Apple, Facebook, Twitter hacks said to hail from Eastern Europe

While many security experts have been pointing the blame at China for the recent wave of cyberattacks on U.S. companies and newspapers, Bloomberg reports that some of the malware attacks actually may be coming from Eastern Europe.

Investigators familiar with the matter told Bloomberg they believe a cybercriminal group based in either Russia or Eastern Europe is carrying out the high-level attacks to steal company secrets, research, and intellectual property, which could then be sold on the black market.

Evidence that the attacks may be coming from Eastern Europe is the type of malware being used by the hackers, which is more commonly used by cybercriminals than by government spying. Also, investigators have tracked at least one server being used by the hackers to a Ukrainian hosting company.

Roughly 40 companies have been victims of cyberattacks over the past several months. These companies included tech businesses, such as Apple, Facebook, and Twitter, and newspapers, such as The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Associated Press.

Apple announced today that hackers targeted computers used by its employees, but that "there was no evidence that any data left Apple." In a statement, the company said it discovered malware that made use of a vulnerability in the Java plug-in, and that it was sourced from a site for software developers. Apple blocked Java from some of its Macs late last month using its XProtect antimalware tool and citing security vulnerabilities.

A report by The New York Times yesterday claimed that an "overwhelming percentage" of the cyberattacks on U.S. corporations, government agencies, and organizations came from an office building in Shanghai with ties to the People's Liberation Army. These allegations remain unconfirmed and flatly denied by Chinese authorities.

The hack on The New York Times itself was months long and included the theft of corporate passwords of Times employees, as well as spying on personal computers. The attacks on Facebook, Twitter, and Apple were a bit different in that reportedly only a small number of systems were infected and the hackers got in via the Java vulnerability.

This isn't the first allegation of cybercriminals operating out of Eastern Europe. Security firm McAfee Labs published a report in December that warned of increasing attacks on U.S. financial institutions from Eastern European hackers. Dubbed Project Blitzkrieg, McAfee said the possible attacks would be done with a highly developed Trojan that could infect victims' computers, plant software, and allow cybercriminals to steal information and money.

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Florida Python Hunt Captures 68 Invasive Snakes

It's a wrap—the 2013 Python Challenge has nabbed 68 invasive Burmese pythons in Florida, organizers say. And experts are surprised so many of the elusive giants were caught.

Nearly 1,600 people from 38 states—most of them inexperienced hunters—registered for the chance to track down one of the animals, many of which descend from snakes that either escaped or were dumped into the wild.

Since being introduced, these Asian behemoths have flourished in Florida's swamps while also squeezing out local populations of the state's native mammals, especially in the Everglades. (See Everglades pictures.)

To highlight the python problem, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and its partners launched the 2013 Python Challenge, which encouraged registered participants to catch as many pythons as they could between January 12 and February 10 in state wildlife-management areas within the Everglades.

The commission gave cash prizes to those who harvested the most and longest pythons.

Frank Mazzotti, a wildlife ecologist at the University of Florida and scientific leader for the challenge, said before the hunt that he would consider a harvest of 70 animals a success—and 68 is close enough to say the event met its goals.

It's unknown just how many Burmese pythons live in Florida, but catching 68 snakes is an "exceptional" number, added Kenneth Krysko, senior herpetologist at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville.

Snakes in the Grass

Finding 68 snakes is impressive, experts say, since it's so hard to find pythons. For one, it's been unusually warm lately in Florida, which means the reptiles—which normally sun themselves to regulate their body temperature—are staying in the brush, making them harder to detect, Krysko said.

On top of that, Burmese pythons are notoriously hard to locate, experts say.

The animals are so well camouflaged that people can stand right next to one and not notice it. "It's rare that you get to see them stretched out—most of the time they're blending in," said Cheryl Millett, a biologist at the Nature Conservancy, a Python Challenge partner.

What's more, the reptiles are ambush hunters, which means they spend much of their time lying in wait in dense vegetation, not moving, she said.

