TOP STORY

ISRAEL

Bush pushes leaders for Mideast peace

JERUSALEM — President Bush gently urged Mideast leaders to "make the hard choices necessary for peace," leaving it to embattled Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to stand before a divided parliament Thursday and forcefully declare that this war-weary nation is ready for a historic agreement with Palestinians.

On a day mourned by Palestinians as the 60th anniversary of their uprooting by Israel's independence, Bush mentioned the Palestinians only once in a 23-minute speech to the Knesset — and then only in the context of what a Palestinian state would look like six decades from now.

IN BRIEF

Myanmar

Junta says hoarders will be punished

YANGON — Myanmar's junta warned Thursday it will punish anyone found hoarding or trading foreign aid meant for cyclone survivors, but relief groups said they had seen no evidence of people selling or stockpiling donated goods.

The government's warning came as the official death toll from Cyclone Nargis was raised to 43,318, an increase of almost 5,000 from a day earlier, but still far below U.N. and Red Cross estimates. The number of people listed as missing remained at 27,838.

Myanmar's military, which has ruled for 46 years, has itself come under suspicion of diverting relief supplies. Its warning against hoarding alluded to the allegations, saying the regime is rushing all donated supplies to those in need.

IRAQ

U.S., Iraq move against al-Qaida

BAGHDAD — U.S. and Iraqi troops moved against al-Qaida on two fronts Thursday, with house-to-house searches in Mosul and an operation in the desert to stanch the flow of insurgents and weapons to that northern city.

With the new sweep, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is aiming to put down Sunni extremists after launching two other major offensives elsewhere in as many months targeting Shiite militants. Mosul, a key transport crossroads between Baghdad, Syria and other points, is considered the last major urban base of al-Qaida in Iraq after the group lost strongholds in western Anbar province.

LEBANON

Factions agree to end violence

BEIRUT — The Hezbollah-led opposition and U.S.-backed government reached a deal Thursday to end Lebanon's worst violence since the 1975-90 civil war, now that the Cabinet has reversed measures aimed at reining in the Iranian-backed militants.

The feuding factions agreed to hold political talks in Qatar today that will lead to the election of Lebanon's army chief, Gen. Michel Suleiman, as a compromise president, said Qatari Prime Minister Sheik Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani, who headed an Arab League team that mediated the agreement.

Immediately after the deal was announced, the opposition cleared a series of roadblocks along Beirut's airport road that had stopped flights for a week. Shortly afterward, two planes from the Lebanese national carrier, Middle East Airlines, landed.

—From wire reports