Tuesday 30 September 2008
Monday 29 September 2008
Seven Maj. Gen. promoted to rank of Lt.General
The names are Major General Tahir Mahmood, Infantry, Major General Shahid Iqbal, Infantry, Major General Tanvir Tahir, EME, Major General Zahid Hussain, Artillery, Major General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, Infantry, Major General Mohammad Mustafa Khan, Armoured Corps and Major General Ayaz Saleem Rana, Armoured Corps.
Lieutenantt General Raza Muhammad Corps Commander Bahwalpur has been appointed DG JS at JSHQ. Lieutenant General Muhammad Yousaf has been appointed Corps Commander Bahwalpur. Lt General Ahsan Azhar Hyat, Corps Commander Karachi has been appointed IGT&E at GHQ.
Lt Gen Shahid Iqbal has been appointed Corps Commander Karachi. Lt Gen Muhammad Zaki has been appointed IG Arms at GHQ. Lt Gen Javed Zia has been appointed QMG at GHQ.
Lt Gen Nadeem Taj has been appointed Corps Commander Gujranwala. Lt Gen Mohsin Kamal has been appointed MS at GHQ. Lt General Tahir Mahmud Corps Commander Rawalpindi Lt Gen Muhammad Zahid has been appointed Adjutant General at GHQ.
Lt Gen Ahmed Shujaa Pasha has been appointed as DG ISI Lt Gen Muhammad Mustafa has been appointed CGS at GHQ.
Lt Gen Tanvir Tahir has been appointed at IG Communication and IT at GHQ. Lt Gen Ayyaz Salim Rana has been appointed Chairman HIT.
Aussies concerned at Delhi bomb blasts
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Black men in raised prostate risk
Black men living in England have a three times higher risk of prostate cancer than white men, figures show.
They also tend to be diagnosed five years younger, a study of all cases in London and Bristol found.
The results cannot be explained by access to diagnostic tests, awareness of the condition or screening, the British Journal of Cancer reported.
Cancer charities said the finding may lead to better care for men at higher risk of the disease.
Researchers at the University of Bristol said the US had already reported a higher rate of prostate cancer in black men.
 |  There's very few known risk factors for prostate cancer but it's starting to look like being of black race is a risk factor  Dr Chris Metcalfe |
In the UK study, it was initially unclear whether there was a "genuinely" higher rate of prostate cancer in these groups or whether they were more likely to be diagnosed.
But when they looked in detail at hospital records they found black and white men had similar levels of knowledge about prostate cancer, similar symptoms and similar delays before they went to their GP.
However, there was some evidence that black men were more likely to have had a prostate specific antigen (PSA) test before they had any symptoms.
Susceptibility
On why black men could be being diagnosed earlier, the researchers said prostate cancer at a younger age was more likely to be due to greater biological susceptibility to the disease.
The researchers are now doing further work to see if there are any differences in survival between the two groups.
Studies looking at whether PSA should be used as a routine screening test are also being done and it may be that it is recommended for some high risk groups but not everyone.
Study leader Dr Chris Metcalfe said this was the first evidence from the UK on differences between black and white men in rates of prostate cancer.
"One of the possibilities based on anecdote was that black men may delay presentation - so the cancer gets to a later stage.
"If anything the evidence showed black men were presenting sooner."
He added: "There's very few known risk factors for prostate cancer but it's starting to look like being of black race is a risk factor."
Dr Joanna Peak, science information officer at Cancer Research UK, said prostate cancer was the most common cancer in UK men.
"The study indicates that there is a true biological difference between ethnic groups and this knowledge could potentially lead to improved care for men at higher risk of developing prostate cancer."
Anna Jewell, from The Prostate Cancer Charity, said: "We would encourage all men to visit their GP if they are experiencing any possible symptoms of prostate cancer such as problems when urinating.
"This strongly demonstrates the need for continuing work to raise awareness of the higher risk of prostate cancer in black men.
"We would like to see further research investigating whether there are any differences in access to treatment or care for prostate cancer between black and white men to help us understand how we can meet the needs of those most at risk from the disease."
Fast forward for mobile broadband
Phone firms, chip makers and PC manufacturers are uniting to push mobile broadband on laptop computers.
