Pakistan-based terrorists kill 36 in India blast

At least 36 people died Monday in a terrorist attack by a Pakistan-based militant group known as Jaish-e-Muhammad (The Army of the Prophet Muhammad) in Srinagar, India. The attack was carried out by a suicide squad that, while posing as police, hijacked an official vehicle and loaded it with explosives. One man then rammed the main gate of the heavily fortified Legislative Assembly building there, killing himself and about a dozen others. Immediately following the explosion other attackers stormed the complex with machine guns, grenades and firebombs, according to The New York Times. At least 60 others were injured, according to the BBC. "The killing of a large number of people inside and outside the Assembly premises indicates that it was a preplanned conspiracy," the prime minister of India, Atal Behari Vajpayee, told reporters in New Delhi. "But this is a symbol of their frustration because they know that terrorism does not have a future in India." According to the BBC, India maintains that there is a link between Kashmiri militant groups and suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden and maintains that such attacks cannot deter the U.S.-formed coalition.

Washington, D.C.

Fed cuts target federal funds rate by half point

Faced with a weak economy and significant negative repercussions from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the U.S. Federal Reserve cut the target federal funds rate by a half-point, driving it down to a level not seen since May of 1962. The rate cut, the ninth this year, is aimed at getting consumers and businesses to spend and invest in order to keep the economy from becoming even weaker. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and his colleagues announced that they were cutting the target for the federal funds rates, the interest banks charge each other on overnight loans, to 2.5 percent, down from 6.5 percent on Jan. 1. "The terrorist attacks have significantly heightened uncertainty in an economy already weak," the Federal Reserve's chief policy-making group, the Federal Open Market Committee, said in a statement. "Business and household spending, as a consequence, are being further dampened." Policy-makers maintained that their chief concern is the weak economy, leaving the door open to further interest-rate reductions.

Washington, D.C.

World Bank says terrorist attacks may cause severe poverty

The Washington, D.C.-based World Bank released a report Monday suggesting that recession caused by the Sept. 11 attacks in the U.S. could send as many as 10 million people worldwide into poverty next year and cause the deaths of 40,000 children. The attacks could lower economic growth in developing countries next year by between half and three-quarters of a percentage point, which could in turn negatively impact those nations' ability to fight against perennial concerns such as infant mortality and malnutrition. The impact would be felt across the developing world, but particularly in Africa. "We estimate that tens of thousands more children will die worldwide and some 10 million people are likely to be living below the poverty line of one dollar a day because of the terrorist attacks," said a statement issued with the report. "This is simply from loss of income. Many, many more people will be thrown into poverty if development strategies are disrupted." An additional 20,000 to 40,000 children under five years old could die from the economic consequences of the attacks as poverty worsened in developing countries, the report added.