Vatican Some half a million mourners have paid their final respects in front of the body of Pope John Paul II, officials estimated, as cardinals reflected on who now should lead the Roman Catholic Church. Britain British Prime Minister Tony Blair, eager for a third straight term in power for his Labour Party, called a general election for May 5 amid signs that the race will be tighter than he would like. Saudi At least 14 militants, including a number of most-wanted Al-Qaeda suspects, have been killed in three days of fighting with Saudi security forces in the north of the kingdom, officials said. Iraq Iraq's 275-member parliament was due to elect its three-man presidency council after winning Shiite and Kurdish lists finalized the lineup by choosing a Sunni Arab Sheikh Ghazi al-Yawar for vice president. Mideast Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met with soon-to-be evicted settlers from the Gaza Strip, after an Israeli was shot and wounded in the first violent incident in the occupied territory for weeks. US-Mideast US President George W. Bush warned Israel that there can be "no expansion" of settlements in Palestinian territories under the US-backed road map to Middle East peace. Austria Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel said the country's ruling coalition would survive a split on the far-right, which saw Joerg Haider form a new party and persuade MPs to defect to his side. Angola Angolan health workers in a slum outside Luanda were treating a new suspected case of the Marburg virus as a senior UN official warned that the outbreak of the Ebola-like epidemic was not yet under control. Zimbabwe Police in Zimbabwe went on high alert after youths took to the streets in Harare to urge Zimbabweans to reject the outcome of elections overwhelmingly won by President Robert Mubage's party. US Saul Bellow, the celebrated 1976 Nobel prize-winning US writer, has died aged 89, news reports said. Asia Two million more Asians have joined the ranks of the poor following the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster even though the overall impact on the economies of the affected countries looks small, said the Asian Development Bank.