Washington, Sept. 27 : Republican presidential candidate and Arizona Senator John McCain is facing a divided party and an increasingly skeptical public in the run-up to the November 4 presidential poll, the New York Times has claimed.

Oxford (Mississippi, US), Sept. 27 : Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Friday called for putting more pressure on Pakistan to rein in terror elements in its tribal badlands, while his Republican opponent John McCain pitched for giving that country more aid.

Though the first of three presidential debates held on the University of Mississippi campus here focused primarily on the Wall Street meltdown, both Obama and McCain used the platform to call for a change in foreign policy strategy.

Oxford (Mississippi, US), Sept. 27 : Departing from a pre-arranged pact that they would engage in a debate on foreign policy, presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain on Friday engaged in a verbal duel on the ongoing Wall Street meltdown.

While McCain accused Obama of being an extreme liberal on spending, Obama countered by describing his Republican opponent as a protégé of President George W Bush in their first of three presidential debates.

Varanasi, Sept 27: External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said that a nuclear deal with the US will be bound by international conventions on bilateral treaties.

"As a sovereign country, when we enter into any agreement with a sovereign nation, it is guided by the law of treaty and for that there is a guiding principle, evolved over the years, Vienna Convention, and all other ways in which the international treaties are being governed," Mukherjee said on the sidelines of a seminar here yesterday.

Washington - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Friday endorsed President George W Bush's 700-billion-dollar plan designed to rescue the US financial sector and stave off further turmoil in global markets.

"Britain supports the financial plan. And whatever the details of it, it's the right thing to do to take us through these difficult circumstances," Brown said at a hastily scheduled meeting with Bush at the White House.

Washington - US stocks were mixed Friday as investors awaited congressional approval of a 700-billion-dollar financial rescue plan.

The Standard & Poor's 500 broad-based index rose 4.09 points, or 0.3 per cent, to 1,213.27. The blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 121.07, or 1.1 per cent, to 1,1143.13. The high tech Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 3.23, or 0.2 per cent, to 2,183.34.

The S&P 500 was down 3.3 per cent on the week and the Dow slipped 2.2 per cent.