Credit granted by commercial banks to the private sector in Mexico is expected to decline by 3% in real terms this year due to the effects of the economic recession on the demand and supply of credit, according to Eduardo González, analyst at financial groupBanamex. The credit contraction has deepened in recent months, with direct performing loans to the private sector decreasing by 4.2% in the year through July, following a 3.7% drop for the 12 months through June, according to the latest data from the central bank. “We are close to seeing the worse in terms of annual credit…

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Dili’s gleaming new Presidential Palace and Foreign Ministry, gifts from China, stand in stark contrast to nearby burnt-out buildings and are symbols of how the energy-hungry superpower is growing closer to tiny, oil-rich East Timor.In the 10 years since the independence vote that led to a split from Indonesia, China has spent more than $53 million in aid to East Timor, also known as Timor Leste.While that is just a fraction of the $760 million in Australian government aid, China has raised its profile in dusty Dili in several other ways.It is building big and showing generosity such as its…

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After a brief, summer-long stretch of rising demand, steel prices are starting to decline, indicating that moves to increase production may have been too much too soon. Hot-rolled steel, a benchmark grade that typically is processed into cars, building structures or appliances, cost about $600 to $620 a metric ton in August. Now it can be had for about $550-$570 a ton, a drop of about 8%, according to World Steel Dynamics, a steel research firm. Steelmakers, with their exposure to a wide variety of end markets, from consumers to industrial users, are generally a leading indicator of economic…

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TOKYO (Reuters) – Oil fell more than a dollar toward $68 a barrel on Monday as a rebound in the beaten-down U.S. dollar and nagging concerns that prices may have run ahead of market fundamentals extended last week’s late sell-off. The U.S. currency rallied sharply against a basket of currencies as investors covered short positions following last week’s slide of 2 percent to its lowest in a year, fuelled by funds flowing into riskier assets such as stocks and commodities and a drop in U.S. Treasury yields. The dollar’s reversal on Monday sent U.S. crude for October delivery tumbling…

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This is a hot news from life insurance. According from insure4usa.com that they say that annualized life insurance premium sales fell 23% in the first half of the year, the steepest slump in 67 years, but the rate of decline in the second quarter slowed from the quarter before, an industry association said Monday. Life insurers have been battered the past year by billions of dollars in investment losses and write-downs amid the slumping stock market. Last month, the largest U.S. life insurer, MetLife Inc., swung to a loss on big investment losses linked to derivatives. Industrywide premium sales…

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Maxthon is a powerful web browser with a highly customizable interface It is based on the Internet Explorer engine which means that what works in IE works the same in Maxthon but with many additional efficient features like Tabbed Browsing Interface Mouse Gestures Super Drag amp Drop Privacy Protection AD Hunter Google Bar Support External Utility Bar and Skinning Extremely Customizable Improved Ad Hunter Built in Online Favorites Service Improved Feed Reader Magic Form Filler Smart Acceleration Splendid Skins Improved History Super Proxy Seperated User Account File Sniffer and more

There are myriad file transfer services on the web. Streamfile tries to set itself apart by providing a unique secure service. Their file upload system is all JavaScript and doesn’t rely on Flash. It uses SSL to secure the file transport. As soon as you start uploading the file, you can hand the link off to your recipient and they can start downloading without waiting for the upload to complete. The free limit is 150MB, but their PRO service allows 2GB files.
[via Download Squad]

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The 2009 edition of the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas has just begun. The first interesting talk we saw was [Andrea Barisani] and [Daniele Bianco]’s Sniff Keystrokes With Lasers/Voltmeters. They presented two methods for Tempest style eavesdropping of keyboards.

The first attack was against PS/2 keyboards. Inside the PS/2 cord, the data line isn’t shielded very well from the ground line, so all data could end up being transmitted back to the building’s electrical ground. The clock signal is also very slow compared to other signals generated by the computer. At about 10-16.7kHz, it should be easy…

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