David Cameron said free parenting classes are not a "nanny state" policy as he defended a raft of new initiatives targeting families on Friday.

Police launched a manhunt on Friday for suspected metal thieves who stole a memorial to two children killed by an IRA bomb as the father of one of the victims branded the theft "disgusting".

Serbs seem poised this weekend to re-elect a reformist who arrested Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, rejecting a nationalist promising closer ties with Russia — in a sign that the troubled Balkan nation is edging away from its 1990s war legacy.