Hong Kong - The Year of the Rat was not a good one for the world of finance and banking. Stock markets plummeted, property prices dived and businesses all over the world crumbled in the fall-out from the credit crunch.

This was to be expected, according to Chinese astrologer Raymond Lo, who points to the fact that the influencing element of the rat is water. And as every good Chinese astrologer knows water brings worries and provokes fears.

Manila - The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) said Wednesday it has received an 11-million-dollar grant to fund an ambitious project to develop a higher-yielding rice variety that could boost production by up to 50 per cent.

The Philippines-based IRRI said the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will provide the grant over a three-year period to fund the C4 Rice Consortium.

Singapore  - Asian's economy might recover from the recession as early as the second quarter of this year, supported by the governments' policy responses to the downturn and the sharp drop in commodity prices, a news report said on Wednesday.

"The cavalry is on its way in the form of one of the most significant policy responses ever," the Straits Times quoted HSBC senior Asian economist Robert Prior-Wandesforde as saying.

Bangkok - Parliamentarians from 22 Asian countries gathered in Vientiane, Laos, on Monday to attend the 17th annual Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF), a get-together founded by former Japanese prime minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, media reports said.

"The Asia-Pacific region has more than half the world's population and is rich in natural resources," said Thongsing Thammavong, chairman of the Lao National Assembly and the chair of the forum.

"This rich region can help overcome the world's economic problems," said Thongsing in his opening remarks, as reported by Radio Laos in a broadcast monitored in Bangkok.

Bangkok - Laos will play host to the 17th annual Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum in Vientiane on January 11 to 15, officials confirmed Thursday.

"We are expecting over 300 delegates from 17 countries," said Lao Foreign Ministry spokesman Yong Chanthalangsy, in a telephone interview with Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Laos, a communist country since 1975, is under a one-party system. The next general election will be in 2010, in conjunction with the 9th Party Congress of the Lao Communist Party.

Singapore - French bank BNP Paribas has predicted a faster Asian economic recovery next year, citing aggressive government spending and region-wide interest rate cuts, according to a news report Thursday.

The scale of the global policy response, monetary and fiscal, should ensure the recovery is more V-shaped, indicating a steep rise after a decline, than a slower, U-shaped recovery, said BNP Paribas economist Richard Iley.