SINGAPORE'S job growth has slowed significantly, with the manufacturing sector bleeding jobs for the first time since 2003.

Preliminary estimates released on Friday morning by the Manpower Ministry showed 26,900 jobs in all added from October to December last year, half of the gains of 55,700 in the previous quarter.

TOKYO - JAPAN announced a triple slump in key economic data on Friday and said there was no end in sight to the bad news, as some of the country's most high-profile companies announced or forecast massive losses.

The data echoed gloomy reports on the health of the economy in the United States, where President Barack Obama took aim at what he called the 'shameful' bonuses given to Wall Street bankers during the financial crisis.

IMMINGHAM (England) - STRIKES spread to oil refineries across Britain on Friday as thousands of workers protested at the use of foreign labour, at a time when unemployment is soaring amid the global slowdown.

The protest started at Britain's third-largest refinery, Lindsey in Lincolnshire, eastern England, where workers first walked out Wednesday over the use of Italian and Portuguese contractors on a 200 million pound (S$431.7 million) building project.

GLOBAL institutional investors and sovereign wealth funds can play an important and useful role in the design of the future world financial system, given their involvement in the current crisis.

They can provide 'constructive inputs', and reflecting their views in the process of revamping the regulatory regime will 'greatly help' markets to function effectively.