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Analysts said the move is potentially bullish for gold, but it is by no means the start of a significant shift away from U.S dollar holdings.

The Reserve Bank of India said in a statement that the move was part of its foreign-exchange reserves management operations.

“I would have advised the governor of RBI to buy gold as our forex reserve is comfortable. The RBI has done just that. That doesn’t mean we don’t prefer dollar any more or like gold any better,” Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said.

“The purchase won’t trigger a substantial mismatch in asset holdings of the RBI. Dollar will continue to be a significant part of foreign-exchange holdings, as most of India’s external debt is in dollars. The gold buying, as of now, seems just an asset diversification strategy,” said Sonal Varma, an economist at Nomura Financial Advisory & Securities in Mumbai.

A senior finance ministry official said the central bank may seek to buy more gold from the IMF directly. “It makes sense to buy gold as it will appreciate more than the U.S. dollar,” he said.

The purchase of nearly half of the 403.3 metric tons of gold earmarked for sale by the IMF boosted spot gold in Asia, reminding investors that central bank reserve diversification will continue to fuel demand for the yellow metal in the open market.

The off-market deal also reinforced the view that little or none of the IMF gold may eventually reach the open market, limiting any bearish impact such a big sale may have had otherwise.

The RBI bought the gold over a two-week period between Oct. 19 and Oct. 30, an IMF statement said. The $6.7 billion proceeds from the sale indicate an average estimated price of $1,045 a troy ounce, far higher than IMF’s projection of $850/oz a few months ago, when its executive board approved the sale.

Sue Trinh, currency strategist at RBC Capital in Sydney, said the announcement supported the view that central banks are actively looking for ways to diversify their reserves away from the dollar.

The RBI is “still a buyer at current high-price levels, indicating gold is likely to move up further. This is positive for the market,” said Kunal Shah, an analyst at Nirmal Bang Commodities in Mumbai.

The IMF declined to comment on potential buyers for the remaining amount, but said it is still in “an initial period to sell gold directly to central banks and other official holders that may be interested in such sales.”

JUDITH But you’ve got the right to get it back, you’ve got the right to claim it, and the Police…

PAUL Yeah but then you’ve got a whole matter of procedure to go through because the cops have decided they suspect you got the property criminally.

JUDITH Well actually Police would lose all credibility if they went round doing that unnecessarily. They’ve got a lot of leads, they know exactly who they’re after, and they will be after them.

PAUL Search and Surveillance Bill – new powers for all enforcement officers, like Meat Board Inspectors, like the Overseas Investment Office, like the Civil Aviation Inspector, like the Pork Industry Board Inspector, like the Reserve Bank Inspector, the Dog Control Officer. When it comes to surveillance all of those people have the same powers now as the Police?

JUDITH It really is a terrible sounding list isn’t it Paul, and what is even more terrible is to know that those powers are already in legislation but they’re interested in a whole lot of different legislation, this bill has come in because of the work of the Law Commission looking at all the various powers and trying to put some rules around them.

PAUL The powers are extended. Look there’s two and a bit pages, I’ll read you a few. Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Inspector – Animal Products Inspector – Animal Welfare Inspector – Antarctic Marine Living Resources Inspector – Children Young Persons and their Families Inspector – the Extradition Act Inspector – Marine Mammals Protection Inspector. All of these people have the power to come into your premises, to command your IT provider to provide them with all their computer records, to detain you, to use reasonable force, to rub you down, pat you, search you – the Pork Industry Board Inspector.

JUDITH That sounds terrible doesn’t it? That’s one of the reasons why the Select Committee has actually said they’re not reporting back until May, they want to go through the whole bill and make sure they’ve got everything sorted out, but the Law Commission is very firm that these are existing powers but they often don’t have proper regulations around them. Look I’m like any other New Zealander, I want to know why would the Port Industry Inspector have those sorts of powers just like everyone else, and that’s why we’re certainly looking at them.

