Reuters - U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, leading a push for a taxpayer-funded plan to contain the credit market crisis, said on Friday he would ask Congress to take action on this next week and that the Treasury was taking immediate steps in the meantime.

Reuters - Stocks rallied on Friday, led by a surge in financials, after the government unveiled plans to mop up bad assets and place a temporary ban on bets that financial stocks will fall.

Reuters - American International Group Inc may become a smaller firm with hopefully many of its largest insurance operations intact after assets are sold to pay back a federal loan, new Chief Executive Edward Liddy told the Wall Street Journal in an interview.

Reuters - Freddie Mac said on Thursday it has yet to receive payments of more than $1.2 billion due from Lehman Brothers Holdings , which went bankrupt after the U.S. government refused to bail out the investment bank.

Reuters - HSBC dropped a $6.3 billion offer for 51 percent of Korea Exchange Bank (004940.KS), blaming turmoil in financial markets and ending what would have been the biggest cross-border move in South Korea's bank sector.

Reuters - A radical U.S. taxpayer-funded plan to restore confidence in battered financial markets by mopping up toxic mortgage-related debt triggered a rally in stocks, but raised questions over how long it would take and how it would work.

Reuters - Citigroup Inc is considering making a bid for Washington Mutual Inc , the Wall Street Journal said on Friday, citing people familiar with the situation.

Reuters - The Toronto Stock Exchange's main index soared on Thursday morning after central banks around the world poured in $180 billion in extra liquidity to calm markets made jittery by the mayhem on Wall Street.

Reuters - Asset manager Putnam Investments said on Thursday that it had closed its $15 billion Prime Money Market Fund due to redemption pressures.

Reuters - Constellation Energy Group Inc agreed to sell itself to a unit of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N) (BRKb.N) for about $4.7 billion in cash on Thursday after investor fears about its liquidity cut its value by nearly 60 percent.

Reuters - Stocks briefly turned negative before edging higher again in volatile trading that reflected the uncertainty about the health of the financial system.

Reuters - The world's top central banks joined forces on Thursday to throw a multi-billion dollar lifeline to global markets in a dramatic effort to free up bank-to-bank lending frozen by upheavals on Wall Street.

Reuters - Morgan Stanley topped the list of major financial companies scrambling to find a buyer as its shares tumbled another 35 percent, while central banks rushed in $180 billion in extra liquidity to calm panicked stock and money markets.

AFP - HBOS, Britain's biggest mortgage lender, has reached a deal to merge with its rival Lloyds TSB, media reports said Wednesday, after the lender's shares plummeted for a third day running.