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BBC News with Marion Marshall
European Union leaders are meeting in Brussels to thrash out the details of plans to fix the eurozone's sovereign debt crisis. A statement by the leaders after the first round of talks said agreement had been reached on strengthening banks or recapitalisation. Andrew Walker is in Brussels.
Tackling the weakness of the banks was the area where European countries had made most progress ahead of the summit. In a statement, the leaders said there's broad agreement that banks should meet higher standards of financial strength. The statement said what that standard would be, although it did not give a figure for how much extra the banks would have to raise. It said the banks should try to get the money privately but if necessary they would have to turn to public funds. The decision was taken by the full European Union. Leaders of the 17 countries that use the euro are continuing discussions separately on other measures to establish financial stability.
As he arrived for the meeting, the Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said Greece was doing its best to improve its economy. But he said the talks in Brussels weren't simply about saving the single currency but about safeguarding the entire EU unity project.
"Now is the time for the European leadership collectively to take decisions to end the uncertainty, end the crisis, turn the page and make sure we make a big step forward for the better future and prosperity and security of our peoples in Europe."
A US government agency says the very richest Americans have become much wealthier over the past three decades than any other income group. The Congressional Budget Office found the top one per cent's income nearly tripled in the last 30 years. By contrast, the poorest fifth of the population saw their income grow by 18% in the same period.
An Egyptian court has sentenced two policemen to seven years in prison over the killing of an activist whose death helped catalyse protests against the former President Hosni Mubarak. Khaled Said was taken from an Internet cafe and beaten to death in June last year. The government initially said he'd choked to death on a packet of drugs, but photos posted on the Internet showed bloody wounds on his corpse.
Libya's transitional council has confirmed it's investigating reports that Colonel Gaddafi was subject to a violent sexual assault moments before he died. The interim government is already investigating whether he was executed after his capture last week. Katya Adler reports from Tripoli.
Since Colonel Gaddafi was killed six days ago, mobile phone footage of his last moments has been appearing on the Internet. Colonel Gaddafi is surrounded by a crowd of shouting, taunting anti-Gaddafi fighters, so it's difficult to see exactly what's going on until you play the clips in slow motion. The footage appears to show Libya's former dictator being subjected to a serious sexual assault. Libya's National Transitional Council has told the BBC it's investigating every action leading up to Colonel Gaddafi's death, including the allegations of sexual assault.
World News from the BBC
A high-ranking delegation of foreign ministers from the Arab League have met the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to try to negotiate an end to the crisis in Syria. Jim Muir has the details.
Little has been made public about the Damascus talks, but the official Syrian news agency described the atmosphere as positive. That seemed to be reflected also in comments attributed by Syrian state TV to the head of the Arab delegation - the Prime Minister of Qatar, Sheikh
Hamad al-Thani. He was quoted as saying the meeting with President Assad was frank and friendly, and that the delegation had noted a desire on the part of the Syrian government to work with the League delegation towards finding a solution. He said the two sides would meet again on Sunday to follow up.
A former director of the investment banking giant Goldman Sachs has pleaded not guilty in the United States to charges of insider trading and has been released on bail of $10m. Rajat Gupta surrendered himself to the New York police on Wednesday after he was charged with leaking corporate secrets about his company to the billionaire hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam. Prosecutors say Mr Gupta faces a long prison sentence and a $25m fine if found guilty.
The American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said the Iranian government is amongst the most heavily sanctioned in the world because it continues to lie to the international nuclear authorities and persistently flouts UN resolutions. Speaking to the BBC's Persian television service, Mrs Clinton expressed regret about some US actions involving Iran in the past, including its role in the 1953 coup.
Rescue workers in eastern Turkey, trying to get food and blankets to survivors of Sunday's earthquake, say 17 aid trucks have been looted.
Thousands of people who've been left homeless face a fourth night of freezing weather conditions and snow. The Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan acknowledged there had been failures in the distribution of tents.
BBC News
