World highlights

¤ Iraq's Parliament may vote on Saturday on a new government in which the country's main religious and ethnic groups will share power, officials said yesterday, signalling an end to months of political paralysis. As Saddam Hussein's trial continued in a heavily guarded Baghdad courtroom, Iraq's Prime Minister-designate put the finishing touches to a unity government Washington hopes can quell an insurgency that erupted after Saddam's 2003 overthrow.

¤ A divided UN Security Council yesterday pressed Syria to improve its diplomatic ties with Lebanon and clarify their shared border to help turn the page on decades of Syrian domination of its neighbour.

¤ China evacuated more than 600,000 people as the strongest typhoon on record to enter the South China Sea this month bore down on the south coast yesterday, causing flight and shipping delays around the region.

¤ Police killed at least 22 more suspected gangsters overnight in Sao Paulo, raising to 137 the number of people who have died in a wave of violence in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo since Friday, officials said.

¤ Indonesia's Mount Merapi volcano shot a new large burst of hot gas clouds into the air late yesterday, and there were reports of new ash falls, but activity remained below earlier levels.

¤ At least five members of an Indonesian family have been infected with bird flu, the World Health Organisation confirmed yesterday, after the case triggered widespread fears of human-to-human transmission. There is no immediate evidence the H5N1 flu virus passed easily among at least seven members of the family in North Sumatra province. But experts said nothing could be ruled out and more testing was crucial.