Gaza City/Cairo - Negotiators from rival Palestinian factions were due to resume talks in Cairo aimed at establishing a "national unity" government on Wednesday, representatives of the factions and Egyptian officials said.

Delegates from Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, and from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction, which controls the West Bank, arrived in Cairo Tuesday night and had preliminary talks ahead of a wider meeting including representatives from other factions.

Jerusalem - Nearly 70 per cent of Palestinian young adults believe the use of violence to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is not very helpful, according to a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) study released Tuesday.

Only 8 per cent believe violence is an important tool, the study, based on interviews with 1,200 Palestinians over the age of 17 in the West Bank and Gaza.

The study also found out that more than 80 per cent of young Palestinians are depressed, and 47 per cent identify themselves as Muslim rather than Palestinian.

Gaza - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement on Saturday accused Hamas rulers of Gaza Strip of arresting several Fatah district leaders and officials.

Fatah spokesman Fehmi al-Za'areer said that at least seven of those arrested by Hamas on Saturday morning were leading members, including Abdel Rahman Hamas, a former minister and a member of Fatah higher committee in Gaza Strip.

Jerusalem, Mar. 26 : Human Rights Watch has accused Israel of "deliberately and recklessly" firing white phosphorus shells into densely populated areas of Gaza, that killed and wounded civilians earlier this year.

In a detailed report, the HRW said that this was a clear "evidence of war crimes", as the Israeli military knew white phosphorus''s lethal capacity to cause intense burns.

Stockholm - A Palestinian reading promotion group was Tuesday named winner of the 2009 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, a literary prize created in honour of the Swedish creator of numerous popular fiction characters including Pippi Longstocking.

The Tamer Institute for Community Education became the second reading promotion group to win the award that is considered one of the largest literary awards for children and young people, worth 5 million kronor (621,000 dollars).