Washington  - Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain will make their first joint appearance of the 2008 election next month at a mega-church in California, the church announced Monday.

Presumptive Democratic nominee Obama and his Republican rival McCain have agreed to attend a religious forum at the 22,000-member Saddleback Church in Orange County on August 16, in what is likely to be the only meeting of the two White House hopefuls before the parties hold their nominating conventions later in the month.

Warsaw  - Poland and the United States made progress in talks Monday on US plans to set up a missile defence system in Eastern Europe, both sides said.

Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski met US Assistance Secretary of State Daniel Fried in Warsaw to discuss the proposal to place 10 long-range missile interceptors in Poland, which the Poles want Washington to sweeten with military aid.

"It was a good discussion," Sikorski told reporters, "which moved Poland's and the United States' viewpoints closer on the missile shield."

Washington, July 21 : With many states introducing new voting technologies and millions of new voters heading to the polls this November, election officials and voting monitors fear the combination is likely to create long lines, stressed-out poll workers and late tallies on the election day.

As quoted in the New York Times, about half of all voters will use machines unlike the ones they used in the last presidential election, experts say, and more than half of the states will use new statewide databases to verify voter registration.

New Delhi/Lucknow/Mumbai/Patna, July 21 : There has been a mixed response to the ongoing debate in Parliament on the vote of confidence sought by the UPA Government and the India-US civilian nuclear cooperation deal.

The debate on the vote of confidence in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh''s government began on Monday and its fate will be decided on Tuesday.

In Lucknow, the young brigade felt that the nuclear deal would benefit all sections of society.

Jerusalem - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned Iran Monday that his government was ready to take the lead in pressing for firmer sanctions to prevent it from realizing its nuclear programme.

In an historic address to Israel's parliament, he also strongly criticized Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over his comments on Israel.

"We stand ready to lead in taking firmer sanctions and ask the whole international community to join us," Brown said at the Knesset in Jerusalem.

"Iran has a clear choice to make: suspend its nuclear weapons programme and accept our offer of negotiations, or face growing isolation and the collective response, not just of one nation, but of all nations round the world."

New Delhi, July 21: Pakistan Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir met Leader of Opposition LK Advani here last evening.

The meeting was held ahead of Foreign Secretary-level talks, which will commence today.

Bashir arrived here to continue with the official talks that were begun last week.

Efforts to build mutual trust received a setback last week when India''s National Security Adviser MK Narayanan blamed Pakistan''s intelligence service (ISI) for the suicide attack on Indian embassy in Kabul, which killed 41 people, including an Indian diplomat and army brigadier.

The two countries resumed the composite dialogue during External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee''s visit to Islamabad in May.