A mother and stepfather in Britain were jailed Friday after their seven-year-old daughter starved to death following abuse described as "chilling in its harshness and cruelty. "Khyra Ishaq weighed 37 pounds (16. 8 kilograms) when she was found emaciated in 2008 at her home in Birmingham. Angela Gordon, 35, was jailed for 15 years for manslaughter while stepfather Junaid Abuhamza, 31, was given an indefinite prison term, but ordered to serve at least seven and a half years behind bars.

British investors will aim higher next week, after striking an 18-month peak on global economic recovery hopes, but some analysts warn that the market may be due a correction. The London market's FTSE 100 index of leading shares rose 0. 46 percent over the past five days to end the week at 5,625. 65 points.

The British government on Friday announced it had agreed a loan of 270 million pounds (298 million euros, 410 million dollars) for General Motors to help protect jobs in Britain. GM had decided to sell its European arm, which makes Vauxhall cars in Britain, but changed its mind after its own rescue by the US government.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Britain next week for talks on his country's struggling bid to join the European Union and the Cyprus conflict, his office said Friday. Erdogan will meet with British counterpart Gordon Brown and attend a meeting of a Turkish-British buisiness forum during the visit on Monday and Tuesday, the statement said.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy described recent rumours about his private life as "ravings" Friday, saying he had no time to waste on them. Sarkozy was asked about the rumours, which started on the Internet and have appeared in the mainstream British media, after talks with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in London.

A British picture agency on has apologised to Prince William's girlfriend Kate Middleton and agreed to pay compensation for invading her privacy, it said. A photographer not employed by Rex Features took pictures of Middleton during a holiday with her family at Christmas, the agency said in a statement on its website.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy criticised the United States on Friday over bidding rules for a tanker jet contract, saying it was "not the way" for Washington to treat its European allies. British premier Gordon Brown added he was "disappointed" at the changing of rules in favour of US aerospace giant Boeing, expected to win a multi-billion dollar contract to build an aerial refueling tanker plane for the US air force.

Top Bosnian Serb officials on Friday accused their Muslim counterparts of abusing state institutions in the case of Bosnian ex-leader Ejup Ganic, SRNA news agency reported. "Bosnia-Hercegovina looks more and more like a private state. This is how some members of the (tripartite) presidency, deputies, ministries, diplomats and state officials are behaving," the Serb member of Bosnia's tripartite presidency, Nebojsa Radmanovic, told SRNA.

British Airways cabin crew will strike for seven days later this month after failing to reach agreement in a long-running dispute over pay and working conditions, union officials said on Friday. The Unite union said in a statement that staff would spread the stoppages between March 20 and March 30 and warned that further walkouts may occur after mid-April.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy visited Britain on Friday for talks with Prime Minister Gordon Brown on the European economy, and a potentially thorny encounter with the man after Brown's job. Sarkozy's meeting with Brown comes ahead of a European Union summit on March 25-26 likely to be dominated by recovery efforts and the EU's economic strategy over the next decade.