News digest: Sept. 28, 2001

The day's events | Losses

THE DAY'S EVENTS

• Stock markets ended the week on a positive note. The Dow finished the day up 166 points and Nasdaq ended up 38 points, giving markets four winning sessions this week. Some experts credit mutual fund managers for spurring the market upswing as they reconfigured their holdings on the last day of the quarter. Many economists believe the country is in recession.

• Attorney General John Ashcroft said that 480 people have been arrested or detained in the investigation into the September 11 attack.

• A delegation of Pakistani religious leaders left Afghanistan today after the Taliban refused Pakistan's second request that the regime turn Osama bin Laden over to the United States.

• The United Nations Security Council voted today to lift sanctions against Sudan. The sanctions were intended to force the country to surrender suspects in a plot against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Sudan has sent cooperative signals since the September 11 attack.

• CNN and USA Today reported that U.S. and British special forces are conducting operations in Afghanistan.

• One of the September 11 hijackers left behind a five-page handwritten document that includes Islamic prayers, instructions for a last night of life, and reminders to bring "knives, your will, IDs, your passport."

• Saudi Arabia will permit U.S. troops and planes stationed on its soil to participate in military action against Osama bin Laden and his associates in Afghanistan.

• New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani plans to speak to the city's two mayoral candidates to develop a strategy that would enable him to continue to play a role in the city's recovery. The mayor said it could take as long as a year to clean up the World Trade Center site.