• A UN human rights mission accused Sudan's government of orchestrating and taking part in gross violations in Darfur and called for urgent international action to protect civilians there. The team, led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jody Williams, was dispatched by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate charges of widespread abuse in Sudan's vast western region, where observers say some 200,000 people have been killed since a revolt broke out in 2003.

• The US Army's top medical officer has quit, officials said, making him the third senior figure to lose his job over substandard care of troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. A senior US defence official said surgeon general Lt Gen. Kevin Kiley had been asked to request retirement by acting Army Secretary Pete Geren. Lt Gen. Kiley made the request on Sunday and was immediately replaced by his deputy, Maj. Gen. Gale Pollock, the Army said.

• The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas rejected criticism by al Qaeda's second-in-command and said it was still committed to Israel's destruction despite a power-sharing deal with the Fatah faction. "We will not betray promises we made to God to continue the path of Jihad and resistance until the liberation of Palestine, all of Palestine," Hamas said in a statement, in a clear reference to Israel as well as to the occupied West Bank.