BBC News with Gaenor Howells
Russia has surprised Western nations at the United Nations in New York by circulating its own draft UN resolution aimed at resolving the crisis in Syria. Western countries have spent months trying to get their own resolution. From the UN, here's Barbara Plett.
Russia's UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin said there was strong concern in the council about the deepening crisis in Syria, and the draft Russian resolution was aimed at trying to end the conflict. His intervention took Western nations by surprise. They've been trying to get the Security Council to act for months, but their attempts faced a Russian veto. European diplomats said they would negotiate on this text, but the current draft did not reflect the gravity of the human rights situation in Syria. They also said it suggested an
equivalence
between the regime and the opposition, and insisted the Syrian government must bear primary responsibility for the violence.
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.