COLOMBIA

New video shows U.S., French hostages

BOGOTA — Colombian officials released newly seized videos of rebel-held hostages Friday — among them three U.S. defense contractors and a former presidential candidate — the first images in years providing evidence the captives may be alive.

The tapes were seized during the arrest Thursday evening in Bogota of three suspected urban members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, said Luis Carlos Restrepo, the government's peace commissioner.

The videos were apparently recorded as recently as late October, Restrepo said.

The videotapes, which were played at a news conference without sound, showed an extremely gaunt Irgrid Betancourt, a dual French national seized while campaigning for president in 2002, apparently chained and in front of a jungle backdrop.

The Americans — Thomas Howes, Keith Stansell and Marc Gonsalves — were abducted by the FARC after their surveillance plane went down in a southern Colombia jungle in 2003. They are shown looking haggard in front of the jungle backdrop.

ENGLAND

EU officer says Iran obstinate on uranium

LONDON — Talks between Iran and the European Union broke up Friday without compromise on Tehran's refusal to freeze uranium enrichment, and the top EU foreign policy envoy said he was disappointed at Tehran's refusal to budge.

"I expected more and therefore I am disappointed," EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said after a five-hour session with the Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili. The failure of the meeting was likely to increase pressure for new U.N. Security Council sanctions, with the five permanent council members set to discuss such actions Saturday.

ITALY

Pair in slaying case to remain in jail

PERUGIA — A University of Washington student and her Italian ex-boyfriend — both held in connection with the slaying of a 21-year-old British student — must remain in jail, a court ruled Friday.

Amanda Marie Knox, of Seattle, and Raffaele Sollecito have been jailed in this central Italian city since Nov. 6.

The two could face months in jail before prosecutors declare the investigation closed and move to either seek indictments or decide not to press charges. Both deny wrongdoing.

Meredith Kercher, enrolled for a year of study in Perugia, was found dead Nov. 2 in the apartment she shared with Knox. She died from a stab wound to the neck, and prosecutors said she was killed resisting a sexual assault.

The judges did not release the reason for their ruling but are expected to do so in the next few days, said Marco Brusco, a lawyer for Sollecito.

ENGLAND

Iranian group off terrorist list

LONDON — A British court ordered an Iranian opposition group removed from the government's list of terrorist organizations Friday, potentially giving one of the Iranian government's fiercest foes more freedom to organize and raise money in Britain.

The People's Mujahedeen of Iran's British backers say it no longer engages in any kind of armed struggle.

The ruling, which the Home Office has said it will appeal, was an important victory for the group, which has been fighting to shed its terrorist tag after a series of bloody anti-Western attacks in the 1970s — and nearly 30 years of violent struggle against the Iranian theocratic regime.

—From wire reports