Brussels - The European Commission on Tuesday urged United States lawmakers to assume their responsibilities and swiftly approve a massive rescue plan amid global financial turmoil.

"The turmoil that we are facing has originated in the US, and has become a global problem," said commission spokesman Johannes Laitenberger.

London - Forecasts of a static economy in Britain were confirmed Tuesday when figures showed that there was no growth in output in the second quarter of 2008.

Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed economic output remained the same as in the first quarter, when growth was put at 0.3 per cent.

Year-on-year, output was revised up to 1.5 per cent from a previous estimate of 1.4 per cent.

The quarterly figures were the worst for 16 years.

Karachi - Pakistan's main Karachi bourse on Tuesday remained unscathed despite Wall Street reverberations across Asia, thanks to restrictions imposed on the market for the last two months due to the unstable domestic political and economic conditions.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index on Tuesday was flat on historically low volume, with trading in just 175,000 shares.

Stock market officials last week imposed fresh curbs, including banning short-selling in all shares, amid prolonged economic woes and Moody's downgrading of the country's credit rating.

Madrid - The Madrid stock mar

Brussels - Inflation in the 15-member euro area fell to 3.6 per cent in
September, dropping for the second month in a row, according to
Eurostat's preliminary estimates Tuesday.

The European Statistical Institute does not offer a detailed breakdown
of the inflation figure in its flash estimates, which have been shown
to be reliable despite being based on early price information.

Euro area inflation had fallen to 3.8 per cent in August, thanks in part to an easing off of food and oil prices.

Washington, September 30 : If you believe that economic globalization and liberalization are to blame for a sharp rise in interethnic violence across the world, better think again, for a new study from McGill University negates this suggestion.

Dr. Stephen Saideman, who led the study with his former Master’s student David Steinberg, has found that the more government intervention there is in the local economy, the more likely interethnic violence and rebellion becomes.

The researchers say that the likelihood of interethnic violence is lesser in economically open societies.