ASIA - Equity markets across Asia tumbled on Friday as the proposed bailout for US automakers collapsed in the US Senate, wiping out the tentative signs of improved sentiment in the region and sending the dollar to a fresh 13-year low against the yen.
NEW YORK - Jim Rogers, one of the world's most prominent international investors, on Thursday called most of the largest U.S. banks "totally bankrupt," and said government efforts to fix the sector are wrongheaded.
BRUSSELS - A second German politician has broken with diplomatic convention and criticised the UK government's response to the economic downturn. Steffen Kampeter, of Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU party, said moves to raise debt "were a failure of Labour policy".
BRUSSELS - Fourteen suspected al Qaeda terrorists were detained by Belgian police today amid fears that they were plotting a suicide mission on Gordon Brown and other EU leaders at a summit in Brussels.
WASHINGTON - New claims for jobless benefits rose more than expected last week, exceeding even gloomy expectations for an economy stuck in a recession that seems to be deepening.
USA - Time and again we've heard about the lost jobs and economic impact of failing to bail out the beleaguered American auto manufacturers. But little mention has been made of the consequences of going through with the bailout, and how such an action would be viewed by other Americans.
EUROPE - Anger over the fatal shooting of a Greek schoolboy by a policeman has spread across Europe with protests as far afield as Moscow and Madrid.
EGYPT - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak spoke out against Iran during a meeting with members of the Egyptian ruling party, according to a report in the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida on Thursday
USA - President-elect Barack Obama's administration will offer Israel a "nuclear umbrella" against the threat of a nuclear attack by Iran, a well-placed American source said earlier this week.
GREECE - The government has said that its banking system is stable. To reinforce confidence, it has given a 100,000-euro (£87,800) guarantee on banking deposits - double the 50,000 euros insisted upon by the EU. But it is going into a global economic crisis with precarious finances.
UK - A Unicef study suggests that government policy is at odds with the developmental needs of children under 12 months
UK - A primary school teacher left a class of 25 pupils in tears when she told them Father Christmas does not exist. The supply teacher blurted out: "it's your parents who leave out presents on Christmas Day" when excited youngsters got rowdy as they talked about Christmas.
UK - The UK economy contracted 1% between September and November, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) has estimated. This fall followed after a 0.8% drop in the three months to the end of October, said the think tank.
UK - Everyone who buys a mobile telephone will be forced to register their identity on a national database under government plans to extend massively the powers of state surveillance.
NEW YORK - A failure to prosecute the "villains" responsible for the financial crisis that brought the United States to its knees will leave the country without the moral compass needed to avert future crises, a Wall Street luminary said.