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Sep 1 The U.S. military signs a paper that gives authority in Anbar province to the Iraqi governor. On April 28, 2003, an incident involving U.S. forces in Anbar's major city, Fallujah, helped turn the province into a center of anti-U.S. insurgency, joined by a rise of al Qaeda there. By 2006 insurgents in Anbar were sick of al Qaeda and alliances were made with U.S. forces. Anbar is the eleventh of eighteen provinces that have moved to Iraqi authority.

Sep 2 Iraq agrees on a plan that gives oil production rights to a Chinese petroleum corporation.

Sep 2 In the second day of the Republican National Convention, speakers praise McCain, speak of their support for charity and the need to put "country first." They cheer military service and heroism, chant U.S.A, U.S.A., speak of God's guidance and restoring U.S. prestige abroad. One speaker, Fred Thompson, said of McCain, "Being a POW doesn't qualify one to be president, but it does reveal character."

Sep 3 Candidate McCain has chosen Sarah Palin as his running mate. The conservative columnist George F. Will opines that this is "applied McCainism -- a visceral judgment by one who is confidently righteous. But the viscera are not the seat of wisdom."

Sep 3 Journalists see it as their duty to investigate the background of Sarah Palin. At the Republican National Convention delegates respond emotionally to a speaker denouncing journalists. Some turn and shake their fist at a recognized journalist among the delegates: Gwen Ifill.

Sep 3 Journalists describe Sarah Palin as supportive of legislation and of Supreme Court justices that would deny women the right to abort a fetus with Down's syndrom or other chromosomal disorders. Palin's position is described as "right to life." It is a part of what she describes as reform.

Sep 4 President Sarkozy of France is in Syria, meeting with President Bashar al-Assad. Sarkozy has described re-engagement with Syria as risky but says that dialogue is better than isolation.

Sep 4 Candidate McCain accepts the nomination of his Republican Party with a moving speech that proclaims "country-first" and coming change. He associates country with community, but by country-first he is not suggesting anyone give more in taxes for the sake of the community. By country-first he is speaking against corruption and legislation by congresspeople that gives federal money for projects in their constituencies.

Sep 5 A US secretary of state visits Libya for the first time since 1953. Libya's de facto leader, Muammar al-Qaddafi, has become a most popular leader in Africa, winning praise from Nelson Mandela and others. In Libya he is moving toward privatization and individual responsibility and away from bureaucracy. He wants to give oil money directly to people to spend on education. He wants society to "reformulate itself in a new, free, and democratic way."

Sep 5 A "One Million Signatures" campaign for women's rights has been underway in Iran since August 27, 2006. Four more women have been sentenced to six months in jail for participating.

Sep 6 In Pakistan, parliament and provincial assemblies elect Benazir Bhutto's widower, Ali Zardari, as successor to President Musharraf. Insecurity and fear of instability persist.

Sep 6 The BBC reports that Britain's Trade Union Congress complains that the "super-rich" are better off than were the super-rich during the Victorian era, that the distribution of wealth has grown worse despite reforms. It is a development described as damaging to the economy, and a call is made to increase taxes on Britain's most wealthy.

Sep 7 In Saudi Arabia it is announced that the Human Rights Commission is to cooperate with the Saudi Lawyers’ Committee "to provide free legal service to those unable to bear the cost of litigation" - to quote the Arab News.

Sep 7 The U.S. government announces plans to take over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It is a "bailout" that could be "one of the most expensive financial rescues in history, running to tens of billions of dollars," according to an article by Robert Peston at BBC.com. The article describes this as "an event of profound significance for the global economy." Peston writes that banks outside the United States, "including some of the world's most important central banks," have a "direct and substantial financial exposure to both Fannie and Freddie." Some believe that without the bailout the economic collapse would have included the collapse of the U.S. dollar.

Sep 8 Democracy in Hong Kong produces success for the "pro-democracy" faction. It wins more than a third of the 60 seats in the island's Legislative Council, enough to give it a veto over major legislation.

Sep 9 In Morocco, Mohammed Erraji, 29, is given a two-year prison sentence and fined $630 for an internet article that criticizes his king, Mohammed VI, for giving too much in donations and gifts.

Sep 10 For the past few days McCain has been ahead in a Gallup poll by five percentage points. Obama leads regarding issues. McCain leads regarding character. It's not very different from the year 2000 when Gore led in the polls regarding issues and Bush led on character. Issues came to the fore, of course, during the Bush presidency.

