1. Stampede in India kills 115 during Hindu festival
NEW DELHI (AP) — Uma Devi was halfway across the bridge when people started shouting that it was collapsing.
“I grabbed my son and ran,” the distraught woman told Indian TV a day after Sunday’s tragedy in central India. “People were pushing and screaming and trying to run away from the bridge. I don’t know how I escaped.”
The stampede killed 115 people, mostly women and children. Some were crushed to death, while others jumped off the bridge to escape and drowned. Scores more were injured.
They were among hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who had come to the Hindu temple in the remote town of Ratangarh in Madhya Pradesh state on the last day of a popular festival.
Many bodies were pulled from the river, but officials said others may have been washed away.
It was not immediately clear how many people were on the bridge when the stampede occurred, but local media said some 500,000 people visited the temple honoring the Hindu mother goddess Durga.
Deadly stampedes are relatively common at temples in India, where large crowds gather in tiny areas with no safety measures or crowd control.
2. Rokita: Default option would help cut spending
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — U.S. Rep. Todd Rokita said a default could be a good tool for cutting federal spending.
The Indiana Republican told WIBC-FM Monday that the nation would not necessarily “default” if the debt ceiling is not raised this week. The government would have to “prioritize” spending instead.
A measure to raise the debt ceiling is the latest roadblock in Washington as the federal government enters its third week on shutdown.
Rokita’s gaffes earlier this month earned him national heckling at the start of the shutdown. He was lampooned extensively after calling a female CNN anchor “beautiful” and describing the health care law as “insidious.” But he defended himself Monday, saying host Jon Stewart of “The Daily Show” on television’s Comedy Central should look up the definition of “insidious.”
3. Stocks slip as budget talks falter in Washington
NEW YORK (AP) — The stock market is slipping after a breakdown in budget talks in Washington brought the nation closer to a potentially disastrous default on its debt.
There was also no immediate hope Monday for reopening the U.S. government, which was entering a third week of partial shutdown.
Negotiations to clear a path for a new budget agreement ended at an impasse over the weekend.
The Dow Jones industrial average was down 31 points, or 0.2 percent, at 15,205 in midday trading Monday.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index was down three points, or 0.2 percent, at 1,700. The Nasdaq composite was down a fraction at 3,791.
Bond trading was closed Monday for Columbus Day.
Earnings season goes into high gear this week. Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson and Citigroup report results today.
4. Statue of Liberty reopens amid federal shutdown
NEW YORK (AP) — Lady Liberty was once again welcoming visitors to her shores Sunday after the state agreed to shoulder the costs of running the famed statue during the federal government shutdown.
Eager sightseers stood in line in Manhattan’s Battery Park, waiting for the ferry trips to the Statue of Liberty, which had been shut since Oct. 1.
Simon and Dominik Balz, brothers visiting from Bern, Switzerland, had booked their trip in May, with the statue among their planned stops. The shutdown had made that seem impossible, “so we were very disappointed,” Simon Balz said.
That disappointment turned into excitement when they found out about the reopening. The statue is “well-known all over the world,” he said. “It’s very special.”
Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Friday that the state would pay about $61,600 a day to reopen Liberty Island National Park through Oct. 17. If the shutdown is not resolved by then, officials said, they will renegotiate to keep it open.
On Sunday, Cuomo said it was in the state’s economic interest to make sure the statue was accessible.
“When you close down the Statue of Liberty, you close down a good portion of the tourism that comes to New York City, and that is untold millions of dollars of damage,” he said.
5. Brazil creating email for government use to fight spies
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Brazilian officials said that all government employees will start using an encrypted email service in an effort to stop foreign spies from intercepting emails.
But experts question the ability of Brazil to protect its government emails from the eyes of the U.S. National Security Agency. The entire system is compromised if any user of an encrypted email sends a message to somebody on an outside program, like Gmail.
Nevertheless, Communications Minister Paulo Bernardo Silva said Monday that a new government-created encrypted email system will soon be mandatory for federal officials by the second half of next year.
Leaked NSA documents have shown that Brazil is the top Latin American target for U.S. spies.
The Brazilian government is also working on developing an encrypted email service for private citizens.
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