That's why Millett gave the hunters some tips, such as looking along the water's edge, where the snakes like to hang out, and also simply listening for "something big moving through the vegetation."

Even so, catching 68 snakes is "actually is a little more than I expected," said Millett.

No Walk in the Park

Ruben Ramirez, founder of the company Florida Python Hunters, won two prizes in the competition: First place for the most snakes captured—18—and second place for the largest python, which he said was close to 11 feet (3.4 meters) long. The biggest Burmese python caught in Florida, nabbed in 2012, measured 17.7 feet (5.4 meters).

"They're there, but they're not as easy to find as people think," said Ramirez. "You're not going to be stumbling over pythons in Miami." (Related blog post: "What It's Like to Be a Florida Python Hunter.")

All participants, some of whom had never hunted a python before, were trained to identify the difference between a Burmese python and Florida's native snakes, said Millett. No native snakes were accidentally killed, she said.

Hunters were also told to kill the snakes by either putting a bolt or a bullet through their heads, or decapitating them-all humane methods that result "in immediate loss of consciousness and destruction of the brain," according to the Python Challenge website.

Ramirez added that some of the first-time or amateur hunters had different expectations. "I think they were expecting to walk down a canal and see a 10-foot [3-meter], 15-foot [4.5-meter] Burmese python. They thought it'd be a walk in the park."

Stopping the Spread

Completely removing these snakes from the wild isn't easy, and some scientists see the Python Challenge as helping to achieve part of that goal. (Read an opposing view on the Python Challenge: "Opinion: Florida's Great Snake Hunt Is a Cheap Stunt.")

"You're talking about 68 more animals removed from the population that shouldn't be there—that's 68 more mouths that aren't being fed," said the Florida museum's Krysko. (Read about giant Burmese python meals that went bust.)

"I support any kind of event or program that not only informs the general public about introduced species, but also gets the public involved in removing these nonnative animals that don't belong there."

The Nature Conservancy's Millett said the challenge had two positive outcomes: boosting knowledge for both science and the public.

People who didn't want to hunt or touch the snakes could still help, she said, by reporting sightings of exotic species to 888-IVE-GOT-1, through free IveGot1 apps, or www.ivegot1.org.

Millett runs a public-private Nature Conservancy partnership called Python Patrol that the Florida wildlife commission will take on in the fall. The program focuses not only on eradicating invasive pythons but on preventing the snake from moving to ecologically sensitive areas, such as Key West.

Necropsies on the captured snakes will reveal what pythons are eating, and location data from the hunters will help scientists figure out where the snakes are living—valuable data for researchers working to stop their spread.

"This is the most [number of] pythons that have been caught in this short of a period of time in such an extensive area," said the University of Florida's Mazzotti.

"It's an unprecedented sample, and we're going to get a lot of information out of that."

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Arias Says Violent Sex Preceded Killing

Jodi Arias and her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander,, had increasingly violent sex in which he tied her to his bed, twisted her arm, bent her over a desk for anal sex, and made sex videos with her in the hours leading up to the stabbing and shooting frenzy that left Alexander dead.

It was a day in which Arias, 32, inched closer to telling the court how the killing of Alexander took place, but after several hours of increasingly emotional testimony the court was adjourned until Wednesday.

In her sixth day on the stand, Arias tearfully described the sex-filled hours that led to Alexander's death on June 4, 2008. She is charged with murder for killing her former boyfriend, but claims she was forced to kill him self-defense. She could face the death penalty if convicted.

"He tied me up, (on) the bed. It's not my favorite but it's not unbearable," Arias told the court.

She said he used a kitchen knife in the bathroom to cut the rope to the proper length, but she didn't remember whether he left the knife in the bathroom or brought it back to the nightstand in the bedroom.

"There are a lot gaps that day... a lot of things I don't remember that day," she said.

Arias and Alexander then took graphic sexual photos of one another and made a sex video, both of which Arias said were Alexander's ideas. Arias has girlish braids in the pictures.

