BERN (Switzerland) - THE Swiss government said on Sunday it will not attend a US Senate hearing on tax havens in what appears to be a protest against a US lawsuit against bank UBS AG seeking the data of tens of thousands of American customers.
Switzerland declined an invitation to the hearing by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which is scheduled for March 4, Finance Ministry spokesman Roland Meier said, confirming a report by the Sonntags Zeitung weekly.
TAIYUAN (China) - A STATE news agency says a gas explosion has ripped through a coal mine in northern China, killing at least 73 miners and injuring 113 others.
Xinhua News Agency says the pre-dawn blast Sunday occurred while 436 workers were in the Tunlan Coal Mine in Gujiao city near Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi province.
PHUKET - FINANCE officials from Southeast Asia, China, Japan and South Korea agreed in principle Sunday to expand a regional emergency reserve fund to US$120 billion (S$184 billion), a statement said.
The credit line know as the Chiang Mai Initiative - aimed at helping members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) weather global financial turmoil - was originally mooted at $80 billion.
SEOUL - SOUTH Korean President Lee Myung-Bak celebrates his first anniversary in office this week after a turbulent year marked by a slumping economy, high tensions with North Korea and mass street protests.
The country's first businessman-turned-president promised peace and prosperity when he was sworn in on February 25, 2008.
