Washington - US legislators were hearing a changed tune on on Thursday as business and retired communities made a desperate last -minute push for final approval of a sweetened US financial rescue by the House of Representatives on Friday.
Business leaders met with US President George W Bush Friday morning at the White House, while the US Chamber of Commerce made an urgent appeal on its website for members to contact their legislators "and urge them to support this vital piece of legislation."
Washington - Two US stock indices dropped more than 3 per cent in early morning trading Thursday, pulled down by a jump in interbank borrowing costs and reports of a worsening economy.
The decline came despite the vote of confidence by the US Senate late Wednesday for a second version of the finance rescue plan.
The US House of Representatives is to vote on Friday for the version after dealing a stunning defeat to the first version on Monday and sending stocks in a 7-per-cent-plus dive.
Washington - The International Monetary Fund Thursday said there was a "substantial likelihood" that the United States will face a "sharp slowdown" in growth as a result of one of the most widespread financial crises ever to hit a country.
The IMF warned that the US crisis appeared to have all the hallmarks of the worst and longest financial debacles in history. The deepest recessions are led by turmoil in the banking sector and begin with a run-up in housing prices and an over-reliance on credit to fuel the economy - all true in the United States.
San Francisco - The enigma of the disappearance of adventurer Steve Fossett moved closer to resolution Thursday as federal transportation officials were set to examine the wreckage of a light plane found near the site where objects apparently belonging to Fossett were discovered earlier in the week.
Searchers discovered the wreckage late Wednesday evening in a rugged wooded area in the Sierra Nevada Mountains after fanning out in a 15-kilometre radius from where hikers discovered ID cards, clothes and some 1,000 dollars in cash that appeared to belong to Fossett, authorities said.
Washington - US legislators were hearing a changed tune on on Thursday as business and retired communities made a desperate last -minute push for final approval of a sweetened US financial rescue by the House of Representatives on Friday.
Washington - Two US stock indices dropped more than 3 per cent in early morning trading Thursday, pulled down by a jump in interbank borrowing costs and reports of a worsening economy.
Berlin 
Washington - The International Monetary Fund Thursday said there was a "substantial likelihood" that the United States will face a "sharp slowdown" in growth as a result of one of the most widespread financial crises ever to hit a country.
San Francisco - The enigma of the disappearance of adventurer Steve Fossett moved closer to resolution Thursday as federal transportation officials were set to examine the wreckage of a light plane found near the site where objects apparently belonging to Fossett were discovered earlier in the week.