But the mood of the afternoon turned, she said, when Alexander became angry over a scratched computer disk of photos she gave him. He threw the CD and Arias said she became "apprehensive" of his rising temper.

"I know he's getting angry because Napoleon [Alexander's dog] got up and left the room and he always leaves the room when he gets mad." she testified.

"I don't know that I was consciously thinking (of violence) but I was more tense. I stood up, went to walk over to him, to rub his back and make sure he was okay," she said. "But he grabbed me on the upper arms, spun me around and grabbed my right arm and twisted it behind my back, and bent me over the desk, and pressed up against me."

Charlie Leight/Pool/The Arizona Republic/AP Photo

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"I was scared he was going to throw me or something, kick me," she continued. "He pressed his groin up against my butt, did a few thrusts and then started pulling my pants down."

The pair then had anal sex, which Arias said pacified Alexander.

"I was very relieved. I felt like we had avoided catastrophe. It could have led to another fight," she said.

Instead of a fight, Alexander, who was 27 and a devout Mormon, and Arias decide to go upstairs and take more nude photos of one another. Arias said she hoped the photos would satisfy Alexander over his frustration with the scratched CD.

Evidence introduced earlier in the trial show that Alexander was killed while Arias was photographing Alexander in the shower.

Catching Up on the Trial? Check Out ABC News' Jodi Arias Trial Coverage

Timeline of the Jodi Arias Trial

Earlier, Arias explained that she wasn't planning to visit Alexander during her roadtrip from her home in California, but was convinced by him to spontaneously take a detour to his house for sex and to hang out.

"The very last time I called Travis it was kind of like, I don't know how to describe it, he had been very sweet and was guilting me and making me feel bad that I was taking this big trip without going to see him," Arias said this afternoon.

"When I called him last time it was just like all right, I'm going," she said. "(Sex) was our thing at that time. I wasn't going to go there, stay the night and not do that."

Arias' attorney, Kirk Nurmi, asked her repeatedly on the stand if Arias brought a gun or knife with her on the roadtrip and to Alexander's house. She said that she did not.

She also denied a series of allegations made by the prosecution that she dyed her hair, rented an inconspicuous car, borrowed gas cans, turned off her cell phone, and switched money around her bank accounts as she left for Alexander's house because she was planning to murder him when she got there.

Arias said that her hair remained the same color, auburn-brown, throughout May and June, that she rented a car because her own car was not stable enough for highway travel, that she requested a white car instead of a red one because police pull red ones over more often, and that she transferred money to a business banking account for a tax write-off to classify it as a business trip.

The testimony about the road trip and Arias' planning could be key to the jury as they decide whether the killing was pre-meditated, as the prosecution claims. Arias could face the death penalty if convicted of murder with aggravating factors such as pre-meditation.

Arias said that she "didn't sleep at all last night" before testifying about the dramatic incident today. Her comment was stricken from the record.

Arias also described a barrage of threatening text messages sent by Alexander in which he told her he would exact "revenge" on her soon and called her a "sociopath."

She told the court that Alexander's temper would make her "cower."

The messages show a growing discord between the pair in April 2008, less than two months before Arias killed Alexander.

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Biofuel rush is wiping out unique American grasslands

Say goodbye to the grass. The scramble for biofuels is rapidly killing off unique grasslands and pastures in the central US.

Christopher Wright and Michael Wimberly of South Dakota State University in Brookings analysed satellite images of five states in the western corn belt. They found that 530,000 hectares of grassland disappeared under blankets of maize and soya beans between 2006 and 2011. The rate was fastest in South Dakota and Iowa, with as much as 5 per cent of pasture becoming cropland each year.

The trend is being driven by rising demand for the crops, partly through incentives to use them as fuels instead of food.

