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BlackBerry’s maker says smartphone users in Latin America and India also are experiencing problems with messaging and browsing services.

Research in Motion Ltd. said Tuesday users in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, India, Brazil, Chile, and Argentina are affected.

The brief statement follows an online uproar as BlackBerry users experienced a second day of disruptions after an unexplained glitch cut off Internet and messaging services Monday for large numbers of users in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

There were no reports of any problems in the U.S.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

LONDON (AP) _ BlackBerry users across Europe, the Middle East and Africa were hit with service disruptions to their smartphones for a second day after an unexplained glitch cut off Internet and messaging services for large numbers of users around the world.

Research in Motion Ltd., which makes BlackBerry devices, acknowledged there were ongoing issues Tuesday, hours after it said services were operating normally and the issue responsible for delays in subscriber services a day earlier had been resolved.

“Some areas have messaging delays and impaired browsing,” Blackberry said on Twitter, adding it was working to “restore normal service as quickly as possible online payday advance.”

In Britain, Vodafone UK told customers via Twitter that service was not fully restored. Rival T-Mobile UK blamed “a European-wide outage on the BlackBerry network” which it said was affecting all mobile operators. There were also reports of problems elsewhere in Europe, such as Spain.

The disruptions were also felt in the Middle East and Africa.

Etisalat, which operates in the United Arab Emirates, apologized for “the further interruption” to Blackberry services, “once again due to RIM problems.”

And Kenya’s Safaricom Ltd. said on Twitter that its Blackberry customers were experiencing a “technical fault,” while South Africa’s Vodacom told subscribers the issues were affecting multiple networks and countries.

There were no reports of any problems in the U.S.

Angry smartphone users also used Twitter to vent frustration with the company and bemoaned the loss of their messaging capabilities, questioning why the company took so long to restore services.

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Stocks took a battering Monday after Greece admitted it won’t meet its deficit reduction targets, raising renewed fears that the country will not get crucial bailout loans it needs to avoid a default on its debts.

On Sunday, Greece’s finance ministry said the deficit this year will likely be 8.5 percent of gross domestic product, higher than the 7.8 percent previously anticipated. The ministry blamed a deeper-than-expected recession for the failure to meet the target. The Greek economy is expected to shrink by a further 5.5 percent this year as against the previous forecast of 3.8 percent.

The revelation that Greece is finding it increasingly difficult to reduce its borrowings in spite of all its austerity measures has raised fears that its international creditors will effectively pull the plug.

Greece has been reliant since May 2010 on regular payouts of loans from a euro110 billion ($150 billion) bailout from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund. It was granted a second euro109 billion package in July, but details of that deal remain to be worked out.

Under the terms of the first bailout, Greece has to achieve certain targets in order to get the cash it needs to pay off its bondholders and also afford salaries and benefits. Representatives of the so-called troika _ the European Commission, European Central Bank and IMF _ are currently in Athens trying to assess whether Greece has done enough to get its hands on the next batch of bailout cash. Without the euro8 billion ($10.8 billion), Greece has said it won’t be able to pay all its bills from the middle of October.

Finance ministers from the 17 euro countries, including Greece’s Evangelos Venizelos, are due to meet later in Luxembourg, to assess the latest Greek developments and the progress made so far in enacting legislation to beef up a bailout facility. So far 14 of the 17 euro countries have ratified the changes, with Malta and the Netherlands due to vote this week. A vote in Slovakia has yet to be pencilled in.

“Greece continues to be the major source of market angst as we head into the final quarter of 2011,” said Michael Hewson, market analyst at CMC Markets. “Today’s meeting of finance ministers will continue to delay the inevitable and look at ways and means of avoiding a Greek default.”

In Europe, Germany’s DAX was down 3.3 percent at 5,321 while the CAC-40 in France fell 2.6 percent to 2,906. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was 2.1 percent lower at 5,018.

The losses in Europe followed a big retreat in Asia, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng leading the way lower with a 4.5 percent decline to 16,798. Japan’s Nikkei fell 1.8 percent to 8,545.48 even after a government survey showing an improvement in business confidence among Japanese manufacturers.

