Germany

More details are expected later of the measures aimed at helping the country during what some fear could be its worst recession since World War II.

The initiatives include investments in railways, roads and schools, as well as a number of tax relief measures.

A 23bn euros plan, passed last month, was derided for being too cautious.

In its second attempt to kickstart Europe's largest economy, Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet has gone further, and she is expected to unveil the details of the plan on Tuesday.

"All in all, it is a package that will help get us through the financial crisis and secure jobs," said Christian Democrat parliamentary president Volker Kauder.
The agreement follows squabbles between the Social Democrats and Christian Democrats over how to shore up the German economy and prevent job losses.

The new two-year stimulus package will include investment measures worth around 18bn euros for infrastructure projects, correspondents say.

But, says the BBC's Steve Rosenberg in Berlin, this package alone will not solve Germany's biggest problem at the moment: its falling exports.

Due to the global economic downturn, there is less demand abroad for German goods, such as cars and machine tools.

Germany is heavily reliant on exports, which saw their largest fall in November since reunification in 1990.

Last year it unveiled a bail-out for businesses worth up to 500bn euros but its use has been limited due to strict conditions attached to taking the money.

Meanwhile, figures released on Tuesday morning showed that German wholesale prices fell 3% in December from the previous month, and were down 3.3% on a year-on-year basis.

Bail-out

There is strong opposition in Congress to releasing the money with the House of Representatives and the Senate considering blocking the move.

But funds would be likely to remain available because any disapproval could be vetoed by President Bush.

But observers say if the payout was rejected, it could aggravate markets.

There have been hopes that if the final tranche of the bail-out was approved, it would give a strong start to Mr Obama's efforts to fighting the financial crisis when he takes office next week.

The president-elect's team have been trying to douse opposition to the payment of the rest of the funds agreed last year under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (Tarp).

"I called President Bush to trigger the second half of what's known as the Tarp, that's related to financial rescue," said Mr Obama.

"I did so because in consultation with the business community and my top economic advisers, it is clear that the financial system, although improved from where it was in September, is still fragile."

The White House said that President Bush had formally requested on Monday evening that Congress release the remaining pledged capital.
The US House of Representatives passed the $700bn government plan to rescue the US financial sector in October last year - having rejected an earlier version of it which hammered global stock markets.

The package was aimed at buying up the bad debts of failing financial institutions on Wall Street.

The Treasury Department, which is managing the Tarp, has already committed the first half of it - mainly to capital injections into troubled banks, but many Congress members are unhappy with how it has been handled.

US Democratic congressman Barney Frank said that he and Mr Obama agreed that new rules were needed to govern how the next $350bn was disbursed - but said he wanted these written into law.

Google

They are all on the list of the top 10 fastest-rising queries on Google during 2008.

The search engine has published its year-end Zeitgeist, the tool which reveals what internet users are searching for.

The most searched term for Google users in the UK was Facebook while the BBC came second and its iPlayer service was the fastest rising query.

The list also reveals what global preoccupations are and this year the US election candidates and the Beijing Olympics figure high.

The things people around the globe have in common are a strong interest in socialising and politics, according to Marissa Mayer, vice-president of search at Google.

“Social networks comprised four out of the top 10 global fastest-rising queries while the US election held everyone’s interest around the globe,” she wrote on Google’s official blog.

The economic crisis has made an impact on UK searchers with “money saving expert” and “hot uk deals” making the top 10 finance-related searches.

Gordon Brown will be pleased to hear that he beat David Cameron into second place on the list of most popular politicians among UK searchers.

Barack Obama made it into third place with rival John McCain coming in seventh.

Foodies were interested in recipes for cupcakes, meatballs, lemon posset and pork belly, while the hottest tickets in the UK went to Oasis and Leonard Cohen (first and second respectively)