The switch from meadows to crops is causing a crash in populations of ground-nesting birds. One of the US's most important breeding grounds for wildfowl, an area called the Prairie Pothole Region, is also at risk, with South Dakota's crop fields now within 100 metres of the wetlands. "Half of North American ducks breed here," says Wright.

Bill Henwood of the Temperate Grasslands Conservation Initiative in Vancouver, Canada, says the results are distressing. "Exchanging real environmental impacts for the dubious benefits of biofuels is counterproductive," he says. "Last year's record drought in the corn belt all but wiped out the crops anyway."

Journal reference: PNAS, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1215404110

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Shares in Australia's APN hit after directors quit

SYDNEY: Shares in Australian media firm APN News and Media plunged Tuesday after a walkout from board members over a capital raising dispute with major shareholder Ireland's Independent News and Media.

APN, owner of several Australian radio stations, billboard advertising assets, regional newspapers and some of New Zealand's top titles, said its chairman, CEO and three directors had resigned over a financial impasse.

"While the board agreed the company needed to reduce its debt, it was unable to agree on the methodology," APN said in a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) after the close of trading on Monday.

"Independent News and Media and its major shareholder, together with (fund manager) Allan Gray -- representing approximately 51 percent of APN's shares -- have unequivocally indicated they are opposed to a capital raising at the present time."

Australian-listed shares in the media group slumped more than 13 percent at the open Tuesday. They were down 11.11 percent in neighbouring New Zealand.

The departures had been expected, with Irish tycoon Tony O'Reilly's INM requesting the removal of six directors, including the chairman and CEO, in favour of establishing a new board. A sixth board member is to retire as planned in April.

APN had intended to launch an Aus$150 million (US$155 million) rights issue in conjunction with its full-year earnings results later this week.

Those who resigned, including chairman Peter Hunt and CEO Brett Chenoweth, had advocated this approach as consistent with "a continued focus on repositioning the publishing business and potential asset sales."

The remaining board members believed that "consideration of an equity raising should be undertaken in a time frame that allowed other options to be pursued", APN said.

"The departing directors have a different view on gearing levels to the major shareholders, and in light of their opposing position it is not tenable for them to continue."

APN intends to announce its full-year results on Thursday as planned and has begun the process of recruiting replacements to the board.

O'Reilly failed in a 2007 takeover bid for APN after shareholders rejected his Aus$3 billion offer.

APN publishes 20 daily and more than 100 other newspapers across Australia and New Zealand, including the leading New Zealand Herald national broadsheet. It owns three of New Zealand's top five radio stations.

-AFP/gn

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Google doodle does circles around Copernicus' birthday

Google doodle of Copernicus' model of the universe.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Steven Musil/CNET)

Google is invoking the name Copernicus again, but this time it's not a joke.

The Web giant is celebrating the 540th birthday of the Renaissance mathematician and astronomer who changed the way people look at the universe with a doodle. Nicolaus Copernicus, who was born in 1473, is perhaps best known his heliocentric theory, which asserted that the sun, and not the Earth, was at the center of our universe.

The doodle is a representation of Copernicus' model for the solar system -- a golden sun encircled by six planets on stylized plane.

In an effort to improve the calendar, the Catholic church appealed to Copernicus in 1514. His heliocentric theory was central to "De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium" ("On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres"), which Copernicus finished in 1530. The theory challenged the long-held belief that the Earth was the stationary center of the universe with other planets, including the sun and moon, rotating around it.

"De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium" was published in 1543, shortly before Copernicus died on May 24 at age 70. (Legend has it the first copy was placed in his hands the day he died.) After centuries of searching, his grave was located in 2005, allowing his remains to be re-interred under a tombstone that bears a representation of Copernicus' model of the solar system.

In what is widely regarded as one of the greatest Internet hoaxes, Google borrowed the great astronomer's name in 2004 in a recruiting effort for the Copernicus Center -- its new "lunar hosting and research center." The Google Copernicus Hosting Environment and Experiment in Search Engineering (G.C.H.E.E.S.E.) was described as a research center for high-density high-delivery hosting (HiDeHiDeHo).

