NEW YORK (Reuters) - "The dollar fell to a record low against the euro on Friday and was on track for its sixth straight weekly decline, weighed down by fears that losses in risky mortgage debt would hurt consumers and slow U.S. growth.

      The greenback also tumbled against the yen as investors unwound bets on risky assets such as stocks and emerging market debt, prompting a slide in U.S. share prices and a broad bid for U.S. Treasury debt that sent yields near six-week lows.

      Defaults on subprime mortgages, made to borrowers with weak credit, and mounting losses on bonds backed by such debt have rattled financial markets and soured general dollar sentiment.

      St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President William Poole emboldened dollar bears on Friday when he said losses in the non-prime mortgage market, which includes subprime, were large enough to affect home building and consumer spending.

      "It's just a story of general dollar weakness, and though nothing has really changed on housing, that's being used as a catalyst to sell," said Dixon Fung, currency strategist at MG Financial in New York.

      Late afternoon, the dollar was trading at $1.3824, down 0.2 percent from late on Thursday and near a record peak of $1.3844 hit earlier in the session.

      Sterling hit a 26-year high at $2.0587 before easing to $2.0546. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of major currencies hit a 12-year low.

      The dollar also fell to a six-week low at 120.87 yen before edging back to 121.18 yen, down 0.7 percent on the day.

      The infection of Greed has some really nasty, extended side-effects when used for too long.

      NEW YORK (Reuters) - "Oil prices steadied on Friday, within striking distance of a record high amid falling U.S. inventories in the midst of driving season and problems with African crude production.

      Benchmark London Brent (LCOc1: Quote, Profile, Research) settled 3 cents lower at $77.64 a barrel, near the peak $78.65 hit last August. U.S. crude (CLc1: Quote, Profile, Research) settled down 35 cents at $75.57 a barrel.

      Support has come from rising demand in the United States and a spate of refinery outages that have drained inventories in the world's top consumer.

      "Oil demand seems to be robust. There is a feeling that the market will become tighter and there is concern about prompt supplies," said Tony Nunan, risk management executive at Tokyo-based Mitsubishi.

      Gasoline stocks, which were expected by analysts to rise, instead fell by 2.3 million barrels in the week to July 13, a government report said on Wednesday.

      Prices also were on the rise after Total cut output by half at its 220,000-barrel-per-day Dalia field in Angola. Total said on Friday it had lifted a force majeure on exports and supply should return quickly to normal.

      The outage added to supply losses from Africa. In Nigeria, almost 550,000 bpd, or 18 percent of the country's oil capacity, remain shut because of attacks on the country's oil industry.

      Economic growth in China, the world's second-largest consumer, accelerated to 11.9 percent in the second quarter, an 11-1/2-year high, and crude imports in June rose 20 percent from a year ago.

      Other Asian economies also are proving resilient to surging energy prices. Crude imports by South Korea, the world's fourth-largest buyer, rose 3.8 percent from a year ago in June.

      Despite supply concerns, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has yet to relax supply curbs in place since last November and analysts do not expect the group to do so any time soon..."

      SAN FRANCISCO (Fox) —  "An earthquake jolted San Francisco Bay area residents awake early Friday, breaking glass and rattling nerves, although there were no immediate reports of injuries.

      The earthquake was recorded about 2 miles east of Oakland and had a preliminary magnitude of 4.2, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It could be felt for up to 10 seconds on both sides of the San Francisco Bay after striking shortly after 4:40 a.m.

      More than 1,000 customers in the Oakland area lost power, a Pacific Gas & Electric Co. spokesman said. Crews were investigating the outages.

      A dispatcher at the Oakland Police Department said police were getting calls about alarms going off. In Berkeley, an employee at a Safeway grocery store said two large windows broke but there were no injuries..."

      WASHINGTON (Reuters) - "U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Thursday that subprime mortgage losses could hit $100 billion and threaten consumer spending, but he sought to reassure lawmakers that the central bank was working quickly to strengthen lending regulations.

      "The credit losses associated with subprime have come to light and they are fairly significant," Bernanke told the Senate Banking Committee in a second day of testimony on the Fed's twice-yearly economic report.

