Riot police in Pittsburgh fired teargas and pepper spray to break up what it says was an unauthorized G 20 economic summit protests. Many of the marchers wore black and carried signs denouncing capitalism. They tried to head from from a city neighborhood to the convention center, where world leaders are gathering.

Japan, the second largest world economy recovers and is on the path to growth. Japan is marking the first quarter of economic growth, expanding 0.9 percent in country's first quarter of fiscal year.

U.S. President Barack Obama is in Italy Wednesday for talks with the world's most powerful leaders during the Group of Eight economic summit. In a story published in L.A. Times the Obama team says there is consensus on global economic stimulus.

U.S. government has announced that the next G20 summit will be hosted in Pittsburgh, the date of which is Sept. 24 and 25.

Today's economic downturn shares a variety of factors with recessions of the past, as well as with the Great Depression. One of the most tragic similarities is the increase in the number of suicides, which has been documented in recent news reports and studies of mental health during past periods of economic difficulty. It doesn't have to be that way.

“With great power comes great responsibility”, opined Spiderman’s uncle. Unfortunately it’s not a lesson that the leaders and employees of the world’s great financial institutions ever took on board. In their world power is money and responsibility is somebody else’s problem.

Nobody can really predict for sure how long this global economic crisis is going to last. In the beginning, it was predicted that it will extend to 2010 but being a year into this crisis, this idea seems a little bit strained. Whenever it is going to end, the future after the greatest recession is a big question mark.

While protests of the G20 Summit in London turned violent last week, a more peaceful demonstration took place in downtown Pittsburgh.

Here are the six pledges that the G-20 made today. It's in brief.