EU monitors deploy on Georgia peace mission
September 30, 2008
Four armoured vehicles, each carrying two monitors and marked with EU flags, left at about 9:00 am (0500 GMT) from a field office in Bazaleti, near the Georgian capital Tbilisi, to begin patrols, an AFP reporter at the scene said.
Six more vehicles, most carrying French gendarmes, also left to patrol near the separatist region of South Ossetia from the city of Gori, another AFP correspondent reported.
Monitoring teams also began patrolling in the western cities of Poti and Zugdidi near another breakaway region, Abkhazia, a spokesman for the EU mission said.
The European Union Monitoring Mission — comprising at least 200 people — aims to stabilise the region and ensure compliance by Georgia and Russia with an EU-brokered peace plan.
Many of the EU observers have a police or military background. They include a large contingent of French gendarmes, while others are experts in human rights and judicial issues. All will be unarmed, although they will have protective equipment including armoured cars.
On a visit to Tbilisi Tuesday, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said the bloc expects Russia to respect the peace plan and pull back its troops by an October 10 deadline.
"I am optimistic that all the parties will comply, as we have done, to the terms of the agreement," Solana said.
"The objective of this mission is to allow Russian forces to withdraw," he said.
Moscow said Tuesday that the EU monitors would not immediately enter a Russian-controlled "buffer zone" around South Ossetia when the mission begins.
The monitors would patrol "up to the southern limit of the security zone" under an EU-Russia deal reached Tuesday, the Interfax news agency quoted Vitaly Manushko, spokesman for Russian forces in South Ossetia, as saying.
Solana said the EU anticipates a "phase-by-phase" deployment of the monitors.
Months of mounting tensions erupted into full-scale hostilities between Georgia and Russia in early August over the Moscow-backed rebel province of South Ossetia.
Moscow said it was protecting Russian citizens in the region from Georgian aggression, but Tbilisi accused Moscow of provoking the conflict in order to cement its control over the region and destabilise pro-Western Georgia.
Drawing widespread international condemnation, Moscow subsequently recognised South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states.
Under the peace plan brokered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy on the EU's behalf, Russia is due to draw back its troops from "buffer zones" around the rebel regions into the regions themselves by October 10.
Most Asian markets recover on hopes for US bailout
September 30, 2008
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index, the benchmark for Asia’s biggest bourse, gained 139.74 points, or 1.24 percent, to 11,399.60 by the end of the morning session. On Tuesday, it plunged 4.1 percent to its lowest in more than three years on disappointment that the U.S. House of Representatives had rejected the bank rescue package aimed at stabilizing the U.S. financial system.
Australia’s key index jumped more than 3 percent after tumbling 4.3 percent the previous day. South Korea’s market erased earlier gains to slide into negative territory.
Otherwise, regional reaction was muted because several markets were closed for holidays, including in Hong Kong, mainland China, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines.
Investors took heart from the rebound on Wall Street Tuesday amid expectations that lawmakers will salvage a $700 billion rescue plan aimed at cleaning up the bad mortgage-related debts piled up by banks and other financial institutions. U.S. Senate leaders scheduled a vote for Wednesday on a revision of the bill that adds substantial tax cuts meant to appeal to Republicans when it goes to the House for a revote.
The Dow Jones industrial average surged nearly 500 points Tuesday after plunging 777 points on Monday. European and Latin American markets also moved modestly higher on Tuesday after steep losses the previous day.
But analysts warned that new worries were already starting to emerge about possible compromises that might be included in a reworked plan, raising questions about how effective it may be when implemented.
“The market is already expecting the plan to pass. The question now is what’s next,” said Norihiro Fujito, senior investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Co. in Tokyo.
Investors are still concerned about declining U.S. housing prices and the overall U.S. economy — a vital export market for Asia — especially as they look ahead to the Christmas shopping season.
Major Japanese companies, including electronics and autos, are counting on solid exports to the U.S. to keep up profits, Fujito said.
