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Wii was credited with attracting non-traditional gamers, including older people Nintendo has announced it will launch a new version of its Wii console in 2012. No technical details about the machine have been revealed, but gamers will get an early preview at the E3 Expo in Los Angeles in June.
The original Wii proved a runaway hit for Nintendo when it launched five years ago.
However, sales have been gradually declining in the face of tough competition from PlayStation, XBox 360 and mobile gaming platforms.
Wii was the first console of the current generation to offer motion controlled gameplay.
In the past year, Microsoft has introduced its Kinect system for XBox, while Sony launched PlayStation Move.
Nintendo's chief executive, Satoru Iwata suggested that his company was preparing a fresh innovation.
"It will offer a new way of playing games within the home," he said. Gameplay Some observers had speculated that the Wii 2 would simply update the existing machine, adding a handful of features such as high definition graphics.
However Johnny Minkley, an editor at believes that Nintendo could be planning a broader redesign.
"The talk was about Wii HD, but I do not see Nintendo doing that. It will do something more innovative," he told BBC News.
Mr Minkley noted that Nintendo marketed the original Wii around its motion-sensing handset, rather than technical specifications - something he expects to see repeated.
"PlayStation 3 and XBox 360 were part of the graphics arms race.
"Nintendo would never launch a console based on the strength of hardware. Theirs has to have a gameplay point to it," he said. Sales slump The Wii took an early lead in the battle of the consoles soon after it launched in late 2006.
A combination of its relatively low price and its appeal to non-traditional gamers - including women and older players - helped the company sell 20m units in the first year.
In the financial year 2009/10, Nintendo shipped 20.1m Wii consoles. However, that fell to 15.1m in 2010/11.
Nintendo's profits for the same period slipped by 66% from 228bn yen (£1.6bn) to 77bn yen (£570m)
An error message like this one greeted users trying to log-in to the PlayStation Network Sony has confirmed that a hacking attack was to blame for its PlayStation Network being taken offline.
The company said that it had taken the PSN down voluntarily while it investigated an "external intrusion".
The system is still unavailable five days after the hack was discovered.
Users trying to connect have been met with error messages stating that the network is "undergoing maintenance" or is "suspended".
The PlayStation Network is used by owners of PS3 and PlayStation Portable machines to download games, films and music, as well as to play online with friends.
According to Sony, it has more than 70m accounts registered worldwide. the company thanked users for their patience and assured them that it was working "around the clock" to strengthen the network infrastructure.
"Though this task is time-consuming, we decided it was worth the time necessary to provide the system with additional security," wrote Patrick Seybold, the company's senior director of corporate communications and social media.
The statement did not address the issue of personal information, including credit card details, stored by PSN. Anonymous denial In recent weeks, Sony has been targeted by hackers' group Anonymous.
In a message posted on the AnonOps blog, it said "for once we didn't do it".
However, it suggested that some members may have acted on their own without the group's knowledge.
Anonymous has been critical of the Japan-based entertainment giant over its treatment of George Hotz, an American hacker who unlocked the PS3's closed operating system.
Sony filed a lawsuit against the 21-year-old, arguing that his hack had allowed pirated games to be played on the machine.
The case was dropped earlier this month after Mr Hotz agreed to an injunction banning him from similar behaviour in future.
In denying responsibility for the attack, Anonymous said: "A more likely explanation is that Sony is taking advantage of Anonymous' previous ill-will towards the company to distract users from the fact that the outage is actually an internal problem with the company's servers." 'Really not good' As well as gaming, the outage has affected other services running over the PlayStation Network.
UK-based film rental site LoveFilm confirmed to the BBC that its customers are currently unable to stream films on the service. In the US, some users of Netflix - another movie streaming service - have also reported problems.
The downtime coincides with the release of Portal 2
This outage is the latest in a series of problems for the network which has suffered extended periods of downtime over the past few weeks.
Angry gamers have flooded blogs, forums and Twitter with complaints.
"It wouldn't be as bad if we got an ETA of when it will be back up and running but instead we are greeted with one update on the situation a day all saying it will be back up soon," wrote one user, geddesmond2.
Others, however, were more accommodating. "Keep up the good work Sony... take your time," wrote deltaman-3. 'Poor timing' Oli Welsh, from Eurogamer.net, said that the outage was a big problem for Sony - especially at Easter.
"As much as the weather's lovely, a lot of gamers will be looking forward to tucking in to their favourite hobby this week.
"It's also a pretty big week for new releases, the biggest we've had in a couple of months. There's one really key game coming out called Portal 2 which has a great online mode that a lot of people now won't be able to access straight away.
"For gamers it's a shame, and for Sony it's a problem."
He added that customers may expect some kind of reimbursement for the downtime.
Details of the Stars virus were posted on the website of Iran's civil defence organisation Officials in Iran say they have found a computer virus designed to target the country's government institutions. The malicious software - dubbed Stars - was capable of inflicting minor damage, according to the head of Iran's civil defence organisation.
If the reports are accurate, it would be the second major attack in a year.
The recently discovered Stuxnet worm is thought to have been created to take control of equipment used in Iran's nuclear programme.
It would take some time to establish Stars' intended purpose, said Gholam Reza Jalali, military head of the Iranian Passive Defence Organisation.
"The Stars virus has been presented to the laboratory but is still being investigated," he said.
"No definite final conclusions have been reached."
Mr Jalali revealed that the virus could have been "mistaken for executive files of governmental organisations", but gave no indication about who might be behind the attack. Stuxnet Last week, the same official suggested that Stuxnet was the work of the United States and warned that it could have caused large-scale accidents and loss of life. that, while it could be transmitted via the internet, it was designed to infect specific types of industrial controllers.
Stuxnet is believed to have been designed to target Iran's uranium enrichment facility at Natanz
The machinery in question was used to control centrifuges at Iran's Natanz uranium enrichment facility.
Most experts who have looked at the case agree, given the scale and complexity of Stuxnet, that a foreign state was probably behind its development.
Iranian officials have previously pointed the finger at the US and Israel, although no firm evidence has been produced.
Equinox counts the major Lumwana copper and uranium mine among its assets Barrick Gold has beaten a Chinese rival to buy a major copper miner in the latest battle over commodity supplies.
The world's biggest gold producer will pay 7.2bn Canadian dollars ($7.4bn, £4.5bn) for Equinox Minerals.
The offer, which has been accepted, is 16% higher than a rival bid from China's Minmetals earlier this month.
Equinox owns the Lumwana copper and uranium mine in Zambia - Africa's third largest - and the Jabal Sayid copper deposits in Saudi Arabia.
The firm, which is jointly listed in Canada and Australia, said that Barrick's offer was superior not only in terms of price, but also its likelihood of being completed. Last Updated at 21 Apr 2011, 12:05 GMT
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Equinox has agreed not to seek any other bids and to give Barrick the right to match any other solicited bids received. It also agreed to pay Barrick a 250m Canadian dollar fine if it withdraws from the takeover.
Riding high "The acquisition of Equinox would add a high-quality, long-life asset to our portfolio and is consistent with our strategy of increasing gold and copper reserves through exploration and acquisitions," said the Canadian gold producer's chief executive Aaron Regent in "Combined with our Zaldivar mine and Cerro Casale project in Chile, this acquisition would position Barrick with significant production growth potential in two of the most prolific copper-producing regions of the world."
