World highlights

• Germany may offer to train Iraqi soldiers at bases outside Iraq, Chancellor Angela Merkel said yesterday, following calls on European governments to do more to help stabilise the country. "I do not rule out that Germany could also take part in training Iraqi soldiers outside Iraq," Ms Merkel told a news conference after a meeting with Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak.

• Detectives investigating the murder of two prostitutes whose bodies were found in the same stream said yesterday there were "striking similarities" between the two cases but say it is unclear if the same attacker killed them both. Police divers found the body of Tania Nicol, 19, near Copdock Mill, outside Ipswich, on Friday, less than a week after the body of 25-year-old Gemma Adams was found two miles away. There were no obvious wounds on either body.

• Gunmen on horseback attacked a truck carrying medicine and aid in Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur region and killed around 30 civilians on board, some of whom were burned alive, the UN said. The African Union had earlier put the death toll at 22 and said 10 others were wounded on Saturday when gunmen attacked the vehicle near Sirba, north of El Geneina, capital of West Darfur state and close to the Sudan-Chad border.

• Gulf Arab countries want to acquire nuclear energy capability and have ordered a study on a possible joint atomic programme, a statement read yesterday at the close of a two-day Gulf Cooperation Council summit said. "The countries of the region have the right to nuclear energy technology for peaceful purposes," said Abdul-Rahman al-Attiya, secretary-general of the Gulf Cooperation Council. The statement comes amid concerns over Iran's nuclear ambitions and suspicions that Israel has nuclear weapons.

• South Africa's defence ministry is to investigate why its officials spent 4.5 million rand ($635,500) to charter a plane to fly Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka to Britain for an official visit.