China and Japan to start direct yen-yuan trade in June
China will allow direct trading of the yuan and the Japanese yen, in a move aimed at promoting trade between Asia's two biggest economies.
This means the two countries will not be using the US dollar as an intermediary.
China, which sometimes has a tense relationship with Japan, is the country's biggest trading partner.
China's central bank said the China Foreign Exchange Trade system would launch this trade, starting next month.
"This is part of China's broader strategy to reduce dependence on the dollar," said Dariusz Kowalczyk from Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong.
He added that the yen was chosen because of the large amount of trade between the two countries and that "this could lead to an expansion of trading with other currencies".
In December, the leaders of Japan and China agreed to mutually promote direct trading between the two currencies based on market principles.
The People's Bank of China said the move would help lower currency conversion costs and help facilitate bilateral trade and investment.
Japanese Finance Minister Jun Azumi told reporters that trading under a new regime will start in Tokyo and Shanghai on 1 June, according to Reuters News agency.
"By conducting transactions without using the third country's currency, it will bring merits of reducing transaction costs and lowering risks involved in settlements at financial institutions," said Mr Azumi.
"That will contribute to improve convenience of the both countries' currencies and reinvigorate the Tokyo market."
Japanese media are reporting that this is the first time China has let a major currency other than the US dollar trade directly with the yuan.
Spain funding situation 'very difficult', PM Rajoy says
Spain's prime minister has said it is "very difficult" for the country to get funds.
He was speaking amid growing fears about the Spanish banking sector, after Bankia asked the government for 19bn euros ($24bn, £15bn).
The premium investors demanded for holding Spain's 10-year bonds over its German equivalent rose to a record 5.05 percentage points.
But Mr Rajoy said the banking system did not need an international bailout.
"There will not be any [European] rescue for the Spanish banking system," he said, but he backed calls for the European rescue fund to be able to lend to banks directly.
Last week Bankia, which was formed from the merger of several struggling regional lenders, requested a 19bn-euro bailout, which was a much bigger amount of help than had been expected.
"We took the bull by the horns because the alternative was collapse," said Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, adding that Bankia customers' savings were now safer than ever.
It marks an effective nationalisation for the country's third-largest bank and has raised fears about how Spain plans to pay for it.
Rather than borrowing money on the open markets, potentially at high cost, there are reports that Madrid is considering giving Bankia government bonds. The bank would then use them as collateral for loans from the European Central Bank.
One analyst said this would amount to "an ECB bailout through the back door".
Some are concerned that by doing this, the government is not tackling the problem of the huge amount of bad property loans, estimated at 32bn euros, that Bankia is holding.
"It is not dealing with the problem of bad loans, it is just keeping them going," said Kathleen Brooks, research director at Forex.com. "It risks becoming a zombie bank," she told BBC News.
Bankia's shares lost almost a third of their value earlier, in their first trading session since the request for government help. They later closed down 13%.
There were also reports in a Spanish newspaper, El Mundo, that the government may have to inject an additional 30bn euros into three other nationalised banks; CatalunyaCaixa, NovacaixaGalicia and Banco de Valencia.
Mr Rajoy said he did not think his government's support for Bankia had influenced what is known as the risk premium, the difference between Spanish and German bond yields.
"There are major doubts over the eurozone and that makes the risk premium for some countries very high."
"That's why it would be a very good idea to deliver a clear message there's no going back for the euro," Mr Rajoy said.
The higher bond yields rise, the more expensive it is likely to be for governments to borrow money.
Kathleen Brooks said "it seems only a matter of time" until bond investors demanded an even greater rate of return than the record high of 6.7% reached in November 2011.
Elisabeth Afseth, an analyst at Investec, said that rising bond yields in certain parts of the eurozone would make it harder for those countries to straighten out their finances.
"If it goes on for much longer, it just adds to the burden of fiscal consolidation, she said.
"If a large part of that [the yield] is spent on paying a premium to borrow, it just makes it so much harder."
Italian government bond yields also ticked higher, rising to 5.87%.
Greece poll
Despite the worries about Spain, which caused its main share index to close 2% lower, other European stock markets started the day higher.
Greek shares rose 7% after a weekend poll in Greece showed growing support for a pro-austerity conservative party.
