Washington - Less than one week before the US general election, Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin took centre stage in the campaign Wednesday with a major policy speech on energy, while Democratic rival Barack Obama launched his first television ad directed against Palin.

Palin, running alongside John McCain, promised an "all-of-the- above approach" to end US dependence on foreign energy and encourage the production of domestic sources, focussing on renewables as well as more oil drilling. She slammed Obama for a "long, laboured agenda of inaction" on energy.

McCain has touted Palin, governor of oil and natural-gas rich Alaska since 2006, as a key advisor for energy policy should he make it into the White House.

Munich - The annual "Medientage Munich 2008" kicked off Wednesday in the Bavarian capital with the country's top media executives focusing on their rapidly changing industry and its impact on the entertainment industry and society.

Under the motto "Media Summit: The World of Advertising is Changing - Value and Effectiveness in the Glut of Digital Media," top-level managers and over 600 experts at the three-day congress were set to take part in some 90 panels to review trends and developments, backgrounded by the current financial situation.

London - The world is heading for an "ecological credit crunch" with demands on natural resources exceeding by almost a third what the earth can sustain, conservation groups in Britain have warned.

The Living Planet Report, produced by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Britain's Zoological Society and the Global Footprint Network said that more than 75 per cent of the global population lived in countries where consumption levels were outstripping environmental renewal.

This fact made those countries "ecological debtors," meaning that they are drawing - and often overdrawing - on the agricultural land, forests, seas and resources of other countries to sustain them, said the report published Wednesday.

Brussels - The head of the European Commission on Wednesday urged member states to work together to protect jobs and industry, rather than be tempted by "populist" and "protectionist" measures.

"The global financial crisis is not an excuse for protectionism: trade barriers shut out prosperity and open the gates instead to short-term economic populism," said Jose Manuel Barroso.

Barroso's warning came after the European Union executive approved guidelines on ways to mitigate the impact of the financial crisis on the European economy.

The guidelines will lay the basis for an EU-wide "comprehensive recovery plan", or stimulus package, due to be unveiled on November 26.

Detroit - Sales volumes at General Motors continued to drop rapidly in the first nine months of 2008, the ailing carmaker reported Wednesday.

The company reported sales of 6.66 million vehicles, almost 6 per cent less than during the same period last year. In the third quarter alone, the company's sales fell by 
11.4 per cent to 2.11 units.

GM, recently lost its title as the world's leading carmaker to Toyota, which is also battling with declining demand. Its sales fell 4 per cent in the last quarter to 2.23 million units.

Lusaka - Police in the southern African country of Zambia were on high alert Wednesday as campaigning in a tense presidential election drew to a close amid signs of a possible dispute over the outcome.

The capital Lusaka was brought to a standstill as acting president Rupiah Banda, candidate of the ruling Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD) and Michael Sata, leader of the main opposition Patriotic Front (PF) held their final rallies.

Sata, 71, drew a much bigger crowd at his than Banda, also 71, who is more popular in rural areas.