■ <B>MECCA. Palestinian leaders meet.</B> Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his Hamas rivals prepare for talks on a unity government, with less than two weeks to go until a new bid to revive stalled peace negotiations with Israel.

■ <B>SAN FRANCISCO. Wal-Mart in sexual discrimination lawsuit . </B>The biggest sexual discrimination case in US history advanced against Wal-Mart Stores Incorporation on Tuesday when a top court ruled that more than a million women could join a suit charging bias in pay and promotions.

■ <B>JERUSALEM.Warnings and threats. </B>Palestinians warned Israel yesterday that a ceasefire deal in Gaza would unravel if Israeli excavation work near a compound housing al-Aqsa mosque damaged Islam’s third holiest shrine.

■ <B>BEIJING. Northe Korea urged to stop nuclear processing. </B>The United States urged North Korea to suspend nuclear processing as envoys to six-party talks aimed at curbing North Korea’s atomic ambitions began converging on Beijing yesterday.

■ <B>TORONTO. US and Canada shivering with cold.</B> Large sections of southern Canada and the United States continued to shiver in unusually severe winter temperatures yesterday, with even homeless people in Toronto forsaking the streets for indoor warmth.

■ <B>JAKARTA. Humanitarian catastrophe following floods. </B>Flood waters receded in parts of Indonesia’s capital on, but huge areas remained submerged heightening the risk of disease amid questions over why more had not been done to prevent the disaster.

■ <B>ACAPULCO. Police station attacked, seven killed. </B>Gunmen disguised as soldiers launched brazen attacks on police stations and killed seven people in the violent Mexican resort of Acapulco, defying a military crackdown against drug gangs.

■ <B>CUBA. Church names 1st female bishop in Cuba.</B> The Episcopal Church has named a woman as bishop in Cuba, the first such appointment by the church in the developing world, church officials said . The Reverend Nora Cot Aguilera was named suffragan bishop on Sunday during a service in the Cuban city of Matanzas, said Robert Williams, director of communications for the US-based Episcopal Church. “Her appointment is a wonderful reminder that in some nations, leadership is primarily about gifts for service and not about gender,” said US Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, who took office in November as the first woman to lead the church.

■ <B>LEBANON. PM violated constitution.</B> Lebanon’s pro-Syrian president said that his rival, the prime minister, violated the constitution by sending to the United Nations an approval of an international tribunal to prosecute the suspected killers of former prime minister Rafik Hariri. The tribunal aims to try suspects in the February 14, 2005, assassination of Hariri, who was killed along with 22 other people in a massive truck bomb in downtown Beirut. Many in Lebanon suspect Syria was behind the slaying. Syria has denied involvement.