The poll suggested the New Democracy party could gain about a quarter of the votes, leaving it as the biggest party, albeit without overall control.
The next elections are scheduled for 17 June.
London, Paris and Frankfurt markets all rose at least 1% at the start of trading, before trimming gains to close flat on the day. Although both Germany and France have a public holiday on Monday, their equity markets remain open.
Canada to force striking rail workers back to work
The Canadian government has introduced legislation to force striking workers at Canadian Pacific Railway to go back to work.
Almost 5,000 staff took action at midnight last Wednesday, bringing traffic to a halt on 24,000 km (14,900 miles) of track.
The government decided to take action after talks stalled over the weekend.
Labour Minister, Lisa Raitt said the shutdown of Canadian Pacific's freight service was hurting the economy.
"The strike can't go on," Ms Raitt told parliament.
"We need to get the trains running again."
The legislation was introduced on Monday and the government hopes striking workers will be back to work on Thursday.
Canadian Pacific is the nation's second biggest railway firm and moves half of its potash, wheat and coal production.
Union leaders are unhappy over the company's contribution to staff pension plans.
China looks to boost private-sector investment in banks
China has opened up its banking system to private-sector investors, the latest move by Beijing aimed at underpinning economic growth.
Over the weekend, China said that private investors would have the same rights as state firms when trying to invest in domestic banks.
Despite China's strong economic growth, critics say expansion has been hampered by an inefficient banking sector.
China recently opened up other sectors such as energy and telecommunications.
The hope is that by attracting new foreign investment, China can stimulate a fresh and enduring phase of economic development.
Monopoly busting
The changes to the bank restrictions were announced by the China Banking Regulatory Commission, which was quoted as saying it wanted to boost lending and increase the efficiency and transparency of the banking market.
According to the new rules, private-sector investors will be allowed to purchase stakes in Chinese banks through a number of means including stock placements, new share subscriptions, equity transfers, and mergers and acquisitions.
The move comes after China's outgoing Premier Wen Jiabao said in April that the country needed to break up the monopoly of national banks, saying it was "too easy" for national banks to generate profits.
At the same time he complained that they were not lending enough.
One of the areas where China has seen problems has been in the way banks lend to small and medium-sized businesses.
This has seen an increase in the amount of illegal and non-sanctioned lending, a problem that policymakers have said they want to reduce.
Greek banks receive 18bn euros from bailout fund
Four Greek banks have received 18bn euros (£14.4bn, $22.6bn) as part of the nation's most recent bailout.
The funds will be divided between National Bank, Alpha, Eurobank and Piraeus Bank.
The money has been released by the European Financial Stability Fund to the Greek body in charge of distributing the funds.
It is part of Greece's second bailout that was signed-off by the European Union and the IMF in March.
That deal was for 130bn euros and hinged on an agreement by Europe's major banks and other financial institutions to write-off a large part of their loans to Greece.
A report on Monday said that National Bank, the biggest Greek lender, has received 7.43bn euros, the largest share of the new financing.
The report from the AFP news agency said that Piraeus bank will receive 4.7bn euros, Eurobank will get 3.97bn euros and Alpha is to be handed 1.9bn euros.
The Hellenic Financial Stability Fund (HFSF) is in charge of distributing that money.
The plan is for it to provide up to 50bn euros in return for shares in Greek banks.
Greek banks have been unable to raise money on the international markets so have been relying on the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of Greece for funding.
Up to the end of January, Greek banks had borrowed 73bn euros from the ECB and 54bn euros from the Bank of Greece.
UN envoy Kofi Annan set to meet Syria's Bashar al-Assad
UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan is due to hold talks on Tuesday with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus.
Mr Annan's plan to end the country's conflict has been overshadowed by international revulsion at Friday's massacre in the Houla region.
Mr Annan called the massacre "an appalling moment with profound consequences".
Survivors have told the BBC of their shock and fear as regime forces entered their homes and killed their families.
Mr Annan said the Syrian government has to take "bold steps" to show it is serious about peace.
He said his "message of peace is not only for the government, but for everyone with a gun".
On Monday Mr Annan held talks with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem and the head of the UN observer mission in Syria, Major General Robert Mood.
Under Mr Annan's plan, both sides were to stop fighting on 12 April ahead of the deployment of monitors, and the government was to withdraw tanks and forces from civilian areas.
