Vowing to protect French industry from foreign predators and a worsening economic slump, President Nicolas Sarkozy introduced an investment fund of 20 billion euros ($25 billion) on Thursday.

As a new bout of fear gripped the financial markets, stocks fell sharply again, and the credit markets seized up as confidence in the nation’s financial system ebbed.

Asian stock markets followed New York’s plunge but then rebounded when Japan’s finance minister said that governments should be prepared to take action.

Iceland finally received international backing for its bailout plan on Thursday, as Nordic countries followed up a $2.1 billion loan by the International Monetary Fund.

European Union governments agreed Thursday to overhaul the way the trade bloc distributes tens of billions of euros in subsidies to farmers.

The worsening economy is squeezing Europe’s flag carriers, with dwindling sales of premium-class tickets starting to take their toll.

Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin of Russia announced tax cuts and increased spending on social programs.

In post-apartheid South Africa, the welfare of miners — nearly all of them black — is a matter of scrupulous concern.

Some American officials are on edge following French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s aggressive statements about American capitalism, and his decision to hold his own financial summit meeting.

It will take the efforts of China and other emerging nations to lead the global economy out of what is likely to be a long and painful recession, according to a gathering of economic experts.

Two years after his stint at the helm of the central bank ended in scandal, Antonio Fazio goes on trial in Milan, accused of rigging markets to keep Italian banks in Italian hands.

The U.S. opened a branch of the Food and Drug Administration in the Chinese capital, the first of several overseas offices aimed at regulating the safety of imported food and medicine.

A new digital library, called Europeana, intends to showcase Europe’s history, literature, arts and science.

Despite the worldwide downturn, the ties between small businesses in China and Southern California should continue to grow.

BASF said that it would temporarily halt or slow production at 180 plants around the world as it adjusted to a “massive decline in demand” brought on by the current economic turmoil.

China’s car industry is quietly pressing Beijing for government help as it copes with a jarring slowdown, top Chinese auto executives said.

The U.S. automaker, scrambling for cash as it struggles to stay alive, has agreed to sell about two-thirds of its Mazda stake for about $538 million.

HSBC announced that it would cut 500 jobs in Asia. And Citigroup’s roughly 50,000 employees were faced with the reality that some of job cuts announced Monday could hit them.

The British banking giant bowed to protest over its equity stake sale by offering the same terms to institutional investors that it gave to its largest Middle Eastern shareholders.

Aegon, the Dutch owner of the American insurer Transamerica, said it had signed up with the United States’ financial rescue program but added it did not yet plan to ask for aid.

The French retail giant Carrefour said it would replace José Luis Durán as its chief executive to try to end shareholder tension over its performance and strategy.

The cuts are part of a restructuring plan at Pepsi Bottling Group, which cut its forecast for full-year earnings, citing weaker foreign currencies.

Price drops are allowing more corporations to buy supercomputers for everything from processing movie graphics to searching for oil.

The Swiss banking giant joined Goldman Sachs in saying that its top executives would get no bonus this year as public scrutiny of bankers’ compensation intensified.

Export Development Canada has stopped writing new polices to protect Canadian auto parts makers in the event of a bankruptcy filing by Chrysler.

Google is getting caught in a web of privacy laws that threaten its growth and the positive image it has cultivated as a company dedicated to doing good.

A struggling Silicon Valley maker of flash memory chips filed a pair of sweeping patent infringement suits against Samsung.

Cash-strapped General Motors will sell its entire stake in the Japanese automaker for $230 million.

Bank of America said it would nearly double its stake in China Construction Bank, in spite of the spreading global financial crisis.

Japan’s economy has been hurt by weak export growth and steep cuts in corporate spending amid the worsening global slowdown.

Iceland said that it had agreed to cover European depositors at failed banks, breaking an impasse that had held up the dispersal of billions of dollars in international aid.