The United States and Canada said on Wednesday Europe must put up more of its own money to resolve its sovereign debt crisis, raising doubts G20 talks in Mexico this week can lay the ground for a deal on bolstering IMF resources.

Japan and South Korea also want Europe to do more and China might insist a number of conditions are met before it supports a boost in IMF resources.

“We continue to believe that the IMF can play an important role in Europe, but only as a supplement to Europe’s own efforts,” a U.S. Treasury spokesperson said. “The IMF cannot substitute for a robust euro area firewall.”

Group of 20 deputy officials meet in Mexico City on Thursday and Friday to discuss boosting IMF resources. Any outcome would need leaders’ signoff. G20 finance ministers meet in late February.

The IMF plan to boost its lending capacity eased worries on financial markets about Europe’s funding difficulties, boosting the value of the euro.

IMF sources said the world faces a $1 trillion financing gap over the next two years if global economic conditions worsened considerably. The IMF’s current lending capacity is about $380 billion.

The sources, present at an IMF board meeting on the issue on Tuesday, said the Fund was seeking to raise up to $600 billion to meet those potential financing needs. Of that, $500 billion would be for lending and $100 billion would be a “protection buffer.”

An IMF spokesman confirmed the Fund was seeking to raise up to $500 billion in additional lending resources. He said that amount included a European commitment to inject $200 billion into IMF resources.

“At this preliminary stage, we are exploring options on funding and will have no further comment until the necessary consultations,” he said.

The United States repeated that it would not contribute more resources to the IMF.

With a strained budget at home, some U.S. congressional Republicans have threatened to yank $100 billion in U.S. money to the IMF if the funds are used to bail out euro zone countries. The White House is unlikely to want to take the issue on as President Barack Obama seeks re-election this year.

“We have told our international partners that we have no intention to seek additional resources for the IMF,” a Treasury spokeswoman said.

“Many countries want the Europeans to move ahead with tougher and clearer measures, which at this moment translates to more resources to its stability fund,” said a senior Brazilian government source attending the G20 officials’ meeting in Mexico.

China’s Foreign Ministry said Beijing stood by G20 commitments to ensure the IMF has ample funds to cope with the financial crisis, but it stopped short of saying the country was ready to put up more cash.

Indeed, China is likely to resist moves to increase IMF resources unless a number of conditions are met, said Xiang Songzuo, vice director of the International Monetary Institute in Beijing, a high-level policy think tank.

He said these would include more voting power for China and other emerging nations, changing the stance of IMF policy more to meet the concerns of emerging countries — such as on stabilizing capital flows and exchange rates — and making the mechanism for crisis rescue much more transparent.

“The process of negotiating all of that would be quite time consuming,” Xiang said.

Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney said it was not clear European governments had done everything necessary to make sure they could fund themselves at sustainable interest rates over the next few years.

“If it makes sense to enhance the resources of the IMF, the principal focus, it would seem, should be on dealing with fallout of the European crisis for innocent bystanders,” he told a news briefing in Ottawa.

Japan stands ready to support the IMF fund raising drive but it wants to see strong efforts by European countries to resolve the crisis first, a senior government source said in Tokyo.

South Korea is also pressing for discussions first about Europe’s contribution and for it to agree on additional measures, another source connected to the process said. European nations have argued that they have done enough and were calling for more IMF resources now.

“If, with the parallel discussion, we can achieve extra measures from the Europeans and afterwards agree on promises of additional resources for the IMF from non-European countries in the G20, I think it would be a good result,” the source said.

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said the IMF management would explore options for increasing the fund’s firepower.

Europe’s debt crisis is widely seen as the biggest threat to the global economy. Many countries used up a lot of their financial firepower fighting the global downturn in 2008 and 2009. A fresh global slump would raise fears more countries might need to be rescued by the IMF.

Indeed, the World Bank on Wednesday said Europe was probably already in recession and the euro area debt crisis posed a “real” risk to the global economy. The IMF has warned it will cut its global growth projections when it updates its forecast on January 24.

With credit downgrades in nine euro zone countries by Standard & Poor’s last week, including France, and uncertainty over Greek debt talks that risk pushing the country into default, the IMF board has urged euro zone leaders to take steps to contain the crisis.