Sep 11 In an interview with the BBC about Iraq, General Petraeus is asked, "Do you think you will ever use the word "victory?" Petraeus answers: "I don't know that I will." He adds, "This is not the sort of struggle where you take a hill, plant the flag and go home to a victory parade...it's not war with a simple slogan."

Sep 11 Vladimir Putin says Russia had no choice but to intervene following Georgian aggression. "An aggressor needs to punished," he said, adding that Russian tanks could have ousted Saakashvilli if they had wanted to. He accuses the US of behaving like the Roman Empire by believing it can pursue its interests and extend its influence to the Caucasus without regard for Russia's point of view. He speaks of anti-Russian hysteria, of Russia not interested in empire and of Russia's desire for all sides to agree on new common rules of behaviour based on international law.

Sep 12 Saudi Arabia's most senior jurist proclaims it permissible for the state to execute owners of television stations that broadcast debauchery.

Sep 14 People and members of parliament in Malaysia have been rebelling against their prime minister since 2003, Ahmad Badawi, who is considered corrupt. Malaysia's traditional media is severely regulated, but use of the internet is advanced. There is extensive blogging that government has not controlled. Badawi's government now sees blogging as a threat and has begun closing the websites of internet critics.

Sep 17 In the U.S. in last three days the Dow Jones Industrial Average has dropped more than 7 percent - around 820 points. A bubble is bursting in slow motion. The coming months frighten investors and others. The price of gold climbed 11.6 percent today, to $870.90 an ounce. What is behind all this? Greed on Wall Street says candidate McCain. Deregulation and lack of oversight regarding financial institutions says candidate Obama.

Sep 17 Russia signs treaties with Abkhazia and South Ossetia that include pledges of military support. To the BBC, Georgia's President Saakashvili describes Russia's move as a "classic invasion and annexation".

Sep 19 Much analysis is being made about the economic crisis - and a warning not to panic. (Economic recessions used to be called depressions and before that they were called panics.) Panics are the psychological aspect of economic depressions. They make everything worse. Panic aside, the crisis we are now in is properly seen as another bubble crisis. Modern economies run on credit, in other words borrowing, for buying homes, farmers planting crops, people buying cars, et cetera. But as of today there has been too much borrowing - foolish borrowing - as happened before the crash of 1929. Money lenders, banks, real estate salesmen and what have you have encouraged too much borrowing. And financiers have played the markets with foolish borrowing, in the form of leveraged bets thirty times their own offerings. Too much debt has accumulated and an inability to pay back what is owed. Buying on credit expands economic bubbles. Again we are experiencing the bursting of a great bubble.

Sep 20 In the United States, stocks have recovered from their plunge of a few days ago, and stock markets have recovered or stabilized abroad, except maybe in Russia, where stabilization has been enforced by shutting down trading. Panic is being averted although fear is widespread that more trouble lies ahead. Worldwide, relief is found in "bailouts" of a few financial institutions by the Bush administration.

Sep 20 In the U.S., some believe that taxpapers should not rescue financial institutions. The Bush administration, on the other hand, is trying to prevent the collapse of the economy (all lending), skyrocketing unemployment and a disastrous run on the dollar. At the same time, President Bush does not want to leave financiers without accountability: the possibility of failing and taking a loss in their ventures. Bush says that "The Administration looks forward to working with Congress on measures to bring greater long-term transparency and reliability to the financial system. This includes the creation of new regulations."

Sep 21 South Africa's President, Thabo Mbeki, agrees to his political party's call for him to resign. A large part of the displeasure that many in his party (the Africa Nation Congress) had with him was economic policy. Mbeki was too free enterprise for them and they are complaining about unemployment and under performance of the economy.

Sep 22 Rather than wait to strike at enemy who have entered Afghanistan from Pakistan, the U.S. has been hitting at Taliban sanctuaries inside Pakistan. It is the same issue that French forces faced during their war in Algeria. The French government denied their military the right to strike at Algerian rebel bases inside Tunisia or Morocco, adhering to what was perceived as international law. Today Pakistan intelligence claims that Pakistan's military fired warning shots at two American helicopters, forcing them back to Afghanistan.

Sep 22 France announces that it is increasing its force of 2,600 in Afghanistan with 100 more troops and more helicopters and drones. In August ten French soldiers died in Afghanistan.

