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BBC News with Gaenor Howells

Banking shares have fallen in a number of markets amid continuing fears about theimpact of the eurozone debt crisis. In London, shares in two partly state-owned banksfell over 7%. Across the Atlantic, shares in Bank of America lost nearly 5%, and a largeAmerican investment fund, MF Global, filed for bankruptcy protection. Michelle Fleuryreports from New York.

The collapse of MF Global isn't seen as a serious risk to the financial system so much asa cautionary tale. MF Global's problems stemmed from its $6.3bn investment insovereign bonds issued by European countries, including Portugal, Italy and Spain. Themedium-sized broker didn't have enough capital if its bet on Europe turned bad. Giventhat so many people think that's a real possibility, investors took fright. Last week,shares in MF Global fell more than 60% after the financial firm reported a big loss.Earlier, a report by the International Labour Organisation warned that the globaleconomy was on the verge of what it called a new and deeper jobs recession.

The Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou says Greece will hold a referendum onthe bailout deal agreed at the European summit last week. Mr Papandreou gave nodetails of the proposed referendum in an address to Socialist MPs, but said he'd alsoseek a vote of confidence in the Greek parliament. The deal agreed by eurozonemembers was designed to cut Greece's debt by about $140bn.

The United States is stopping its financial contributions to the United Nations culturalagency Unesco after the Palestinians were admitted to the organisation as a fullmember. A US State Department spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland, said a $60m paymentto Unesco due to be made in November would not go ahead. From Washington, PaulAdams reports.

Washington is in a bind. It regards Unesco as a valuable UN agency and gives it around$70m a year, or a fifth of its annual budget, but it's also bound by strict laws passed inthe 1990s by an overwhelmingly pro-Israel Congress. Looking uncomfortable, VictoriaNuland said the administration wanted to continue working with the agency butrecognised that its membership would be compromised if it failed to pay itscontributions. She expressed concern over the loss of US influence and the possibilitythat the same scenario might unfold with other UN agencies.

The interim leadership in Libya has named a new prime minister. Abdul Raheemal-Keeb, a businessman from Tripoli, beat four other candidates in a poll held by theNational Transitional Council. He's expected to appoint a cabinet in the coming dayswhich will govern Libya and prepare the ground for general elections. Earlier, theSecretary General of Nato, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, took part in events in Tripoli tomark the formal cessation of the bombing campaign that helped topple ColonelGaddafi.

World News from the BBC

In the United States, the trial has begun of an American soldier accused of leading arenegade army unit that deliberately targeted and killed unarmed civilians inAfghanistan. Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs pleaded not guilty to 16 charges at theopening of his court-martial. He's accused of leading what's been termed a "kill team"in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar in 2010. Three other soldiers have agreedto testify against Staff Sergeant Gibbs.

The former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has started his chemotherapytreatment for throat cancer. His doctors say his chances of being cured are very good.The cancer is in its early stages and hasn't spread to other parts of his body. Thetreatment is expected to last four months and will cause Lula to lose his hair andtrademark beard.A court in Russia has awarded two families $100,000 each in compensation after their

daughters were accidentally switched at birth. The two families - one of which isMuslim, the other Russian Orthodox Christian - are considering buying properties closeto each other as the children, who are now 12, have said they don't want to changefamilies. Daniel Sandford reports from Moscow.

The two girls were born 15 minutes apart in December 1998 in the same hospital in thesmall town of Kopeysk. But unknown to their parents, they were swapped at birthaccidentally. This only emerged when the woman who thought she was Irina's motherarranged a DNA test because her former husband was refusing to pay maintenance.The test showed that neither of them was her parent, and further research uncoveredthe hospital's mistake.

The dean of St Paul's Cathedral in London has become the second senior cleric toresign since anti-capitalist protesters set up camp at the cathedral two weeks ago. TheDean Graeme Knowles says that mounting criticism of how the situation had beenhandled had made his position untenable.

BBC World Service News