A growing reluctance in an increasingly multicultural Britain to see UK troops deployed on the ground in future operations abroad is influencing the next two strategic defence reviews, according to senior figures at the Ministry of Defence.

As well as a general feeling of war weariness, sources say they have sensed a resistance in an increasingly diverse nation to see British troops deployed in countries from which UK citizens, or their families, once came.

There is also concern that British troops have been seen taking action mainly in Muslim societies.

The MoD is still taking stock of the surprise decision of the House of Commons last summer to reject military intervention to punish President Assad of Syria for the use of chemical weapons against rebel forces.

Senior figures believe the rejection of that action was not just the by-product of a political battle between Labour and the government, but revealed deeper-seated long-term trends in British society.

One of the issues raised is improving the recruitment of British officers from minority ethnic communities.

Two months after they began, the shape of Ukraine's protests is shifting, their mood darkening. Talk of civil war is growing, and the country of 46 million is deeply divided.

Since students came out in Kiev and elsewhere to denounce president Viktor Yanukovich's decision to reject a historic pact with the European Union and turn back towards Russia, a series of government moves to crush the protesters has only made them more resolute and radical.

The following quotes come from French classical liberal, economic journalist and legislator Frédéric Bastiat's 1850 pamphlet, "The Law."

1. It started with "hope and change": "While society is struggling toward liberty, these famous men who put themselves at its head are filled with the spirit of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. They think only of subjecting mankind to the philanthropic tyranny of their own social inventions. Like Rousseau, they desire to force mankind docilely to bear this yoke of the public welfare that they have dreamed up in their own imaginations...

Listen to the ideas of a few of the writers and politicians during that period [the late 1780s]:

SAINT-JUST: The legislator commands the future. It is for him to will the good of mankind. It is for him to make men what he wills them to be.

ROBESPIERRE: The function of government is to direct the physical and moral powers of the nation toward the end for which the commonwealth has come into being.

BILLAUD-VARENNES: A people who are to be returned to liberty must be formed anew. A strong force and vigorous action are necessary to destroy old prejudices, to change old customs, to correct depraved affections, to restrict superfluous wants, and to destroy ingrained vices.... Citizens, the inflexible austerity of Lycurgus created the firm foundation of the Spartan republic. The weak and trusting character of Solon plunged Athens into slavery. This parallel embraces the whole science of government.

LE PELLETIER: Considering the extent of human degradation, I am convinced that it is necessary to effect a total regeneration and, if I may so express myself, of creating a new people."

2. And a social justice agenda: "Now this must be said: When justice is organized by law - that is, by force - this excludes the idea of using law (force) to organize any human activity whatever, whether it be labor, charity, agriculture, commerce, industry, education, art, or religion. The organizing by law of any one of these would inevitably destroy the essential organization - justice. For truly, how can we imagine force being used against the liberty of citizens without it also being used against justice, and thus acting against its proper purpose?"

3. That enabled Obamacare: "But when the law, by means of its necessary agent, force, imposes upon men a regulation of labor, a method or a subject of education, a religious faith or creed - then the law is no longer negative; it acts positively upon people. It substitutes the will of the legislator for their own wills; the initiative of the legislator for their own initiatives. When this happens, the people no longer need to discuss, to compare, to plan ahead; the law does all this for them. Intelligence becomes a useless prop for the people; they cease to be men; they lose their personality, their liberty, their property.

Try to imagine a regulation of labor imposed by force that is not a violation of liberty; a transfer of wealth imposed by force that is not a violation of property. If you cannot reconcile these contradictions, then you must conclude that the law cannot organize labor and industry without organizing injustice."

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is ordering an independent review of the nation's nuclear force following revelations of misconduct involving officers, the Pentagon said on Thursday.

Top leaders of the force plan to meet with Hagel in coming weeks, Defense Department spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said.

The action follows a recent disclosure that nearly three dozen Air Force officers at a nuclear missile base in Montana were involved in cheating on a proficiency test.

Russian security services may be looking for as many as four "black widows" dispatched to carry out terrorist attacks related to the Winter Olympics, including at least one woman believed to be in or near the Olympic city of Sochi, U.S. and Russian sources told NBC News on Monday.

Wanted posters distributed in Sochi, where the games open Feb. 7, describe at least one suspected terrorist - Ruzana Ibragimova, also known as Salima, the 22-year-old widow of an Islamic militant killed by Russian security forces last year.