The alliance will build wireless modules into laptops to make it much easier to use the gadgets on future high-speed services.
Laptops with the wireless chips built-in will bear a service mark which shows they will work with the third and fourth generation wireless technology.
The branded laptops should be on shop shelves in 91 nations by Christmas.
Fast forward
Laptops and notebook computers bearing the "Mobile Broadband" logo will have on-board modules that will boost current third generation speeds and work with future fourth generation technologies.
At their fastest, these technologies - which include High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) and Long Term Evolution - support web browsing speeds of up to 7 megabits per second (Mbps).
"It's comparable to fixed broadband services and close to what you get in a wi-fi hot spot," said Mike O'Hara, a spokesman for the GSM Alliance which has brokered the tie-up on Mobile Broadband.
Mr O'Hara said the laptops would eventually be available where people now buy mobile phones.
| ...it's not really necessary for what they are trying to achieve Steven Hartley, Ovum |
"You can go to an operator's store, buy a laptop and it will be already fitted so you can go online instantly.
"That's a powerful proposition.
"There's a natural evolution such as we saw with wi-fi which at first used to need an external card and became embedded."
Hugh Padfield, principal manager for PC connectivity at Vodafone, said: "The important thing for us is to make it as easy for customers to buy mobile broadband."
He said the logo and branding scheme would help reassure customers about the laptops that will work with future fast net services.
"It will help to create even more momentum than what we have already seen with mobile broadband," he said.
"It's reached something of a tipping point even before it's been built in."
 This logo denotes a laptop fitted with high-speed wireless |
The deal to produce the modules, build them in to laptops and the campaign around the Mobile Broadband log has been brokered by the GSM Alliance - the trade body that represents 80% of the world's mobile phone firms.
The 16 firms in the Mobile Broadband alliance have pledged to spend about £554m ($1bn) to promote the logo and inform customers about laptops fitted with the technology.
Laptop makers Dell, Toshiba and Lenovo have signed up to the alliance along with 3, Microsoft, T-Mobile, Ericsson, Orange, Qualcomm and Vodafone.
It is not yet clear when mobile operators will roll out the wireless technologies that will help buyers of the branded laptops use the high-speed services.
Mr O'Hara from the GSMA said laptops were just the start of the process of connecting more devices with mobile broadband technologies. The wireless modules would soon crop up in digital cameras, music players, cars and phones.
But Steven Hartley, senior analyst at consultancy Ovum, expressed scepticism about the deal.
"My feeling is that it's not really necessary for what they are trying to achieve," he said.
"If you look at the uptake of mobile broadband services do they really need an initiative like this?
"The operators and vendors are working together anyway to ensure these things are interoperable."
Given that mobile broadband was already catching on, Mr Hartley also wondered how the success of the initiative would be measured.
Freighter destroyed over Pacific
Europe's "Jules Verne" space freighter has destroyed itself in a controlled burn-up over the southern Pacific.
The 13.5-tonne cargo ship had completed a six-month mission to the space station and was packed with the orbiting platform's rubbish.
Two engine firings were required to slow the freighter sufficiently to pull it into the atmosphere.
The European and US space agencies had chase planes in the air to try to capture the fireball on video.
Astronauts on the space station reported seeing the light from the falling freighter.
| It's been a fantastic ride John Ellwood, ATV project manager |
"Everything went correctly, nominally, smoothly. This was the last section of the chain," said Simonetta di Pippo, head of human spaceflight at the European Space Agency (Esa).
Most of the vehicle was expected to burn up in the descent; only fragments should have made it down to the ocean water. Computer modelling of the re-entry had put the impact time at 1346 GMT.
Events were overseen from Esa's freighter control centre in Toulouse, France.
John Ellwood, the agency's vehicle project manager, said all the data would need to be assessed before it was known conclusively how the re-entry went; but the early indications were that everything had proceeded as expected.
And summing up the past six months, he told BBC News: "It's been a fantastic ride; everything has worked nominally. Although there are mixed emotions at the end, there is a lot of satisfaction after having had such a fantastic mission."
Jules Verne - also known by the generic name Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) - cost about 1.3bn euros to develop.
