Tokyo - Japan's industrial output underwent a record fall of 10 per cent in January amid shrinking export demand, and consumers cut spending as the recession in the world's second-largest economy worsened, the Japanese government reported Friday.

The 10-per-cent fall in industrial production in seasonally adjusted terms from December broke the previous record fall of 9.8 per cent recorded in December. It also was the fourth-straight monthly decline.

Washington  - US President Barack Obama's first national budget outline mirrors an ambitious agenda he has been slowly detailing over his first month in office, and includes plans to tackle some of the thorniest issues in US politics.

The administration's 2010 budget and projections over the next 10 years, which was handed over to Congress on Thursday, largely reflected Obama's presidential campaign promises and many Democratic Party priorities.

Washington, Feb. 26 : Washington Post Co. earnings fell 77 percent in the fourth quarter of last year compared with the same period in 2007, as large impairment charges drove down net income.

The Post Co. yesterday reported fourth-quarter net income of 18.8 million dollars (2.01 dollars per share) on revenue of 1.16 billion dollars, compared with net income of
82.9 million dollars (8.71 dollars per share) on revenue of 1.13 billion dollars in the fourth quarter of 2007.

Berlin  - German households have defied the deepening economic gloom with a survey released Thursday showing consumer confidence in Europe's biggest economy rising more than expected.

Buoyed by government measures aimed at spurring economic growth, the Nuremberg-based GfK marketing institute said its forward-looking consumer confidence index came in at 2.6 points in March compared to an upwardly revised 2.3 points in February.

London/Brussels  - The European Union's member states must work together more closely to overcome the economic crisis, the bloc's economic affairs commissioner said on Thursday, three days before an emergency EU summit.

"I really think that the degree of co-ordination could be seriously improved ... I haven't heard around the European table a discussion" on the best way to jump-start economic growth, Joaquin Almunia told the Thursday edition of the Financial Times.

Johannesburg  - Southern Africa is considering injecting 2 billion dollars into Zimbabwe to kick-start its economic recovery over the next 10 months, the finance minister of neighbouring South Africa, Trevor Manuel, said Thursday.

Manuel was speaking a day after finance ministers of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) met in Cape Town, along with the African Development Bank, to discuss Zimbabwe's economic reconstruction and other matters.