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Confirmed: Dogs Sneak Food When People Aren't Looking

Many dog owners will swear their pups are up to something when out of view of watchful eyes. Shoes go missing, couches have mysterious teeth marks, and food disappears. They seem to disregard the word "no."

Now, a new study suggests dogs might understand people even better than we thought. (Related: "Animal Minds.")

The research shows that domestic dogs, when told not to snatch a piece of food, are more likely to disobey the command in a dark room than in a lit room.

This suggests that man's best friend is capable of understanding a human's point of view, said study leader Juliane Kaminski, a psychologist at the U.K.'s University of Portmouth.

"The one thing we can say is that dogs really have specialized skills in reading human communication," she said. "This is special in dogs." (Read "How to Build a Dog.")

Sneaky Canines

Kaminski and colleagues recruited 84 dogs, all of which were more than a year old, motivated by food, and comfortable with both strangers and dark rooms.

The team then set up experiments in which a person commanded a dog not to take a piece of food on the floor and repeated the commands in a room with different lighting scenarios ranging from fully lit to fully dark.

They found that the dogs were four times as likely to steal the food—and steal it more quickly—when the room was dark. (Take our dog quiz.)

"We were thinking what affected the dog was whether they saw the human, but seeing the human or not didn't affect the behavior," said Kaminski, whose study was published recently in the journal Animal Cognition.

Instead, she said, the dog's behavior depended on whether the food was in the light or not, suggesting that the dog made its decision based on whether the human could see them approaching the food.

"In a general sense, [Kaminski] and other researchers are interested in whether the dog has a theory of mind," said Alexandra Horowitz, head of the Dog Cognition Lab at Barnard University, who was not involved in the new study.

Something that all normal adult humans have, theory of mind is "an understanding that others have different perspective, knowledge, feelings than we do," said Horowitz, also the author of Inside of a Dog.

Smarter Than We Think

While research has previously been focused on our closer relatives—chimpanzees and bonobos—interest in dog cognition is increasing, thanks in part to owners wanting to know what their dogs are thinking. (Pictures: How smart are these animals?)

"The study of dog cognition suddenly began about 15 years ago," Horowitz said.

Part of the reason for that, said Brian Hare, director of the Duke Canine Cognition Lab and author of The Genius of Dogs, is that "science thought dogs were unremarkable."

But "dogs have a genius—years ago we didn't know what that was," said Hare, who was not involved in the new research. (See pictures of the the evolution of dogs, from wolf to woof.)

Many of the new dog studies are variations on research done with chimpanzees, bonobos, and even young children. Animal-cognition researchers are looking into dogs' ability to imitate, solve problems, or navigate social environments.

So just how much does your dog understand? It's much more than you—and science—probably thought.

Selectively bred as companions for thousands of years, dogs are especially attuned to human emotions—and, study leader Kaminski said, are better at reading human cues than even our closest mammalian relatives.

"There has been a physiological change in dogs because of domestication," Duke's Hare added. "Dogs want to bond with us in ways other species don't." (Related: "Dogs' Brains Reorganized by Breeding.")

While research reveals more and more insight into the minds of our furry best friends, Kaminski said, "We still don't know just how smart they are."

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Nike, Oakley Distance Themselves from Pistorius

Corporate sponsors of Olympic "blade runner" Oscar Pistorius have begun to distance themselves from the sprinter, who is accused of murdering his model girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. Pistorius is back to court in South Africa Tuesday morning on murder charges.

Oakley, the eyewear manufacturer, and the sporting goods giant Nike announced today that they would no longer run ads featuring Pistorius, the South African double-amputee who gained worldwide fame for running on carbon-fiber blades.

"In light of the recent allegations, Oakley is suspending its contract with Oscar Pistorius, effective immediately. Our hearts are with the families during this difficult time and we'll continue to follow the developments in this tragic case," Oakley spokeswoman Cheri Quigley said in a statement released this afternoon.

