Los Angeles - The death toll from the worst train crash in southern California history mounted Saturday with at least 17 people dead and 135 injured.

As hundreds of rescue workers continued to sift through the mangled wreckage, officials warned grimly that the casualty figures were expected to rise.

The horrific accident occurred at 4:23 pm (2323 GMT Friday) when a freight train slammed into a packed commuter train on a stretch of single track near Chatsworth, in the San Fernando Valley north of Los Angeles.

Hamburg - European aerospace concern EADS has threatened to withdraw from the bidding for a 35-billion-dollar contract for new US air tankers after the Pentagon halted the competition, the German news magazine Der Spiegel reported Saturday.

"We will only submit a bid if we are sure we will have a fair chance," the weekly quoted a senior EADS manager as saying.

The US Defence Department on Wednesday cancelled the competition that pitted Airbus maker EADS against US rival Boeing, leaving a decision to the new US administration that takes office in January 2009.

Analysts quoted by Der Spiegel said the move would benefit EADS' rival, which has a chance to reenter the bidding with a new tanker aircraft with a larger fuel capacity.

New York - Crisis talks continued Saturday involving US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and top bankers amid ongoing fears about the future of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

US media reports said Paulson had categorically ruled out any any state aid for the bank, which is desperately looking for a potential buyer after its shares tumbled 94 per cent since the beginning of the year as the credit crisis ravaged the US financial sector.

Bank of America Corp was said to be the leading contender for a takeover, but British banks Barclays and HSBC were also seen as having a possible a role in a rescue.

Washington, Sept 13 : The White House has again launched an attack on Bob Woodward''s new book “The War Within: A Secret White House History, 2006-2008” that criticizes President Bush''s handling of the Iraq war.

It argues that the author’s opinions in the book are not supported by his own reporting.

According to the Washington Post, the book depicts an administration riven by dissension over Iraq war strategy in 2006 and says Bush privately believed U. S. efforts were failing even while declaring publicly that the war was being won.

Washington, Sept. 13 : Should she be asked to take on presidential responsibilities in the event of something happening to John McCain, vice-president Palin, if elected, may just find the White House too hot to handle, most experts believe.

According to them, the hyperbole being generated by Sarah Palin''s perfectly competent and largely uneventful first television interview with ABC is all very well, but a problem could arise if it comes to actually knuckling down and dealing with issues of national importance firmly.

Washington, Sept 13 : Developing countries including China and India, are showing signs of economic cooling as the effects of the downturn that started in the United States continue to spread around the globe, says an expert.

"Basically, what you''ve got is the emerging world now slowing at the same time as the developed world. Though the magnitude of their slowdown is a lot more modest, it is a negative for the global economy. The question now, obviously, is how much will they slow down,” the Washington Post quoted Michael Hartnett, chief emerging markets strategist for Merrill Lynch, as saying.

These fears that booming emerging markets are becoming caught up in a global slowdown have helped send the dollar soaring this week.