CHINA

Global markets plummeted overnight night as news of the U.S. downgrade. Monday is the first day of trading in the U.S. and futures pointed sharply lower early by 6:30 a.m.

Japan's Nikkei stock average slid more than 2 percent on Monday as weak sentiment following Standard & Poor's downgrade of the United States' credit rating was exacerbated by futures selling after Asian markets tumbled.

U.S. Open champion Rory McIlroy has signed up to headline a made-for-television golf odyssey through China this year to showcase the sport in the country and the nation's fast-growing cities to the rest of the world.

The European Central Bank stepped into bond markets on Monday, backing up a pledge to support Spain and Italy with the aim of averting financial meltdown in the euro zone, while the G7 and G20 offered soothing words to investors shaken by a historic downgrade of the U.S. debt rating.

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The United States lost its top-tier AAA credit rating from Standard & Poor's on Friday, a move that will affect the country's borrowing costs and investor opinion of U.S. assets. Here is a Q+A on what the downgrade means for investors, consumers and to the country.

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Chinese economists said the U.S. credit rating downgrade by Standard & Poor's poses great risk to financial markets and expect it to prompt China, the world's biggest holder of U.S. Treasuries, to accelerate the diversification of its holdings.

Chinese authorities evacuated more than 200,000 residents from eastern Zhejiang province and cancelled more than 200 flights, as the region braced itself for a typhoon that could be the worst in the area in years.

China bluntly criticised the United States on Saturday one day after the superpower's credit rating was downgraded, saying the "good old days" of borrowing were over.

China holds a large amount of U.S. debt. Xinhua, the official press agency of China, issued a commentary on Aug. 6 titled After historic downgrade, U.S. must address its chronic debt problems. The commentary stated that the days when debt-ridden Uncle Sam could leisurely squander unlimited overseas borrowing seemed to be numbered because S&P slashed the country's AAA rating for the first time.

Thirteen items belonging to the late kung fu legend Bruce Lee, including a hand-written letter and a fur-lined coat, are set to go under the hammer in Hong Kong at the weekend.

The United States lost its top-tier AAA credit rating from Standard & Poor's, drawing a blast of criticism on Saturday from its biggest creditor China and deepening investors' alarm over the euro zone's debt crisis.

In the event Monday witnesses a massive sell-off of Treasuries, bond yields would surge.

?We have total confidence in the solidity of the American economy,? Baroin told French radio.

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The last powerful storm to hit the Shanghai area, Matsa in 2005, killed 19 people.

Tolstoy thought unhappy families were unique in their unhappiness.

The biggest threat to China's grip on its ethnically divided far western frontier comes from homegrown anger exploding in violence, not from Pakistan-based terrorists officials have blamed for the latest bloodshed.

The crumbling of mega-merger talks between Japanese industrial behemoths Hitachi (6501.T) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (7011.T) threatens a rare opportunity for Japan to improve its global competitiveness by consolidating century-old companies.