The board called for policies that would address the European crisis and for euro zone policymakers to make sure there is enough money available to tackle the bloc’s debt problems effectively.

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The English version of the online encyclopedia receives an average of more than 25 million daily visitors globally, according to comScore research data.

It is the highest profile name to join a growing campaign to black out pages so visitors only see information criticising the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (Pipa).

“When you are trying to do your research paper, when you are just trying to find some factual information and a lot of people rely on Wikipedia, it won’t be there,” Lance Ulanoff, editor-in-chief of online news site Mashable, said.

“They’ve basically come to a message that says they’ve gone dark in protest.”

Smaller site Boing Boing blacked out its pages and the creators of Reddit.com promised to keep its homepage down for 12 hours. The AOL-owned Huffington Post joined in with a black entrance screen.

Search engine Google (NasdaqGS: GOOG - news) has not blacked out its pages but created a link for their US homepage redirecting users to information about why Sopa may not be a good thing.

Google has repeatedly said the bill goes too far and could hurt investment.

Along with other internet companies such as Yahoo (NasdaqGS: YHOO - news) , Facebook, Twitter and eBay, it has run advertisements in major US newspapers urging Washington politicians to rethink their approach.

The Sopa legislation under consideration in the House of Representatives and Pipa in the Senate aims to crack down on online sales of pirated US movies, music and other goods.

It forces internet companies to block access to foreign sites offering material that violates US copyright laws.

Advertising networks could also be required to stop online ads, while search engines would be barred from directly linking to websites found to be distributing pirated goods.

The move comes after the US Immigration and Customs targeted dozens of firms based in China selling pirated football, basketball and ice hockey jerseys to people living in the US.

The action, known as Black Monday, occurred in late November (Stuttgart: A0Z24E - news) and affected up to 150 websites selling sportswear, as well as fake luxury handbags.

Rather than specifically targeting the sellers in China it forced US hosting companies to shut down offending websites.

However, within weeks some sites were reactivated and selling items at a fraction of the genuine retail price.

One firm, based south of Shanghai in the Chinese city of Putian, still brazenly advertises its wares.

The Chinese site states: “Our company are prodessional in sports jerseys, we have our manufacturer. We supply Top quality produce and Excellent Services, For now our company have lots of customers from Europe (Chicago Options: ^REURUSD - news) , American, Canada, England, Austialia etc. We hope to build long-term business with all our customers.”

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The bank cut its growth forecast for developing countries this year to 5.4 percent from 6.2 percent and for developed countries to 1.4 percent from 2.7 percent. For the 17 countries that use the euro currency, it forecast a contraction, cutting their growth outlook to -0.3 percent from 1.8 percent.

Global growth could be hurt by a recession in Europe and a slowdown in India, Brazil and other developing countries, the Washington-based bank said. It said conditions might worsen if more European countries are unable to raise money in financial markets.

“The global economy is entering into a new phase of uncertainty and danger,” said the bank’s chief economist, Justin Yifu Lin. “The risks of a global freezing up of capital markets as well as a global crisis similar to what happened in September 2008 are real.”

Developing countries that have enjoyed relatively strong growth while the United States and Europe struggled might be hit hard, Lin said. He said they should line up financing in advance to cover budget deficits, review the health of their banks and emphasize spending on social safety nets.

Many governments are in a weaker position than they were to respond to the 2008 global crisis because their debts and budget deficits are bigger, Lin said at a news conference.

In the event of a major crisis, “no country will be spared,” Lin said. “The downturn is likely to be longer and deeper than the last one.”

The bank’s outlook in its “Global Economic Prospects” report issued twice a year adds to mounting gloom amid Europe’s debt crisis and high U.S. unemployment.

“It is very likely that most European countries, including Germany, entered recession in the fourth quarter of last year,” said Hans Timmer, the World Bank’s director of development projects.

Investors have cut investments in developing countries by 45 percent in the second half of last year, compared with the same period in 2010, Timmer said.

The report follows similar warnings about the global economy by its sister organization, the International Monetary Fund, and private sector forecasters.

For the United States, the bank cut this year’s growth forecast to 2.2 percent from 2.9 percent and for 2013 to 2.4 percent from 2.7 percent. As reasons, it cited the anticipated global slowdown and the on-going fight in Washington over spending and taxes.

