South African Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils has left for Zimbabwe on a mission to free a South African spy.

Researchers have compiled a global map of sites where animals and plants face imminent extinction.

Former gang leader Stanley "Tookie" Williams has been executed by lethal injection, 24 years after he was convicted of killing four people.

Hong Kong was braced yesterday for its biggest security operation since the handover from British rule in 1997 as thousands of international protesters began flying in to try to derail the World Trade Organisation summit later this week.

India's main political parties have suspended six members of parliament over alleged bribe-taking, party officials say. The ruling Congress party suspended one MP, while the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party suspended five.

Police investigating suspected plans for attacks in France have arrested at least 20 people during raids in and around Paris. They described the arrests as a "major operation aimed at disbanding an Islamist network linked to terrorism". Some of the suspects are believed to have been involved in crimes to help fund Islamic groups.

Leaders from the South East Asian body Asean have called on fellow member Burma to release political prisoners and begin moves towards democracy. Correspondents say the unusually direct wording showed Asean's members were no longer hiding frustration at Burma.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard has called for ethnic and religious tolerance in the wake of race riots in Sydney over the weekend. Attacking people "on the basis of their race, their appearance [and] their ethnicity" was unacceptable, he said.

A prominent Lebanese anti-Syrian member of parliament and journalist has been killed in a car bomb attack in Beirut. Gibran Tueni's convoy was targeted as it travelled in the Christian-dominated eastern suburb of Mekallis. At least two other people were killed and several injured in the powerful blast during rush hour.