The United Nations said Wednesday it was "seriously concerned" about growing restrictions on human rights activists in Thailand after a string of curbs on freedom of expression in the junta-ruled nation.

Since seizing power from the elected government in May, the Thai army has stifled dissent by hauling in anti-coup protesters, muzzling the media and threatening those found in breach of martial law with trial in a military court.

Britain has signed a £3.5 billion ($5.8 billion, 4.4 billion euros) contract for armoured vehicles, the ministry of defence said on Wednesday on the eve of a NATO summit in Wales.

Two young soldiers in South Korea's special warfare unit died during training, the military said Wednesday, following a series of incidents and suicides that have unleashed public fury over bullying in the army.

In thick pine forests hidden in the remote wilderness of eastern Lithuania, young professionals are ditching their suits and ties for camouflage gear, and swapping iPads for rifles.

A young French mother whose daughter had been smuggled out of the country by her father arrived home with the two-year-old girl on Wednesday after they were reunited earlier in Turkey.

From Tallinn to Warsaw, Russian moves in Ukraine are sparking grave concern across a region deeply scarred by war and decades of Soviet occupation on the eve of a landmark visit by U.S. President Barack Obama.

"I'm very worried mainly because every time it seems like it can't get any worse, it does," says Helen Sildna, 35, a music festival impresario in Estonia's capital Tallinn where Obama will touch down Wednesday en route to a NATO summit in Wales.

Cameroon's army claimed on Tuesday to have killed more than 40 Boko Haram fighters who tried to storm a strategic border crossing from Nigeria.

Heavily armed fighters "attempted to cross the bridge at Fotokol" in the extreme north of the country and opened fire on Cameroonian soldiers, the ministry of defense told state radio. 

Lawyers in Burundi called Tuesday for an opposition leader to be jailed for five years for accusing the ruling party of preparing a "genocide."

Leonce Ngendakumana, president of the main coalition opposition party, is accused of making "damaging allegations, false accusations and racist incitement," in a letter he penned in February to U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon.

Iran has plenty of ideas on how to reach a nuclear deal with world powers before a November 24 deadline, Tehran's lead negotiator said Tuesday during a visit to France.

"We are serious, determined and we have ideas for each and every problem which exists on the table," Abbas Araqchi said in an interview with France24 television.

Four United Nations peacekeepers were killed Tuesday when their truck was blown up in Mali, security sources told Agence France-Presse, casting a shadow over the restart of peace talks between the west African state and rebel militias. 

The incident comes a day after negotiations began between the government and six armed rebel groups in the Algerian capital aimed at clinching a lasting peace agreement in the restive, deeply-divided nation.