BBC News with David Austin
More than 330 people have died in Cambodia during a
stampede
at a festival in the capital Phnom Penh. This report from our Cambodia correspondent Guy De Launey.
The Water Festival is usually Phnom Penh's biggest party. Hundreds of thousands of people come in from the rural provinces for three days of boat racing, music and dancing. This time, it's gone terribly wrong. The incident apparently started when a crush on a small island in the river turned into a panic. A stampede onto the bridge connecting the island to the city centre followed. Reports from the scene say that some people jumped from the bridge while others were caught in the crowd. Phnom Penh's limited emergency services have been struggling to take the injured to hospital.
The Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen says he'll call a general election in the new year once the government has passed an
austerity
budget and concluded negotiations on a big euro bailout package. He was speaking after a day of political turmoil in Dublin that included a call by a junior partner in the coalition for an early election. Mr Cowen said Ireland's interest would not be served by going to the polls before a budget was approved.
"The government will publish its four-year plan next Wednesday; it will continue the negotiations with the European Union, the ECB and with the IMF; and it will present a budget on 7 December. It is my intention at the conclusion of this budgetary process with the