Standard and Poor's cuts France's credit rating again to AA, almost two years after the country lost its top-rated AAA status.

Ofwat, the water regulator, has confirmed that it has turned down Thames Water's request to increase customer bills by up to 8% next year.

An arrest warrant is issued for terror suspect Mohammed Ahmed Mohamed after he fails to appear in court, a week after going missing disguised in a burka.

An amateur baker produces an "almost life-sized" Johnny Depp cake to star in an international competition.

A gang raped and tortured African migrants whose boat later sank off Lampedusa with the loss of more than 360 lives, Italian police say.

An initiative by Amazon to sell Kindle readers in independent bookshops is met with hostility among shop owners.

A psychiatric patient who almost decapitated a woman during a fatal stabbing in a London street loses a bid to appeal against her conviction and sentence.

A Royal Marine is found guilty of murdering an injured Afghan insurgent, in what the prosecution called "an execution", but two others are cleared.