Asian stocks plunge after rejection of bailout    By Koji Sasahara (AP)

The historic carnage on Wall Street reverberated across Asia Tuesday, with stock markets in the region plunging after U.S. lawmakers rejected a US$700 billion bank rescue plan aimed at stabilizing the U.S. financial system.

All major Asian stock markets in the region tumbled across the board, succumbing to heightened fears of a broader global financial crisis.   Read More...

The failure of the bailout package in Congress literally dropped jaws on Wall Street and triggered a historic selloff _ including a terrifying decline of nearly 500 points in mere minutes as the vote took place, the closest thing to panic the stock market has seen in years.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 777 points Monday, its biggest single-day fall ever, easily beating the 684 points it lost on the first day of trading after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

As uncertainty gripped investors, the credit markets, which provide the day-to-day lending that powers business in the United States, froze up even further.

At the New York Stock Exchange, traders watched with faces tense and mouths agape as TV screens showed the House vote rejecting the Bush administration's $700 billion plan to buy up bad debt and shore up the financial industry.   Read More...