The credit ratings agency Fitch has downgraded the status of Spain and Italy. Three other countries - Belgium, Slovenia and Cyprus - were also marked down. Fitch, which is based in the United States, said the countries were vulnerable to monetary and financial shocks, and there was a 50% chance they would suffer further downgrades over the next two years.

A host of international authors - including seven Nobel laureates - have come together to condemn attacks on journalists in Mexico. The writers took out a full-page advert in the Mexican newspaper El Universal to call for an end to killing, impunity and intimidation. Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists with more than 60 murdered in the past decade.

Those are the latest stories from BBC News.