 | | | | | | | Newsletter | 06.10.2008, 16:15 UTC | | | Newsline | | | World news: international | | | | | | | | | News | | | | | Current Article | | | | Global markets reel as crisis deepens
Global stock markets have plummeted amid deepening concerns over a financial crisis. In New York, the Dow Jones index has dropped below 10,000 points for the first time in four years. Germany's main share index, the DAX, was among a basket of European indices to drop below seven percent. Trading was suspended on Russian and Brazilian markets, among others, due to severe losses. The Euro has plunged to its lowest value in 13 months, at 1.35 US dollars, and oil has dropped below the 90 dollar mark on the back of fears of a global recession. Investors around the world are seen as reacting negatively to US and European government efforts to alleviate the credit crisis facing financial institutions. |  | | Berlin, private banks bail out Hypo Real Estate
German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück says that Sunday's agreement to bail out one of the country's biggest mortgage lenders, Hypo Real Estate, may not be enough to resolve the current financial crisis. Steinbrück told reporters at a conference of his Social Democrats in Berlin that the government was working on a "Plan B" that would cover Germany's entire banking sector. The €50-billion bailout for Hypo Real Estate came at emergency talks held a day after a €35-billion rescue plan fell apart. The German finance ministry said in a statement that had it allowed Hypo Real Estate to collapse, it would have led to incalculable damage to the financial services sector across Europe. | | | Germany to guarantee bank deposits
In addition to helping rescue Hypo Real Estate from possible collapse, the German government has sought to reassure its citizens by announcing a guarantee of all bank deposits. Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück told reporters in Berlin that this meant that account holders in Germany need not fear losing a single euro due to the current financial crisis. He said the move was aimed at discouraging a run on German banks. The move comes after Chancellor Angela Merkel sharply criticised the Irish government last week for announcing a similar guarantee there. Meanwhile, Denmark has become the fourth EU country after Ireland, Greece and Germany to guarantee all savers' deposits. | | | Nobel Medicine prize goes to Germany and France
This year's Nobel Prize for medicine is going to one German and two French scientists. The Nobel jury said in Stockholm that Harald zur Hausen of Germany won the prize for his work into the cause of cervical cancer. Francoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier of France received the award for their discovery of the virus that causes AIDS. Medicine is traditionally the first of the Nobel prizes awarded each year. | | | Two earthquakes hit Tibet, 30 dead
Two earthquakes have struck Tibet's capital, Lhasa, and surrounding areas, killing at least 30 people. The US Geological Survey said the first quake measured 6.3 on the Richter scale and the second 5.1. The official Chinese news agency Xinhua said the victims died in the first earthquake and that houses had collapsed near the epicentre.
| | | Twenty killed in Sri Lanka blast
At least 20 people have been killed in a suicide attack in Sri Lanka's northern town of Anuradhapura, some 180 km north of the capital Colombo. Security and media sources said that a former army general and opposition leader were among those killed in the attack carried out by suspected Tamil Tiger rebels. Retired major general Janaka Perera was the leader of the main opposition United National Party in the North Central Province. He had led several military campaigns against the Tamil Tiger rebels in the past and contested the provincial elections back in August. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have been waging an armed struggle for over 25 years for an independent Tamil homeland in the north and east of the island nation, which has claimed over 70,000 lives. | | | 'Red List' says half of mammals in decline
A major international survey has shown that half the world's mammals are declining in population and more than a third probably face extinction. The updated "Red List", included in the annual report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, said the destruction of habitats and hunting were the main causes for the decline. The survey showed the most vulnerable groups as being primates and marine mammals, including several species of whales, dolphins and porpoises. Altogether nearly 40 percent of the around 45,000 plant and animal species catalogued in the list are classified as "threatened" with extinction, with 3,000 of them classified as "critically endangered". | | | 80,000 displaced in India's Assam state
Indian officials say as many as 80,000 villagers have been forced to leave their homes amid clashes between indigenous Bodo tribes and Bangladeshi settlers in the north-eastern state of Assam. The state has deployed thousands of additional police to stem the clashes, which have claimed at least 36 lives since Saturday. Most of the victims were Muslims who had illegally migrated from neighbouring Bangladesh. The region has been the site of a long-simmering conflict as local, mostly Hindu, Assam tribes fear being overrun by Muslim immigrants. | | | Turkish warplanes attack rebel hideout in northern Iraq
The Turkish military says it has carried out air strikes on a Kurdish rebel hideout in northern Iraq. The military said in a statement that its warplanes had taken precautions in an effort to avoid civilian casualties. This was the second air raid in northern Iraq since rebels killed 15 Turkish soldiers in an attack on a military outpost on Friday. Ankara has blamed that attack on the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which has been fighting for a separate Kurdish homeland for more than 20 years. | | | | | |  | | |  Up-to-date news at DW-WORLD.DE | | | | | | |  | | | Note
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Germany Mulls Umbrella Protection for Entire Bank Sector
