Barack Obama “will move as quickly as he can” to set up the team who will help him rule America as its first black president, his chief strategist said today.

The US will buy stocks in banks in a bid to return the nation’s economy to the “path of growth and prosperity”, president George Bush said today.

The financial turmoil is a “serious global crisis that requires a serious global response”, US president George Bush said today.

The US government will move ahead with a plan to buy stock in financial institutions, US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson said.

Panic spread across world markets today as the FTSE 100 Index crashed 10% on fears of a global recession.

US stock markets fluctuated today after the Bush administration said it was considering taking ownership stakes in a number of the nation's banks.

The chief executive of the giant investment bank whose collapse set off a panic which led to the US economic rescue package took home more than €222m since 2000, he told the US Congress.

Political and financial leaders in the United States tonight vowed to act “as expeditiously as possible” to put the provisions of the economic rescue package into action.

The US Senate passed a €487bn rescue package for the nation’s troubled economy today.

US political leaders will go “back to the drawing board” and try to revive a €487bn financial rescue package today after Wall Street shares plunged to record lows as the Bill was rejected.

US political leaders were today making a final push for an agreement on a $700bn bailout for the nation’s troubled financial markets.

The United States will face “complete financial Armageddon and a great depression” if a financial rescue package to overcome the economic crisis cannot be agreed, a former Federal Reserve official said.

Oil prices continued their upward path today as investors digested the implications of the 700bn (€483.5bn) banking sector bail-out.

Stock markets could see more volatile trading today as they react to the US Government’s planned US$700bn (€483.5bn) banking sector bail-out.

Non-US banks like Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland may be able to participate in the US Treasury's US$700bn (€888.9bn) plan to bail-out the banks being thrashed out today.

Barack Obama today said he supported giving the US Treasury Department “broad authority” to deal with the economic crisis.

The FTSE 100 Index roared to its biggest-ever one-day gain today as hopes of a solution to the crisis gripping the financial system sent shares soaring.

THE world’s most famous hockey mom, Sarah Palin, wants creationism taught in America’s classrooms and, as unsentimental, unforgiving capitalist evolution topples masters-of-the-universe financiers, it is easy to envy the comfort offered by the certainty inherent in Palin’s Old Testament beliefs.

US Federal Reserve officials and bank bosses are understood to be locked in talks today as they scramble to secure a rescue deal for embattled US investment bank Lehman Brothers.

London’s leading share index closed in positive territory today despite a rollercoaster session that saw blue chips swing between losses and gains.

The London market shrugged off disappointing UK growth figures to post steady gains today.

The UK’s biggest ports operator was today reported to have drawn an improved takeover approach worth £2.34bn (€3.5bn) from a consortium led by Goldman Sachs.