US New York Times reporter Judith Miller testified to a grand jury probing whether senior White House officials unmasked a CIA agent, after getting the go-ahead from a highly placed source she had gone to jail to protect. Britain Britain is mulling a plan to send thousands more troops to Afghanistan to help efforts to combat insurgents and drug barons in the volatile south of the country, the Defence Ministry said on Friday. Iraq A car bomb killed 10 people at a busy market south of Baghdad, the latest in a string of attacks on Shiite targets after Al-Qaeda in Iraq declared all-out war on the country's majority community. US The United States moved to delay a showdown with Saudi Arabia over its alleged violations of religious minority rights as skyrocketing oil prices threatened to put a damper on the US economy. US The mayor of New Orleans called for federal cash and tax breaks for his hurricane-ravaged city and vowed to guard rebuilding coffers from corruption. US An army of firefighters got the upper hand in a battle against wildfires that have charred 8,000 hectares (20,000 acres) of suburban Los Angeles, forcing 410 people to flee their homes. Russia A Soyuz rocket blasted off from the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan, taking American "space tourist" Greg Olsen and his fellow astronauts, a Russian and another American, off towards the International Space Station, an AFP reporter witnessed. NZealand Prime Minister Helen Clark's ruling Labour Party was confirmed as the largest party in New Zealand's new parliament, according to final election results released. Britain Pressure mounted on London's police chief after the Home Office published a letter from him detailing a request to prevent an independent inquiry into the police shooting of a Brazilian man. US US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice defended the use of military force to advance the cause of democracy and liberty as "the only guarantee of true stability and lasting security". Algeria Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has won near-unanimous support for his controversial plans aimed at ending years of violence in the north African country, official referendum results showed Friday, amid opposition claims of fraud. Canada A raging trade dispute between Canada and the United States dominated top-level Canada-Mexico meetings, in which Mexican president Vicente Fox strongly sided with Canada. LatAm A South American trade summit barely got off the ground, with the absence of key leaders and the opposition of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.