New York - Saying US markets have lost some legitimacy as the world pace setter, the head of a new UN panel on the world financial crisis called for a broadened global finance summit after the G-20 leaders meet in Washington in mid November to resolve the economic meltdown.

"The hope is that it will begin a process, set the agenda and it needs to be a multilateral approach in which the voices of all the countries are heard," said Joseph Stiglitz, winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2001.

New York - The final count is in.

More than 116 million people demonstrated around the world last weekend in a renewed effort to fight poverty, the United Nations said Wednesday.

The Guiness World Records certified the figures provided by anti-poverty campaigners who organized the events in 131 countries Friday through Sunday.

The demonstration was prompted by growing concern that poverty is being aggravated by continued high food prices.

Frankfurt - European shares slumped more than 2 per cent in opening trading Wednesday, picking up on a downbeat end to Wall Street and steep falls in Asia.

As renewed concerns emerged about the outlook for the global economy and profits, Europe's blue-chip Stoxx 50 began the trading day down 2.5 per cent at 2,286 points.

The fall was mirrored across key national European markets with shares in London, Frankfurt, Paris and Zurich all sliding by more than
2 per cent.

Fresh economic concerns resulted in the oil price dropping by 3.3 per cent below 70 dollars a barrel on expectations of falling demand for energy. In July energy prices were heading towards 150 dollars a barrel.

New York, Oct. 22: The standing of the Democratic presidential ticket of Barack Obama and Joe Biden improved during the three presidential debates and the vice presidential debate, a new CBS News/New York Times poll shows.

In a poll taken just before the first presidential debate, the Obama-Biden ticket held a five point edge, with 48 percent of likely voters backing the Democratic ticket and 43 percent supporting the Republican ticket of John McCain and Sarah Palin.

New York, Oct. 22 : Massachusetts Democrat Senator and former presidential candidate John Kerry has been roundly criticized for implying that Republican presidential candidate John McCain wears adult diapers.

The one-liner came during a speech at a business summit in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Monday, when Kerry railed on the media for its election coverage.