PAUL But at the moment what’s proposed in the bill, is that any of those people can break in premises, and to search everything, detain, use reasonable force, conduct a rub down search and command your IT provider to surrender your computer records, that’s what’s been proposed in the bill.

The transaction, which involved daily sales from Oct. 19-30 at market prices, is in the process of being settled, the IMF said in a statement yesterday. The average price in the sales to India was about $1,045 an ounce, an IMF official said on a conference call with reporters. Gold for immediate delivery rose in Asia, approaching a record $1,070.80 an ounce.

“The most important thing is that people want gold even at these prices,” said Ghee Peh, head of mining research, with UBS AG in Hong Kong. “There’s good support for prices for now” from the IMF’s disposal of bullion, he said.

The sale accounts for almost half the 403.3 tons that the Washington-based lender in September agreed to sell as part of a plan to shore up its finances and lend at reduced rates to low- income countries. Asian nations, which have amassed stockpiles of foreign currency reserves since the 1998 financial crisis, have shown increased interest in diversifying out of U.S. assets as the dollar loses value against other currencies.

The little girl told the Daily News, “My stomach was hurting, and I was itching,” and was taken to the hospital from her school, PS 335 in Brooklyn. According to the News, “When the nurse called for a student Thursday morning, Nikiyah’s teacher misunderstood and sent the wrong student, [Nikyah’s mother Naomi] Troy said. The error was compounded when the nurse didn’t check Nikiyah’s name before sticking her in the shoulder.”

When the nurse realized what happened, the school called Troy to appear—and the nurse asked her to sign the consent form even though the shot was already given to her daughter. Troy fumed to WCBS 2, “He knew he was in big trouble and he wanted to cover himself.”

The NSA is building the facility to provide intelligence and warnings related to cybersecurity threats, cybersecurity support to defense and civilian agency networks, and technical assistance to the Department of Homeland Security, according to a transcript of remarks by Glenn Gaffney, deputy director of national intelligence for collection, who is responsible for oversight of cyber intelligence activities in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

“Our country must continue to advance its national security efforts and that includes improvements in cybersecurity,” Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, said in a statement. “As we rely more and more on our communications networks for business, government and everyday use, we must be vigilant and provide agencies with the necessary resources to protect our country from a cyber attack.”

The data center will be built at Camp Williams, a National Guard training center 26 miles south of Salt Lake City, which was chosen for its access to cheap power, communications infrastructure, and availability of space, Gaffney said. The complex will comprise up to 1.5 million square feet of building space on 120 to 200 acres, according to the NBC affiliate in Salt Lake City.

According to a budget document for the project, the 30-megawatt data center will be cooled by chilled water and capable of Tier 3, or near carrier-grade, reliability. The design calls for the highest LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standard within available resources.

The U.S. Army Corps of engineers will host a conference in Salt Lake City to provide further detail the data center building and acquisition plans. The project will require between 5,000 and 10,000 workers during construction, and the data center will eventually employ between 100 and 200 workers.

The United States, led by the eastern seaboard state, took in $2.6 trillion in deposits from non-resident corporations and individuals in 2007, according to a survey of financial jurisdictions analyzed by the Tax Justice Network.

The survey of laws, practices and size of inflows in 60 jurisdictions found Delaware coming in first, followed by Luxembourg and then Switzerland. The Cayman Islands and the United Kingdom round out the top five.

“While the U.S. has been jumping up and down and saying ‘Aha, bad, wicked Swiss banks,’ the U.S. is doing exactly the same things as far as non-resident bank account holders,” said Sarah Lewis, executive director of the group, based in the U.K.

Switzerland has been the poster child for financial secrecy over the past year. The United State sued Swiss global banking giant UBS AG, which paid a $780 million fine to settle a lawsuit against it by the government. As part of the deal, UBS admitted it actively helped Americans evade U.S. taxes.

The ranking is based on a composite of total offshore activity and measures such as whether a jurisdiction obtains beneficial ownership information about companies and the degree of cooperation in turning over requested financial information.

