JAPANESE Prime Minister Taro Aso today said the plunge on the Tokyo stock market was "beyond our imagination" after it shed almost 10 per cent, and added he had "huge fears" for the future of the economy.

THE dollar has continued its free-fall, hitting a five-year low, as investors shed riskier assets on further fears of a global recession.

LEADING banks are ripping off their credit card customers by almost $900,000 a day by refusing to cut their sky-high interest rates.

GLOBAL share markets are in meltdown as emergency efforts to rescue the world economy show no signs of working.

ALMOST one in four baby boomer employees expect to work into their 70s because of the hit to their retirement savings from the global financial turmoil.

THE big four banks continue to dominate the mortgage market although growth has slowed dramatically and the global credit crunch has begun to force credit rationing among big lenders, a report says.

KEVIN Rudd has reassured Australians that the nation will survive the global economic ravaging.

SHAREHOLDERS face a nervous wait today to see what impact a co-ordinated action to slash rates might have on financial markets.

A MELBOURNE couple were among 18 people killed when a plane clipped a fence and crashed in Nepal.

TWO Australian tourists among 18 people killed in a plane crash near Mount Everest in Nepal have been named on the airline's website.

A MAN has died and two other people were seriously injured in a major smash near Melbourne's CBD this morning.

A MAN has been crushed to death between two trucks in Melbourne's north.

THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) has slashed its forecast for world growth next year and says the recovery from the global financial market crisis will be gradual when it eventually comes.

OIL prices sank close to one-year low points today as plunging stock markets generated fresh fears of slowing economic growth and in turn weaker global demand for energy.

A MIDDLE-AGED man who twice injected his girlfriend's young teenage daughter with drugs before having sex with her claimed he was the victim of a sexual predator.

A MAN who died in the searing heat with a desperate message for help scrawled in the sand next to his body was a "grey nomad" keen on bird-watching and photography.

THE construction union has blamed cost cutting for the death of a truck driver as he was unloading a delivery of steel in Melbourne today.

VICTORIANS who spike people's drinks risk up to two years' jail under new laws introduced in state parliament today.

ELKE Lapthorne, the mother of missing Melbourne backpacker Britt Lapthorne, broke down at a press conference today, yelling and in tears while explaining her "living hell".

A NEW witness has detailed Britt Lapthorne's last week before the Melbourne backpacker vanished.