British and US troops deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq face rising pressures on their mental health and family life, according to two investigations that shed light on a key aspect of military “overstretch”.

Iraqi politicians said on Thursday they were hoping for a breakthrough to restore a unity government after a Sunni Arab bloc quit, but the magnitude of the sectarian conflict was underlined by the slaying of five brothers.

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.