New York  - Ailing US car manufacturer Chrysler unveiled electric versions of three of its models and said it had lost 400 million dollars so far this year, US business daily the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

Despite cost cuts, Chrysler still was in the red and registered a 1.6-million-dollar loss for 2007, the paper quoted traders present at a Chrysler conference in Auburn Hills, Michigan, as saying.

According to the report, chief executive Robert Nardelli told businessmen that Chrysler had 11 billion dollars in cash.

Rome  - Gomorrah, a grim, violent portrayal of the Camorra - the Neapolitan version of the mafia - has been selected to represent Italy at next year's Academy Awards, Italy's film industry association ANICA said Wednesday.

Directed by Matteo Garrone and based on Roberto Saviano's best-selling book of the same name, Gomorrah in May won the Cannes Film Festival's Grand Prix - the prestigious competition's third prize.

ANICA's announcement on Wednesday's came as Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said the Italian state is engaged in a "civil war" with the Camorra.

Washington, Sep 24 : Americans send more text messages from their cell phones than they make calls, according to Nielsen Mobile survey.

The survey revealed that for the second quarter of 2008, U. S. mobile subscribers sent and received on average 357 text messages per month, compared with making and receiving 204 phone calls a month.

In the first quarter of 2006, Americans had sent and received 65 text messages per month.

The number of messages sent and received today has increased 450 percent. But even though people are texting more, it doesn''t mean that they''ve stopped talking on the phone, reports CBS News.

New York, Sept. 24 : The Bush administration''s 700 billion dollar plan to bail out the American financial industry is being received with a great deal of skepticism.

Influential lawmakers in both the Republican and Democratic parties have demanded changes in the White House-backed proposal, and conservative Republicans have recoiled at the prospect of federal intervention into private capital markets.

Sen. Chris Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, said on Tuesday, "What they have sent us is not acceptable."

Sen. Richard Shelby, an Alabama Republican, said, "We have got to look at some alternatives."

New York, Sept. 24 : Former American president Bill Clinton has told Fox News in an interview, that he found Todd Palin, the husband of Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin an “interesting guy.”

Palins “obviously love each other. It looks to me like they’ve got a pretty good relationship,” CBS quoted Clinton, as saying.

After leaving the White House early in 2001, Bill Clinton said he tried to give his newly elected wife support without stealing her thunder.

New York, Sept. 24 : The FBI has four major US financial institutions in its crosshairs for triggering the potential collapse of Wall Street and the need for a 700 billion dollar federal bailout plan, law-enforcement officials said today.

Citing potential fraud charges, the feds are probing mortgage-finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., and insurer American International Group Inc. - while focusing on the heads of the financial institutions, sources said.

Meanwhile, the Congress has given an icy reception to the government''s top moneymen as they warned of recession, layoffs and lost homes if the Bush administration''s emergency bailout plan isn''t immediately approved.