Although Esa has produced many complex scientific satellites, none match the scale of the freighter.
| JULES VERNE - THE FIRSTS The ATV is the first completely automated rendezvous and docking ship to go to the ISS The ATV is the largest and most powerful space tug going to the ISS over its mission life It provides the largest refuelling and waste elimination capability for the space station It is the only vehicle on the current timeline able to de-orbit the ISS when it is retired  |
After launch, the space truck can work out where it needs to go in space, and then makes a fully automatic docking once it arrives at its destination.
It was developed as part of Esa's ISS membership agreement, to haul cargo, propellant, water and oxygen to the space station; and also to provide propulsion capacity at the station.
But such has been the performance of Jules Verne that Esa officials and industry chiefs are already talking about upgrading the ship's design - potentially to carry astronauts.
The first step, however, would be to develop technologies that enable the safe return of cargo to Earth.
European space ministers will discuss the issue at their meeting in The Hague in November.
 Cost: Total bill was 1.3bn euros (at least 4 more ATVs will be built) Total cargo capacity: 7.6 tonnes, but first mission flew lighter Mass at launch: About 20 tonnes depending on cargo manifest Dimensions: 10.3m long and 4.5m wide - the size of a large bus Solar panels: Once unfolded, the solar wings span 22.3m Engine power: 4x 490-Newton thrusters; and 28x 220N thrusters Mission timeline: Launch - 9 March; Docking - 3 April; Undocking - 5 September; De-orbit - 29 September |
Under the agreement Esa has with its international partners, at least four more ATVs will be flown to the space station in the coming years. The next is due to launch in 2010.
And, ultimately, it is likely that an ATV will be tasked with destroying the space station when the partners have decided the platform is beyond servicing, perhaps towards the end of the next decade.
A freighter will be commanded to drive the whole structure into a similar region of the south Pacific.
Animation of Jules Verne's final voyage
US rivals claim TV debate victory
he first presidential debate in full
The rivals for the US presidential election have taken part in the first of a series of debates ahead of the vote in November.
SEE ALSO
America has a terrible headache
Good sense, on the other hand, represents those durable truths and stubborn facts that outlive their unpopularity. The fact that it is right does not necessarily mean that it is not marginal. It persists for the simple reason that prevailing conditions underpin its relevance even when prevailing opinion ignores it.
At times the two coincide, at others they collide. At different moments in different places, burning witches, a flat earth, eugenics, slavery, smoking in restaurants and corporal punishment in schools were all common sense. But they were never good sense.
"Common sense is not something rigid and stationary," wrote the late Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci, who crafted the distinction from Mussolini's prison. "It creates the folklore of the future, a relatively rigidified phase of popular knowledge in a given time and place." Good sense, he argued, was often concealed in common sense, but emerged primarily in times of crisis and transformation.
We find ourselves in one such crisis now. As markets plunge, banks fail and traders panic, the core principles that have underpinned western economic and political culture for a generation have been thoroughly discredited.
Less than a month ago the invulnerability and inviolability of unregulated global capitalism was common sense. The system that leaves half of the world living on less than a dollar a day, with some so impoverished that they are eating mud cakes and selling their children into bondage, was apparently working well. To suggest otherwise was to be dismissed as extreme.
But such orthodoxies can collapse even faster than markets. By the end of last week the US treasury secretary Henry Paulson was literally on one knee before Nancy Pelosi, Democratic speaker of the House, begging her to save the bailout deal.
Later George W Bush warned of the entire American economy: "This sucker could go down." Suddenly, government intervention in markets, reining in executive pay and placing controls on the flow of capital are good sense.
While the gravity of the crisis is clear, the prospects for transformation remain remote. The fact that this meltdown took place during a presidential election should be fortuitous. It ought to provide the two candidates with an opportunity to lay out different visions of how they would tackle the situation at a moment when the nation is intently focused on politics.
If ever the country needed leadership, it is right now. And here are two men vying for it.
Yet the financial crisis has, for the most part, made the presidential campaign seem less relevant, not more. The credit crunch and the election are taking place as though on a split screen. There is a connection between the two - Barack Obama has bounced back as a result of people's attention being refocused away from lipstick and pigs and back on to their mortgages, retirement accounts and jobs.
But it is not a substantive one. For while the crisis has changed the electoral conversation, nobody is seriously looking to this conversation for new ideas, let alone a solution.
