UPI NewsTrack Business

HAVANA, May 3 (UPI) -- Cuba's government, while keeping an iron grip on access to the Internet, finally has allowed the sale of home computers, Havana residents said.

The BBC reports from Havana that the sale of the first legalized home computers is the latest lifting on restrictions on daily life, all initiated by President Raul Castro in recent weeks.

The report said crowds formed at the Havana's Carlos II shopping center when the sale ban was lifted, though most were just looking rather than buying. The desktops cost almost $800; the country's average wage is just under $20 a month.

The BBC said since Raul Castro took over the presidency in February from ailing older brother Fidel, he has lifted a variety of bans on consumer goods. Cubans have responded by snapping up mobile phones and DVD players.

Internet access is still restricted to some workplaces, schools and universities -- the government says the restrictions remain because it is unable to connect to giant undersea fiber-optic cables due to the U.S. trade embargo.

BEIJING, May 3 (UPI) -- China's government uncharacteristically watched from the sidelines as the country's stock markets crashed, leaving small investors in the lurch, investors said.

The markets' six-month tumble in Shanghai and Shenzhen left many investors, who believed the only direction was up, astonished, The Washington Post reported.

The government finally stepped in, slashing stock taxes and requiring some big trades to be made off market, when the markets fell below 50 percent of an October high.

The grim financial news appears to be driving some small investors to suicide, the Post said.

In February, a 25-year-old engineer jumped from the seventh floor of his work building in Chengdu after losing what his company said was a huge sum on the stock market. On March 30, a 39-year-old former ice cream shop owner jumped to his death from his apartment building in Shandong province after losing a third of his $4,500 investment, the Post said.

The report said small investors, who make up the vast majority of those investing in China's exchanges, have expressed their anger at the government on online bulletin boards.

SAN FRANCISCO, May 3 (UPI) -- U.S. baby boomers, scared their brains are decaying, are driving a mini-industry of brain health products, retailers tell The New York Times.

The products don't just include food supplements like ginseng, but computer games or software advertised as able to restore some brain function.

The Times said computer products include Nintendo's Brain Age 2, a video game with "simple math and memory exercises," and MindFit, a software program that combines cognitive assessment with a personalized training regimen based on that assessment, and selling for about $149.

David Bunnell, a magazine publisher who lives in Berkeley, Calif., is among those with memory fears

When he went to a FedEx store a few years ago to send a package, "I couldn't remember my address," Bunnell, 60, told the Times "with a measure of horror in his voice." "I knew where I lived, and I knew how to get there, but I didn't know what the address was."

The newspaper said Bunnell is among tens of millions of baby boomers facing a decline of brain sharpness.

WASHINGTON, May 3 (UPI) -- Central banks in the United States and Europe are trying as a group to ease the strains on financial markets, analysts said.

The coordinated effort comes even as U.S. unemployment falls, raising doubts about whether the United States is really in a recession, The Financial Times reported.

The U.S. Federal Reserve said it was increasing the size of its credit auction facility, which offers one-month loans to banks, by 50 percent to $150 billion, the Times said. The European Central and Swiss National banks announced a similar increase in currency swaps, exchanging euros and Swiss francs for dollars.

The Times said the U.S. central bank also now is accepting top-rated securities backed by student loans, credit card debt and car loans.

The central bank actions help, analysts told the Times, but warned that credit markets would remain nervous.

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