World News from the BBC

The head of the British armed forces, General Sir David Richards, has said al-Qaeda cannot be defeated. He told the BBC the real long-term weapons against al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan were education and democracy.

"The military are just about, you know, there. But the biggest problem has been ensuring that the governance and all the development side can keep up within a time frame, and these things take generations sometimes within a time frame that is acceptable to domestic, public and political opinion."

The French President Nicolas Sarkozy has re-appointed Francois Fillon as prime minister as part of a government reshuffle that had been widely expected. Hugh Schofield is in Paris with the details.

At one point, it seemed certain that the president would replace Francois Fillon as prime minister, but in the end, he's decided otherwise. Mr Fillon is a calm and steadying figure, whose popularity ratings regularly exceed those of the president, and Mr Sarkozy has clearly decided that he needs his reassuring presence at the helm. Other senior figures are on the way out, though, notably the Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, a Socialist who's recently expressed unease at some government policies, and Herve Morin at defence.

The annual Muslim pilgrimage, the hajj, has begun in Saudi Arabia. Several million Muslims from all around the world are making the five-day pilgrimage starting with a night in the temporary tent city in Mina, just outside Mecca. For the first time, a train service will help pilgrims cover the long distances between the holy sites.