“Gloomy times are expected to continue for some time,” he said, adding that a turnaround couldn’t be expected at least until the latter half of next year.
Elsewhere, Taiwan’s stock market recovered from its 3.5 percent drop on Tuesday to rise 0.8 percent by midday. But South Korea’s Kospi lost gains and was down more than 1 percent.
The dollar’s recent recovery, which tends to be a boost for Japanese shares, also encouraged some buying during Wednesday’s Tokyo session. The dollar recovered to about 106 yen, up from about 104 yen earlier in the week.
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Associated Press writers Debby Wu in Taipei, Jae-soon Chang in Seoul and Dikky Sinn in Hong Kong contributed to this report.
U.S. envoy looks to save nuclear deal in North Korea
September 30, 2008
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill's visit comes days after North Korea threatened to break away from the disarmament-for-aid package and try to start separating plutonium at its nuclear plant that was being taken apart under the deal.
A U.S. official said Hill drove across the heavily armed border on his way from Seoul to Pyongyang early on Wednesday.
Hill told reporters on Tuesday he would press Pyongyang to accept a system to verify statements it made about its nuclear program and answer U.S. suspicions of a secret project to enrich uranium for weapons.
"What they have been doing, obviously, goes against the spirit of what we have been trying to accomplish," Hill said on Tuesday. He did not say when he planned to return.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said last week that the North was expelling U.N. monitors from its Yongbyon nuclear plant and planned to start reactivating it in days, rolling back the disarmament deal and putting pressure on Washington.
North Korea, which tested a nuclear device in October 2006, started to disable Yongbyon last November as part of the deal it reached with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States.
Experts have said most of the disablement steps, which would take about a year to reverse, have been completed and North Korea cannot easily get back into the plutonium producing business.
The North has baulked at U.S. demands about verification, fearing it to be too intrusive. Washington countered by making clear it would only remove Pyongyang from its "state sponsors of terrorism" list once the North agreed to a "robust" mechanism.
Once off the list, the reclusive and destitute North would be better able to tap into international finance and trade.
(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Alex Richardson)
Senate agrees to vote on bailout, stocks rally
September 30, 2008
U.S. stocks, after suffering their worst fall in 21 years on Monday after the House of Representatives rejected the original package, roared back on Tuesday as investors bet Washington would manage to salvage the package and stabilize the financial industry.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index shot up by more than 5 percent, its biggest one-day gain in six years, and Asian stocks followed suit on Wednesday, though gains there were tempered by further evidence of economic slowdown.
The revised package the Senate unanimously agreed to vote on would increase to $250,000 from $100,000 the amount of individual deposits insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC), seeking to shore up consumer and business confidence in banks.
It may also win over lawmakers trying to sell their constituents on an expensive plan funded by taxpayers and seen as benefiting wealthy financiers.
If the bailout package passes in the Senate, as expected, it will put more pressure on the House of Representatives to follow suit when it meets again on Thursday.
President George W. Bush, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and the two candidates hoping to succeed Bush as president, Republican Sen. John McCain and Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, reaffirmed their support for a bailout plan on Tuesday.
Both Obama and McCain said they would return to Washington for the vote, due to take place sometime after a series of votes starting at 7:30 p.m. EDT (2330 GMT).
The plan, which would allow the Treasury to buy toxic mortgage-related assets from banks, has been the main hope for government action to unlock credit markets and head off a deeper economic downturn in the United States and abroad.
"We're right at the moment where action is needed," Dominique Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, told Reuters. "A non-perfect plan is better than no plan at all."
Global money markets remained frozen on Tuesday, and London interbank offered rates shot to record levels, indicating banks were not lending to each other. The rate for overnight dollar loans rose to nearly 6.9 percent from just over 2.5 percent on Monday. Overnight dollar borrowing costs stayed near 6 percent in Asia on Wednesday.
