Evening Edition

Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 industrialised and emerging economies pledged to “take all necessary initiatives in a coordinated way to support financial stability and to foster stronger economic growth in a spirit of cooperation and confidence.”

Their statement came after Asian stock markets suffered heavy losses after Friday’s unprecedented US ratings downgrade.

Concerns about weakening growth saw ‘safe haven’ investment gold shoot to a record high point above $1,700 an ounce. The euro rose against the dollar after Standard and Poor’s had on Friday downgraded its rating on US debt.

“With Asian markets continuing to fall overnight, it looks like we are in for another volatile week,” said Dermot O’Leary, economist at Goodbody Stockbrokers in Dublin.

But Standard and Poor’s did not downgrade commercial banks, especially the four largest seen as resting on the implicit “too big to fail” policies of the government.

As the impact of its cut of the US rating from triple-A to AA+ began to hit markets, S&P announced that numerous government-related enterprises like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — which hold half or more of US home mortgages — were likewise downgraded because they depend on the government’s guarantee of their own bonds.

Geithner spoke in a television interview late Sunday as G7 central bankers and financial chiefs pledged to “take all necessary measures” to support financial stability and growth in the wake of a eurozone crisis and the US credit downgrade.

But Standard and Poor’s managing director warned of possible further downgrades if Washington fails to get its fiscal house in order.

Buildings were in flames in Peckham, Lewisham and Croydon in the south of the capital while gangs of looters roamed the streets of Hackney in the east.

Hundreds of riot police poured into Hackney to try to contain the violence in a district just a few miles (kilometres) from where the 2012 Olympics will take place this time next year.

Hours after the Saudi envoy’s recall, rights activists said on Monday a mother and her two children were shot dead by security forces in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor, where 42 people were reported killed on Sunday in an army assault.

The recalls by Riyadh, the Arab world’s Sunni Muslim heavyweight, and by fellow Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member Kuwait, mark a major escalation of pressure on Assad

After being sworn in at a colourful ceremony in the Indian hill town of Dharamshala, Sangay warned China that the Tibet movement was “here to stay” and would only grow stronger in the waning years of the Dalai Lama.

In an historic shift from the dominance of Tibetan politics by religious figures, the new prime minister, who has never set foot in Tibet, is assuming the political leadership role relinquished by the 76-year-old Dalai Lama in May.

Workers managed to repair a dyke protecting a chemical plant after it was breached by high waves in the province of Liaoning, which has been lashed by torrential rain as the storm nears.

Residents near the Fujia Group plant in the port city of Dalian had been evacuated as a precaution, the state Xinhua news agency said in a report confirmed by an official with the Liaoning border police.

Over the weekend the G7 and G20 group finance ministers pledged coordinated action to ensure financial market stability and economic growth after world stock markets lost $3.4 trillion in value since July 29 on investor concern that slowing global economic growth would make it even harder for heavily indebted countries to pay their debts.

Late Friday the United States lost its prized AAA credit rating from Standard and Poor’s, reflecting the agency’s fear that political gridlock in Washington, D.C would prevent the government from cutting its budget deficit and reducing its debt.

In Washington, President Barack Obama stopped short of sharply criticizing S&P, which senior administration officials had accused of misjudging the political outlook for further deficit cuts in Washington.

“Markets will rise and fall, but this is the United States of America. No matter what some agency may say, we have always been and always will be a triple-A country,” Obama said as Wall Street plunged more than 3 percent.

Panicked selling on heavy volume resulted in the S&P 500’s worst day since December 2008, with every stock in the benchmark index ending in negative territory.

“We’re starting to see real disorderly selling, far more than what we’ve been seeing,” said Matthew Peron, head of active equities at the Chicago-based Northern Trust, which has about $650 billion in assets under management.

U.S. stock markets have fallen more than 10 percent in the last week on investor worries about a global economic slump, exacerbated by Standard & Poor’s downgrade late on Friday of the United States’ credit rating.

The difference between the price of agreed upon deals and their value today, or the spread, has widened during this period.

Shares of the largest U.S. bank fell to their lowest since March 2009, wiping out roughly one-third of the bank’s market value, or in excess of $32 billion, over the last three trading days.

In afternoon trading, the shares were down $1.60, or 19.6 percent, to $6.57, after earlier falling to $6.31.

In Hackney, a multi-ethnic area in east London close to the site of next year’s Olympic Games, hooded youths set fire to rubbish bins and pushed them down a street toward police, while hurling bottles and bricks.

Many laughed as they ran back when police charged them. Others shouted into their cellphones telling their friends to join in.

Assad’s five-month campaign against street protests has emerged as one of the bloodiest episodes of the wave of democratic revolutions sweeping the Arab world this year. Killings have worsened sharply in the past week after Assad ordered tank assaults on two cities.

Other Arab leaders had been cautious about criticizing one of their peers, but Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah broke the silence with a rare intervention overnight, demanding an end to the bloodshed and recalling the Saudi ambassador from Damascus.

Saturday’s crash was the deadliest incident for U.S. forces since the war in Afghanistan began nearly a decade ago and followed a series of high-profile assassinations and attacks by the insurgents over the past several months.

The incidents have raised concerns about the extent of U.S. progress in the decade-long conflict, but Obama and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta both said they were unwavering in their commitment to move ahead with the mission.

The Dow Jones industrials fell 634.76 points. It was the sixth worst point decline for the Dow in the last 112 years and the worst one-day drop since December 2008. Every stock in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index declined Monday.

Investors worried about the slowing U.S. economy, escalating debt problems threatening Europe and the prospect that fear in the markets would reinforce itself, as it did during the financial crisis in the fall of 2008.

The worst unrest in London in decades saw buildings, cars and garbage dumbs set ablaze and police officers pelted with bottles and fireworks, as groups of young people and police clashed in neighborhoods across the capital.

In the nation’s central city of Birmingham, dozens of people attacked stores in a main retail district – spreading the chaos beyond London for the first time since violence broke out on Saturday night.

Youths set fire to shops and vehicles in a host of areas of London – which will host next summer’s Olympic Games – and clashed with police in the nation’s central city of Birmingham, as authorities struggled to halt groups of rampaging young people.

Cameron’s office said he was flying to London on Monday night, cutting short a family holiday in Italy, and would lead a meeting of the government’s crisis committee on Tuesday as police and lawmakers seek to quell the violence.

The Chinook helicopter was transporting the troops to an ongoing battle early Saturday between coalition forces and insurgents in eastern Wardak province, NATO said in a statement.

It was deadliest single loss for U.S. forces in the decade-long war.