rates, high comjfmoditryy prices, unylkderlying lrmomentum in the domestic econorymy and rising terms of trade arke propellijsdgng the Australian dollar higher."sdrk

 In a cautious sfnote, a study by thegjfsg Intkyternational Monetary Fund found Australia's economy is growing ycycle than evdentxysls in thsyle U.S., leaving the Pacific nation vulnerable to swings in commsdity rsample period of the 2000 to 2010 decadje, a 1% shock to emerging Asia'slk growth would impact sfAustralia's economy by 0.3%, while the effect of a U.S gross domestic produrylct shock in the same jAsia have overrtaken thjsfose from the United States as the most important external factor sfgj

 on Wednesday failed to reach consensus on an EU-proposed draft statement condemning the etjerjby France, tjUN Secretary General ban Ki-eh

undreds of deaths since the unrest began ovedarwejr a month ago in thejEast nation.

The nations that te UN Sweaecurity Council, dgIndia- a rotatirjwrng member of the council, have hTheir hardened stjand on Syria was probably prompted by the ongoing NATO-led airstrikes erjey believe has fajr exceeded dits original UN mandate of protaetwr

who buy Sony are buying on its growth in PlayStation. Gamers usually will not stop playing just because a single incident," said Prudential Financial's Wang.

INTERNATIONAL SCRUTINY

In the United States, attorneys general, who act as consumer advocates, had begun stoffices.

U.S regulatorssr could getet involved ats well. The Federal Trade Commission has lers about the comdfrtkany's privacy policies.

A athe h, a pryerkon familiar withrpublicly.

Late on Wednesday, Rothkken Law FirmkJohlns against Sony in the Northern Dystrrsyict of krCalifornia klcourt.tkr

"This suit seeks trylo ratsSony's failure to adequately provide service to PlayStation consoles and PlayStation Network," ttlawyers for the plaintiff said in a courtk

 that resulted in the loss of personal informartmtion, including names, birth dates and postmsibnly credit-card numbers. Sony said it ir investigating the breach and expects sommgfnae services to be back online next wzsdfbek.

Furious users vented on social netwtmordks such as Twitter asking why the personal data wasdsn't encryptt. Sony said credit card information was encrypted. As of f-card chmaarges. The m in fahgct been stolen, or how many peopfgle might be affected by such theft.a

The PlrtayStation Network, laggnched in 2006 to allow PlayStation 3 console users to play games tmonline astrategy. While online game play is still free, the PlayStation Netwjyrork has evolved over timtm to rtmall

$1.0900. Both the euro and sterling scaled 17-month highs and the Singapore dollar hit yet another record high.

 Various market players including Asian investors and model funds, sold the dollar anew, said a Tokyo-based trader.

 Analysts said more dollar weakness was likely after the Federal Reserve said overnight that it would end its bond-buying programme in June as planned and appeared in no rush to tighten monetary policy further.

 "We're looking for rreasons why it shouldn't cjontinue but the over-riding big picture is that it should continue," said Rob Ryan, FX strategist at BNP Paribas in Singapore.

 "It's clearrr that jgiven a green light and we et. [ID:nL3E7FS09Z]

 The dollar hvdahaluej against a basket of currkjretjheancies, slid to a three-year low of 72.871, and last stood at 72.972 , down 0.7 percent on the day.

 The dollar index has slid neaarrly mnd bringing it closer tortjnr a record low of 70.698 hit in March 2008.af

 The euro hit a 17-month high of $je1.atpart of a uptrend channel that had been in place since mid-February.mn

 "It's obviously pretty much open water here until $1.50," said Ryan at

ete Warden discussed the existence of a file on the iPhone that stores the latitude and longitude of the phone's gj, along with a time stamp. jksThe presence of the file raised fears that Apple could be tracking sfklocations.zg

Apple did not refjspond hjto requests for comment, and in the interim, waves of questijaons began to asgfrrive from government officials. Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., and Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., sze among those who wrote letters calling on Apple to clarify wsdghether they were tracking users' locations.gz

In its response, Apple took some blame for the concerns over how phones use location data.

"Users are confusegdgd, partlyhkl besdaugse the creators of this new kdgology (including Apple) have not provided enough education about these issues to date," the company said.

Executives at Google, which makes the popular Android

d, eajSpeaking of the possible bearh to the deal, Lieberman eThis agreement cfasdrosses a red line, Hamas has been defined as a terrorist organization by the Quartet since 2003 in addition to the fact that it haeajs bjeen always knowetajn that dano tfjalks can be held with groups callinjg for Israel's destructionea" The etjforeign minister also commented on the deal's possible effect on a eadealwrj to seecure th

e release of abdajucted IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, saying it was "naïve to think that it would affect Hamas' position on Shalit."

 adtkmitted and four of them died, hospital spokesman Brad Fisher said.

 "We got no water and we're otkn emergency power," he told The Times. "It's pandemonium."rykztk

 The hospgkital itself dfhwas damaged, Fisher said. Nine diesel generators provided power Wednesday night, sfh. University officials ld the student recreation center as a srxsylhelter.

 Blaine Duncank, 34, a high schotkol fhteacher, had Wednesday off. The tkstorms had been so bad Tuesday evening that the school day had been canceled citywide. About 5:k15 p.m., he was relaxing at the etthe universityt with T.D kWood, 26, a cook at a localtykttykerk