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Markets On Rise; London Calmer, But Rioting Elsewhere In U.K.

A woman walks past a broken cafe window in London earlier today (Aug. 10, 2011).
Peter Macdiarmid
/
Getty Images
A woman walks past a broken cafe window in London earlier today (Aug. 10, 2011).

Good morning.

Financial markets in Asia and Europe have rallied today, extending the rebound that began on Wall Street Tuesday afternoon after the Federal Reserve said it plans to keep interest rates at rock-bottom levels for the next two years in a bid to help keep ailing economies from weakening further.

The Financial Times, though, notes that "confidence remains shaky ... with the Fed's downbeat assessment of the U.S. economy reminding investors that the global growth concerns — coupled with lingering US and Eurozone fiscal deficit worries — that caused the market turmoil still weigh on sentiment."

And on Morning Edition, billionaire investor Wilbur Ross told host Steve Inskeep that the events of the past week haven't changed his outlook, and that he's saw the dramatic plunge in the U.S. market on Monday as a buying opportunity: "Our forecast had been and continues to be an economy that just bumbles along," Ross told Steve. He sees "a stumbling economy," but not "a collapsing economy."

The other major story that continues to develop concerns the rioting in the U.K. While things were calmer in London last night as more than 16,000 police officers were deployed, "unrest spread across central and northern England on a fourth night of violence driven by poor, diverse and brazen crowds of young people" (NPR.org).

Prime Minister David Cameron has declared that "a fightback is under way" as authorities seek to restore order and end the violence that has seen homes and businesses burned and running clashes with police, the BBC writes.

David Lammy, a member of Parliament from the London district of Tottenham (where the riots began), said on Morning Edition today that the neighborhood is perhaps the most ethnically diverse in Europe and that the death of a young black man at the hands of police last week raised questions that the community wants answered.

"That then turned, or escalated, into something unbelievable," he added. A "lack of policing" contributed to the situation getting out of hand, according to Lammy, and a minority of young people who are at "the margins of society" seized the opportunity to incite violence.

About 600 people have been arrested so far in London and "several dozen more" have been arrested in other cities, according to wire service reports.

Other headlines this morning include:

-- "Children Of Somalia's Famine Flood Hospital" In Kenya. (CBS News)

-- Wisconsin Republicans "Take 4 Of 6 In Recall Elections, Hold Senate." (Milwaukee's Journal Sentinel).

-- Senate Majority Leader Reid Names Murray, Baucus And Kerry To "Super Committee." (Politico)

-- "Fugitive 'Dougherty Gang' Reported In Colorado Springs." (Denver Post)

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.