U.S. regulators were also readying a revision of the "fair value" accounting rule that has led to massive charges on mortgage-related assets, and has been blamed for deepening the credit crisis. That would mean U.S. banks would not need to mark hard-to-price assets down to firesale prices.
GLOBAL AFTERSHOCKS
After claiming some of the biggest names on Wall Street in recent weeks, showckwaves from the crisis engulfed Europe and beyond this week.
Ireland unveiled a blanket guarantee for savings held by its banks and for the second time in a month Russia briefly shut down its stock markets.
France, Belgium and Luxembourg poured 6.4 billion euros into Franco-Belgian bank Dexia to avoid defaults on its loans, and France promised new bank measures to help depositors.
Dutch-Belgian banking and insurance group Fortis, partially nationalized earlier this week, halted $4 billion worth of asset sales to China's Ping An and Deutsche Bank
Shares of the U.S. banks seen emerging with a strengthened hand after the crisis, including Citigroup Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Bank of America Corp, shot higher on Tuesday.
Hopes for a revived rescue deal supported the dollar and lifted oil prices above $102 a barrel. But weak economic data from Japan, combined with fears of more corporate profit warnings limited Asian stock gains to around 1 percent.
"We've still got slowing global growth and still got a credit crisis. So I just think there's going to be ongoing volatility from here on in for the rest of the year," said ABN AMRO equity strategist Greg Goodsell in Sydney.
Hedge fund managers have also been bracing for a wave of investors to cash out as money rushes to safe haven assets.
One of the first signs of how quickly the economic pain is spreading from Wall Street to Main Street will come with Wednesday's release of U.S. auto sales for September, when the financial crisis began to topple banks and freeze credit.
The White House announced on Tuesday that Bush approved a mammoth spending bill that includes a $25 billion loan package for automakers, which faced far less ire than the $700 billion Wall Street plan.
"Wall Street as we knew it is already toast — beyond bailing out — but the public still thinks of this legislation as bailing out Wall Street," said Donald Straszheim, vice chairman of Roth Capital Partners in Los Angeles. "Until this perception changes, do-overs to quickly pass similar legislation won't fly."
($1=.6969 Euro)
(Writing by Lincoln Feast; Editing by Jean Yoon)
White Sox finally a winner in AL Central
September 30, 2008
John Danks pitched eight innings of two-hit ball on short rest, Thome homered and Griffey threw out a runner at the plate with a tough tag by A.J. Pierzynski, helping Chicago beat the Minnesota Twins 1-0 in a 163rd-game tiebreaker for the division title Tuesday night.
The White Sox joined the crosstown Cubs in the postseason, the first time since 1906 that both Chicago teams made it. And just as the Cubs did when they clinched the NL Central crown, several White Sox players came back on the field after the final out and sprayed fans with champagne.
“We’re so happy from our end that Sox fans get to enjoy this ride,” Thome said.
Next up for the South Siders, a first-round matchup with the surprising Rays. Game 1 is Thursday at Tampa Bay, which won the AL East.
“Look at this,” Thome said with the crowd roaring all around him. “This is what it’s all about — October baseball.”
The White Sox got a huge boost Tuesday from two of their oldest players: Thome and Griffey, both seeking their first World Series championship.
Thome’s long drive on a 2-2 pitch from rookie Nick Blackburn cleared two rows of shrubs in center field, traveling an estimated 461 feet to snap a scoreless tie in the seventh. It was the 541st homer for Thome, who raised his right fist as he rounded first base. He hadn’t been to the playoffs since 2001 with Cleveland.
Griffey, who came to the White Sox in a trade with the Reds so he could have a chance at playing in the postseason, cut down Michael Cuddyer with a nice throw from center in the fifth. Griffey, who like Thome is 38, will be making his first postseason appearance since 1997 with Seattle.
“He did a heck of a job,” Thome said. “I’m so happy for him, too.”
