FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 674

Voted down, 205-228.

Question now is, are we gonna get something even worse? (I'm guessing 'yes.')



Citigroup buys Wachovia bank assets for $2.2B

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Citigroup will acquire the banking operations of Wachovia for $2.2 billion in an all-stock deal announced Monday, following much speculation over the weekend about the fate of the nation's fourth-largest bank.

To help finance the transaction, Citigroup said it would raise $10 billion through a sale of common stock and announced it would slash its quarterly dividend yet again, cutting it in half to 16 cents a share to preserve capital.

As part of the deal, Citigroup will acquire Wachovia's massive deposit network, giving it more than $600 billion in deposits in the U.S., about a 9.8% market share, and broadening its presence in such key regions as the Southeast and the West.

At the same time, Citi will assume about $53 billion in the Wachovia's debt and take hold of the same loan portfolio that ultimately sank Wachovia in the end.




Central banks pump in $620bn as shares plummet

Central banks around the world unveiled a plan to pump massive amounts of cash into the global banking system in a concerted effort to boost market confidence and inject liquidity into the global markets.

The move followed a fall in the Dow Jones of nearly 300 points in morning trade to 10,869 as the market took fright at several bank nationalisations in Europe and the US despite the approval of the "son of Tarp" — the Troubled Asset Relief Programme —bailout. The FTSE 100 index of leading shares was down almost 5 per cent, taking it to a new low for the year and below the psychologically significant threshold of 5,000.

As nine central banks used currency swaps to oil the wheels of dollar liquidity in the money markets, sterling plunged and was on course for its steepest one-day drop against the dollar for at least a decade and a half.




Stocks, Oil Plunge After Congress Rejects Bailout; Bonds Rise

Sept. 29 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks lost $1.2 trillion in market value, oil plunged and Treasury bonds rallied after lawmakers rejected the Bush administration's $700 billion financial rescue.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 8.8 percent, the most since the crash of October 1987, led by a 16 percent decline in financial shares. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley decreased over 13 percent. The MSCI World Index of 23 developed markets sank as much as 7 percent, the most in the measure's 38- year history. The euro and the pound sank, while bonds rose as governments raced to prop up banks infected by growing U.S. mortgage losses. Crude futures tumbled more than $10 a barrel.

"Fear is permeating all markets and everyone is pretty much running for the hills,'' said Jack Ablin, who helps manage about $55 billion as chief investment officer of Harris Private Bank in Chicago. "We're watching this thing crumble.''




US Navy watches seized ship with Sudan-bound tanks

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — U.S. helicopters on Monday buzzed a hijacked Ukrainian cargo ship carrying 33 Soviet-designed tanks and other weapons that officials fear could end up in the hands of al-Qaida-linked militants in Somalia if the pirates are allowed to escape.
...
Christensen said the arms shipment was destined for Sudan — not Kenya, which had been claiming to be the arms' destination. "We are aware that the actual cargo was intended for Sudan, not Kenya," he said.

The 5th Fleet said the ship was headed for the Kenyan port of Mombasa, but that "additional reports state the cargo was intended for Sudan."

U.N. officials said there is no blanket arms embargo on Sudan's government, but any movement of military equipment and supplies into the Darfur region would violate a U.N. arms embargo if it were not first requested by the government and approved by the Security Council's Sudan sanctions committee.

The United States has expressed opposition to all arms transfers to Sudan, which it considers a state sponsor of terrorism. U.S. officials also have warned that the transfer of lethal military equipment to state sponsors of terrorism could lead to sanctions under U.S. law.




Deadly suicide attack in Algeria

A suicide attack east of the Algerian capital, Algiers, has killed three people and injured another six, the state news agency has reported.

The attack took place at Dellys, about 100km (60 miles) east of Algiers on Sunday, APS news agency said.

Reports said a suicide car bomber hit a checkpoint there at the end of iftar, the meal that breaks the fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Algeria has suffered regular suicide attacks by rebels linked to al-Qaeda.




Deadly blast rocks Lebanese city

At least five people have been killed in a suspected car bomb attack on a military bus carrying soldiers in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli.

Witnesses said the blast happened on the outskirts of the city during morning rush hour. Some 30 people are believed to be wounded.

Several soldiers as well as civilians were killed in a similar blast on a bus in the city last month.
Lebanon's leaders said the attacks were an attempt to destabilise the country.




Cadbury Says Chinese-Made Chocolate Have Melamine

A Cadbury spokesman says preliminary results show its Chinese-made chocolates contain the industrial chemical melamine.

The spokesman said Monday it was too early to say how much melamine the chocolates contained.



China tainted milk scandal: Cadbury confirms melamine and 22 arrested

Police have arrested 22 people accused of being involved in China's tainted milk scandal.

The arrests came as Cadbury recalled Dairy Milk bars and other chocolates from across the Far East after traces of melamine were found in its Chinese made chocolates.

