World News Update, what you need to know

Two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett has been named a global goodwill ambassador for the United Nations refugee agency.

ELSEWHERE:

LONDON - Letters and gifts from 64 countries across the world have been sent to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to celebrate Princess Charlotte's birthday.

BERLIN - An international group of scientists has discovered three Earth-like planets orbiting an ultra-cool dwarf star only 40 light-years from our world, the European Southern Observatory has announced.

ANKARA - Members of Turkey's ruling AK Party and the pro-Kurdish opposition have traded kicks and punches, and thrown water at each other in parliament, halting talks about lifting parliamentarians' immunity from prosecution.

SAN DIEGO - The US military is beginning testing on the world's largest unmanned ship - a self-driving 40-metre vessel designed to travel thousands of kilometres out at sea without a single crew member on board.

AMMAN - Washington and Moscow say they are working hard to extend a Syrian truce to Aleppo, the divided northern city where a sharp escalation of violence in recent weeks has left a ceasefire in tatters and torpedoed peace talks.

HAVANA - The first US cruise ship to arrive in Cuba in decades has received a warm welcome from Havana residents who gathered at the wharf in the colonial old city as hundreds of Americans waved from the decks of the vessel.