Credit

Brazil, the world's largest emerging-market debtor for decades, became a net foreign creditor for the first time in January. International reserves, swelled by investment inflows and record exports of agricultural commodities and oil, probably exceeded gross foreign liabilities last month by about $4 billion, Banco Central do Brasil said Thursday.

Datebook: The credit for a kitchen photo that appeared in the Feb. 21 Home section incorrectly listed Laura Snow. The photographer was Harry Chamberlain.

Photo credit: A credit was missing from a photograph last Sunday that accompanied a Critic's Notebook by Charles McNulty of the Fountain Theatre's production of "Victory." Ed Kreiger took the photo.

Borrowing rose in January as Americans spent twice as much on their credit cards as they did a month earlier. Consumer credit grew by $6.9 billion to $2.52 trillion, the Federal Reserve reported. Analysts said people once dependent on home-equity loans were turning to other forms of short-term financing after the sub-prime mortgage crisis made it harder to qualify for loans.

A former player with the Tennessee Titans football team was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of defrauding a housing developer of $2.5 million by falsely promising to secure funding for a construction project in Mexico. FBI agents took Reed Kyle Diehl, 29, of Coto de Caza into custody at his residence on federal charges of wire fraud in connection with the alleged offer to secure a line of credit for the unnamed out-of-state developer. According to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, Diehl persuaded the alleged victim to deposit $2.5 million to be used as collateral for the promised line of credit.

Photo credit: A photograph last Sunday of Carol Burnett and Jim Carrey with an article about the film "Horton Hears a Who" was incorrectly credited to 20th Century Fox. It was taken by Times photographer Karen Tapia-Andersen.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy will urge banks this week to make "full and immediate disclosure" of write-offs due to the global credit crisis, British officials said today. The two leaders are increasingly concerned that confidence in financial markets is being hit by uncertainty over the scale of bad debts on banks' books, which some estimates put as high as $600 billion, Brown's office said. Sarkozy is due to hold talks with Brown on Thursday during his two-day visit to Britain as a guest of Queen Elizabeth.

Photo credit: The photograph of Zac Efron with the Spinoffs column last Sunday was incorrectly credited to Getty Images. It was taken by Times photographer Myung J. Chun.

Center-left leaders from around the world called for urgent reform of global financial institutions to prevent a recurrence of the credit crisis. About a dozen leaders, gathered by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, issued a communique urging the International Monetary Fund to help develop an early warning system to guard against risks to the global economy. The leaders heard a gloomy update from IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who said most of the downside risks to the world economy feared six months ago had become a reality.

Lautner photo: An article in Thursday's Home section about architect John Lautner's career failed to credit Lautner for the photo of the Marbrisa house in Acapulco.