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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a rare Saturday session, the U.S. Senate voted against moving forward with legislation that would boost funding for a federal program that helps low- income families pay their cooling and heating bills.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani put the military's main spy agency under the control of the Interior Ministry on Saturday, a move seen as asserting civilian authority over the intelligence network.

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's right-wing government on Saturday defended its decision to declare a nationwide state of emergency to deal with an influx of illegal immigrants after sharp criticism of the move.

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lankan troops continued their offensive against Tamil Tiger rebels in two days of fighting in the north that killed 66 Tigers and eight soldiers, the military said on Saturday.

TBILISI (Reuters) - The United States wants Georgia and officials from its breakaway region Abkhazia to sit down for face to face talks without preconditions to try to resolve tensions in the Black Sea region, a U.S. envoy said on Saturday.

LONDON (Reuters) - Presidential candidate Barack Obama on Saturday defended his decision to cancel a visit with U.S. troops at a military hospital in Germany because of concerns it would be viewed as a political event.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said on Saturday that U.S. President George W. Bush had insulted veterans of World War Two by equating the evils of Soviet communism with Nazi fascism.

LAGOS (Reuters) - Gunmen kidnapped eight foreign oil workers from a vessel off Nigeria's Niger Delta early on Saturday, bringing to 16 the number of industry workers seized in the past 48 hours, security sources said.

HAVANA (Reuters) - President Raul Castro will mark the 55th anniversary of the start of the Cuban revolution on Saturday with a speech to a nation waiting to hear how far and how fast he plans to go in reforming the island's struggling state-run economy.

PALE, Bosnia (Reuters) - Hundreds of people gathered to pray for Radovan Karadzic across the Serb half of Bosnia on Saturday, holding vigils inside churches or marching in protest at his arrest on war crimes charges.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Couples whose only child was killed or seriously injured in the May 12 Sichuan province earthquake may have another, winning an exemption from China's strict family planning rules, the China Daily said on Saturday.

LONDON (Reuters) - The woman who filmed motor racing chief Max Mosley taking part in a sado-masochistic orgy and sold the story to a British tabloid newspaper has apologized for the trouble it caused.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese authorities denied claims by a group calling itself the Turkistan Islamic Party that it was responsible for deadly bus explosions in Shanghai and Yunnan province ahead of the Olympic Games, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday.

TRIPOLI, Lebanon (Reuters) - The Lebanese army deployed on Saturday to halt two days of heavy sectarian fighting in the northern city of Tripoli which medical sources said had killed nine people.

GAZA (Reuters) - Hamas security forces stormed the office of a Palestinian news agency run by President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday and arrested dozens from his Fatah faction in their biggest crackdown since seizing Gaza, Fatah sources said.

AHMEDABAD, India (Reuters) - At least 16 small bombs exploded in the Indian city of Ahmedabad on Saturday, killing at least 29 people and wounding 88, a day after another set of blasts in the country's IT hub, officials said.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan is fighting al Qaeda and the Taliban for its own interests, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said on Saturday as he embarked on his first official visit to the United States.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress approved a massive housing market rescue bill on Saturday, offering emergency financing to mortgage titans Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and setting up a $300-billion fund to help hundreds of thousands of troubled homeowners.

AUCKLAND (Reuters)- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Saturday hailed warmer ties with New Zealand but offered no commitment on a free trade deal the Pacific nation wants with Washington.

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan is aiming to open five sectors of its economy to mainland Chinese by the end of the year, as part of a campaign by a new China-friendly administration to boost growth, media reported on Saturday.