Washington  - US authorities need broad new emergency powers to take over non-financial firms whose collapse could threaten the wider economy, the country's top economic officials warned Tuesday in the wake of the bail-out of insurance giant American International Group Inc.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke defended the bail-out of AIG, which began in September, as critical to the survival of the US financial system.

Washington - US President Barack Obama took his economic prescriptions to a global and domestic audience on Tuesday, calling for a broader and urgent global response to the world's worst economic crisis in a generation.

Writing in 31 newspapers around the globe, Obama warned that it was up to world leaders holding an emergency summit in London next week to come up with a comprehensive solution to the global recession.

Packed with Qualcomm's cell phone technology, start-up Zeebo's first video game console for "the next billion" will be launched next month. Priced at $199, the console will specifically target the "emerging" BRIC - Brazil, Russia, India and China - markets.

Given the fact that Zeebo's console is developing world-specific, it is not intended to offer any direct competition whatsoever to the "big three" namely - Sony's PS 3, Microsoft's Xbox 360, or Nintendo's Wii.

New York, Mar. 24 : A United Nations body has ruled that the continuing detention of Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is not only illegal under international law, but also under the Burmese law.

Suu Kyi, the only Nobel peace laureate in detention in the world, is held under Burma''s 1975 state protection law.

New York, Mar. 24 : China accounts for nearly three-quarters of the world's total executions, according to Amnesty, the human rights watchdog.

There were 2,390 executions in 2008, of which 1,718 or 72 per cent, took place in China. The statistics showed a marked increase from 2007 when 1,252 people were put to death.

Just five countries, China, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United States, accounted for 93 per cent of all executions, Amnesty said.

Washington, Mar. 24 : The US fears that future attacks on America are likely to be carried out by Muslims from the UK, and therefore, there is a need to boost surveillance of British Pakistanis.

According to Sky News, the CIA is understood to be working alongside British Security Services in an effort to quash what they see as the greatest threat to Homeland Security.