World highlights

¤ Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert moved closer to shoring up a government under fire over the Lebanon war by adding a far-right party whose leader wants to annex parts of the occupied West Bank. "We are joining the government," Avigdor Lieberman, head of the Yisrael Beitenu party, told reporters after talks with Mr Olmert.

¤ India's defence minister said a detailed investigation would be conducted to bust what he called a Pakistani spy ring in the Indian army. Pranab Mukherjee's comments came after Indian police last week arrested two men on charges of espionage and handing over secret documents to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence military spy agency.

¤ Fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar has used the holiest Muslim holiday of the year to warn that his men will intensify their fighting in Afghanistan to "surprising" levels to drive out foreign infidels. In a lengthy message to Afghans for Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, Mullah Omar also urged Nato to withdraw its almost 20,000 troops and stop sacrificing soldiers for the US, adding the nation still stood with him.

¤ UN envoy to Sudan Jan Pronk prepared to leave Khartoum after the African country's government raised the stakes in a running dispute with the world body by ordering Mr Pronk to leave. Khartoum was already on a collision course with the international community over its rejection of a UN Security Council resolution to send 22,500 UN troops to its violent western Darfur region. It calls the plan a Western invasion aimed at recolonising Sudan.