WORLD ECONOMY: U.S. President George Bush says he will host a summit of world leaders aimed at tackling the global financial crisis. Mr. Bush says the meeting will focus on strengthening and modernizing
the world's financial institutions to stop the crisis that is
paralyzing many world economies from happening again. The U.S. president said he is confident that world economies can
overcome the challenges they face and that with determination,
prosperity and long-term economic growth will return. Mr. Bush gave no date for the summit but officials said it will likely
come after the U.S. presidential election on November 4th.
Meanwhile, South Korea has become the latest major economy to prop up shaky banks. The government announced today (Sunday) it
would guarantee 100-billion dollars in foreign loans held by the banks
and inject 30-billion dollars directly into those institutions.
IRAQ: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki says Baghdad and London will begin
negotiating to decide the future of British forces in Iraq after the
expiration of the U.N. mandate for foreign forces in the country at the
end of the year. Mr. Maliki issued a statement announcing the talks after a meeting with visiting British Defense Secretary John Hutton today (Sunday).
Iraq is in similar negotiations on a long term security agreement with the United States.
US POLITICS: Republican U.S. presidential candidate John McCain is campaigning to
hold on to his party's traditional strongholds, where recent opinion
polls indicate Democrat Barack Obama is ahead.
McCain appeared Saturday in (the southern states of) North
Carolina and Virginia, which have been conservative bastions in past
elections. He vowed to move the country in a new direction, as he seeks
to distance himself from unpopular Republican president George Bush.
Tens of thousandsof people turned out in St. Louis, Missouri Saturday
to hear Obama tell voters that McCain backs Bush administration
policies that helped plunge the country into financial disaster. National polls show Obama leading McCain by six percent.
CAMBODIA - THAILAND: Thailand's prime minister said Saturday that he is prepared to meet with his Cambodian counterpart to resolve a deadly border dispute. But Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat has not said when a meeting with his Cambodian counterpart, Hun Sen, might occur. Cambodian and Thai military commanders met on their disputed border Saturday to discuss ways to avoid clashes, after deadly gunfights this week.
BURMA BLAST: A Burmese official says a bomb exploded on the outskirts of the country's main city of Rangoon Saturday, and a second bomb was found and defused. The (anonymous) official said there were no casualties in the blast near a sports field in a Rangoon suburb. At least six people were wounded in a bomb blast in Rangoon on September 25th, the one-year anniversary of the ruling military's violent crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators. Authorities said at the time that a small bomb detonated outside Rangoon's City Hall, the focal point of last year's huge protests led by Buddhist monks. The United Nations says at least 31 people were killed and thousands more detained as a result of the crackdown.
CHINA - CORRUPTION: Chinese media say a former Beijing vice mayor in charge of overseeing Olympic construction projects has been given a suspended death sentence for corruption. The official Xinhua news agency said today (Sunday) that the (Henghui Intermediate People's) Court in Hebei Province sentenced Liu Zhihua to death with a two-year reprieve Saturday, for taking more than a million dollars in bribes. Xinhua reported that Liu's lawyer (Mo Shaoping) said his client had not decided whether to appeal or not.
SAF-BRITAIN-ROYALS: Britain's Prince William and Prince Harry have begun a 16-hundred
kilometer motorcycle race across South Africa to raise money for
charity. The two princes joined more than 80 other riders from around the world
Saturday for the almost entirely off-road trek from Port Edward to Port
Elizabeth. Money raised by the event will be given to three organizations -- the
U.N. children's fund, the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, and Sentebale
-- a charity founded by Prince Harry to help disadvantaged children in
Lesotho.
Click on our audio files to listen to Lao translations of these news.
