The World Today
ISRAEL
TEL AVIV - Israel’s president yesterday called on Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to rescind his decision to stand down, invoking the memory of Yitzhak Rabin at a public commemoration for the assassinated Israeli premier. Shimon Peres spoke to a crowd of thousands at the square where Rabin was gunned down. Peres recalled that along with Rabin, he and Abbas were among signatories to the 1993 Oslo peace accord and he appealed to Abbas by name not to quit.Saudi Arabia
Official welcomes all hajj pilgrims
RIYADH - The Saudi health minister said yesterday that the kingdom will not bar anyone considered high-risk for swine flu from performing the hajj pilgrimage this year, though he urged countries where pilgrims set out from to take precautions. The hajj has become a concern for world health officials because the density of pilgrims has raised fears of a massive spread of swine flu.Russia
Hope for deal on arms control
MOSCOW - Russia and the United States have a good chance at signing a new nuclear arms reduction deal before year’s end, but other nuclear powers must join disarmament efforts, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in remarks released yesterday. Medvedev also told Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine that he has been working well with his predecessor Vladimir Putin, and that predictions of a rift between him and Putin are overblown. The comments were released by the Kremlin.Lebanon
Agreement ends political impasse
BEIRUT - Lebanon’s Syrian-backed factions finally agreed on a unity government proposed by their pro-Western rivals yesterday, ending a four-month deadlock in the deeply divided country. The announcement by the opposition coalition dominated by the militant Hezbollah came after a meeting Friday night between the groups’ leaders. The agreement would end a political deadlock that has threatened to send the fragile nation spiraling back into violence.
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