NEW YORK - MR JOE Gilmartin, a doorman at a luxury apartment building in Manhattan, fears the worst this year about the holiday tips he traditionally gets from the affluent tenants he serves.

'I've heard they're cutting back. It's a fear, and it's a concern,' said Mr Gilmartin, one of millions of US workers who rely on gratuities for income. In the crisis gripping the economy, they worry those tips, from a dollar at a diner to large year-end sums, are growing fewer and smaller.

GENEVA - POPULAR pressure for laws against 'fat cat' executive pay pushed the Swiss government on Friday into proposing a 'more moderate' version of the legislation to parliament.

SANTIAGO - CHILEAN navy vessels on Friday evacuated all the passengers from an Argentine cruise ship which had run aground in Antarctica, a Chilean commander in charge of the operation said.

The passengers were taken off the cruise liner, Ciudad de Ushaia, which became stuck on Thursday in Wilhelmina Bay, part of the Antarctic peninsula that reaches towards the southern tip of South America, Commander Alan Nettle said.