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Former Israeli President Shimon Peres dies

Posted at 10:43 PM, Sep 27, 2016
and last updated 2016-09-27 22:43:27-04

JERUSALEM (AP) — Former Israeli President Shimon Peres, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and elder statesman of Israeli politics, has died, the Israeli news website YNet is reporting. He was 93.

Peres’ condition worsened following a major stroke two weeks ago.

He was one of the country’s most admired leaders at home and abroad and the last surviving link to Israel’s founding fathers.

He filled nearly every position in Israeli public life in an unprecedented seven-decade political career.

He was credited with leading the country through some of its most defining moments, from creating its nuclear arsenal in the 1950s to guiding a skeptical nation into peace talks with the Palestinians in the 1990s. He earned the Nobel Peace Prize for his key role in those peace negotiations.