Meanwhile China’s main index in Shanghai declined 0.3 percent to 2,359.

Wall Street is also expected to open sharply lower later _ Dow futures were down 2.2 percent to 10,860 while the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 futures fell 2.5 percent to 1,127.

Worries over Greece were also taking their toll on the euro, which was trading 0.3 percent lower at $1.3359.

As if Greek jitters weren’t enough, there’s a lot of potential news this week that could affect the market mood. A raft of U.S. economic data kicks off later with the monthly manufacturing survey from the Institute for Supply Management. A collapse in its main indicator in August was one of the triggers behind the turmoil that has gripped financial markets since.

The U.S. dataflow this week culminates with Friday’s nonfarm payrolls report for September. The figures often set the tone in markets for a week or two after their release and another weak number could well reinforce concerns over the world’s largest economy.

Central banks in Europe will also feature, with both the European Central Bank and the Bank of England under pressure to do more to boost growth.

Though inflation in both the eurozone and Britain are running uncomfortably above target, investors will be looking to see if the ECB reverses course and starts cutting rates, just two months after raising them, and if the Bank of England authorizes another monetary stimulus.

Oil prices tracked equities lower _ benchmark oil for November delivery was down $1.37 to $77.83 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

____

Pamela Sampson in Bangkok contributed to this report.

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Stock futures rose sharply Thursday after applications for unemployment benefits fell to a five-month low. The government also reported that the economy grew slightly faster in the spring than previously reported.

Initial unemployment claims fell to a seasonally adjusted 391,000. That’s the lowest level since April 2 and also the first time applications have fallen below 400,000 since Aug. 6. The big drop suggests that layoffs are stabilizing. Still, economists say unemployment requests need to consistently fall below 375,000 to indicate job growth.

The Commerce Department also said that the economy grew at a 1.3 percent annual rate in the April-June quarter, up from the 1 percent estimate made a month ago. The improvement reflects modest growth in consumer spending and trade.

Both reports gave investors some confidence about the strength of the economy.

“The economy in the rear-view mirror here … was growing at a pretty modest pace; not anywhere near what anyone would like, but not troublesome,” said Rob Lutts, president and chief investment officer of Cabot Money Management. “This gives us a little more confidence that maybe the economy will muddle through here as we go through all these challenges.”

About a half hour before the opening bell, Dow Jones industrial average futures are up 137 points, or 1.3 percent, at 11,113.

Standard & Poor’s 500 futures are up 15, or 1.3 percent, at 1,163. Nasdaq 100 futures are up 35, or 1.6 percent, at 2,253.

In Europe, German lawmakers voted to expand the powers of the region’s bailout fund quick guaranteed personal loans. That reassured investors that Europe is working to contain its debt problems.

The measure needs to be approved by all 17 countries that use the euro before it can take effect. It will allow the bailout fund to buy government bonds and lend money to troubled governments before they get to a full-blown crisis. Finland approved it on Wednesday.

Concerns about Europe have roiled the financial markets since late July. Analysts say investors are reacting to every bit of news from the region, which has contributed to volatility in stocks.

Case in point: Stocks rose earlier this week on hopes that Europe was moving closer to resolving its debt problems. The Dow soared 272 points on Monday, its fourth-largest increase this year, and another 147 points on Tuesday. By Wednesday, a three-day winning streak came to an end on more uncertainties about Europe’s debt. The Dow fell 180 points.

In corporate news, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. fell 9 percent in premarket trading Thursday after the company cut its revenue and earnings forecast for the third quarter, saying it was having problems getting its chips made.

Wheel and tire maker Titan International rose 3 percent ahead of the opening. The company boosted its revenue forecast for the year and said it is in a “great position to grow.”

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It may almost be time to start hyperventilating.

American Girl, the retailer that has a cult-like following among little girls, is proposing to put a store at Chesterfield Mall. In the words of a tween: OMG!