Sep 23 Some people believe that understanding events involves collecting many details, and some believe more in intuitition and "gut feelings." The PBS NewsHour is examining the decision styles of the presidential candidates. Yesterday it quoted candidate McCain as saying "As a politician I am intuitive, often impulsive." McCain added, "Often, my haste is a mistake, but I live with the consequences without complaint." In this morning's Washington Post, conservative columnist George Will again criticizes McCain and quotes a Wall Street Journal editorial describing McCain as "unpresidential" and as responding to the financial crisis "without even looking around for facts."

Sep 24 The debate about U.S. taxpayers bailing out banks brings up a recent example of finance agencies from Singapore, China, South Korea and Kuwait buying up and U.S bank equities (stocks). These are government finance agencies that give the citizens of these countries an equity interest in these U.S. banks. Some people in the United States want a similar equity interest for the taxpayer rather than their bailout of businesses being merely a gift-rescue.

Sep 25 Many who are creating bailout legislation agree that, in the words of candidate Obama, "The American people should share in the upside as Wall Street recovers." This sentiment includes candidate McCain, who has changed his mind and is supporting the bailout as a dire necessity. It does not include those conservative congressmen opposed to what they call nationalization.

Sep 25 Another sign of cultural diffusion: Japan's new prime minister, Taro Aso, is a Roman Catholic.

Sep 25 China launches its third manned mission into space, to include its first spacewalk.

Sep 26 Venezuela's Hugo Chavez is in Russia and agrees to a new energy pact. President Medvedev tells Chavez that, "Our co-operation is multi-faceted... it includes economic and military ties."

Sep 27 Georgia's President Saakashvili turns away from conflict and confrontation with Russia to focus on rebuilding Georgia's economy. He says he wants to improve integration with the European Union rather than push for NATO membership.

Sep 27 Pakistan's military claims that in the last month it has killed "1,000 militants" in the tribal area of Bajaur - which borders Afghanistan.

Sep 28 U.S. congressional leaders act on the administration's financial rescue request. Credit markets, frozen for about a week, begin to thaw. Firms that accept bail-out money will have to give warrants (non-voting stock shares) to the government that will allow taxpayers to benefit from the banks' recovery. The top executives of banks that receive more than $3 million from the government will have their pay limited, including a ban on "golden parachutes" should their employment at the bank end. The government (taxpayers) will be first in line for payment if a participating firm fails.

Sep 29 The U.S. House of Representatives fails to pass the financial rescue plan. U.S. stocks plunge between 7 and 9 percent. The big credit market freeze continues.

Sep 29 Chinese dairy farmers are squeezed by middlemen who give them low prices despite the rise in demand. Dairy farmers have been adding water to their milk in order more money. To make up for the lower nutrient content from the dilution melamine, a nitrogen compound, has been added to the milk. Four people have died. The government in Beijing wants accountability and more regulation and cracks down. Police detain 22 people, 19 of whom are managers of pastures, breeding farms and milk purchasing stations.

Sep 29 Ecuadorean voters approve a new constitution that President Correa hails as a historic win. Articles of the new constitution are described as offering more political power to women, the poor and Ecuador's large indigenous community. It tightens controls of vital industries and reduces monopolies, declares some foreign loans illegitimate, allows the president to stand for a second four-year term, allows civil marriage for gays and give free health care to older citizens.

Oct 1 Harold Meyerson of the Washington Post writes that "A new order, in which Wall Street plays a diminished role and Washington a larger one, is aborning, but the process is painful and protracted." He describes the old order as "Reagan-age institutions built on the premise that the market can do no wrong and the government no right."

Oct 2 Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany meets in Russia with President Dmitry Medvedev. They want to strengthen economic ties between their nations. Medvedev says that the era of U.S. global economic dominance is over and that the world needs a "more just" financial system. He adds that a new Cold War will be as impossible as bringing back the Berlin Wall.

Oct 2 India's government bans smoking in public buildings and elsewhere in public. Many are ignoring the ruling.

Oct 2 Regarding Iraq, General Petraeus says that he might never use the word "victory." In today's debate with Joe Biden, vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin says "We've got to win in Iraq." She lauds Petraeus as a general and "hero" and told Biden, "Your plan is a white flag of surrender in Iraq and that is not what our troops need to hear today that's for sure."

Oct 2 According to Factcheck.org, "An Obama-Biden TV ad once again twists McCain's position on Social Security."

Oct 3 Congress passes and President Bush signs into law a plan to "rescue" the economy. Some call it a "bailout" of Wall Street and are sorry that Congress is not leaving the marketplace to mend the economy. But urgency is felt because people can't borrow money to make payroll, mortgage payments, buy cars and what have you. The economy is falling into a hole and people are losing their jobs.

