World highlights

• Israel's prime minister said it was wrong to link the Arab-Israeli conflict with wider problems in the Middle East and ruled out any immediate talks with Syria despite a US report calling for them. Ehud Olmert said he expected little pressure from Washington after the high-profile report by the Iraq Study Group, which urged President George W. Bush to push for Arab-Israeli peace as part of efforts to ease regional tensions.

• A suicide car bomber attacked a convoy of foreign troops in the centre of the Afghan city of Kandahar, killing a civilian and wounding five more. There were no casualties among the soldiers from the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force.

• Serbia warned the UN war crimes tribunal that ultranationalist defendant Vojislav Seselj must not be allowed to die on hunger strike in detention, and no excuses would be accepted. "A new tragic event at the Hague tribunal would be absolutely unacceptable," the government said in a statement.

• Dubai Ports World, the Arab-owned firm whose purchase of American port facilities caused a US political uproar, will join a programme aimed at stopping nuclear weapons being smuggled into the US. The programme would involve screening US-bound cargo for radiation at more than half a dozen ports including in Britain, Honduras, Oman and South Korea.