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New York and London have been ranked as the joint-top global financial centres, according to research published by the City of London Corporation.

New York, which was previously second to London, was rated as a better place to do banking business than six months ago, while London's rating fell.

The City warned that "damage had been done" to London's competitiveness.

Bankers have previously warned that tougher regulation of UK banks could push the industry abroad.

'Wake-up call'

Financial centres in Asia saw gains in their ratings, with Hong Kong, Singapore, and Shanghai all seen as improving places to do business.

The City of London Corporation's policy chairman Stuart Fraser said the gains of its rivals should be a "wake-up" for the UK.

"Although London and New York have always led the pack, this research is a wake-up call for decision-makers that our standing as a world-leading global financial centre should not be taken for granted," he said.

"Damage has been done to the Square Mile's perceived competitiveness relative to New York, but this is not irreversible."

Mr Fraser urged the next government to make a "positive statement" on their intentions for taxation and regulation of the UK's financial sector.

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Ivory Coast and Chelsea striker Didier Drogba has been named African Footballer of the Year.

Drogba scored five goals as Ivory Coast qualified for the 2010 World Cup and scored for Chelsea in the FA Cup final.

Chelsea team-mate and Michael Essien and Cameroon forward Samuel Eto'o were also shortlisted for the award.

Drogba, who turned 32 on Thursday, had previously won the award in 2006, while Algeria were named team of the year at the ceremony in Accra, Ghana.

Algeria qualified for the World Cup finals in South Africa after defeating Egypt in a play-off game.

Drogba has scored 25 goals so far this season for Chelsea, who are in contention for the Premier League title and remain in the Champions League and FA Cup.

And the Ivorian claimed as he celebrated his 32nd birthday that his appetite for the game is as strong as ever.

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Has the right man won the award

"I still have the same passion for the game," said Drogba. "I still feel hungry and I am still chasing medals.

"I feel really good. As I have said in the past it depends on the injuries you get and this season I can say that I am lucky, or I can say that the few months that I took out last year to get my knee well are now paying off.

"Your lifestyle is only as important as your mental approach to the game. If you put in your head that you are 32 and you are old it is going to be difficult.

"I still feel like a kid when I am on the pitch so sometimes Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti has to pull me back."

None of the three shortlisted candidates for the individual award were at the Confederation of African Football (Caf) ceremony.

The last time that Drogba won the award, Essien and Eto'o were also the other two shortlisted players.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Nine members of a Russian white supremacist group have been jailed for up to 22 years each in connection with the killing of a man from Cameroon.

Three of the group, known as Simbirsk White Power, were convicted of the racially motivated murder of Etizok Ndobe Ernest in the city of Ulyanovsk.

Investigators said his throat was cut and he was stabbed repeatedly on his way home from work as a DJ in 2008.

It is the latest in a series of cases involving racist attacks in Russia.

"When investigators identified the people who carried out this cruel murder, it turned out that they were all members of an extremist organisation called Simbirsk White Power," Ulyanovsk investigators said in a statement.

Simbirsk is the original name of Ulyanovsk, about 900km (560 miles) east of Moscow.

Three members of the group were found guilty of murder for reasons of ethnic hatred, investigators said.

The other defendants, who included one woman, were convicted on various charges including the organisation of an extremist group, attempted murder, robbery and hooliganism.

The nine received jail terms ranging from two to 22 years.

Attacks filmed

Prosecutors said earlier that the group had attacked 10 non-Slavic people in 2008, which they filmed on mobile phones and posted on the internet.

Correspondents say the latest case comes as Russian authorities appear to be making a concerted effort to combat hate crime.

Last month a court in Moscow sentenced nine members of a neo-Nazi skinhead gang to prison terms of up to 23 years.

Independent groups monitoring the issue say the number of those killed in race attacks last year dropped by more than a quarter to just over 70 - a figure they say is still unacceptably high.

They attribute this fall to the police and justice system taking hate crimes more seriously and targeting some of the largest far-right groups.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin recently called for tougher laws against racially motivated attacks.

He also urged a deeper sense of community and a recognition that Russia is a multi-cultural country.

Hate crimes increased sharply in the early 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Skinhead groups began targeting people of foreign appearance such as Central Asians, residents of the Caucasus or Africans.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.