      "Some estimates are in the order of between $50 billion and $100 billion of losses associated with subprime credit problems," he said, referring to a segment of the mortgage market that caters to borrowers with shaky credit.

      That figure may sound large, but it would represent a tiny fraction of the $56.2 trillion in U.S. household net worth. Still, many investors have worried that problems in the subprime sector could spill over into other credit markets.

      In his prepared remarks, Bernanke acknowledged those concerns but pointed out that while credit spreads on lower-quality corporate debt had widened somewhat, they remain near the low end of their historical ranges. He also said inflation remained the Fed's primary concern.

      Bernanke told the Senate panel that the most reliable indicators show home prices had not declined nationally and said that so far the housing slump had not led U.S. consumers to cut back on spending.

      He said, however, that if prices did drop, households might trim spending by as much as 9 cents for each dollar of wealth lost.

INFLATION WATCH

      What's a few hundred billion here or there...

     SINGAPORE (Reuters) - "Oil prices eased slightly on Friday after two days of solid gains, buoyed by concerns that unrelenting economic growth will strain supplies already thinned by U.S. refinery trip-ups and African export disruptions.

      London Brent crude for September slipped 17 cents to $77.50 a barrel by 0246 GMT, one dollar below its all-time record high of $78.65 touched last August.

      Brent has rallied more than $2 in the two days following U.S. government data on Wednesday showing a fall in fuel stocks.

      U.S. light crude for August delivery which expires later on Friday, was down 12 cents at $75.80 a barrel, after having settled 87 cents higher at $75.92 a barrel on Thursday.

      "Oil demand seems to be robust. There is a feeling that the market will become tighter and there is concern about prompt supplies," said Tony Nunan, risk management executive at Tokyo-based Mitsubishi.

      Economic growth in China, the world's second-largest consumer, accelerated to 11.9 percent in the second quarter, a 11-1/2-year high, and crude imports for June rose 20 percent from a year ago.

      Other Asian economies are also proving resilient to surging energy prices. Crude imports by South Korea, the world's fourth-largest buyer, rose 3.8 percent from a year ago in June.

      The West had been at Level 4 for only a few weeks when officials decided to raise it to Level 5, effective Thursday.

      "It's driven by a couple of things: the number of large fires we have, and also the fires are occurring in several states and in several geographic areas," said Randy Eardley, a spokesman for the National Interagency Fire Center. "The resources we have are being stretched thin."

      The change allows fire managers to request help from international crews, and National Guard units could be mobilized. On Thursday, fire center spokesman Ken Frederick said new crews were arriving in the Pacific Northwest from Alaska and the Southeast.

      Firefighters in the area critically need medium-sized helicopters, he said. With 23 uncontained large fires or fire complexes in Nevada, Utah and Idaho, there aren't enough contractor-supplied helicopters to go around, he said.

      Dry lightning has sparked dozens of new blazes in the West, including more than 1,000 new fires since Monday, Eardley said.

      NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The economy should grow modestly this year, and even more in 2008, but a pullback in housing and the possibility of even higher energy prices pose serious risks.

      That's the message Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke presented to the House Financial Services Committee during day one of his semiannual address to lawmakers on the state of the economy.

      Bernanke's testimony did not seem to indicate a cut in the Fed's fund rate was coming, and the stock market declined after his speech. The Fed's fund rate, an overnight rate the central bank charges commercial banks, affects everything from corporate borrowing rates to interest on credit card debt.

      On the overall economy, the Fed chairman said growth should average about 2.25 to 2.5 percent this year, and increase to 2.5 to 3 percent in 2008.

      But Bernanke warned that the decline in the housing market, as well as rising energy prices, are threats to the economy and therefore the Fed needed to continue focus on inflation over job creation in its dual mandate to control prices and create jobs.

      "The ongoing housing correction could prove larger than anticipated, and energy and commodity prices could continue to rise sharply" and that could "spread to other parts of the economy," said Bernanke. Therefore the "upside risks to inflation is [the Fed's] primary policy concern."

      As the economy slows and the housing market slumps, some have pressured the Fed to cut interest rates as a means of spurring growth. But the Fed has so far refused, leaving rates at 5.25 percent for over a year.

