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Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations will attend next week's Middle East summit in Maryland, fulfilling a key U.S. goal to garner strong Arab support for reviving stalled peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians.

Along with Israeli and Palestinian officials, the U.S. State Department has invited delegates from more than 40 countries — including Canada — to attend the three-day conference aimed at springboarding the two sides to a final peace agreement.

Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said that the meeting must deal with core issues, such as final borders of a Palestinian state, the status of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees.

Israel said it welcomed the Saudis' decision to attend the talks.

"We hope this is only the beginning and that we will see greater and broader Arab involvement in the peace process," Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said Friday.

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Will this summit have any more chance of success than past summits?

One hundred people were rescued Friday from a sinking Canadian-owned cruise ship after it struck ice in Antarctic waters near Argentina.

All 100 people aboard the Canadian-owned Explorer were rescued early Friday after the cruise ship was damaged by ice off Argentina. (Chile Air Force/ Associated Press)

Susan Hayes, vice-president of marketing for the Toronto-based G.A.P Adventures, said the Explorer was carrying 91 passengers and a crew of nine. Twelve Canadians — 10 passengers and two crew members — were aboard the ship, she said.

"The evacuation process was very smooth and calm," Hayes told CBC News, adding that passengers had several hours to leave the vessel as bilge pumps removed water.

Everyone is safe and aboard another ship, the Nordnorge, she said.

The Explorer has a hole about the "size of a fist" and a crack, said Hayes.

British coast guard spokesman Fred Caygill said it's believed the ship hit an iceberg, but that hasn't been confirmed.

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Have you had a terrifying experience on a cruise ship?

It's time for the grandest tradition in Canadian sports. The 95th Grey Cup game kicks off Sunday at the Rogers Centre in Toronto (CBC, 5:30 p.m. ET), with the West champion Saskatchewan Roughriders set to do battle with the East champion Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
Who do you like in the big game? Will newly minted CFL most outstanding player Kerry Joseph and the Riders scamper away with the title, or will Milt Stegall and the Bombers spend the night sipping from Lord Grey's mug?

Post your comment and have your say.

The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman’s popular fantasy book about the adventures of a young girl as she travels to the north to rescue her friend, explores religious themes, as well as science and magic. But the author has given recent interviews in which he discusses his atheism and says his books support an anti-religious view of the world.

The Halton District Catholic School Board, in Burlington, Ont., has received a complaint about the books and has asked school libraries to remove them from the shelves while it reviews the books. Story

What do you think of the school board’s reaction?

Picking up the telephone and dialling one of Canada's top companies can sometimes lead to a frustrating experience.

"I logged about nine hours over four days and [my issue] was eventually corrected on the last day with a two-hour phone call to the fifth agent who was determined to help me," said one CBCNews.ca reader, who wrote in to discuss the state of customer service in Canada.

It seems so many Canadians have had the same experience on the phone.

"We get lots of complaints," said Bruce Cran, the president of the Consumers' Association of Canada. "People dislike the push-button system that means when you get on, you're on for 10 minutes, then you're back where you start from."

CBC News decided to look into the level of customer service provided by 40 of Canada's top companies. In our survey, Sears Canada came out on top. Eleven other companies scored 80 per cent or better in our ratings. These companies were quick to answer their calls, and we found their interactive voice response systems easy to navigate. The results may go against the conventional thinking that a telephone-based customer service experience is usually a bad experience.

Got your own story about customer service, from either side of the phone line — good or bad? We want to know about it as well as your thoughts on our survey results.

A doctor in Boston says he and a team of specialists can treat a 10-year-old Vietnamese orphan who travelled to Canada seeking medical help for a large growth on his face, but was turned away by a Toronto hospital.

Dr. John Mulliken, a plastic surgeon with a specialty in vascular anomalies, said he has reviewed Hoang Son Pham's medical files and is confident he can shrink the football-size growth.

"He would still have some distortion, but it will be shrunken down to 10 per cent of what it is now … and he will look much, much, much better," Mulliken said in an interview from his office at Children's Hospital Boston.

