Paris - French lawmakers will begin examining later Tuesday the government's bank rescue plan, which could cost as much as 360 billion euros (490 billion dollars), French media reported.

The lower house of the Parliament, the National Assembly, was to open debate on the measure in the afternoon, with a vote foreseen for Tuesday evening.

The plan, announced Monday by President Nicolas Sarkozy, would make available up to 320 billion euros to guarantee interbank loans and another 40 billion euros for the recapitalization of struggling banks.

Beijing  - China's central bank on Tuesday reported that the nation's foreign exchange reserves had soared to a record 1.91 trillion dollars by the end of September, fuelled partly by a large trade surplus.

The latest total of foreign exchange reserves was up 33 per cent from September 2007, following the addition of 377.3 billion dollars to the reserve in the past year, the People's Bank of China said.

China's foreign exchange holdings jumped by 21.4 billion dollars last month alone, the bank said.

China reported reserves of 1.53 trillion dollars at the end of last year, up 48 per cent from 2006.

Sydney, Oct 14 : With the whole world facing credit crisis, a new survey has shown that the financial concerns are taking a heavy toll on couples Down Under.

Relationships Australia''s annual Relationships Indicators Survey has found that due to financial pressures, relationships between couples are on a downswing.

In fact, a large number of people have said that financial problems are a major stress, which has more than doubled in two years.

Conducted on 1,200 adults, the survey has found that 40 per cent of people have voted money troubles as a major pressure on their relationship.

The same figure stood at just 18 percent in 2006.

Berlin - Germany's leading economic research institutes warned Tuesday that Europe's biggest economy was on the edge of a recession as the world financial crisis hits global growth.

In their twice-yearly report released in Berlin, the institutes slashed their German growth forecast for next year to just 0.2 per cent compared to a previous projection of 1.4 per cent.

The institutes expect Germany to post a 1.8 per cent expansion rate this year with growth tapering off in the final months in the wake of the wave of panic selling that hit stock markets last week.

Tokyo - Japanese Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa on Tuesday announced a series of government plans to stabilize the financial markets, including the use of public money to help regional banks.

Japan's initiatives also include freezing sales of government-held stocks, extending a safety net for life insurance companies and relaxing buybacks for companies of their own shares.

London - British inflation rose to 5