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• "President Bush says the economy is going to be 'just fine' in the long run but that the taxpayer-supported economic rescue plan will take time to work," AP reports. "The president spoke as Wall Street suffered through another traumatic session Monday, with the Dow Jones industrials plunging as much as 800 points and setting a new record for a one-day point drop."

• "Bush stepped gingerly into the presidential campaign on Monday, offering an implicit endorsement of Sen. John McCain's judicial philosophy and accusing Democrats of contributing to a 'broken confirmation process' for federal judges," the Washington Post reports.

• "On the first day of the Supreme Court's new term, the justices appeared receptive Monday to a tobacco lawyer's arguments that federal law blocks state lawsuits claiming fraud in the marketing of 'light' and 'low-tar' cigarettes," USA Today reports. "Lawyer Theodore Olson urged the justices to toss out a claim from Maine smokers of Marlboro Lights who say Philip Morris deceptively advertised them as safer than regular cigarettes."

• "Acting Medicare chief Kerry Weems on Monday announced new efforts to combat fraud in seven states, focusing on companies that improperly provide patients with medical equipment such as wheelchairs and oxygen supplies," USA Today reports. "Some changes also target home health care agencies in Miami-Dade County."

• "An estimated 17,000 deceased U.S. prisoners of war could be awarded Purple Hearts under a new Pentagon policy announced Monday," AP reports.

Congress: Lawmakers Question Bailout's Potential To Fix Crisis

• "A federal appeals court on Monday rejected House Democrats' demands to force two of President Bush's top aides to cooperate with an investigation about the firings of nine federal prosecutors in 2006," AP reports. "Time will run out on this year's congressional session before the battle between two branches of government can be resolved, according to the ruling by a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit."

• "Collapsing confidence and buckling financial markets sparked talk Monday that Congress may need to resume work soon on emergency measures to shore up the economy," The Hill reports. "On the first weekday of recess, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunging more than 700 points in intra-day trading, economists and market experts questioned the benefit of the $700 billion rescue package enacted just last Friday."

• "In their more bullish moments, congressional leaders have speculated that the $700 billion bailout might turn out to be a profitable investment in the long run for the newly minted government asset managers. They'd better be right, because Congress will need that money," the Politico reports. "The tortuous path to passage for the bailout last week left a trail of expensive IOUs that will come due in the next Congress."

• "Congressional Democrats and Republicans traded accusations Monday over what and whom to blame for the financial crisis amid startling new revelations surrounding the bankruptcy of the Lehman Brothers investment bank," The Hill reports. "Democrats aimed their harshest attacks at deregulation and CEO pay, using former Lehman Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Richard Fuld as an example during a recess hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee."

• "Advocates of giving the District of Columbia a vote in the House are already looking past a November lame-duck session and into the 111th Congress, where an expected uptick in Democrats could provide a winning margin for the decades-old battle despite the loss of a key GOP ally," Roll Call (subscription) reports.

• "Caught on tape discussing the burgeoning corruption probe against him two years ago, Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens [R] was both combative and pragmatic, denying in sometimes coarse language that he and a friend had done anything wrong but also acknowledging that they might face fines or even prison," the Los Angeles Times reports.

• "Members of the House, relax. You will still be allowed to post YouTube videos of yourself on your official congressional Web sites, so all your interested constituents can click and see you pounding the podium and championing a bill for your districts," the Washington Post reports. "A low-profile House committee adopted rules last week that permit members to use video material from Web sites such as YouTube on their own official sites."

Iraq: Arab League Sends Ambassador To Baghdad

• "The Arab League dispatched an ambassador to Baghdad on Monday, the latest sign of progress in the Iraqi and U.S. effort to ease this country's diplomatic isolation," the Washington Post reports. "Hani Khalaf arrived a day after the first visit by an Egyptian foreign minister in 18 years."