Barrick has been riding high thanks to the gold price, which hit a new all-time high on Monday of $1,518.30 an ounce.
But the company's share price fell back some 5% in early trading on Monday after the deal was announced.
While the gold price has doubled in the last two years, the price of copper has more than tripled to its own all-time high.
And Equinox' share price has risen with it. It had increased sevenfold since 2008, even before Minmetal's bid became public.
The Chinese firm's interest pushed up Equinox shares a further 32% to 7.55 Canadian dollars.
Following Barrick's $8.15-a-share offer, the copper miner's share price jumped even further in early Monday trading, to $8.37.
The price of gold has hit another record, but goldsmiths working with the rare Welsh gold are struggling
The prices of gold and silver have hit new record highs, driven by a weaker US dollar and continuing tensions in the Middle East and North Africa.
Gold rose as high as $1,518.30 (£918.70) an ounce during morning trading in Europe, before falling back.
Silver briefly reached an all time high of $49.79 an ounce before retreating to $49, still the highest since 1980.
Investors have been buying precious metals as a haven against inflation and recent geopolitical turmoil.
Analysts say gold could even trade even higher.
The dollar could be even weaker, unless there were game-changing comments from Bernanke”
End QuoteOng Yin LingPhillip Futures
"We as a company believe that we may see $1,600 an ounce by the end of the year," said Angelos Damaskos, a fund manager at Sector Investments, which specialises in gold and oil investments.
"But gold could easily surprise everybody and go to significantly higher levels because of the relatively small supply of the metal."
Monday was the seventh consecutive trading session that saw the price of gold rise.
The price of gold has risen sixfold in the last 10 years, and has more than doubled since the global financial crisis of 2008.
However, the price of silver has been even more volatile, having quintupled since 2008, and up 12-fold in the last decade.
By mid-morning in London on Monday, silver was trading just below the high of $49.45 that it reached in 1980 following the Iranian revolution and related oil price spike. 'Dollar play' Much of the rise in both metals is seen as the flipside of a decline in the US dollar.
"It's the dollar play," said a Singapore-based dealer, referring to the gold rally. "There is more room for prices to go even higher." :20 GMT
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The greenback has been steadily declining against most other currencies since the end of the financial crisis.
With the US central bank, the Federal Reserve, pumping unprecedented amounts into the financial markets, there are fears the dollar may lose its status as the favourite reserve currency of the world's central banks, with precious metals being an obvious alternative.
On Wednesday, the Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke, is expected to affirm its commitment to quantitative easing, a programme to flood money markets with liquidity.
The policy tends to drive down the value of the US currency, and has been openly criticised by China and other countries who hold large dollar reserves.
The prospect of low interest rates in the US is driving investors seeking higher returns towards gold.
"Investors expect the Fed to continue with low rates, which means the dollar could be even weaker, unless there were game-changing comments from Bernanke," said Ong Yin Ling of Phillip Futures.
Investors continue to react nervously to the uncertainty in the Middle East. An escalation in violence in Yemen and Syria over the weekend has also helped the price of gold strengthen. Fashion versus utility However, an equally important driving factor in the rise of gold is its use in jewellery, particularly in India.
And in India, demand for gold jewellery has been skyrocketing, rising 69% last year.
In contrast, silver's rally has been driven by its use in industry, particularly in electronics.
Watch: Kids talk about their favourite games and what they play them on
Video games giant Nintendo has seen its annual profits slump by 66%, hurt by a strong yen and a drop in sales.
Net profit for the year to the end of March came in at 77.6bn yen ($945m; £570m), compared with 228.6bn yen the previous yea
The company said that while it had not suffered any direct damage from last month's earthquake, it expected it to weigh on consumer spending in Japan.
Nintendo also announced that it will release a successor to the Wii in 2012.
Net sales fell 29% to 1.014 trillion yen.
Nintendo also faces a growing challenge from smartphones and tablets. In a bid to fight back, it launched the 3DS, a handheld console that provides a 3D experience for users without the need to wear special glasses.
The company said the device, which launched in February in Japan and in March in the US, Europe and Australia, had a "smooth start in sales", which totalled 3.61 million worldwide. New model Nintendo said it had decided to launch a system to succeed the Wii next year. It will give a demonstration of the new model at the E3 Expo in Los Angeles in June.
Nintendo has sold 86 million units of the Wii since its launch in 2006.
But sales of the console are falling - 15.1 million were sold in the year to March, down from 20.1 million the previous year.
And Nintendo expects sales of about 13 million in the next year.
By comparison, rival Microsoft has also seen a slight fall in sales of its Xbox - it sold 10.3 million in the year to March 2010, down from 11.2 million the previous year.
But Sony has seen a rise in sales of its Playstation 3. It sold 13 million units in the year to March 2010, up from 10.1 million the year before.
Youngsters laid flowers for Isobel at a park in Chiswick Friends of a teenager who died after falling ill at a party in west London have held a vigil in her memory. Scores of youngsters gathered on a green in Chiswick, west London, two days after the death of Isobel Reilly.
The 15-year-old died in hospital after paramedics were called to a house in Barlby Road, north Kensington.
A man, understood to be university academic Brian Dodgeon, was arrested on suspicion of possession of drugs and child abandonment and later bailed.
Police said they were treating the death as "unexplained" but were looking into whether she died after taking drugs.
Mr Dodgeon, who is not thought to have been at the house at the time, was bailed until June.
He is believed to be a research fellow at the University of London Institute of Education and his research subjects have included health inequalities and alcohol consumption patterns.
Isobel Reilly died after falling ill at a house party
His 14-year-old daughter and two boys, also 14, who were at the party were also taken to hospital for observation.
Police were alerted by London Ambulance Service at about 0410 BST on Saturday.
Isobel, from Acton, west London, was taken to hospital but died later that morning.
Her friends gathered in a park in Chiswick, where she went to school, on Monday afternoon and laid floral tributes.
Det Sgt Neil Philpott, of the Metropolitan Police, has said he wants to speak to everyone who was at the party to find out what happened to Isobel.
A statement from Isobel's family said they were "devastated and heartbroken by her untimely death".
Professor Chris Husbands, the Institute of Education director, said he would be meeting with his senior team on Tuesday to make "appropriate decisions on the way we will proceed".
The 5 May referendum was a Liberal Democrat condition for entering coalition with the Tories. The Electoral Commission says it cannot investigate claims of dishonesty during the AV referendum campaign. Liberal Democrat minister Chris Huhne threatened legal action over "untruths" he said had been told by Conservatives opposed to the Alternative Vote system.
There are special laws regarding claims of dishonesty during parliamentary election campaigns.
The commission told the BBC there is no body with the power to investigate claims during a referendum campaign.
The 5 May referendum was a Liberal Democrat condition for entering coalition with the Tories.
But with all Lib Dems in the Cabinet backing the change and their Tory colleagues speaking against it, the two parties making up the coalition have been increasingly pitted against one another during the campaign. 'Stop whinging' Chris Huhne, who refused to rule out resigning as energy secretary over the tensions, said on Sunday that Tory ministers backing the No campaign undermined their credibility by making false claims about the costs of introducing AV.
He threatened legal action over the "extraordinary allegation" by Chancellor George Osborne that expensive new voting machines would be needed to count the votes after an election held under AV rules.
