World Highlights

• The government has done "a helluva job" guarding America, Vice President Dick Cheney said, as President George W. Bush prepared to visit Ground Zero amid an election-year debate on whether the country is safer five years after the September 11 attacks.

• Iraq's Parliament delayed debate on a divisive draft law on federalism that minority Sunni Arabs fear could lead to the partition of Iraq and stoke sectarian conflict that has already killed thousands. The Shi'ite and Kurdish-sponsored draft law paves the way for Iraq's 18 provinces to form autonomous federal regions with their own governments and security forces.

• British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the international community should deal with a future Palestinian unity government if it breaks with policies of the boycotted Hamas-led administration. "I believe that such a government, based on the Quartet requirements, does offer the possiblity of re-engagement by the international community," Mr Blair said.

• The H5N1 bird flu virus replicates far more aggressively in people than common human flu viruses, a study of patients in Vietnam has found, offering further insight as to why the virus is so deadly. The study, in the latest issue of Nature Medicine, also found that the virus had got into the blood stream of many of the human victims it killed, which means the virus could have spread to other parts of the body.

• Astronauts used a robot arm to check for heat shield damage to shuttle Atlantis and Nasa said all looked well so far.