Medical aid agency MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières, or Doctors Without Borders) said thousands of Iraqi civilians fleeing the besieged city of Fallujah have been without access to medicine for months and are fleeing to areas without adequate water and sanitation, raising the likelihood of epidemics such as cholera.

Switzerland voted overwhelmingly yesterday to keep military conscription — the third time citizens of the Alpine nation had rejected an attempt to reconstitute an institution regarded by many Swiss as a national “glue”.