Iraq Some 1,000 US soldiers launched an operation against a "terrorist sanctuary" near Iraq's border with Syria as insurgent violence surged ahead of a referendum on a post-Saddam Hussein constitution. France Security forces ended blockades by strikers at the Corsican port of Ajaccio and two oil terminals in Marseille, amid a bitter dispute over the privatisation of a state-owned ferry company. 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. US The administration of President George W. Bush broke the law as it resorted to illegal "covert propaganda" in trying to sell its key education initiative to the public, US congressional investigators have found. 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. Azerbaijan The United States urged restraint in Azerbaijan as the opposition prepared to go forward with a banned pre-election rally that the authorities in the oil-rich former Soviet republic of have threatened to use force to break up. EU European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana has warned of "a huge risk of leaving Turkey without an anchor in the world", should the bloc not make progress on membership for the mainly Muslim state in Monday's scheduled negotiations. Burundi Eleven civilians were killed and several wounded in two attacks in Burundi, at least one of which was carried out by the country's last active Hutu rebel group, the army said. Mideast Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas's ruling Fatah faction trounced Islamist group Hamas in West Bank municipal elections, according to final results against a backdrop of violence in the Palestinian territories. Indonesia Hundreds of people rallied in a third day of demonstrations across Indonesia to protest a government decision to more than double fuel prices to keep an economic crisis at bay. New Zealand New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark secured a historic third term in power when final election results confirmed her Labour Party as the biggest political force in parliament. Japan China agreed to consider a Japanese proposal for joint exploration of energy resources in a disputed area of the East China Sea as talks ended on one of the Asian rivals' biggest sources of tension.