Iraq Under UN pressure, Iraq's parliament reversed changes to an electoral law that critics had charged made it harder to reject the new and deeply divisive constitution in next week's referendum. Britain British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Russia's President Vladimir Putin pledged to co-operate closely in fighting terrorism, with Blair hailing the countries' common "spirit of determination" on the issue. France NATO allies France and Italy backed out of signing a major frigate deal because the finance ministry in Rome failed to release the funding necessary for Europe's largest naval construction project to begin, Italian media said. Spain Spain's courts may try cases of genocide and crimes against humanity committed outside the country, whatever the nationality of the victims, the Constitutional Court ruled. Tajikistan Tajikistan's supreme court sentenced the head of one of the main opposition parties to 23 years in prison on terrorism and embezzlement charges a result opposition groups decried as politically motivated. US Some 3,000 New Orleans city workers -- half the workforce -- faced the loss of their jobs to ease strains on the city's finances. Nigeria Nigerian police and army officers blamed each other after a clash between their forces left three civilians dead and triggered an orgy of arson and looting. Spain Around 65 sub-Saharan immigrants broke through fences dividing Morocco from the Spanish enclave of Melilla, police said, only two days after another mass storming of the border. Germany Germany's two main political parties met for coalition talks but there were fears that Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's refusal to step down would lead straight to a stalemate. Nobel Yves Chauvin of France and Americans Robert H. Grubbs and Richard R. Schrock won the 2005 Nobel Chemistry Prize for the development of the metathesis method in organic synthesis, the Nobel jury said.