Julia Gillard has put the onus on the Reserve Bank to bring down interest rates to boost the economy, arguing that Labor has delivered on spending cuts and a budget surplus and there is now room for monetary policy to play a role, The Australian reported. The Prime Minister will tell a business audience in Perth Thursday that cutting interest rates to boost struggling sectors of the economy would be fully consistent with the Reserve Bank's obligations to "best contribute to economic prosperity and full employment".

Three Sino-Forest Corp. executives were fired by the insolvent Chinese timber firm and the company’s co-founder and chief financial officer both resigned, in a prelude to formal allegations expected to be laid by the Ontario Securities Commission, The Globe and Mail reported. Allen Chan, the Hong Kong national who co-founded Sino-Forest two decades ago and helped build what was once the largest forestry company on the TSX, resigned as “founding chairman emeritus” and an employee, the company said in a statement. Mr.

A few years ago, the densely built-up coastal region around this port was called Panel Bay because of its concentration of factories making the sophisticated flat-panel screens that were symbols of Japan’s manufacturing prowess. But now the area has become a grim symbol of its industrial decline, the International Herald Tribune reported.

The world’s 20 biggest economies are likely to agree to increase the resources of the International Monetary Fund by between $400 billion and $500 billion (€306 billion and €382 billion), rather than the $600 billion initially sought by the fund, Group of 20 officials have said, the Irish Times reported. The extra money is to give the fund, a lender of last resort to governments, more fire-power to fight the sovereign debt crisis, triggered by unsustainable policies in euro zone countries such as Greece, Portugal and Ireland.

A property developer in China's Hangzhou city has filed for bankruptcy protection, falling victim to the government's two-year campaign to rein in property prices and pointing to wider problems ahead in the country's real-estate market, The Wall Street Journal reported. Analysts said the financial woes of Hangzhou Glory Real Estate Co., a small developer, won't drag down other firms in the hard-hit property sector. But they said that other weaker players could see similar strains.

Sino-Forest Corp has asked a Canadian court to extend creditor protection granted to the Chinese forestry company last month until July 9, saying it would create certainty for potential buyers considering a bid for its assets, Reuters reported. The Ontario Superior Court's current order of protection under Canada's Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act expires April 29. The company, accused of fraudulently exaggerating its assets, said the allegations had paralyzed its business. Sino-Forest's Toronto-listed shares tanked last June after a short-seller made allegations against it.

Watching Europe flirt with financial catastrophe has not erased memories in Asia of the region’s own meltdown 15 years ago. Indeed, it has served as a reminder of the dangers lurking out there, The Economist reported. So the effort to build regional financial defences carries on, albeit at the snail’s pace typical of Asian multilateral diplomacy. Bold talk of an “Asian Monetary Fund” has yielded something more modest, called, with that also-typical flair for catchy nomenclature, the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralisation (CMIM).

A growing shortage of safe assets poses a new threat to global financial stability, the International Monetary Fund warned on Wednesday. Sovereign debt crises are reducing the number of governments that investors trust to issue “risk-free” bonds just as new financial regulations are increasing demand for safe securities from banks, the Financial Times reported. The report shows how reforms in the wake of the 2007-09 crisis may create new pinch points in the global financial system that could cause trouble in the future.

Lawyers handling a $9 billion class-action lawsuit against Sino-Forest Corp. will ask an Ontario judge on Friday to terminate bankruptcy proceedings involving the troubled timber company, the Toronto Star reported. When Sino-Forest, which is based in Mississauga but operates in China, sought protection from creditors under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act last month, any pending legal actions were essentially put on hold.

For a bankrupt company, Elpida Memory Inc. is getting a lot of attention as the subject of a billion-dollar chess game among the biggest technology companies, Bloomberg reported. They don’t necessarily covet Elpida’s debt, workforce or even most of its business. They just want the part of its business that makes chips for Apple Inc.’s mobile devices -- and, even more, they want to make sure their competitors don’t get that. Elpida was Japan’s largest maker of dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, chips.