Suicide bombers have struck again in Iraq, killing 52 worshippers at a Shia mosque in Khanaqin, and eight people near a hotel housing foreign journalists in Baghdad. We'll be updating that story throughout the day. Meanwhile Iran has announced that it has started processing a new batch of uranium at its Isfahan nuclear plant - which will be seen as another piece of defiance by the hardline president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, towards the international community. Simon Tisdall and Ewen MacAskill in today's Guardian have documented the president's purge of moderates, which has led to accusations that he is undertaking a coup d'etat.
In Britain, Tony Blair has defended the controversial education white paper designed to give schools greater independence. The prime minister has written in today's Guardian about his belief in education as the single biggest liberator of human potential.
And parliament's spending watchdog, the National Audit Office, announced today that the UK benefits system is so complicated that neither staff nor claimants understand it, leading to fraud and human error amounting to losses worth £2.6bn last year.
Gordon Brown announced today that a "feasibility study" will be carried out into a possible England bid to host the 2018 World Cup. It's been pointed out that Europe's other big footballing nations - France, Germany, Italy and Spain - have hosted the tournament more recently than England. Chris Borg will be pondering the wisdom of any bid, here on News blog.
