Berlin - German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck called for calm Tuesday, although he acknowledged a "very difficult and serious situation" on world financial markets.

Germany's DAX index of the leading 30 shares declined 1.6 per cent on opening to fall to 5,970, following Asian markets into negative territory.

Speaking ahead of the start of the 2009 budget debates in the German lower house of parliament, Steinbrueck insisted the effects of the financial crisis on the German real economy would be "limited."

New York, Sept. 16: The Obama Campaign has denied a New York Post report that said he privately tried to persuade Iraqi political leaders to stall an agreement on scaling back American troops in Iraq while publicly campaigning for a speedy withdrawal.

London - Britain's Barclays bank is in talks to buy up some parts of the collapsed Lehman Brothers empire, the bank said Tuesday.

Washington, Sept. 16 : John McCain and Barack Obama have 50 days left to determine who among them will be the United States’ 44th President.

Heading into the frenzied final weeks, national polls remain essentially even.

If the trends are to be believed, the numbers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Florida, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, New Hampshire and Virginia will be crucial to who will win and who will lose the election, reports the New York Daily News.

Washington, September 16 : Republican U. S vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin had got a tanning bed installed at her gubernatorial residence in Juneau, Alaska, shortly after she declared May 2007 ‘Skin Cancer Awareness Month’.

The press materials at the time had proclaimed over-exposure to ultraviolet radiation from the sun and tanning beds overwhelming causes of skin cancer.

Washington, Sept. 16 : The financial crisis on Wall Street could derail Republican John McCain''s quest for the White House, even though he has recently called for regulatory reform.

“The fundamentals of our economy are strong, but these are very, very difficult times,” he told supporters in Florida, but added that he would take every step necessary to get Wall Street up and running again.

His Democratic opponent Barack Obama pounced on the suggestion that the American economy is strong and resilient.