This week: 21st - 27th May 2005

Police in New Jersey investigating what is thought to be America's largest-ever banking security breach raised their estimate of the number of people whose bank-account data were stolen. The investigation focuses on a scheme that passed details of around 700,000 customers from four large banks, including Bank of America, to debt collectors.

Mitsubishi Motors posted a net loss of ¥474.8 billion ($4.4 billion) for the year ending March 31st, more than double the loss it made the previous year. The number of vehicles sold in both Japan and North America fell by around a third as Mitsubishi's brand image declined amid further accusations that the company covered up safety defects.

More bad news for General Motors. Fitch became the second big credit-rating agency to downgrade the carmaker's debt to junk status.

Meredith, a publisher and broadcaster based in Iowa, agreed to purchase four magazine titles, including Fitness, from Gruner + Jahr, a subsidiary of the German media company, Bertelsmann. The deal, worth $350m, marks the end of G+J's 30-year presence in the American market.



A veteran Italian journalist, Oriana Fallaci, is to face trial for alleged insults to Islam in her latest book. An investigative judge ordered charges to be brought against her in view of passages in the book that speak of Islam's growing presence in Europe as a threat to the continent.

The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline was officially opened. The pipeline, which runs for 1,770km (1,010 miles) from Azerbaijan to Turkey, is one of the world's biggest construction projects and was built by a consortium led by BP.

Bolivia's president, Carlos Mesa, vowed not to resign as thousands of mainly Indian demonstrators thronged La Paz, the capital. The protestors want the nationalisation of the oil and gas industry. Two army officers faced a court martial after calling for a coup.

Cuba's communist government allowed an American-backed dissident group to hold a rare two-day meeting. Some foreigners who wanted to attend were turned away.

In a setback for the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil's Supreme Court authorised prosecutors to investigate claims of bank fraud by the social-security minister while the Congress set up a probe into corruption at the state-run post office.

The hopes of Michelle Bachelet, a Socialist, of becoming Chile's next president got a boost when Soledad Alvear, her only rival for the candidacy of the ruling centre-left alliance, dropped out. Ms Bachelet will face two conservative contenders in an election due in December.
China's vice-premier, Wu Yi, cut short a visit to Japan, which was to have included a meeting with the prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, in an effort to improve the countries' recently strained relations. Mrs Wu's decision was apparently a protest against remarks made by Japanese politicians in support of the Yasukuni shrine, which honours Japan's war dead, including several war criminals.

Two bombs exploded in cinemas in Delhi, killing one person and injuring scores. India said Islamic extremists were the likely culprits.

India, which has the second- highest number of people infected with HIV, reported a dramatic slowdown in the number of new infections. First estimates showed that only 28,000 people became infected in 2004, compared with 520,000 in 2003. Some activists disputed the figures.

Zimbabwe's government sought to tackle inflation, now about 130%, by arresting 9,700 street traders and smashing their stalls. President Robert Mugabe blames such traders for the decline of Zimbabwe's dollar rather than his own over-active printing press.

The European Union's member-states pledged to double the aid they give to poor countries by 2015, by which time the richer members will be donating 0.7% of their national income each year.