I have never set foot inside an American Girl store. But my colleagues have regaled me over the years with tales of taking their mesmerized daughters to the company’s flagship store in Chicago. In the store, you can dress up and accessorize the dolls, take them to a hair salon, and have tea parties with them. And that’s just the highlight reel.

So when I told my co-workers on Friday about the proposed store, one of them screamed in delight. But another groaned and said her daughter’s head was going to explode.

“In fact, mine just did,” she said, adding that she enjoys visiting the store, but is not so happy with how much poorer she is by the time she drags her can-we-stay-just-a-little-bit-longer daughter out of it.

An American Girl spokeswoman was quick to note that the retailer hasn’t signed a lease yet.

“Nothing is official or final,” Susan Jevens, the spokeswoman, wrote in an email.

But the retailer has submitted detailed plans to the city of Chesterfield to develop the former Wapango space at the mall into a 10,850-square-foot store.

The submitted architectural renderings, which include a candy apple red facade and pink awnings, makes the store seem more than just a pipe dream.

The proposed development goes before the city’s planning commission on Monday night. The next step will be getting a building permit, said Aimee Nassif, Chesterfield’s planning and development director.

American Girl has been slowly expanding in recent years. It opened its first store in Chicago in 1998 and later opened two more flagship stores

The union attempting to represent workers at IKEA’s only U.S. plant is challenging the Swedish furniture giant’s vaunted corporate ethos, accusing the retailer of paying its American workers low wages and tolerating unsafe working conditions.

Approximately 320 workers at IKEA’s Swedwood Danville plant will vote Wednesday whether to join the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

The machinists union has put IKEA’s reputation as a labor- and environment-friendly Swedish employer at the forefront of its organizing drive as it attempts to organize workers at the company’s subsidiary, Swedwood. They assemble the sleek, low-cost bookshelves and coffee tables that the big-box retailer sells in its distinctive, cheery, blue-and-yellow stores.

IKEA’s corporate conduct is guided by its so-called IWAY Standard, which outlines environmental, social and working rules _ an 18-page document governing everything from drinking water supplied to workers to lighting levels to a ban on child labor. The company says the standards follow a directive that “the IKEA business shall have an overall positive impact on people and the environment.”

Many of the company’s high corporate standards stop at the U.S. border, the machinists’ lead organizer said. The union said workers are grossly underpaid compared to their Swedish counterparts, suffer high injury rates, are forced to work overtime, and demoted or fired for expressing union sympathies.

The IWAY standards say overtime must be voluntary and ban employers from preventing workers from associating freely and collective bargaining. They also require workers be protected from “exposure to severe safety hazards.”

“You should not be able to reap the economic benefits of an image if that image is not true,” said Bill Street, director of the woodworkers department of the machinists international. “When you walk into an IKEA store, you’re walking into a little bit of Sweden.”

The Associated Press was not able to talk directly with workers involved with Street in organizing the Danville plant. He said workers feared retaliation.

An IKEA spokeswoman denied the union allegations that the Virginia plant operates in conflict with IKEA’s principles, saying the Danville operation has consistently measured up to its own internal and third-party audits.

“Swedwood Danville operates according to the same principles as all Swedwood plants,” Ingrid Steen said in an e-mail.

Steen also said IKEA will honor the union vote. “Swedwood respects the right of co-workers to join, form or not to join a co-worker association of their choice,” she wrote.

IKEA’s selection of Danville for its first U.S. factory came with $12 million in incentive grants and the goal of ultimately hiring 780 people in Southside Virginia near the North Carolina line. The region has one of the bleakest economic landscapes in a state that traditionally has an unemployment rate a couple notches below the national rate.

The last capital of the Confederacy, the city of approximately 43,000 has struggled as tobacco and textiles declined. The jobless rate has hovered around 10 percent in recent years.

IKEA, which has 26 Swedwood plants in Europe and saw profits rise 6 percent in 2010, was welcomed by accolades from the Capitol in Richmond to local economic officials, none of whom would publicly discuss the union drive with the AP.

