BBC News with David Austin

The Indian government has offered to free the

veteran

Indian anti-corruption campaigner Anna Hazare just hours after his arrest

spark

ed a wave of protest across the country. Earlier, thousands of his followers were detained, mostly for a short time, around the country. From Delhi, Mark Dummett reports.

The Indian government has

bowed to

public pressure in ordering Anna Hazare's release, and hundreds of his supporters have gathered outside Delhi's Tihar jail to celebrate. But according to one of his close aides, the 74-year-old anti-corruption campaigner is refusing to leave and has gone on hunger strike. He says he won't move until the police can guarantee that his original protest is allowed to go ahead. Government ministers had earlier

ruled that out

because of the police's concerns over law and order.

The German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the French President Nicolas Sarkozy have proposed several measures to strengthen the euro and attempt to end the continuing debt crisis in the eurozone. They said they'd propose more political

integration

with the creation of a common economic government for the eurozone. Here's Andrew Walker.

The main theme from Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Sarkozy was a call for more integration in the economic management of the eurozone. There was a proposal for a new council of leaders with unspecified powers. They also want all euro-area countries to