HONG KONG (Reuters) - A 6 percent fall in Asia pushed world stocks to their lowest in 5- years on Thursday, while oil fell below $53 and safe havens such as the yen gained on fears the global recession and a financial crisis will get uglier.

(Reuters) - The U.S. financial system still needs at least $1 trillion to $1.2 trillion of tangible common equity to restore confidence and improve liquidity in the credit markets, Friedman Billings Ramsey analyst Paul Miller said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Chances dimmed that a last-minute plan being crafted by Republican senators, with White House support, to provide $25 billion to bail out U.S. automakers would receive enough backing from Democrats to pass before the end of this week.

LONDON (Reuters) - Some of the world's top banks are backing a proposal to develop a mandatory central clearing system for the $55 trillion credit default swap (CDS) market, a report in the Financial Times said on Thursday. Dealer banks are stepping up efforts to back CDS clearing to head off a more radical overhaul, which includes a proposal to move trading of over-the-counter CDS on to an exchange, the report said, citing an internal Morgan Stanley email.

BANGKOK (Reuters) - U.S. car giant General Motors Corp announced a two-month shutdown at its Thai plant on Thursday, the latest move by global automakers seeking to slash costs in the face of weak sales and deepening economic gloom.