The notion that there might be alternatives to rapacious capitalism has been all but banished from the public square. That limited discourse leaves us with limited options. Those who claimed that the government was the problem now cast it as not just the ultimate, but the sole solution.
Good sense demands a thoroughgoing reappraisal of a system that's in a state of collapse; common sense requires we subsidise it in perpetuity for fear that it breaks down. That sounds like nonsense.
"If you beat your head against the wall," Gramsci once wrote, "it is your head which breaks, and not the wall." Right now the American public has a terrible headache. And it doesn't seem as if this presidential race is going to cure it.
For this election to make any sense at this juncture it must challenge the assumptions of the past 30 years that have led America to this place. They are assumptions that have been aggressively promoted by the Republicans in general, and George Bush in particular.
But to gain traction they had to be first conceded and then embraced by the Democrats. The result is an American self-image rooted in unrivalled military superiority and economic might now stands in stark contradiction to a more tawdry and tattered reality. Add the credit crisis to defeat in Iraq and problems in Afghanistan and what you are left with is a sub-prime nation - overextended both militarily and economically, living large and beyond its means.
It will be the task of whoever wins on November 4 to manage America's decline in status and power and a consequent further deterioration in Americans' standard of living. This process will be painful and could be protracted. Little wonder, then, that nobody wants to talk about it. Instead they keep talking of America as the shining city on the hill, without realising that the city they are referring to is bankrupt and the lights are about to be cut off.
It was clear from Friday night's debate that neither John McCain nor Obama really know what to do. The little that they will commit to are things they agree on. Both stand at the mercy of events and the market.
That does not mean it is irrelevant who wins. The difference between them on this issue may be marginal, but for now they are the margins within which we live, and in which many will have to survive. Back in 1932, in the midst of the Great Depression, many commentators lamented the lack of difference between Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt.
One satirist wrote a searing piece about an imaginary match-up between Franklin Hoover and Herbert Roosevelt. "Given later developments, the campaign speeches often read like a giant misprint, in which Roosevelt and Hoover speak each other's lines," wrote Federal Reserve chair, Marriner Eccles.
Whatever slight difference there was rhetorically would prove to make a huge difference in reality during a vital period. It makes as much sense to elect McCain as it would have done to re-elect Hoover.
McCain's response to government coffers depleted by the bailout isn't to rescind his tax cut but to freeze spending on everything but defence, veterans and entitlements - a military financial complex. Obama has conceded that his plans to expand access to healthcare, education and to make America energy-independent will have to be trimmed.
Finally, the American political class has embraced a redistributive agenda. The trouble is they are about to divert public money from the poor to the bankers and financiers.
"Capitalists can buy themselves out of any crisis, so long as they make the workers pay," said Lenin. It is rarely regarded as common sense to quote him in polite company. Yet as a description of what is taking place right now, it is the most sense I've heard in a long time.
Sunday 28 September 2008
Top Afghan policewoman shot dead
Gunmen in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar have killed the country's most prominent policewoman, officials say.
Lt-Col Malalai Kakar, head of Kandahar's department of crimes against women, was shot in her car as she was about to leave for work.
Her son was also wounded in the attack, and is said to be seriously injured.
Taleban rebels, who banned women from joining the police when they were in power, said they had carried out the shooting.
"We killed Malalai Kakar," a Taleban spokesman told AFP news agency.
"She was our target, and we successfully eliminated our target."
The BBC's Martin Patience in Kabul says Ms Kakar was one of only a few hundred female police officers in Afghanistan and that she had previously received death threats.
Prominent
Ms Kakar, who was reported to be in her early 40s and had six children, was one of the most high-profile women in the country.
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She has figured prominently in the national and international media, partly due to a famous episode in which she killed three would-be assassins in a shoot-out - although she said her everyday life involved tackling theft, fights and murders.
Ms Kakar joined Kandahar's police force in 1982, after her father and brothers were also police officers.
But when the hard-line Taleban regime took over Afghanistan she was prevented from working.
Working in the police force in Afghanistan has become an increasingly dangerous occupation, says our correspondent.
According to the Ministry of Interior, more than 700 police officers were killed in the first six months of 2008.