State media Xinhau reported that more than 480lb of the industrial chemical melamine was seized during raids.

The arrests took place in Hebei province and Chinese media reported that a police investigation showed that melamine had been produced in underground plants and then sold to farms and milk purchasers.




Egypt: European abductees released

A rescue mission has freed 19 European and Egyptian hostages and killed several of the kidnappers who snatched the tour group more than a week ago during a desert safari, Egypt's state news agency and television reported.

The Egyptian report referred to a Monday morning operation that resulted in the rescue of the 19 hostages but did not say where it took place. It said the rescued hostages were in good health and that at least half of the kidnappers were killed but gave no specific number of the dead.

The hostages, including five Germans, five Italians, a Romanian and eight Egyptians, disappeared September 19 in a remote corner of southwestern Egypt and were taken by their abductors to Sudan and later Libya.




Olmert: We must leave most of W. Bank

Israel will have to give up virtually all of the West Bank and east Jerusalem if it wants peace with the Palestinians, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in a farewell interview published Monday, saying Israel faced a stark choice and needed to make a decision soon.

Olmert also said Israel would have to leave the Golan Heights in order to obtain peace with Syria.

The comments were the clearest sign to date of Olmert's willingness to meet the Palestinians' demands, but their significance was uncertain, since Olmert's days in office are numbered and peace negotiations will soon become the responsibility of a different Israeli leader.

More than anything, the interview marked Olmert's transformation from a vocal hard-liner who for decades opposed any territorial concessions to the Palestinians to a leader whose views are virtually identical to those of the dovish politicians he once pilloried.




Israel slams fresh Arab move to isolate it at IAEA

Israel on Monday condemned the renewed Iranian-backed Arab effort to isolate it at a UN atomic watchdog assembly. Arab League states prepared to table a resolution called "Israel's nuclear capabilities" urging all Middle East states not to test or develop atom bombs and not to stand in the way of a regional nuclear-free zone.

The Arab states shelved a similar measure at the annual conference of 145 International Atomic Energy Agency member states a year ago.

But resentment continues to fester over inaction regarding what is assumed to be the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal in Israel, which critics say causes an imbalance of power and spurs adversaries in an unstable region to seek nuclear weaponry.

Israel, which has called the Arab move "substantially unwarranted and flawed", filed a motion on Monday for it to be struck off the IAEA General Conference agenda.

The measure is expected to be considered later this week.

"Among sponsors of this draft resolution are states which openly do not recognize the state of Israel and even call for its annihilation," Israel Atomic Energy Commission Director Shaul Chorev said, alluding to Iran.

"What is the moral standing of sponsors of this agenda item who do not recognise Israel's right to exist while criticizing Israeli policies aiming at securing its very existence?"




Israel worried Hizballah may attack during holidays


Israeli military officials are preparing for a possible Hizballah attack in northern Israel over the holiday season starting Monday evening with Rosh Hashanah - the Jewish New Year.

During Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Succot, Israelis congregate in homes, synagogues and other public venues, making them an easier target for terrorists who may infiltrate from southern Lebanon.

The Jerusalem Post reported that intelligence assessments are that Hizballah also sees this time as an opportunity to attack due to the transitory status of Israel's government.




Prepare for elections, Livni tells Kadima

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni instructed Kadima Director-General Adi Sternberg to begin preparing the party for a general election that would ensue if she were unable to form a new coalition, Livni told the Kadima faction Sunday at the party's headquarters in Petah Tikva.

Sources close to Livni said she made a point of mentioning her instructions to Sternberg when the cameras were rolling in order to send a message to the heads of Labor and Shas. They said she said the same thing when she met briefly with Labor chairman Ehud Barak during Sunday's cabinet meeting.

Kadima teams met Sunday with representatives of Shas and United Torah Judaism. No significant progress was reported in any of the meetings.




Iran Avoids New Sanctions in Security Council Vote

The United Nations Security Council has adopted a resolution ordering Iran to halt its uranium enrichment program -- but the council did not impose any new sanctions.

The 15 council members voted unanimously Saturday for a measure that reaffirms three previous sets of sanctions on Iran.

The resolution states that previous resolutions are legally binding and must be carried out. It also calls on Iran to cooperate fully with the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is investigating whether Iran has conducted research on nuclear weapons.

The resolution offers Iran the choice of incentives to stop enriching uranium or face the threat of more sanctions.




Ukraine's Gold-Plaited Comeback Kid

Charismatic, prone to giggling, and fond of chic clothing, Yulia Tymoshenko is a woman of grand gestures.

Challenged once that her famous braid was phony, she called a press conference and then, quite literally, let her hair down. When a political rival accused her of hypocrisy during a parliamentary debate on legislative privilege, claiming that her pearls would be enough to feed an average Ukrainian family for five years, Tymoshenko tore off the necklace and threw it at the deputy with the retort: "There's not a single real pearl on this necklace!"