"Australia's used [AV] for 80 years without ever using voting machines. If they can't substantiate that, there's simple legal redress," he said. "They had better come clean pretty fast."
Meanwhile, a leading Conservative backbencher has told Mr Clegg and Mr Huhne to "stop their whinging" about the way opponents of the alternative vote are campaigning.
Mark Pritchard MP, Secretary of the 1922 Committee, said: "With each of them presiding over major government departments they've never had it so good.
"Their personal and political sacrifices are infinitesimal compared to those made by hundreds of public sector workers losing their jobs each week and many of my Conservative colleagues who gave up ministerial office for the sake of the coalition". Important issue Playing down the disagreement, former Lib Dem leader Sir Menzies Campbell said Labour was just as divided on the issue of AV.
"Of course we also know there are quite a few Conservatives not fully reconciled to the coalition," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
"Perhaps they will be satisfied by the notion that David Cameron is not rolling over in front of Nick Clegg."
Former Tory leader Lord Howard said there was a "very important issue at stake" in the referendum, and both coalition partners had "different views".
"The truth is that these are two parties with different traditions and different views on many issues, which have come together to work together for the good of the country," he said.
"The need for them to work together in the good of the country is going to be just as great on 6 May."
Gabrielle Giffords is facing a long road to recovery after suffering a serious brain injury US congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head in January, has been declared fit enough to attend her husband's space shuttle launch. Nasa astronaut Mark Kelly said his wife's reaction to the doctors' decision had been to pump her fist and say: "Awesome!"
Ms Giffords narrowly survived the shooting spree by a gunman in Tucson, Arizona, that killed six people.
Mr Kelly is commander of the Endeavour, due to lift off on Friday.
It will be one of the last space shuttle missions and the launch will be attended by President Barack Obama and other VIPs.
"I have met with her neurosurgeon and her doctors, and... they have given us permission to take her down to the launch," Mr Kelly told CBS News. "I'm excited about that," he added.
Ms Giffords suffered a bullet wound to her brain's left hemisphere, which controls speech and movement for the right side of the body.
"Her personality's 100% there," said Mr Kelly.
"You know, it's difficult for her to walk. The communication skills are difficult, at this point."
Nasa astronaut Mark Kelly said he was excited by the latest news
Dong Kim, Ms Giffords's neurosurgeon, told The Arizona Republic newspaper on Sunday that that doctors were "comfortable with her travelling".
He said Ms Giffords was "maybe in the top 1% of patients in terms of how far she's come, and how quickly she's gotten there".
"I think the question then becomes, how far is she going to go?" he said.
The Democratic congresswoman is due to undergo more surgery in May to repair a section of her skull with a cranial implant.
CBS will broadcast its full interview with Mr Kelly on Monday.
Jared Loughner, 22, has pleaded not guilty to charges relating to the attack at Ms Giffords's constituency event in Tucson on 8 January. Thirteen other people were wounded.
The White House remarks came as the Syrian army reportedly sent tanks into Deraa The US is weighing sanctions against Syria in response to the army's intensifying crackdown on popular protests, the White House has said. The "brutal violence" Syria directed against protesters was "deplorable", a White House spokesman said.
Sanctions could include a freeze on Syrian assets and a ban on business with the US, officials have said.
On Monday, at least five people were reported killed as Syrian tanks and troops advanced into the city of Deraa.
"The brutal violence used by the government of Syria against its people is completely deplorable," National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said.
"The US is pursuing a range of possible policy options, including targeted sanctions, to respond to the crackdown and make clear that this behaviour is unacceptable."
The remarks represent a further hardening of the US position on the Syrian protests following US President Barack Obama's strong condemnation on Friday of the Syrian government's use of force.
However, the BBC's Owen Bennett Jones, reporting on Syria from neighbouring Lebanon, says many Syrians doubt targeted sanctions will make a difference in this situation.
Meanwhile, at the UN on Monday, Britain and other European states were circulating a draft statement on Syria condemning the violence, calling for restraint, and backing Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's call for an investigation into the killing of protesters, a Security Council diplomat told the BBC.
The statement was expected to be discussed behind closed doors at a Security Council session on Tuesday, when Mr Ban was scheduled to brief members on the situation in North Africa, the diplomat said.
In total, more than 350 people have been killed in Syria since demonstrations started in March, activists say. Tanks and sniper fire Across Syria, witnesses have reported arrests and intensifying violence as popular protests against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad have escalated.
On Monday, witnesses reported Syrian troops had opened fire on protesters in a suburb of Damascus, the Syrian capital.
In the southern city of Deraa near the border with Jordan, protesters began calling for political reforms last month but have now begun demanding Mr Assad step down from power.
There, opposition activists said as many as 5,000 soldiers and seven T-55 tanks rolled into the city on Monday, with tanks surrounding the Omari mosque in the old city and snipers firing from rooftops.
More than 25 people were killed, their bodies unreachable because of fierce gunfire in the city, anonymous opposition sources reported. This claim could not be independently verified.
The BBC's Quentin Sommerville said prisoners did not break out but in fact people outside broke into the jail
More than 470 inmates at a prison in southern Afghanistan have escaped through a tunnel hundreds of metres long and dug from outside the jail.
Officials in the city of Kandahar said many of those who escaped from Sarposa jail were Taliban insurgents.
The Kandahar provincial governor's office said at least 12 had since been recaptured but gave no further details.
A spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai said the escape was a "disaster" which should never have happened.
The Taliban said it had taken five months to build the 320m (1,050ft) tunnel. It is believed to have been dug from a house rented by the Taliban.
About 100 of those who escaped were Taliban commanders, and most of the others were fighters with the insurgency. The prison holds about 1,200 inmates. Second jailbreak Afghan prison escapes
June 2008: More than 900 prisoners escape from Sarposa prison in Kandahar after a suicide bomber blasted open the gates
July 2010: 19 prisoners escape after a blast at a prison in Farah province
November 2009: 12 prisoners escape after tunnelling out of a jail from their cells in Farah province
"A tunnel hundreds of metres long was dug from the south of the prison into the prison and 476 political prisoners escaped last night," said prison director General Ghulam Dastageer Mayar.
Kandahar's provincial authorities said that a search operation was under way.
One escapee told the BBC it had taken him about 30 minutes to walk the length of the tunnel. The escape took most of the night and vehicles were waiting at the exit point to take prisoners away.
The jailbreak is the second major escape from the prison in three years.
In June 2008 a suicide bomber blew open the Kandahar prison gates and destroyed a nearby checkpoint, freeing about 900 prisoners, many of them suspected insurgents.
After that, millions of pounds were spent upgrading the prison. The 2008 breakout was followed by a major upsurge in violence.
Presidential spokesman Waheed Omar said some of the prisoners had been found
The prison is under Afghan control, but Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said it was ready to provide assistance if requested by Afghan officials.
Afghan politician and former MP Daoud Sultanzai told the BBC that the escape exposes "the porousness of our security apparatus".
He said its penetration by the Taliban was "really a serious matter".
Insurgents considered to be the most dangerous are likely to be held at a high-security facility outside the US Bagram air base, north of Kabul, rather than at the Sarposa prison, analysts say.
