JPost.com - Headlines

Eight members of family killed in crash are named

2012-05-22T14:56:31

The traffic accident victims who died near Tiberias early Tuesday morning have been named as Rafi and Yehudi, the parents, aged 42, their daughter, Avia, 17, twin sons Shimon and Elishav, 16, Shira, 11, Tair, 9, and Noa, 5.

Rahel, 7, survived the accident after she was thrown out of the mini-van window by the force of the crash, thus escaping the fire. She was not wearing a seatbelt.

Rahel, the only survivor, asked doctors at the Rambam Medical Center if "everyone died?" She cried bitterly after being answered in the affirmative.

Egypt court convicts police over protest deaths

2012-05-22T13:44:41

CAIRO - An Egyptian court sentenced five policemen to 10 years each in prison on Tuesday for their role in killing protesters in the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak, the first such conviction against the force that was blamed for hundreds of deaths.

Two more policemen were sentenced to a one-year suspended sentence, while 10 others were acquitted, one of the judges involved in the case before the court in the Cairo district of Giza, Mohamed Darwish, said.

Ethics C'tee hits Liberman with 'grave reprimand'

2012-05-22T13:41:55

The Knesset Ethics Committee reprimanded Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman for boycotting an investigatory committee, saying his actions not only violated Israel's Basic Laws but disrespected the Knesset, its members and broke ethical rules.

The Knesset Ethics Committee decided "to issue a grave reprimand on Minister Avigdor Lieberman," and reasserted that it is his and all his party members' obligation to appear before and cooperate with Knesset committees.

The reprimand came in response to a complaint filed by MK Ahmed Tibi over a published quote by the foreign minister, in which he instructed all members of his Yisrael Beytenu party not to cooperate with the Parliamentary Inquiry Committee on the Integration of Arab Employees in the Public Sector.

Liberman accused Tibi of using the committee to further political aims.

Tal Law c'tee member: 'striking down Tal Law was extreme'

2012-05-22T13:38:29

Professor Yedidya Stern, a member of a Knesset committee for replacing the Tal Law, on Tuesday labelled the High Court's ruling striking down the law as "extreme."

Stern also said that the issue was beyond the jurisdiction of the High Court as it was not a legal question but "a matter of policy," in comments to the Israel Bar Association in Eilat.

The High Court struck down the law earlier this year and set August 1 as the date for the state to replace the law.

Stern said that haredi (ultra-orthodox) society wants to leave the ghetto and escape the pervasive poverty enveloping it, but the community needs to be helped carefully and given "ladders and ropes" to make the change.

N. Korea says US pressure forcing it to boost deterrent

2012-05-22T13:09:41

SEOUL - North Korea said on Tuesday that recent diplomatic pressure from the United States over its recent failed satellite launch and over a "nuclear test rumor" had forced it to consider "countermeasures" for "self-defense."

The country's foreign ministry said in a statement via the official KCNA news agency that it would "bolster its nuclear deterrent as long as the United States was continuing with its hostile policies."

N.Korea says US pressure forcing it to boost deterrent

2012-05-22T13:07:25

Syrian forces kill 2 in front of UN observers

2012-05-22T13:02:45

AMMAN - Syrian police killed two protesters on Tuesday when they opened fire on a crowd who came out to welcome United Nations observers in the eastern province of Deir al-Zor, a rebel official said.

"As soon as the UN convoy entered al-Busaira a jubilant crowd of hundreds came out to welcome them. It was not minutes before they came under fire," Abu Laila, a Free Syrian Army official, said by phone from the town.

There was no independent confirmation of the incident.

US nuclear envoy: Iran must "urgently" cooperate with IAEA

2012-05-22T13:00:24

VIENNA - Iran must cooperate urgently with the UN nuclear watchdog in its investigation into Tehran's atomic activities, a senior US official said on Tuesday.

Robert Wood, the acting US envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), made the statement shortly after the agency said it expected to sign a cooperation deal with Iran soon.

"While we appreciate the efforts (by the IAEA) to conclude a substantive agreement, we remain concerned by the urgent obligation for Iran to take concrete steps to cooperate fully (with the agency)," Wood said.

Police bust suspected organ trafficking ring

2012-05-22T12:41:25

Police on Tuesday arrested ten people on suspicion of human and organ trafficking. According to suspicions, the ring of traffickers ran a network of organ trafficking and smuggling, matching donors with those who require urgent transplants.

Transplant operations were allegedly carried out abroad while those who were promised large amounts of cash for their organs were defrauded, according to police.

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Turkey foils kidnapping of Syria rebel army chief

2012-05-22T12:24:47

Turkish authorities foiled a plan to kidnap the rebel Free Syrian Army’s founder and chief from a refugee camp, the Milliyet reported.

Two Turks were collaborating with a Syrian spy to abduct Riad al-Asaad, a former colonel in Syrian President Bashar Assad’s army who fled to Turkey and started an opposition force, according to the Istanbul-based newspaper. The three people accused of planning the kidnapping were detained and freed pending trial, Milliyet said, citing police and court records.

Turkey’s intelligence organization reportedly prevented efforts to kidnap senior Syrian opposition commanders earlier this year.

Police detain women at Kotel for wearing prayer shawls

2012-05-22T12:15:18

Three women from the Women of the Wall organization were briefly detained by police Tuesday morning, the group said, for wearing prayer shawls, or talitot, at the Western Wall plaza.

According to a 2001 law, it is illegal for women to perform religious practices at holy sites traditionally done by men in Orthodox Jewish practice, such as reading from a Torah scroll, wearing tephillin or a prayer shawl, or blowing the shofar (ram’s horn).

