White House and Air Force One were targets
Washington: "The White House and Air Force One were targets of Tuesday's terrorist strikes. The plane that hit the Pentagon may have been headed for the White House," said National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack.

This is why president George W Bush did not immediately return to Washington from Florida on Tuesday morning and take charge of crisis operations from the Situation Room in the White House basement.
Bush, who was informed in Sarasota, Florida, about the terrorist strikes on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon headquarters, first flew to an Air Force base in Louisiana and then to Nebraska before returning to the White House at dusk.

Throughout Tuesday, images of the Pentagon in flames - smashed by a hijacked airliner - and White House aides fleeing across Pennsylvania Avenue provided a sharp contrast with pictures of Bush headed into a small underground bunker at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. When Bush returned to Washington, he took a helicopter from Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, arriving on the South Lawn of the White House under cover of three decoy Marine choppers.
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World markets crash
WashingtonStocks and the US dollar plunged world-wide while prices of gold, oil and the Swiss franc rose sharply the day after the terrorist strikes on America.

The US securities markets remained closed on Wednesday and will resume trading only when it is practicable to do so, Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Harvey Pitt said.

Insurance and airlines stocks were the worst affected, lowering by two digit, on exchanges the world over. Oil and energy stocks, on the other hand, gained substantially.
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Central banks pump in $ 80 bn
New York: Central banks world-wide released more than $ 80 billion from their emergy funds to stabilize financial markets. Central banks from Asia to Europe provided extra funds to their banks to cope with shortfall in cash.

Meanwhile, the US federal government said it would provided liquidity and go ahead with its plan to auction $ 10 billion in four-week bills.

Following the move, the US dollar rebounded against key currencies.
The US Federal Reserve added an unusually large $38.25 billion in temporary reserves while finance ministers and central bankers of the Group of Seven world economic powers said they were ready to provide liquidity to ensure markets operate in an orderly fashion.

Earlier, panic-selling in the wake of Tuesday's unprecedented terror attacks in New York and Washington, had sent the dollar tumbling as much as 3 per cent against the Swiss franc and by nearly 2 per cent against the euro and sterling.

Currency markets remained paralysed on Wednesday, as most U.S. players stayed out of the market. One trader estimated that volumes were down to around a third of the typical $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion daily turnover.

Many financial companies were still trying to assess the impact of the attacks that shut down the heart of New York's financial district. Many banks in Europe refrained from interbank dealing as a mark of respect for those hit by the tragedy.
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Indian SW professionals largely safe
New Delhi: Major Indian IT companies having large presence in Manhattan have said they have not received any reports of casualties. However, Wipros four of the seven employees working out of the Word Trade Centre are reported missing.

Infosys, which has about 200 employees in New York, said there have been no reports of casualties so far.

Wipro could establish contacts with 46 of the 50 employees stationed in New York. Wipro chairman, who is on a visit to New York, is also safe.

Tata Consultancy Services said all its employees in New York area were safe and so were the employees of another software major NIIT which claimed to have established contact with all of them.
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Industrial growth decelerates
New DelhiIndustrial growth slipped to 2.6 per cent in July this year from 5 per cent in the same month last year. The downward trend was led by a poor show in manufacturing and mining indices.
Electricity, however, remained the sole sector showing an upward trend in July this year.
Predictably, the cumulative growth in the April-July period also was reflective of the trend witnessed till now. The growth in the cumulative period this fiscal declined to 2.3 per cent against 5.9 per cent in the same period last year, according to the data released by the central statistical organisation on Wednesday.
Manufacturing sector, with over two-third weightage in the Index of Industrial Production, grew at a mere three per cent as compared to 5.7 per cent in the same month last year.
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Ficci fears impact on foreign investments
New Delhi: Federation of Indian chambers of commerce and industries (Ficci) has expressed the fear the terrorist attack on the US might adversely impact the flow of foreign institutional investments in India.

Top Ficci officials said the complete destruction of the WTC in New York will surely affect business sentiments and cause stock market to slide in the short term.
Most likely the foreign institutional investors might get demoralised hence efforts should be made to revive their confidence. These investors control 30 per cent of the market and utmost care should be taken to restore their trust, said Ficci secretary general Amit Mitra.
Commenting on FDI impact he said that there might be a short term holding behaviour on the part of the investor but that the pattern in the long term would be determined by government policies.
Mitra said the American insurance companies would be affected the most but the impact would generally be restricted to insurance dealing in airlines and real estate.
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Vajpayee's visit to New York uncertain
New Delhi--Uncertainty hangs over the visit of prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee later this month to New York where he was to address the UN General Assembly and meet Pakitan president Pervez Musharraf.
External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh said he was not in a position to say whether the United Nations scheduled meeting will be held at all.
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