      During a Q&A after his testimony, Bernanke was asked if there was a risk to a "hard fall" in housing.

      "We think it remains a risk, we have an inventory problem," he said.

      He also said mortgage defaults will "likely get worse before they get better," although he added that over 1 million homes were still getting built every year, and the sector is about as healthy as it was in the late 1990s.

      The dollar fell on the projected weakness in the housing market, and how it could further slow economic growth.

      Legislators also grilled the Fed chairman over inequality in the U.S. economy, presenting several studies that showed the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.

      "The most pressing issue facing the U.S. economy today is excessive and growing inequality," said committee chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass, although Frank did complement Bernanke for including a line in his report acknowledging flat wages for the last few years." This is not uncle Alan's semi-annual report," he said, referring to previous Fed chairman Alan Greenspan, with whom Frank often sparred..."

      Heavily Sugar-coated, but still tastes sour.

      "It's driven by a couple of things: The number of large fires we have, and also the fires are occurring in several states and in several geographic areas," Randy Eardley, a spokesman for the National Interagency Fire Center here, told The Associated Press. "The resources we have are being stretched thin."

      The wildfire preparedness level was raised to five as dry lightning blasted and sparked dozens of new blazes in Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and Utah, where firefighters have been stretched thin by nearly 70 fires bigger than 100 acres burning in 12 states. National Guard units also could be mobilized under new level.

      Since Monday, there have been more than 1,000 new fires reported across the West, Eardley said.

      He said dry, windy conditions, thunderstorms and temperatures reaching above 100 degrees were forecast to continue across most of the Rocky Mountain West through next week.

      A new wildfire that started Wednesday evening at the Idaho National Laboratory swept across about 1 1/2 square miles — or 1,000 acres — of sagebrush and grassland at the federal nuclear research area in southeast Idaho. Its cause was not immediately known, laboratory spokesman John Epperson said.

      Crews set a backfire to keep the blaze from jumping a nearby highway. The nearest laboratory facility is the Materials and Fuels Complex, about five miles northeast of the edge of the fire and on the other side of the highway.

      Ethan Huffman, another laboratory spokesman, said the wildfire posed no danger to the complex, which is used for research into nuclear fuel development and is surrounded by sand buffers.

      In Nevada, crews Wednesday battled more than two dozen fires burning across nearly 200 square miles of rangeland and timber in the northern part of the state. One threatened hundreds of homes on the edge of Reno.

      The largest wildfire in Oregon, near Burns in the southeast portion of the state, had grown to more than 200 square miles and was threatening a handful of homes, officials said.

      And in Utah, two new large fires were reported, in addition to three already burning on about 640 square miles of grass, sage and timber. It was so dry there that some Utah communities banned traditional July 24 fireworks that members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints normally shoot off to celebrate the 1847 arrival of Mormon pioneers in the Salt Lake valley.

      In Southern California, authorities were trying to stop a 43-square-mile wildfire from spreading toward about 50 scattered homes in Los Padres National Forest in the interior of Santa Barbara County. In Northern California, overnight drizzle helped firefighters battling flames that threatened more than 300 homes in and around Happy Camp in the Klamath National Forest near the Oregon border..."

      KARACHI, Pakistan (Fox) —  "A bus carrying about 10 Chinese engineers and workers had just passed, police said, when the remote-controlled bomb exploded in the center of Hub, a town just north of the port city of Karachi.

      Hub Mayor Jamil Gickhi said 26 people had been killed. Officials said they included police guards who had been escorting the convoy and civilians along the road.

      About 30 persons, many in critical condition, were evacuated to a Karachi hospital, said Dr. Tariq Kamal. The Chinese escaped unharmed.

      An AP Television News reporter on the scene said the attack took place in the town's main bazaar area and shattered more than 20 roadside shops. Several cars rammed into one another in the chaos that followed the explosion.

      The homicide car bomber detonated his explosives when guards prevented him from entering the parade ground of the police academy in Hangu, 45 miles southwest of the provincial capital Peshawar, academy chief Attaullah Wazir said.

      The bomber killed six bystanders and one policeman, and another 24 people were injured, Wazir said. The attacker also died when the car was torn apart by the explosion.