Global growth might suffer from the interaction of Europe’s troubles and efforts by China, India, South Africa, Russia and Turkey to cool rapid growth and inflation with interest rate hikes and other measures, the bank said.

China’s expansion slowed to a 2 1/2-year low of 8.9 percent in the three months ending in December from the previous quarter’s 9.1 percent.

As Europe weakens, developing countries could find “their slowdown might be larger than is necessary to cope with inflation pressures,” Lin said.

A global downturn would hurt developing countries by driving down prices for metals, farm goods and other commodities and demand for other exoprts, the World Bank said.

Slower growth is already visible in weakening trade and commodity prices, the World Bank said.

Global exports of goods and services expanded an estimated 6.6 percent in 2011, barely half the previous year’s 12.4 percent rate, the bank said. It said the growth rate is expected to fall to 4.7 percent this year.

Prices of energy, metals and farm products are down 10 to 25 percent from their peaks in early 2011, Timmer said.

The United States is already feeling some pain from Europe’s crisis. Exports to Europe fell 6 percent in November, the Commerce Department said last week.

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In a keynote address at a conference on democracy in the Arab world, Ban Ki-moon said the days of one-man rule and family dynasties are over in the Middle East.

“Today, I say again to President (Bashar) Assad of Syria: Stop the violence. Stop killing your people,” Ban said.

Assad is trying to crush a 10-month-old uprising that he blames on terrorists and armed gangs. The U.N. estimates more than 5,000 people have been killed in the government’s crackdown.

The U.N. chief also urged an end to “Israeli occupation of Arab and Palestinian territories … Settlements, new and old, are illegal. They work against the emergence of a viable Palestinian state.”

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The demand for the death penalty at the 83-year-old former president’s trial played to the widespread resentment of Mubarak among Egyptians who hoped that punishment for his oppressive rule would be fruit of the Arab Spring.

Still, some of the activists who helped topple him are sceptical the sentence would ever be carried out, if he is convicted.

A conviction would be followed by a possibly lengthy appeals process that the ailing Mubarak’s lawyer would likely draw out, and Egypt’s new rulers – the military – have the power to veto a death sentence.

Mubarak has been brought to every hearing since his trial began on August 3 on a hospital gurney, wheeled into the courtroom cage where defendants are held, alongside his two sons, former security chief and six top police commanders.
On Thursday, prosecutor Mustafa Khater gave a passionate speech demanding the death penalty for Mubarak, former Interior Minister Habib el-Adly and four of the police commanders.

They are charged with complicity in the deaths of some 800 protesters during the 18-day uprising that led to Mubarak’s fall on February 11
.

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“We continuously review potential business opportunities around the world. We would like to better understand the current security, political and business environment in South Sudan, and how this has been impacted by the secession,” a spokesman told Reuters in an emailed statement.

The normally tightlipped oil major does not usually comment about possible new areas of interest.

The landlocked South Sudan’s oil industry faces uncertainty due to a dispute with Khartoum about the use of an oil pipeline to the Red Sea — the only current means of exporting South Sudanese crude.

South Sudan accused Khartoum in November of temporarily blocking the loading of crude. Sudan denies the charges.

Khartoum has demanded a tariff fee for transporting the oil that is in excess of 10 times international norms, which are usually calculated on a per kilometer or per mile basis.

French oil major Total SA said last month it had proposed building a pipeline to export the oil via Uganda, which has discovered large reserves around Lake Albert.

Ethiopian newspaper The Reporter said last week that Shell was planning to construct an oil pipeline line from South Sudan to Ethiopia.

The newspaper said “reliable sources” had told it that a business delegation from Shell had visited South Sudan in November.

Shell declined to confirm the visit or the reported pipeline plan.

Analysts doubt a pipeline via Ethiopia would be commercial at this point because Ethiopia lacks developed oil infrastructure or a coastline which would allow it direct access to international markets.

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At 12pm AEDT today, the local currency was at 100.55 US cents, down from 101.50 yesterday afternoon.

IG Markets institutional trader Chris Weston said the Australian dollar was shaped by a drop in other currencies due to growing eurozone uncertainty.

