World highlights

• Five babies died and 19 babies and a nurse were injured in a fire yesterday at a Sarajevo orphanage. Two babies were in the intensive care, Sarajevo police said in a statement while Fena news agency quoted duty regional prosecutor Dubravko Campara as saying the nurse, who tried to rescue the babies, suffered burns. The cause of the fire is being investigated.

• A fight between the US Congress and President George W. Bush over the Iraq war is set to come to a head this week when Democrats are expected to send him $100 billion to pay for continuing combat while setting timetables for withdrawing troops. Mr Bush has promised to veto any bill setting dates for removing US combat soldiers from the Iraq war, now in its fifth year.

• The US is showing signs of softening its attitude towards Iran, an Iranian official said, but added that Tehran had not yet decided to attend a meeting on Iraq with senior US officials. Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said Iran would decide after talks this week with Iraq's foreign minister whether it would take part in an international conference next month to discuss the conflict in neighbouring Iraq.

• The Russian contractor building Iran's Bushehr nuclear power station said the two sides had signed a protocol outlining what measures should be taken to guarantee payments for the project. Russia is Iran's closest major power ally and has helped water down international sanctions over its nuclear programme, but the two have clashed over payments for Bushehr. Iran resumed payments last month but some were still outstanding.

• US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has hurt President George W. Bush and himself, and they must decide if he should go, a senior Republican US lawmaker said yesterday. Others, though, including former House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich, renewed their calls for Mr Bush to dump Attorney General Gonzales, who has ignited a political firestorm with the firing of eight federal prosecutors.