Bobby Jenks worked a perfect ninth for his 30th save in 34 chances. After replacing Griffey in center field, Brian Anderson ended it with a diving catch of Alexi Casilla’s blooper.
Soon after it was over, Pierzynski, Danks and Nick Swisher grabbed a microphone on the field and addressed the delirious crowd.
Danks, pitching on three days’ rest for the first time in his career and with just one win in his previous seven starts, held the Twins hitless through the first four innings on a 56-degree night. Cuddyer led off the fifth with a double and moved to third on Delmon Young’s fly to center.
When Brendan Harris hit a fly to Griffey in shallow center, Cuddyer took off for the plate. He crashed into Pierzynski, who held onto the low, two-hop throw from Griffey while tagging Cuddyer for the out. Pierzynski then popped up and showed the ball as the crowd of 40,354 — mostly dressed in black — roared.
Danks (12-9) delivered in the biggest came of his brief career. He won a duel with Blackburn (11-11), who retired 13 of 14 before Thome led off the seventh with his long homer.
The White Sox hosted the game because they won a coin flip earlier this month and what an advantage it was: Chicago went 8-2 against the Twins at U.S. Cellular Field this season and 1-8 at the Metrodome.
“That’s a battle between friends,” Chicago manager Ozzie Guillen said, referring to the rivalry. “We just got the last laugh.”
It was the eighth one-game playoff in major league history and the first in the AL since 1995 when Seattle beat the California Angels 9-1 to win the AL West. Playing for the Mariners in that game was Griffey and Chicago bench coach Joey Cora.
A late-season slide by the White Sox began at the Metrodome last week. The White Sox entered a three-game series with a 2 1/2-game lead in the division but the Twins pulled off a sweep to take over first place.
Chicago came home and lost two more to the Indians but was able to stay close because the Twins dropped two in a row to the Royals at the Metrodome. Both teams won Sunday, leaving Minnesota up by a half-game. The White Sox had to beat Detroit in a rain-delayed makeup game Monday to force Tuesday night’s tiebreaker.
“We bounce back every time we are against the wall,” Guillen said.
Their styles are different. The White Sox relied more on power, the Twins on speed. But going into the game they not only were 88-74, they had identical marks at home (53-28), on the road (35-46) and in their division (43-29).
“That probably says we should be playing this game,” Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire said before the game.
The Twins withstood the departures of ace Johan Santana and Gold Glove center fielder Torii Hunter by utilizing the speed of youngsters such as Denard Span and Carlos Gomez, sound fundamentals that are taught throughout their system and clutch hitting.
Joe Mauer went 0-for-3 Tuesday night but still won his second AL batting title at .328. Justin Morneau, who drove in 129 runs, slumped in the final week.
The White Sox overcame late injuries to surprising star Carlos Quentin, who was leading the AL in homers when he broke his right wrist by hitting it on his bat in frustration Sept. 1, and third baseman Joe Crede, who had back problems. Neither is expected to return for the playoffs.
Notes:@ White Sox first base coach Harold Baines was not able to perform his duties because of an ulcer and was replaced by organizational instructor Omer Munoz. … The White Sox are the first team in major league history to win their final three games against three different opponents, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. … It was the largest crowd for a White Sox regular-season game since Aug. 4, 2003. … The 1906 White Sox, known as “The Hitless Wonders,” beat the Cubs in the World Series.
Thome, Griffey carry White Sox to AL Central crown
September 30, 2008
The White Sox joined the Cubs in the postseason, the first time since 1906 that both Chicago teams are in. Next up for the South Siders, a first-round matchup with the surprising Rays. Game 1 is Thursday at Tampa Bay.
The White Sox got a huge boost Tuesday from two of their oldest players: Thome and Griffey, both longing for their first World Series championship.