“Price action on the Aussie dollar is just mirroring what we’re seeing with the euro, which is trading on fears around what is happening with the ECB’s (European Central Bank’s) balance sheet,” he said.

“The fact that that’s gone out with a record level is a sobering reminder of the bleak outlook for EU growth, and the Aussie dollar as a proxy for global growth went along for the ride.

“The risks in the short to medium term are still skewed to the downside for the Aussie dollar.”

The ECB announced that its balance sheet had reached a record 2.73 trillion euros, due to its decision to lend more money to institutions.

Mr Weston said he did not expect much more buying ahead of a crucial Italian bond action on Thursday, which would be keenly watched.

It’s not one of those events that I see people buying in anticipation of, because to me it holds downside risks,” he said.

“We’re interested on the skew in the three and ten years – funds will be allocating a percentage to each, and depending on that skew, it will determine the risk profile of the market.

“If we see it heavily weighted towards the shorter dated paper, we are likely to see the euro and the Aussie dollar come off.”

The success of the auction could be a reflection of Italy’s potential to raise cash in the market next year, Mr Weston said.

“Italy has to raise a lot of money next year in the primary market, over three hundred billion, so if they can’t get auctions away now, they’re really going to struggle,” he said.

Since 7am AEDT the local unit has traded between 100.44 and 101.01 US cents.

Bond future prices were higher at noon.

The March 10-year bond futures contract was trading at 96.225 (implying a yield of 3.775 per cent), down from 96.180 (3.820 per cent) yesterday.

The three-year bond futures contract was at 96.880 (3.120 per cent), up from 96.850 (3.150 per cent) yesterday.

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Nick and Holly are on holiday in Mauritius following the finale of Strictly Come Dancing last Saturday, and the groom-to-be got down on one knee on the beach with flaming torches spelling out his request.

Holly shared a picture of the moment Nick popped the question on Twitter last night, with the caption: “And I said YES!!! ♥ Happiest day of my life!!!!! Xxxx”

The couple met at a mutual friend’s dinner party in 2009 and moved in together in London soon after.

The 28-year-old Strictly Come Dancing contestant, who found fame on ‘Neighbours,’ should be able to handle the first dance no problem. We expect Nick will take some lessons to catch up.

We’re pretty certain the wedding will be a dazzling affair, thanks to GQ’s entrepreneur of the year Nick’s huge wealth. The 38-year-old runs the Candy & Candy partnership with his brother, and they count One Hyde Park: The Residences amongst their portfolio of luxury developments.

In an interview last year, Holly revealed what it’s like to be in love with a billionaire, saying: “I’ve got such a disgusting, wide, smug grin on my face all the time that my friends just want to slap me. I’ve never been so happy.”

Big congrats to Holly and Nick!

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The United States immediately announced it would unblock more than $30 billion dollars of assets of the Central Bank of Libya and its subsidiary, the Libyan Foreign Bank (LFB). Britain said it would release more than $10 billion.

An estimated $150 billion of assets were frozen around the world in February after the Security Council ordered sanctions against late strongman Moamer Kadhafi, who was overthrown at the end of an uprising in which tens of thousands died.

The new Tripoli authorities have stepped up calls in recent weeks to release money to pay for salaries and key services amidst a growing threat of economic deadlock.

Prime Minister Abdel Rahim al-Kib and National Transitional Council chief Mustafa Abdel Jalil said the release of funds was “essential for the economic stability of Libya” in a joint letter sent to the council to plea for the freeze to be ended.

An official request for the lifting of sanctions was made one week ago and no objections were made by any of the council’s 15 members enabling the assets freeze to be lifted on Friday.

On top of more than $30 billion blocked in US accounts, Britain’s Foreign Secretary William Hague said his government would immediately act to free about 6.5 billion pounds ($10 billion) held in Britain.

The easing of the sanctions “marks another significant moment in Libya?s transition,” Hague said in a statement.

“It means that Libya’s government will now have full access to the significant funds needed to help rebuild the country, to underpin stability and to ensure that Libyans can make the transactions that are essential to everyday life.”

Hague said Britain would pressure the European Union to quickly release frozen sums.

The White House said it had “rolled back most US sanctions on the government of Libya” — unlocking virtually all Libyan government assets within US jurisdiction.

