused to say whether they believed the blaze at New York Market was connected to vandalism last week at the store and the nearby San Pablo Market and Liquor in West Oakland.
Investigators were looking into the incidents as hate crimes because most liquor stores in the area are owned by Arabs or Arab-Americans.
LONDON
Blair denies report of al-Jazeera bomb plan
Prime Minister Tony Blair said Monday he had received no information suggesting the United States planned to bomb the al-Jazeera television network.
The Daily Mirror last week published a document it said was a transcript of an April 2004 meeting between President Bush and Blair in which Bush spoke of attacking al-Jazeera’s headquarters in Doha, Qatar.
The newspaper, citing unidentified officials, said Blair argued against an attack. It quoted officials as disagreeing about whether Bush’s alleged comment was a joke or was meant seriously.
A White House spokesman last week called the claims “outlandish and inconceivable.”
YANGON, Myanmar
Suu Kyi’s house arrest extended, backers say
Myanmar’s military government has extended the house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi, the pro-democracy leader who has spent much of the past 16 years in detention, her political party said Monday.
The National League for Democracy said it was unable to confirm the length of the extension, although under the anti- subversion law being applied, it would be one year. It did not say how the party’s Central Executive Committee, which met Monday, confirmed the extension. The military government has not commented on the reported action.
The United States criticized the move, saying Myanmar’s government has yet to charge Suu Kyi with a crime.
CARACAS, Venezuela
Spain OKs military sale that U.S. opposes
Spain agreed Monday to sell 12 military planes and eight patrol boats to Venezuela in a $2 billion deal that the United States has threatened to block.
The U.S. ambassador to Spain, Eduardo Aguirre, said last week that Washington had concerns about the sale because the planes and boats carry U.S. parts and technology, adding that “in the long run we hope the sale won’t go ahead.”
Spain is selling 10 C-295 transport planes and two CN-235 patrol planes, as well as four ocean patrol boats and four coast patrol vessels. It is Spain’s largest- ever defense deal.
LAGOS, Nigeria
Troops sent to calm protests on governor
The Nigerian army on Monday deployed troops to a tense, oil-rich southern state after demonstrators took to the streets both in support of and against a governor charged in a corruption case.
Gov. Diepreye Alamieyeseigha was arrested in London in September and charged with laundering $3.2 million in stolen government funds.
