Manila - Countries affected by the global financial crisis should remain open to migrant workers who can help boost their ailing economies amid the economic slowdown, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday.

Ban said he was "deeply concerned" that more than 200 million migrant workers around the world were adversely affected by the economic slowdown, as labourers in badly hit sectors such as construction and tourism start to lose their jobs.

"Today, we face a cascade of national financial crises throughout the world," he told the Global Forum on Migration and Development in Manila. "Almost none of our economies is insulated."

Wellington - The New Zealand stock market rose 2.2 per cent on Wednesday after a roller-coaster day in which strong gains in morning trading were checked later.

The benchmark NZX-50 index rose nearly 4 per cent in the first 15 minutes of trading, apparently fired by news of dramatic gains on Wall Street which produced the second biggest rise on record.

Mumbai/Gaya, Oct 29 : Shiv Sena party chief Uddhav Thackeray has warned Bihar’s leaders not to add fuel to a raging migrants'' row.

Thackeray was reacting to Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav''s demands of putting a ban on Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navanirman Sena (MNS) accused of fuelling anti-immigrant rhetoric in Maharashtra.

Washington - Hungary has received a commitment from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to provide as much as 12.5 billion euros (15.7 billion dollars) in loans to the Eastern European country as it seeks to weather the global financial crisis.

The IMF and Hungary made the agreement Tuesday after Hungarian stocks and the forint have plunged, its economy slows and the government runs a growing budget deficit.

Nanded (Maharashtra), Oct 29 : Sikh devotees began the celebrations to mark the tri-centennial of the holy book Guru Granth Sahib here.

Nearly one million Sikhs are expected to descend here for the three-week celebrations to mark three centuries of their religion.

Sikhs are streaming in on special trains, buses and flights also to mark the 300th anniversary of the death of Guru Gobind Singh, the last of the 10 gurus.

Across the country in Gurudwaras, Sikh places of worship, special prayers were being said and processions held for the Nanded celebrations.

Colombo - An employee of a power station which came under a night air attack by Tamil rebels in Sri Lanka's capital died as an investigation into damages was ongoing, a spokesman for the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) said Wednesday.

The employee did not have external injuries, but appeared to have died of shock during Tuesday night's attack on the Kelanitissa power plant located in a high security zone within Colombo, said the spokesman.