Approximately 38 women from the Women of the Wall group, which campaigns for equal rights at the Western Wall Plaza, went to the site Tuesday morning, the first day of the new month, to pray.

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Knesset approves half million NIS for Olmert expenses

2012-05-22T12:12:38

The Knesset Finance Committee on Tuesday approved a budget of over half a million shekels for office expenses of former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for 2012, Army Radio reported.

The approved expenses include: rent, property taxes, parking, electricity, cleaning, office supplies, newspapers, telephones, refreshments and internet services.

German opposition closing in on Merkel party

2012-05-22T11:52:04

BERLIN - Support for Germany's opposition Social Democrats (SPD) has jumped since their victory in a regional election, a poll showed, highlighting the increased domestic pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel as she battles the euro zone crisis.

The INSA survey, published by Bild newspaper on Tuesday, put the center-left SPD on 32 percent, up 3% in just one week. Merkel's ruling Christian Democrats (CDU) were just ahead on 33%, down one percentage point.

Also worryingly for Merkel, her Free Democrat coalition partners were at 4%, below the 5% threshold required to gain seats in parliament, while the SPD's favored coalition partner, the Greens, stood at 14%.

Earlier this month the CDU suffered a humiliating defeat at SPD hands in Germany's most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), where it saw its support tumble to 26% from 35% in 2010.

Lebanon Sunni leaders call on Hezbollah-allied PM to resign

2012-05-22T11:29:11

Relative calm returned to Lebanon Monday evening as residents of the north buried a prominent anti-Syria sheikh, but political tension remained at a fevered pitch with Future Movement MPs calling on Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati to resign, the Daily Star reported.

Thousands of mourners participated in the funerals of Sheikh Ahmad Abdul-Wahed's funeral and Sheikh Mohammad Hussein al-Mereb in the northern town of Bireh. The two were gunned down by Lebanese security forces at a Lebanese Army checkpoint on Sunday.

Future Movement MP Khaled Daher spoke at the funeral, calling for the death penalty for those behind the shooting. “We want a just trial that leads to punishing the perpetrators by sentencing them to death, because those who committed the crime ... deserve to be hanged,” Daher said, according to the report.

Lebanese Military Prosecutor Judge Saqr Saqr ordered 22 army soldiers, including three officers, detained as part of investigating the incident.

Missing girl found safe and well

2012-05-22T11:24:17

A teenage girl who went missing for two days was found on Monday night safe and well.

Police said the girl, Ofek Yaron, had walked away from her village of Shimshit, in the Jizreel Valley, and hid in an area of bushes. After running out of water, she headed out of the hiding spot on foot, when she noticed posters with her picture on it asking for information.

She returned to the bushes, but was spotted by three women who came to assist her.

Earlier, dozens of police and hundreds of volunteers backed by helicopter were searching for Yaron.

SpaceX rocket blasts off for space station test flight

2012-05-22T11:22:38

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - An unmanned Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule owned by Space Exploration Technologies blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Tuesday for a test run to the International Space Station.

The mission is the first by a private company to the $100 billion orbital outpost, a project of 15 countries. NASA is investing in SpaceX, as well as four other companies, to fly cargo and eventually astronauts to the station following the retirement of the space shuttles last summer.

UN nuclear chief sees deal with Iran soon

2012-05-22T11:21:15

VIENNA - The U.N. nuclear agency chief said on Tuesday he expected to sign a cooperation deal with Iran about the country's disputed atomic program "quite soon" despite some remaining differences.

"[A] decision was made to conclude and sign the agreement... I can say it will be signed quite soon," Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told reporters at Vienna airport after returning from Tehran where he held talks with senior Iranian officials.

Rivlin: We cannot impose Tal Law solution on haredim

2012-05-22T10:52:51

Knesset Speaker Reuben Rivlin on Tuesday told the Israel Bar Association in Eilat that the Tal Law controversy cannot be resolved by imposing a solution on the haredi (ultra-orthodox) community, but by working with them on a cooperative basis.

Rivlin said that society's conception of haredim must change, as they no longer represent an insignificant minority. Rather, the haredim and the Israeli-Arab community already make-up thirty percent of the population and are growing fast.

While the Knesset speaker was supportive of major reform and believed continued across-the-board exemptions from military and national service for haredim could not continue, he also insisted that forcing a solution would endanger Israel's social fabric.

All polls open as Histadrut election kicks off

2012-05-22T10:38:11

All polls are open across the country in the election showdown for Histadrut labor federation chairman, between the current head Ofer Eini, and Labor MK Eitan Cabel.

Initial voter turnout was high, already reaching 12.5 percent by mid-morning.

Eini was regarded as a heavy favorite in the days going into the election and already received the crucial endorsement of labor party head Shelly Yacimovich.

Naveh: Assad still controls Syria's chemical weapons

2012-05-22T10:13:43

Despite the ongoing upheaval in Syria, President Bashar Assad is still in control of Syria's advanced weaponry, including its chemical weapons arsenal, Deputy IDF Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen. Yair Naveh said on Tuesday.

"The missile, rocket and chemical capabilities are remarkably still under control by the current regime," Naveh said at the 2012 Conference on Air and Land Jointness in Zichron Ya'acov.

He revealed that Syria has spent $3 billion in recent years on advanced Russian surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems such as the SA-15, SA-17 and SA-22.

"These have already been transferred to the Syrians and may one day be transferred from Syria to Hezbollah," Naveh said. "The existence of these systems creates a reality in which the Israel Air Force will need several hours to first deal with the air defense systems before turning to other missions." The proliferation of these system needs to concern not just Israel, but also the entire world, Naveh said.