Nato forces are preparing for the long process of withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The first stage is the transfer of security powers to local forces from July, but Kandahar is not among the first tranche of provinces and cities to be handed over to the Afghans.
Analysts say that it is only to be expected that those regions will once again be the focus of insurgent activity as the Taliban will be planning to seize them back.
Facebook requires users to enter their date of birth prior to sign up - but many children lie Almost half of British children aged 9 to 12 are using social networking sites, despite minimum age limits, a report claims. One in five has a Facebook page, even though rules say they must be 13, according to EUKidsOnline.
The report's authors suggest that removing such requirements would make it easier to monitor online behaviour.
However, children's charity Kidscape criticised the idea and warned it would lead to more cyber bullying. carried out by the London School of Economics for the European Commission, was based on a survey of 25,000 young people - aged between nine and 16 - from across Europe.
It asked if they maintained a social networking profile.
In the UK, 43% of 9 to 12-year-olds answered yes, along with 88% of 13 to 16-year-olds.
The Netherlands had the highest percentage of children on social networks at 70% - however many of these were users of Hyves, a site that does not have a minimum age.
Across Europe the average figure for 9 to 12-year-olds was 38%.
Report author Elisabeth Staksrud, from the University of Oslo, told BBC News that it was inevitable children would be drawn to sites such as Facebook: "If you're twelve you want to be where your peers are".
Children are children, adults are adults. Sometimes you have to say no to your child.”
End QuotePeter BradleyKidscape
Parental guidance
The report also suggests that where parents do impose a strict policy on social networking, the majority of young people respect that guidance.
In France, 45% of parents said their children were forbidden from using social networking sites, the highest of any country in the survey.
Consequently, that country had the lowest proportion of children using social networking at 25%.
Peter Bradley, from child protection charity Kidscape, said it showed that parents must be firm with their children when it comes to internet use.
"Children are children, adults are adults. Sometimes you have to say no to your child," he said. 'Cop out' However, Elisabeth Staksrud believes that by acknowledging children below the age of 13 are using services, social networking sites could develop measures to protect them.
"Since children often lie about their age to join 'forbidden' sites it would be more practical to identify younger users and to target them with easy-to-use protective measures," she said.
The report concedes that while this approach would help keep existing users safer, it could also lead to a substantial increase in underage children signing up.
Mr Bradley told the BBC he strongly believed that lowering the minimum age for Facebook would be wrong.
"Without doubt, if the age limit was removed from Facebook, the effect would be an increase in the number of young people accessing the site," he told the BBC.
"Automatically you'll have a greater increase of those at risk of bullying online.
"Abolishing the age limit is an absolute cop out really."
In a statement, Facebook said that it welcomed the attention that the study had focused on the issue.
"Recent reports have highlighted just how difficult it is to implement age restrictions on the Internet and that there is no single solution to ensuring younger children don't circumvent a system or lie about their age," it said.
The company said that features such as the Facebook safety centre helped to keep children safe while using the site. But, it added, families had a role to play too.
"Just as parents are always teaching and reminding kids how to cross the road safely, talking about internet safety should be just as important a lesson to learn."
Austerity measures introduced to cut Greece's debts have sparked widespread protests Fears that Greece will have to restructure its massive debts have persisted despite official denials. Investors are demanding a higher rate of return for lending Greece money in a sign of continuing concern about its debt crisis.
The European Commission denied Greek media reports that Athens would have to reschedule its repayments to debtors.
On Tuesday, Greece raised 1.6bn euros (£1.4bn) - but had to pay a 4.1% yield against 3.8% paid in February.
The increase underlines the nervousness among investors about the likelihood of them being repaid or forced to accept a delay in repayment.
Tuesday's fund-raising was for money to be repaid in three months. On Monday, the rate of return on Greek benchmark 10-year government bonds jumped above 14% for the first time since the eurozone was created.
Analysts say such penal interest rates are completely unsustainable for an economy that is still gripped by recession.
Renewed concerns about Europe's debt problems hit shares in several banks, including Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group.
On the London Bullion Market, the price of gold edged up to $1,494.02 an ounce from $1,493 late Monday.
Gold is benefiting from its status as a haven investment in troubled times. At one point on Monday its price had jumped to $1.497 an ounce after rating agency Standard & Poor's cut its outlook on the US to negative on worries that policymakers will not be able to agree a plan to reduce the growing US deficit. 'Firm denial' As well as reports in Greece citing unnamed European Commission sources as saying that a debt restructuring was inevitable, a German finance official also warned on Tuesday that it looked unavoidable.
Clemens Fuest, chairman of the German finance ministry's technical advisory committee, told the Reuters news agency: "One must recognise the realities. (The interest payments) are breaking Greece."
However, a European Commission spokeswoman said speculation about a restructuring was unfounded.
"It is a very firm denial on our side. It's impossible that such a statement can be correct considering that there is not even such discussions taking place between the European authorities and the Greek government," she said.
Greece secured 110bn euros in emergency funding from its eurozone partners and the International Monetary Fund last May to cover bond maturities and budget shortfalls up to 2013.
Goldman Sachs profits fall on continued weak trading
Goldman, led by chief executive Lloyd Blankfein, managed to beat low market expectations Goldman Sachs saw its net earnings in the first three months of 2011 drop 21% from a year ago, to $2.74bn (£1.7bn).
The profit fall followed continued weak business at its capital markets unit.
Net revenues in Goldman's key division, which makes the bulk of the firm's money trading in bonds, derivatives and stocks, fell 22% from a year ago.
Ordinary shareholders saw their share of earnings slump 72% after the Wall Street firm decided to pay out a $1.8bn dividend on preferred stock.
The dividend payment related to Goldman's buyback earlier this year of $5bn of preferred stock from Warren Buffett, which the billionaire had originally bought in a rescue deal during the 2008 financial crisis.
Net revenues at the broker-dealer - a measure of overall business levels - were down 7% from a year before.
Goldman accordingly cut the amount allotted to employee pay by 5% to $5.2bn, or 44% of its net revenues. 'Good results' Last Updated at 19 Apr 2011, 16:09 GMT*Chart shows local time
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The results also marked a rebound from the previous quarter, which had seen a 52% year-on-year slump in profits, again due to lacklustre sales and trading business.
"These are good results," said Joerg Rahn of German investment firm Marcard, Stein and Co. "Yes, expectations weren't gigantic but they were beat nevertheless."
Nonetheless, Goldman's share price was largely unchanged at the open of trading in New York, slightly underperforming the broader market.
The drop-off in debt trading revenues was higher than anticipated, according to Matt McCormick of investment firm Bahl & Gaynor.
"I expected Goldman Sachs to be the best in class on that issue, but all their other peers seem to be facing the same challenges."
Peter Cardillo, economist at Avalon Partners in New York, said: "Goldman Sachs is a bellwether and these numbers will probably begin to calm some of the fears that the market has been worried about."
US stocks fell on Monday following an announcement by rating agency Standard & Poor's that it was putting a negative outlook on the US government's triple-A credit rating.
Witness to Syria protests: "The shooting is hammering down on us like rain" Syria's government has lifted the country's decades-old state of emergency as protests against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad continue.
The state security court, which handled the trials of political prisoners, has been abolished while a new law allowing peaceful protests has been approved.
The repeal of the emergency law was a key demand of protesters.
