New York  - Despite record losses, the chief of Ford Motors, Alan Mulally, earned 13.6 million dollars in 2008.

The money included 2 million dollars in regular salary plus long- term stock options, the country's second largest car producer said Tuesday in a statement.

Mulally did not receive a bonus for 2008, in contrast to 2007. For the current and next years, he has agreed to a 30-per-cent salary reduction.

Ford reported record losses of 15 billion dollars for 2008 - but still has enough cash reserves to survive.

Washington  - US authorities need broad new emergency powers to take over financial firms whose collapse could threaten the wider economy, the country's top economic officials warned Tuesday in the wake of the controversial bail-out of insurance giant American International Group Inc (AIG).

Facing a groundswell of public anger over Wall Street and AIG's role in the financial crisis, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke defended their rescue of AIG before lawmakers as critical to the stability of the US economy.

Dhaka - Bangladesh Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus Tuesday called for national unity to fight the global meltdown, which has started affecting the country's impoverished economy.

"It needs great courage and national unity to face the problem nationally," said the micro-credit guru, who won the Nobel peace prize with his Grameen Bank in 2006.

Speaking after a meeting of a national task force, he said food, energy, power, port and agriculture should have priority when it comes to dealing with the crisis.

Washington  - US authorities need broad new emergency powers to take over non-financial firms whose collapse could threaten the wider economy, the country's top economic officials warned Tuesday in the wake of the bail-out of insurance giant American International Group Inc.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke defended the bail-out of AIG, which began in September, as critical to the survival of the US financial system.

Washington - US President Barack Obama took his economic prescriptions to a global and domestic audience on Tuesday, calling for a broader and urgent global response to the world's worst economic crisis in a generation.

Writing in 31 newspapers around the globe, Obama warned that it was up to world leaders holding an emergency summit in London next week to come up with a comprehensive solution to the global recession.