The majority of the casualties were killed in suicide attacks and roadside bombings.
In June, another woman police officer was gunned down in Herat province in a killing believed to have been the first of its kind.
Kandahar is a key battleground of the Taleban insurgency, where Afghan and foreign troops are fighting the rebels.
French to fight police database
Lord Erroll is quizzed over governments' access to personal data
David Reid reports on a storm brewing in France over plans to build a database to hold details of people considered likely to breach public order.
Civil liberties groups fear that the new police database, called Edvige, would significantly erode rights to privacy.
Although governments regularly gather and store data about citizens, Edvige would include information about the youngest members of society.
"These people could be filed starting from the age of thirteen with a very large amount of data on their life, on their relatives, on their friends, acquaintance…everything," says Meryem Marzouki from the French National Scientific Research Center (CNRS).
Children at risk
Justifying the creation of Edvige, Gerard Gachet, a spokesperson for the French Ministry of the Interior, says: "Unfortunately we have been confronted by an explosion in juvenile crime."
"If you want to put into force a preventative measure, you have to be able to list these young people in a dossier, and be able to go and see them. Or go and see their parents and say 'watch out', your son or daughter is at risk of falling into juvenile crime," he says.
 Gérard Gachet says the system would be a "preventative" measure |
The row over Edvige led thousands of French people to sign an online petition which forced the French president Nicolas Sarkozy to revise plans.
Among the changes were the withdrawal of the proposal to include political activists, union leaders and religious leaders in the same dossier as potential delinquent youngsters.
Jean-Claude Vitran, from the human rights group Ligue des droits de l'Homme, fears what the data in Edvige will be used for.
"We could well imagine that the one day the extreme left could take power in a democratic country like ours. Then what happens to this information? What do we do? What we'll have is what happened in Eastern Europe 40 or 30 years ago. We'll have police files like the Stasi's," says Mr Vitran. "We don't want that."
Civil rights groups are continuing their fight against Edvige claiming that it will turn France into a Big Brother State. A ruling on the database is expected by the end of the year.
Loss leader
The fears many people have about the personal information filed away in databases goes further than worries about civil liberties or being bothered by junk mail.
Increasingly people are wondering if the organisations gathering sensitive personal information can be trusted to keep it safe.
In Europe the UK has taken the lead on losing data starting with the disappearance of discs containing the personal details of 25 million people in November 2007.
 Jean-Claude Vitran has fears over the future use of stored data |
The latest lapse took place in early September when a Home Office contractor lost a USB stick containing a variety of details about many of the UK's prisoners.
In response to the growing links between different public services in the late 70s, France created a national data protection authority CNIL to oversee how officials use and pass data.
Yann Padova, secretary general of CNIL, said stipulates that centralised data must be broken up into storage systems and access only allowed to those strictly authorised.
He added that bodies should avoid putting data on laptops or memory sticks because these can easily be lost.
"The more you centralise data, the more value it has," says Mr Padova, "and if someone cracks it, the more damaging it will be."
Data sharing between government departments can threaten its security. But the sharing of individuals' details between official bodies has also come under the spotlight.
Unlike the UK, every time information is shared between different parts of the French government, these need to permission from CNIL.
"The connection of many different public services can be a danger in itself," he says. "We are very strict in this data crossing from different public services."Freighter to end life in fireball
Europe's biggest, most sophisticated spaceship is about to bring its six-month mission to an end by plunging into the Pacific in a ball of flames.
The "Jules Verne" freighter undocked from the space station three weeks ago packed with rubbish and will take its unwanted cargo into a destructive dive.
Most of vehicle is expected to burn up in the atmosphere; only fragments will make it down to the ocean water.
Two engine firings should bring the ship out of the sky on Monday.
Events will be overseen from the European Space Agency's (Esa) freighter control centre in Toulouse, France.
Mike Steinkopf, the mission director for re-entry, says a "safety zone" has been drawn in the south Pacific some 2,700km long by 200km wide.
| We will see what appears to be a very bright meteor Jason Hatton Esa-Nasa re-entry observing team |
"We issue a notification to the air traffic and maritime authorities to make sure there are no planes or boats going through that zone during our re-entry time," he told BBC News.
