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Bank asset rules are set
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BERLIN -- International banking regulators agreed Sunday on global rules meant to ensure banks keep enough cash in hand to survive future market crises, and gave banks until 2019 to comply fully.
The rules will require banks in the future to hold enough cash, and assets such as equities, corporate and government bonds that can easily be sold, to tide them over during an acute 30-day crisis.
The body that oversees the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, which sets international rules, said Sunday that they will have to hold 60 percent of that amount when the rules start being phased in on Jan. 1, 2015; that will increase by 10 percentage points every year until the standards take full effect at the beginning of 2019.
Pakistan accuses India
ISLAMABAD -- The Pakistani army accused Indian troops of launching a cross-border raid early Sunday in the disputed Kashmir region that killed a Pakistani soldier, while India countered that it retaliated with small-arms fire only after Pakistan fired first with shelling and automatic weapons.
Pakistan's military claimed that Indian troops crossed the line of control and raided a Pakistani army checkpost, killing one soldier and critically injuring another.
Suicide bombers kill 5
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Two suicide bombers Sunday attacked a community meeting in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar, killing at least five people and injuring 15, local authorities said.
The attack happened at about 11 a.m. at a government compound in the district of Spin Boldak, said Ahmad Javid Faisal, a spokesman for the Kandahar governor. A district council member and four local residents were among those killed, he said.
Fires blaze in Tasmania
TASMANIA, Australia -- Australia's island state of Tasmania is struggling to contain wildfires that destroyed 100 properties and forced more than 3,000 people from their homes as the nation braces for a second week of extreme heat.
The government is sending financial aid and extra firefighters to Tasmania amid concerns people may have died in the blazes.
Drug trafficker detained
BOGOTA, Colombia -- A top police official says Colombian authorities have detained a Bahamian citizen wanted in the United States on drug trafficking charges.
Luis Alberto Perez is director of Colombia's anti-narcotrafficking unit and said Sunday that Matthew Ian Ferguson was detained in the city of Monteria, some 500 kilometers (310 miles) northeast of Bogota.
Hatian orphanage built
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- An American family who lost their daughter in a massive earthquake in Haiti three years ago has finished building an orphanage in her memory.
The parents of Britney Gengel, Leonard and Cherylann, led about 150 family and friends, including U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern, D-Worcester, in a solemn ceremony Saturday at the Be Like Brit orphanage in the coastal town of Grand Goave.
Mandela recovers
JOHANNESBURG -- South Africa's president says that Nelson Mandela has recovered from his recent lung infection and surgical procedure to remove gallstones.
South African President Jacob Zuma issued a statement Sunday announcing that doctors say that Mandela, 94, has made "steady progress and that clinically, he continues to improve."
First Published January 7, 2013 12:00 am