• "The U.S. and Iraq are close to a deal to keep U.S. troops in this country next year but it will take 'bold political decisions' to overcome the final hurdles, Iraq's foreign minister said" today, AP reports. "Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari made his comments to reporters at a joint press conference with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte."

• "Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened" today "to launch an incursion into northern Iraq to target Kurdish rebels if necessary, after a bloody attack last week left 17 soldiers dead," Agence France-Presse reports.

• "The protest was small but determined," the New York Times reports. "About 75 Christians and others gathered at a church" in Baghdad "on Monday to demand that the Iraqi Parliament reinstate a section of an earlier version of the provincial elections law that ensured political representation for Iraq's minorities."

Afghanistan: U.S. Military Consolidates Control Over Troops

• "About 20,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan will be transferred from NATO to direct American command in a bid to improve the training and coordination of the Afghan military and police, Pentagon officials announced Monday," the Washington Times reports. "The troops will fall under the U.S. Forces-Afghanistan (USFOR-A) command, giving commander Gen. David McKiernan better control of all U.S. military assets in the country, defense officials in Washington and Kabul said."

• "Pakistan ordered the deportation of about 50,000 Afghan refugees in an insurgency-racked tribal region amid a major military offensive against al Qaeda and Taliban fighters," AP reports. "The government said it was expelling all Afghan refugees in the Bajur tribal region, claiming that many of them have links to militant groups."

• "The brother of Afghanistan's president denied any involvement in the heroin trade at a news conference on Monday, saying accusations linking him to heroin shipments were 'baseless' and represented political pressure on the president after his criticism of a recent American airstrike that Afghanistan maintains killed scores of civilians," the New York Times reports.

Nation: Polar Bears Get Protected Habitat In Alaska

• "The federal government will designate 'critical habitat' for polar bears off Alaska's coast, a decision that could add restrictions to future offshore petroleum exploration or drilling," AP reports. "Federal law prohibits agencies from taking actions that may adversely modify critical habitat and interfere with polar bear recovery."

• "Once a national youth group associated with cows and plows, today's 4-H aims to cultivate a renewed interest in technology and science education," the Washington Times reports. "Citing studies that show American students lagging behind their foreign counterparts in math and science, 4-H leaders across the nation are focusing on after-school projects that get children excited about these subjects in a hands-on way."

• "Picture 100,000 wind turbines rising from the Great Lakes off Michigan's shores, casting spinning shadows on the water and producing electricity for the entire Upper Midwest. This surreal image is conjured by a study released last Tuesday by the Michigan State University Land Policy Institute," the Washington Post reports. "Wind power advocates hope it is a starting point for development of the world's first freshwater, offshore wind farms -- in the Great Lakes."

• "Parts of Southern California hit hard by the housing crisis are maneuvering to shape the Treasury Department's plan to buy up troubled assets so that it doesn't wind up causing a second wave of pain in their communities," the Wall Street Journal reports. "Officials in San Bernardino and Riverside counties are determined to avoid a repeat of what happened 20 years ago, when the savings-and-loan crisis led to a massive selloff of distressed real estate in the area by the federal government's Resolution Trust Corp."

Economy: Governments Fight Worldwide Economic Malaise

• "The global financial crisis has taken a perilous turn: As government efforts to tame it grow more aggressive, markets are becoming less confident those efforts will succeed," the Wall Street Journal reports. "The deepening malaise illustrates how the financial crisis has moved far beyond U.S. subprime-mortgage troubles to a much more fundamental breakdown of trust."

• "With financial markets in near-meltdown, governments around the world scrambled to find new ways to infuse vast amounts of cash into banks and even directly to companies to help resuscitate the global financial system," the Washington Post reports. "The Federal Reserve" Monday "night was weighing a plan that would in effect make it a major funder of a wide range of U.S. businesses facing imminent cash shortages."

