
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered a quiet nod to human rights but there was no mistaking her key message to Beijing at the end of her week-long in Asia: both countries will rise and fall together in this financial crisis.

Investor George Soros and President Barack Obama advisor, Paul Volcker described the current global meltdown as more severe than when the great Depression with the financial system effectively disintegrated and with the experts not quite knowing what's going on.

British film Slumdog Millionaire, the widely acclaimed film set in the slums of Mumbai, has received eight awards at this year's Oscars - including best picture and best director.

Virginia have served Texan billionaire Sir Allen Stanford with civil legal papers from the US financial watchdog, the SEC.

President Barack Obama has revealed a long-awaited plan to tackle the US housing crisis, aiming to help up to nine million families. The plan will provide refinancing to four to five million responsible homeowners on the verge of defaulting.

Robert Mundell, the Nobel Laureate whose research helped set the foundation for the creation of the Euro, said the US and Europe should cooperate to prevent exchange-rate swings from worsening the global recession.

The US trade deficit fell to the lowest level in nearly six years in December as the recession depressed demand for imports. US Commerce Department said Wednesday that the deficit in December fell 4% to 39.9 billion US dollars from 41.6 billion in November.
The US budget deficit widened more than economists forecast in January as spending soared and corporate tax receipts shrank, putting the Treasury on course for a record annual shortfall of more than one trillion USD.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has unveiled a comprehensive bank bail-out plan worth at least 1.5 trillion US dollars. Under the plan, the size of a key Federal Reserve lending program will be expanded to 1 trillion from 200 billion.

China car sales topped the US for the first time last January totalling 735,500, a 14% drop, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said on Tuesday in an e-mailed statement today. That compares with a 37% plunge to 656,693 in the US, the world's largest auto market last year.