Central banks world-wide delivered sweeping interest rate cuts Thursday, even as the continuing turmoil in credit markets means cuts in rates are losing their power to curtail an accelerating global slowdown, The Wall Street Journal reported. Major European central banks, including the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and Sweden's Riksbank joined the central banks of New Zealand and Indonesia in making deep rate cuts. The goal: to stave off deep and painful slowdowns in the wake of financial market turmoil that has squeezed lending globally.

Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca PLC plans 1,400 job cuts and is closing three plants around Europe as it joins others in the sector tackling increased competition and cost pressures, Reuters reported yesterday. The job cuts announced on Thursday are in addition to the 7,600 announced in July 2007 and will see AstraZeneca closing facilities at Porrino in Spain, Destelbergen in Belgium and Umea in northern Sweden.