HOUSTON, Mar 1:  As the Dow Jones Industrial Average headed towards its all-time closing high of 14,164.53, gold dropped 1.2 per cent on Wednesday as equities soared.
Gold for April delivery dropped USD 17.60 to settle at USD 1,578.10 an ounce at the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The gold price traded as high as USD 1,602.50 and as low as USD 1,574.30 an ounce, while the spot price was shedding USD 19.10, according to Kitco’s gold index.
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi asserted status quo policy moving forward as he pointed out that the bank would remain committed to price stability — an answer to critics who have said the ECB is doing either too much or too little.
“The thing that the gold market is looking at right now is, they are just competing assets: the stock market is near a five-year high…European stocks were firmer today, the Japanese and Asian stocks have rallied recently,” Jim Wyckoff, senior metals analyst at Kitco.Com, said in an interview.
“The European Union sovereign debt crisis was back on the front burner earlier this week; that situation seemed to have calmed down a bit.”
Silver prices for May delivery dropped 24 cents to USD 28.75 an ounce, while the US dollar index jumped 0.31 per cent to USD 81.82.
Domestic economic indicators showed continued recovery, which likely was adding to the slight downward pressure on gold prices.
The Labor Department reported that initial jobless claims for the week ended February 23 were 344,000, a drop of 22,000 from the previous week.
Economists were expecting claims to hit 360,000.
The Federal Reserve has pegged its policy to maintain low interest rates to an unemployment rate that holds at or above 6.5%.
Any indication that the labor market is rapidly approaching that target would suggest the likely conclusion to low rates and the highly accommodative monetary stance.
Chicago PMI rose to 56.8 in February from January’s 55.6.
February’s number was higher than economists’ expectation for the index to fall to 54.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis released its second estimate of fourth-quarter 2012 gross domestic product and found that the economy grew slightly by 0.1%.
This was a slight uptick from the first reading, which noted that the economy had contracted by 0.1%.
Gold mining stocks were mostly lower on Thursday.
Shares of Agnico-Eagle Mines (AUY)were losing 3.6%, and Kinross Gold (NG) shares were off 3.5%. (PTI)

BEIJING, Mar 1:  Eleven mine workers were killed due to carbon monoxide poisoning in a coal mine in northern China.
They died after an air compressor caught fire inside the mine in north China’s Hebei Province, local authorities said today. Two more miners are still missing.
The accident occurred last night in a coal mine in Huailai County of Zhangjiakou City, the publicity department of Zhangjiakou City said.
The mine belongs to Zhangkuang Group, a subsidiary of Jizhong Energy Group Co. Ltd, state run Xinhua news agency reported today.
Thirteen miners were working in the mine when the accident happened.
China’s mines are notoriously hazardous, with 1,384 people killed in coal mine accidents last year. Safety improvements have reduced deaths over the years, but regulations are often ignored. (PTI)

LOS ANGELES, Mar 1:  “Les Miserables” star Russell Crowe has rubbished reports suggesting he is dating long time friend Natalie Imbruglia.
Recent reports said that Crowe and Imbruglia were spotted flirting and getting cosy in LA over Oscars weekend. The reports also said that the two stayed together in the actor’s Beverly Hills Hotel.
But the 48-year-old has denied the reports saying Imbruglia is just a good friend.
“I am not having an affair with nor am I dating Natalie Imbruglia. She has been a friend for years. No flirting, no whispers, total nonsense,” he tweeted.
Their hook-up reports comes as Crowe prepares for a 15 million pound divorce from his wife of nine years, Danielle Spencer. The couple, who have two children Charles, nine, and Tennyson, six, split last October.
Imbruglia, 38, has been linked to a string of men in the past, including Lenny Kravitz, Prince Harry and, last year, Harry Styles. (PTI)