The notices describe her as having a limp in her right leg, a left arm that does not bend at the elbow and a 4-inch scar on her cheek.

In a video, recorded before their deaths, that has recently surfaced, two suicide bombers suspected of a deadly attack on a Volgograd train station threaten a "surprise" during the Olympics at Sochi.

The notices say that Russian security officials have been informed of her possible departure from Dagestan, a Russian republic in the restive Caucasus area, earlier this month, and that she may be used for an attack inside the Olympic zone.

Militant groups in the Caucasus are known to use "black widows," female terrorists so called because some seek to avenge the deaths of their husbands. They considered by security experts to be harder to pick out in a crowd because they do not fit the stereotype of an Islamic militant and because they can easily alter their appearance with clothing and makeup.

The disclosure Monday added to terror fears as the games approach. On Sunday, a video surfaced in which two men from an Islamist militant group threatened to attack the Olympics, warning that "a surprise" is in store for President Vladimir Putin and tourists attending the games.

The French comedian who invented the controversial 'quenelle' gesture used by Nicolas Anelka has said he is "proud" of the footballer.

In his first TV interview since Anelka's actions sparked the furore, Dieudonne M'bala M'bala exclusively told Sky News' Paul Harrison that neither he nor the West Bromwich Albion striker were racist or anti-Semitic.

"Nicolas Anelka has all my support, of course," he said.

"We see him as a brother in our humanity. He's someone who is very courageous and for whom I have very much respect and admiration.

More than 400 US soldiers are preparing for their deployment to Egypt in anticipation of violent protests, riots, and the possibility of having to protect the country's border with Israel.

Training at Fort Hood for a nine-month deployment in the "near future" concluded on June 20, KCEN-TV reports, noting that the soldiers encountered Molotov cocktails and "other dangerous items" in their training.

"Just what I've seen over the course of the past week, this unit is already far more ready for this type of threat than we were last week," Lt. Matthew Wilkinson told the television station. According to KDH News, the training lasted about six months.

"We want to be as professional as possible so that whatever situation we may encounter, [so] the opposing force knows that we mean business and we know what we're doing," said PFC Perez Alexander.

Shortly after midnight on the morning of New Year's Day, a green Skoda automobile pulled up outside the Saints Coptic Orthodox Church in Alexandria, Egypt. The vehicle decanted two men, one of whom was seen speaking tersely into a mobile phone as they walked briskly from the scene.

A few minutes later a 100-kilogram bomb detonated inside the car, sending its densely packed, lethal payload of nails, glass and iron balls into the sanctuary. The explosion, which was powerful enough to shatter every window in the neighborhood, killed more than twenty worshipers gathered for New Year's mass. Nearly a hundred more were seriously wounded. Body parts were propelled into the fourth floor of the church building and onto a neighboring mosque.

An hour before the bomb went off, government security personnel assigned to guard the church quietly withdrew, despite official assurances that the force would be on hand until the end of the worship service. No explanation was given for this oddly timed dereliction of duty. After the bombing, a group of Muslim radicals quickly materialized to taunt the terrified and infuriated Christian victims with chants of "Allah akbar." Armored riot police arrived shortly thereafter, firing rubber bullets and tear gas grenades to disperse the crowd.

Big explosion outside Egyptian police headquarters followed by two more blasts in capital

A large truck bomb has rocked the centre of Cairo, killing at least four people and injuring 76.

The explosion early on Friday morning - the eve of the third anniversary of the 2011 uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak - struck the Egyptian police headquarters.

Hours after the attack, two more blasts hit the capital.

A crude explosive device killed one policeman and wounded nine others in another Cairo neighbourhood, the interior ministry said in a statement. Security sources said a person driving past security vehicles threw a hand grenade in their direction.

In Giza, a large district on the outskirts of Cairo, a third explosion went off near a police station. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Nigel Evans is accused of two counts of indecent assault, five of sexual assault and one of rape

Nigel Evans, the former deputy speaker of the House of Commons, will enter formal pleas on Friday over allegations of sexual offences against seven men.

Evans, the MP for Ribble Valley in Lancashire, is to appear at Preston crown court for a plea and case management hearing.

The 55-year-old is accused of two counts of indecent assault, five of sexual assault and one of rape. The charges date from 2002 to last year.

He has previously emphatically denied all the charges.

A provisional date of 10 March has been set for his trial, which is scheduled to last up to four weeks.