WASHINGTON - THE US steel industry is in collapse and looking for a massive government investment program of up to one trillion dollars to stimulate demand for the key commodity, a report said on Friday.

Output of steel has plunged 50 per cent since September after posting record profits as construction and auto production have fallen sharply amid a US recession and the global credit crunch, The New York Times reported.

HELSINKI - FINNISH airline Finnair could be forced to cut one third of its routes due to shrinking demand because of the global economic crisis, chief executive Jukka Hienonen said in an interview published on Friday.

'Today we fly to more than one hundred destinations. If worst comes to worst, we will need to cut one third... of our routes,' Mr Hienonen told the Iltalehti daily.

NEW DELHI - INDIA on Friday eased foreign borrowing by domestic firms and permitted additional liquidity for the non-banking sector to boost flagging growth in Asia's third-largest economy.

The second economic stimulus package in less than a month came as India forecast growth of seven per cent for the year to March 2009, but economists say it could be as low as 6.8 per cent this year and 5.5 per cent the following year.