TOKYO, Mar 1: Kyoko Machiya should be enjoying life with grandchildren. Instead, the 64-year-old’s home is a makeshift structure of boxes covered with blue plastic in a Tokyo park.
Homelessness in Japan is a decades-old issue, yet it has a worrying new twist. A vast majority of the homeless are now ageing, a reflection of the overall greying of Japanese society that poses new problems for policy makers.
Machiya, a tiny woman with weathered skin and greying hair, tried a shelter once but eventually moved out.
‘It’s not their fault, but it’s pretty difficult being surrounded by those with severe mental illnesses,’ Machiya said. ‘It wasn’t a pleasant environment, so I ended up on the streets again.’
Machiya’s situation is, sadly, far from unusual.
The number of homeless in Japan has fallen sharply in nearly 5 years, to 9,576 in 2012 from 18,564 in 2007, according to Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.
But those in higher age groups – 55 years old and above – have surged to 73.5 percent in 2012 from 58.8 percent in 2003.
Part of the problem is simple demographics, activists said – like the rest of Japan, the homeless are getting older.
By 2060, two out of every five people in Japan will be aged 65 or older, with the population falling by 30 percent to below 90 million – the fastest ageing among developed countries.
‘Although the number of elderly homeless may be increasing, the homeless population was generally in their 50s and 60s to begin with,’ said Daisuke Kuroiwa, a member of Nojiren, a homeless support group.
About 53% of those in the higher age groups have been homeless for at least 5 years or longer – people like Toshiyuki Ishioka, who lives in the same park as Machiya.
‘The company I used to work for went bankrupt, so I’ve been living on the streets for eight years now,’ said the 50-year-old, whose tanned, leathery skin made him look older than his age. ‘It’s also difficult for older people like me to find jobs because we’re just not as strong.’
With Japan’s unemployment rate as a whole hovering around 4.2 percent, competition is much stiffer for the day labour jobs on which many of the homeless have long depended and for which strength is critical, activists said.
Though the government’s report said that many of the homeless chose to live that way and were managing to scrape by with money made from recycling cans they scrounged out of the trash, people at the NGOs painted a darker picture.
‘Even if people can find jobs, they’re usually short term contractual jobs, and sometimes they’re back on the streets after a year or so,’ said Mitsuo Nakamura, a member of Aun, Asia Worker’s Network. ‘Most of those that get employed tend to be young, so the elderly have a clear disadvantage.’

GIVING UP
Many older homeless have just given up. According to the report, 63.7% said they aren’t looking for jobs, and don’t plan to in the future, with 40.2% of those not seeking jobs giving sickness and old age as the main reasons.
Officials at the Health Ministry stressed that they were working with local non-profit organizations to provide shelters and self-support centres that helped with employment.
But these programmes often involve a substantial amount of red tape and are based on job-hunting programmes for mainstream job applicants, activists complain.
‘During the application process, you’re required to give a substantial amount of background information – particularly why you’re homeless – because they’re usually suspicious,’ said Kazuaki Kasai, with Shinjuku Renraku Kai, a volunteer support group. ‘It’s quite humiliating.’
As for shelters, plans to build them provoke fierce neighborhood resistance. The government of Tokyo runs 5 support centres and shelters, with room for 385 people.
Many just opt out, activists said.
‘The homeless aren’t applying for them because the majority require shared housing which gives them no privacy, and they’re given a time limit of 6 months to find a job or they get kicked out,’ Nakamura said.
‘It’s a pretty demanding process, especially for old people. Essentially it’s a rat race.’
The real picture is likely to be worse. Both the government report and NGOs say the drop in visible homeless numbers could actually be due to many vanishing from public parks and streets into places like 24-hour Internet cafes, where they sleep.
The hazards of being on the street are clear. A few weeks after Machiya spoke with Reuters, she had vanished from her home in the park – beaten and hospitalized, her fellow homeless said.
(AGENCIES)

