SAUDI ARABIA - Saudi Arabia has said it is withdrawing its ambassador from Damascus in protest against Syria's deadly crackdown on anti-government demonstrators. A statement from King Abdullah said the violence was "unacceptable" and called for it to stop before it was too late.
LONDON, UK - The Tottenham riots were orchestrated by teenage gang members who used the latest mobile phone technology to incite and film the looting and violence. The disorder was captured second-by-second on Twitter with rioters so caught up in the frenzy of destruction they thought nothing of posting incriminating pictures of themselves stealing from ransacked shops.
LONDON, UK - Riots spread to all corners of London last night as the capital saw a second night of violence. Up to 200 youths went on the rampage in Enfield, north London, smashing windows on the high street, setting fire to cars and looting stores at a nearby retail park.
USA - Milwaukee police officers are investigating a string of mob-like actions involving a very large and unruly crowd near the Wisconsin State Fair Thursday night, where several people were badly injured and cars and homes were rampaged, Fox6 News reported.
USA - A top official at Standard & Poor's pushed back Saturday against the Obama administration's criticism that their decision to downgrade the nation's credit rating was based on "flawed" math. The administration had tried to prevent the downgrade announced late Friday by telling S&P that the agency had made a $2 trillion error in its calculations about the federal budget.
MEXICO - Carlos Slim, the world's richest man, lost about $6.7 billion this week. The Mexican billionaire's stock portfolio, measured in US dollars, has dropped about 9.5 percent since July 29 and is valued at about $64.4 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That compares with a 7.2 percent slide in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index.
CHINA - China has scolded the US over its "addiction to debt" after rating agency Standard & Poor's downgraded the US' top-notch AAA rating to AA+. State news agency Xinhua said unless the US cut its "gigantic military expenditure and bloated welfare costs," another downgrade would be inevitable.
ISRAEL - At least a quarter of a million Israelis have staged marches over the rising cost of living. The largest protest was in Tel Aviv where police said at least 200,000 people were on the streets, while another 30,000 marched in Jerusalem.
PHILIPPINES - More than 20 people have been killed and tens of thousands have fled their homes after a tropical storm battered the Philippines for a third day. Tropical storm Nock-Ten caused floods and landslides across the island of Luzon.
CHINA - Chinese authorities have evacuated more than 200,000 people from its east coast as the region braces itself for its most powerful typhoon in years. More than 7,000 fishing vessels have been called to harbour, with Typhoon Muifa's winds reaching 162km/h (100mph) and generating 36ft (11m) waves at sea.
USA - America's lost top-notch bond rating threatens a new worldwide credit crunch for both businesses and governments. The bedrock of the global credit market - Washington's prized IOUs - has been shattered with nothing to take its place.
EUROPE - Fears are growing this weekend that two of Europe's largest banks may require a bailout, having been hugely damaged by the worsening crisis across the eurozone. In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy is having to confront the possibility that the country's second-biggest bank, Societe Generale - commonly known as SocGen - is on the brink of disaster after huge losses over loans made to Greece.
UK - Certain years have gone down in history as great global turning points, after which nothing was remotely the same: 1914, 1929, 1939, 1989. Now it looks horribly plausible that 2011 will join their number.
USA - Standard & Poor's announced Friday night that it has downgraded the US credit rating for the first time, dealing a symbolic blow to the world's economic superpower in what was a sharply worded critique of the American political system.
HOLLAND - The Reverend Klaas Hendrikse can offer his congregation little hope of life after death, and he's not the sort of man to sugar the pill. An imposing figure in black robes and white clerical collar, Mr Hendrikse presides over the Sunday service at the Exodus Church in Gorinchem, central Holland.