Thome’s long drive on a 2-2 pitch from rookie Nick Blackburn cleared two rows of shrubs in center field, traveling an estimated 461 feet to snap a scoreless tie in the seventh. It was the 541st homer for Thome, who raised his right fist as he rounded first base. He hadn’t been to the playoffs since 2001.
Griffey, who came to the White Sox in a trade with the Reds so he could have a chance at playing in the postseason, cut down Michael Cuddyer with a nice throw in the fifth. Griffey, who like Thome, is 38, will be making is first postseason appearance since 1997 with Seattle.
Bobby Jenks worked a perfect ninth for his 30th save in 34 chances. Center fielder Brian Anderson ended it with a diving catch of Alexi Casilla’s blooper.
Danks, pitching on three days’ rest for the first time in his career and with just one win in his previous seven starts, held the Twins hitless through the first four innings until Cuddyer led off the fifth with a double and moved to third on Delmon Young’s fly to center.
When Brendan Harris hit a fly to Griffey in shallow center, Cuddyer took off for the plate. He crashed into Pierzynski, who held onto the two-hop throw from Griffey while tagging Cuddyer for the out. Pierzynski then popped up and showed the ball as the crowd of 40,354 — mostly dressed in black — roared.
Danks (12-9) delivered in the biggest came of his brief career. He won a duel with Blackburn (11-11), who had retired 13 of 14 before Thome led off the seventh with his long homer.
The White Sox hosted the game because they won a coin flip earlier this month and what an advantage it was: Chicago went 8-2 against the Twins at U.S. Cellular Field this season and 1-8 at the Metrodome.
It was the eighth one-game playoff in major league history and the first in the AL since 1995 when Seattle beat the California Angels 9-1 to win the AL West. Playing for the Mariners in that game was Griffey and Chicago bench coach Joey Cora.
A late-season slide by the White Sox began at the Metrodome a week ago. The White Sox entered a three-game series with a 2 1/2-game lead in the division but the Twins pulled off a sweep to take over first place.
Chicago came home and lost two more to the Indians but was able to stay close because the Twins dropped two in a row to the Royals at the Metrodome. On Sunday both teams won, leaving Minnesota’s lead at a half-game. The White Sox had to beat Detroit in a rain-delayed makeup game Monday to force Tuesday night’s tiebreaker.
Their styles are different. The White Sox relied more on power, the Twins on speed. But going into the game they not only were 88-74, they had identical marks at home (53-28), on the road (35-46) and in their division (43-29).
“That probably says we should be playing this game,” Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire said before the game.
The Twins endured the departures of star center fielder Torii Hunter and ace Johan Santana by using speed with young players such as Denard Span and Carlos Gomez, sound fundamentals that are taught throughout their system and clutch hitting.
Joe Mauer went 0-for-3 Tuesday night but still won his second AL batting title at .328. Justin Morneau, who drive in 129 runs, slumped in the final week.
The White Sox overcame late injuries to surprising star Carlos Quentin, who was leading the AL in homers when he broke his right wrist by hitting it on his bat in frustration Sept. 1, and third baseman Joe Crede, who had back problems. Neither is expected back for the playoffs.
Veteran pitcher Jose Contreras struggled at times, but when he was lost with a ruptured Achilles’ tendon in August, Chicago’s rotation was stretched. All four remaining starters were forced to go on three days’ rest at least once in the final weeks because with the race so close the White Sox needed to win every game.
Notes:@ White Sox first base coach Harold Baines was not able to perform his duties because of an ulcer and was replaced by organizational instructor Omer Munoz. … The White Sox are the first team in major league history to win their final three games against three different opponents, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. … It was the largest crowd for a White Sox regular-season game since Aug. 4, 2003. … The 1906 White Sox, known as “The Hitless Wonders,” beat the Cubs in the World Series.
Senate to force House’s hand on bailout
September 30, 2008
The goal is to net at least 12 more House votes than the rescue proposal received Monday, when lawmakers rocked the political and financial worlds by rejecting it.
