AP - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called Wednesday for renewed dialogue with Hamas after insisting for months that the Islamic militants relinquish control of Gaza first.

Reuters - President Robert Mugabe's government is using food as a weapon ahead of Zimbabwe's June 27 presidential run-off election, U.S.-based group Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday.

AP - Authors of Palestinian school textbooks took small steps toward softening their portrayal of Israel under the rule of moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas — but progress was quickly reversed after the militant Islamic Hamas took over, according to a report released on Tuesday.

AFP - US private equity firm Texas Pacific Group wants to expand further in the British banking sector after agreeing to buy 23 percent of Bradford & Bingley, the Daily Telegraph said Wednesday.

AP - Dozens of people remain imprisoned for taking part in the 1989 pro-democracy protests centered in Tiananmen Square, though releasing them would improve China's image ahead of the Beijing Olympics this summer, a human rights group said.

AP - U.S. Navy ships are leaving Myanmar after failing to get the junta's permission to unload aid to "ease the suffering of hundreds of thousands" of cyclone survivors, the top U.S. military commander in the Pacific said Tuesday.

AP - Chinese police Wednesday blocked access to a school that collapsed in last month's massive earthquake, a day after breaking up a protest by parents of students who died in the disaster.

AP - Dozens of people remain imprisoned for taking part in the 1989 pro-democracy protests centered in Tiananmen Square, though releasing them would improve China's image ahead of the Beijing Olympics this summer, a human rights group said.

Reuters - The United States suspended talks with Sudan on normalizing relations on Tuesday, saying leaders from the north and south were not serious about ending clashes that have stoked fears of a return to civil war.