KW after it was hit by derivatives losses

it did not change between Augustand September," he told reporters. Kuwait's annual inflation in August, the latest inflationfigure to be reported, was 11.64 percent. He hoped inflation figures from end-2008 would show adecline, he added. Sheikh Salem told Reuters that 2009 would be a difficultyear for the Kuwait economy, adding that the global creditcrunch would affect the world's seventh-largest oil exporter. Kuwait last year had to rescue its fourth-largest lender,Gulf Bank (GBKK.KW), after it was hit by derivatives losses. He declined to comment on plans by Shamali to lowerexpenditures, with the exception of wages and investments in thenext fiscal year starting in April, as oil revenues, its mainsource of income, were dwindling. Sheikh Salem said earlier in January he hoped the governmentwould keep expenditure stable at last year's 19 billion dinarsto stimulate the economy.

(Writing by Ulf Laessing; editing by John Irish and AnthonyBarker) Stocks Mergers & Acquisitions Bonds Funds News ETFs News. (corrects date to Jan 17) DUBAI, Jan 17 (Reuters) -Qatar Telecommunications CoQTEL.QA (Qtel) said on Saturday it would begin tender offersfor shares in PT Indosat tbk (ISAT.JK) in Indonesia and theUnited States on Tuesday. "The Company is offering to purchase up to 1,314,466,775series B Shares, including series B shares underlying AmericanDepositary Shares of Indosat, which is listed on both theIndonesian and New York stock exchanges," Qtel said in astatement. The shares represent 24.19 percent of Indosat's total issuedand outstanding shares," Qtel said (Reporting by John Irish). SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea's army said on Saturday it would assume an "all-out confrontational posture" against the South and wipe out the conservative government in Seoul for refusing to cooperate with them.

WorldTies across the heavily-armed border between the two Koreas have turned icy since President Lee Myung-bak came to office last year on a promise to get tough on his communist neighbor after 10 years of liberal leaders' efforts to engage Pyongyang."Now that traitor Lee Myung Bak and his group opted for confrontation, denying national reconciliation and cooperation, backed by foreign forces, our revolutionary armed forces are compelled to take an all-out confrontational posture to shatter them," the North's army spokesman said.The spokesman said Lee and his "puppet military warhawks" have driven "our revolutionary armed forces to take a strong military retaliatory step to wipe them out," in comments carried by the official KCNA news agency.An officer at South Korea's Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said it has stepped up defensive alert against potential moves by the North but has not detected unusual activities.A North Korean soldier shot dead a South Korean woman in a tourist enclave run by a Hyundai conglomerate affiliate in July and North Korea all but froze border crossings since December, blaming Lee for dragging Korean relations to a dangerous low.The North has also been angered by a cut in aid that poured in from the wealthy South. It has threatened to reduce its neighbor to ashes, but there has not been a major military clash since naval skirmishes killed dozens of sailors on both sides in 2002.The army spokesman, appearing in full uniform on North Korea's state television, said provocations by the South's military including naval intrusions have cross the "danger line" and it could "no longer remain an onlooker to them."(Reporting by Jack Kim) World. LONDON, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Global accountancy firm KPMGKPMG.UL has asked its 11,000 British staff if they wouldswitch to a four-day week or take a long break to help avoidredundancies in the recession, a spokesman said on Saturday. The London-based company said it had asked workers on Fridayto volunteer for a shorter working week or a sabbatical ofbetween one and three months, on 30 percent pay. The measures are part of a contingency plan that would helpthe company cope with the worst economic turmoil for years. "We have got no plans to immediately implement this," thespokesman said. "We are creating a pool of people who said theywould be willing.

If the need arises in the future and themarket deteriorates, then we would be in a position to put someof these plans in place to manage costs." The company has not said how many staff it would allow totake part in the scheme. In Britain dozens of large companies have laid off staff toreduce costs. Car maker Nissan, retailer Marks & Spencer andphone giant BT Group have all announced job cuts. ID:nLD135582The Centre for Economics and Business Research, anindependent consultancy, estimates 28,000 financial servicesjobs were lost in London in 2008 ID:nLD325264 (Reporting by Peter Griffiths, editing by Anthony Barker). Thursday afternoon Coach Paul Wulff was ready for a conference with media once again.The Washington State Cougar football coach was raring to go and seem to catch the media napping. If a Pac-10 official would have been in the room, a flag would have been thrown for either a delay or false start following unexpected silence after the first question.Those of us in the media might have been off our game, but Coach Wulff wasn't. Once the conference got up a head of steam, he had plenty to say.The status of the offensive line for WSU continues to be better news.