LOST IN THE DARK RIDE

Comments NEW YORK (Map, News) - Oil prices swung back above $67 a barrel Thursday, rebounding from a 16-month low as OPEC members met to decide whether to slash production to halt crude’s slide. But gasoline prices kept falling, dropping to levels not seen since exactly a year ago. A gallon of regular gas fell 3.6 cents overnight to a new national average of $2.82, according to auto club AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express. Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries were gathering in the Austrian capital of Vienna ahead of official talks Friday. Iranian oil minister Gholam Hossein Nozari called on the cartel to cut by 2 million barrels a day to…

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: Asian stocks fell Friday, led by a 4 percent drop in the Nikkei 225 index in Japan, as the global economic slowdown slashed earnings prospects for an array of companies, forcing investors to look to safer government bonds. The grip of the financial crisis has reached far beyond the banking sector, with Sony and the U.S. online retailer Amazon.com cutting their outlooks in the face of weakening consumer demand. The stronger yen has been particularly damaging to the competitiveness of Japanese exporters as it curbs their overseas profits when they are brought home and erodes the competitiveness of their products. A…

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By JIM KUHNHENN Associated Press Writer= WASHINGTON (AP) - John McCain and the Republican National Committee reported having a combined $84 million as of last week to spend before Election Day, according to reports filed Thursday with the Federal Election Commission. McCain, who has accepted public financing for his campaign, is restricted in his spending. As of Oct. 15 he had more than $25 million in hand, but more than $1 million debts. The RNC, which has been helping his candidacy, had more than $59 million in the bank. At McCain’s…

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Hu Jia, one of China’s best-known dissidents, was yesterday awarded an EU human rights prize, despite a warning from Beijing that selecting the political prisoner would damage relations. His wife and supporters welcomed the news that MEPs had picked him for the Sakharov prize, worth €50,000 (£39,500) Previous recipients…

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By Mark Felsenthal Former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told Congress on Thursday he is “shocked” at the breakdown in U.S. credit markets and said he was “partially” wrong to resist regulation of some securities. Despite concerns he had in 2005 that risks were being underestimated by investors, “this crisis, however, has turned out to be much broader than anything I could have imagined,” Greenspan said in remarks prepared for delivery to the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. “Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholder’s equity — myself especially — are in a state of shocked disbelief,”…

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U.S. stocks closed mixed Thursday, as steep price drops in the previous two sessions drew bargain hunters into the market. These buyers, however, failed to support the entire market, as witnessed by closing gains in the Dow industrials and S&P 500 but a drop in the Nasdaq. Data showing a rise in jobless claims and a drop in home prices kept fears of a recession alive. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, the current object of the ire of print and TV commentators, was seen calling for more financial regulation at a House hearing Thursday on housing and the financial crisis. Meanwhile, the Bush administration is considering a $40 billion program to forestall housing foreclosures,…

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Henry Paulson, the US Treasury Secretary, yesterday rejected criticism that he did not save Lehman Brothers from bankruptcy by protesting that he “didn’t have the powers” to prevent the broker’s collapse. Mr Paulson told The New York Times that it would have been illegal for the US Government to bail out Lehman because the bank’s assets were so toxic that they could not have acted as collateral for any loan. “If someone thinks Hank Paulson could have made the Fed save Lehman Brothers, the answer is ‘no way’,”…

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