Japan, Germany and Canada pledged new measures on Saturday to confront a financial crisis that has toppled banks, endangered the global auto industry and now played a part in the demise of Belgium's government.Tokyo joined governments worldwide in pledging hundreds of billions of dollars of fiscal stimulus to lessen the impact of the crisis on their economies, many of which, Japan's included,... [read more]

Asian stocks edged up in quiet trade on Friday, as investors sifted through the remains of a record sixth consecutive month of falls for global equity markets, hoping to find some bargains as 2008 winds down.Regional shares tacked on a sixth day of gains, though optimism was in short supply with deteriorating economic prospects for China and Japan as well as simmering political risks in India,... [read more]