Astronauts on the overflying International Space Station (ISS) and scientists in two chase planes will take pictures as the disintegrating mass of metal streaks through the morning Pacific darkness.
"Visually, we will see what appears to be a very bright meteor," explained Jason Hatton from the chase team set by Esa and the US space agency (Nasa). "It will start as a point of light with a trail, and then as it comes apart, we will see fragments."
Jules Verne - also known by the generic name Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) - cost about 1.3bn euros to develop.
Although Esa has produced many complex scientific satellites, none match the scale of the freighter.
After launch, the space truck can work out where it needs to go in space, and then makes a fully automatic docking once it arrives at its destination.
| JULES VERNE - THE FIRSTS The ATV is the first completely automated rendezvous and docking ship to go to the ISS The ATV is the largest and most powerful space tug going to the ISS over its mission life It provides the largest refuelling and waste elimination capability for the space station It is the only vehicle on the current timeline able to de-orbit the ISS when it is retired |
It was developed as part of Esa's ISS membership agreement, to haul cargo, propellant, water and oxygen to the space station; and also to provide propulsion capacity at the station.
But such has been the performance of Jules Verne that Esa officials and industry chiefs are already talking about upgrading the ship's design - potentially to carry astronauts.
The first step, however, would be to develop technologies that enable the safe return of cargo to Earth.
European space ministers will discuss the issue at their meeting in The Hague in November.
Jules Verne is currently orbiting the Earth just below the space station at an altitude of about 330km.
Taking the freighter out of the sky involves turning it to face the direction of flight so that its rear engines are then facing forward and can be fired to slow the ship's velocity.
The first burn, which will be initiated at about 1000 GMT and last roughly six minutes, will put the 13.5-tonne spacecraft on a sharp elliptical orbit.
| Cost: Total bill was 1.3bn euros (at least 4 more ATVs will be built) Total cargo capacity: 7.6 tonnes, but first mission flew lighter Mass at launch: About 20 tonnes depending on cargo manifest Dimensions: 10.3m long and 4.5m wide - the size of a large bus Solar panels: Once unfolded, the solar wings span 22.3m Engine power: 4x 490-Newton thrusters; and 28x 220N thrusters Mission timeline: Launch - 9 March; Docking - 3 April; Undocking - 5 September; De-orbit - 29 September |
Approximately two hours later, the engines will be fired again, this time for some 15 minutes. This should take the ATV on its final trajectory and a steep dive towards the Pacific.
The freighter is expected to be moving at some 7.6km/s as it meets significant atmosphere at 120km. As the plunge continues and temperatures rise, Jules Verne will be torn part.
"We expect the solar panels to break just two-and-a-half-minutes after the entry into the atmosphere; and then we will have fragmentation of the docking adaptor, protective shields and other structural elements," explained Mr Steinkopf.
Animation of Jules Verne's final voyage
"Nevertheless, statistically speaking, there will be about 30% of the overall vehicle that may reach the ocean, but only in bits and pieces."
The final moments will be witnessed in the Pacific by two chase planes. The jets, a Gulfstream-V and a DC8, will carry an observation team equipped with a range of spectroscopic imagers and conventional video and stills cameras.
The team wants to establish in detail how the different components of Jules Verne, such as its fuel tanks, come apart.
The information will inform the computer models used by space agencies to plan the safe re-entries of future spacecraft.
"We expect to see signatures associated with the fuel in the wake of the vehicle because you have this trail behind it," Mr Hatton told BBC News from the team's campaign base in Tahiti.
"That's where the spectroscopy comes in. You have a range of different spectrographs all the way from the near-ultraviolet, through the visible to the near-infra-red. In the different colours, we'll probably see what materials are being released from the vehicle, maybe what some of the fragments are - aluminium, for example."
Under the agreement Esa has with its international partners, at least four more ATVs will be flown to the space station in the coming years. The next is due to launch in 2010.
And, ultimately, it is likely that an ATV will be tasked with destroying the space station when the partners have decided the platform is beyond servicing, perhaps towards the end of the next decade.
A freighter will be commanded to drive the whole structure into a similar region of the south Pacific.
US lawmakers publish rescue deal
US politicians have announced a $700bn deal to rescue America's financial system and end the credit crunch.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announces bail-out package
The move, backed by both Republican and Democratic leaders, allows the Treasury to spend up to $700bn (£380bn) buying bad debts from ailing banks in the US.
