Government seeks way to save Lehman Brothers

Government seeks way to save Lehman Brothers

WASHINGTON — The financial world held its collective breath Saturday as the U.S. government scrambled to help devise a rescue for Lehman Brothers and restore confidence in Wall Street and the American banking system.

Deliberations resumed Saturday as top officials and executives from government and Wall Street tried to find a buyer or financing for the nation’s No. 4 investment bank and to stop the crisis of confidence spreading to other U.S. banks, brokerages, insurance companies and thrifts.

Failure could prompt skittish investors to unload shares of financial companies, a contagion that might affect stock markets at home and abroad when they reopen Monday.

Options include selling Lehman outright or unloading it piecemeal.

Russian troops pull back from western Georgia

TBILISI, Georgia — Russian soldiers and armored vehicles pulled back from positions deep in western Georgia on Saturday, meeting a closely watched withdrawal deadline a month after the war between the former Soviet republics.

A Georgian policeman was shot dead near the edge of a breakaway Moscow-backed province, adding to tensions in areas where Russian troops are supposed to cede control to unarmed European Union monitors within weeks.

Georgia’s government, meanwhile, pressed its claim ethnic Georgians are being persecuted in South Ossetia, the separatist region at the heart of the war. Officials said Ossetian paramilitary fighters doused Georgians with kerosene and ordered them to leave their villages.

Private contractors to aid troops in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON — The Defense Department is seeking private contractors to carry out a variety of tasks — such as clearing land mines, building detention facilities and providing fuel — to assist U.S. forces in Afghanistan, which are set to grow following President Bush’s announcement last week that he will expand military operations there.

Earlier this month, the Pentagon issued a proposal seeking civilian contractors to help clear land mines in Afghanistan, including the outer areas of Bagram air base, where new construction is under way. A $25 million contract to build some 14 miles of roads inside the Bagram complex will be awarded later this month.

Chavez watches military exercises

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has observed military exercises with planes dropping bombs and commandos resisting a mock invasion.

Saturday’s maneuvers in southern Bolivar state featured Russian-made Sukhoi fighter jets, ground troops, patrol boats and helicopters that fired rockets at targets.

Chavez often warns the U.S. could attack Venezuela and says his military must be prepared. He has spent billions of dollars on arms in recent years.

The president wore fatigues and a red beret as he observed the exercises from the shore of a lake. An announcer on state TV said troops from a fictional “red country” were fighting a mock “war of resistance” against the invading force of a “blue country.”

President says thugs attacked his supporters

LA PAZ, Bolivia — President Evo Morales on Saturday accused an opposition governor of using foreign thugs against government supporters in violence that has claimed at least 18 lives and prompted him to declare martial law in a breakaway province.

In a bid to defuse the bitter dispute over a new constitution and land reform that threatens to tear apart the poor Andean nation, Chile called for an emergency meeting of South American leaders on Monday.

Trucker guilty in crash that killed 4 people

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A tanker truck driver has been found guilty of vehicular homicide for a fiery crash in 2005 that killed four people, including the mother of Tampa Bay Lightning center Jeff Halpern.

A jury on Friday deliberated four hours before finding 36-year-old Flavio Santisteban guilty of four counts of vehicular homicide. Each count carries a maximum 15-year-prison sentence. Sentencing has been set for Oct. 27.

In February 2005, Santisteban was driving an oil truck carrying 9,000 gallons of fuel when he flipped his tanker onto a car carrying the four victims — including Halpern’s mother, Gloria.

Combined dispatches