AFP - Britain's Financial Services Authority (FSA) is in secret negotiations to facilitate the acquisition of mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

Reuters - U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson took his case for an unprecedented $700 billion bailout of financial markets to the American people on Sunday, saying it was needed to prevent further damage to an already fragile economy.

Reuters - The Bush administration on Saturday sent a $700 billion financial markets rescue plan to Congress where Democrats immediately questioned its impact not only on Wall Street, but on homeowners and taxpayers as well.

Reuters - The U.S. government is preparing to mop up hundreds of billions of dollars in bad mortgage debt, after curbing short-selling and guaranteeing mutual funds in an effort to stabilize financial markets.

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 - The U.S. Treasury intends to double its planned purchases of mortgage-backed securities to $10 billion this month as part of its broad plan to stabilize markets and deal with problem bank assets.

AP - The federal government on Friday stepped in to bolster the teetering $3 trillion money-market mutual fund industry and stem a wave of withdrawals that resembled a Depression-era run on the banks — sparked largely by panicked institutional clients rather than individual investors in what are normally considered to be the safest of investments.

Reuters - The U.S. Treasury would have authority to buy whole loans, collateralized debt obligations and mortgage-backed securities under an evolving financial market rescue plan, CNBC reported on Friday, citing an unnamed Treasury official.

Reuters - The U.S. Treasury will propose a $500 billion to $800 billion government program to take toxic mortgage-related assets off the books of U.S. financial firms, banking industry sources said on Friday.

Reuters - The United States surged into action on Friday to launch an all-out attack against the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, readying a plan to tap hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer funds to buy up toxic mortgage-related debt.

Reuters - The U.S. government curbed short-selling and guaranteed money-market mutual funds on Friday as it worked on a sweeping bailout to mop up hundreds of billions of dollars in toxic mortgage debt, sending global stock markets soaring.