President George W Bush announced his support of the bill. Both houses of Congress are expected to vote on it in the coming days.
Stock markets in Asia rose following the announcement.
The announcement came after days of high-level wrangling between Republicans and Democrats in Congress over the content of the bill.
Both parties had vigorous objections to a proposal submitted last week by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson that would have given him sweeping powers over how the money was spent.
| Every American has an interest in fixing this crisis - inaction would paralyse the economy Harry Reid Senate majority leader |
His plan was prompted by a string of failures in large US financial institutions, including the government bail-out of insurance giant AIG.
If approved by the Senate and House, the revised plan will led to the biggest intervention in the markets since the Great Depression in the 1930s.
Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives, said the agreement was "not a bailout of Wall Street", but designed to ensure pensions, savings and jobs would be safe.
Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid said the deal was a big improvement on the initial proposal.
"They wanted a blank cheque and we couldn't give them one... Now we have to get the votes."
'Necessary tools'
The negotiations had lasted all weekend and were so intense that at one point Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson suffered what was described as a "woozy spell".
Now that agreement has been reached on the so-called Act of Emergency Economic Stabilization 2008, both the House of Representatives and the Senate are expected to vote on it as early as Monday.
| READ THE BAIL-OUT BILL Most computers will open this document automatically, but you may need Adobe Reader |
The US administration had wanted a deal to be announced before markets open in Asia.
After senior members of Congress announced the agreement, President Bush gave his backing to the draft legislation.
He said the bill would send a strong message that the US was serious about restoring confidence in its financial markets.
"This bill provides the necessary tools and funding to help protect our economy against a system-wide breakdown," he said in a statement.
The first stock markets to open after the news broke reacted positively, with Tokyo's Nikkei index and Seoul's Kospi registering gains.
No golden parachutes
The deal addresses several of the key concerns raised by both Democrats and Republicans:
- The government will get the money in tranches - $250bn straight away, and $100bn at the request of the White House; Congress can veto the release of the remaining $350bn
- Banks that accept bail-out money will have to hand over shares in return, which allows tax payers to benefit from the banks' recovery
- Top bankers, meanwhile, will see their pay limited, and "golden parachutes" - huge payments when they leave the firm - will be banned
- The banking industry will have to help finance the bail-out if the money can not be recovered from the struggling banks themselves
- Four agencies will monitor the deal, including an independent Inspector General and a bipartisan oversight board
- Banks will be obliged to join an insurance programme to protect them against the losses of mortgage-backed securities
The proposed legislation was now "frozen", said Ms Pelosi, which means critics can not strike out individual provisions that they do not like.
However, several key critics of the deal called on their fellow legislators to block it.
Financial woes
The Bush administration submitted its initial proposal after several financial institutions got into trouble - unable to free up the money to keep their daily business going.
The liquidity problems have not been limited to the US.
- In the United States' largest bank failure, Washington Mutual was taken over by regulators and sold on to JPMorgan Chase
- Lehman Brothers collapsed, Merrill Lynch sought refuge in a takeover by Bank of America and Morgan Stanley secured a large capital injection from a Japanese rival
- US insurance giant AIG had to be bailed out by the US government, which in effect took an 80% stake in the firm
- In the UK, meanwhile, mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley is set to be nationalised, with the savings part of the business to be sold to Spanish banking group Santander
- The governments of Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands agreed late on Sunday evening to invest 11.2bn euro in huge financial services group Fortis, in effect nationalising it.
Saturday 27 September 2008
US rivals in economy crisis talks
Presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama are preparing to meet President George W Bush amid hopes of an emergency deal on the economy.
The White House says lawmakers are making progress on a proposed $700bn (£378bn) plan to aid failing firms - Mr Bush is pushing for a quick agreement.
He has said the whole US economy is in peril and urged Congress to act.
Mr McCain has suspended his campaign over the crisis, but Mr Obama says voters should hear from the candidates.
The two men are scheduled to attend a meeting with the president and congressional leaders at 1600 local time (2000 GMT).
Reports from Washington suggested both Republican and Democratic members of Congress were closing in on a deal acceptable to all sides throughout during a series of meetings on Thursday morning.
