Pakistan A powerful car bomb ripped through a prayer gathering of Sunni Muslim radicals in central Pakistan, killing 41 people and wounding more than 100 as the country grappled with a new upsurge of sectarian violence. Iraq Two rockets slammed into a Baghdad hotel used by foreign journalists and contractors even as militiamen loyal to a radical Shiite cleric offered to surrender weapons in return for concessions. US President George W. Bush defended his decision to go to war against the "unique threat" of Iraq, despite an official US report that Baghdad did not have weapons of mass destruction. Mideast Three Palestinians, including two children, were killed by Israeli fire in Gaza as the UN delivered aid to Palestinian families trapped in the Jabaliya refugee camp. Britain World oil prices bolted to new record summits, reaching 53 dollars in New York on markets nervous about tight global supplies with winter approaching in the northern hemisphere. Nobel-literature Sweden Controversial Austrian writer Elfriede Jelinek won the 2004 Nobel Literature Prize, only the 10th female laureate in its history, but said she could not pick it up due to a "social phobia." Sudan Sudan's government and main southern rebel group opened a fresh round of talks in Nairobi with a new commitment to ending Africa's longest-running civil war amid increasing international outrage over a separate conflict in the western Sudanese region of Darfur. Canada Canada's minority government will risk a vote of confidence and a possible downfall in parliament in a dispute over federal powers. Ethiopia British Prime Minister Tony Blair issued a clarion call for the world to help Africa free itself from poverty, disease and conflict, describing his personal crusade for the continent as "the one noble cause worth fighting for".