MEXICO CITY, Oct 13, 2007 (AFP) - Visitors to Mexico City's historic center were to find it unusually empty this weekend after authorities forced thousands of unlicensed vendors to clear their stalls from its crowded streets.

Hundreds of police enforced the clear-out Friday on the mayor's orders after pressure from authorized traders and from the public who complained of stalls cluttering pavements and displaying pornographic films for sale in view of children.

PARIS, Oct 6, 2007 (AFP) - Traders at Paris's famous Saint-Ouen flea market are protesting against their British landlord, the Duke of Westminster, accusing him of driving them out of business with exorbitant rent hikes.

More than 400 stall-holders at the market, in a winding complex of streets just north of the Paris ring road, donned black T-shirts bearing the slogan 'Your flea-markets in danger', to mark the start of a World Antiques Fair.

PARIS, Oct 4, 2007 (AFP) - Traders at Paris's famous Saint-Ouen flea market have launched a protest against their British landlord, the Duke of Westminster, who they accused Thursday of driving them out of business with exorbitant rent hikes.

To mark the start of a World Antiques Fair Friday, more than 400 stall-holders at the market on the northern Paris outskirts are to wear black T-shirts bearing the slogan 'Your flea-markets in danger', according to a statement sent to AFP.

YANGON, Sept 26, 2007 (AFP) - Tens of thousands of people regrouped in a massive anti-government protest in Myanmar's downtown Yangon, despite a crackdown by the military regime, witnesses said Wednesday.

The protesters, including some monks, marched through the main market in the nation's commercial hub, just one hour after soldiers and police fired tear gas and warning shots to break up a demonstration around the Sule Pagoda in downtown Yangon, witnesses said.

MOGADISHU, Sept 23, 2007 (AFP) - As the holy month of Ramadan builds up to the Eid al-Fitr feast, market alleyways in Muslim countries usually teem with activity and shoppers stocking up on dates and other products.

In Mogadishu, Bakara market has become a by-word for violence and danger. The sprawling neighbourhood and its narrow mazy streets have seen the worst of Somalia's seemingly never-ending strife in recent months.

LONDON, Sept 17, 2007 (AFP) - Shares in British home loan specialist Alliance and Leicester plunged over 30 percent Monday as the tremors surrounding the Northern Rock bank spread to its peers.

The firm's share price dropped 31.27 percent to 600 pence after Northern Rock on Friday was bailed out by the Bank of England, prompting thousands of customers to pull out their cash.

Other lenders also saw large amounts wiped off their share prices, including Bradford and Bingley, which lost over 15 percent to 279 pence.

FRANKFURT, Sept 6, 2007 (AFP) - European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet stressed Thursday that liquidity injections by the ECB to calm nervous banks were completely separate from its monetary policy decisions.

Trichet told media after the ECB announced more infusions of cash into the euro banking system that the bank had to ensure money markets could function correctly, but that it had no bearing on interest rate decisions and the main ECB goal of price stability.

PRAGUE, Aug 29, 2007 (AFP) - Central Europe's biggest used car seller, the AAA Auto Group, will launch its shares on the Prague and Budapest stock exchanges in September following a public offers of shares, the Czech-based company announced on Wednesday.

Around 28 percent of the company will be offered through the public offer with trading of shares on the Prague exchange to launch on September 28 and in Budapest two days later.

The founder of the company in 1992, Australian-born businessman Anthony Denny, has until now been the sole shareholder.

BAQUBA, Iraq, Aug 22, 2007 (AFP) - A suicide bomber on a motorbike attacked a police patrol as it passed through an Iraqi market on Wednesday and left 38 people dead or wounded, a regional police commander said.

The attacker struck in the centre of Muqdadiyah, 100 kilometres (62 miles) northeast of Baghdad, at nightfall, Major General Abdel Karim al-Ambagi, head of the Iraqi security forces' control room in the restive Diyala province.

There were 38 victims among the police and bystanders, he said, but was unable to to say how many of the casualties had died.

NEW DELHI, Aug 22, 2007 (AFP) - India will become one of the world's top 10 drugs markets by 2015 as incomes rise and 'lifestyle' ailments such as heart disease become more common, global consultancy McKinsey said Wednesday.

Underpinning the rosy scenario for the pharmaceuticals market is an expected rise in per capita disposable income to 765 dollars by 2015 from 463 dollars now on the back of rapid economic expansion.

HONG KONG, Aug 22, 2007 (AFP) - Fitch Ratings said Wednesday most of the Asian banks have a low direct exposure to US subprime-backed securities as they only amount to just a few percent of the investing bank's equity capital.

'Losses on such investments will put a dent in annual earnings but do not pose a systemic risk as they are not a serious threat to the soundness of the banks we have surveyed,' said David Marshall, head of Fitch's Financial Institutions Group in Asia.

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 16, 2007 (AFP) - State-controlled Malaysian shipping firm MISC Bhd has deferred its planned 750 million US dollar bond offer in the wake of global volatility in markets due to the US subprime crisis, the official Bernama news agency reported Thursday.

'Basically, we have deferred our US bond issue. We didn't go ahead with it. The market is not conducive for us to proceed,' Bernama quoted MISC chairman Mohd Hassan Merican as saying.

SYDNEY, Aug 14, 2007 (AFP) - Business confidence in Australia fell three points in July amidst worries over the crisis in the US subprime mortgage sector, the National Australia Bank (NAB) said Tuesday.

The NAB business confidence survey, which measures expectations for the next quarter, fell to 12 in July after being unchanged in June.

But NAB said the overall business conditions index -- a composite of trading conditions, profitability and employment across the nonfarm business sector -- rose to a record 20.0 in July from 16 in June.