The value of bitcoin plunged 13.5% in the early hours of Thursday after news hit that South Korea is planning to ban cryptocurrency trading. News of the ban follows the raiding of local cryptocurrency exchanges by police and tax authorities over alleged tax evasion, as one of the key nations driving the demand for bitcoin and other virtual currencies attempts a clampdown. “There are great concerns regarding virtual currencies and [the] justice ministry is basically preparing a bill to ban cryptocurrency trading through exchanges,” justice minister Park Sang-ki said.

The news sent bitcoin prices tumbling $2,000 from midnight UK time from a high of $14,890, according to data from Coinbase, before beginning to recover in the early hours of the morning. In South Korea, where bitcoin trades at around a 30% premium compared to other countries, the local price plunged as much as 21% after the minister’s comments. Once a bill is drafted, legislation for an outright ban of virtual coin trading within South Korea will require a majority vote of the total 297 members of the National Assembly, a process that could take months or even years.

Once enforced, South Korea’s ban “will make trading difficult here, but not impossible,” said Mun Chong-hyun, chief analyst at EST Security. “Keen traders, especially hackers, will find it tough to cash out their gains from virtual coin investments in Korea but they can go overseas, for example Japan,” Mun said.(theguardian)…[+]

More than 300 protesters have been arrested and the army deployed in several Tunisian cities after violent demonstrations swept the country for a third night despite the threat of a security crackdown. In Thala, near the Algerian border, troops were sent in after protesters burned down the national security building, forcing police to retreat from the town, witnesses said.

Anti-government protests have raged in towns across Tunisia since Monday, including the tourist resort of Sousse. The immediate cause of the unrest is government-imposed price and tax rises, which will raise the cost of basic goods but are said to be essential to cut a ballooning deficit and satisfy international lenders. Longer-term factors include high levels of poverty and youth unemployment, particularly among graduates.

While Tunisia is widely seen as the only democratic success story among Arab spring states, it has had nine governments since the overthrow of the authoritarian leader Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, none of which have resolved the growing economic problems.

“Some 330 people involved in acts of sabotage and robbery were arrested last night,” said the interior ministry spokesman, Khelifa Chibani, bringing the number of detainees since the protests began to about 600.(theguardian)…[+]

French police have recovered some of the jewels worth an estimated €4m (£3.5m) that were looted from the Ritz hotel in central Paris on Wednesday evening, a police source has told AFP, as officers hunt for two thieves who remain on the run. A gang of five masked men armed with axes and knives smashed the display windows of jewellery shops on the ground floor of the hotel on rue Cambon, near the Place Vendôme, at about 6.30pm (5.30pm GMT). “A part of the loot was recovered scattered about during the arrest of three of the suspected robbers,” the police source said, referring to the men detained immediately after the heist. More jewels and watches were found in a bag dropped by one of the two suspects still at large, added the source, who could not give an estimate for the value of the goods retrieved.(theguardian)…[+]