we'll check in with martha raddatz on our top story, a closing thought, a hopeful one from martha inmoment. t called atrial fibrillation, or afib, that's not caused by a heart valve problem. today we have pradaxa to reduce the risk of a stroke cacaed by a clot. in a clinical trial, pradaxa 150 mg reduced stroke risk 35% more than warfarin. and with pradaxa, there's no need for those regulalablood tests. pradaxa is progress. pradaxa can cause serious, sometimes fatal, bleeding. don't take pradaxa if you have abnormal bleeding, and seek immediate medical care for unexpected signs of bleeding, like unusual brbrsing. pradaxa may increase your bleeding risk if you're 75 or older, have kidney problems or a bleeding condition, like stomach ulcers. or if you take aspirin products, nsaids, or blood thinners. tell your doctor about all medicines you take, any planned medical or dental procedures, and don't stop taking pradaxa without your doctor's approval, as stopping may increase your stroke risk. other side effects include indigestion, stomach pain, upset, or burning. if you have afib not c

i'm martha raddatz for "nightline" in washington. >> a series of painful good-byes to come. >>> finallyable scenes from london where hundreds of rioters and lootd

martha raddatz. >>> we turn to the economy. after that unprecedented downgrade of america's aaa credit rating from standard and poors, this has been an extraordinary sunday. world leaders holding emergency phone calls. even the american investor warren buffett weighing in on what he says should have happened. we'll have that in a moment. >>> first to the white house where they are bracing themselves for what could happen in the markets here and abroad. david kerley. good evening. >> reporter: good evening. standard and poors deliberately until waiting for the markets to close. they're starting to reopen now. the first one tokyo. in early trading it is down, only a point and a half. the white house is working to calm other markets. so far, the president has said nothing publicly. >> mr.r.resident? >> reporter: returning from camp david, the president waved off questions about the historic downgrading of america's credit. the president and his economic team will be talking to leaders around the world tonight who are all bracing f

martha raddatz, abc news, washington. >> our hearts will be with kimberly and all the families. >>> we movovoverseas now to london. a city on edge and in flames tonight. new violence and new fires are breaking out after a weekend of mayhem. as abc's lama hasan reports, it is the most devastating uprising the city has seen in years. >> reporter: tonight, flames across london. rioters hitting the city, torching buildings, cars ablaze, from theheir, the fires raged. the violent broke out after a 29-year-old father of four was killed by police. the police say he allegedly fired the first shot but in a poor neighborhood where relations with police have long been strained, sadness quickly erupted into fiery violence. this used to be a landmark buildingngand one that survived world war ii but not these recent riots. over here, you can see the extent of the damage, burnt out police car, remnants of it right here and from the intense heat, it blew out the windows just over my shoulder. making matters worse, the youth, angered over a lack of jobs and the deep cuts by the government in social pro

martha raddatz and yunji de nies, leading us off this morning. thanks to both of you. bianna, over to you. >>> let's bring "this week" host christiane amanpour, who covered this region for years and this war since it started. she's joining us from washington. good morning, christiane. i want to ask you, given the magnitude of t ts tragedy, does this change the course of this very unpopular war either politically or mililarily at all? >> i think it does a few things, precisely because they're so elite. precisely, because the majority of those killed were members of the same kind of team that took out osama bin laden. number one will give a big psychological boost to the taliban. number two, these deaths come right at a time when the united states is talking about pulling back troops, the surge troops, and where a lot of focus now is going to be on these kinds of special forces attacks. u.s. troops not based on the ground in that part of afghanistan, so a lot of it relies on these special forces. that's a big blow. at the same time, it comes at the time of a rash of assa

here's abc's martha raddatz tonight. >> reporter: it is the day they dream of for an entire year. the wait is excruciating. the homecoming, exhilarating. for the past decade, u.s. soldiers have faced one-year deployments again and again -- sometimes even longer. but beginning in january, most soldiers heading to war zones will get to come home to their families three months earlier, with tours of duty cut to nine months. and time between combat will increase to 27 months. that will be welcome news. by the time gary volesky gets home from this tour in afghanistan next spring, he will have spent 4 1/2 years away from his wife and son. your son alex was 6 years old when you first deployed. >> yeah, he just turned 13. >> reporter: volesky and his soldiers will be some of the last who will have to finish a full year. but for the troops who replace them, the homecomings will still be as sweet -- >> that's daddy! that's daddy! >> reporter: but the wait will be just a little easier to bear. >> and martha raddatz joins us from washington. martha, you know so many of these families personal

