AP - Republican presidential candidate John McCain pledged Tuesday night in campaign debate to require the federal government to renegotiate the mortgages of individual homeowners and make them more affordable, a sweeping proposal to help families in the grip of a financial crisis.

AP - Federal agents swept through a chicken processing plant Tuesday, detaining more than 300 suspected illegal immigrants, sending panicked workers running and screaming through the hallways. Worried relatives collected outside, fearful their loved ones would be deported.

AP - Nick Nolte escaped a fire that caused an estimated $1.5 million damage to his Malibu home on Tuesday, authorities said. The 67-year-old actor scraped his arm and inhaled some smoke but was not hospitalized, Los Angeles County fire Inspector Sam Padilla said.

AP - Less than a week after the federal government had to bail out American International Group Inc., the company sent executives on a $440,000 retreat to a posh California resort, lawmakers investigating the company's meltdown said Tuesday.

AP - This volcanic island near the Arctic Circle is on the brink of becoming the first "national bankruptcy" of the global financial meltdown.