World Highlights

¤ The United States has activated its ground-based interceptor missile-defence system amid concern over an expected North Korean missile launch, a US defense official said. Pentagon officials declined to say whether they would try to shoot down any missile launched by the reclusive communist state.

¤ US President George W. Bush headed for Europe to keep pressure on Iran over its nuclear program even as North Korea threatened to divert his attention by preparing for a long-range missile launch. Mr Bush goes to Vienna for an annual US-European Union summit and then to Budapest to mark the 50th anniversary of Hungary's uprising against Soviet rule.

¤ A former Bush administration official was convicted of lying about his links to Mr Jack Abramoff, a disgraced lobbyist whose ties to powerful Republicans have embarrassed the party. A federal jury found Mr David Safavian - a former chief of staff at the General Services Administration - guilty of four of five counts of lying and obstructing justice in the first trial to be held in connection with the Abramoff influence-peddling scandal.

¤ Mexico's leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador extended his lead over his conservative rival to four percentage points in a poll published in the Excelsior newspaper. With the July 2 ballot looming, the poll gave Mr Lopez Obrador 36.5 per cent of the potential vote compared with 32.5 per cent for his closest rival, ruling party candidate Felipe Calderon.

¤ Despite an international crackdown, children are still being abducted, raped, and forcibly recruited as soldiers in Congo, with Congolese soldiers and police the main perpetrators, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said. A key problem is the rapid changes the security forces are undergoing in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mr Annan said in a report to the UN Security Council.