CONAKRY, Mar 1: A Guinea activist died from wounds suffered during clashes a day earlier between security forces and protesters in the run up to a divisive parliamentary election, a spokesman for the opposition said.
Clashes broke out between rock-throwing youths and officers armed with truncheons and teargas after thousands of opposition supporters took to the streets accusing the government of planning to rig the May poll.
Aboubacar Sylla, a spokesman of the opposition coalition, said one of their supporters died yesterday from wounds he suffered during the Wednesday clashes. The death was also confirmed by a doctor at a hospital in Conakry.
The election set for May 12 is intended to be the last step in Guinea’s transition to civilian rule after two years under a army junta following the death of long-time leader Lansana Conte in 2008. The country is the world’s top supplier of bauxite, the raw material in aluminium.
The government called for calm on Thursday saying 130 people were hurt in Wednesday’s riots, including 68 members of the security forces, two of whom were in a critical condition.
‘The street is not the place to resolve political disagreements,’ said government spokesman Damantang Albert Camara.
Camara said the government was aware of the death of a protester, but could not say how it happened.
Police in riot gear were posted in opposition strongholds in the capital on Thursday. Many shops were closed and debris, including burned tyres and rocks, littered the streets.
Opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo, who lost narrowly to President Alpha Conde in a 2010 election, accused the security forces of cracking down harshly on demonstrators, adding some were arrested and beaten.
FRANCE CALLS FOR CALM
‘The president of the republic has a crucial responsibility to create peace. He needs to agree to listen to others, to respect his adversaries,’ he said.
Conde was attending a regional summit in Ivory Coast during the protests.
Guinea’s opposition coalition called for widespread protests in Conakry after announcing last week it would boycott preparations for the election, saying they were flawed.
The opposition says the elections commission chose the poll date unilaterally and that two companies contracted to update voter rolls have skewed the lists in Conde’s favour. They also want Guineans living abroad to be allowed to vote.
Conde won the 2010 presidential election promising prosperity for the former French colony’s 10 million people whose economy produces only about $1.50 per person per day despite a wealth of natural resources, including the world’s largest untapped iron ore deposit.
The European Union, a major donor, warned in November that it needed a credible and detailed timeline for the election to unblock about 174 million euros ($229 million) in aid.
(AGENCIES)

JERUSALEM, Mar 1: Israel’s prime minister accused his Turkish counterpart of making ‘dark and false’ statements by calling Zionism a crime against humanity – comments likely to hit efforts to repair ties between the two former allies.
The Turkish premier’s statement, made at a UN meeting in Vienna a day earlier, was also condemned by the head of Europe’s main rabbinical group who called them a ‘hateful attack’ on Jews.
‘Just as with Zionism, anti-Semitism and fascism, it has become impossible not to see Islamophobia as a crime against humanity,’ Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said at the UN Alliance of Civilisations forum, according to Turkish media reports.
Ties between Israel and mostly Muslim Turkey have been frosty since 2010, when nine Turks were killed by Israeli commandoes who stormed their ship carrying aid to Palestinians in Gaza, under a naval blockade.
In recent weeks, there has been a run of reports in the Turkish and Israel press about efforts to repair relations, including a senior diplomatic meeting earlier this month in Rome and military equipment transfers.
The reports have not been confirmed by either government. No one was immediately available from Turkey’s foreign ministry to comment on the new criticism from the rabbis or by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
A statement from the Israeli premier’s office said he ‘strongly condemns (Erdogan’s) statement about Zionism and its comparison to Nazism.’
The Zionist movement was the main force behind the establishment of the state of Israel.
‘This is a dark and false pronouncement the likes of which we thought had passed into history,’ Netanyahu was quoted as saying.
Pinchas Goldschmidt, chief rabbi of Moscow and the head of the Conference of European Rabbis, said Erdogan’s criticism of Zionism amounted to anti-Semitism.
‘This is an ignorant and hateful attack on the Jewish people and against a movement with peace at its core, which relegates Prime Minster Erdogan to the level of (Iranian President) Mahmoud Ahmadinejadand, to Soviet leaders who used anti-Zionism as a euphemism for anti-Semitism,’ Goldschmidt said in an e-mailed statement.
‘The irony of these comments will not be lost on the families of those slaughtered during the Armenian genocide, a crime still not recognised by the Turkish government,’ he added.
Armenians accuse Ottoman Turks of committing an orchestrated campaign of massacres against Christian Armenians during World War One.
Turkey, which was established as a republic after the Ottoman Empire collapsed, denies those killings were a genocide and says both sides lost lives in internecine fighting during the chaos of war.
The Conference of European Rabbis is an umbrella group of 700 religious leaders in Europe, where an estimated 1,7 millions Jewish people live. About 17,000 Jews live in Turkey, a country of 76 million people. (AGENCIES)