Earlier in the day, Nike said it had "no plans" to use Pistorius in future ad campaigns, according to the Associated Press. Nike had already pulled an Internet ad showing Pistorius starting to sprint with the caption, "I am the bullet in the chamber."

The companies made their announcements shortly after Pistorius' own agent, Peet Van Zyl, said publicly that he expected the sponsors to stick with Pistorius through the legal process.

PHOTOS: Paralympic Champion Charged in Killing

Pistorius will appear in court Tuesday morning for a bail hearing. His attorneys are expected to argue against the charge of premeditated murder.

His family has said the shooting was an accident.

The news comes as more details emerge about the incident on Thursday morning in which Pistorius allegedly shot and killed Steenkamp at his gated home in Pretoria, South Africa.

Bryn Lennon; Gallo Images/Getty Images

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News reports in local papers have said that police are investigating whether Pistorius had an anger-management problem that led to the incident. They focused in on a bloodied cricket bat that may have been used when Steenkamp died.

A "shocked" teammate of Oscar Pistorius rebutted the rumors and speculation in South Africa that Pistorius had an anger problem.

Ofentse Mogawane, a sprinter for the South African Olympic team who ran the 400-meter relay with Pistorius in the London summer games last year, said Pistorius had always been genial to him and other people.

Mogawane said he would be in court Tuesday to support his friend.

"Basically, he was a very good guy to us, to the teammates and to most athletes," Mogawane said. "He was a really humble person and I wouldn't say a bad word about him. We never had any kind of clash, never any kind of fight or disagreement or arguing.

"The way Oscar's case was, it shocked me, shocked most of the people who know him. Tomorrow in court I am going to be there to support him. To hear what happened the night of the incident," he said.

"Sometimes when people are angry they cannot control their anger. Something must have happened."

Mogawane, 30, spoke in support of Pistorius after a report in South Africa's City Press newspaper that claimed police were looking into the possibility that a bloody cricket bat found in his bedroom was used before the shooting.

"The way the news has been running around in South Africa, that he is a short-tempered person, a person who has problems with anger management, they just want something to say," Mogawane said. "They don't know Oscar at all. They just want to get interviewed and take pictures. But truly speaking, it's just a lot of speculation."

Mogawane said he had seen Pistorius become angry before, but only in the same way as any other athlete or person.

But the City Press reported Sunday that police are investigating different scenarios involving the bat. Among them is the possibility that the flat-fronted bat was used in a violent argument before the shooting.

The paper also reported that Pistorius might have first shot Steenkamp in the bedroom, and that she possibly fled to the bathroom where she was shot three more times through the door.

When Pistorius' family arrived at the scene before paramedics, they saw him carrying Steenkamp down the stairs and performing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on her, City Press reported.

Pistorius, who is nicknamed the "blade runner" because of the carbon-fiber blades on which he runs, has canceled all his upcoming racing appearances, his agent said Sunday night.

The decision was made to "allow Oscar to concentrate on the upcoming legal proceedings and to help and support all those involved as they try to come to terms with this very difficult and distressing situation," Van Zyl, of In Site Athlete Management, said in a statement.

Pistorius' father was quoted overnight in the South African paper The Sunday Times saying his countrymen are destroying a national icon.

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Wiping out top predators messes up the climate

Wiping out top predators like lions, wolves and sharks is tragic, bad for ecosystems – and can make climate change worse. Mass extinctions of the big beasts of the jungles, grasslands and oceans could already be adding to greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Trisha Atwood of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, studied the effect of removing predator fish from ponds and rivers in Canada and Costa Rica. Across a range of ecosystems, climates and predators, she found a consistent pattern: carbon dioxide emissions typically increased more than tenfold after the predators were removed.

"It looks like predators in many types of ecosystems – marine and terrestrial as well as freshwater – can play a very big role in global climate change," she told New Scientist.

