Markets around the world have started to open for business, ushering in the first week that the United States’ credit rating was less than top ranked AAA.What will be the effect on financial markets worldwide? Here is a look at this and other stories that CNN plans to follow this week:
Following U.S. downgrade, world markets worry and wait
The ripple effect from Friday’s downgrade by Standard & Poor's of the U.S. credit rating to AA+ from the top rank of AAA remains to be seen across the world.
Middle Eastern markets, the first to open since the downgrade, were sharply lower on Sunday. Israel's market temporarily halted trading at one point and finished down more than 6%, while the Dubai Financial Market General Index fell 3.7%.
Stocks on key Asian exchanges dropped modestly early Monday.
In early Tokyo trading, the Nikkei index fell 124 points, or 1.3%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index tumbled 2.6% at the open. And U.S. stock futures fell around 1.7% in early electronic trading Sunday.
Seven people, including an 11-year-old, were fatally shot in a small Ohio town Sunday in a rampage that ended when police killed the suspected gunman, authorities said.
Copley Township Police Chief Michael Mier told CNN affiliate WJW that the shooting began after an argument in a residence.
Lindy McCrady, who lives near the shootings, said a woman ran to her house and told her, "somebody had shot her husband point blank in the head. ... And then she started screaming, 'My son, my son, my 11-year-old son.' "
FULL STORYSaudi Arabia's King Abdullah condemned the crackdown on anti-government protesters in Syria on Sunday, saying there is "no justification for the bloodshed."
In an audio message that aired on Saudi state television Sunday night, Abdullah said the kingdom had recalled its ambassador from Damascus for consultations.
His statement puts the leader of one of the leading powers in the region behind calls for an end to the violence. In his remarks Sunday night, he said Syria's future "lies between two choices - either wisdom or chaos."
FULL STORYVerizon workers, including call center employees and cable workers, have gone on strike. The move could cause delays in service, according to a report in the New York Times Sunday.
The workers are associated with the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers who disagree with concessions that the telecommunications company wants to make to employee health care coverage and pension plans. The strike covers workers from Massachusetts to Virgina, the Times and the Huffington Post reports.
A vigil in London held Saturday to honor a man killed by London police turned from peaceful to violent. Rioters threw gas bombs and projectiles at law enforcement, according to the city's Metropolitan Police. Forty-eight people were arrested, officials said on Sunday.
The police are investigating the uprising.
The man whose vigil was taking place was Mark Duggan. He was killed while riding in a cab on Thursday. Police stopped the cab in an attempted arrest, and shots were fired, the Independent Police Complaints Commission said.
Four NATO soldiers were killed Sunday in two separate insurgent attacks in eastern and southern Afghanistan, NATO reported. Their deaths come one day after the worst single-incident loss of American troops since the start of the Afghan war. Read the full story
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