Today on The World: Sweden's bailout of its struggling banks in the 1990's offers lessons for the US today; An Afghan journalist detained by the US as an enemy combatant tells his story; And Brazilian bossa nova legend Sergio Mendes adds a little hip hop spice to his jazzy sound.

Republican John McCain on Wednesday said he was suspending his campaign and would return to Washington to focus on the roiling US financial crisis. He said he asked Democratic opponent Barack Obama to join him in the nation's capital and to agree to a delay in Friday's first presidential debate.

The Obama campaign said the Illinois senator was inclined to go ahead with the debate and the University of Mississippi, which is hosting the event, said it too was moving ahead with preparations because it had "received no notification of any change in the timing or venue."

Even before the Obama campaign said it was inclined to go forward with the face off, Obama spokesman Bill Burton issued a statement saying that McCain made his announcement unilaterally moments after agreeing to joint action by both candidates that was initiated by Obama in a personal phone call to McCain early Wednesday.

"At 8:30 this morning, Senator Obama called Senator McCain to ask him if he would join in issuing a joint statement outlining their shared principles and conditions for the Treasury proposal and urging Congress and the White House to act in a bipartisan manner to pass such a proposal. At 2:30 this afternoon, Senator McCain returned Senator Obama's call and agreed to join him in issuing such a statement. The two campaigns are currently working together on the details," Burton's statement said.

Leaders from around the world are in New York for the opening of the United Nations General Assembly. Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin is using the opportunity to take a crash course in foreign policy. Today she held separate meetings with Afghani President Hamid Karzai, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and Henry Kissinger. On Wednesday she meets with Iraqi President Jalal Talibani and joins John McCain in a session with the leaders of Georgia, Ukraine and India. Today, print pool reporters were initially barred from a picture-taking session at the beginning of Palin's meeting with the Afghan president. Palin's spokeswoman said it was a “mixup” and reporters were allowed in for the subsequent events. The World's Carol Hills talks to presidential campaign historian Kathleen Hall Jamieson about how foreign policy experience has affected past vice presidential candidates.

What is the soundtrack of Brazil? Try listening to Beto Villares's new CD. The World's Marco Werman reports.

For today's geo quiz we asked whether the number of immigrants to the US is going up or down, and where most of them come from. Anchor Lisa Mullins gets the answer from William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution in Washington. He says at least half of the people coming to the United States are from Latin America...and that newly released census numbers for 2007 indicate a slowdown in immigration.

Discuss immigration issues

Our daily geography quiz.

The corruption watchdog group, Transparency International, has released its list of most and least corrupt countries. We hear from four correspondents about some of the most corrupt countries, David McGuffin in Somalia, Quil Lawrence in Afghanistan, Gerry Hadden in Bulgaria and James Ingham in Venezuela.

Ambassador Crocker

Anchor Lisa Mullins speaks with the US Ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, about the current state of life in Iraq.

Food and nutrition professor Marion Nestle tells anchor Lisa Mullins that the infant formula scandal under way China isn't unprecedented. She says similar food quality scares have happened before in China and in the US.

The Chinese province of Ningxia is about a thousand miles from Beijing, but people there are feeling the effects of China's growing tainted milk scandal. The World's Mary Kay Magistad reports.