Street, who brought in a union official from Sweden to talk to Danville workers this year, said he quietly began his organizing at Swedwood three years ago mindful of IKEA’s reputation for paying and treating its workers fairly.

“We thought to ourselves this was going to be a very simple, straightforward campaign,” he said in an interview amid one of his many trips to Danville from his home in Oregon. “After all, this was IKEA.”

Ultimately, he said, he concluded the message from IKEA was “Sure, no problem. As soon you get 51 percent of the workers, we’ll come back and bargain.”

Street was able to get the necessary 30 percent of the workers to support a union vote, and the National Labor Relations Board scheduled the balloting at the plant.

One of the union’s complaints is that starting pay at Danville of $8 an hour is approximately half of what their Swedish counterparts earn.

“We know in terms of safety, in terms of health care, in terms of pension, their European counterparts are treated vastly superior than the workers in Danville,” Street said.

IKEA’s Steen described the pay and benefits of Danville workers as “very competitive in the region.” She said many of IKEA’s 16,000 workers worldwide are members of unions or worker associations, adding it’s difficult to compare U.S. workers with workers in Europe.

“Conditions of different countries are very complex questions,” she wrote. “It is difficult to compare different national systems (such as) taxes, cost of living, systems of social insurances, etc.”

Street and the machinists union face an uphill battle in a right-to-work state and amid a period of some of the lowest private-sector union membership in the United States. Union membership fell to 7 percent in 2010, the lowest in decades, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Arthur B. Shostak, professor emeritus at Drexel University and an expert on the American work force, said the union is smart to target IKEA’s image to make its case, which has received the attention of international union organizers. He said young, hip shoppers might not be inclined to shop at IKEA if they were aware of the union allegations in Danville.

“Ikea has a big stake in protecting its brand,” Shostak said. “Brand protection is very, very important. This is a mess, and not for the union.”

Paul A. Argenti, a professor of corporate communication at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, said it’s a reach to compare workers in Danville’s rural economy with highly industrialized workers in Europe.

“We’re a developing nation to them,” he said. “Sweden is ridiculously expensive.”

While the union claims have some basis in fact, he said, the machinists are attempting to “paint IKEA as a monster.”

Street said he’s confident, despite declining union numbers and concessions by public sector workers.

“It’s been one of the best times to organize because employers have been overreaching. It’s kick `em when they’re down,” he said.

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Worries over Europe’s debt crisis kept markets on edge Monday, following a warning over Italy’s credit rating and a failure by eurozone finance ministers to agree an immediate release of bailout funds to Greece.

Though the finance ministers of the 17 countries that use the euro agreed to hand over the next bailout installment, worth euro12 billion ($17 billion), they said they would only do that if the Greek Parliament backed further austerity measures.

With the Greek government facing a confidence vote in Parliament on Tuesday, there’s still an element of political risk and that’s clearly weighing on markets at the start of a week that’s likely to be dominated again by the country’s woes. Though Prime Minister George Papandreou’s newly-reshuffled government is expected to prevail in the confidence vote, there’s still uncertainty over the passage of another euro28 billion in austerity measures.

“Until markets see some solid plans put in place to deal with Greece, the markets are only going to be heading in one direction,” said Simon Furlong, a sales trader at Spreadex.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 0.7 percent at 5,676 while Germany’s DAX fell 1 percent to 7,093. The CAC-40 in France was 1.1 percent lower at 3,783.

The biggest faller of Europe’s main stock markets was Italy’s FTSE MIB index, which was trading 2.5 percent lower at 19,597, after Moody’s warned Friday that it may downgrade its Aa2 rating on the country.

U.S. markets were also set to shed all the gains posted on Friday, when Germany appeared to back a plan to bailout Greece for a second time. Dow futures were down 0.4 percent at 11,886 while the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 futures fell a similar rate to 1,261.