abc's martha raddatz is in washington. and, martha, what do we know right now about this deadly incident? >> reporter: this is just devastating news, bianna. it was a u.s. aircraft. a chinook aircraft. senior u.s. military official, 25 navy s.e.a.l.s., 7 afghan forces, likely special forces, 1 interpreter, the 5-member crew of the chinook helicopter, and 1 dog. we all know dogs are in these operations. we know this from the osama bin laden raid. so devastating, this news. and that, especially after that news in may, that s.e.a.l.s were able to kill osama bin laden in a raid. today's crash -- and they do believe it was from enemy fire, possibly a rocket-propelled grenade. they believe it was shot down right after an operation. this was in wardak province. now, i also want to add that the first person to say these were u.s. special operations forces was hamid karzai, the president of afghanistan. he released a written statement, sending his condolences, for the loss of those troops and afghan forces, as well. but he was the f

abc's s reign correspondent martha raddatz joins me with the very latest. what about that community, the forces and their families? >> this is such a small community. there are only 300 s.e.a.l.s on s.e.a.l. team 6. the most elite of the s.e.a.l. team. that is such a small group. when you think about those families and 22 notices going out to those families. i got an e-mail from someone, i said i was so worried about that community. he said, look, this is a community that will smother one another with love. >> what do we know about the attack? any more details coming out? >> there are more detail this morning. what actually happened, this s.e.a.l. team was going in to help another team that was after taliban insurgents, apparently the taliban insurgents had been implanting ieds in the area. this s.e.a.l. team was coming in to help the others who had come under fire. just as they were approaching the area, they got hit by what they believe was a rocket-propelled grenade. >> martha, this comes while the u.s. is pulling back surge troops, and going to be relyi

abc's martha raddatz has the latest for us now from washington. martha? >> reporter: robin, military officers say this morning they don't believe the taliban had any idea that the helicopter was full of navy s.e.a.l.s. it was just a target of opportunity. u.s. forces in the area where the helicopter went down are continuing the hunt for taliban fighters today. sources tell abc news, the s.e.a.l.s had been operating as a quick reaction force, after u.s. ground troops on a late-night raid came under fire from taliban forces. as the s.e.a.l.s' helicopter approached in the darkness, witnesses saw the flash of a rocket-propelled grenade. the chinook was hit. for the taliban, it was blind luck, since rpgs are highly inaccurate. the remains of the helicopter have now been recovered. but the damage done to so many lives, so many families, is searing. 30 american troops, including 22 navy s.e.a.l.s. among them, 30-year-old aaron vaughn, the father of a boy not yet 2. a daughter, whose birth he witnessed just eight weeks ago. and the husband of kimberly, a former n

c-span, special operations commander eric olson is interviewed by abc news foreign correspondent martha raddatzthat's tonight at 8:00 eastern. security on new york stock exchange plunged this morning in reaction to the u.s. credit downgrade. shares lost over 200 points within the first minute of the market's opening. follow the trend begun by arab shan markets over the weekend after the u.s. credit rating was lowered on friday. we get details on what the credit rating change means from this morning's "washington journal." /congress. >> "washgton journal" continues. host: robinarding is u.s. economics editor at "the financial times." good morning. guest: good morng. host: you have a story in today's paper looking at the decision of the s&p to downgrade the u.s. credit rating, but there'a complication because the white house has accused it of making a $2 trillion mistake. how did this happen? guest: this is a remarkable story. on friday, s&p came to the treasury and said they were going to do this downgrade. the treasury economist looked at this and said we think there was an error in your number

last week he spoke with abc foreign correspondent martha raddatz at an aspen institute security forum. this conference was held before a group of u.s. navy seals was shot down and killed in eastern afghanistan over the weekend. >> i am so happy to hear the great biography of admiral olson which i have been pouring over facts, and i found a few that you didn't mention, and that is he was born to be a navy seal when he was a little boy, he'd go swimming with his knife and that's how he could kill fish. if you believe everything you read in the tacoma press. he also made his first wet suit when he was 9 years old out of scraps of rubber. why do i know this? because if you put in eric olson, bin laden, and his hometown of tacoma, this comes up in the headlines. tacoma plays its part in osama bin laden raid. or my favorite, tacoma mom gushes about son's role in finding osama bin laden. [applause] >> she is beautiful, by the way. his mother is beautiful. but i was eagerly reading this thing, he must have called her and told her everything about the raid. he told her nothing. in fact, he did