Stockholm - Swedish home appliance maker Electrolux on Monday reported higher third-quarter income 2008 but said the financial crisis was now affecting sales.

The group posted a pre-tax profit of 1.19 billion kronor (149 million dollars), up some 14 per cent on the corresponding business period 2007.

Net sales were flat at 26.3 billion kronor.

"The financial crisis has without a doubt affected the consumption levels of appliances. Many consumers are postponing their purchases or choosing less expensive products," chief executive Hans Straberg said in a statement.

Straberg noted that the group's North American market had declined for the ninth quarter in a row, and sales were nearing 2001 levels.

Hong Kong - An attempt to launch the United States' second-biggest doughnut chain in Hong Kong appeared to have failed Monday with the franchise going into liquidation after just two years.

Five of the seven Krispy Kreme Doughnuts outlets in the city of 6.9 million suddenly shut down Monday with only two branches, both at the airport, remaining open.

The double slaying of singer/actress Jennifer Hudson’s mother and brother has seen support pouring in from all quarters, from Democratic presidential hopeful - Barack Obama to most everyone in Hollywood.  Hudson shares her hometown of Chicago hometown with Barack, on a personal request from Obama’s camp, sang the national anthem during the Democratic National Convention in August, when the party formally declared him to be the party’s nominee for the post of President of the USA.

Vilnius - Lithuania is set for a new politicsl landscape Monday after centre-right parties triumphed in the Baltic nation's general election on Sunday night.

According to preliminary results, the right-wing Homeland Union - Christian Democrats secured 44 seats in the country's 141-seat parliament, the Seimas, making it comfortably the largest party.

Added to that number in a new four-party ruling coalition will be 16 seats belonging to the Rising Nation Party, 11 seats of the Liberal Movement and a further 8 from the Liberal and Center Union.

Thus the coalition will control at least 79 seats with opposition parties able to muster a maximum of 62.

Srinagar, India - Five suspected members of the Islamic militant Hizbul Mujahideen group were killed Monday by Indian Army soldiers in the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir, army sources said.

The soldiers launched a search operation in the Nawapitchi area of Kishtwar district, about 250 kilometres west of the state's winter capital, Jammu, after a tip-off, the sources said.

Five militants were killed in an exchange of fire, they added.

Tokyo - Asian markets plummeted to new lows Monday, with Japan's key Nikkei index leading the plunge, as investors across the region stepped up panic-selling on concerns that tumbling share values would drag economies into recession.

Stocks in Tokyo nosedived, as the benchmark Nikkei 225 tumbled 486.18 points, or 6.36 per cent, to close at 7,162.9, the lowest level in 26 years. The market crisis has shaved off half the value off the Nikkei this year.

The broader Topix index of all first-section issues also lost 59.65 points, or 7.4 per cent, to 746.46.

The Bank of Japan injected 600 billion yen (6.37 billion dollars) into the money markets Monday to ease a credit crunch as stocks prices plunged.