China`s second largest life insurer Ping An may sue embattled European financial group Fortis for planning to sell most of its assets without shareholder approval, state media said Thursday.

Japanese exports fell at their fastest pace in almost seven years in October as Asian demand cooled, pushing the world`s second biggest economy deeper into recession, official data showed Thursday.

Asian stocks tumbled Thursday as global economic gloom deepened following a plunge in Japanese exports and a warning from the Federal Reserve that the United States could be in recession next year.

Is it more painful to see the value of your fund disappear as the global economy crumbles, or for another man to punch you as hard as he can in the face?

For Elliot `The Machine Gun` Odell, a 32-year-old Briton working in the hedge fund industry in Hong Kong, the chance to find out was irresistible.

The Chinese government has announced a series of tax cuts aimed at helping the country`s textile industry through the global financial crisis.

`Textiles are a traditional and an important industry in China,` Prime Minister Wen Jiabao told a government meeting on Wednesday, according to a statement on the government`s website.

A South Korean asset manager has been found dead in the country`s latest apparent suicide linked to the global financial crisis, police said Thursday.

Police found the body of the 55-year-old head of a small asset management firm, identified only as Choi, in a Seoul hotel room on Wednesday afternoon.

Employee numbers will be cut sharply in many Western nations as companies pare costs to survive the global financial crisis, according to an international recruitment company boss.

The already grim US economic outlook took another turn for the worse Wednesday as data highlighted risks of deflation and further weakness, and the Federal Reserve acknowledged the potential for a long recession.

The International Monetary Fund announced Wednesday that its executive board approved a loan of 2.1 billion dollars for Iceland to help the country rebound from a dire financial crisis.

The two-year loan, accompanied by quarterly reviews, was designed `to support the country`s program to restore confidence and stabilize the economy,` the IMF said in a statement.

The International Monetary Fund announced Wednesday that its executive board approved a loan of 2.1 billion dollars for Iceland, which has been reeling from a financial crisis.

The two-year loan, accompanied by quarterly reviews, was designed `to support the country`s program to restore confidence and stabilize the economy,` the IMF said in a statement.