Earlier, unverified footage from the western city of Homs appeared to show security forces opening fire.
The BBC's Owen Bennett-Jones says the legal changes will be remarkable to most Syrians after decades of one-party rule, but it is unclear how much difference they will really make.
The indications are that they will not be enough to satisfy the protesters, our correspondent adds. Anti-government demonstrations are reported to have begun in the north-western city of Baniyas after the repeal of the emergency law.
Syria's emergency law, which effectively suspended most constitutional protections, had been in place since the Baath Party came to power in a military coup.
Syrian governments previously justified the imposition of the law by the state of war that continues to exist with Israel, and by threats posed by militant groups.
Syria's emergency law designated the prime minister as the martial law governor of the country and the interior minister as his deputy, and gave them extraordinary powers.
These included the ability to place restrictions on freedoms of individuals with respect to meetings, residence, travel and passage in specific places or at particular times; to preventatively arrest anyone suspected of endangering public security and order; to authorise investigation of persons and places; and to delegate any person to perform any of these tasks.
The Syrian Human Rights Committee described the emergency law as "the most repressive law [affecting] the rights and freedoms of all Syrian citizens without exception". It is believed to have led directly to thousands of violations of human rights.
Under the legal changes, permission from the interior ministry will be needed to demonstrate in Syria.
But the country's interior minister has nonetheless urged people to refrain from taking part in any rallies in the interests of safety and stability.
Mohammed Ibrahim al-Shaar told people "to refrain from taking part in all marches, demonstrations or sit-ins under any banner whatsoever", in remarks carried by the official news agency, Sana.
He warned that if demonstrations were held, "the laws in force in Syria will be applied in the interest of the safety of the people and the stability of the country". Weeks of unrest Activists say about 200 Syrians have died in weeks of unrest challenging the rule of President Assad.
Witnesses in Homs, the country's third-largest city, said security forces had opened fire early on Tuesday to disperse a mass anti-government protest there.
At least 5,000 demonstrators occupied Clock Square in Homs on Monday after mass funerals for about 12 protesters reportedly killed by security forces at the weekend.
Security forces swarmed into the main square before dawn. Witnesses said security forces told them through loudhailers to leave, before firing tear gas, then live ammunition.
A protester called Omar told BBC Arabic that he had seen one person shot dead.
"Listen to the shooting," he said. "Can you hear it? It's hammering on us like rain.
Another demonstrator in Homs told the Associated Press news agency by telephone: "I saw people on the ground, some shot in their feet, some in the stomach." 'Criminal gangs' On Saturday, Mr Assad promised an imminent end to the state of emergency, which has been in place for 48 years. The authorities have also been freeing political prisoners - another key demand of the protesters.
But Syria's unprecedented wave of unrest shows no sign of abating.
The government has said an "armed insurrection" by Salafist groups is taking place in Homs and further north in Baniyas.
Salafism is a strict form of Sunni Islam which many Arab governments equate with militant groups like al-Qaeda.
Sana news agency has also been reporting on events in Homs.
It said three army officers, including a brigadier general, together with his two sons and a nephew, were killed on Sunday by "armed criminal gangs" which then mutilated the bodies.
State TV carried footage of large crowds expressing support for President Assad at their funerals.
Demonstrations against Mr Assad's ruling Baath Party spread after breaking out in the southern city of Deraa in mid-March.
The unrest poses the gravest threat to his rule since he succeeded his father Hafez al-Assad 11 years ago.
Rebel fighters say they have made gains in Misrata British military officers will be sent to Libya to advise rebels fighting Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's forces, the UK government has said. Foreign Secretary William Hague said the group would be deployed to the opposition stronghold of Benghazi.
The BBC understands 10 officers will provide logistics and intelligence training in a UK and French operation.
Mr Hague said it was compatible with the UN resolution on Libya, which ruled out foreign military ground action.
He stressed that the officers would not be involved in any fighting and the move was needed to help protect civilians. Support and advice The UN Security Council resolution, passed in March, authorised a no-fly zone over Libya.
Mr Hague said: "The [UK] National Security Council has decided that we will now move quickly to expand the team already in Benghazi to include an additional military liaison advisory team. This contingent will be drawn from experienced British military officers.
"These additional personnel will enable the UK to build on the work already being undertaken to support and advise the NTC [opposition National Transitional Council] on how to better protect civilians.
"In particular they will advise the NTC on how to improve their military organisational structures, communications and logistics, including how best to distribute humanitarian aid and deliver medical assistance.
"In doing so, we will coordinate closely with other international partners also assisting the NTC." Body armour The officers will be wearing civilian clothing, not uniforms, but are likely to carry sidearms.
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William Hague: "This is not British ground combat forces going in...this is fully in-line with the UN resolution"
The announcement comes as hundreds of people are feared dead in the bombardment of the town of Misrata by pro-Gaddafi forces.
The UK has already supplied body armour and telecommunications equipment to help the rebels.
On Monday, International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell said the UK would provide £2m to help civilians flee Misrata by boat.
Mr Hague said: "We have stepped up our contribution to international efforts to relieve the humanitarian crisis in Libya, in particular in Misrata, and a UK diplomatic team led by Christopher Prentice has been liaising closely with the opposition in Benghazi."
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe has said France is opposed to the idea of sending coalition ground troops into Libya, even special forces to guide air strikes, to break the military stalemate. 'Mission creep' Former Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Sir Menzies Campbell warned against becoming bogged down in Libya, in similar fashion to what happened to the US in Vietnam.
He said: "Sending advisers for a limited purpose is probably within the terms of [United Nations] Resolution 1973, but it must not be seen as a first instalment of further military deployment.
"Vietnam began with an American president sending military advisers. We must proceed with caution."
Labour MP David Winnick, who backed last week's demands to recall Parliament from the Easter recess so MPs could debate the Libya situation, criticised the deployment of British officers.
He said: "However much one despises the brutality of the Gaddafi clan which rules Libya, the fact remains that there is a danger of mission creep.
"There is a civil war in Libya and this is a big escalation of Britain's involvement. I don't think there is an appetite in Britain for military intervention.
"Having been engaged in two wars in nine years in Muslim countries, it would be unwise to become involved in a third." 'Precision firepower' Meanwhile, British military chiefs have been giving details of the latest action by the RAF to enforce the no-fly zone.
Maj Gen John Lorimer said Tornado and Typhoon aircraft attacked rocket launcher vehicles and light artillery observed firing on Misrata, and a second pair of RAF planes destroyed a gun and tank on a transporter.
Tomahawk cruise missiles were also fired by the nuclear-powered submarine HMS Triumph.
Maj Gen Lorimer said: "It will take time for the full impact of these attacks to become clear.
"But they do illustrate in the clearest manner Nato's resolution to take all necessary action to safeguard wherever possible the Libyan people under threat of attack and its ability to strike, with sophisticated targeting and effective precision firepower, at the heart of the apparatus used by Colonel Gaddafi to terrorise the civilian population."
The World Food Programme said it had started moving supplies through a new humanitarian corridor into western Libya, with the first convoy crossing from Tunisia on Monday.
It was loaded with enough wheat flour and high-energy biscuits to feed 50,000 people for 30 days.
The food will be delivered to several Libyan cities, although not Misrata which is said to be critically short of supplies.
Tic Tac and Nutella executive Pietro Ferrero has died while bicycling in South Africa, his firm said Monday.