“These measures, along with the steps taken today by the United Nations Security Council, will allow the Libyan government to access most of its worldwide holdings,” the White House said in a statement.

A global arms embargo and an assets freeze on Kadhafi’s family and associates remains in place, along with financial institutions including the key Libyan Investment Authority sovereign wealth fund.

Central banks around the world had been nervous about releasing funds frozen under sanctions because they considered there were not sufficient guarantees about where the money would go.

“There are huge amounts being held and treasuries were nervous they could face legal action later,” one western diplomat said. “But now the central bank is operating again, free of Kadhafi, we can have some confidence.”

Diplomats warned however that the caution meant that even with the lifting of sanctions Libya may still have to wait for its missing billions.

A UN resolution in September eased sanctions on Libya’s national oil company.

Fighting essentially ended in Libya when Kadhafi was killed in October and the UN Security Council authorized the release of about $18 billion to help the government. But by late November only about $3 billion of that had been made available to Tripoli because of the legal problems.

Libyan Foreign Bank was until recently more widely known as the Libyan Arab Foreign Bank. Entirely owned by the central bank it was set up to carry out transactions abroad, especially for Libya’s foreign trade.

Libyan officials say the country, despite its oil wealth, desperately needs cash to pay for services and get the post-Kadhafi economy moving again.

In their letter to the Security Council, Jalil and al-Kib said lifting sanctions was “essential for the economic stability of Libya; for confidence in the banking sector; for the smooth execution and settlement of both domestic and international banking transactions; and to underpin the social and micro stability of the new Libya.”

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Following an earlier report in the Globe and Mail, the New York Times reported on Monday that documents found abandoned in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, indicated that Chinese companies offered to sell rocket launchers, anti-tank missiles and other arms to Gaddafi’s forces, despite bans on such sales.

“We have hard evidence of deals going on between China and Gaddafi, and we have all the documents to prove it,” a rebel military spokesman, Abdulrahman Busin, told the Times.

Reuters could not verify the reports or the documents cited, and some officials told the Times report they were skeptical or uncertain.

A “senior NATO diplomat in Brussels discounted the report as highly unlikely,” and members of a United Nations overseeing sanctions on Libya said “nothing about arms dealings with China had been brought to their attention,” said the Times report.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has not publicly commented on the reports. China has often said that it scrupulously abides by U.N. sanctions.

Even if the arms were not delivered, or the cited documents turn out to have no foundation, the controversy could intensify mistrust between Beijing and the rebels seeking to defeat Gaddafi’s shrinking forces and claim control of all Libya.

On the weekend, the head of Libya’s rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) Mustafa Abdel Jalil said China had obstructed the release of more of Libya’s frozen assets.

Although China agreed with other powers last week the unfreeze of $15 billion of Libyan assets abroad, it opposed handing control of more to the interim ruling council, according to Libyan rebel spokesman Shamsiddin Abdulmolah.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has not responded to faxed questions from Reuters about that issue.

Libya’s interim council has promised rewards for those who took a leading role in backing the revolt against Gaddafi, and that has raised concerns that China could be disadvantaged.

China is the world’s second-biggest oil consumer, and last year it obtained 3 percent of its imported crude from Libya.

China did not use its U.N. Security Council veto power in March to block a resolution that authorized the NATO bombing campaign against Gaddafi’s forces, but it condemned the expanding strikes and repeatedly urged compromise between his government and rebels.

Beijing had since courted Libyan rebel leaders, and has urged a “stable transition of power.”

The reports said Libyan security officials visiting China in July were received by three arms companies, including Norinco and the China Xinxing Import and Export Corporation.

“The (Chinese) companies suggest that they make the contracts with either Algeria or South Africa, because those countries previously worked with China,” said a Libyan government memo, according to the Globe and Mail.

By the time of the reported visit, Chinese officials were already courting Libyan rebels. China has not joined Western powers in formally recognizing the rebels’ National Transitional Council as the legitimate authority in Libya, but has acknowledged its “important role” after Gaddafi’s ousting.

Norinco, one of the Chinese firms reported to have offered arms to Libyan forces, has faced sanctions from the United States, which accused it of selling missile parts to Iran.

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