Reuters - U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, leading a push for a taxpayer-funded plan to contain the credit market crisis, said on Friday he would ask Congress to take action on this next week and that the Treasury was taking immediate steps in the meantime. Read more…

Reuters - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Friday called for the U.S. government to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to take toxic mortgage assets off the books of financial firms to restore financial stability. Read more…

AP - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson says mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will step up their purchases of mortgage-backed securities to help provide support to the crippled housing market. Read more…

BusinessWeek Online - If you're feeling pummeled by market mayhem, you're not alone. With Lehman Brothers (leh.) filing for bankruptcy, Merrill Lynch selling out, and AIG getting a government bailout, investors have been knocked for a loop. Financial advisers have been fielding phone calls from panicked clients, but the smarter ones called their clients first to put things in perspective. "My issue with my clients is: Are they getting to a place where they cannot sleep?" says David Diesslin, a financial planner in Fort Worth. ... Read more…

AP - A food crisis and economic turmoil are threatening to scuttle U.N. goals to halve extreme poverty around the world by 2015, according to an EU report released Friday. Read more…

AP - Highest congressional career totals for contributions from PACs tied to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae: Read more…

AP - Russia's two main stock exchanges opened, then closed, then opened again Friday, the most extreme example of the volatility that is hitting the world's financial markets. Read more…

AFP - Europe's main stock markets soared early on Friday in the wake of massive gains across Asia and on Wall Street overnight as world governments took action to tackle the global financial crisis. Read more…

Reuters - Governments on both sides of the Atlantic took radical steps to restore confidence in battered financial markets on Thursday, as the United States proposed a taxpayer-funded mopping up of toxic mortgage-related debt and Britain cracked down on short selling of bank stocks. Read more…

AP - Asian stock markets soared Friday as a news of a U.S. government plan to rescue banks from risky mortgage debt brought hope of a letup in the world's worst financial crisis in decades. Read more…

Reuters - Presidential candidate Barack Obama urged the Federal Reserve and the Treasury on Thursday to take emergency steps to keep credit flowing to the troubled housing market, saying it would help stem the crisis sweeping financial markets. Read more…

Reuters - Washington Mutual , the large U.S. savings and loan beleaguered by mortgage losses, continues to explore all options, such as talking to potential buyers or raising capital, sources familiar with the situation said on Thursday. Read more…

AP - Six people who tested Denmark's anti-terror law by selling T-shirts to raise money for Colombian guerrillas and Palestinian militants were convicted Thursday of violating the statute. Read more…

AP - Britain's Financial Services Authority says it is temporarily banning short-selling of shares in publicly-traded financial companies. Read more…

AFP - Wall Street and European stocks rallied Thursday, despite steep Asian losses, as the world's central banks pumped billions of dollars into money markets in a bid to bolster investor confidence. Read more…

AP - Russia's finance minister said trading on Russian exchanges won't resume until Friday, as the government tried to stem the dizzying plummet in share prices and restore confidence in the economy. Read more…

AFP - European equities edged higher Thursday after British bank Lloyds TSB agreed a takeover deal for rival HBOS, and as investors grappled with a major central bank plan to boost liquidity. Read more…

AP - Europe's major central banks banded together with their counterparts in Japan, the U.S. and Canada on Thursday to inject more U.S. dollars into global money markets in a bid to stave off the growing global financial crisis. Read more…

AFP - The US Federal Reserve on Thursday threw 180 billion dollars into a global fight against the financial crisis as Wall Street legend Morgan Stanley became the latest name under attack and Britain's top mortgage lender was forced into a merger. Read more…

AP - Lloyds TSB PLC on Thursday announced a $21.85-billion deal to take over struggling HBOS PLC, Britain's largest mortgage lender. Read more…

Reuters - Britain's Lloyds TSB sealed a 12.2 billion pound ($21.7 billion) deal to buy HBOS Plc to create a dominant mortgage and savings bank, encouraged by the government amid fears turmoil in financial markets would claim another UK victim. Read more…

AP - Britain's opposition Conservatives are amassing increasing public support, according to a new poll, as Prime Minister Gordon Brown's ruling Labour Party struggles with a weakening economy and other woes. Read more…

AP - As Lehman Brothers secured court approval to begin the sale of key North American units to Barclays bank, its negotiators out of court neared a deal to sell parts of the business Barclays had not yet claimed, starting with its prized money management business. Read more…

Reuters - Washington Mutual Inc , the giant U.S. savings and loan beleaguered by mortgage losses, has put itself up for sale, sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. Read more…

AFP - Lloyds TSB has reached a deal to merge with HBOS, Britain's biggest mortgage lender, after the latter's shares plummeted for a third day running, British media reported Wednesday. Read more…