The gambit is certain to anger some conservative House Democrats, who object to tax cuts that are not offset with spending cuts. But Senate strategists assume it will gain more House votes than it will lose.
If so, Congress would be poised to pass landmark legislation giving the government billions of dollars to buy deeply discounted mortgage-backed securities that are choking off credit and roiling the markets.
The strategy is risky because some House members might see it as a high-handed move by senators. Senate passage of a bailout measure has seemed assured all along. The showdown is in the House, but now the Senate is trying to force the House’s hand.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., called it “a brilliant move” that will “help pick up votes on both sides of the aisle.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s reaction was much cooler. “The Senate has made a decision about how to proceed and what can pass that body,” the California Democrat said. “The Senate will vote tomorrow night, and the Congress will work its will.”
The new approach, announced Tuesday night by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., would tack large and contentious tax measures to the bailout bill. Senate leaders figure the House will have to approve it because the tax cuts are too appealing to Republicans and the financial rescue plan will still seem essential to most Democrats.
The Senate approach uses big, game-changing amendments. House leaders earlier were considering the smallest possible tweaks to the bill in hopes of picking up 12 more votes.
The Senate bill would raise federal deposit insurance limits to $250,000 from $100,000, as called for presidential nominees Barack Obama and John McCain only hours earlier.
House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, praised the move, but many Democrats had signaled approval as well.
McCain, Obama and Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, signaled plans to return to Washington for the Wednesday night vote. If Obama and Biden vote for the measure, it would make it more difficult for Pelosi and other Democrats to reject or change the Senate measure.
The Senate measure will graft the bailout language to a tax bill it approved last week, on a 93-2 vote. It includes: a provision to prevent more than 20 million middle-class taxpayers from feeling the bite of the alternative minimum tax, $8 billion in tax relief for those hit by natural disasters in the Midwest, Texas and Louisiana and some $78 billion in renewable energy incentives and extensions of expiring tax breaks.
In a compromise worked out with Republicans, the bill does not pay for the AMT and disaster provisions but does have revenue offsets for part of the energy and extension measures.
That wasn’t enough earlier this year for the House, which insisted that there be complete offsets for the energy and extension part of the package.
The Senate move seems aimed at forcing the House into accepting the deficit-financed tax cuts.
The surprise move capped a day in which supporters of the imperiled economic rescue fought to bring it back to life, courting reluctant lawmakers with a variety of other sweeteners including the plan to reassure Americans their bank deposits are safe.
Wall Street, at least, regained hope. The Dow Jones industrials rose 485 points, one day after a record 778-point plunge following the House vote.
Amid Tuesday’s negotiations, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. chairman Sheila Bair asked Congress for temporary authority to raise the limit on deposits by an unspecified amount. That could help ease a crisis of confidence in the banking system, Bair said.
She said the overwhelming majority of banks remain sound but an increase in the cap would help ease a crisis of confidence in the banking system as well as encourage banks to begin more lending.
Monday’s House vote was a stinging setback to leaders of both parties and to Bush. The administration’s proposal, still the heart of the legislation under consideration, would allow the government to buy bad mortgages and other deficient assets held by troubled financial institutions. If successful, advocates of the plan believe, that would help lift a major weight off the already sputtering national economy.
Bush renewed his efforts to save the bailout plan Tuesday, speaking with McCain and Obama and making another statement from the White House. “Congress must act,” he declared.
Though stock prices rose, more attention was on credit markets. A key rate that banks charge each other shot higher, further evidence of a tightening of credit availability.
The rescue package was Topic A on the presidential campaign trail.
“The first thing I would do is say, ‘Let’s not call it a bailout. Let’s call it a rescue,’” McCain told CNN. He said, “Americans are frightened right now” and political leaders must give them an immediate solution and a longer-term approach to the problem.
Obama issued a statement saying that significantly increasing federal deposit insurance would help small businesses and make the U.S. banking system more secure as well as restore public confidence.
