Indonesia said on Thursday it would keep its 30 percent import

Indonesia said on Thursday it would keep its 30 percent import
duty on rice until at least next year.

The International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday it approved
the third and final tranche of around US$135 million of
Pakistan's $596 million stand-by loan with the fund.

Mass layoffs by U.S. firms surged in August from the same
period one year ago, with manufacturing proving the hardest hit
sector, the government said on Wednesday.

South Korea has used US$108 billion in public funds to
consolidate financial institutions since a debt crisis hit the
country in late 1997, officials said Thursday.

Moving to break seven years of congressional deadlock, a
bipartisan group of lawmakers reached a compromise on legislation
giving President George W. Bush the authority to negotiate broad
new trade pacts, a congressional aide said on Wednesday.

An international clothing workers union federation on Thursday
condemned South Korean firms who invest in sweat shop factories
where workers were treated as "virtual slaves."