      Homicide attacks, bombings and shootings blamed on Islamic extremists and a bloody army siege of radicals in Islamabad's Red Mosque have killed more than 240 people in Pakistan so far this month, stirring doubts about the country's stability.

      Much of the violence has been in North West Frontier Province, especially the frontier region of North Waziristan, where pro-Taliban militants last weekend declared the end of a ten-month-old peace deal.

      On Wednesday, militants bombed and strafed an army convoy near Miran Shah, North Waziristan's main town, killing 17 troops. At least eight militants died in clashes with security forces in the area.

      President Gen. Prevez Musharraf insists the accord — under which the military scaled back its operations in the U.S.-led war on terror in return for pledges from tribal leaders to contain militancy — offers the best long-term hope of pacifying the region.

      However, U.S. officials have expressed concern that the accord gives Islamic extremists breathing space that they have used to strengthen their operations in Pakistan, Afghanistan and beyond.

      In an intelligence report unveiled in Washington on Tuesday, analysts said the pact had given Al Qaeda new opportunities to set up compounds for terror training, improve its international communications with associates and bolster its operations..."

     TOKYO (Reuters) - "The dollar slid to a 12-year low against a basket of major currencies on Wednesday, taking a hit from fears about the fallout from U.S. subprime mortgages and expectations for higher interest rates from Europe to New Zealand.

      The euro hit a record peak of $1.3834 on electronic trading platform EBS and sterling vaulted to a 26-year peak above $2.05 as the dollar was pressured by news about the ongoing woes of two Bear Stearns hedge funds that bet heavily on subprime loans.

      Worries that troubles in the subprime mortgage market could cast a pall over the broader U.S. economy and financial markets also helped drag the dollar lower against the yen and the Australian and New Zealand dollars.

      "It's almost as if there's some risk aversion against the dollar," said Tomoko Fujii, head of economics and strategy for Bank of America in Tokyo.

      The dollar's trade-weighted index against six major currencies fell as low as 80.227 (.DXY: Quote, Profile, Research) -- the weakest since April 1995 and possibly setting the U.S. currency up for further losses, traders said.

      The U.S. currency suffered as Bear Stearns (BSC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said in a letter to investors on Tuesday that two of its hedge funds that bet heavily on risky subprime loans now have "very little value", giving a boost to Treasuries in Asia trade.

      The subprime troubles have compounded the dollar's eroding appeal as the Federal Reserve keeps rates on hold but other major central banks are seen lifting interest rates further.

      Sterling rose as high as $2.0548 on the Reuters dealing system and last changed hands at $2.0538, up 0.4 percent from late New York trade on Tuesday.

      The American Economy is no longer the unstoppable juggernaut that it once was.

      KASHIWAZAKI, Japan (MSNBC) - "A top power company official defended safety standards at an earthquake-ravaged nuclear plant Wednesday, even as the company said a radioactive leak was bigger than first reported and the mayor ordered the plant be shut down until its safety could be confirmed.

      Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. announced that a leak of radioactive water into the Sea of Japan was actually 50 percent bigger than initially announced Monday night. But the levels were still well below danger levels, it said.

      “We made a mistake in calculating the amount that leaked into the ocean. We apologize and make correction,” the statement said. Spokesman Jun Oshima said the amount was still “one-billionth of Japan’s legal limit.”

      Hiroshi Aida, mayor of Kashiwazaki, a city near the epicenter that is home to the plant and 93,500 people, ordered operations at the plant halted Wednesday for “safety reasons.”

'Worried'
      “I am worried,” he said. “It would be difficult to restart operations at this time. ... The safety of the plant must be assured before it is reopened.”

      Kashiwazaki-Kariwa is the world’s largest nuclear plant in power output capacity. Signs of problems after Monday’s quake came first not from the officials, but in a plume of smoke that rose up when the quake triggered a small fire at an electrical transformer.

      It was announced only 12 hours later that the magnitude 6.8 temblor also caused a leak of about 315 gallons of water containing radioactive material. Officials said the water leak was well within safety standards. The water was flushed into the sea.

