U.S. Army Captain Michael Kelvington, commander of the Battle company, 1-508 Parachute Infantry battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, bows next to remains of Gulam Dostager, a member of Afghan Local Police who was killed in the blast of an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) during the joint Tor Janda (Black Flag in Pashtu) operation, in Zahri district of Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan May 25, 2012.  REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov  (AFGHANISTAN - Tags: MILITARY CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)

Reuters Photojournalism

Our day's top images, in-depth photo essays and offbeat slices of life. See the best of Reuters photography.  See more | Photo caption 

Members of the U.S. Navy Blue Angels fly over the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan as part of the 25th annual Fleet Week celebration in New York, May 23, 2012.  REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz (UNITED STATES - Tags: MILITARY ANNIVERSARY TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)

Fleet Week

The U.S. Navy takes Manhattan for a week.  Slideshow 

Photo

The SpaceX mission

A privately owned unmanned rocket blasts off on a mission to be the first commercial flight to the International Space Station.  Slideshow 

FACTBOX: Financial rescue plans by G7 and other countries

Sun Oct 12, 2008 5:20pm EDT

(Reuters) - The world's richest nations vowed this weekend to prevent vitally important banks from failing and to unfreeze credit markets in a bid to halt panic in financial markets.

European leaders from the euro zone on Sunday agreed on a three-part plan on how to achieve these goals.

France and Germany said they would put forward legislation early this week to implement the plan, while Portugal and Norway moved ahead immediately.

Below are details of the financial rescue plans already in place or under consideration by leading countries:

UNITED STATES - $700 billion plan, excluding Fed programs:

- BANK CAPITAL: The U.S. Treasury can inject capital into financial institutions, including insurance companies, that seek government aid.

- BAD ASSETS: The Treasury can buy up troubled mortgage assets from financial institutions.

- BANK DEPOSITS: insured up to $250,000 per account. The Treasury can lend an unlimited amount to the bank insurance agency to ensure depositors in failed banks are repaid.

- ACCOUNTING: Securities regulators can suspend mark-to-market accounting, blamed for forcing financial institutions into insolvency when market value of assets plunge or are unknown.

- LIQUIDITY- Federal Reserve operating various liquidity measures up to $900 billion, plus a commercial paper program, and loans to individual companies like AIG and JPMorgan.

UNITED KINGDOM - 400 billion pounds ($691 billion)

- BANK CAPITAL: UK government can inject up to 50 billion pounds ($87.8 billion) capital into banks, half of the sum would be preference shares or permanent interest bearing shares.

- GUARANTEE INTER-BANK BORROWING: UK government will guarantee about 250 billion pounds ($439 billion) in short- and medium-term borrowing by banks.

- LIQUIDITY: Bank of England to lend banks at least 200 billion pounds ($351 billion) via auctions to make sure banks have enough cash to operate. This doubles its existing liquidity auctions and is in addition three-month sterling and one-week dollar auctions.

GERMANY - reportedly 400 billion euros ($549 billion

The German government is working on a British-style plan to be adopted in the next few days with the following features, according to media reports in Germany:

- BANK CAPITAL: Germany may inject capital into banks on short-term basis, possibly in return for equity stake that could total 50 billion to 100 billion euros.

- GUARANTEE INTER-BANK BORROWING: Lending between banks could be insured in a program worth hundreds of billions of euros.

IRELAND - 400 billion euros ($549 billion)

- BANK CAPITAL: the government can take a stake in any of the six banks covered by its plan.

- BANK DEPOSITS: guaranteed in its six banks, plus any other liabilities.

NORWAY - 350 billion crowns ($57.4 billion)

Banks can swap covered bonds, including mortgage-backed securities, into new government bonds which they can use as collateral in central bank auctions for liquidity.

Norges Bank also would offer two-year liquidity loans aimed at smaller banks.

PORTUGAL - 20 billion euros ($27.45 billion)

The government will offer a financing line to guarantee the liquidity of its banks.

JAPAN

- May consider injecting capital into banks

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