Reuters World News Highlights at 0215 GMT, Dec 03

NEW DELHI - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flew to New Delhi on Tuesday hoping to ease tension between India and Pakistan that has surged over the Mumbai attacks and put at risk U.S. counterterrorism efforts in the region.

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NEW YORK - U.S. automakers sharpened their pleas for a government lifeline on Tuesday and car companies around the world cut costs and production as the global economic crisis continued to ravage the industry.

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BAGHDAD - Bombs killed 14 people across Iraq on Tuesday, police said, including a child hit by a blast outside his primary school in the north of the country.

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BANGKOK - Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat was banned from politics for five years and his party disbanded on Tuesday, spurring jubilant anti-government protesters to end their blockades of Bangkok's airports.

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OTTAWA - Canada's minority Conservative government may seek the temporary suspension of Parliament to stop opposition parties from voting it out and taking power, an aide to Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Tuesday.

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CHICAGO - President-elect Barack Obama pledged on Tuesday to help state governors cope with a deepening recession and asked for their help in crafting a huge stimulus package to create jobs and tackle the crumbling economy.

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DULUTH - The state of Georgia voted in a run-off election for the U.S. Senate on Tuesday that will help decide whether Democrats gain a big enough majority in the chamber to more easily pass their legislation agenda.

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BRUSSELS - NATO agreed on Tuesday to gradually resume contacts with Russia suspended after Moscow's intervention in Georgia, and put off a decision on putting Ukraine and Georgia on formal membership tracks.

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HARARE - The death toll from Zimbabwe's worst recorded cholera epidemic has risen to nearly 500, the World Health Organisation said on Tuesday, in a sign of the rapidly deepening crisis.

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GAZA - An Israeli air strike killed two Palestinian youths on Tuesday in the southern Gaza Strip, where mortar bombs were earlier launched at Israel, local residents and hospital officials said.

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TOKYO - The top U.S. negotiator for multilateral talks on ending Pyongyang's nuclear programme said on Tuesday he saw a way forward at the next meeting, but details on verification must still be clarified.