Tokyo - Japan's consumer prices stopped their increase as a February's core index remained flat, making it the second straight stable month, the government said Friday.

The nation's key consumer price index (CPI), which excludes fresh food prices, remained unchanged in February year-on-year at 100.4 against 100 for the base year of 2005, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said in a preliminary report.

London  - Buoyed by a renewed sense that the recession has made anti-capitalist protest fashionable again, a myriad of groups have vowed to bring London to a standstill during next week's Group of 20 (G20) summit to rescue the global economy.

The website announcements by umbrella organization G-20 Meltdown that large swaths of London would be in security lockdown and bankers would be targeted if they dared to wear smart suits on the day have led Scotland Yard to declare that police are facing a "huge challenge."

Brasilia  - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva demanded Thursday that industrialized countries take responsibility in the efforts to overcome the current global financial crisis, which he said was created by "white people with blue eyes."

In a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in Brasilia, Lula again stressed that it is necessary to regulate the international financial system.

Washington  - President Barack Obama's administration, in a massive overhaul of the US financial regulatory system, is seeking the power to keep watch on all types of financial firms and to seize failing companies integral to the health of the system.

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner unveiled the plans in congressional testimony on Thursday, arguing that the current financial turmoil has proven the system is "too unstable and fragile" to be allowed to manage itself.

Berlin  - German consumer confidence has slipped as the global economic uncertainty deepens, a survey released Thursday showed.

The Nuremberg-based GfK marketing institute said its forward- looking consumer confidence index came in at 2.4 points in April compared to 2.5 points in March, which was revised down from a preliminary reading of 2.6 points.

"Despite a flood of negative information about economic development, the overall mood among German consumers has remained virtually unchanged," the Gfk said.