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Associated Press writers Tom Raum, Ben Feller, Alan Fram and Jim Kuhnhenn contributed to this report.
EU monitors to deploy in Georgia peace mission
September 30, 2008
Monitors were to deploy from regional field offices in central and western parts of the country about 8:30 am (0430 GMT), the EU said.
The so-called European Union Monitoring Mission — comprising at least 200 people — aims to stabilise the region and ensure compliance by Georgia and Russia with an EU-brokered peace plan.
Many of the EU observers have a police or military background. They include a large contingent of French gendarmes, while others are experts in human rights and judicial issues. All will be unarmed, although they will have protective equipment including armoured cars.
On a visit to Tbilisi Tuesday, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said the bloc expects Russia to respect the peace plan and pull its troops by an October 10 deadline.
"I am optimistic that all the parties will comply, as we have done, to the terms of the agreement," Solana said.
"The objective of this mission is to allow Russian forces to withdraw," Solana said
Moscow said Tuesday that the EU monitors would not immediately enter a Russian-controlled "buffer zone" around the breakaway region of South Ossetia when the mission begins.
The monitors would patrol "up to the southern limit of the security zone" under an EU-Russia deal reached Tuesday, Interfax news agency quoted Vitaly Manushko, spokesman for Russian forces in South Ossetia, as saying.
Solana said the EU anticipates a "phase-by-phase" deployment of the monitors.
Months of mounting tensions erupted into full-scale hostilities between Georgia and Russia in early August over the Moscow-backed rebel province of South Ossetia.
Moscow said it was protecting Russian citizens in the region from Georgian aggression, but Tbilisi accused Moscow of provoking the conflict in order to cement its control over the region and destabilise Georgia.
Drawing widespread international condemnation, Moscow subsequently recognised South Ossetia and another rebel Georgian region, Abkhazia, as independent states.
Under the peace plan brokered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy on the EU's behalf, Russia is due to draw back its troops from "buffer zones" around the rebel regions into the regions themselves by October 10.
At least 149 dead in India Hindu temple crush
September 30, 2008
The disaster occurred as more than 25,000 worshippers clambered to reach the 15th-century Chamunda Devi temple in the hill-top Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur in the tourist state of Rajasthan.
The stampede came at the start of Navaratri, a nine-day Hindu festival which is one of the most important in the Hindu calendar and when crowds are particularly large.
"We can now say 149 people have died and around 60 are injured," Rajasthan's Home Secretary S.N. Thanvi told AFP.
Officials said the stampede appeared to have started when a wall along the narrow path leading up to the temple collapsed, killing several people and sparking widespread panic.
People were trampled and suffocated to death.
"The stampede began when people lost their footing and set off a chain reaction," Thanvi said.
Officials said many of the injured were seriously hurt. After the stampede, devotees carried limp bodies to police vehicles, while others desperately tried to resuscitate victims.
Temple stampedes are common during religious festivities in India, where crowd control is often rudimentary or non-existent.
"I was to join my friend this morning to offer prayers but I was a little late," recalled a dazed Jodhpur university student named Manish.
"When I arrived, I saw chaos, people rushing around the place. I looked for my friend and after a while found him. He was unconscious but without serious injuries," Manish told AFP.
He said the path leading up to the temple shrine was narrow with many people trying to get in at the time of the incident, as the auspicious moment for offering prayers was about to begin.
Outside the state-run Mathura Das Mathur hospital, relatives scrambled to look through lists of names of those admitted to the emergency room, witnesses said.
Scenes inside were equally chaotic, with doctors struggling to cope with the number of injured, an AFP reporter at the hospital said.
"We were standing in line to get inside the temple when suddenly there was a commotion," said factory worker Ajay, who was brought to hospital unconscious.
"I was pushed onto the ground. Before I could get up people were running over me, stamping over me. I woke up here," he said, pointing to his hospital bed.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhra Raje, who visited the temple and the injured, ordered a probe into the disaster.
