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A senior U.S. Treasury official on Friday rejected proposals to recapitalize class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Fannie Mae and class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Freddie Mac , saying it would take at least 20 years to make sure they were adequately funded and that in the meantime taxpayers would potentially be on the hook. _0"> In remarks prepared for delivery to a housing conference, Treasury Under Secretary Mary Miller repeated the Obama administration's call for winding down the two government-controlled mortgage class="mandelbrot_refrag"> finance firms. "Critics of reform would suggest that we can simply recapitalize the GSEs and avoid difficult decisions around creating a new system," she said. "Even if truly rehabilitating the GSEs were possible, recapitalizing them adequately would take at least 20 years." (Reporting by Timothy Ahmann; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama )   true      

Investors braced on Friday for a UK interest rate hike later this year, pushing sterling to five-year highs and hurting property class="mandelbrot_refrag"> stocks , after the head of the Bank of England said rates may rise sooner than class="mandelbrot_refrag"> markets predict. Governor Mark Carney's surprisingly stark warning late on Thursday prompted investors to bring forward expectations for a first BoE rate hike by nearly four months, to December from the first quarter of 2015.   true       Sterling's trade-weighted index posted its biggest one-day rise in four months, hitting 5 1/2-year highs. Short-dated UK government bond yields were on track for their biggest daily gain in more than three years. A rate hike by the end of 2014 is likely to come at least six months before the U.S. Federal Reserve tightens policy. It would contrast sharply with the European Central Bank, which cut rates last week and is likely to ease policy in the coming

A senior U.S. Treasury official on Friday rejected calls to recapitalize class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Fannie Mae and class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Freddie Mac , saying it would take at least 20 years to make sure they were adequately funded and that in the meantime taxpayers would be on the hook. In remarks to a housing conference, Treasury Undersecretary Mary Miller repeated the Obama administration's call that the two so-called government-sponsored enterprises be wound down. "Critics of reform would suggest that we can simply recapitalize the GSEs and avoid difficult decisions around creating a new system," she said. "Even if truly rehabilitating the GSEs were possible, recapitalizing them adequately would take at least 20 years."   true       "During these 20 years, the taxpayer would remain at risk of having to bail out the GSEs during another downturn," Miller added class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Fannie Mae

Britain could become the first major class="mandelbrot_refrag"> economy to tighten monetary policy since the 2008 financial crisis, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has signalled, sending sterling shooting towards a five-year high against the dollar on Friday. British government bond yields soared, class="mandelbrot_refrag"> construction stocks tumbled and interest rate class="mandelbrot_refrag"> futures priced in a first hike by December after Carney said rates could rise sooner than class="mandelbrot_refrag"> markets had thought - his most hawkish comment to date. "There's already great speculation about the exact timing of the first rate hike and this decision is becoming more balanced," Carney said in a speech late on Thursday alongside British finance minister George Osborne. "It could happen sooner than markets currently expect." Few economists had expected rates to increase until the sec

class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Japan on Friday denied Beijing's claims that its Self-Defence Force planes came "dangerously close" to Chinese aircraft in an incident over the East class="mandelbrot_refrag"> China Sea on Wednesday, demanding China takes down the footage allegedly showing the incident. _0"> The tit-for-tat accusations and denials are part of a long-running territorial dispute between Asia's largest economies. They follow a similar incident on May 24, when class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Japan said Chinese aircraft came within a few dozen metres of its warplanes. class="mandelbrot_refrag"> China , where bitter memories of Japan's wartime militarism run deep, lays claim to Japanese-administered islets in the East China Sea, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. China declared its air defence zone covering most of the East China Sea last year despite protests by Japan and the Uni

South Korean on Friday police arrested the brother of a South Korean businessman linked to a ferry disaster in April in which hundreds of school children drowned, as the net appeared to tighten around the fugitive's family. But Yoo Byung-un, 73, a businessman and photographer, is still on the run, eluding one of the country's biggest and most bizarre manhunts for more than a month, centred on a huge church sect compound south of Seoul. [ID:nL4N0OT3MC] His elder brother, Yoo Byung-il, was arrested near the leafy compound in Anseong, where police are checking all passing vehicles and pedestrians.   true       Yoo Byung-un's daughter, Yoo Som-Na, has been held in class="mandelbrot_refrag"> France since May 28 after Interpol called for her arrest "for fraud and embezzlement". She was denied bail on Wednesday Yoo Byung-un is wanted on charges of embezzlement, negligence and tax evasion stemming from a web of business holdings centred on I-One-I, an

The head of the junta that seized power in class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Thailand last month said on Friday that an interim government would be set up by August, the first time he has given a clear date on delegating any sort of power in the country. General Prayuth Chan-ocha, in an address to senior military officials, announced the date as part of a three-phase plan of reconciliation, formation of a government and elections to be rolled out by the ruling National Council for Peace and Order. "A government will be set up by August, or at the very latest September," Prayuth told a meeting devoted to the 2015 national budget. He did not say whether the government would be comprised of civilian or military types.   true       The army took power on May 22 in a bloodless coup after six months of sometimes violent street protests pitting mainly rural supporters of ousted Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra against her Bangkok-based, royalist opponents. Prayuth re