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KUWAIT (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said if Israel keeps insisting that peace talks resume from scratch it would show the Jewish state was not serious about reaching a deal with Syria.

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's presidential election run-off should be scrapped to prevent further bloodshed, the ruling party defector who came third in the first round said on Thursday.

KUWAIT (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said his country will consider opening an embassy in Lebanon for the first time once its smaller neighbor forms a government able to foster good ties with Damascus.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has not softened his position on reconciliation with Hamas and dialogue still depends on the Islamists ceding the Gaza Strip, his aides said on Thursday.

ROME (Reuters) - A U.N. summit pledged to cut trade barriers and help poor farmers on Thursday to fight hunger threatening 1 billion people, but poverty campaigners said this was not enough to cap high world food prices.

KAMPALA (Reuters) - Uganda, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo have agreed to jointly fight the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels if peace talks with its elusive leader Joseph Kony fail, a military official said on Thursday.

YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar has detained a top activist comedian involved in a private aid effort for cyclone victims, a relative said, as U.S. warships sailed away on Thursday after the military junta refused to accept their aid offer.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian leaders reacted with anger and dismay on Wednesday to Barack Obama's pledge that Jerusalem should be Israel's undivided capital.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese authorities have arrested 16 people, most of them Tibetan Buddhist monks, suspected of three bombings, throwing into doubt talks between China and envoys of Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate confirmed Steve Preston as secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) late on Wednesday.

CHENGDU, China (Reuters) - Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao made his third trip to the earthquake zone on Thursday to urge vigilance as a swelling "quake lake" threatens more havoc while the government seeks to focus on tough rebuilding efforts.

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - The United Nations urged the world on Thursday to kick the habit of producing carbon dioxide, saying everyone must act to fight climate change.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Unpopular Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda could well suffer an embarrassing if non-binding censure in parliament's upper house next week, but for now the betting is he can keep his job at least for the rest of the year.

BELIZE CITY (Reuters) - Flash floods caused by tropical storm Arthur have killed at least five people in southeastern Belize, including a toddler, the government of the tiny Central American country said on Wednesday.

BRISTOL, Virginia (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton distanced herself on Thursday from a push to convince former Democratic rival Barack Obama he should select her as his running mate and said the decision on a vice president was his alone to make.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Nineteen years after a brutal crackdown against student protesters at Beijing's Tiananmen Square, China's youth are more focused on iPods, designer jeans and buying their first car than political reform.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A day after Barack Obama claimed the Democratic party's presidential nomination, his one-time fundraiser was found guilty of corruption on Wednesday, a development the Republican party said raises serious concerns about his fitness for the White house.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton will express support for Barack Obama's White House bid and Democratic Party unity in the race against Republican John McCain at an event on Friday, her campaign said in a statement on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A majority of the Iraqi parliament has written to Congress rejecting a long-term security deal with Washington if it is not linked to a requirement that U.S. forces leave, a U.S. lawmaker said on Wednesday.

JEBLA, Algeria (Reuters) - The mountains of northern Algeria have long sheltered outlaws, but it's not just rugged terrain that draws al Qaeda to ravines and forests.