Protests Continue As G20 Leaders Agree On $1 Trillion Plan

Police try to secure the area outside of the Bank of England today in London (Akira Suemori/AP)

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Protester (though not as many as the reported 4,000 from yesterday) appeared for another day of criticizing world policies and promoting other messages as the Group of 20 leaders met again in London. The G20 just announced a trillion-dollar plan for the International Monetary Fund: The Wall Street Journal explains that the IMF's lending power is now tripled to $750 billion and another $250 billion will be added to the reserve currency "to boost liquidity in the global financial system by expanding member countries' foreign exchange reserves. [The leaders also] committed to selling IMF gold to help poor countries."

Here are more details at BBC News; British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said, "This is the day that the world came together to fight back against the global recession, not with words, but with a plan for global recovery and for reform and with a clear timetable for its delivery," while French President Nicolas Sarkozy—who earlier threatened to walk off if he wasn't pleased with the talks—said the resolution was "more than we could have hoped for." The news from across the pond help send the Dow above 8,000; accounting changes and better news from automakers are also lifting U.S. stocks.

As for the Day 1 protest aftermath, Londonist sums up, "About 90 people were arrested by the end of yesterday for offences including possession of knives, violent disorder, burglary and arson. Most arrests happened towards the end of the day (at 9pm police were reporting 24 arrests)," and adds that, "The papers are leading with news that a demonstrator died after being found unconscious and not breathing at the Bank around 7.30pm last night (and that police and medics were attacked when they went in to help)." However, some protest sites were more peaceful, like the Climate Camp which featured people in tents and grilling—the police shut it down.