BBC News with Marion Marshall

The US Central Bank, the Federal Reserve is to further cut back the amount of money it pumps into the financial markets. It’s said it would reduce its bond purchases by a further 10 billion dollars. Here's our Economics correspondent Andrew Walker.

The statement from the Fed's main policy-making committee referred to growing underlying strength in the economy. So it's decided to make a second reduction in its program of buying financial assets, a policy intended to stimulate a recovery. The expectation of that the Fed will gradually eliminate this quantitative easing as it's known, has led to investors buying US assets with money withdrawn from emerging markets whose currencies have come under heavy pressure. The strains could last for months or even years before Fed policies are back to what could be called normal.

The Ukrainian parliament has approved a law granting an amnesty to those detained during recent anti-government protests. The development followed suggestions from the Russian government that bailout payments promised to Ukraine could be delayed until the formation of a new government in Kiev. From Kiev, here's Steve Rosenberg.

The message from Moscow to Kiev was very clear. There'll be no more Russian bailout money until the Russian see who is in the new Ukrainian government and what direction it takes. At a meeting of the cabinet President Putin was advised by his ministers that the resignation of Prime Minister Azarov had created new conditions. And that it would be sensible to waste before releasing further funds. The Kremlin didn't spell it out. But the suggestion is that if Ukraine's new government develops closer ties with Europe rather than with Russia, Moscow will hold on to its money.

The United Nations mediator Lakhdar Brahimmi said he doesn't expect any substantial progress during the current round of Syrian peace talks in Geneva which end on Friday. He said there'd been no progress on negotiations to deliver aid to civilians under siege in the city of Homs. Mr. Brahimi did say the ice had started to thaw between the delegations from the Syrian government and the opposition. But he acknowledged the gap was still quite large.

"I do not expect that we will achieve anything substantive. I am very happy that we are still talking, that the ice is breaking slowly. I did not expect, I'm not disappointed because I did not expect any result this first time. This exactly what I thought we would do is just talk to one another and also agree that we will continue talking to one another."

Egyptian authorities say they are referring 20 journalists to a criminal court on charges of spreading false news or aiding members of a terrorist organization believed to refer to the Muslim Brotherhood. The authorities say the journalists are connected with the Pan-Arab television network al-Jazeera.

World News from the BBC

The BBC has obtained documents from official sources in Pakistan suggesting the British prosecutors have asked Pakistan to trace two individuals suspected of involvement in the murder of a Pakistani politician in Britain more than three years ago. According to the documents, British counter-terrorism police have identified Mohsin AliSyed and Mohammed Kashif Khan Kamran are suspects in the killing of Imran Farooq. The senior official in the MQM party was stabbed and beaten to death outside his home in north London in September 2010. It understood that Britain wants Pakistan to trace both suspects and obtain DNA samples from them.

Researchers working on stem cells say they have made a major scientific discovery which may help the development of personalized medical treatments. Scientists in Japan have showed stem cells could be made just by dipping blood cells into acid. James Gallagher reports.

Stem cells are one of the great hopes of medicine as they can become any type of tissue. So they might be out to heal a damaged heart or restore sights of the blind. But taking stem cells from embryos is ethically charged. Meanwhile attempts to genetically alter a patient's own skin to make stem cells is expensive, time-consuming and has safety concerns. Now a study shows blood cells can be shocked with acid until rapidly becoming stem cells. Experts say the technique could be a cheaper, faster and safer route to stem cells and could begin an age of personalized medicine.

Police in Russia say a drunken row over the respected merits of poetry and prose has ended with a man stabbing his friend to death. The two were drinking heavily in a flat in the city of Irbit in the Ural Mountains when the host allegedly said prose was the only real literature. Investigators say his poetry-loving guest, a former teacher, ended up stabbing a man before running away and later confessing to the crime.

BBC News.