The Italian news service Agenzia Giornalistica Italia reported the Ferrero Group issued a statement confirming "with deep dismay" that its 47-year-old chief executive officer had died.
"He fell during his routine bike ride, probably having been taken ill," the statement said. "This happened in South Africa, where he was on a work mission.
"At the moment, we only have shreds of information. We don't have the information regarding the circumstances surrounding the incident at our disposal."
The Daily Telegraph said Ferrero was reported to have been hit by a car, though it said details were not known.
CNN reported Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini released a statement mourning Ferrero as "a businessman who represented the best qualities of our economic history."
Ferrero, who has a wife and three children, ran the company with his brother Giovanni.
The brothers are the sons of 85-year-old Michele Ferrero -- said to be the richest man in Italy and the 32nd-richest in the world -- and the grandsons of company founders Piera and Pietro Ferrero.
A life size Barbie doll is being used to help build awareness to anorexia and other eating disorders. An Oregon woman told NBC's "Today" show the 6-foot-tall model she created of a Barbie doll was designed to raise awareness of eating disorders when she was in high school.
Galia Slayen, who brought her creation to the "Today" studio in New York Monday, said she first created the giant Barbie-like figure -- with a 39-inch bust, 18-inch waist and 33-inch hips -- from wood, chicken wire and papier-mache for the first National Eating Disorders Awareness week in 2007 while she was a high school student in Portland.
"I was at a friend's house and her mom's an artist so there were all these art supplies around," Slayen said. "She helped with the actual proportions."
She said she suffered from anorexia when she was a cheerleader in high school.
"I'm not blaming Barbie [for my illness] -- she's one small factor, an environmental factor," Slayen said. "I'm blond and blue-eyed and I figured that was what I was supposed to look like. She was my idol. It impacted the way I looked at myself."
A representative for Mattel said in an e-mail the doll "was never modeled on the proportions of a real person."
"As a pop-cultural icon, Barbie is often used as art to express one's own personal opinions and views," the toy company representative wrote. "Girls see female body images everywhere today and it's critical that parents and caregivers provide perspective on what they are seeing."
Newsbeat technology reporter More than eight million Move controllers have sold since September
PlayStation has shipped more than eight million units of its new Move controller since last September, figures show.
That's at least two million fewer than rival Microsoft's Xbox Kinect, despite the fact that it's been on sale two months longer.
The figures, released by Sony Computer Entertainment Inc, also show that 50 million PS3s have been sold.
These numbers would seem to prove the longevity of the console, given that it's nearly five years old. 'New world'
Any hopes of a PS4 release in the near future appear to have been dashed though.
8m Moves sold since September 2010
50m PS3s sold since November 2006
75m PSN users
2128 PS3 games
480m total game sales
A spokesperson said: "SCE (Sony Computer Entertainment) will continue to further expand the PS3 Platform and create a new world of computer entertainment."
Bosses at the Japanese technology giant won't be happy with the Move losing out to Kinect.
Last month that was officially declared as the fastest selling gadget on record by the Guinness Book of World Records.
These latest figures seem to only strengthen the Kinect's dominant position in this latest round of console wars.
But PlayStation's live online offering, PlayStation Network, is performing well.
The free service has got more than 75 million registered members in 59 countries around the world.
Xbox Live charges a monthly subscription for its service.
Thousands of letters were sent to computer users threatening them with legal action. A controversial law firm that tried to get money from computer users by accusing them of illegal file sharing could be hit with massive legal fees.
ACS:Law and its one solicitor, Andrew Crossley, sent thousands of letters threatening recipients with court action if they did not pay out.
Now a judge has ruled that the company may be responsible for wasted costs in the case and ordered a full hearing.
Mr Crossley's lawyers declined to comment.
The proceedings represent something of a role reversal. Originally the Patents County Court had been asked to hear the cases brought by Mr Crossley's firm.
After those collapsed, it was decided that he might be liable for costs.
Those could run into thousands of pounds, although that money is likely to be covered by solicitors' insurance. Lawyer's letters ACS:Law had originally teamed-up with a company called MediaCAT, which purported to represent copyright owners, such as film and music producers.
Together they sent letters to around 10,000 people in the UK, alleging that the IP addresses of their computers had been linked to illegal file sharing.
Individuals were given the option of paying £500 or facing court action.
Many of those contacted said they had never engaged in such activity and accused ACS:Law of carrying out a speculative "fishing" exercise.
Mr Crossley eventually brought 26 cases to court, but soon after hearings began he tried to have them dismissed, claiming he had been attacked and received death threats.
Judge Colin Birss QC refused to allow proceedings to stop and accused Mr Crossley of trying to "to avoid judicial scrutiny".
Soon after, both ACS:Law and MediaCAT were wound-up. Profit share It emerged in court that the two companies had agreed on a profit-sharing model, with ACS:Law receiving 65% of any money recovered.
In his most recent ruling, Mr Birss said that arrangement had "brought the legal profession into disrepute".
He also branded the now-defunct firm "amateurish and slipshod".
The court's decision to press ahead with a hearing on wasted costs was welcomed by lawyers representing those people who received ACS:Law letters.
Michael Forrester, from Ralli Solicitors, said his firm was also planning to pursue claims for harassment against Mr Crossley and urged anyone who was affected to join the action.
"It can be incredibly upsetting for people to receive these letters and they may well have a claim in harassment, so I am urging them to come forward."
Mr Crossley's application for permission to appeal was refused. He is also being investigated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
Finance Minister Fernando Teixeira dos Santos is leading the Portuguese delegation in talks Portugal has begun talks with international authorities about the terms of a bail-out, expected to be worth up to 80bn euros ($115bn; £70bn). Senior officials from Europe and the International Monetary Fund are meeting Portuguese Finance Minister Fernando Teixeira dos Santos in Lisbon.
Meanwhile Greece, which received a bail-out last year, denied reports that it would have to restructure its debts.
The euro lost 1% of its value against the dollar as a result of the reports.
It was trading at $1.4275. Against the pound, it was down 0.7% at 87.78 pence.
The yields on benchmark government bonds for both Portugal and Greece also reached their highest levels since the introduction of the euro in 1999 on concerns over the European debt crisis.
"Greece is in such a difficult position that restructuring appears unavoidable, sooner rather than later," Daniel Gros from the Central for European Policy Studies told BBC World.
"Most would say sooner would be better than later, but the politicians disagree, they would like to hold on as long as possible," he added.
Finland's parliament has the right to vote on EU requests to bail-out other countries. Potentially the strong showing of the True Finns could delay the rescue plan for Portugal. ”
Bank of Greece governor George Provopoulos said restructuring its debts - meaning changing the terms - was "neither necessary nor desirable".
The General Confederation of Workers union, which has a million members, said it would hold a strike on 11 May to protest the austerity measures.
And the European Commission denied there were any talks being held on a possible restructuring of Greece's debt.
The market nervousness also spread to Spain, which had to pay sharply higher interest rates to borrow money for 12 months at an auction on Monday.
The heavily-indebted state, which has often been talked about as the next state that could face a sovereign debt crisis, paid a rate of 2.77%, up from 2.13% last month. Finnish question
Officials have suggested that the terms of Portugal's rescue deal will be agreed by the middle of May.
