Hong Kong - Chinese Premier Wen Jaibao on Friday promised 14 measures from the central government in Beijing to help Hong Kong survive the global economic slump.

Wen made the pledge in talks with Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang Friday morning, the third and final day of Tsang's annual visit to the Chinese capital.

The measures promised by Wen included allowing more mainland Chinese visitors to enter Hong Kong to boost tourism and help for Hong Kong businesses with factories in China's Pearl River Delta.

Infrastructure projects involving Hong Kong would also be speeded up, said Wen, who commented after his meeting with Tsang that he was confident Hong Kong would overcome the economic slump.

Tokyo  - The Bank of Japan on Friday reduced its benchmark interest rate from 0.3 to 0.1 per cent to stem the effects of the recession that has hit the world's second-largest economy.

The reduction had been expected after the US Federal Reserve this week lowered its key interest rate to a record low, from 1 per cent to a range of 0 to 0.25 per cent.

The Bank of Japan had also been under pressure from the government to stimulate the contracting economy by pumping more money into financial markets to ease a credit crunch and to prevent a further rise in the rapidly appreciating yen.

The stronger yen has been hurting Japanese exporters because it makes their goods more expensive abroad and lowers their overseas earnings.

Tokyo  - The Bank of Japan on Friday reduced its benchmark interest rate from 0.3 to 0.1 per cent as the world's second-largest economy finds itself in recession.

Tokyo  - Japan's economy was expected to stagnate in the coming fiscal year and would contract 0.8 per cent in the current one, the government said Friday.

It would be the first time in seven years that the world's second-largest economy would see zero-per-cent growth.

The Cabinet Office released the figures after it had also factored in the effect of a 75-trillion-yen (850-million-dollar) economic stimulus package it announced this fiscal year, which ends March 31.

Washington  - For 19 years, Alice Hodgkins has been working in the Centre of Hope of the Salvation Army in Ocala, Florida.

Every day, needy have come into the centre asking for food - and always, she was able to help them.

Up to now, that is.

"A couple of days ago, our shelves were empty," she said in a telephone interview. "We just didn't have any food to give to the people coming in. I felt so embarassed, because we couldn't do our job and help them."

Madrid  - For Maria G., a 40-year-old Ecuadorian immigrant in Madrid, it is a grim Christmas ahead.

"Since my husband lost his construction job six months ago, we have only relied on my earnings," says the bakery employee and housemaid, one among hundreds of thousands of immigrants to have been hit hard by Spain's deepening economic crisis.

"We could not even dream of giving each other presents this Christmas," Maria sighs, explaining that she always sends more than half of her monthly income of about 1,000 euros (1,400 dollars) to her children and other relatives back in Latin America.