World highlights

• The US wants the UN Security Council to begin talks next week on a draft resolution that sets out sanctions against Iran for its nuclear activities, US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said. But it was far from clear whether other major world powers supported Washington's push to penalise Tehran for defying a UN demand that it freeze uranium enrichment by August 31.

• Mortars killed eight people as hundreds of thousands of pilgrims converged on an Iraqi holy city for a religious festival where Shi'ite leaders renewed demands for sweeping new powers in their region. Organisers, who say visitors to Kerbala could reach 2 million by today's climax, said a heavy security presence by police and Iraqi troops had so far succeeded in keeping out the Sunni al Qaeda suicide bombers who have hit previous rituals.

• President George W. Bush scheduled a prime-time speech to mark the fifth anniversary of September 11 amid an acrimonious election-year debate over whether America is safer and who is to blame for the attacks. The Oval Office address will culminate a series Bush has delivered to insist that five years after the catastrophic hijacked plane attacks that killed almost 3,000 people, the US is more secure but still threatened by al Qaeda.

• British Prime Minister Tony Blair's pledge to quit within a year failed to heal rifts as his likely successor came under fire from a respected Labour Party heavyweight. Former interior minister Charles Clarke launched a stinging attack on finance minister Gordon Brown, the man most expected to succeed Blair after a decade of at times tense and testy relations with his leader.