It is the third member of the euro to seek a bail-out in just over a year.
Greece received 110bn euros in May last year, while the Irish Republic received a bail-out of about 85bn euros in November. Last Updated at 18 Apr 2011, 17:20 GMT*Chart shows local time
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Two Germans are leading the EU delegations - Juergen Kroeger for the European Commission and Rasmus Rueffer for the European Central Bank - while the IMF team is led by a Dane, Poul Thomsen.
However, the finalisation of the Portuguese bail-out may be made more complicated by the strong showing of the True Finns party in recent elections in Finland. The True Finns are anti-euro and oppose the bail-out.
The European Financial Stability Facility, worth up to 440bn euros, is funded by members of the eurozone and requires unanimous consent to be used.
A hostile Finnish government could theoretically veto the package and, unlike other eurozone countries, Finland's parliament can vote on whether to approve the measures.
The European Commission tried to play down this possibility in light of the election.
"We fully expect Finland to honour its commitments made in terms of participation of Finland like the rest of the eurozone," it said.
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Watch: Daniel Gros from the Centre for European Policy Studies says 'it's almost a done deal'
Speaking on Finnish TV, the True Finns' leader, Timo Soini, said: "The package that is there, I do not believe it will remain." Austerity opposition
In Portugal, the main opposition party is backing the caretaker government's bail-out bid, but many members of the public have been vocal in their opposition, the BBC's Alison Roberts reports.
"It is not clear how much more austerity will be able to be imposed, whichever government emerges from the June elections," our Lisbon correspondent says.
Public sector workers, who have already had their wages cut, are planning to strike at the beginning of May. There were also widespread protests involving young people last month over the lack of employment opportunities.
The government of Jose Socrates collapsed last month- prompting the bail-out - because he could not get an ambitious austerity and privatisation package passed.
But some economists suggest the IMF could take a softer line on the interest rate and duration of the loan compared with EU officials, who are under pressure from voters in member states that are putting up the money.
This is because the IMF forecast last week that Portugal's GDP would shrink this year and next.
James Cooper and James Kouzaris were found by police in a residential area of the city of Sarasota US detectives are investigating how two British friends came to be shot dead on holiday in Florida, several miles from any recognised tourist area. James Kouzaris, 24, from Northampton, and James Cooper, 25, of Warwick, were found shot dead 50ft from each other in a street in the city of Sarasota.
A 16-year-old boy has been charged with two counts of murder after the friends from university were found on Saturday.
Tutors from Sheffield remembered them as enthusiastic and positive students. 'Always happy' Sarasota police said there was no known link between the suspect and the victims, who were found shot dead early on Saturday local time in the Newtown area of northern Sarasota.
They were murdered in a deprived part of Sarasota and local officers said it was "very unusual" to find tourists in this area.
The two friends had been staying on the island city of Longboat Key, about 12 miles from where they were found and pronounced dead from gunshot wounds.
Sarasota police said the former University of Sheffield students were not carrying drugs but would not confirm whether they had any money or weapons.
Ed Ferrari, Research Fellow from the university's Department of Town and Regional Planning, said Mr Kouzaris was committed to his studies and his "his positive outlook and humour were infectious".
The tutor said: "He was just the sort of student any lecturer would hope to have in their class."
Mr Kouzaris spent several months travelling in South America before his death, visiting Ecuador, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Bolivia.
He was on a three-week holiday in Florida staying with Mr Cooper and his family.
Mr Cooper worked as a tennis coach for inspire2coach, a company based at the University of Warwick.
Dr Jon Burchell, Senior Lecturer from the University of Sheffield's Management School, said Mr Cooper was a hard-working student and "popular among his peers".
The tutor said: "He had a good sense of humour and a range of plans for what he wanted to do after graduation."
Friends and family said Mr Kouzaris, who was known as Jam, "lived every day to the fullest", in tributes on his Facebook page.
His cousin Lynn Hucker wrote: "To a beautiful cousin who I will never forget. Always happy and full of life."
The Foreign Office said next of kin had been informed, consular staff were providing assistance and Sarasota police had launched an investigation and made an arrest.
Greg Mortenson's foundation says it has established more than 170 schools The best-selling book Three Cups of Tea, which follows the author Greg Mortenson's mission to build schools across Central Asia, is filled with inaccuracies, a US news programme says. The CBS 60 Minutes report alleges that his charitable foundation took credit for building schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan which do not exist.
The documentary also says Mr Mortenson uses the charitable group as a "private ATM machine".
Mr Mortenson denies the allegations.
In an email he sent out to supporters and news organisations on Sunday before the programme was due to be aired, Mr Mortenson said the documentary based its claims on a single year's tax return to the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
The report "paints a distorted picture using inaccurate information, innuendo and a microscopic focus on one year's (2009) IRS 990 financial,"
He also posted a statement on the website of the Central Asia Institute, the charitable organisation set up to finance and build schools across the region.
"I stand by the information conveyed in my book and by the value of CAI's [Central Asia Institute] work in empowering local communities to build and operate schools that have educated more than 60,000 students," the statement says. Claims disputed Three Cups of Tea was released in 2006 and became a best-seller through word of mouth.
The book describes how Greg Mortenson, a mountaineer, got lost while trekking in northern Pakistan, only to be rescued by the residents of a remote village. In the book, he says the kindness of those he encoutered inspired him to build a school.
The 60 Minutes investigation says that porters who accompanied Mr Mortenson dispute his claims of being lost.
The documentary also alleges that a number of the schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan that were said to have been established by the CAI do not exist or were built by other people.
Some principals said they had not received funds from the group for years, the report claims.
The CAI's website says it has established more than 170 schools and helped educate more than 68,000 students.
The programme also questions Mr Mortenson's financial relationship with the charity.
The charity has answered the questions put to it by the programme in a statement posted on its website.
US warned on top credit rating by Standard & Poor's
Republicans are pushing for plans to massively cut US government spending The US has been warned that the credit rating on its government debt could be cut by Standard & Poor's.
S&P is concerned that Democrats and Republicans will not be able to agree a plan to reduce the growing US deficit.
It has downgraded its outlook from stable to negative, increasing the likelihood that the rating could be cut within the next two years.
The US Treasury responded that S&P had underestimated its ability to tackle the national debt.
"Because the US has, relative to its 'AAA' [top-rated] peers, what we consider to be very large budget deficits and rising government indebtedness and the path to addressing these is not clear to us, we have revised our outlook on the long-term rating to negative from stable," the agency said in a statement.
The surprise move sent US and European shares lower. The S&P 500 fell the most in a month, and the US dollar dropped against the euro and Swiss franc. Oil was also sharply lower.
In Europe, the main UK, German and French indexes all fell by at least 2%.
The US federal deficit currently stands at $1.4tn (£858bn) and is expected to reach $1.5tn in the current fiscal year. Budget battle
President Barack Obama suggested that the world could plunge into a new recession if the ceiling on money the US can borrow is not raised in the next few weeks, before the current debt limit of $14.3tn is reached. Last Updated at 18 Apr 2011, 17:14 GMT*Chart shows local time
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Mr Obama and the Republicans are locked in a battle over the extent of spending cuts.
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives has passed a 2012 budget plan that aims to cut $6.2tn in spending by the government over the next decade.
But the bill is not expected to make it through the Democrat-led Senate.