Tymoshenko is either adored or reviled. A prominent Ukrainian commentator once compared her to a nuclear powerhouse. If she is not contained, she will rage out of control, Yulia Mostova wrote in "Dzerkalo Tyzhnia."

Tymoshenko's supporters fervently believe that only she has remained true to her principles, never wavering from her commitment to Ukraine; her critics, on ther other hand, claim that she is a corrupt, power-hungry opportunist given to populist gestures.




OSCE says Belarus election short of standards

MINSK (Reuters) - Western monitors said on Monday a parliamentary election in ex-Soviet Belarus that produced no seats for the opposition fell short of international standards despite minor improvements over previous polls.

The EU had said it might consider easing sanctions, which include a ban on entry to the United States and EU for President Alexander Lukashenko and 40 top officials, if the election went well.
Lukashenko, voting on Sunday, said it would be "hard for those among the Western monitors not to recognise the election."

Monitors had said in the run-up to the vote that they had been impressed with the staging of the poll. But their report said the count had been plagued by problems and cheating and access had been hindered in 35 percent of cases.

"Voting was generally well conducted but the process deteriorated considerably during the vote count. Promises to ensure transparency of the vote count were not implemented," the monitors' report said.




Soviet power returns to life
Dominic O’Connell braves the cold in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia

IT IS just above freezing and there is a touch of sleet in the air. For Vasiliy Tatarnikov, engineering boss at the Boguchanskaya hydroelectric dam in central Siberia, this is a mild autumn day. In winter, it can get to -58C. What does he and his 4,000 workers do then? “We work on the dam,” he says, looking puzzled.

Boguchanskaya is a monster in the middle of nowhere. One-and-a-half miles wide and 300ft high, it spans the Angara river, a slate-grey torrent that drains Lake Baikal north through Siberia. It’s 800 miles south to the Mongolian border, and 2,000 miles west to Moscow.

Work on the project started in 1974, when Leonid Brezhnev ran the Soviet Union. It ground to a halt in the early 1990s, when the Communist empire fell apart and the money ran out.

For the past two years, however, it has been full steam ahead. UC Rusal, a metals group that emerged from the chaotic days of postSoviet capitalism to become the world’s largest aluminium maker, is putting $5 billion (£2.7 billion) into completing the dam in partnership with Rus Hydro.



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Magnitude 6.4 - OFF THE COAST OF COLIMA, MEXICO
2008 September 24 02:33:05 UTC
Magnitude 6.3 Quake Hits Mexico; Tsunami Alert Issued

Magnitude 5.1 - SOLOMON ISLANDS
2008 September 24 06:00:50 UTC

Magnitude 2.5 - ARKANSAS
2008 September 24 15:20:02 UTC

Magnitude 5.4 - SOUTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
2008 September 24 17:12:16 UTC

Magnitude 5.2 - HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN
2008 September 24 17:59:33 UTC

Magnitude 6.0 - WESTERN XIZANG
2008 September 25 01:47:12 UTC

Magnitude 3.2 - COLORADO
2008 September 25 16:55:35 UTC

Magnitude 4.3 - WESTERN IRAN
2008 September 25 15:32:12 UTC

Magnitude 5.0 - SOUTHERN IRAN
2008 September 26 15:52:24 UTC

Magnitude 5.6 - CARLSBERG RIDGE
2008 September 26 18:46:18 UTC

Magnitude 5.3 - BANDA SEA
2008 September 26 23:10:04 UTC

Magnitude 5.7 - MINDORO, PHILIPPINES
2008 September 27 03:05:00 UTC
Magnitude 6.0 - MINDORO, PHILIPPINES
2008 September 27 03:09:13 UTC
Two earthquakes jolt Mindoro, Metro Manila

Magnitude 3.1 - SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
2008 September 27 22:55:13 UTC

Magnitude 5.1 - BANDA SEA
2008 September 28 13:42:57 UTC

Magnitude 5.4 - JAN MAYEN ISLAND REGION
2008 September 28 22:20:21 UTC

Magnitude 4.1 - GREECE
2008 September 29 03:05:37 UTC

Magnitude 4.6 - SALTA, ARGENTINA
2008 September 29 13:03:58 UTC

Magnitude 7.0 - KERMADEC ISLANDS, NEW ZEALAND
2008 September 29 15:19:31 UTC
Magnitude 5.3 - KERMADEC ISLANDS, NEW ZEALAND
2008 September 29 16:10:38 UTC
7.3 quake strikes outer New Zealand islands

Magnitude 2.9 - OHIO
2008 September 30 01:06:39 UTC
2.9 quake jolts rural area of western Ohio



Mudslides and flood threaten to wipe out Beichuan

The ongoing mudslides and an anticipated flood could do what the Sichuan earthquake couldn't - wipe out Beichuan from the face of the earth.

As a result of heavy rains and incessant mudslides, the plan to rebuild quake-devastated Beichuan county in northern Sichuan province as an earthquake museum has been put on hold, a local official said.