
Britain could be forced to bail out one or more of its offshore tax havens at huge cost, according to early drafts of a Treasury report, because the economic crisis has wrecked their finances, according to The Guardian from London.

Rich Americans who have evaded taxes by hiding their foreign holdings have about a week to decide whether to turn in to an Internal Revenue Service amnesty program or gamble that they will not be caught.

US President Barack Obama has warned bankers against complacency, saying that some in the industry are ignoring the lessons of the financial crisis. We will not go back to the days of reckless behaviour and unchecked excess at the heart of this crisis, he said.

Despite vowing a new beginning in the US-Cuba relations, President Barack Obama has decided to extend the 47-year-long US trade embargo on Cuba for another year.

European Union (EU) governments should be braced for more job losses, officials in Brussels said Monday as they published forecasts pointing to a slow recovery in the 27-member bloc. Unemployment in the Euro-zone reached 9% in the second quarter and could reach 10% in the coming quarters.

Britons saw the value of their wealth dive by 12% during 2008 on the back of steep house price falls and sliding equity markets, research showed yesterday. The collective wealth of all UK households dropped from £6.736 trillion at the end of 2007 to £5.921 trillion at the end of last year, according to Halifax.

Brazilian Minister of Finance Guido Mantega said that the global crisis has a “very low cost” for the finances of Latinamerica’s largest economy which last week officially announced the end of recession.

Beijing announced it would launch anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations into some United States imported vehicles and chicken products from the United States, the Ministry of Commerce said Monday, escalating a trade disputes which was triggered when the US decided to raise tariffs on Chinese-made tires.

US oil firm Chevron has signed 60 billion US dollars worth of deals to supply natural gas to Japan and South Korea from its Gorgon project in Australia. Chevron Australia said it would supply Osaka Gas with 1.375 million tonnes of natural gas a year over 25 years.

The Brazilian government announced Friday that 2009 second quarter real GDP, adjusted for inflation increased 1.9% from the first quarter of 2009, according to data released by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).