Obama, Europeans press Palestinians to drop UN bid

UNITED NATIONS — Furi­ously scram­bling to head off a U.N. show­down, the United States warned world lead­ers Wednes­day that try­ing to cre­ate a Pales­tin­ian nation by sim­ple decree instead of through hard nego­ti­a­tions was bound to fail as a short­cut to peace with Israel. Euro­peans worked to defuse the dis­pute, too, France urg­ing new talks within a month. Unde­terred, Pales­tin­ian Pres­i­dent Mah­moud Abbas pressed toward a for­mal bid for U.N. recog­ni­tion that could bring the issue to a head on Friday.