• "What went wrong? Last week, the nation's political leaders said the financial system would collapse unless they passed a $700 billion rescue package for Wall Street. On Monday, the first day of trading after the plan passed, the financial system continued to melt down anyway," the Washington Post reports. "Here's why: The plan developed by Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. to buy troubled U.S. mortgage assets might not start for another month."

• "European governments pledged Monday to safeguard bank deposits in a bid to stem financial panic, but they stopped short of a coordinated strategy to break the grip of a credit crisis that now threatens to set off a protracted recession across the Continent, sending markets tumbling on both sides of the Atlantic," the New York Times reports.

• "The Treasury Department put its $700 billion bailout on a fast track on Monday, asking companies to submit bids for running the system by Wednesday and announcing its plan to select winners on Friday," the New York Times reports. "The administration announced that Neel Kashkari, 35, a former executive at Goldman Sachs who is an assistant secretary for international economics, will be in charge of the program."

• "Wachovia Corp. and suitors Citigroup Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. agreed to a two-day truce in their legal bickering, a move aimed at giving some breathing room to negotiators trying to reach a compromise in the fight to buy Wachovia," the Wall Street Journal (subscription) reports. "The agreement essentially freezes until noon Wednesday."

World: Thai Protesters Have Parliament Surrounded

• In Thailand, "thousands of anti-government protesters surrounded Parliament" today, "trapping hundreds of legislators, cutting off power to the building and vowing to remain until the government falls," the New York Times reports. "Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat escaped over a back fence after delivering a policy address but other members were unable to leave, according to reporters inside the building."

• "Russia accused the Georgian government on Monday of 'seeking to provoke new hostilities' even as Russian peacekeepers were dismantling key checkpoints outside the separatist enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia," the New York Times reports. "Authorities in Abkhazia said that an Abkhaz border guard was killed Monday in an exchange of fire with gunmen on the Georgian side" and "on Friday, a car bomb in the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, killed eight Russian soldiers and three Ossetian civilians."

• "A suicide bomber set off his explosives Monday while trying to force his way into an opposition politician's home in eastern Pakistan, killing at least 20 people and injuring more than 60 others during a holiday celebration," the Los Angeles Times reports. "The targeted lawmaker, Rashid Akbar Khan Nawani, who is a member of Pakistan's minority Shiite Muslim community, was injured but survived, police said."

• "China has canceled a senior military visit to Washington and shelved other military and diplomatic contacts to protest an announced $6.5-billion U.S. arms sale to Taiwan, Pentagon and State Department officials said Monday," the Los Angeles Times reports. "'The Chinese reaction is unfortunate and results in missed opportunities,' said Marine Corps Maj. Stewart Upton, a Defense Department spokesman, in a statement."

• "Thanks to tainted milk, China's product-safety reputation is plumbing new depths," the Washington Post reports. "Even Burma -- where one of the world's most repressive and isolated military governments relies on trade with China -- has now warned its people to steer clear of all Chinese dairy products."

• In Bolivia, "the government of President Evo Morales is lining up military support from Russia and boosting ties with Venezuela as it battles a rebellion in its energy-rich eastern provinces," the Washington Times reports. "The revolt reflects opposition to Mr. Morales' plans to redistribute land and revenue from natural gas exports to Bolivia's Indian majority under a new constitution that would also allow Mr. Morales to be re-elected for 10 more years."

• "At least a quarter of the world's wild mammal species are at risk of extinction, according to a comprehensive global survey released" in Barcelona "Monday," the Washington Post reports. "The new assessment -- which took 1,700 experts in 130 countries five years to complete -- paints 'a bleak picture,' leaders of the project wrote in a paper being published in the journal Science."

Campaigns: Rough and Tumble

• John McCain is attacking Barack Obama's character and judgment, while Sarah Palin warns Florida voters that the race is about to get "rough." Earlybird's Campaign News section has more.

Commentary: Can't We All Just Get Along?

• In Earlybird's Pundits & Editorials section, commentators denounce the race's ugly turn, asserting personal character attacks only go so far.