The two parties were hoping for a bipartisan consensus to emerge in time for the candidates and president to rubber-stamp a deal at the White House in the afternoon, the New York Times reported.
On Wall Street, shares rose on the news of a possible agreement.
Key figures on each side suggested on Thursday that compromise was being reached on a number of contentious issues, among them the issue of limiting the pay of executives whose companies are given government help.
Lawmakers say the proposal is proving unpopular with voters, many of whom are concerned about the use of public funds to fix problems caused by bad corporate practice on Wall Street.
Debate concern
In a joint statement late on Wednesday, the two presidential candidates described the Bush administration's planned bail-out plan as "flawed", but said efforts to protect the economy must not fail.
The economy is now dominating the presidential campaign
"This is a time to rise above politics for the good of the country. We cannot risk an economic catastrophe," they said.
Meanwhile, the two rivals have disagreed on delaying a TV debate over the economic turmoil.
Mr McCain said he was suspending his campaign to return to Washington to help agree a deal, saying he feared the rescue package would not pass "as it currently stands".
He also called for his first presidential debate with Mr Obama on Friday to be suspended - something Mr Obama did not support.
Americans needed to "hear from the person who in approximately 40 days will be responsible for dealing with this mess", Mr Obama told journalists.
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Mr McCain stressed his desire to help Congress agree a viable deal in a speech on Thursday to the Clinton Global Initiative, a conference headed by former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat.
Mr McCain insisted on clear oversight of any plan, and said no Wall Street executives should profit from the injection of public cash.
But he made no mention of Friday's planned presidential debate, instead praising Mr Obama's decision to join him in Washington to broker a deal.
"Poor decisions made in haste can turn a crisis into a far-reaching disaster," he said.
'Excesses on Wall Street'
Mr Bush made his grave pronouncement on the crisis during a televised address to the nation on the economy on Wednesday evening.
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Major sectors of America's financial system were at risk of shutting down, he said, and without action a "distressing scenario" would unfold.
His administration is calling on Congress to approve the proposed bail-out - under which the Treasury would use public money to buy bad debt from troubled financial institutions - as soon as possible.
The fund would aim to sell off these mortgage-related debts in the future when, the Treasury says, their value might have risen.
Lawmakers want assurances that it will benefit home-owners as well as Wall Street, and be subject to adequate oversight.
Mr Bush said he understood the frustration of "responsible Americans" who "are reluctant to pay the costs of excesses on Wall Street".
"But given the situation we're facing, not passing a bill now will cost these Americans much more later," he said, calling for a bipartisan commission to oversee the plan.
Bomb hits India market shoppers
A bomb blast at a market in India's capital has killed one person and injured at least 15 others.
The market, in the Mehrauli area, was packed with shoppers when, according to eyewitnesses, two men drove up in a motorcycle and dropped a package.
Police have described it as a low intensity explosive device.
Two weeks ago, five bombs ripped through busy shopping areas in Delhi, killing at least 20 people. Nearly 50 were killed in Ahmadabad in July.
Police say they have arrested the head of a group claiming the attacks.
Mohammed Arif Sheikh, described as the founder of the Indian Mujahideen (IM), was arrested along with four others, Mumbai (Bombay) police said on Thursday.
Blood and glass
Television footage showed shards of glass in the market area, with people walking about in blood-stained shirts.
The site has been cordoned off and fire fighters have rushed to the area.
| BOMB ATTACKS IN INDIA IN 2008 27 September: Bomb blasts kills one in Delhi 13 September: Five bomb blasts kill 18 in Delhi 26 July: At least 22 small bombs kill 49 in Ahmedabad 25 July: Seven bombs go off in Bangalore killing two people 13 May: Seven bomb hit markets and crowded streets in Jaipur killing 63 |
Ambulances are ferrying the injured to hospital. Some are said to be in a serious condition.
The brother of the 13-year-old boy who died said he had sent his brother to buy eggs when the blast went off.
"He had barely entered the shop to buy the crate (of eggs), smoke started coming out of a tiffin and suddenly there was a blast and he died on the spot," he said.
Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said they were questioning eyewitnesses who saw two men throw something from a passing motorcycle.