Tel Aviv most expensive Mideast city Tel Aviv was ranked the 29th-most expensive city in the world in a recent survey released by ECA International, down from 18th place in 2010, making it still the most expensive city in the Middle East. The most expensive city in the world, for the second consecutive year, is Tokyo, according to the survey.No other cities in the Middle East were in the top 50. Dubai was ranked as 175th-most expensive, while Jeddah, at 234th, was the least expensive. The surveys provide data regarding employment conditions abroad, and as such do not take into account living costs such as accommodation and utilities. It does, however, include the cost of food, basic services and general goods.Drugs from TA pharmacy tagged for recall The Health Ministry warned the public on Sunday against taking medicine and prescription drugs purchased after January 1 of this year from the Netsah Israel pharmacy in Tel Aviv.Anyone who bought products at the drugstore on Rehov Netsah Israel is being asked by the ministry to bring the drugs for examination at the offices of the district pharmacists within the major health bureaus.Security fence causing wild boar comeback?Two wild boars were spotted near Netanya this week, residents reported, marking the first time they have been seen in a number of years. The hogs, spotted west of the Coastal Road, have been blamed by local farmers for widespread damage to agricultural equipment and produce. Boars, which tend to travel in packs of up to 30, are known to dig up irrigation equipment, chew on drip irrigation lines and cause costly damage.One farmer blamed the boars’ resurgence on the West Bank security barrier. Speaking with the Local website, the agriculture professional said that while the animals used to roam in a much larger area, including the Palestinian Authority, because of the barrier, today they are confined to the Netanya region and enter the municipality.
Suspect: 10 kg. of seized hash ‘not mine’Following a failed traffic stop that yielded some 10 kilograms of hashish, police in Rishon Lezion arrested a man on suspicion of tossing the large quantity of drugs from his scooter. Last week, police spotted a suspicious motor scooter with two passengers and attempted to stop the vehicle for a routine traffic inspection. Instead of stopping, however, the driver tossed a bag containing 100 plates (10 kg.) of hashish and managed to escape the pursuing police car, the Local website reported.Several days afterward, police arrived at the home of the scooter’s registered owner to arrest the man. The suspect, who denied any connection with the incident, claimed that his scooter had been stolen and said he was not involved in the drug trade. Police released the suspect to house arrest for the duration of the investigation.Brothers killed in suspected family feudTwo brothers, residents of the village of Salem near Umm el-Fahm, were shot dead last Friday night when their car was fired upon at an intersection in the Sharon. The men, both in their 30s, were returning from a party in honor of their sister’s recent wedding. One man’s wife, who is seven months pregnant, along with two children, aged one and three, were also in the car but were unharmed.The car was fired at on the section of road that connects Highway 444 to Route 6. Police at the scene determined that the gunmen likely used automatic weapons, and also expressed suspicions that the murders were part of a family dispute. One of the brothers was due to be married next month.SOUTH
Beersheba stabbing suspect claims self-defense The teenager suspected of murdering 16-year-old Phillip Geller in Beersheba had his remand extended by five days last week, Army Radio reported. Geller was killed the previous Saturday after the suspect stabbed him a number of times during a brawl in the upscale Ramot neighborhood of Beersheba. The unidentified suspect has claimed that he stabbed Geller in self-defense. Investigators have said that the suspect had sought revenge against Geller over an unresolved conflict between them.Magen David Adom, responding to criticism that its response to the stabbing had been unnecessarily delayed, issued a statement last week, saying that it had reached the scene within nine minutes of receiving the call. “The people who abandoned their bleeding friend should not point the finger of blame at MDA,” a spokesperson said.4 hurt, 4 arrested in Yatir Forest brawl Four people were wounded in a brawl that broke out in the Yatir Forest over the weekend. One man, in his 40s, was moderately wounded by gunfire, police said. The remaining three were lightly hurt by stones thrown between the two sides.Police later arrested two men and two women in the incident, which they described as a feud between two parts of an extended family. While making the arrests, police seized two M-16 rifles, which the suspects attempted to hide during a search.Kiryat Malachi: Grave error discoveredA Kiryat Malachi woman visiting her husband’s grave was shocked to find that another woman had been buried next to her husband in a plot she had purchased for herself over a decade ago. In a civil suit filed against the local religious council, the woman is demanding that the council remove the stranger’s body from her plot. The Ashdod Magistrate’s Court, however, doesn’t want to handle the claim, Mynet reported.The religious council, for its part, blamed poor registration procedures for the mixup. In an attempt to resolve the situation without disturbing the dead, the council attempted to find an alternative solution: “We offered her another burial plot that is very close.” But the embittered widow would have nothing of it. The Ashdod court referred the case to Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, saying that the civil court could not decide halachic matters such as moving graves.
Man drove 12 years without licenseA 33-year-old man was arrested last week for driving with a forged license. The man, police discovered after a short investigation, had been driving without a valid license for over a decade – since 1999. Additionally, he had been arrested three times in the past for presenting a forged license to police. The man was expected to be sentenced to at least two years in prison for violating previous release conditions, as well as for his most recent arrest, the Local website reported.As part of an operation aimed at taking dangerous drivers off the roads in the Negev, police had set up checkpoints and deployed traffic officers throughout the region.