AFP - US President George W. Bush and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani will meet Wednesday for talks on efforts to forge a deal on a US military presence in the war-battered country after 2008, the White House said.

AFP - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe said he is open to negotiations after this week's runoff presidential election, state media reported Wednesday.

Reuters - A roadside bomb killed three U.S. soldiers and an interpreter in northern Iraq, the U.S. military said on Wednesday.

Reuters - Pakistan's Supreme Court postponed on Wednesday a by-election in a constituency where former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had hoped to stand, pending a ruling on a decision by a lower court to bar him from the poll.

Reuters - South Korea will allow the resumption of U.S. beef imports starting Thursday, the farm ministry said, implementing an unpopular deal that sparked street protests and caused a crisis for the government.

Reuters - U.S.-led coalition and Afghan forces killed up to 35 Taliban insurgents after the militants attacked two towns in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistan border overnight, a police chief said on Wednesday.

Reuters - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert averted a split in Israel's restive coalition on Wednesday by striking a deal with his biggest partner, the Labour party, that stopped it backing a bill to dissolve parliament.

Reuters - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev played down differences with his predecessor Vladimir Putin in an interview with Reuters but the contrast in style and tone between the two men was striking.

Reuters - The U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday is expected to hold interest rates steady and indicate slightly greater unease on inflation, while stopping well short of signaling higher borrowing costs are imminent.

Reuters - Southern African leaders will hold an emergency meeting on Wednesday to discuss Zimbabwe's crisis, but the region's designated mediator, South African President Thabo Mbeki, will not attend, officials said.

AP - Brian Roberts had three hits against the team that was interested in acquiring him and the Baltimore Orioles made their first visit to Wrigley Field a memorable one, beating the Cubs 7-5 Tuesday night to end their 14-game home winning streak.

AP - The number of Americans with diabetes has grown to about 24 million people, or roughly 8 percent of the U.S. population, the government said Tuesday.

AP - Dozens of scared children filed silently into the bare room, their eyes on the cracks in the floor. One by one, in low voices, they told of being tortured by the Kenyan army because they were suspected of aiding rebels. They told of being beaten and made to shake hands with corpses. They told of being forced to crawl through barbed wire tunnels and of genitals squeezed by pliers.

AP - Democrat Barack Obama on Tuesday asked his finance team to help Hillary Rodham Clinton pay off a debt of at least $10 million from her failed presidential campaign, setting the stage for joint appearances by the two former rivals later in the week.

AP - In less than a day, an electrical storm unleashed nearly 8,000 lightning strikes that set more than 800 wildfires across Northern California — a rare example of "dry lightning" that brought little or no rain but plenty of sparks to the state's parched forests and grasslands.