AP - Freddie Mac is asking for an initial injection of $13.8 billion in government aid after posting a massive quarterly loss Friday.

AFP - Freddie Mac, one of the mortgage finance giants taken over by the government earlier this year, reported Friday a quarterly loss of 25.3 billion dollars as it asked for a fresh capital infusion.

AP - Freddie Mac is asking for an initial injection of $13.8 billion in government aid after posting a massive quarterly loss Friday.

AFP - New US data Thursday showed an alarming drop in trade and Germany officially plunged into recession as gloom deepened ahead of a Washington summit on the worldwide economic crisis.

AP - The nation's financial picture grew darker Thursday, a day marked by breathtaking numbers: a quarter-trillion-dollar budget deficit for a single month and projections of up to $1 trillion for a year, a half-million new applications for unemployment benefits and a 900-point swing on Wall Street.

Reuters - U.S. mortgage finance companies should soon adopt a foreclosure prevention plan developed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to ease loan terms for troubled borrowers, the companies' overseer said on Thursday.

AFP - Fresh data showed the rich world plunging into recession on Thursday as the United States warned that an upcoming crisis summit was just the start of a tough reform cycle for the world finance system.

AP - Applications for unemployment benefits soared to the highest level since just after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks while the trade deficit shrank more than expected as demand for imports plunged, further evidence of the struggling U.S. economy.