The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has refused to release footage for a major new documentary about Benjamin Britten because the composer was a pacifist and a “deserter”, an award-winning film-maker has claimed.

When Japan's Liberal Democratic Party suffered its first election defeat in more than 50 years, it was widely heralded as the end of an era. Just three years later, however, the LDP has made a spectacular comeback, more than doubling its seats in the lower house of the Diet and catapulting Shinzo Abe – the former Prime Minister who lasted just a single, shambolic year in office – back into the top job.

Fyodor Khitruk, who died on 3 December at the age of 95, was the creator of the Soviet Union's animated version of AA Milne's Winnie the Pooh tales. The three much-loved Soviet cartoons of Vinni-Pukh, as Winnie the Pooh is known in Russia, were made between 1969 and 1972 and continue to be aired frequently on television. Along with Yuri Norshtein, whose 1975 Hedgehog in the Fog remains a cult classic, Khitruk has been credited as a leading innovator in the history of Soviet animation.

Sven Hassel was a remarkable but controversial author who wrote successful novels set on the Eastern front in the Second World War. Starting in 1953 he published 14 novels, written in the first person, which were translated into 25 languages and published in 50 countries.

Anti-war campaigners have criticised a leading university over a “secretive” speech being made by former prime minister Tony Blair.

Hundreds of protesters descended on Parliament to air their anti-capitalist beliefs outside the UK's halls of power.

Former cricketer hails anti-drones protest a success despite being prevented from entering tribal zone

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has pulled out of international leadership summit because he doesn't want to share a platform with Tony Blair, it emerged yesterday.

Nobel peace winner says he won't share platform with 'morally indefensible' former PM

He also described Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as having a “megalomaniacal” vision

So was Aidan Burley right: was the opening ceremony "leftie multi-cultural crap"? Should Danny Boyle have kept to the Red Arrows and Shakespeare, and not the NHS, the Jarrow marchers and the Industrial Revolution?

The Long View: Women dragged off for rape, men shot by death squads – such atrocities take place by the hour

A portrait of the first Children's Laureate from his difficult childhood to a prolific career