World News Update, what you need to know

US Secretary of State John Kerry is pressing Egypt to allow greater political freedoms on the eve of a Cairo court ruling in the terrorism-related case of Australian Peter Greste and two journalist colleagues.

ELSEWHERE:

JAKARTA - Australia has a phobia of Indonesia and must be convinced there is no threat from its neighbour's size and military capability, says a presidential candidate.

SIVERSK - Ukraine's new Western-backed leader and Russian President Vladimir Putin are both calling for dialogue to end a pro-Moscow uprising threatening the ex-Soviet state's survival.

BEIRUT - Jihadists fighting in Syria's war have put to use for the first time American-made Humvees they seized during a lightening offensive in Iraq this month.

KANO - A suicide bomber has rammed his car into a military checkpoint in northeast Nigeria near the Cameroon border, killing three soldiers in an attack blamed on Boko Haram Islamists.

ABIDJAN - Two million children under five die each year in central and western Africa, accounting for almost a third of all such deaths worldwide, the UN children's agency says.

DOHA - UN cultural agency UNESCO has granted its prized World Heritage status to a prehistoric cave in southern France containing the earliest known figurative drawings.