SINGAPORE

S'pore shares up nearly 2% at midday
SINGAPORE, Oct 13, 2008 (AFP) - Singapore shares were up almost two percent at noon Monday with investors regaining some confidence after world leaders pledged to shore up the ailing global financial system, dealers said. ... more

MAS will ensure stability
SINGAPORE'S central bank said on Monday it will ensure stability in the country's financial system, and that it stood ready to inject additional liquidity into money markets if necessary. ... more

Tony Tan warns against financial over-regulation
WORLD leaders need to ensure that they do not draw the wrong lessons as they navigate their countries out of the global financial turmoil, said Dr Tony Tan, deputy chairman and executive director of the Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC). ... more

Good govt and huge foreign reserves will see S'pore through
THE inevitable has happened. ... more

ASIA

Many Asian, European countries guarantee depositors' savings
PARIS, FRANCE - As a result of the global credit crunch several countries have passed laws guaranteeing their depositors' savings. ... more

SKorea's 'wild goose' parents reel from slumping won
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA - Like tens of thousands of other South Korean parents, Kim Heung-Guk's dream was to give his children a prestigious overseas education. ... more

Global financial crisis will hit army of overseas Filipino workers
MANILA, PHILIPPINES - There are few countries in the world where you will not find a Filipino worker. Even in tiny Iceland, one of the countries hardest hit by the financial crisis, there were 1,411 at last count. ... more

S Korea's Lee urges calm amid crisis
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA - President Lee Myung-Bak vowed to create more jobs and overcome the impact of the global financial crisis in his first radio address to South Koreans early Monday. ... more

Hong Kong faces higher risk of recession next year: gov't
HONG KONG - Hong Kong's financial chief John Tsang warned Monday that the city stood a higher chance of slipping into recession next year as the global financial crisis deepens. ... more

Falling Korean won affects people's daily lives
The won's freefall against the dollar is taking a toll on the nation's real economy, as industries and individuals are suffering difficulties caused by the drastic decline in the local currency's value. ... more

Asia stocks rise on banks' rescue hopes
HONG KONG - Australian and South Korean shares bounced on Monday after policymakers around the world took increasingly bold steps to staunch the bleeding in financial markets, including guarantees on bank deposits and directly injecting capital into banks. ... more

Worldwide crisis plans face acid test in Asian markets
An unprecedented worldwide effort costing trillions of dollars to tame the financial crisis faces an acid test Monday when battered Asian stock markets pass a critical judgment on the measures. ... more

WORLD

Rogue trader loses Russian bank millions
MOSCOW - A Russian rogue trader lost his investment bank up to 50 million dollars (36.7 million euros) in risky trades that went wrong in the financial crisis, the Vedomosti business daily reported on Monday. ... more

US Fed approves Wells Fargo of Wachovia
WASHINGTON, Oct 13, 2008 (AFP) - The US Federal Reserve has approved Wells Fargo's takeover of troubled banking rival Wachovia, a deal which would create the largest bank branch network in the United States. ... more

Britain's Barclays bank to raise $16 billion alone
LONDON, ENGLAND - Barclays, one of Britain's leading banks, said Monday it planned to raise more than 6.5 billion pounds ($16.2 billion) from investors, turning down the offer of government help. ... more

Central banks in Europe announce unlimited dollar financing
FRANKFURT, GERMANY - Central banks in Europe announced on Monday that they would provide unlimited amounts of dollar loans over periods ranging from one week to 84 days. ... more

What does the financial crisis mean for you?
Share prices affect consumers in a more direct way than they realise, wrote Kevin Peachey of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) News. ... more

Despite meltdown, titans of industry bullish on US economy
WASHINGTON, USA - Investors may be pulling their money out of US stocks in droves, but some of the world's richest and most influential business leaders remain bullish on the American economy - even in the face of an unprecedented financial meltdown. ... more

The sea could be Iceland's saviour in a storm
REYKJAVIK, ICELAND - The debt hurricane that tore across the Atlantic has devastated Iceland's banks, but down in Reykjavik port the fishermen say it is time for the country to turn back to the industry that kept the country alive for centuries. ... more

The Ferrari is the first to go as high-flyers feel the crunch
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - Luxury car dealer Normal Elkordi has never seen it this bad -- financial high-flyers feeling the pinch of the global economic meltdown scrambling to sell their Ferraris for a loss. ... more

IMF: World on brink of 'financial meltdown'
WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that the world's financial system was near a meltdown, amid France promising that a meeting of European leaders in Paris would detail measures to keep a market panic from triggering the most severe global downturn in decades. ... more

Morgan, MUFG renegotiating
NEW YORK - JAPAN'S Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group , which watched Morgan Stanley's share price plunge last week, is amending its US$9 billion (S$13 billion) deal to include only convertible preferred shares and no common stock, a person familiar with the matter said. ... more

AIG knew of potential problems in valuing swaps: report
Top executives at American International Group Inc (AIG.N) knew of potential problems in valuing derivatives contracts, known as credit default swaps, long before questions about the risky transactions caused its stock to plummet, the Wall Street Journal said, citing documents released by congressional investigators. ... more

European leaders agree crisis rescue at summit
European Union leaders hammered out a plan Sunday to confront the financial crisis which will involve hundreds of billions of dollars of new initiatives to head off a feared "meltdown." ... more