AFP - News

LONDON (AFP) - World stock markets stabilised Tuesday despite a tumbling banking sector across Europe, as Asia pulled back from the brink on the prospect of cuts to global interest rates, dealers said.

NASHVILLE, Tennessee, (AFP) - Republican John McCain questioned Barack Obama's character, and the Democrat pressed his foe's alleged weakness on economic issues, as tempers escalated ahead of Tuesday's presidential debate.

BANGKOK (AFP) - Thai police fired tear gas Tuesday to try to disperse anti-government protesters blocking parliament, injuring 116 people as months of political turmoil boiled over, police and medics said.

ROME (AFP) - The UN food agency cast doubt Tuesday on the potential of biofuels to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions while warning that their development threatens food security.

STOCKHOLM (AFP) - Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa of Japan and Yoichiro Nambu of the United States won the 2008 Nobel Physics Prize Tuesday for groundbreaking theoretical work in fundamental particles.

REYKJAVIK (AFP) - Iceland's government announced it was taking control of the country's second-biggest bank on Tuesday as Russia said it would lend it four billion euros (5.4 billion dollars) to fend off the engulfing financial turmoil.

TOKYO (AFP) - The financial crisis will delay Japan's economic recovery but coordinated global interest rate cuts are not the answer, the country's top central banker said Tuesday.