The Bitcoin digital currency system is in danger of losing its credibility as an independent payment system because of the growing power of a group that runs some of the computers behind it.

In recent weeks, a British-based "mining pool" called GHash has amassed nearly half of the Bitcoin computing power and has briefly gone over 50 percent. Miners operate the computers that keep track of bitcoins and create additional coins.

Asian markets were mixed Tuesday, following a tepid lead from Wall Street ahead of a U.S. Federal Reserve policy meeting, while oil edged down a touch from nine-month highs as traders nervously watch the crisis in Iraq.

The dollar nudged a little higher against the yen after the previous day's sell-off but the uncertainty caused by events in the Gulf kept gains to a minimum.

Starbucks has announced that it will introduce a university education aid plan for its employees in a reflection of the skyrocketing cost of higher education in the United States.

The global chain of coffee shops said its full- and part-time U.S.-based employees will be eligible for aid to complete a bachelor's degree with Arizona State University (ASU), one of the country's most active in providing on-line college degrees.

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The new stress tests which Europe's banks are being subjected to might be too strict, the head of the Austrian central bank, Ewald Nowotny, warned in a newspaper interview Monday. 

"The test will be very strict, perhaps too strict," Nowotny told the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

Crude prices rose to nine-month highs in Asian trade Monday as investors kept a wary eye on the worsening crisis in Iraq, where insurgents were advancing on the capital Baghdad.

U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate for July delivery jumped 56 cents to $107.47 a barrel in afternoon trade, while Brent crude for August surged 62 cents to $113.08.

Europe risked gas supply disruptions Monday after Russia rejected an 11th-hour compromise deal and cut supplies to Ukraine in a feud that has further fractured East-West relations.

Ukraine hosted the last-gasp talks hoping to keep an energy shortage from compounding the problems of the new pro-Western leaders as they confront a two-month separatist insurgency threatening the very survival of the ex-Soviet state.

Russia has given its preliminary agreement to attend EU-brokered gas negotiations in Kiev on Saturday aimed at averting an imminent halt in deliveries, Ukraine's energy minister told AFP.

"We are hoping that these negotiations take place today in Kiev. The Russian side has given its preliminary agreement to attend," Energy Minister Yuriy Prodan said by telephone.

Pope Francis launched a sweeping attack on the world's economic system in an interview released Friday, saying it discards the young, puts money ahead of people and survives on the profits of war.

The 77-year-old leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics said some countries had a youth unemployment rate of more than 50 percent, with many millions in Europe seeking work in vain.

China, whose presence in Latin America until now was largely based on an appetite for raw materials, is diversifying investments by financing much needed development projects, analysts say.

At a summit, opening Saturday in Santa Cruz, the G77 + China group of developing nations meets on its 50th anniversary to promote economic development.