As preparations build for next week's state funeral and with a procession of the coffin along Edinburgh's Royal Mile on Monday: here is how the UK plans to say goodbye to Queen Elizabeth II.

It began with a short but worrying statement. Less than 48 hours after a frail but smiling Queen Elizabeth II was photographed appointing new Prime Minister Liz Truss, her doctors said they were "concerned."

For decades, every British prime minister has prepared to navigate the weighty national questions surrounding the possible demise of Queen Elizabeth II. Liz Truss barely got 48 hours. 

North Korea is apparently moving to sell millions of rockets and artillery shells — many of them likely from its old stock — to its Cold War ally Russia.

Russia has called a U.S. intelligence report on the purchasing plan "fake." But U.S. officials say it shows Russia's desperation with the war in Ukraine and that Moscow could buy additional military hardware from North Korea.

There is little chance of Britain resetting relations with France under incoming prime minister Liz Truss, experts say, with the neighbors' geographical proximity and sometimes diverging interests making for a testy post-Brexit relationship.

The killing of 11 Israelis at the 1972 Munich Olympics prompted Israel to turn to a strategy which endures to this day: deploying secret operatives abroad to assassinate its enemies.

Ever since the Mossad intelligence service embarked on its Operation "Wrath of God" to hunt down senior militants it blamed for the Munich bloodbath, it has covertly targeted Israel's enemies overseas.

One stood for freedom, openness, peace and closer ties with the outside world. The other is jailing critics, muzzling journalists, pushing his country deeper into isolation and waging Europe's bloodiest conflict since World War II.

Such are history's bookends between Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet Union's last leader, and Vladimir Putin, Russia's president.

Even as he battles Lebanon's summer heat without air-conditioning, Judge Faysal Makki tries not to drink too much water because the toilets at the Justice Palace are broken.

Forty years since Hezbollah was founded at the height of Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, the group has morphed from a ragtag organization to the largest and most heavily armed militant group in the Middle East.

The Iranian-armed and funded Hezbollah, which has marked the anniversary with ceremonies in its strongholds in recent weeks, dominates Lebanon's politics and plays an instrumental role in spreading Tehran's influence throughout the Arab world.

A timeline of major events in the life of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who has died at age 91.

March 2, 1931: Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev born in Privolnoye in southern Russia.