      Later Tuesday, it said 50 cases of “malfunctioning and trouble” had been found. Four of the plant’s seven reactors were running at the time of the quake, and they were all shut down automatically by a safety mechanism.

      Tsunehisa Katsumata, president of plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co., toured the site Wednesday morning, declaring it “a mess” and apologizing for “all the worry and trouble we have caused.”

      “It is hard to make everything go perfectly,” he said. “We will conduct an investigation from the ground up. But I think fundamentally we have confirmed that our safety measures worked.”

      Across town, more than 8,000 residents hunkered down for their second night in shelters. The death toll — nine, with one person missing — was not expected to rise significantly. Most of the newer parts of town escaped major damage.

      For residents, thousands of whom work at the plant, the controversy over its safety compounded already severe problems, which included heavy rains and the threat of landslides, water and power outages, and spotty communications.

      Aftershock fears
“Whenever there is an earthquake, the first thing we worry about is the nuclear plant. I worry about whether there will be a fire or something,” said Kiyokazu Tsunajima, a tailor who sat outside on his porch with his family, afraid an aftershock might collapse his damaged house.

      “It’s frightening, but I guess we are used to it,” said Ikuko Sato, a young mother who was spending the night in a crowded evacuation center near her home, which was without water or power.

      “It’s almost the summer swimming season,” she said. “I wonder if it’ll be safe to go in the water.”

      The area around Kashiwazaki was hit by an earthquake three years ago that killed 67 people, but the plant suffered no damage.

      55 nuclear reactors
The malfunctions and a delay in reporting them fueled concerns about the safety of Japan’s 55 nuclear reactors, which have suffered a string of accidents and cover-ups. Nuclear power plants around Japan were ordered to conduct inspections.

      The plant in Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, 135 miles northwest of Tokyo, eclipsed a nuclear power station in Ontario as the world’s largest power station when it added its seventh reactor in 1997.

      The Japanese plant, which generates 8.2 million kilowatts of electricity, has been plagued with mishaps. In 2001, a radioactive leak was found in the turbine room of one reactor.

      The plant’s safety record and its proximity to a fault line prompted residents to file lawsuits claiming the government had failed to conduct sufficient safety reviews when it approved construction of the plant in the 1970s. But in 2005, a Tokyo court threw out a lawsuit filed by 33 residents, saying there was no error in the government safety reviews.

      Environmentalists have criticized Japan’s reliance on nuclear energy as irresponsible in a nation with such a vulnerability to powerful quakes.

      “This fire and leakage underscores the threat of nuclear accidents in Japan, especially in earthquake zones,” said Jan Beranek, a Greenpeace official in Amsterdam. “In principle, it’s a bad idea to build nuclear plants in earthquake-prone areas.”

      Nearly 13,000 people packed into evacuation centers in the quake zone, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency. By nightfall, the number dropped to about 8,200.

Nine killed
      Nine people in their 70s or 80s were killed, and 47 were seriously injured. About 450 soldiers to sent to clear rubble, search for survivors under collapsed buildings, and provide food, water and toilets.

      About 50,000 homes were without water and 35,000 were without gas, local official Mitsugu Abe said. About 27,000 households were without power.

      Japan has a history of nuclear accidents, some of them deadly.

      In 2004, five workers at the Mihama nuclear plant in western Japan were killed and six were injured after a corroded pipe ruptured and sprayed plant workers with boiling water and steam. The accident was the nation’s worst at a nuclear facility.

      The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission requires that nuclear plants be built with the capacity to withstand the strongest earthquake to hit its site within 100 years. In a “safe shutdown earthquake,” the chain reaction in the reactor stops, but the cooling system keeps running so excess heat is carried away from the core.

      William Miller, a professor of nuclear engineering at the University of Missouri, said the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant “did what it was supposed to. It shut down.”

      Although its operator said there were leaks, Miller called the amounts he had heard were “so small as to be negligible.”

      DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (MSNBC) - "A strong earthquake shook northern Tanzania on Tuesday, one in a series in recent days in the region, officials said. No casualties were immediately reported.

      In the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha, the building housing the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda was evacuated for some time, said Danford Mpumilwa, the tribunal’s spokesman.

