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PARIS (Reuters) - France has renewed contact with the leaders of Colombian guerrillas holding Franco-Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt to try and secure her release after their main guerrilla contact was killed in March, presidency sources said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush spoke with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Thursday and they agreed negotiations for a long-term security pact were going well, the White House said. Maliki last week had said the talks were stalled.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush spoke with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Thursday and they agreed negotiations for a long-term security pact were going well, the White House said. Maliki last week had said the talks were stalled.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some U.S. lawmakers are trying to pass legislation to remove former South African President Nelson Mandela from a U.S. list of terrorists by his 90th birthday next month, officials said on Thursday.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union states agreed on Thursday to scrap sanctions against Cuba but will insist the Communist island improves its human rights record, EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said.

MALABO (Reuters) - Powerful international businessmen who allegedly masterminded a failed 2004 coup plot in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea could try again to seize power there, a British mercenary said at his trial on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican and Democratic leaders of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee said on Thursday they were disappointed with a White House threat to veto a multi-billion-dollar housing market rescue bill.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. telephone companies that took part in President George W. Bush's warrantless domestic spying program could be shielded from billions of dollars in lawsuits under a electronic spy bill finalized on Thursday by congressional and White House negotiators.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday accused a six-nation group of world powers of bullying Tehran over its nuclear program and said their efforts would end in disgrace.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will travel this month to Chengdu, China, the capital of Sichuan province that was struck by a massive earthquake in May, the State Department said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department said on Thursday there is "growing confidence" North Korea will make its long-overdue declaration of its nuclear programs.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Congressional ethics panel is examining allegations that two Senate Democrats, including the sponsor of a major housing bill, received preferential loans by troubled mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp, a member of Congress said on Thursday.

GAZA (Reuters) - Israel and Hamas halted fighting in the Gaza Strip on Thursday but, with wider peace prospects hazy, both sides voiced doubt over how long the Egyptian- brokered ceasefire might hold.

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - A young Canadian prisoner will go on trial before the Guantanamo prison camp's war crimes court on October 8 on charges of murdering a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan, a judge said on Thursday.

SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Two Spanish pilots and two German officers of the European Union's peacekeeping force were killed when their helicopter crashed in central Bosnia on Thursday, authorities said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson played host at a breakfast meeting on Wednesday to introduce recently installed top Chinese officials to members of Congress, a Treasury spokeswoman said.

MADRID (Reuters) - Two Spanish pilots of the EU peace force and two German officers were killed when their helicopter crashed in central Bosnia on Thursday, a Spanish Defense Ministry spokesman said.

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Hundreds of Tibetan exiles, including nuns and monks, shouted anti-China slogans and scuffled with police in Kathmandu on Thursday before being hauled into waiting trucks and taken to detention centers, police said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said on Thursday he has decided to forgo public financing of his election campaign against Republican John McCain.

ABUJA (Reuters) - Militants in speedboats attacked Royal Dutch Shell's main offshore facility in Nigeria on Thursday, cutting the country's oil output by a tenth and raising fears of a new campaign against deepwater installations.