News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) Moshe (Morris) Talansky, the businessman who is a central suspect in a bribery investigation involving Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, told the Supreme Court Sunday that he would be willing to stay in Israel until May 26 and not a day later. Talansky is scheduled to give preliminary testimony in the case on May 25.

Talansky also informed the court that he would be returning to Israel two weeks after the testimony, in order to attend his granddaughter's wedding.

Talansky's statement was made as part of a reply to a request by Olmert's lawyers to prevent Talansky from testifying. Talansky wrote that his prolonged absence from his home in the United States and from his business there was exacting a heavy price from him and from his wife, who is seriously ill and under doctors' care.