      The quake was felt more than 60 miles away in the capital of neighboring Kenya, where high rise buildings shook as did coffee tables and chandeliers in people’s homes.

      The National Earthquake Information Center of the U.S. Geological Survey gave the quake a preliminary reading of 6.0 on the Richter scale. Don Blakeman, an earthquake analyst with the center, said in a telephone interview he was still analyzing the activity.

      “This is the seventh earthquake that is above 4.4,” since Thursday, Blakeman said. “This last one is pretty large, I would expect some more in the coming days, weeks, months but we cannot predict when.”.."

      WASHINGTON (International Herald Tribune) - "Rising prices for food, from yogurt in the United States to steak in South Africa, are causing heartburn at the world's most powerful central banks.

      The fastest increase in food commodity prices in at least a decade has already led the monetary authorities in Britain, Mexico, Chile and South Africa to lift borrowing costs. It is also sowing doubts about the U.S. Federal Reserve's focus on core inflation, which excludes food and energy, and about the Chinese government's gradual approach to tightening credit.

      As the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke, prepares to deliver his semiannual report to Congress this week, central bank officials worldwide are anxious that climbing costs could trigger consumer concerns about faster inflation. To keep them from being self-fulfilling, some of the biggest economies might have to push interest rates higher.

      "Central banks are more conscious than they've ever been of the danger of allowing inflation expectations to become unmoored," said Louis Crandall, chief economist at Wrightson ICAP, based in Jersey City, New Jersey, and a unit of ICAP, the world's largest broker for banks and other institutions that trade in financial markets.

      An unprecedented surge in global demand is behind the 23 percent rise in food prices that the International Monetary Fund recorded during the last 18 months.

      "We haven't seen anything on this scale before," said Martin von Lampe, an agricultural economist in Paris at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

      The demand, triggered in part by the increasing use of agricultural commodities to make ethanol and other substitutes for crude oil, may keep prices high for years. The OECD sees U.S. output of corn-based ethanol and European consumption of oilseeds for biofuels doubling by 2016.

      Chinese and Brazilian production of ethanol will expand even faster, the OECD said in a report published this month with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

      Rising prosperity in China and other emerging nations is also spurring demand, particularly for value-added items like meat and dairy products, the report said.

      "We are sitting on structural changes that will affect agricultural prices for a long time to come," Paul Polman, chief financial officer of Nestlé, the world's largest food company, said last month.

      "Central banks need to be very alert and learn from other experiences, such as happened in the 1970s," José Darío Uribe, general manager of the Colombian central bank, said in an interview. In the 1970s, monetary officials were slow to respond to rising prices for oil and food. As a result, U.S. inflation averaged 7.1 percent in the decade, compared with 2.75 percent so far this decade.

      The risk, though, is that inflation could accelerate. With prices of many everyday items starting to rise, the danger is that consumers and companies will become more pessimistic about the outlook for inflation.

      "Nothing affects consumer inflation expectations more than food," said Richard Yamarone, chief economist at Argus Research in New York. "Not everybody has to drive to work, but everybody wakes up and has breakfast."

      Joe Carson, director of economic research at AllianceBernstein in New York, said rising food prices could keep the Federal Reserve on alert, even though the annual increase in the core measure has fallen within the range of 1 percent to 2 percent that some bank officials said they were comfortable with.

      Economists, including some at the Bank of England, have criticized the bank's focus on core prices, arguing that it ignores the inflationary impact of rapid global growth on commodities like oil.

      Federal Reserve officials have said their long-term objective is to keep overall inflation low. They justify their use of core prices as an intermediate goal because the measure has proven in the past to be a better indicator of underlying price pressures than the broader, so-called headline measure.

      I fear that one day in the not-too-distant future, a war will be fought over not Oil, but Food.

      SINGAPORE (Reuters) - "The dollar stayed under pressure and Asian share markets stalled near recent peaks on Tuesday amid concerns that problems in the U.S. subprime mortgage market could spread to other parts of the world's largest economy.

      Crude oil nudged higher, shrugging off gasoline's more than 4 percent slump a day ago, and gold rebounded with dealers expecting a weaker U.S. currency to spur buying.

