Tampa Bay Times from St. Petersburg, Florida • 7

Sunday, February 11, 2007 17A World Mjlj tampabay.com for more world news it -k St. Petersburg Times Putn sans U.S. Willi atf to global Fried en G-7 concerns: Asian currency and hedge funds Associated Press ESSEN, Germany China came under renewed pressure Saturday from the Group of Seven to make its yuan more flexible, while Japan emerged from the meeting without a public scolding, despite criticism beforehand that its weakened yen was hurting other economies. The finance ministers and central bankers from the world's wealthiest nations also called for more vigilance on the rising power of hedge funds, but favored a conciliatory approach toward the industry. They also said major developed economies were showing solid growth, and that added that energy efficiency and diversification particularly renewable forms remained a priority.

China's tight control of its currency and huge trade surpluses have raised concerns in the West. The G-7 lauded China's commitment to "rebalance growth," but called on the country to let the yuan have greater flexibility in responding to market movements. China has amassed more than $l-trillion in foreign currency reserves as it buys dollars to control the value of the yuan a practice G-7 finance ministers have criticized in the past Ahead of the meeting, Japan had faced complaints from the euro zone that its weakening yen was giving the country an unfair competitive edge, making Japanese goods cheaper than those in the EU. But Japan was left out the G-7's declaration on foreign currency issues, while China was mentioned by name. Germany has made dealing with hedge funds a priority given their rising influence over companies.

Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck has said the country wants G-7 nations and EU countries to try to pre-empt risks that speculative hedge funds may pose to the global financial system Associated Press Framed by a background reading "Peace by Dialogue," Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses the Security Conference in Munich, Germany. New York Times MUNICH, Germany President Vladimir Putin of Russia accused the United States on Saturday of provoking a new nuclear arms race by developing ballistic missile defenses, undermining international institutions, making the Middle East more unstable through its clumsy handling of the Iraq war and trying to divide modern Europe. In an address to an international security conference, Putin dropped all diplomatic gloss to recite a long list of complaints about U.S. domination of global affairs, included many of the themes that have strained relations between the Kremlin and the United States during his seven-year administration. Among them were the expansion of NATO into the Baltics and the perception in Russia that the West has supported groups that have toppled other governments in Moscow's former sphere of influence.

"The process of NATO expansion has nothing to do with modernization of the alliance," Putin said. "We have the right to ask, Against whom is this expansion directed?" The comments were the sternest yet from Putin, who has long bristled over criticism from the United States and its European allies as he and his cadre of former Soviet intelligence officials have consolidated their hold on Russia's government, energy reserves and arms-manufacturing and trading complexes. Rubble from the Berlin Wall was "hauled away as souvenirs" to countries that praise openness and personal freedom, he said, but "now there are attempts to impose new dividing lines and rules, maybe virtual, but still dividing our mutual continent" The world, Putin said, is now unipolar: "One single center of power. One single center of force. One single center of decision making.

This is the world of one master, one sovereign." With German Chancellor Angela Merkel, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and a U.S. congressional delegation sitting stone-faced, Putin warned that the power amassed by any nation that assumes this ultimate global role "destroys it from within. It has nothing in common with democracy, of course." "Primarily the United States has overstepped its national borders, and in every area," said Putin, who increasingly has tried to re-establish Russia's once broad Soviet-era influence, using Russia's natural resources as leverage and defending nations at odds with the United States, including Iran.

U.S. military actions, which he termed "unilateral" and "illegitimate," also "have not been able to resolve any matters at all," and have created only more instability and danger. "They bring us to the abyss of one conflict after another," he said. "Political solutions are becoming impossible." Putin did offer at least two significant and conciliatory statements to the United States. President Bush "is a decent man, and one can do business with him," he said.

From their meetings and discussions, Putin said, he has heard the U.S. president say, "I assume Russia and the United States will never be enemies, and I agree." THE POWER TO A HALF PRICE ftMOTORASR AFGHANISTAN TALIBAN FIGHTERS STEP UP ATTACKS ON NATO FORCES Taliban insurgents have increased attacks in southern Afghanistan in recent days, killing four Afghan police officers in an ambush on Friday night and aiming at NATO troops with the second suicide bombing in a week in what seems to be the opening of the fighting season, officials said Saturday. The suicide bomber smashed his car into a NATO military convoy north of Kandahar on Saturday morning, killing himself but not hurting anyone else, said the provincial police chief, Asmatullah Alizay. Another bomber attacked a military convoy in the same place on Feb. 4.

Taliban insurgents have also appeared again in the troubled southern district of Panjwai, ambushing a police patrol on Friday night and killing four police officers and wounding two more. NATO troops mounted two heavy combat operations last year to clear insurgents from the area. SOMALIA Five people die in mortar attacks Mortar attacks in a residential area and on a hotel in the Somali capital killed five people and injured 10 on Saturday, witnesses said, a day after a previously unknown pro-Islamist group warned it would step up violence. Mogadishu has seen increasing violence over the past month, after government troops backed by Ethiopian forces ousted the Islamic movement that controlled Mogadishu and much of southern Somalia'. A mortar blast at a homeless camp killed a 13-year-old girl and wounded two people, said Shamsa Hadi Abdi Wali, a nurse at nearby Banadir Hospital who had gone to the camp to offer help.

Mogadishu's airport and a hotel where the transitional government was holding a weeklong meeting to discuss reconciliation in the capital also came under mortar attack. JAPAN Hundreds protest U.S. jets' arrival About 500 protesters gathered outside a U.S. air base Saturday to oppose the arrival of a dozen F-22 stealth ighters, the aircraft's first deployment outside the United States. The demonstration was held outside Kadena Air Base, one of the largest U.S.

airfields in the Pacific, on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa. The protest was peaceful, and no arrests were reported. The stealth fighters, the newest and most expensive in the U.S. Air Force, were due to arrive from their base in Langley, on Saturday. Bad weather forced a delay, however, and officials said they were rescheduled to arrive today.

Tokyo and Washington agreed on the deployment, vich is to last three months, as a means of boosting the U.S. military's readiness and deterrent abilities, and because they say it provides a valuable training experience forthe fighter pilots and their support IRAN National airline to fly to Venezuela Iran's national airline will begin flights to Venezuela next month in another sign of the two nations' increasingly close ties. Iran Air will operate a weekly, commercial flight linking Tehran and Caracas in March, the Venezuelan government said in a statement Friday. Flights leaving Tehran will stop in Syria's capital of Damascus on their way to Caracas, it said. Iran Air opened a new office at the headquarters of Venezuela's state airline Conviasa in Caracas on Friday, and Conviasa will soon open a commercial office in Iran, the statement said.

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