Automakers send proposal to Congress

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Posted: 12/3/08

1WASHINGTON (AP) - Detroit's automakers, making a second bid for $25 billion in funding, are presenting Congress with plans Tuesday to restructure their ailing companies and provide assurances that the funding will help them survive and thrive.

General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co., and Chrysler LLC would refinance their companies'debt, cut executive pay, seek concessions from workers and find other ways of reviving their staggering companies.

U.S. automakers are struggling to stay afloat heading into 2009 under the weight of an economic meltdown, the worst auto sales in decades and a tight credit market. General Motors, Ford and Chrysler went through nearly $18 billion in cash reserves during the last quarter, and GM and Chrysler have said they could collapse in weeks.

Top executives from the Big Three failed last month to convince a skeptical Congress that they were worthy of $25 billion in loans. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., ordered them to outline major changes, including the elimination of lavish executive pay packages and assurances that taxpayers would be reimbursed for the loans.

All three companies are filing separate plans. Congressional hearings are planned for Thursday and Friday.

India demands Pakistan hand over terror suspects in wake of Mumbai attacks

2MUMBAI, India (AP) - India picked up intelligence in recent months that terrorists were plotting attacks against Mumbai targets, an official said Tuesday, as the government demanded that Islamabad hand over suspected terrorists believed living in the Pakistan.

A list of about 20 people including India's most-wanted man - was submitted to Pakistan's high commissioner to India on Monday night, said India's foreign minister, Pranab Mukherjee.

India has already demanded Pakistan take "strong action"against those responsible for the attacks, and the U.S. has pressured Islamabad to cooperate in the investigation. America's chief diplomat, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, will visit India on Wednesday.

The diplomatic wrangling comes as the government faces widespread accusations of security and intelligence failures after suspected Muslim militants carried out a three-day attack across India's financial capital, killing 172 people and wounding 239.

The only surviving attacker has told police that he and the other nine gunmen had trained for months in camps in Pakistan operated by the banned Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Gloom returns to Asian, European markets on Wall Street's plunge, dismal U.S. economic

outlook

3TOKYO (AP) - Gloom and volatility returned to Asian and European markets Tuesday as investors dumped stocks following huge overnight losses on Wall Street and dismal U.S. economic reports revived fears of a global recession. Oil prices fell to three-year lows.

World markets rallied last week, but any nascent investor confidence quickly wilted after grim U.S. economic figures sent the Dow Jones industrial average plummeting nearly 700 points - or 7.7 percent - Monday, wiping out more than half of last week's big gains.

"I saw that figure this morning, and I thought: Oh, no. Here we go again," said Peter Wright, an associate at Burrell Stockbroking, as he watched Australian shares plummet from the opening bell.

Australia's central bank slashed its key interest rate Monday a full percentage point to 4.25 percent in an attempt to prevent the economy from sliding into recession. But investors took scant comfort from the move, sending the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index down 4.2 percent to 3,528.2.

Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average tumbled 533.53 points, or 6.4 percent, to 7,863.69, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index lost 5 percent to 13,405.85.

Obama taps Clinton, Gates for his Cabinet, seeking 'new dawn' of U.S. leadership in the world

4CHICAGO (AP) - Barack Obama promised "a new dawn of American leadership"in a troubled world, announcing a strong-willed national security team headed by Hillary Rodham Clinton, who fought him long and bitterly for the presidency, and Robert Gates, the man who has been running two wars for George W. Bush.

The president-elect on Monday said he hadn't changed his mind about bringing most U.S. combat troops home from Iraq within 16 months but added a cautionary note - he'll consult with his military commanders first.

While his new team may be a bit more centrist - some war opponents might even say hawkish - than many Obama supporters might prefer, he said the withdrawal timetable he emphasized in the presidential campaign is still "the right time frame."

Clinton, as secretary of state, and Gates, remaining as defense secretary, will be the most prominent faces - besides Obama's own - of the new administration's effort to revamp U.S. policy abroad.

At a Chicago news conference, Obama also tapped top advisers Eric Holder as attorney general and Susan Rice as ambassador to the United Nations. He named Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano to be homeland security secretary and retired Marine Gen. James Jones as White House national security adviser.