Stockholm - Main Swedish banking groups Nordea, Swedbank and SEB on Thursday reported third-quarter results suggesting they had weathered the first phases of the financial turmoil.

Shares for all three groups were mid-morning in positive territory on the Stockholm bourse where the OMXS index was flat. The fourth major group Handelsbanken, which reported Wednesday, was also up.

Banking group Swedbank said its third-quarter operating profit was 3.1 billion kronor (395 million dollars), down 15 per cent year-on-year, while total income in the quarter was 8.2 billion kronor or 13 per cent lower than in second-quarter 2008.

Madrid - Spain was stepping up diplomatic activity Thursday in a push to be invited to an economic summit to take place in Washington in mid-November.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero was scheduled to travel to the Asia-Europe meeting (ASEM) in Beijing, where he would meet European leaders and seek their backing for an invitation to the Washington summit, media reported.

Spain was carrying out "intense diplomatic activity on all levels," according to the daily El Pais.

The US has invited only members of the G-8 group - which Spain is not part of - plus developing countries with the largest economies to the summit, dealing with the challenges of the global economy in the aftermath of the financial crisis.

Stockholm - Sweden's central bank said Thursday it was to cut its interest rate by 0.50 percentage points to 3.75 per cent, the second cut this month.

The cut was to take effect October 29, the Riksbank said.

The bank's board of governors said "the interest rate cuts are aimed at alleviating the effects of the financial crisis" and added that the inflation target of 2 per cent remained.

Sweden was also experiencing the impact of the global financial crisis, and the economy was slowing down, the Riksbank said, adding that effects included higher loan costs for companies and households.

Beijing - Can China save the world from the current financial crisis? To give the answer right away: no.

However, the nation with its more than 1 billion people and its strong economic growth may be able to offset at least some of the effects of the global financial meltdown.

"At the moment China can only save itself and thus be a certain stabilizing factor in Asia," said Joerg Wuttke, president of the European Chamber of Commerce in China.

Hong Kong - The territory will have to pay about 2 billion Hong Kong dollars (256 million US dollars) more for the water it imports from China as a result of inflation and an appreciating Chinese currency, a media report said Thursday.

Pasadena, California - In the last hours of her life last week, Wanda Dunn, 53, took the time to settle her affairs, taking two small plants to a neighbour as well as some cheap clothes that she asked him to give to charity.

Then she returned to the home she had lived in since childhood, set it on fire and shot herself in the head with a handgun.

Dunn's desperate actions came the day before she was to have been evicted from the stucco house first bought by her grandparents decades ago.