Manila  - More than 140 million people in Asia could be pushed into extreme poverty in 2009 as unemployment surges due to the global economic slowdown, an International Labour Organization (ILO) report warned Wednesday.

According to the report, The Fallout in Asia, the number of unemployed in the Asia-Pacific region could rise by as many as 23.3 million in 2009 while vulnerable employment could grow by an alarming 60 million.

London  - Just a few months ago, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was hailed as a hero by fellow-European leaders for pushing ahead with massive bail-out packages to save the banks and the economy.

Once the coordinated action had been agreed, and a threatened total collapse had been averted, Brown presented himself as the "saviour of the world" to the British parliament.

He had meant to say "saviour of the banks," an embarrassed spokesman explained.

Berlin  - German Chancellor Angela Merkel is seizing the initiative in facing up to the global financial crisis, as the host of talks Sunday with her European counterparts.

With the prospect of German elections in September, clouded by the country's biggest economic downturn in 60 years, Merkel has stepped

out of her previous inertia and summoned the heads of Europe's biggest economies to find common ground.

Berlin  - European leaders meet in Berlin Sunday to draw up plans to combat the world economic crisis and revamp the global financial structure amid signs the recession is getting worse.

Hosted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Sunday's meeting has been called to set out Europe's position on financial market reform and measures to tackle the recession ahead of the April summit of Group of 20 (G20) of the world's major economic powers in London.

Hong Kong - Hong Kong's unemployment rate has jumped to 4.6 per cent, its highest level in nearly two and a half years, officials said Tuesday.

The jobless rate in the city of 7 million rose from 4.1 per cent in the October-to-December quarter to 4.6 per cent in the quarter from November to January. Figures are announced on a monthly basis.

The rise added another 16,000 people to the jobless total, which now stands at 157,000, the most since September 2006, government figures showed.

Amsterdam  - Dutch insurer Aegon suffered a loss of 1.2 billion euros (1.53 billion dollars) in the fourth quarter of 2009, the company said in its preliminary Q4 report released on Tuesday.

Financial analysts had expected a loss of 800 million euros.

Following the publication of the results, the share value of Aegon dropped by 3.1 per cent at the Amsterdam stock exchange and stood at 3.6 euros shortly after trading began on Tuesday.