When you imagine an algae or fish farm, a desert is probably not the first image that pops to mind.
But the desert in Israel has become a fertile ground for innovative - and profitable - aquaculture industries that are also benefiting health-conscious consumers in North America, Europe and Asia.
One such enterprise is located at Kibbutz Ketura in the heart of the Arava desert - about 35 miles north of the resort town of Eilat.

Read More

Restraints on violence. After the PA police raided the house of a Hamas supporter in an after-midnight operation, roughed up both him and his 70-year-old father, the father yelled at the police, "Even the Jews did not behave like you cowards." And the son, when he came out of the PA jail, declared his experience there much worse than in the Israeli ones. An opponent of Yasir Arafat pointed out how Israeli soldiers "would first fire tear gas, and then fire rubber bullets and only then shoot live ammunition. … But these Palestinian police started shooting immediately."

Read More

The accord was signed Tuesday at an EU-Russian summit in Moscow. Many of the details had been agreed to during pre-summit talks a day earlier.
CNN Moscow Bureau Chief Jill Dougherty said the so-called "road map to the future" touches on four main areas -- the economy, human rights, security, and education and culture.
The accord is aimed at defusing years of tension that followed the EU's enlargement to include former members of the Soviet Union.
Read More

One of the first concrete acts that the Bush administration took in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks was to outlaw the Holy Land Fund for Relief and Development and freeze its financial assets. The HLF was one of the principal funding arms of Hamas. Israel had tracked its financial activities for over a decade, and had repeatedly requested that the US take action against it, but the requests came to nothing until after 9/11.

Read More

By Michael Handelzalts  
Like many Israelis, I'm not an observant Jew. And like in many Israeli houses, there is a mezuzah fixed to my right doorpost. For those few who don't know, a mezuzah is a small box containing verses from two chapters in Deuteronomy in which God instructs his chosen people to affix this token of their love and loyalty to him "upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates" (Deuteronomy, 6, 9). I did it as there are people for whom a mezuzah is essential for them to pass through a doorway, and because I wanted to enable a dear friend to perform a mitzvah by affixing a mezuzah to a new dwelling place.

Read More

 

Monday, May 9, 2005 Updated at 6:58 AM EDT
Associated Press
Baghdad — U.S. forces launched an offensive against insurgents in western Iraq near the Syrian border, and about 75 militants were killed in the first 24 hours, the military said Monday.
It said the offensive, being conducted with U.S. air support in a desert area of Anbar province north of the Euphrates River, was targeting a sanctuary for foreign insurgents and a smuggling route.

Read More

May 9, 12:23 PM (ET)

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran confirmed for the first time Monday that it converted 37 tons of raw uranium into gas, a key step ahead of enrichment, before it suspended all such activities in November under international pressure.
The confirmation means Tehran is in a position to quickly start enriching uranium if it chose to end its suspension of enrichment-related activities. It comes at a crucial time, with Europe trying in fragile negotiations to seal an agreement to ensure that Iran's nuclear program does not produce weapons.

Read More

By Jeff Jacoby  |  May 8, 2005
GADID, Gaza Strip
PLOTS OF FLOWERS grow outside most of the homes we pass as we drive through this small agricultural cooperative in southern Gaza. I point out a particularly lavish one, and the driver, a gruff 55-year-old, stops the car.
''What are those white ones?" I ask, motioning through the window. ''And those yellow ones with the orange tips?"

Read More