The euro was 0.3 percent lower at $1.4234, having enjoyed a rally Friday after German Chancellor Angela Merkel indicated that private creditors, such as banks, would not be compelled to share any pain in a second bailout of Greece bad credit payday advance. Instead, she backed the line touted by the French government and the European Central Bank that any private sector involvement has to be on a “voluntary” basis.

“The whole concept of voluntary participation of private investors in roll-overs of debt does not appear to have been resolved leaving the financial markets skeptical of the plan that includes true voluntary participation,” said Derek Halpenny, European head of global currency research at The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ.

As the week progresses, attention will shift to the U.S. and the Federal Reserve’s rate-setting meeting. As well as keeping its benchmark rate unchanged at near zero percent, the Fed is expected to confirm that its current monetary stimulus will end as expected at the end of this month.

Earlier in Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 was one of the few benchmarks posting gains for the day. The benchmark gained less than 0.1 percent close at 9,354.32 despite data showing the country’s exports dropped for the third straight month in May due to massive production losses following the March 11 earthquake.

South Korea’s Kospi sank 0.6 percent to 2,019.65, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 0.4 percent to 21,599.51

Mainland Chinese shares extended losses for a fourth straight trading session amid a lack of funds as banks complied with the central government’s latest order to raise the level of deposits they must hold as reserves.

The Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.8 percent to 2,621.25, its lowest close this year, while the Shenzhen Composite Index lost 1.1 percent to 1,073.19.

In the oil markets, worries over the global economy pushed prices lower again. Benchmark oil for July delivery was down $1.24 to $91.77 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

____

Pamela Sampson in Bangkok contributed to this report.

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TORONTO

Inflation in Germany, Europe’s largest economy, unexpectedly eased in May after oil prices dropped from a 2 1/2-year high.

The harmonized inflation rate fell to 2.4 percent from 2.7 percent in April, the Federal Statistics Office in Wiesbaden said today. Economists had expected inflation to hold at the highest level since September 2008, the median of 17 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey showed. On the month, consumer prices declined 0.2 percent.

Oil prices have dropped 11 percent this month after breaching $114 a barrel in April, leaving households with more money to spend. European Central Bank officials have signaled they are ready to raise borrowing costs further to curb price pressures after increasing the benchmark interest rate to 1.25 percent last month, even as peripheral nations such as Greece, Portugal and Ireland remain mired in a sovereign-debt crisis.

“Today’s German inflation numbers are just a temporary breather,” said Carsten Brzeski, an economist at ING Group in Brussels. “Obviously, with these inflation numbers, the ECB won’t hastily rush to a June hike. The German data is also not soft enough to put the ECB off from another hike in July.”

On a non-harmonized basis, inflation slowed to 2.3 percent in May from 2.4 percent and prices were unchanged on the month, the statistics office said.

Price Mandate

VCI, the main association of German chemical companies, on May 17 raised its forecast for production, sales and prices this year in the industry, on increasing global demand.

“We have to avoid commodity-price increases becoming entrenched in longer-term inflation expectations, which could have second-round effects on wages and prices,” ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said yesterday. “We are carefully monitoring the situation and we stand ready to do whatever is necessary to fulfill our mandate.”

Euro-area inflation probably remained at 2.8 percent this month, according to the median of 27 forecasts in a Bloomberg survey. The European Union’s statistics office in Luxembourg will publish the data on May 31. Economists in a separate survey forecast the ECB will raise its main lending rate to 1.75 percent by the end of the year.

The German economy grew 1.5 percent in the first quarter as companies boosted spending to meet increased export demand and construction rebounded from a slump in the previous three months. The government predicts growth of 2.6 percent this year after a record 3.6 percent expansion in 2010.

At the same time, countries from Greece to Portugal are struggling to grow amid a debt crisis that’s shaking the foundations of the single currency. The euro area will grow 1.6 percent this year after expanding 1.8 percent in 2010, the European Commission forecast this month.

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China, the biggest foreign owner of U.S. Treasuries, trimmed its holdings for a fifth straight month in March as American lawmakers grappled with a government debt set to reach its legal limit. [bn:WBTKR=HOLDCH:IND]

The Asian nation owns $1.145 trillion [] of the debt, down $9 billion, or less than 1 percent, from the previous month, according to U.S. government data released yesterday. The holdings reached a record $1.175 trillion in October last year.