Delaware is attractive because it does not tax profits realized outside the state and does not require companies to be physically present, according to the Tax Justice Network.

The rocketing cost of insuring against the bankruptcy of the Japanese state is telling us that the model has smashed into the buffers. Credit default swaps (CDS) on five-year Japanese debt have risen from 35 to 63 basis points since early September. Japan has suddenly decoupled from Germany (21), France (22), the US (22), and even Britain (47).

Regime-change in Tokyo and the arrival of Yukio Hatoyama’s neophyte Democrats – raising $550bn (£333bn) to help fund their blitz on welfare and the “new social policy” – have concentrated the minds of investors at long last. “Markets are worried that Japan is going to hit a brick wall: the sums are gargantuan,” said Albert Edwards, a Japan-veteran at Société Générale.

Simon Johnson, former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), told the US Congress last week that the debt path was out of control and raised “a real risk that Japan could end up in a major default”.

The IMF expects Japan’s gross public debt to reach 218pc of gross domestic product (GDP) this year, 227pc next year, and 246pc by 2014. This has been manageable so far only because Japanese savers have been willing – or coerced – into lending for almost nothing. The yield on 10-year government bonds has been around 1.30pc this year, though they jumped to 1.42pc last week.

“Can these benign conditions be expected to continue in the face of even-larger increases in public debt? Going forward, the markets capacity to absorb debt is likely to diminish as population ageing reduces saving,” said the IMF.

The savings rate has crashed from 15pc in 1990 to near 2pc today, half America’s rate. Japan’s $1.5 trillion state pension fund (the world’s biggest) has become a net seller of government bonds this year, as it must to meet pay-out obligations. The demographic crunch has hit. The workforce been contracting since 2005.

Japan Post Bank is balking at further additions to its $1.7 trillion holdings of state debt. The pillars of the government debt market are crumbling. Little wonder that the Ministry of Finance has begun advertising bonds in Tokyo taxis, featuring Koyuki from The Last Samurai. If Japan’s bond rates rise to global levels of 3pc to 4pc, interest costs will shatter state finances.

No one knows exactly when a country tips into a debt compound trap. But Japan must be close, even allowing for the fact that liabilities of the state Loan Programme (FILP) have fallen by 40pc of GDP since 2000.

The military on Thursday took foreign and local journalists for a first look inside the largely lawless territory since it launched a ground offensive here in mid-October. The U.S.-backed operation is focused on a section of the tribal region where the Pakistani Taliban are based and are believed to shelter al-Qaida.

Soldiers displayed passports seized in the operation, among them a German document belonging to a man named Said Bahaji. That matches the name of a man thought to have been a member of the Hamburg cell that conceived the 9/11 attacks. Bahaji is believed to have fled Germany shortly before the attacks in New York and Washington.

The passport included a tourist visa for Pakistan and a stamp indicating he’d arrived in the southern city of Karachi on Sept. 4, 2001.

Another passport, from Spain, bears the name of Raquel Burgos Garcia. Spanish media have reported that a woman with the same name is married to Amer Azizi, an alleged al-Qaida member from Morocco suspected in both the 9/11 attacks and the Madrid train bombings in 2004.

Her family in Madrid has had no news of her since 2001, according to Spanish media. Her passport included visas to India and Iran, and the army displayed a Moroccan document with Burgos Garcia’s photo and other information.

It was impossible to determine whether the passports are genuine, and German and Spanish officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, the army’s chief spokesman, said he had not realized the passports matched any prominent names, and declined further comment other than to say European militants were sprinkled throughout the area.

The USS New York is due to sail up the Hudson River as far as Ground Zero, where it will fire a 21-gun salute.

It will be watched by relatives of those killed in the 2001 attacks that destroyed the buildings, along with rescuers and members of the public.

The US Navy is to hold an official commissioning ceremony for the new warship on Saturday.

The New York set off on its maiden voyage from Louisiana, where it was built, nearly three weeks ago.

The bow of the boat contains 7.5 tonnes of melted steel from the fallen buildings.