pulverise

d a country estate west of the capital Tripoli. Nato said its warplanes carried out a

precision

air strike against a key command-and-control site of the Libyan government.

The families of a group of doctors on trial in Bahrain for taking part in anti-government protests say they've been tortured into making false

confession

s. Prosecutors say the doctors took over Bahrain's biggest hospital as a base for anti-government protests in March. Human rights groups say the authorities are making an example of them by trying them in a military court. Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Bahrain has been talking to the relatives.

The first government witness today accused them of a strange list of crimes, including stealing blood from the blood bank and transporting guns in ambulances. But interviews with families of several of the doctors reveal

compelling

evidence that they have been tortured. The wife of one of them told me why her husband had signed a confession.

"They didn't allow him to sit for three weeks. They will release his handcuff only when he want[s] to eat. There was no sleep because he was standing, standing and standing."

Representatives of north and south Sudan have signed an agreement to withdraw their troops from the disputed Abyei region and allow Ethiopian peacekeepers to move in. The move to

demilitarise

the area comes just three weeks before the south is due to