MUMBAI - COMMANDOS ended a siege of the luxury Oberoi hotel on Friday while other forces rappelled from helicopters to storm a besieged Jewish center, two days after a chain of militant attacks across India's financial center left at least 143 people dead and the city in panic.

While explosions and gunfire continued intermittently at the elegant Taj Mahal hotel on Friday afternoon, officials said commandos had killed two gunmen inside the nearby Oberoi hotel and ended the attack there.

BANGKOK - THAI police on Friday warned anti-government protesters at Bangkok's domestic Don Mueang airport to leave immediately or face 'necessary measures', witnesses said.

The order came more than 24 hours after the country's prime minister declared a state of emergency around Don Mueang and the larger Suvarnabhumi international airport.

SINGAPORE'S financial sector will take a beating as the global credit crisis unfolds but the innate strengths of the local financial system will keep it stable.

That was the assessment of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) yesterday at the release of its annual Financial Stability Review.

SANTIAGO - The economic crisis Singapore is facing is different from what it has battled before, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, but the focus of its response is the same: To keep people in jobs.

The current crisis is a global one, unlike the 1995 recession, which encompassed the region, and the 1985 downturn, which was due mainly to Singapore's costs running out of whack vis-a-vis other developing economies.