
Global leaders at the G20 financial summit in Washington have pledged to work together to restore global growth. They said they were determined to work together to achieve needed reforms in the world's financial systems.

The Canada Food Inspection Agency says a British Columbia feed manufacturer is the most likely source of the country's 13th case of mad cow disease.

Iran's OPEC governor, Mohammad Ali Khatibi, is calling on the oil cartel to cut production by a further 1 to 1.5 million barrels per day when it meets in Cairo later this month.

The Academy Award-winning actress and activist Charlize Theron has been designated by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as a United Nations Messenger of Peace, with a special focus on ending violence against women.

Leaders of the world's 20 largest economies have agreed to work together to restore economic growth and reform the world's financial system.

Japan will propose at the upcoming Group of 20 Washington summit the doubling of the current 340 billion dollars provided to the International Monetary Fund to help strengthen its capacity to address financial crises and is willing to pledge 100 billion US dollars of its reserves, according to government sources in Tokyo.

US President George W Bush has admitted the financial system needs reforming, but insists the credit crunch was not a failure of the free-market system. Speaking Thursday in New York, Mr Bush said that while financial markets did need some new regulation and more transparency, free trade should not be restricted.
Economic activity is expected to fall by 0.9% in the United States in 2009, by 0.5% in the Euro area and by 0.1% in Japan as OECD countries enter a protracted slowdown, according to latest projections.

The Euro-zone has officially slipped into recession after EU figures showed that the economy shrank by 0.2% in the third quarter. This follows a 0.2% contraction in the 15-nation area in the previous quarter from April to June. Two quarters of negative growth define a technical recession.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has urged leaders of the G20 developed and emerging economies to resist calls for protectionism. Speaking in New York ahead of the weekend G 20 summit on the widening global financial crisis PM Brown said protectionism was the road to ruin.