China’s concern that U.S. government securities may become more risky because of the nation’s deficits and debt burden prompted its call this month for President Barack Obama’s administration to lay “a solid fiscal foundation” for long- term growth. Former Chinese central bank adviser Yu Yongding said last month that China should stop buying Treasuries because of the risk that the U.S. may eventually default.

China may “gradually cut its U.S. Treasuries as it seeks to diversify its foreign-exchange holdings,” said Yao Wei, a Hong Kong-based economist with Societe Generale SA. She said “China is probably routing trades through other places such as London,” meaning U.S. data may not give a full picture.

The United Kingdom increased its holdings by $29.7 billion to $325.2 billion in March.

In the U.S., Republicans and Democrats have been arguing over when and how to raise a $14.3 trillion debt limit. Obama has said that a failure to act may disrupt the global financial system and plunge the nation into another recession.

Debt Ceiling

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said yesterday that he has used accounting measures to extend the deadline until Aug. 2.

“China has kept on lending money to the U.S. to keep its export machine going, and to prevent losses” on its holdings of Treasuries, Yu said last month. “Perhaps it is too late to do anything about the existing stock without causing a serious political and financial backlash. But at least China should stop continuing building up its holdings.”

Officials including central bank adviser Li Daokui have urged diversification of the nation’s foreign exchange reserves away from U.S. debt.

Japan, the second-largest holder of Treasuries, increased its holdings by $17.6 billion to $907.9 billion in March from $890.3 billion in February. Hong Kong, counted separately from China, reduced its holdings by $2.5 billion to $122.1 billion from $124.6 billion.

–Zheng Lifei. Editors: Paul Panckhurst, Ken McCallum.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Zheng Lifei in Beijing at +86-10-6649-7560 or lzheng32@bloomberg.net

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Citigroup Inc. Chief Economist Willem Buiter said that extending the maturities of Greek debt won’t solve the country’s underlying solvency problem.

“Extension of maturities is of course the final option that would allow them at least to get over the funding gap in 2012,” he said in an interview with Ken Prewitt on Bloomberg radio from Edinburgh. “It doesn’t solve the underlying solvency problem of the Greek sovereign.”

Standard & Poor’s yesterday cut the country’s debt rating two notches to B, citing the likelihood that Greece may need to restructure its debt. Euro-region officials said after an unscheduled May 6 meeting in Luxembourg that Greece needs “a further adjustment program.”

“It’s clear that Greece will have to find money somewhere in a hurry,” said Buiter. Greece “can’t get it in the market, so we either need a new package, an extension of the existing package, or rapid privatization of assets.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel today refused to commit to more aid for Greece, saying that it is still too early to decide whether the Greek government will need more financial help to overcome the debt crisis.

“The consent has to be unanimous so it’s going to be very, very difficult” to get another bailout, Buiter said. “It’s an investment of reputational capital by politicians no fax payday loan. It doesn’t really make a lot of sense as you really are lending to an entity that’s insolvent.”

‘Ponzi Finance’

Buiter said that further lending to Greece would be futile.

“The way to deal with insolvency is not to lend more to the insolvent party, that’s Ponzi finance,” he said. “What you have to do is to face up to the reality of restructuring” which means taking “the necessary steps to restructure the sovereigns and the banks that are exposed to the sovereigns.”

Greece has slashed spending and raised taxes to reduce a budget deficit that reached 15.4 percent of gross domestic product in 2009, requiring a 110 billion-euro ($158 billion) bailout from the European Union and International Monetary Fund. Buiter criticized the Greek policy of raising revenue.

“Last year Greece responded to the tax shortfall by having tax amnesty,” he said. “That’s always a measure of despair which gives you money upfront in return for a complete undermining of your tax enforcement credibility in the future because everybody expects the next tax amnesty five years down the road.”

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