Six months pregnant and exhausted, British mother Jessica Barhoum is still shocked that Israeli authorities ordered her, her husband and their baby out of bed at daybreak and pulverised their home.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy came under renewed pressure on Thursday over claims he concluded a major arms deal with Libya in exchange for the release of six foreign medics last week.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates urged US partners in the Middle East on Thursday to put pressure on Iran to end its nuclear programme, warning there’s “not really room for bystanders here”.

A Russian expedition planted the country’s flag on the seabed under the North Pole on Thursday, capping a mission to claim the mineral riches of the Arctic and drawing ridicule from abroad.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice assured Palestinian leaders Thursday that a US-sponsored Mideast peace conference this fall is aimed at getting them closer to establishing an independent state and that Israel is ready now to discuss the main issues that need to be resolved.

Dozens of civilians are reported to have been killed in air raids by Western occupation forces in the Afghan southern province of Helmand.

Mujahideen eliminated a so-called deputy head of the “Buinaksk department of interior affairs” Lieut. Col. Abdulmashid Rasulov.

Barack Obama, the US presidential candidate, has said he would be prepared to attack al-Qaeda targets inside Pakistan without Islamabad’s approval.

On July 30 the Kavkaz Center website posted a new statement from Doku Umarov, leader of the Chechen rebels and the North Caucasus insurgency. Umarov declared, “We [the Mujahideen] are ready for any kind of big event. Many ask when a large-scale attack will be.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has signed an agreement giving the Palestinian Authority $80m (£39m) to reform their security services.