      Optimism about earnings at multinational companies pushed the Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI: Quote, Profile, Research) to nearly 14,000 but the broader U.S. market fell on Monday, hit by fresh worries about troubles in the subprime mortgage sector (.N: Quote, Profile, Research).

      The benchmark ABX index, used by investors to hedge subprime mortgage risks, sank to a fresh intraday low on Monday, prompting investors to buy less risky government debt.

      Japanese government bonds followed Treasuries higher on Tuesday. Tokyo's Nikkei average (.N225: Quote, Profile, Research) was down 0.3 percent at 18,193.25 by the mid-session, while the broader TOPIX index (.TOPX: Quote, Profile, Research) shed 0.5 percent to 1,774.93.

      A slightly firmer yen hit exporters such as Toyota Motor Corp. (7203.T: Quote, Profile, Research) while shares of insurance companies were sold as investors worried their earnings would be hurt by an increase in payouts due to an earthquake in northwestern Japan on Monday.

      Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) (9501.T: Quote, Profile, Research) lost 0.8 percent after it shut down three major generators at the world's biggest nuclear power plant following the strong earthquake.

      Japan's market was closed for a public holiday on Monday..."

      TOKYO (Fox) —  "Authorities were investigating a new possible radioactive leak at a nuclear plant hit by an earthquake in northern Japan, Kyodo News agency said.

      Officials said a series of stacked drums containing low-level nuclear waste fell over during Monday's quake and some of the lids were found open, Kyodo said, citing officials in the city of Kashiwazaki, near the epicenter.

      Another leak at the Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear power plant would sow further doubts about the safety of Japan's nuclear power plants, which have suffered a long string of accidents and cover-ups amid deep concerns they are vulnerable in earthquakes.

      Monday's 6.8-magnitude quake triggered a small fire at an electrical transformer in the sprawling plant. But it was announced only 12 hours later that the temblor also caused a leak of water containing radioactive material.

      Officials said the water leak was harmless and well below safety standards..."

      NEW YORK (Reuters) - "The average price for a gallon of gasoline in the United States rose about 6 cents over the past three weeks on higher global oil prices and capacity reductions at two refineries in the Midwest, an industry analyst said on Sunday.

      The national average for self-serve, regular gas was $3.0577 on July 13, up 6 cents compared with the national average of $2.9961 a gallon on June 22, according to the nationwide Lundberg survey of about 7,000 gas stations.

      This was a reversal from the prior five weeks between May 18 and June 22, when prices dropped nearly 19 cents.

      "The price cutting that we saw in the prior five weeks was arrested by much stronger crude oil prices and continued U.S. refining problems," survey editor Trilby Lundberg said.

      The U.S. Benchmark grade rose $4.79 per barrel during the three weeks to July 13 to close at $73.99.

      At the same time the United States continued to have problems with some of its refineries.

      Flooding caused Coffeyville Resources shut down its Kansas refinery on July 12, while BP had to cut back production at its Whiting, Indiana, refinery on July 11 because of a small leak. Both were expected to be back at to close to full production this week.

      In the Midwest, gas prices rose on average 24 cents per gallon during the three-week period with some cities seeing rises of more than 30 cents including Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Des Moines, Iowa.

      A gallon of gas cost only about a penny more on the Gulf and East Coasts, but in the Western region and in the Rockies states, gas prices fell 6 to 7 cents during the three weeks.

      Tucson, Arizona, had the lowest average gas price in the nation at $2.80 a gallon, while Chicago drivers paid the most at an average $3.46, according to the latest survey..."

      One hint of bad news after another.  Is our petroleum situation doomed?

      WARSAW (Reuters) - "President George W. Bush meets his Polish counterpart Lech Kaczynski on Monday to iron out details of plans for a U.S. missile shield in eastern Europe that could strain relations with an already jittery Moscow.

      Underlining the growing tension between Russia and the West, President Vladimir Putin on Saturday signed a decree suspending Moscow's participation in the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty.

      But Washington is determined to go ahead with building the missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic despite Putin's objections and proposal to use a radar in Azerbaijan instead.

      The talks with Kaczynski, one of Moscow's most outspoken critics and a key U.S. ally in Europe, should bring the plan closer to life.

