俄罗斯驻联合国大使Vitaly Churkin称委员会对叙利亚日益加深的危机非常担忧，俄罗斯制定的草案目的在于结束这场危机。他的干预举动令西方国家颇为吃惊，数月来它们都在找到解决办法，俄罗斯对它们的尝试表示否决。欧洲外交官们表示将就草案进行协商，但目前的草案并没有反映出叙利亚人权状况的严重性。它们还称，草案将当局和反对派同等看待，认为叙利亚政府必须对暴力活动承担主要责任。

The head of the Bank of France, Christian Noyer, has hit out at international financial ratings companies, saying the arguments they use are often more political than economic. One of the agencies has threatened to downgrade France's rating, which Mr Noyer said was completely unjustified. He said if they were considering economic fundamentals, Britain should be downgraded first as it had a bigger deficit, more inflation, as much debt as France and lower growth.

法国银行行长Christian Noyer批评一家国际金融评级公司，称其论点是政治性的而非经济性。一家评级机构曾威胁要降低法国的评级，Noyer称这是不公正的。他说，如果考虑到经济基础条件，英国是第一个应被降级的，因为与法国相比，英国的赤字更多，通胀更严重，债务相当，发展更缓慢。

The former French President Jacques Chirac has been found guilty of corruption after a long-running trial. He was convicted of embezzlement and breach of trust by creating fictitious jobs for members of his party when he was mayor of Paris. Mr Chirac was given a suspended two-year sentence. He is the first former head of state in France to be convicted since the wartime collaborationist leader Marshal Petain. Hugh Schofield reports.