AFP - Shocked, open-mouthed and fearful US lawmakers stood in the well of the House of Representatives Monday, dumbfounded by the magnitude of the chamber's decision to kill a bid to save Wall Street.

AP - In New York, traders watched in disbelief as the $700 billion financial bailout plan sank like a stone in Congress. In Washington, plugged-in lawmakers knew the stock market was tanking in anticipation of the defeat.

AFP - The US House of Representatives dramatically rejected a 700-billion-dollar Wall Street bailout, sending stocks crashing to one of their worst single day losses ever and deepening the US financial crisis.

AP - Brother, can you spare a billion? More like $700 billion, to be precise.

AP - Two-thirds of Congress' most vulnerable members — Republicans and Democrats alike — chose to protect their seats on Election Day rather than follow their party leaders and vote for an unpopular economic bailout plan.

AP - Top congressional and White House officials, stunned when the House rejected a massive rescue plan for the nation's economy, scrambled to structure a new bailout proposal that would attract reluctant lawmakers and still soothe the unnerved financial markets.

AP - Republican Sen. Ted Stevens once counted Bill Allen among his closest friends. That seems long ago, when Stevens was still the untouchable patriarch of Alaska politics and Allen was among the state's most powerful businessmen.

AP - She accuses her opponent of being too close to Big Oil and says he stood by for eight years while the economy crumbled. Her opponent says she's an "extreme liberal" who has more support in California than Missouri.

Reuters - The House of Representatives voted on Monday to begin debate on legislation for a financial markets rescue plan, clearing the way for a final vote on the measure later in the day that would send it to the Senate.