Oct 5 Sixty Minutes explains the nation's economic crisis. It began with Lehman Brothers, Bear Sterns, AIG and others selling repacked mortgages as investment securities - investments that involved "hundreds and hundreds of pages" of flawed legalese which few read. These sales involved a credit default swap as a risk-saving device. Because it was a swap and not insurance, there was no requirement of adequate capital reserves - a gimmick that avoided government regulation. Executives making millions per years bet money they did not have without fully grasping what they were doing. It was, expressed here rather than by Sixty Minutes, a failure by mediocre CEOs that is not uncommon - failed CEO management of a different kind having been seen in years past in the the auto industry). Go to cbsnews.com, "Sixty Minutes, Shadow Markets".

Oct 5 The Los Angeles Times reports that in rural Brazil girls as young as fifteen have been thrown into jail routinely with male prisoners, gang raped and forced into sex in exchange for food, with prison police being complicit or indifferent.

Oct 6 In a synod (assembly) of a couple of hundred cardinals from around the globe, Pope Benedict plans to examine what he describes as a declining interest in the Bible. The assembly will be more than a sociological seminar. Pope Benedict is opening the gathering by reading the Book of Genesis. He will be followed by others in a marathon read. It will be broadcast by Italian state television.

Oct 6 Iceland's currency falls about 30 percent to record lows against the Euro as the country tries to avert financial meltdown. The dollar rises against the Euro. In Argentina stocks drop more than 9 percent, in Russia 20 percent before trading was suspended. Reuters describes European stocks as posting "their worst day on record" and describes this as the result of "fears that the credit crisis will not be contained." U.S. shares drop around 4 percent. Shares in China drop 5.23 percent. Gold remains at around $850 an ounce, down from a high of $1,000 an ounce in March.

Oct 7 In recent days the McCain-Palin candidacy has tried to advance itself by attacking Obama's character, using a guilt by association strategy. To today this has failed. In a Gallop poll taken before the second McCain-Obama debate, McCain has dropped to eleven percent behind Obama. A new low.

Oct 9 In Malawi, the introduction of irrigation, crop diversification, science and soil management is producing a new abundance of crops and new hope.

Oct 9 Iceland suspends stockmarket trading for two days and the government takes over the country's largest bank - the third takeover in a week. The government acquires new powers to create a bank to take over domestic banking operations. Iceland had risen in per capita GDP above that of Switzerland, and its economy was considered a success. Now, Icelanders are stunned. Some have lost money. But a spirit of unity and hope prevails. Iceland's most famous rocker, Bubbi Morthens, says Iceland is "experiencing a new dawn."

Oct 10 Factcheck.org: "In a TV ad, McCain says Obama 'lied' about his association with William Ayers, a former bomb-setting, anti-war radical from the 1960s and '70s. We find McCain's claim to be groundless. New details have recently come to light, but nothing Obama said previously has been shown to be false."

Oct 10 In China, local authorities announce the arrest of a suspect who produced more than 600 tons of fake protein powder laced with melamine.

Oct 10 Stocks represented by the Dow Jones Industrial Average end the week down 18.2 percent. And today, Asian and European markets are hit by panic selling.

Oct 12 Sunday talk from leading financial experts. The world has gotten where it is now because of too much consumer spending relative to how much is being produced and too much borrowing. A big bubble has burst. China will suffer because consumption elsewhere is in decline, but China has been doing well because it has been producing and selling more than it has been consuming. The U.S. has been doing the opposite and paying for it by borrowing - credit and debt. In the U.S., people with money to spend should spend less of it on non-vital things, and more money should go to government in the form of taxes to pay for vital government services and to pay down the debt.

Oct 12 Leaders in China's Communist Party announce an agreement on a reform plan to create more individual responsibility and creativity in rural land management and more government investing in rural education, health, housing, pensions and employment - a plan it is hoped will double per capita wages for rural people by 2020.

Oct 13 On Saturday in Washington, the G7 nations agreed on a five point program to "unfreeze" credit markets. Yesterday, Sunday, European leaders agreed to allow no big bank to fail. Today, Australia's stock index rises more than 5.5 percent, Singapore and South Korea's 3 percent, India 7.68 percent. Stocks in Norway are up nearly 8 percent, in Britain up 8.3 percent. Stocks in Germany, France, and the United States rise 11 percent.

