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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The State Department said on Tuesday a U.S. diplomat will meet three Syrians on a private visit to Washington but made clear this did not signal warmer ties or greater U.S. interest in Israeli-Syrian peace talks.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Tuesday urged Congress to move forward on a free trade deal with Colombia, saying failure to approve it was hurting U.S. businesses at a time of economic uncertainty.

ROME (Reuters) - The Italian parliament approved a law on Tuesday giving Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi immunity from prosecution, a victory for the conservative billionaire who has long complained of being hounded by "biased" prosecutors.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A defense administrator and a former cargo pilot vowed on Tuesday to restore credibility to the U.S. Air Force after months of scandal over nuclear security and doubts about the embattled service's wartime priorities.

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - Salim Hamdan was Osama bin Laden's personal protector as well as his driver and joined an al Qaeda conspiracy to wage war on the United States, a prosecutor said on Tuesday at the first U.S. war crimes trial since World War Two.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top U.S. Air Force officer warned on Tuesday that Russia would be crossing "a red line" if it were to use Cuba as a refueling base for nuclear-capable bombers.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to open debate on a bill to rein in energy market speculation blamed for high oil and gasoline prices.

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Darfur rebels accused the African Union of bias on Tuesday after it said it would urge the U.N. Security Council to suspend any warrant to arrest Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes.

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - A Chilean woman beat her daughter to death after she refused to do her homework, police said on Tuesday.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Singapore on Tuesday for six-party talks over North Korea's weapons program that China said would push forward the process of denuclearization.

AMMAN (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama pledged on Tuesday to work to reach a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians from his first day in office but said it would be difficult.

CANTERBURY (Reuters) - The Anglican Church's most senior woman bishop said she believed that one day the church would be led by a woman Archbishop of Canterbury.

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese official dismissed reports that a bizarre text message had warned residents of Kunming to avoid buses hours before two bomb blasts killed two passengers in Monday's rush hour, state media said.

MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish police on Tuesday arrested nine suspected members of Basque separatist group ETA, dismantling its most active cell blamed for a string of bomb attacks and killing a civil guard, the interior minister said.

ATHENS (Reuters) - A Greek court has dismissed a request by residents of the Aegean island of Lesbos to ban the use of the word lesbian to describe gay women, according to a court ruling made public on Tuesday.

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States is ready to cut its ceiling for trade-distorting farm subsidies to $15 billion a year to help unblock talks for a global trade deal, U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab said on Tuesday.

KARACHI (Reuters) - Gunmen killed a senior security officer for Asif Ali Zardari, head of Pakistan's ruling party, in the southern city of Karachi on Tuesday, police and party officials said.

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States sought to kickstart efforts to rescue a global trade deal on Tuesday by offering to cut a ceiling on its contested farm subsidies, but leading developing countries said it was not enough.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The U.S. troop "surge" in Iraq that President George W. Bush ordered last year has ended after the last of five additional combat brigades left the country, a U.S. military spokesman said on Tuesday.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A smoldering border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia grabbed the limelight on Tuesday as Southeast Asian nations began meetings with Asia-Pacific powers on economic and security issues.