BBC News with David Austin

The United Nations Security Council has promised action against North Korea over its third nuclear test calling it a clear threat to international peace and security. The US ambassador to the UN Susan Rice said the test was a serious provocation.

“The international community in this council has been quite clear. The actions in North Korea are threat to regional peace and security, international peace and security and they are not acceptable. They will not be tolerated and they will be met with North Korea’s increasing isolation and pressure on the United Nations sanctions.”

The South Korea foreign minister called the test unacceptable threats and a direct challenge to the whole international community. Japan called the test a grave threat and Russia urged North Korea to abandon its nuclear arms programme. Earlier China, North Korea’s sole major ally, summoned Pyongyang’s ambassador to convey strong dissatisfaction.

President Obama is expected to announce in a few hours time that he will withdraw nearly half of all American troops serving in Afghanistan within a year. Mr. Obama will announce the decision during his first State of the Union Address since his reelection in November. From Washington, here is Mark Mardell.

It sets a brisk pace without feeling too much like an over hasty rush towards the exit. It allows him to demonstrate to the American people that the wars of the last decade really are drawing to an end. A firm timetable is also intended to concentrate the minds of Afghanistan’s leaders on the fact they have a fairly short period of time to train their own people to take over the job. There’s relatively little coverage of the handover or the continuing conflict in the American media, and the president wants to show in tonight’s speech his intense focuses on the economy and domestic problems.

The Vatican says Pope Benedict will not play any role in the election of his successor or the running of the Church following his decision to step down. The Vatican also confirmed that the resignation was not due to any specific illness. A spokesman said the Pope had been wearing a heart pacemaker for some time but was generally in good health. Pope Benedict will hold his final open air general audience in St. Peter Square on February the 27th.

The leaders of nine ethnic groups have been in conflict with the Burmese government have attended a national ceremony for Union Day which commemorates an agreement that led to Burma’s independence from Britain. Michael Bristow has more.

Union Day marks an agreement signed by Burma’s government and the country’s ethnic minorities in 1947. In it, they jointly called for independence but this is the first time in decades that they have celebrated the anniversary together. The leaders of nine ethnic groups, 16 were invited attended the ceremony in Naypyitaw although there was a notable absence. No one attended from the Kachin rebels who won’t agree to autonomy.

Michal Bristow reporting

World News from the BBC

The former head of Italy’s military intelligence Nicolo Pollari has been sentenced to ten years in jail for his role in the abduction of a terrorism suspect. The appeal’s court also jailed his deputy and three other agents over the arrest of the suspect, an imam, during the US extraordinary rendition programme ten years ago. The imam was snatched on the street in Milan and flown to Egypt where he says he was tortured.

Police in Britain have raided two meat production plants as part of a growing Europe wide investigation into the sale of horsemeat wrongly labeled as beef. Both plants have now been closed down. Tim Rend has more details.

The first plant in West Yorkshire is believed by the Food Standards Agency to have supplied horse carcasses to a company in Aberystwyth within West Wales. Officials are said to be investigating allegations that the meat products involved were sold as beef for kebabs and burgers but were in fact horsemeat. The revelations have come on the day the environment secretary Owen Paterson was forced to answer claims that the government had shown a lack of urgency in dealing with the crisis.

That was Tim Rend reporting.

Several European countries have been implicated in the horsemeat scandal. Horsemeat was first discovered last month in burgers imported from France and then sold in Britain and Ireland.

Parliament in Spain has paved the way for bullfighting to be given special cultural status. A petition signed by more than half a million people was voted through easily. If it becomes law, it could overturn a ban on bullfights that came into effect in the region of Catalonia last year. And they also bid tax breaks for promoters of bullfighting which is a centuries old tradition in Spain. Government figures show that the number of bullfights each year is falling and correspondents say the conservatives are keen to keep the controversial tradition alive.

And these are the latest stories from BBC World News.