Reuters - The European Union pledged on Monday to protect people's savings and maintain financial stability while Washington urged a more coordinated approach to the worst banking crisis in nearly 80 years. Read more…

AFP - The London stock market nosedived 8.65 percent in late afternoon trade Monday, hitting a four-year trough on investor concerns about the spreading global financial crisis, dealers said. Read more…

AP - The jammed credit markets barely budged Monday as European governments scrambled to prop up their failing banks and investors waited for details on how, exactly, the Treasury will go about buying $700 billion of U.S. banks' mortgage assets. Read more…

AP - Officials of troubled Belgian bank Fortis NV acknowledged Monday they had no choice but to seek a buyout by another bank because of the increasing problems the company suffered due to the global financial credit crisis. Read more…

BusinessWeek Online - With the House of Representatives' Oct. 3 passage of the Treasury's $700 billion plan to stabilize the financial markets by buying up troubled mortgage-related assets, you could almost hear the sigh of relief spreading throughout Washington and Wall Street. After two weeks of nearly nonstop negotiations in which the bill repeatedly appeared to flounder, it was quickly passed on to President George W. Bush, who signed it into law within hours. Read more…

AP - Nordic countries Denmark and Sweden moved Monday to bolster protection of bank accounts as stock exchanges across Europe opened lower and central banks pumped more money to cash-starved banks. Read more…

AFP - Bank of America said Monday it was ready to spend up to 8.4 billion dollars to restructure the troubled mortgage loan portfolio of the recently-acquired mortgage lender Countrywide. Read more…

AP - Pope Benedict XVI says the global financial crisis show the futility of money and ambition. Read more…

AP - The European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the Swiss National Bank offered more than $60 billion to markets Monday to try to keep the financial sector flush with cash. Read more…

Reuters - American International Group Inc (AIG) is to sell its Thai consumer finance businesses, including AIG Retail Bank and AIG Card, the head of the bank said on Monday. Read more…

AP - Facing a lawsuit over deceptive mortgage practices, Bank of America Corp. has agreed to modify tens of thousands of loans to keep people in 11 states from losing their homes, the Illinois attorney general's office said Sunday. Read more…

Reuters - Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may sell some bad assets to the Treasury Department but a decision has not yet been made, the regulator of the two mortgage finance companies said on Sunday. Read more…

AP - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced more changes to his government Sunday, completing a shake-up intended to strengthen the government as it faces the global economic crisis. Read more…

AFP - EU regulators have provisionally approved the original three-country bailout package for troubled finance group Fortis, a spokesman said Sunday, though the deal is swiftly being superceded. Read more…

AP - Governments across Europe scrambled to save failing banks on Sunday, working largely on their own a day after leaders of the continent's four biggest economies called for tighter regulation and coordinated response to the global meltdown. Read more…

AP - German Chancellor Angela Merkel says her government is working hard to keep Hypo Real Estate AG afloat because it will not let the failure of any company disrupt Europe's biggest economy. Read more…

AP - Mortgage finance company Fannie Mae said it is forgiving the mortgage debt of a 90-year-old woman who shot herself in the chest as sheriff's deputies attempted to evict her. Read more…

AFP - European leaders have agreed to ask for the early release of 32 billion euros in European funds to help small businesses weather the global finance crisis, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Saturday. Read more…

AP - Leaders of France, Britain, Germany and Italy will seek at a summit in Paris Saturday to reassure investors and markets jittery about a growing financial and economic crisis. Read more…

AFP - Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said he will propose a 12-billion-pound fund to help small businesses deal with the international financial crisis when he meets other European leaders in Paris. Read more…

Reuters - American International Group Inc, plans to sell its three Japanese life insurance businesses, an AIG spokesman said on Saturday, in sale Japanese media estimated could top $9.5 billion. Read more…

Reuters - Plagued by fears for the stability of the banking system, European leaders meet on Saturday for a summit French President Nicolas Sarkozy hopes will limit the damage caused by the worst financial crisis since the 1930s. Read more…

AP - In the cutthroat world of fashion, a designer can quickly lose rising star status — a fact that Alessandra Facchinetti knows only too well. Read more…

AP - The Treasury Department has picked two financial institutions to manage a program it unveiled last month to provide support for beleaguered mortgage-backed securities. Read more…

AP - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown reached into the past in a bid to save his future Friday, recruiting stars from the Tony Blair era into his Cabinet. Read more…