Oct 14 President Bush announces that the federal government is to buy stakes in a wide variety of U.S. banks. The money is to come from the $700 billion bailout package that was signed into law a few days ago.

Oct 14 UCLA scientists find that searching the web stimulates centers in the brain and may improve brain functions.

Oct 15 In Vietnam, a judge sentences journalist Nguyen Viet Chien to two years in jail. A human rights group calls it "revenge" against daring journalist revealing state corruption.

Oct 15 Uganda bans female circumcision.

Oct 18 Ghana responds to higher prices of imported wheat by increasing its harvesting of Cassava roots. Bread with cassava flour is said to taste as good as wheat bread.

Oct 18 Candidate McCain as been stating that he is not George Bush. McCain is accusing Candidate Obama of wanting to "share the wealth" and of being dishonest for not being upfront with socialism like Europe's socialist leaders. This is a response to Obama's stated plan to increase taxes on people making more than $250,000 per year. McCain's crowds roar their disapproval of wealth sharing and socialism.

Oct 19 On this Sunday in Cuba a Russian Orthodox cathedral opens. Raul Castro is present and calls it "a monument to Russian-Cuban friendship."

Oct 20 Speaking of globalization, Jayati Ghosh, economics professor at Nehru University, complains that while a minority in India benefited materially from the nation's high economic growth, real wages for most workers actually fell, hunger increased and nearly 200,000 farmers committed suicide.

Oct 22 A study released in Paris by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) claims that the economic growth of the past 20 years widened the gap between the rich and the middle class in some countries, including the United States, Germany and Norway. The study found poverty rates lowest in the Czech Republic, Denmark and Sweden.

Oct 23 On the development of the financial crisis in the U.S., Alice Rivlin says on the PBS NewsHour, "The financial structure was changing very, very rapidly, new products, new institutions, and we didn't modernize the regulatory system to keep up with that."

Oct 27 Syria accuses the U.S. of a raid by troops in helicopters across the border from Iraq. They describe the raid as having killed eight civilians. The U.S. has complained that Syria has not been doing enough to control their border.

Oct 27 In South Waziristan (inside Pakistan) a missile strike by a U.S. drone aircraft is said to have killed a Taliban leader and, it is said, twenty others whose bodies were dug from the rubble. The attack is three days after a missile in North Waziristan killed seven students at a religious school.

Oct 27 In Egypt a senior civil servant and his wife are under arrest, accused of wife-swapping parties organized on the internet. Extra-marital sex is illegal in Egypt.

Oct 28 The UN's largest peacekeeping force - 17,000 strong - is engaged in fighting against rebels in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, against the army led by renegade general Laurent Nkunda. His forces control of several major towns. Refugees are on the move, and hunger prevails. Some are angry with the UN for not having protected them.

Oct 28 The target of U.S. the raid into Syria was Abu Ghadiyah, said to have been an al-Qaeda coordinator. A "senior U.S. official" says that Syria's was reluctant to move against Ghadiyah and that this "left us with no choice but to take these matters into our hands." The Iraqi government denounces the raid and speaks of its opposition to the U.S. using its territory as a launch-pad against its neighbors. Iran, friendly with the Iraqi government, joins in condemning the attack. So too does Russia, which is building closer ties with Syria.

Oct 28 West Africa's regional Court of Justice, located in Niger's capital, Niamey, has ruled that Niger failed to protect Hadijatou Mani from being sold into slavery at the age of 12 - for $500. The court has ordered Niger's government to pay the woman, now 24, about $12,000 in damages. With this money, Mani plans to buy a house and to send her children to school "so they can have the education I was never allowed as a slave." Yahoo News reports that Mani had been jailed for bigamy after her former master opposed her marriage to another man, insisting that she had automatically become his own wife when he freed her in 2005.

Oct 29 In Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah launches the foundation for the kingdom’s first women-only university, which is to have a capacity for 40,000 students.

Oct 29 Cuba opens an embassy in Saudi Arabia. The United Nations General Assembly approves its thirteenth annual resolution condemning the U.S. embargo against Cuba. Three nations side with the United States against the resolution: Israel, Palau and the Marshall Islands.

Oct 30 Washington Post columnist David Ignatius describes hedge fund managers offering their services to an elite who could afford their "hefty fees." He describes the managers as believing they had engineered highly leveraged investments without risk. Ignatius writes that their "make-believe world began to crash in August 2007," that suddenly there was no market for the paper assets they had created out of pools of mortgages, "because in a falling market, nobody knew what they were worth."