News Headlines - 27 February 2013

▽Pope Benedict XVI in final address: 'Pray for me'

More than 100,000 pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square on Wednesday to cheer as Pope Benedict XVI gave his final general audience before making history by being the first pope to resign office since the Middle Ages.

▽David Cameron: UK must go further and faster on reducing deficit | guardian.co.uk

Britain needs to go "further and faster" in reducing its fiscal deficit, David Cameron has said as he claimed that the loss of Britain's triple-A credit rating highlighted the need for pressing ahead with balancing the public finances.

▽AFP: Litvinenko files to be examined in secret

The judge investigating the death of Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko said on Wednesday he would examine government evidence in secret to decide if it should be made public. Foreign Secretary William Hague has argued that the disclosure of certain files at the forthcoming inquest would be damaging to national security.

▽Dead fish dumping in European water to end by 2019 - Scotsman.com

THE “scandal” of dumping marketable fish back dead into the sea is to be completely outlawed in European waters by 2019. In the early hours of this morning European Fisheries Ministers agreed to introduce a phase ban on discards over the next six years.

▽EU blocks Ryanair-Aer Lingus merger - FT.com

Brussels formally vetoed Ryanair’s latest takeover attempt for Aer Lingus on Thursday arguing it raised “very serious competition problems”, in the first ever case of the EU blocking a proposed merger twice.