She also announced a donation of 200,000 rupees (4,300 dollars) for the kin of the dead and 50,000 rupees to the injured.
The stampede is the fourth such incident in India this year.
In August, around 150 Hindu worshippers died in a stampede in the northern mountainous state of Himachal Pradesh. That was sparked by rumours of an impending landslide at a hill-top Hindu temple.
Six people died in a similar accident at a popular Hindu festival in July in the eastern state of Orissa, where about one million people had gathered in the town of Puri for an annual celebration.
In March, nine people were killed and many more injured at a religious gathering in central India when a railing broke at the temple premises, leading to a stampede among 100,000 devotees.
In one of India's deadliest ever stampedes, 257 people were killed during a Hindu pilgrimage in western Maharashtra state in January 2005.
Obama, McCain urge revival of bailout
September 30, 2008
A day after the U.S. House of Representatives sent global markets reeling by rejecting the financial rescue plan, Senate leaders said on Tuesday they scheduled a Wednesday evening vote on a new version of the measure, including a big increase in the amount of bank deposits protected by the government's insurance program.
The campaigns of Democrat Obama and Republican McCain said the candidates would be on hand for the vote.
Obama and McCain had blamed each other for contributing to the collapse of the legislation on Monday, but a day later each stressed the need for both parties to work together to try to reach an agreement palatable to some of the 95 Democrats and 133 Republicans who combined to defeat the bailout.
Both encouraged Americans to back a Wall Street rescue because, as McCain said in Des Moines, Iowa, "Inaction is not an option." If the bailout passes the Senate, as expected, it would put more pressure on the House to follow suit when it meets again on Thursday.
Raising the limit on bank deposit insurance to $250,000 from $100,000 is an effort to shore up consumer and business confidence in banks and prevent a run on deposits. It may also win over politicians trying to sell the public on the hugely expensive plan, funded by taxpayers and seen as benefiting wealthy financiers who helped create the problem.
A new poll by the Pew Research Center found weakening public support for the bailout. The Saturday-Monday survey said Americans backed the plan by only a 45 percent to 38 percent margin.
'TIME FOR ACTION'
Obama told thousands at an outdoor rally in Reno: "It is not a time for politicians to concern themselves with the next election. It is a time for all of us to concern ourselves with the future of the country we love. This is a time for action."
McCain had said he believed one reason the House had not approved the package was because "it hasn't really sunk in that the people who are hurting and are being hurt are Main Street families, small businesses, those kinds of people that are the engine of our economy."
Obama, an Illinois senator, and McCain, an Arizona senator, are trying to use the crisis to project leadership. Both Obama and McCain said they backed lifting the limit on bank deposit insurance as a way to restore confidence.
Democrats accused McCain of interfering last week when he suspended his campaign and flew to Washington to participate in bailout negotiations that ended in disarray.
Opinion polls showed Americans trusted Obama more to handle the U.S. economy, helping him jump out to a slight advantage over McCain with Election Day five weeks away on November 4.
His lead over McCain narrowed in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll. He was up by 50 percent to 46 percent among likely voters, down from a 9-point edge nationally a week earlier.
McCain has suggested some short-term steps to stem the crisis, such as broadening the use of the Treasury's Exchange Stabilization Fund, which was used in the mid-1990s to help Mexico through a financial crisis. The Bush administration is already tapping it to help money market funds.
Marathon talks among Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Capitol Hill negotiators produced a deal over the weekend for a $700 billion bailout bill that included some provisions sought by lawmakers of both parties that would allow the government to recoup some of the cost of the rescue.
On Tuesday, amid the market turbulence and concerns about a deepening worldwide financial crisis, the presidential contenders stepped up their support for the package and pledged to do what they could to try to get it passed.
(Additional reporting by Deborah Charles, Donna Smith and Jeff Mason; Writing by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Peter Cooney)