Abbas faces crisis in first hours

The first hours in office for new Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’s have been marked by a series of crises, from the resignation of 46 election officials to renewed violence that could threaten his leadership.

Abbas was sworn in yesterday as the new Palestinian leader while violence raged in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army killed eight Palestinians, and militants in Gaza fired homemade rockets at the Israeli town of Sderot, critically wounding a teenage girl.