AP - South America's Mercosur trade bloc approved a Palestinian free trade deal Tuesday and then pushed to admit Venezuela as a full member, even at the cost of threatening its founding principles.

AP - A U.S. fact-finding team in Bahrain wrapped up talks Wednesday to investigate workplace purges that have spurred calls to suspend a key trade pact over the Gulf nation's crackdown on protesters.

AP - International mediators sat down with Palestinian and Israeli officials in Jerusalem on Wednesday in the hope of finding a formula to restart deadlocked peace talks.

Reuters - The Palestinians will seek a vote on their bid for full membership of UNESCO next week, Foreign Minister Riyal al-Malki said Wednesday, despite what he called U.S. threats to pull funding from the U.N. cultural agency.

AP - Middle Eastern countries without significant oil resources face a sharp slowdown in economic growth as the effects of the Arab Spring reverberate across the region, the International Monetary Fund said Wednesday.

Reuters - Israeli President Shimon Peres came to the defense of Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday after Israel's far-right foreign minister called the Palestinian president an obstacle to peace.

AP - The embattled Syrian regime is largely "out of the danger zone" despite a 7-month-old uprising against President Bashar Assad, the leader of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said Monday.

AP - The Obama administration has pulled its ambassador home from Syria, arguing that his support for anti-Assad activists put him in grave danger — the most dramatic action so far by the United States as it struggles to counter a Mideast autocrat who is withstanding pressure that has toppled neighboring dictators.

AP - An Israeli TV drama about two Israeli soldiers freed in a prisoner exchange has drawn angry accusations that it scored ratings by taking advantage of the country's anguish over captive soldier Gilad Schalit.

Reuters - Arab pro-democracy uprisings spell more regional instability that could complicate peace efforts between Israel and the Palestinians but also make it necessary to get the process back on track, envoy Tony Blair said on Sunday.

AP - U.S. Senator John McCain said Sunday that military action to protect civilians in Syria might be considered now that NATO's air campaign in Libya is ending.