FT

Austrian populist far-right leader Joerg Haider was killed in a car accident, two weeks after staging a major comeback in a national election

Finance ministers and central bankers from the group of seven leading economies were agreed to coordinated action in an effort to stabilise the global financial system as they started their meeting in Washington

Sir Philip Green, owner of BHS and Topshop, is in talks with Icelandic government officials about investing up to £2bn in Baugur, the retailing group which includes House of Fraser, Karen Millen and Hamleys

Shares in Morgan Stanley plunged as investor confidence was shaken by a rating agency warning of a downgrade and speculation that the terms of its $9bn (£5.3bn) stake sale to Mitsubishi UFJ Group could be altered

The McCain campaign honed in on allegations of voter registration fraud by Acorn, a nationwide poverty action group, and on its links to Barack Obama

The German government is drawing up a multi-billion contingency plan to shore up its banking system, which could see the state guarantee interbank lending in the country and inject capital in Germany's largest banks

US stock prices suffered their worst weekly loss in history on Friday, prompting a pledge from global policymakers to implement an aggressive but broad-brush plan to combat the financial crisis.

Martti Ahtisaari, the former Finnish president and United Nations envoy, has been awarded this year's Nobel Peace Prize for his work as a mediator in international conflicts

As the implications for the taxpayer of the government's £400bn bank bail-out filtered through to the public consciousness this week, it seemed the capital was finally falling out of love with its masters of the universe

Nato forces in Afghanistan have been given the green light to take action against key figures in the country's multi-million dollar drugs trade

The French government is to reform the country's system of local taxation within three years in a bid to improve the competitiveness of its business, according to the industry minister

Wall Street stocks were highly volatile in a dizzying session that saw the Dow fall more than 600 points before recovering to stand 4% lower. London's FTSE 100 fell 8.9%. European indices also tumbled. Japanese shares touched 20-year lows, leading Asia-Pacific down as fears of a global recession mounted. Gold soared and oil plunged.

Japanese shares led a rout of Asia-Pacific shares as fears deepened that the world economy was heading for recession. Wall Street suffered its biggest fall since the 1987 crash

Japan has rejected a North Korean proposal on nuclear verification, in a major blow to US efforts to reach a deal with Pyongyang towards removing nuclear weapons from the Korean peninsula

Britain was locked in an increasingly acrimonious dispute with Iceland on Thursday night after the nationalisation of the Nordic country's largest banks put close to £800m of local authority money at risk and prompted Gordon Brown to threaten to seize the assets of Icelandic companies

General Motors lost almost a third of its market value amid concerns about the carmaker's ability to continue funding its operations in the face of the credit crunch and weakening sales

The US stock market suffered its largest loss since the crash of 1987 amid panic over GM, Morgan Stanley and several big insurers, heightening speculation that the US would unveil a bank recapitalisation plan soon

US stocks extended their losing streak to a seventh session in volatile trading even after the SEC lifted its temporary ban on short-selling

The Belgian government offered to guarantee all new bank financing for one year after it joined forces with France and Luxembourg for the second time in a fortnight to come to the aid of Dexia, the Franco-Belgian bank

Raft of changes to stock market and banking regulations unveiled in an attempt to ease a liquidity crisis and bolster confidence