The widespread and dramatic ecological impacts of the loss of top predators are well known. In the ensuing "trophic cascade", the vanished top predator's prey proliferate, which in turn puts pressure on the species that the prey eats, and so on down the food chain. In this way, changes at the top of a food chain destabilise the balance of populations right the way down.

But the geochemical impacts of trophic cascades, including any impact on emissions from ecosystems, are much less well known. Atwood's study of freshwater ecosystems showed how changes to species at the bottom of the food chain, such as photosynthesising algae, following the removal of a top predator dramatically increased the flow of CO₂ from the ecosystem to the atmosphere.

The effect will not always be to increase CO₂ emissions, however – sometimes the loss of top predators could decrease emissions, she says. "But we show that something so seemingly unrelated, like fishing all the trout from a pond or removing sharks from the ocean, could have big consequences for greenhouse-gas dynamics."

Help from kelp

Other recent studies have hinted at similar effects. Last October, Christopher Wilmers of the University of California, Santa Cruz, reported how the disappearance of sea otters is linked with increased CO₂ emissions from North American coastlines (Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, doi.org/khz). With no otters eating them, sea urchins thrive and eat out kelp forests – often known as the "rainforests of the oceans" – resulting in major CO₂ releases.

Global climate models do not take such impacts into account yet. Atwood says they could be major, as freshwater emissions may be on a par with the influence of deforestation, which is thought responsible for around 15 per cent of human-caused CO₂ emissions.

Environmentalists will herald the findings as further evidence that it is vital to protect pristine habitats and the charismatic species at the top of their food chains. But there is a dark side. A recent study found that some island ecosystems around New Zealand store 40 per cent more carbon than others because of their top predators – invading rats that are wiping out seabird colonies. Rats, it seems, are good for the climate (Biology Letters, doi.org/bbmtw9).

Journal reference: Nature Geoscience, DOI: 10.1038/NGEO1734

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Yen weakens in Asia after G20 talks

TOKYO: The yen weakened in Asia after G20 finance ministers pledged not to devalue their currencies and avoided targeting Tokyo over the recent plunge in the Japanese unit.

Japan's policy of monetary easing has led to sharp falls in the value of the yen, sparking fears of a global currency war in which rival nations would drive down their currencies to gain a trade advantage.

In the past few months, the dollar has gained about 17 percent on the yen while the euro has jumped about 25 percent against the Japanese currency, leading to charges that Tokyo is manipulating the unit.

But the Japanese government and the Bank of Japan (BoJ) have denied orchestrating a devaluation of the yen, which weakened Monday to 93.81 against the dollar from 93.53 in New York on Friday.

It also lost ground against the euro, which bought 125.26 yen from 124.97 yen in US trade.

The euro also bought $1.3332, compared to $1.3360 in New York on Friday.

The G20 statement issued on Saturday said: "We will refrain from competitive devaluation," adding "we will not target our exchange rates for competitive purposes".

The pledge echoed a recent statement by the G7 richest nations. Neither named Tokyo as a currency manipulator.

The yen's return to a weakening trend -- after rising before the G20 talks on started -- signalled that "exchange rate shifts arising from appropriate domestic monetary and fiscal policies will not be criticised or challenged", National Australia Bank said in a note.

"But direct reference to currencies as a policy objective will be," it added.

"We believe this means the yen is free to weaken, but Japanese officials must refrain from being seen to be goading the yen to weaker levels."

The BoJ, under pressure from Japan's new conservative government, last month unveiled a plan for unlimited monetary easing and an ambitious target for two percent inflation as part of a bid to beat lingering deflation.

A number of senior Japanese officials have speculated publicly about the yen being over-valued based on its previous stronger levels.

Japan's efforts sparked charges of manipulation, particularly in Europe, but others have played down currency war fears, with the International Monetary Fund calling such talk "overblown".

Markets are also watching for the nomination of a new BoJ governor as traders bet that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will choose a candidate who shares his desire for policy easing.

- AFP/ir

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