US Economy

Switzerland's second biggest bank Credit Suisse's clients have lost up to a billion Swiss francs in the alleged pyramid scheme of Wall Street titan Bernard Madoff, according to a Sunday media report. Citing the bank's "internal estimates," Swiss Sunday newspaper Sonntag said customers had lost "between 900 and 1,000 million francs (840-934 million dollars, 598-665 million euros)."

The Senate on Thursday night abandoned efforts to fashion a government rescue of the American automobile industry, as Senate Republicans refused to support a bill endorsed by the White House and Congressional Democrats.

The failure to reach agreement on Capitol Hill raised a spectre of financial collapse for General Motors and Chrysler, which say they may not be able to survive through this month.