Gold broke yet another record and traded briefly at USD 1, 505.21 per ounce on the back of sovereign debt concerns.

FORBES: Apple Makes Pick on LCDs, Gold Breaks Record

In the past two trading days alone, the Nikkei rose 3.8% to a fresh four-year, seven-month high, closing at 12833.64 Friday on record trading volume after briefly crossing the 13, 000 mark for the first time since just before Lehman Brothers collapsed.

WSJ: Japan's Mrs. Watanabe Decides It's Time to Buy Stocks

This week, as markets suffered record daily tumbles, some exchanges briefly halted trading amid panicked calls for government intervention.

ECONOMIST: Shares take a tumble in the Gulf

The blue-chip measure rose as much as 91 points in intraday trading, briefly moving above its intraday record from last Thursday.

WSJ: Blue Chips Climb for Second Straight Day

It briefly held a Guinness world record for largest HD video board before being surpassed in size by the video board at the Charlotte Motor Speedway.

FORBES: Everything is Bigger in Texas: Houston Rockets Upgrade to Largest Video Board in NBA

McLendon, who had no known criminal record before carrying out the rampage, worked briefly as a police officer in Samson, but failed to complete the "required training" at the police academy in Montgomery in 2003, according to Alabama State Trooper Capt.

CNN: Gunman in Alabama slayings was briefly a police officer

Tunde Vaszi - who set a Hungarian record of 6.86m in the third round - briefly held second place, but could only finish fourth.

BBC: May's leap is just enough

He needed six from two balls to set the fastest fifty in Test cricket - a record many would be surprised to learn is held by South Africa's Jacques Kallis - but was briefly becalmed.

BBC: India lead South Africa with huge stand in Kolkata Test

The Fukushima Daiichi plant has a black mark on its record from earlier in the last decade, when a scandal involving falsified safety records led to parent company Tepco briefly shutting down its entire nuclear fleet in Japan.

WSJ: Nuclear Issues Put Focus on Japan Regulators