BBC News with Jerry Schmitt.

The former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan says the precarious balance between the opposition and the government in Zimbabwe cannot continue. Mr. Annan says southern African leaders holding an emergency summit on Zimbabwe in Lusaka on Saturday had a great responsibility to act. Nearly two weeks after the presidential election, the results had still not been announced. Police in Zimbabwe have meanwhile banned all political rallies. The assistant police commissioner Faustino Mazango announced the move at a news conference in the capital Harare.

"We are all aware that the current period is very sensitive and the police have been directed to deal effectively with any breaches of the law. Now political party won't be allowed to hold a rally during this period until after the announcement of the / results by the Zimbabwean Electoral Commission."

As finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven industrialized countries prepared to meet in Washington, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling has called on the world's major economies to take urgent action to deal with what he described as the biggest economic shock since the Great Depression. Andrew Walker reports from Washington.

The shock Mr. Darling was referring to is the crisis in international credit markets, already the United States economy is close to or possibly in recession. The impact on other countries so far has been less acute, but there are concerns among the finance ministers gathering here that it might get worse. So the British Finance Minister wants urgent action, including more disclosure by banks of the full scale of their credit-related losses. For the longer term, he also wants to strengthen the role of the International Monetary Fund in monitoring its member countries, so it can make creditable warnings of impending problems.

Shares on the News York Stock Exchange have fallen sharply and made heightened fears of recession. The Down Industrial Average slumped by 2% at the close of trading.

The leaders of Italy's two main political blocs are making their last / before campaigning closes ahead to the general election. The former mayor of Rome Walter Veltroni has addressed 40,000 supporters in the center of the capital. Jonny Dymond sends this report from Mr. Veltroni's closing rally in Rome.

It's the cheers of 40,000 supporters Mr. Veltroni has taken the stage. His centre-left Democratic Party have packed down the / / right in the heart of Rome, in front of the stage, rising above the umbrellas, red white and green flags. 158 different parties are contesting this selection, but Mr. Berlusconi and Mr. Veltroni have rejected the old style of broad and stable coalitions in favor of two large blocs on the right and left, which have slugged it out for the honor of leading who will be Italy's 62nd government since the war.

You are listening to World News from the BBC.

Government in the Iraqi city of Najaf have shot dead a senior aid to the radical Shiite Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The Riyad al-Nuri was the director of the cleric's office in Najaf and also his brother-in-law. Another aid to Muqtada al-Sadr, Abdul Hadi al-Mohammadawi blamed the Amerian-led occupation for the killing and appealed for calm.

"One or another the occupiers have had a handing this painless crime. His eminence Muqtada al-Sadr calls for calm and for people not be dragged into any strife, because out enemies today are seeking to drag us into strife that we do not want."

Scientists at IBM say they've invented a new type of computer memory, which could boost computer storage capacity by 100 times. Called "racetrack memory", the new storage medium could allow personal music players to store up to half a million songs. The researchers say the new memory could revolutionize the data of storage industry.

BBC News.