"We can do it, but think of all the logistics. It's going to be costly."

It's not clear how much the procedures would cost, but Mulliken said officials were looking at endowments and other pools of money that could be used to cover some of the expenses.

Doctors at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto agreed to review his case after the charity raised about $200,000 for his travel, care and medical needs.

Specialists there spent four months conducting medical tests and assessing their findings, only to announce earlier this month that it would be better for the boy not to receive any treatment.

They said there were risks to the procedure and that the growth — a birthmark that has grown since Son was born — was not life-threatening.

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What do you make of the decision to treat the boy in the U.S. and not in Canada?

High numbers of children living in poverty, poor health and state care suggest Canada is failing to meet its obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, says a new report.

The UNICEF Canada report, which will be released Tuesday morning to coincide with National Child Day, recommends Canada create a children's commissioner and make the convention enforceable in court. The children's commissioner would have the power to ensure governments meet their responsibilities to kids.

Canada ratified the international agreement in 1991 — as did all provinces by 1999 — but progress in implementation has been spotty, the report concludes.

"While there has been some progress for some children in some places, for too many children we've stalled or even regressed in some aspects of their health, development and protection," says the report.

"After 18 years, it's time to take our obligations seriously."

Full story

Do we need a federal commissioner for children and youth? Will it make any difference?

A Winnipeg girl who was banned from a judo tournament for wearing her traditional Muslim headscarf is starting a petition to have the rules changed.

Hagar Outbih burst into tears when officials with Judo Manitoba told the 11-year-old girl she would not be able to compete in a tournament on Saturday while covered by her hijab.

A lawyer representing the national organization Judo Canada said the decision is consistent with the International Judo Federation's safety guidelines.

"There might be a situation where someone has an unfair advantage by having an extra piece of garment to hold on to," Telly Mercury told CBC News. "So we've discussed this both locally, nationally and internationally and we follow those rules. It's got nothing to do with discrimination or anything of that nature."

But Hagar's coach, Shirin Farag, said she has worn her hijab in judo competitions for the past 10 years without any problems. Hagar has responded to the decision by circulating a petition that advocates for a change in the rules to allow women to wear the hijab while competing.

FULL STORY

Should the rules be changed to accommodate women with hijabs in judo competitions? What do you think?

Wolfville, N.S., is known for being quiet and picturesque, but soon it might also be known for having one of the toughest anti-smoking bylaws in North America.

The small town is set to become the first municipality in Canada to ban smoking in vehicles when a child is present.
Town councillors will vote on the proposed bylaw on Monday.

"The support from the town, I would suggest, is extremely strong," Mayor Bob Stead told CBC Newsworld on Sunday. "We were the first municipal unit in the province to go smoke-free in indoor public places, so this is essentially a follow-up to what we did several years ago on that issue."

Stead said there was widespread support for the ban at a public meeting held Nov. 5.

Critics have argued that a bylaw further restricting what people can do in their own vehicles is intrusive, but Stead said council thinks it's "very important" to provide an environment in which children under 18 can be protected and safe from health risks.

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What do you think of this proposed bylaw? Send us your thoughts.

Climate change could have far-reaching and "irreversible" consequences if more action is not taken to cut greenhouse gas emissions, a UN scientific panel warned in a report released Saturday.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said in its report that evidence of climate change is "unequivocal."

It said the trend could lead to "abrupt" changes to the planet, cause human suffering and threaten some species with extinction.

"Slowing and reversing these threats is the defining challenge of our age,'' UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said as he unveiled the report in Valencia, Spain.

The 23-page summary said climate systems unquestionably have already begun to change and that human activities since the start of the industrial age have contributed to the warming.

The panel, which won a Nobel peace prize earlier this year, said recent research has heightened concerns that the poor and the elderly would suffer most from climate change.

FULL STORY

What is your personal reaction to this report? Does it make you want to alter your lifestyle, lobby the government, or join an environmental group?