¤ Iran said it wanted to resume nuclear negotiations with the EU and could even talk to Washington if its arch-foe "changed behaviour". Tehran also said it was willing to negotiate on the number of uranium-enriching centrifuges it uses for research, but stressed it would not stop running the devices entirely as the UN Security Council has called for.

¤ Taliban gunmen shot dead three Afghan women working for a Western aid agency in northern Afghanistan, while a roadside bomb killed two Afghans employed by a US firm, officials said.

¤ Gangs loosely allied to feuding factions of East Timor's armed forces defied international peacekeepers and went on a rampage of arson and looting as the president took charge of national security.

¤ Moscow's influential mayor said the city banned gay activists from holding a parade because it is morally cleaner than the West, which is caught up in "mad licentiousness".

¤ Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh pledged to pay salaries within days to thousands of government employees who have not received wages since March as a result of an international funds freeze.

¤ Twenty-five years after AIDS was first recognised, the world is still falling short in its battle against the disease with severe gaps in prevention and treatment, the United Nations said.

¤ A powerful bomb targeting Greek Culture Minister George Voulgarakis exploded in central Athens, wrecking cars but causing no injuries, police said.

¤ A key US official handling Somalia has been transferred from his job after criticising payments to warlords that are said to be fuelling some of Mogadishu's worst-ever fighting, diplomats said.

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