Mr Annan will be pressing Mr Assad to make good on those earlier promises, the BBC's Jim Muir in neighbouring Lebanon reports.
Much will depend on the position taken by Syria's main international ally and diplomatic protector, Russia, our correspondent adds.
Russia, which has twice blocked UN Security Council resolutions backing action against President Bashar al-Assad's regime, said on Monday that both sides bore responsibility for Friday's massacre.
"We are dealing with a situation in which both sides evidently had a hand in the deaths of innocent civilians," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
Western leaders have expressed horror at the killings, and the UK, France and US have all begun moves to raise diplomatic pressure on the Assad government.
France is convening another meeting of the so-called Friends of Syria group, which Russia does not take part in.
"The murderous folly of the Damascus regime represents a threat for regional security and its leaders will have to answer for their acts," said President Francois Hollande's office.
'I saw bodies'
Survivors who spoke to the BBC, and the local commander of the Free Syrian Army, said the people who carried out the killings were militiamen - shabbiha - from nearby Alawite villages.
Their accounts cannot be confirmed, but they are consistent with one another, and also with the reports given by activist groups on the ground in the immediate aftermath of the massacres, our correspondent says.
Syrian leaders will be giving Kofi Annan a different account in their talks, he adds.
They still insist that what they admit was a massacre was the work of hundreds of armed rebels who massed in the area, and who carried out the killings in order to derail the peace process and provoke intervention by Nato.
Several witnesses said they hid or played dead to survive.
UN observers who visited the village of Taldou where the massacre happened said they had found evidence of shelling from government forces.
They also confirmed that some of the 108 victims - many of whom were children - had been killed by close-range gunfire or knife attacks.
"We were in the house, they went in, the shabbiha and security, they went in with Kalashnikovs and automatic rifles," survivor Rasha Abdul Razaq told the BBC.
"They took us to a room and hit my father on the head with the back of a rifle and shot him straight in the chin."
Of 20 family members and friends in the house at the time, she said only four had survived.
Another resident, who asked to remain anonymous, said he hid in the attic as gunmen took his family outside and shot them.
"I opened the door, and I saw bodies, I couldn't recognise my kids from my brothers. It was indescribable. I have three children, I lost three children," he said.
Bluefin tuna record Fukushima radioactivity
Pacific Bluefin tuna caught off the coast of California have been found to have radioactive contamination from last year's Fukushima nuclear accident.
The fish would have picked up the pollution while swimming in Japanese waters, before then moving to the far side of the ocean.
Scientists stress that the fish are still perfectly safe to eat.
However, the case does illustrate how migratory species can carry pollution over vast distances, they say.
"It's a lesson to us in how interconnected eco-regions can be, even when they may be separated by thousands of miles," Nicholas Fisher, a professor of marine sciences at Stony Brook University, New York, told BBC News.
Fisher and colleagues report their study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
They examined the muscle tissues of 15 Bluefin tuna (Thunnus orientalis) taken from waters off San Diego in August 2011, just a few months after the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
These were animals whose parents would have spawned in Japanese waters and spent one to years locally before heading to feeding grounds in the eastern Pacific.
All the fish examined in the study showed elevated levels of radioactive caesium - the isotopes 134 and 137.
Caesium-137 is present in seawater anyway as a result of the fallout from atomic weapons testing, but the short, two-year half-life of caesium-134 means the contamination can be tied directly to Fukushima. There is no other explanation for the isotope's presence.
The measured concentrations were about 10 times the total caesium radioactivity seen in tuna specimens taken from before the accident.
As a control, the team also examined Yellowfin tuna, which are largely residential in the eastern Pacific.
These animals showed no difference in their pre- or post-Fukushima concentrations.
The research is likely to get attention because Bluefin tuna is an iconic species and a highly valuable fishery - thousands of tonnes are landed annually.
But consumers should have no health concerns about eating California-caught tuna from last year, the team says.
By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News
US Denies Sending Commandos to Spy on North Korea
U.S. military officials are rejecting a report suggesting that U.S. military commandos have been parachuting into North Korea to gather intelligence on Pyongyang's underground military installations.
The Diplomat, a Tokyo-based political journal, on Monday carried a report alleging that a senior U.S. special operations commander revealed the supposed commando program at a conference in Florida last week.
