US Hurricane Rita gave the US Gulf Coast its second pounding in less than four weeks, wreaking new havoc and floods with driving sheets of rain and threatening domestic energy supplies already at crisis levels. Mideast-Gaza At least four Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike in an eastern district of Gaza City, medical sources and the Palestinian interior ministry said. Mideast Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz ordered a series of "harsh and varied operations" in the Gaza Strip targeting militant infrastructure amid Palestinian rocket attacks, his office said. Iraq-Europe Tens of thousands of people were expected to march in cities around Europe calling for an end to the US-led war in Iraq and for the return of European troops from the country. Iran The UN atomic watchdog was to meet to decide on an EU proposal that sets Iran up for referral to the UN Security Council, in what would be a sharp escalation of the West's face-off with the Islamic Republic. Iraq The leader of Iraq's main Shiite political party added his voice to those of Shiite religious leaders calling for a "yes" vote on the draft constitution, as demonstrators in the United States and Europe protested against the ongoing war. Turkey-Armenia Turkish academics called for serious, objective research to shed light on the massacre of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire, slamming past study of the killings as propaganda tainted by both Turkish and Armenian nationalism.