New York  - Deere and Co, the world's largest maker of farm equipment, Wednesday posted a 45-per-cent drop in profits, to 204 million dollars, citing the recession and tight credit situation that constrains farmers from buying new machines.

Revenues sank slightly by 1 per cent, to 5.1 billion dollars, and could be further hurt by a drought in Latin America, the company said.

The company also lowered its projections for 2009 from 1.9 billion dollars to 1.5 billion dollars.

Chicago  - Playboy Enterprises Inc, the international sophisticated-sex empire of Hugh Hefner, Wednesday reported huge losses of 145.7 million dollars for the final quarter of 2008, another sign of the expanding recession.

The figure showed a deepening crisis since the same period in 2007, when Playboy reported only 1.1 million dollars in losses.

Economic troubles already prompted the media giant to cancel its traditional party before the US Super Bowl's final football playoff earlier this month.

Geneva  - The largest Swiss bank, UBS, will hand over the names of 250 of its clients to the United States Justice Department, a Geneva-based newspaper reported, in a move that goes against the Alpine country's longstanding bank secrecy principles.

Without naming its source, Le Temps said the bank would divulge the information as part of an ongoing investigation against UBS in the US alleging that it helped clients there evade paying hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes since the beginning of the decade.

Washington  - A US federal appeals court on Wednesday blocked the release of 17 Chinese Muslims held at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba prison camp to the United States.

The US Court of Appeals in Washington overruled a lower court decision that ordered the release of the Uighurs into the United States.

The US government no longer regards the men as a threat but will not return them to China out of concern they will be abused. Washington has been unable to find a third country willing to take them.

Beirut  - US Senator John Kerry arrived in Beirut Wednesday for talks with Lebanese leaders as part of a Mideast tour.

Kerry held talks with Prime Minister Fouad Seniora, President Michel Suleiman and parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri.

According to a government official the talks focused on Lebanon's upcoming parliamentary elections in June, as well as bilateral relations.