PRESS DIGEST-Financial Times, Wall St Journal Asia editions

SINGAPORE, Jan 31 (Reuters) - The Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal carried the following stories in their Asia print/Web site editions on Thursday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

FINANCIAL TIMES (www.ft.com)

-- The Federal Reserve cut U.S. interest rates by another 50 basis points in an aggressive move to combat the risk of a U.S. recession. It also signalled that the door was wide open to further reductions.

-- The U.S. economy grew at an unexpectedly weak pace of 0.6 per cent in the fourth quarter, amid continuing fears of a slide into recession in 2008.

-- China's steel and smelting industries are starting to suffer substantial production problems as a result of the energy shortages and transport delays caused by severe winter weather.

-- The board of Societe Generale defied a chorus of criticism to back Daniel Bouton, the bank's embattled chairman, even as France's central bank governor gave a damning verdict of the bank's risk controls.

-- UBS (UBS.N: Quote, Profile, Research)(UBSN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research), one of the biggest casualties of the US subprime crisis, suffered a further $4 billion writedown on its mortgage-related securities, leading it to predict a 4.4 billion Swiss franc group net loss for 2007.

-- Canon (7751.T: Quote, Profile, Research) blamed problems in the U.S. economy for failing to meet its profit target for the fiscal year and an unexpected shortfall in its quarterly results, the first time that a big Japanese exporter has admitted that the slowdown in the U.S. economy has hit its bottom line.

-- The future of one of Royal Dutch Shell's (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research) most important businesses is at risk because the Nigerian government has not funded it properly, an internal memo has warned.