Sudan insisted that African countries have offered enough troops for a peacekeeping force in Darfur despite UN concerns that the mission will not be effective without contributions from outside the continent.

South Korean and Japan monitored reports today of North Korea’s possible preparations for a second nuclear test, a day after the US confirmed that communist country had, as it claimed, detonated its first nuclear device.

CIA director Porter Goss resigned suddenly, nudged out after a turmoil-filled 18 months at the spy agency as it struggled to forge a new identity in an era of intelligence blunders and government overhauls.