[The official] police

watchdog

has said there's no evidence to suggest that Mark Duggan, the man whose death

spark

ed the riots, fired at armed police before they shot him. It said it appeared a handgun found nearby had not been used. An inquest has opened into Mr Duggan's death. It heard that he'd been killed by a single gunshot to the chest. The BBC has been told that the police marksmen had

perceive

d a threat to life when they tried to arrest Mr Duggan, who was a passenger in a minibus taxi. Police say the officers involved have been

taken off

firearms duties.

The United States Federal Reserve has announced that it will hold interest rates near their current level of nearly zero for at least two more years in another effort to help the domestic economy and to calm widespread fears on the markets. It's the first time the Fed has pledged to keep rates so low for a

specific

period. Here's Duncan Bartlett.

The falls in American share prices have been so sustained that the Fed felt it had to do something dramatic to change the

pessimistic

mood. The bank will be hoping it has more credibility with the market than government and politicians, whose messy compromise over raising America's debt ceiling was one of the main reasons behind the recent market rout. Many economists worry that America and Europe's debt problems combined could lead to another global recession.