New York/Frankfurt  - It is a dramatic race against time - while Washington fights a battle over a mammoth rescue plan for the financial sector, the credit crisis is bringing down one US bank after another.

The latest victim was the country's once-leading savings bank, Washington Mutual Inc (WaMu). Federal regulators late Thursday shut down the institution and its assets were immediately sold for a pittance late Thursday to the financial giant JP Morgan Chase in an emergency move.

London - British banking giant HSBC is to cut 1,

Frankfurt - Leading central banks on Friday injected fresh dollars into strained financial markets, the European Central Bank (ECB) said in Frankfurt.

The ECB opened an auction of 30 billion dollars of overnight money, which it said was aimed at curing "elevated pressures in the short- term US dollar funding markets."

It said the Bank of England and the Swiss National Bank were also part of the operation, using their reciprocal currency arrangements with the Federal Reserve in Washington.

Tokyo - It has not been so long since the world worried about Japan's financial sector.

After the speculation excesses of the late 1980s and early 1990s Japan's banks moaned under a tremendous burden of non-performing loans.

Even as late as 2003 they sought financial bailout packages from foreign banks, especially from the United States.

Now the situation has changed dramatically as the US financial market has been turned upside down.

Now it is the Japanese banks that are starting to buy out their American counterparts.

Japan's banks have returned with a vengeance internationally, launching a series of major investments in the US financial sector.

Hong Kong - Banking giant HSBC said Friday it will cut 100 jobs in Hong Kong as it slashes its global workforce by 1,100 in response to the worldwide economic crisis.

A member of the World Bank, International Finance Corporation (IFC) would provide finance worth $100-million to Idea Cellular. Though entire world is facing the financial crisis and shortage of funds, the highly potential, Indian telecommunication sector is unlikely to face any credit problem. The company would use the amount to expand its network in the various telecom circles of India. The company intends to launch telecom service in Bihar and is also likely to start national long distance telephony network in a short time.