New York  - The four hurricanes and tropical storms that hit Haiti back-to-back last month have caused extensive damage, reversing development by "several years," Haiti's President Rene Preval said Friday.

Preval said the natural disasters, which have always battered the impoverished Caribbean nation, came four months after Haiti witnessed its first food riot because of the high food and fuel prices. Several people were killed in the riot, including a UN policeman from Nigeria.

New York  - A new grouping of global and regional powers on Friday pledged support for Pakistan in its fight against terrorism and efforts to build a stable democracy.

World leaders and foreign ministers of the so-called "Friends of Pakistan" group, which includes the United States, EU members and Middle Eastern nations, held their first meeting Friday on the sidelines of an annual United Nations summit in New York.

New York  - Israeli and Palestinian officials traded accusations over who was to blame for the failure to achieve peace in the region, during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the Middle East on Friday.

New York/Frankfurt  - It is a dramatic race against time - while Washington fights a battle over a mammoth rescue plan for the financial sector, the credit crisis is bringing down one US bank after another.

The latest victim was the country's once-leading savings bank, Washington Mutual Inc (WaMu). Federal regulators late Thursday shut down the institution and its assets were immediately sold for a pittance late Thursday to the financial giant JP Morgan Chase in an emergency move.

New York - The world's major powers have agreed on a resolution over Iran's nuclear programme that will be presented to the UN Security Council on Friday.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband told reporters the resolution would "reaffirm" existing sanctions that have been placed on Iran over its refusal to comply with Security Council demands to halt uranium enrichment, a process that can be used to build nuclear weapons.

New York  - Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown called Friday for stabilizing the international financial markets roiled by the credit crunch in the United States and for reviewing the role of major financial institutions created after World War II.

Brown said the US needs global support as it is trying to work out details of the bailout of the credit markets and investment banking systems.