Tokyo - Japan's foreign exchange reserves dropped 1.6 billion dollars in February after the US Treasury bond prices and the appraisal value of the nation's euro-dominated assets fell, the Finance Ministry said Friday.

The nation's foreign reserves fell for the second month in a row but remained barely above the 1-trillion-dollar level with 1.0093 trillion dollars.

As of the end of February, Japan held 892.34 billion dollars in foreign securities, while foreign currency deposits came to 87.81 billion dollars.

Washington  - Lenders are taking back homes in the United States at a record pace as families can't afford mortgage payments, according to an industry report Thursday indicating the country's housing crisis deepened further at the end of last year.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said 3.3 per cent of all mortgage-holders were in foreclosure at the end of 2008 - up 126 per cent from a year ago - and 7.88 per cent were behind on at least one monthly payment.

Both numbers were the highest ever recorded since MBA's records began in 1972.

London  - The Bank of England (BoE) Thursday applied the twin tools of interest rate cuts and a boost in the money supply to revive the recession-hit economy.

The bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) cut the key lending rate by 50 basis points to 0.5 per cent and injected an initial 75 billion pounds (105 billion dollars) into the economy through so- called quantitative easing.

Alistair Darling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said the injection of liquidity was "absolutely essential to get the economy moving."

Baghdad  - The Iraqi parliament Thursday Thursday passed a 2009 budget of 58.6 billion dollars, after slashing around four billion dollars off government spending plans.

As global oil prices fell from 150 dollars per barrel in July to little more than 43 dollars on Wednesday, there were increasing concerns that huge cuts might be needed.

Oil exports account for almost 95 per cent of Iraq's revenue. This month's exports of crude oil reached an average of one million and 804 barrels per day.

Frankfurt  - European Central Bank (ECB) chief Jean-Claude Trichet ruled out on Thursday changes to the rules for joining the euro amid calls to help shield troubled Central and Eastern European economies from the global financial crisis.

"I would say that at this stage our position would be that it is extremely important that we do not change any framework," Trichet said at a press conference in Frankfurt following a meeting of the ECB's rate-setting council.

Copenhagen  - Denmark's c