Gaza City  - Israeli ground troops fought heavy battles with Palestinian militants on Gaza City's outskirts Monday, as Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said only Israel would decide when it would stop its offensive in Gaza and Hamas leader Ismail Haniya said the movement's fighters had an "appointment with victory."

Zurich  - Manchester United's Portuguese winger Cristiano Ronaldo, who last month won the European Footballer of the Year, was on Monday named FIFA World Footballer of the Year 2008.

Ronaldo, 23, who made history by becoming the first Premier League-based player to win the award, convincingly beat Argentine striker Lionel Messi in second place.

Third place in the voting conducted by national team coaches and captains went to Liverpool's Spanish striker Fernando Torres.

Los Angeles  - Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen is engaged to marry American football superstar Tom Brady, People. com reported Monday.

The New England Patriots quarterback, 31, proposed with a diamond solitaire to the Brazilian supermodel, 28, on Friday, said People.

"He asked and she accepted," a source close to the couple was quoted as saying. "The couple is discussing a huge fashionista event in the spring or a more intimate and quicker ceremony in Costa Rica, where Gisele has a home."

Budapest  - Thousands of motorists chose to ignore an order to stay of the roads on Monday, the first working day since Budapest issued a full scale smog alert that should have cut traffic by half.

The smog alert was issued on Sunday morning, bringing into effect Budapest City Council regulations passed in December that ban half of cars from the roads.

While an alert is in force on a odd numbered date, only cars with an odd registration number can drive in Budapest. On an even numbered day, only even numbered cars can drive in the city. That, at least, is the theory.

Gaza  - Hamas fighters battling Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip would soon see victory, the movement's leader Ismail Haniya said Monday night.

Speaking in a pre-recorded televised speech carried on Hamas' al- Aqsa television, an exhausted-looking Haniya said Hamas had an "appointment to meet soon with victory against an enemy which has shown no mercy to stones, trees and humans."

Tehran  - Iran's former president Mohammad Khatami indicated Monday he could still take part in next June's presidential election, ISNA news agency reported.

"I swear to God that my hesitance and thorough evaluations to run in the election does not mean that I am running away from responsibility or consider my own expediency," Khatami said in a speech in Ilam, western Iran.

"The main issue is solely how to serve the people best," he said.