World Briefs

More than 10,000 people are protesting against the banks’ dominance in two of the Germany’s major cities, police said yesterday.

Police in Frankfurt, continental Europe’s financial hub, said some 9,000 people protested peacefully near the European Central Bank’s office tower in the city centre.

Police in Berlin said demonstrators are forming a human chain surrounding parts of the capital’s government district to call for an end to excesses of financial speculation and urge the government to dismantle big banks.

Berlin police said “several thousand” people took to the streets, but organisers of the protest – which is inspired by New York’s Occupy Wall Street movement – said turnout was about 8,000 in Berlin and 10,000 in Frankfurt.

Japan ‘not immune to euro crisis’

The chief of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said Italy’s financial reform is key to reducing the impact of the eurozone crisis on the rest of the world, including Japan.

Christine Lagarde said Italy must promptly restore political stability and implement financial reforms to improve the ongoing eurozone crisis and offset its global impact.

After meeting with top Japanese financial and banking officials in Tokyo, Ms Lagarde expressed concerns about the consequences of the eurozone, particularly on Asia.

She said that all countries are interconnected and that Japan is no more immune than other nations.

Europe has bailed out Greece, Portugal and Ireland. Italy is now under pressure to control its dangerous debt and restore credible political leadership.

Woman ‘tried to buy infant’

A West Texas woman has been charged with attempting to buy a seven-week-old infant from the child’s mother for €1,455 – to be paid in instalments, police have said.

Marilu Munoz, 27, and the child’s mother, Joana Delacruz Huerta, 29, were charged with the sale or purchase of an infant, a third-degree felony, police in Abilene said.

Officers said they found out about the alleged sale from an anonymous tip on Thursday morning. Some of the scheduled payments had already occurred, police Sgt Lynn Beard said.

“It was a one-on-one kind of thing, just someone who wanted a baby,” the officer added. The infant was taken into custody by Child Protective Service, authorities said.

White House shooting scare

Police have recovered an AK-47 assault rifle after closing a stretch of Constitution Avenue near the White House to investigate reports of gunfire in the area.

Sgt David Schlosser of the US Park Police said the White House did not appear to have been the focus of the incident.

Secret Service spokesman Edwin Donovan said witnesses heard shots and saw two vehicles racing on Constitution Avenue toward 17th Street, and one of the vehicles was abandoned at 23rd and Constitution. Witnesses saw the driver get out and run across the Roosevelt Bridge toward Arlington, Virginia, Donovan said.

Air alert about Sudan bases

A US satellite monitoring group said that Sudan’s military is upgrading air bases near the border with South Sudan and building up air resources in what could be a precursor to a widened aerial bombing campaign. The report came a day after officials accused Sudan of bombing a refugee camp in South Sudan, which became the world’s newest country only four months ago.

The government of Khartoum denied that there was even a camp housing northern Sudanese refugees who fled south for refuge, adding that its air force had not bombed any area of South Sudan.