But Colonel Jonathan Withington, a spokesperson for the United States Forces Korea, dismissed the story when contacted by VOA on Tuesday. He said the report took “great liberal license” with the comments made by Army Brig. Gen. Neil Tolley, saying some of the quotes were “made up and attributed to him.”
The Diplomat quoted Tolley as saying that both U.S. and South Korean commandos were taking part in the reconnaissance mission, which it said was aimed at uncovering information on “thousands of tunnels” built by Pyongyang since the Korean war.
Col. Withington said it is well-known that North Korea uses tunnels to hide its sensitive military operations. But he said “at no time” have U.S. or South Korean forces parachuted into North Korea to conduct special reconnaissance.
The author of the report in The Diplomat, David Axe, rejected suggestions he fabricated the quotes attributed to the general. He said if the general was speaking hypothetically, “he did not say so” and that “he spoke in the present tense” and “at length.”
Indian PM to Meet with Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh meets Tuesday with Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi as he wraps up his three-day visit to strengthen trade and investment links between the two Asian neighbors.
Prime Minister Singh met with Burmese President Thein Sein on Monday. The two leaders signed about a dozen trade and investment agreements, including deals on air services and the Indian promise of a $500 million line of credit.
Mr. Singh is the first Indian prime minister to visit Burma since 1987.
He will visit Aung San Suu Kyi in the commercial capital, Rangoon, before the Nobel laureate departs for Thailand on her first international trip in 24 years.
The meeting is seen as an indication that India is open to reaffirming ties with the opposition activist. New Delhi has long been criticized for its ties with Burma's oppressive former military leadership, which stepped down last year.
Bilateral trade between Burma and India is currently valued at $1.5 billion annually. Analysts say it is expected to exceed $3 billion by 2015.
New Delhi is pressing its quest for energy supplies needed to fuel its booming economy, and Burma's new, nominally civilian government seeks to shed its image as a closed authoritarian state ruled for a half century by military generals.
Egyptians Torch Shafiq Headquarters as Election Results Trigger Violence
Egyptian demonstrators incensed that ousted leader Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister has advanced into a run-off presidential election have vandalized his main campaign office and set it on fire after officials confirmed the vote results.
Emergency personnel said late Monday the blaze at Ahmed Shafiq's Cairo headquarters had been extinguished and that no one was hurt.
Earlier, several thousand protesters gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square and other venues across Egypt, chanting slogans against the military, Shafiq and the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate, Mohammed Morsi.The count from Egypt's first free presidential race last week showed the Brotherhood's Morsi as the top vote-getter and secularist Ahmed Shafiq a strong second.
Shafiq is widely viewed as an extension and symbol of Mubarak's rule and his run-off against Morsi is the most polarizing result possible. The outcome has divided Egypt and deeply disappointed the activist movement that galvanized the nation's 2011 revolt against Mubarak's entrenched old guard.
The presidential vote results were being contested even before they were released.
The expected three top candidates filed appeals with the election commission, alleging violations and fraud. Socialist Hamdeen Sabahi called for a partial vote recount in five provinces where the results are in dispute.
The presidential runoff, to be held June 16-17, will offer Egyptians a stark choice between candidates from divergent paths.
Morsi netted 5,764,952 votes, slightly ahead of Shafiq with 5,505,327. Sabahi took third place with more than 4.8 million votes, ahead of moderate Islamist Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh with a little over 4 million. Former foreign minister Amr Moussa placed fifth, trailing with 2.58 million votes.
The commission said turnout was 46 percent of the 50 million Egyptians who were eligible to vote.
Morsi was not his Islamist group's first choice for its presidential candidate. But he got the role when the Brotherhood's lead candidate was disqualified, and then became a front-runner in a show of the group's political muscle.
During the campaign, Morsi delivered fiery speeches and vowed his presidency would be based on Islam but not be a theocracy.
Shafiq was Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister before he lost power during last year's pro-democracy protests.
The former Air Force commander was appointed prime minister in hopes of appeasing the popular revolt. But because of that connection to Mr. Mubarak, he is viewed with some suspicion by activists involved in the 2011 movement and has polarized voters.
A presidential victory for one of the secularist candidates would mark a significant turn from parliamentary elections just six months ago when more than 70 percent of Egyptian voters cast ballots for Islamist parties.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.