New York - Ailing US automotive giant General Motors denied reports Thursday that it was holding merger talks with its likewise stricken competitor, Chrysler.

A GM spokesman at company headquarters in Detroit, Michigan said there were clearly no talks about a merger going on.

The comment came to reports in the business daily Wall Street Journal - citing industry insiders - that the two automotive groups had resumed merger talks which had been broken off a few weeks earlier.

New York  - There was a time when people lit a candle in a church, if they wanted their prayers answered. But in the 21st century, that is so 1990.

New York - Investment bank Morgan Stanley on Wednesday reported sharp fourth-quarter losses and reductions in year-on-year income for the business year that ended November 30, continuing the fallout from the economic crisis.

The company reported that its income for the year came to 1.8 billion dollars, compared with 2.6 billion dollars the previous year.

In the final quarter, the company reported a loss of 2.2 billion dollars, compared with a 3.6 billion dollar loss for the fourth quarter in 2007.

The company reported net income for the year of 1.7 billion dollars, compared to 3.2 billion dollars a year ago.

New York - The top official in charge of watching over US stock markets, Christopher Cox, admitted late Tuesday that his agency had failed to act for nearly a decade on suspicions concerning the dealings of alleged Wall Street fraudster Bernard Madoff.

In a statement Cox, who is chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), said the agency had received allegations going back to 1999 about Madoff.

New York, Dec. 17 : The Taliban and Al Qaeda committee of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is mulling over a proposal to put more Pakistanis on the international terror list.

New York, Dec. 17 : The United States and other Western donors should agree to a 100 billion economic package for Pakistan provided it `verifiably eliminates its entire nuclear stockpile and industrial base that sustains it.

According to an opinion piece published in the Wall Street Journal Tuesday, President Asif Ali Zardari during his recent visit to the United Nations made repeated appeals for financial aid from the international community.

The WSJ report says that the 100 billion dollars should be `administered by an independent authority and disbursed over 10 years, on condition that Pakistan remain a democratic and secular state (no military rulers; no Sharia law).'