UK - Householders could be forced to provide up to £4 billion to meet the cost of any of the six leading energy suppliers going out of business, under revised plans drawn up by the Government to avoid market chaos. An Energy Department official said: “It is extremely unlikely that any of the large energy suppliers in the UK would become insolvent. None the less, the Government believes that it is prudent to have in place a framework that will ensure the continued operation of a major supplier until its customers can be transferred to other partners.”

CHINA - China is now the largest trading nation in the world in terms of imports and exports, after overtaking the US last year. China has leapfrogged the US to become the world’s biggest trading nation, bringing an end to the US’s post-war dominance of global commerce. The total value of US exports and imports in 2012 was $3.82 trillion (£2.4 trillion), the US Commerce Department has revealed. China’s customs administration has already announced that the country’s total trade last year was worth $3.87 trillion.

USA - Egypt’s Foreign Minister harshly criticized Senator James Inhofe, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee, on Thursday for calling President Mohammed Morsi an “enemy” of the United States. A spokesman for the ministry said the comments were “unacceptable” and “tantamount to interference in Egypt’s internal affairs,” the Egypt Independent reported. Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma, introduced legislation that would suspend arms sales to Egypt if it fails to uphold its peace treaty with Israel or continues to violate human rights.

LONDON, UK - A four-week old baby suffered serious injuries to his hand - his finger believed to have been torn off - after he was “dragged from his cot” and attacked by an urban fox which had crept into his bedroom. A Metropolitan Police spokesman confirmed that officers were contacted by hospital staff shortly after 4.30 pm.

USA - The US Navy will delay the refueling of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) for an unknown period because of the uncertain fiscal environment due to the ongoing legislative struggle, the service told Congress in a Friday message obtained by USNI News.

SOLOMON ISLANDS - An earthquake with a preliminary 7.1 magnitude struck 270 miles east of Kira Kira on the Solomon Islands on Friday, the US Geological Survey said. There were no immediate tsunami warnings or reports of damage. An 8.0 magnitude earthquake set off a tsunami that killed at least five people in a remote part of the Solomon Islands on Wednesday and triggered evacuations across the South Pacific. There have been numerous aftershocks.

GREAT LAKES, USA - Two of the Great Lakes have hit their lowest water levels ever recorded, the US Army Corps of Engineers said Tuesday, capping more than a decade of below-normal rain and snowfall and higher temperatures that boost evaporation. Measurements taken last month show Lake Huron and Lake Michigan have reached their lowest ebb since record keeping began in 1918, and the lakes could set additional records over the next few months, the corps said. The lakes were 29 inches below their long-term average and had declined 17 inches since January 2012. The other Great Lakes — Superior, Erie and Ontario — were also well below average. “We’re in an extreme situation,” said Keith Kompoltowicz, watershed hydrology chief for the corps district office in Detroit.

IRELAND - Tens of thousands of people have marched through cities in Ireland in a massive show of anger against severe austerity measures and high costs of living. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions, which organized the rallies, claimed more than 100,000 people attended, with some 60,000 marching in Dublin. Demonstrators also protested in Cork, Galway, Limerick, Sligo and Waterford. Tough cuts were implemented to please Ireland's creditors in the wake of the country’s banking crisis. It has been relying on a joint EU-IMF loan since 2010. The “Lift the Burden” march took place despite the Irish government’s recent bank debt deal with the European Central Bank. It saw 28 billion euro worth of costly promissory notes swapped for long-term sovereign bonds.

TURKEY - 15% of Turkish top brass on trial, hundreds resign. Turkish officers are resigning en masse to avoid arrest and sentencing for conspiracy against the government. The cabinet of PM Erdogan is winning the decade-long battle with the country’s once almighty generals, journalist Andrew Finkel tells RT.

VENEZUELA - Venezuela has cut the value of its currency against the US dollar by 32%, in an effort to boost its economy. The widely expected measure ramps up the official exchange rate of the bolivar from 4.3 to 6.3 per US dollar. It was announced after Vice-President Nicolas Maduro's return from Cuba, where he said President Hugo Chavez gave him instructions on the economy. In a country that largely depends on food imports, the scarcity of dollars also led to shortages of products such as sugar and flour. The new exchange rate is expected to address this situation. But the measure is also expected to have an impact on the inflation, which has already been climbing.

NASA - US space agency Nasa has released a frightening new video showing just how close a massive asteroid will come to slamming into the Earth next week. There are just seven days left until the 150ft-wide, 130,000 ton asteroid buzzes past our planet so close its trajectory will take it inside the orbit of communications and weather satellites. It will be the nearest known flyby for an object of this size. But scientists promise the threatening space rock will come no nearer than 17,100 miles from Earth when it zips past next Friday. If it struck Earth - which it won't, scientists were quick to add - it would release the energy equivalent of 2.4 million tons of TNT and wipe out everything for 750 square miles around the impact site.

BRUSSELS, EUROPE - David Cameron appears to have secured a major victory today as leaders inched towards a deal that would secure a cut in the EU budget for the first time in its 56-year history.

UK - Diet fizzy drinks can raise the risk of diabetes by 60 per cent, startling new research has revealed. A study of more than 66,000 women found those who drank artificially sweetened drinks were more likely to develop the disease than those who indulged in regular, 'full fat' versions. The findings, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, fly in the face of conventional thinking that regular versions of fizzy drinks are always worse for our health.

EUROPE - Europe's leaders are poised this morning to cut the European Union's budget for the first time in its 56 year history following a major victory for David Cameron. Proposals tabled early on Friday morning for Brussels budgets for the period 2014 to 2020 would slash the EU's spending by £30 billion between 2014 and 2020 compared to current levels of spending.

EUROPE - A high-profile summit to negotiate the EU's next long-term budget was delayed by more than five hours and then got off to a shaky start on Thursday after stark differences emerged between Britain, France and other countries over the headline figures.