French banker says UK should be downgraded first

The chairman of the French central bank, Christian Noyer, has said ratings agencies should downgrade the UK before France because its economy is weaker.

US agency Standard and Poor's recently warned Franceits rating could suffer over the eurozone crisis and downturn.

"The downgrade does not appear to me to be justified when considering economic fundamentals," Mr Noyer said.

The British Government responded by saying the UK had a credible plan for dealing with its deficit.

Speaking to French regional newspaper Le Telegramme, Mr Noyer said any downgrade should start with Britain "which has more deficits, as much debt, more inflation, less growth than us and where credit is slumping".

Britain was not identified as a credit risk by Standard and Poor's in its report earlier this month.

The spokesman for UK Prime Minister David Cameron said: "Credit ratings are a matter for credit rating agencies but we've put in place a credible deficit reduction plan and you can see that credibility in the UK's bond yields."

Bangladesh man 'admits' cutting off wife's fingers

Human rights groups in Bangladesh have demanded a severe punishment for the husband of a young wife who allegedly cut off most of her right hand.

Police say Rafiqul Islam, 30, attacked her because she pursued higher education without his permission.

They say Mr Islam, a migrant worker, admitted to the crime shortly after returning home from the Gulf.

However there has been no independent confirmation from the suspect that he carried out the attack.

The incident is one of a number of acts of domestic violence targeting educated women in recent months.

Police say that Mr Islam, who works in the United Arab Emirates, tied up his 21-year-old wife, Hawa Akther Jui, earlier this month. He then taped her mouth and cut off the five fingers.

UK officials 'to observe negotiations' over EU deal

The UK has been asked to play a role in negotiations over an EU-wide fiscal pact despite refusing to sign up to the proposed agreement.

No 10 said the UK would participate in "technical discussions" over the accord since, although not an active participant, it wanted it to succeed.

The Financial Times reported that UK officials might have "observer status".

This would enable the UK to monitor discussions on the role EU institutions may play in enforcing the deal.

David Cameron's decision to veto a treaty change of all 27 EU members last week led to a huge row between the Conservatives and Lib Dem partners.

The UK declined to sign up to the agreement - which proposes central oversight of EU members' budgets, tougher sanctions for overspending and moves towards tax harmonisation - because of a lack of satisfactory safeguards on financial regulation.

ICC says Muammar Gaddafi killing may be war crime

The death of Libya's former leader Muammar Gaddafi "creates suspicions" of war crimes", says the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo said the ICC was raising the concern with Libya's the National Transitional Council (NTC).

Col Gaddafi was killed in October after being caught by rebels in his home town of Sirte.

NTC officials initiallly said he died in crossfire, but promised to investigate following Western pressure.

"I think the way in which Mr Gaddafi was killed creates suspicions of... war crimes," Mr Moreno-Ocampo told reporters.

"I think that's a very important issue. We are raising this concern to the national authorities and they are preparing a plan to have a comprehensive strategy to investigate all these crimes."

Rebel fighters found Col Gaddafi hiding in a concrete drainage pipe after a long and bloody siege of the former leader's home city of Sirte.

Amateur videos taken at the time showed him injured but alive, surrounded by a frenzied crowd of jubilant rebel fighters.

He is hustled through the crowd and beaten to the ground on several occasions, before he disappears in the crush and the crackle of gunfire is heard.

His son Mutassim, captured alive with him, also died in the custody of rebel fighters.

The National Transitional Council initially said that Col Gaddafi had been killed in crossfire, but under pressure from Western allies it later promised to investigate how he and his son were killed.

The ICC has indicted another of Col Gaddafi's sons, Saif al-Islam, for alleged war crimes and he is in the custody of the Libyan authorities.

Mr Moreno-Ocampo has accepted that Saif al-Islam will be tried in Libya, not The Hague.

Japan to declare 'cold shut-down' at Fukushima

Japan is set to announce that engineers have brought the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant to a "cold shut-down condition", nine months after the earthquake and tsunami.

PM Yoshihiko Noda is expected to make the announcement later on Friday.

Declaring a cold shut-down condition is seen as a key milestone in efforts to bring the plant under control.

But the government says it will take decades to completely dismantle the plant.

The six-reactor Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was badly damaged by the 11 March earthquake and tsunami. Blasts occurred at four of the reactors after waves knocked out vital cooling systems.

Workers at the plant, which is operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), have been using sea water to cool the reactors. Waste water has built up and some contaminated liquid has been released into the sea.

A 20km (12m) exclusion zone remains in place around the plant.

Syria crisis: Russia circulates surprise UN resolution

Russia has circulated a UN Security Council resolution aimed at ending the crisis in Syria, in a move that surprised the Western nations.

The draft condemns the violence by both Syria's government and the opposition, but does not mention sanctions.

Western nations said the proposal was not tough enough but that they were prepared to work on the document.

The West has been pushing the council to act on Syria for months, but Russia - and China - vetoed such proposals.

In the latest violence in Syria, 27 security forces members were reportedly killed by army deserters.

The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the deaths occurred in the southern province of Deraa.

International journalists face severe restrictions on their movements in Syria, and it is hard to verify reports.

The UN believes more than 5,000 people have died in seven months of unrest, which the government of President Bashar al-Assad blames on armed gangs.

In a recent interview with the US network ABC, he said he had given no orders for violence to be used against protesters.

Fears for missing Sri Lankan activists -Amnesty International appeal Urgent Action

Sri Lankan political activists Lalith Kumara Weeraraju and Kugan Muruganandan have been missing since 9 December. They were arranging a press conference for the following day to publicize a protest. Lalith Kumara Weeraraju’s family received a phone
call saying that he had been killed.

Lalith Kumara Weeraraju and Kugan Muruganandan were last seen leaving Kugan Muruganandan’s residence in Avarangal, Jaffna, northern Sri Lanka, on 9 December. There were preparing a press conference to be held on 10 December, World Human Rights Day, which aimed to publicize a protest planned for the same day. The protest included parents and relatives of people missing since the end of armed conflict in Sri Lanka in 2009, and was to focus on denouncing human rights violations against Tamil civilians by the Sri Lankan military and calling for the release of detainees held without charge since the end of the war.

According to family members, the two men left the house on a motorbike bearing the license number NP GT 7852 at around 5:00pm on 9 December. Family members say they later received an anonymous phone call saying that Lalith Kumara Weeraraju had been killed. A missing persons complaint was lodged with the Jaffna Police, who denied they are holding the two men in custody.

Lalith Kumara Weeraraju has previously received threats warning him against involvement in politics in Jaffna, particularly during recent elections. He was also attacked and injured during a demonstration in Jaffna town on 14 November 2010, and was arrested and interrogated by the army in early 2011.