BBC News with Sue Montgomery

The rivalries threatening Iraqi stability have intensified with the country's most senior Sunni politicians coming under pressure from the Shia-dominated government. The crisis occurred just hours after the final American troops left the country. Jim Muir reports from Baghdad.

Two of the country's vice-presidents, Tariq al-Hashimi and Khodair al-Khozaei, were reported to have found themselves stuck at Baghdad airport after being refused permission to fly to the Kurdish north to see President Talabani. Another leading Sunni figure Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq is the target of a move to have him

impeached

in parliament. The Iraqi parliamentary bloc led by Ayad Allawi, which represents most of the country's Sunnis, had earlier

pulled out of

parliament, accusing Prime Minister Maliki of monopolising power. It's a bitter political struggle with strong sectarian overtones. If it's not contained swiftly, there are fears it could plunge the country into an even deeper crisis.

Crowds of Palestinians waving flags are welcoming home 550 Palestinian prisoners being released by Israel. It's the second and final phase of a deal that ensured the freedom of the kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit earlier this year. Here's Yolande Knell.

There are street parties taking place in Ramallah and the West Bank and Gaza City to celebrate this release. But it doesn't carry as much drama as the first stage two months ago: most of the prominent Palestinian prisoners included in this exchange were freed then, and the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was seen in public for the first time in five years before he returned home to his family. Many of the Palestinians now being released from Israeli jails were serving light sentences.