Iraq Iraqi negotiators were locked in last-ditch talks to try to convince disgruntled Sunni Arabs to sign up to the draft constitution after missing a third deadline for a parliament vote. France Fourteen children and three adults -- one a pregnant woman -- died in an inferno that gutted a Paris apartment block housing African immigrant families as horrified neighbours heard the youngsters screaming for help. Pakistan Five people have been sentenced to death in Pakistan for their involvement in a 2003 attempt to assassinate President Pervez Musharraf in which 15 people were killed, an official said. Mideast Israel said it intended to keep control over the borders of the Gaza Strip even after its historic pullout, citing fears that the Palestinian territory will turn into a bastion of militancy awash with weapons. Iran Iran's new hardline nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said in Vienna that Tehran would come up with new proposals for nuclear talks with Europe within a month and wanted to get other nations beyond Europe involved. China The EU and China held a second day of talks on a dispute over textile exports that has left stranded in customs millions of items of Chinese-made clothing bound for the European market. Britain Al-Qaeda is preparing an attack on a big financial centre in Asia, such as Tokyo, Singapore or Sydney, to undermine investor confidence in the region, France's top terrorist investigator said in an interview. Burundi Burundi's new President Pierre Nkurunziza was sworn in as the country's first elected leader after 12 years of war at a ceremony attended by several other African heads of state. US Hurricane Katrina relentlessly pounded storm-weary Florida, killing at least three people, leaving about 1.5 million homes without power and collapsing a Miami highway overpass. SriLanka Sri Lanka's Supreme Court ruled that President Chandrika Kumaratunga's final term expires in December, ending her controversial 11-year rule and clearing the way for a vote before November 21. Cycling Cycling legend Lance Armstrong vehemently denied fresh doping allegations and attacked lapses in anti-doping protocol that allowed a French newspaper to gain access to his stored urine samples from the 1999 Tour de France.