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ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey and Syria are considering setting up a joint energy company and could build joint nuclear power plants for electricity, Syria's oil minister was quoted as saying on Friday.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict gave George W. Bush an unprecedented welcome in the tranquility of the Vatican Gardens on Friday before the U.S. president resumed his campaign to rally European support for sanctions against Iran.

Simon Denyer is India bureau chief for Reuters, with responsibility also for Nepal and Bhutan. He has visited Nepal a dozen times in the last four years, covering a Maoist insurgency, the power grab of King Gyanendra, pro-democracy protests and the peace process. In the following story, he recounts the scene at Gyanendra's farewell news conference and his reflections.

PARIS (Reuters) - Donors led by the United States pledged about $20 billion in aid to Afghanistan on Thursday but said Kabul must do far more to fight corruption.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Support for Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's cabinet rose in a public opinion poll released on Friday, but more than half wanted the leader to call an early election after he suffered a non-binding censure motion.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The United Nations and NATO rushed on Thursday to iron out snags in the troubled international security presence for Kosovo, just days ahead of its constitution coming into force.

GAZA (Reuters) - Hamas's military wing said on Friday an explosion that killed eight Palestinians in the Gaza Strip was an accident that occurred as militants prepared to carry out a bomb attack.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - At least four people died on Friday in Russia's volatile Chechnya and Dagestan provinces in what police said were rebel attacks, Russian media reported.

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain and Malaysia tightened security on Thursday to stop strikes against soaring global fuel prices turning violent, as well as snarling road networks and slowing deliveries of food and raw materials.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union, opening up a new transatlantic trade spat, will investigate whether soaring imports of U.S. biodiesel break global trade rules because of subsidies, the EU's executive Commission said on Friday.

PARIS (Reuters) - A possible Irish rejection of the European Union's Lisbon treaty should not stop other member states ratifying it, a French minister said on Friday.

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean truckers extended their strike on Friday over high fuel costs, adding to President Lee Myung-bak's woes just past 100 days in office, but a threatened major anti-government protest fizzled out.

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - Fox News Channel said Thursday that it had hired former GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee as a contributor.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Long-shot White House hopeful Ron Paul formally abandoned his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday, vowing to remain on the political scene.

MANILA (Reuters) - A cameraman in a three-member television team kidnapped in the southern Philippines has been freed and there is a good chance the other two will be released on Friday, officials said.

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe said on Friday liberation war veterans would take up arms if he loses a June 27 presidential run-off vote.

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombian President Alvaro Uribe on Thursday offered not to extradite a FARC guerrilla in exchange for the release of hostages after a rebel contact reached out to authorities about a deal.

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Haitian lawmakers rejected President Rene Preval's nominee to become prime minister on Thursday, in another blow to his efforts to establish a stable democracy in the impoverished Caribbean country.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York congressman who has been romantically linked by tabloid newspapers to several high-profile, beautiful women, is one step closer to creating a special work permit for foreign fashion models.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers troubled by Russia's help for Iran's nuclear program told the Bush administration on Thursday they did not trust Russia enough to approve a pact on civilian nuclear cooperation with Moscow.