World Highlights

• World powers said after a meeting they made progress but failed to reach a consensus on a package of incentives and threats to prevent Iran from being able to build a nuclear bomb. A spokesman for the US State Department said Iran, which insisted on its right to a full range of nuclear technology, had recently sought bilateral talks with the United States but that Washington would stick to a multilateral approach.

• Iraq's ex-Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz made his first public appearance in three years on the stand for Saddam Hussein, calling on the court to try current leaders for attacks on the state in the 1980s. Aziz, the highest profile witness for Saddam in his trial for crimes against humanity following a failed assassination bid in 1982, was once the international public face of the toppled leader's government and one of his closest aides.

• Israel will try diplomacy with the Palestinians until the end of the year before resorting to a plan to set a border unilaterally in the occupied West Bank, a senior Cabinet minister said. A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused the Israeli army of trying to undercut negotiations by launching a rare daytime raid in the West Bank city of Ramallah in which three Palestinians were killed and more than 40 wounded.

• A bill that would toughen border security while giving millions of illegal immigrants a chance to earn US citizenship cleared a test vote in the Senate, setting the stage for passage this week and a bruising battle with the House of Representatives. The Senate voted 73-25 to limit further debate on the Bill as a bipartisan coalition withstood several attempts by opponents to unravel the legislation. Lawmakers now expect the Bill to be passed, most likely today.

• The Taliban are gaining strength in parts of Afghanistan, the US military said, after a week of the heaviest fighting in years killed about 300 people. Nearly five years after they were forced from power by US and Afghan forces, the Taliban appear better organised and more aggressive than at any time since their ouster in 2001.

• One of the world's most wanted rebel chiefs, Joseph Kony of the Lord's Resistance Army, has called for an end to his 20-year war with the Ugandan government in the first images of him seen for years. And in an act bound to spark controversy around Africa, the video obtained by Reuters also showed the elusive Kony taking $20,000 in cash from the No. 2 of the ex-rebel Southern People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A).

• President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's lead has widened over opposition candidate Geraldo Alckmin and Mr Lula would be elected to a second-term in October's presidential election, a poll by the Sensus survey firm showed. Mr Lula would receive 40.5 per cent of the votes versus 18.7 per cent for former Sao Paulo state Governor Alckmin, a favourite of many business leaders. In an April Sensus poll, Mr Lula's lead over Mr Alckmin was 37.5 per cent to 20.6 per cent.