The current fight is over spending from 1 October onwards. Last week, Congress passed a budget bill that would cut $38.5bn in government spending over the rest of the current fiscal year, to 30 September.
Last week, Mr Obama laid out his plan to reduce the budget deficit by $4tn over 12 years. 'Political judgment'
Austan Goolsbee, the chief economist of the president's Economic Recovery Advisory Board, dismissed the change in outlook while making the rounds on US cable networks.
"What the S&P is doing is making a political judgment and it is one that we don't agree with," he told CNBC.
The S&P outlook cut comes after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned last week that the size of the US deficit created instability in the financial markets.
In a statement, S&P was positive about the general state of the US economy, but said: "We believe there is a material risk that US policymakers might not reach an agreement on how to address medium- and long-term budgetary challenges by 2013.
"If an agreement is not reached and meaningful implementation is not begun by then, this would in our view render the US fiscal profile meaningfully weaker than that of peer 'AAA' sovereigns." 'Wake-up call'
The US has the top AAA credit rating on its long-term bonds.
Since the US is the world's largest economy, and its debt is considered the backbone of the world's financial system, any concern over the US ability to pay its debt creates huge ripples in the world economy.
"It's a wake-up call that we need to do something," said Axel Merk, a currency fund manager in California. S&P is "absolutely correct that this is something serious that needs to be addressed."
But the US Treasury responded strongly to the change in outlook.
"We believe S&P's negative outlook underestimates the ability of America's leaders to come together to address the difficult fiscal challenges facing the nation," it said.
North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue said she had been brought to tears by the devastation in her state Search and rescue efforts are continuing in the US state of North Carolina after three days of storms and tornadoes killed at least 45 people across half a dozen states. More than 60 tornadoes ripped through North Carolina, killing 21, the highest toll for any of the states affected.
Governor Beverly Perdue said on the NBC network's Today show that she had never seen anything like the devastation.
She said homes in the state had been handled like paper dolls' houses.
"The good news is that the tornadoes have left and things are brighter today in North Carolina," Ms Perdue said, adding that federal officials were beginning their damage assessments.
Deaths from the tornadoes were also reported in the states of Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and Virginia.
The tornadoes first struck Oklahoma on Thursday before sweeping eastward, and some parts saw their worst tornadoes in decades.
The storms moved out over the Atlantic on Sunday. Devastating destruction More than 240 tornadoes were reported over the three days, including 62 in North Carolina, but the US National Weather Service's final numbers could be lower because some tornadoes may have been reported more than once.
More than 60 tornadoes were reported in North Carolina, where officials confirmed 21 deaths
The North Carolina state emergency management agency said it had reports of 23 deaths from Saturday's storms, but local officials have only confirmed 21.
Authorities in the city of Raleigh early on Monday were blocking access to a mobile home park of roughly 200 homes, where three children had been killed during the storms.
Ms Perdue said she planned to tour hard-hit areas in three counties in the state on Monday.
She added that the devastation she had seen on Sunday had left her in tears.
The governor said she had contacted President Barack Obama, who pledged his support, and that federal emergency workers had already been deployed to the state.
"We have in North Carolina a tremendous relationship with our federal partners, and have been through this so many times," she said.
"That's not a good thing. That's a bad thing," she added.
It looked just like The Wizard of Oz”
End QuoteAudrey McKoyBladen County resident
Ms Perdue said on Sunday the number of tornadoes had been the highest since 1984, when tornadoes killed 42 people.
Hailstones the size of grapefruit were reported as the storms swept through the region, causing flash floods as well as tornadoes.
Trees and downed power lines still covered nearby roads on Monday.
Most of North Carolina's 21 confirmed deaths occurred in two rural counties - 11 in Bertie and four in Bladen, about 70 miles (112 km) south of Raleigh.
In the Bladen County community of Ammon, Audrey McKoy and her husband, Milton, witnessed a tornado lifting pigs and other animals into the sky, as the storm struck their mobile home community.
"It looked just like The Wizard of Oz," Mrs McKoy said.
Mr McKoy found three bodies in their neighbourhood after the storm, which spun their mobile home, had passed.
Have you been affected by the storms? You can send us your experiences using the form below.
The disturbances started last week in the capital Ouagadougou and have spread An army mutiny which erupted last week in the West African state of Burkina Faso has spread to a fourth city.
Protests have now broken out in Kaya in the north of the country, following disturbances in Po and Tenkodogo.
The trouble started last Thursday when soldiers and presidential guards in the capital Ouagadougou protested about unpaid housing allowances.
Hours before the revolt broke out, tens of thousands of people had demonstrated against high food prices. 'Police join mutiny' President Blaise Compaore, a former coup leader in power since 1987, has sacked his government and appointed a new head of the armed forces to try to quell the unrest.
His government warned on Sunday that mutinous soldiers would face "the full force of the law".
BBC Ouagadougou correspondent Mathieu Bonkongou confirmed that the unrest had now reached Kaya.
Soldiers and police reportedly took to the city's streets late on Sunday and began firing guns into the air until the early hours of Monday.
It is said to be the first time that police have taken part in the mutiny.
The violence in the capital had seen at least 45 injured people admitted to hospital.
In March, some soldiers went on the rampage and managed to free a number of colleagues arrested for rape.
Last month Spotify announced one million paying subscribers Online music service Spotify is halving the amount of free music that users can listen to. Users of its free service will be limited to 10 hours per month, half the time currently offered and will only be able to listen to tracks five times, from May.
New users will get six months of free content before the changes kick in.
The news has angered fans who accuse the firm of seeking to change its model from free to paid.
This is something denied by Spotify.
Ken Parks, Spotify's chief content officer told the BBC: "Our chief priority is to keep the free service, which is what has made Spotify so popular.
"We're a company whose ambition is to offer all the world's music to everyone which means growing the business and our user base to many times its current size."
"Everything we do is designed to ensure our users continue to have access to an amazing free experience," he added.
Last month, the online music service announced that it had one million paying subscribers across Europe.
But the majority of its 6.67m listeners use the free service, which is subsidised by adverts. So long
"Most of you use Spotify to discover music - on average over 50 new tracks per month, even after a year," it said.
"For anyone who thinks they might reach these limits, we hope you'll consider checking out our Unlimited and Premium services."
Experts have said that Spotify's long-term profitability depends on users switching to the premium services that remove adverts and allow listeners to use smartphones.
"The economics of ad-supported music services just don't add up and Spotify can't survive long-term while it haemorrhages money from its free service," said Mark Mulligan, an analyst with Forrester Research.
One of the big issues for services such as Spotify is the fees demanded by the music industry - which work out at around 1p per play, according to Mr Mulligan.
"The record labels don't like having a permanent free service around, it is like sleeping with the enemy.
"But too many people expect music to be free now and if there are no legitimate free services it will drive them back to the illegal sector," he warned.
The first response on Spotify's blog read: "So long Spotify. It was nice knowing you. Guess I'll go back to pirating music again then."
More than eight million Move controllers have sold since September 
North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue said she had been brought to tears by the devastation in her state Search and rescue efforts are continuing in the US state of North Carolina after three days of storms and tornadoes killed at least 45 people across half a dozen states. More than 60 tornadoes ripped through North Carolina, killing 21, the highest toll for any of the states affected.