      "We won't be announcing a final agreement in Washington because President Kaczynski will want to do this at home. But we should be much closer to a deal after the meeting," said a senior Polish official who declined to be named.

      Washington wants to place interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar facility in the Czech Republic to protect the United States and its allies from missile attacks from what it calls "rogue states" such as Iran and North Korea.

      President Bush last month visited both Poland and the Czech Republic, which has already agreed to host the radar site on its territory.

      TOKYO (Fox) —  "A 6.8-magnitude earthquake rocked Japan's northwest coast on Monday, reportedly killing at least four people. The quake injured more than 400 people, flattened hundreds of buildings and triggered a fire at a nuclear power plant.

      Fire sirens could be heard in hard-hit Kashiwazaki city, and older buildings were reduced to piles of lumber. National broadcaster NHK reported more than 400 people were hurt, with injuries including broken bones, cuts and bruises.

      Two women in Kashiwazaki died, an official at Kashiwazaki Central Hospital said on condition of anonymity, citing hospital protocol. NHK reported later reported that an additional two people had died.

      "I was so scared — the violent shaking went on for 20 seconds," Ritei Wakatsuki, an employee of convenience store Lawson, told The Associated Press by telephone from Kashiwazaki. "I almost fainted by the fear of shaking."

      Flames and billows of black smoke poured from the Kashiwazaki nuclear plant, which automatically shut down during the quake. The fire, at an electrical transformer, was put out shortly after noon and there was no release of radioactivity or damage to the reactors, said Motoyasu Tamaki, a Tokyo Electric Power Co. official..."

     MOSCOW, Russia (AP) -- Russia on Saturday suspended its participation in a key European arms control treaty that governs deployment of troops on the continent, the Kremlin said, a move that threatened to further aggravate Moscow's already tense relations with the West.

      President Vladimir Putin signed a decree suspending Russia's participation in the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty due to "extraordinary circumstances ... which affect the security of the Russian Federation and require immediate measures," the Kremlin said in a statement.

      Putin has in the past threatened to freeze his country's compliance with the treaty, accusing the United States and its NATO partners of undermining regional stability with U.S. plans for a missile defense system in former Soviet bloc countries in Eastern Europe.

      Under the moratorium, Russia would halt inspections and verifications of its military sites by NATO countries and would no longer limit the number of its conventional weapons, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

      In Brussels, NATO spokesman James Appathurai condemned the decision. "NATO regrets this decision by the Russian Federation. It is a step in the wrong direction," Appathurai said.

      The treaty, between Russian and NATO members, was signed in 1990 and amended in 1999 to reflect changes since the breakup of the Soviet Union, adding the requirement that Moscow withdraw troops from the former Soviet republics of Moldova and Georgia.

      Russia has ratified the amended version, but the United States and other NATO members have refused to do so until Russia completely withdraws.

      I wonder what ol' Rootin' Tootin' Vladimir Putin has up his sleeve this time...

      FRANKFURT (Reuters) - European retail banks must consolidate to become attractive takeover targets, the head of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) was quoted as saying in an interview with Germany's Der Spiegel magazine.

      International retail banking was JPMorgan's biggest strategic gap, Jamie Dimon was quoted as saying. And the bank could carry out an acquisition in this area, and possibly in Europe, the CEO said.

      Timing would depend on prices and possibilities, Dimon told the magazine. "Now we are indeed strong enough, but first larger entities have to be created through the process of further consolidation," Der Spiegel quoted Dimon as saying.

      "They could then become an interesting takeover target for us, but that will more likely be an issue for my successor," he added..."

      MELBOURNE, Australia (Reuters) -- "A man appeared in court in Sydney on Saturday after taking an armored personnel carrier on a rampage through the city's western suburbs in which he destroyed six mobile phone towers, Australian media reported.

      Suburban Mt Druitt police Chief Inspector Guy Haberley said the 45-year-old man had been arrested on his way to damaging a seventh tower, according to News Ltd.

      "He continued to destroy mobile tower communications sheds by crashing through the perimeter fence and colliding with structures, causing significant damage," Haberley was quoted as saying.

      The charges included malicious damage, break and enter, predatory driving and driving in a dangerous manner.