Climate change is likely to exact enormous costs on US regional economies in the form of lost property, reduced industrial output, and more deaths, according to a report backed by a trio of men with vast business experience.

GOLD rose 2% yesterday in a risk rally with equities and commodities, as the dollar tumbled after a renewed Franco-German pledge to introduce a plan to resolve the eurozone’s debilitating debt crisis.

Lloyd Blankfein, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs Group, saw his 2010 compensation rise to $14.1m (€9.9m) from just over $1m (€700,000) in 2009, according to an analysis of data filed with regulators.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett again defended Goldman Sachs, saying faulty government regulations were to blame for most of the economic turmoil of the past few years, not investment banks.

Goldman Sachs developed a strategy to profit from the housing meltdown and reaped billions at the expense of clients, a US Senate investigation found.

Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs has been accused of defrauding investors in a civil lawsuit filed by America's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

SEVEN of the world’s top hedge fund managers earned 10-figure pay cheques and one set a record for the highest-ever pay-out last year due to a stock market rally that pushed returns to their highest levels in a decade.

The Beverly Hills fertility doctor who Nadya Suleman claimed helped her conceive her 14 children was formally accused by medical chiefs of negligence and violation of professional guidelines.

A woman has given birth to eight babies, only the second time in history octuplets have survived more than a few hours.

The Bush administration is looking at “orderly” bankruptcy as a possible way to deal with the desperately ailing US car industry, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said

The United States and China pledged $20bn (€15.6bn) to help finance trade amid a global credit crisis today as they wrapped up high-level talks marked by a Chinese appeal to Washington to stabilise its economy.

Wall Street rebounded today in another turbulent session, as investors rushed back into the market after the Standard & Poor's 500 index tested a 2003 low.

US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke waged a stout defence of their management of a $700bn (€554bn) financial bailout today, just a week after abandoning the original strategy behind the rescue.

The Bush administration is abandoning the centrepiece of its massive €520bn economic rescue plan and exploring new ways to shore up not only banks but credit card, car loan and other huge businesses.

US president-elect Barack Obama has made helping the troubled US car industry a “high priority” of his administration.

The $700bn (€559bn) rescue package for the US economy will not be used to buy troubled assets, US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said today.

As one of the President's top economic advisers admitted parts of the US are in a recession, the Bank of America's chief executive vowed to plough bail-out cash into loans and profit growth.

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.

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.

Congressional leaders and the Bush administration reached a tentative deal early today on a landmark bailout of imperilled financial markets whose collapse could plunge the nation into a deep recession.

A Republican revolt stalled efforts in Washington to agree a national economic rescue plan with negotiations broken off for the night and to resume later today.

Tension grew in the US financial markets today, sending stocks mostly lower as investors worried about the effectiveness of a still-emerging government plan to rescue banks from crippling debt. The credit markets also showed added strain, with rising demand for short-term Treasury bills, considered the safest of investments.

Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain found themselves in rare agreement, each demanding the Bush administration's unprecedented US$700bn (€477bn) bailout for US financial institutions be subject to independent oversight and guarantees their top executives not be rewarded.

The man taking multi-million euro bets against UK banks is believed to have earned the largest one-year payday in Wall Street history.

The Bush administration insisted Congress must move quickly to approve what one politician called the "mother of all bailouts" - a US$700bn (€483.5bn) proposal to buy a mountain of bad mortgage debt in a bid to free up the nation's credit markets.

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.

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 US today outlined a rescue plan costing hundreds of billions of dollars to sort out the toxic bank debts that plunged the world’s economy into chaos.

US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said today the country had no option but to put in place an expensive and bold rescue plan to save the economy.

Asian stock markets soared today as a news of a US government plan to rescue banks from risky mortgage debt brought hope of a let-up in the world’s worst financial crisis in decades.

The US government will provide an US$85bn (€59.9bn) emergency loan to rescue the huge insurer AIG, the Federal Reserve said today.

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.

The US federal takeover of troubled US mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could have been prevented if Congress had acted on its recommendations, the White House said today.

US president George Bush said the historic federal government takeover of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was needed to keep them from failing, a risk he called “unacceptable” for an economy battered by housing and credit crises.

President George W Bush tonight said that the historic federal government takeover of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is needed to keep them from failing, a risk he called “unacceptable” for an economy battered by housing and credit crises.

US mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are expected to be taken over by the government as early as this weekend, it emerged today.

The Federal Reserve and the US Treasury announced steps tonight to shore up mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, whose shares have plunged as losses from their mortgage holdings threatened their financial survival.

The US Treasury Secretary said today there is “no quick fix” to high oil prices on a trip designed to urge Mideast producers to allow more outside investment to help boost output.

The world’s leading economies are ready to take appropriate action, individually or collectively, to secure stability in global markets, according to a draft statement today from the Group of Seven industrial nations.

Democratic and Republican leaders appeared close to agreement with the White House today on emergency tax cuts and benefit increases to jolt the US economy out of its slump.

Wall Street tumbled today, led by financial services stocks, on concerns that the US economy’s expansion will erode amid troubles in the mortgage industry.