Sorted by date Results 1 - 19 of 19
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — As Egypt marks the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Suez Canal, marine biologists are bemoaning one of the famed waterway's lesser known legacies — the invasion of hundreds of non-native species, including toxic jellyfish and aggressive lionfish. The canal, which connects the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, revolutionized maritime travel by creating a direct shipping route between the East and the West. But over the years, the invasive species have driven native marine life toward extinction and altered the del...
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Seeking to bolster its image as a forward-looking metropolis, Dubai hosted the largest-ever international robotics contest this week, challenging young people from 190 countries to find solutions to global ocean pollution. Event organizers say their selection of Dubai as host reflects a vote of confidence that this oil-rich Emirati sheikhdom can be a global hub for innovation. They also expressed hope that bringing together tomorrow's scientists and engineers will help develop technologies to solve the w...
JERUSALEM (AP) — A long-hidden trove of unpublished works by Franz Kafka could soon be revealed following a decade-long battle over his literary estate that has drawn comparisons to some of his surreal tales. A district court in Zurich upheld Israeli verdicts in the case last week, ruling that several safe deposit boxes in the Swiss city could be opened and their contents shipped to Israel's National Library. At stake are untouched papers that could shed new light on one of literature's darkest figures, a German-speaking Bohemian Jew from P...
JERUSALEM (AP) — Egyptian mediators rushed to the Gaza Strip on Wednesday and Hamas' supreme leader emerged from his hideout as an unofficial cease-fire between Israel and the Islamic militant group appeared to take hold. The Egyptian delegation sought to cement the truce that ended two days of heavy fighting between the bitter enemies. They face a key test on Saturday, when Hamas is planning a mass demonstration to mark the one-year anniversary of weekly protests along the Israeli border. In a sign that both sides had stepped back from a m...
JERUSALEM (AP) — More than a decade before the Nazis seized power in Germany, Albert Einstein was on the run and already fearful for his country's future, according to a newly revealed handwritten letter. His longtime friend and fellow Jew, German Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau, had just been assassinated by right-wing extremists and police had warned the noted physicist that his life could be in danger too. So Einstein fled Berlin and went into hiding in northern Germany. It was during this hiatus that he penned a handwritten letter to h...
JERUSALEM (AP) — Gaza's militant Hamas rulers said Saturday they had accepted a cease-fire ending a massive Israeli onslaught on militant positions after a soldier was shot dead, once again pulling the sides back from the brink of a full-fledged war. Israel and Hamas have fought three such wars over the past decade and Hamas agreed to the second such cease-fire in a week under heavy Egyptian and international pressure. Even after last week's cease-fire ended the fiercest exchange of rocket fire and Israeli airstrikes since the 2014 war, i...
JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military carried out its largest airstrike campaign in Gaza since the 2014 war Saturday as Hamas militants fired dozens of rockets into Israel throughout the day, threatening to trigger an all-out war after weeks of growing tensions along the volatile border. Two Palestinian teenagers were killed in an airstrike in Gaza City, while three Israelis were wounded from a rocket that landed on a residential home. Israel said it was focused on hitting militant targets and was warning Gaza civilians to keep their d...
JERUSALEM (AP) — The sudden immigration to Israel of Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich makes him the latest in a string of Jewish Russian oligarchs who have made a home in the country in recent years. Abramovich received his Israeli citizenship Monday upon arriving in Israel on his private jet, immediately becoming the country's richest person, with an estimated net worth of more than $11 billion. Israel grants automatic citizenship to anyone of Jewish descent. The Chelsea football club owner made the move after his British visa was not r...
JERUSALEM (AP) — Seventy years since the day of Israel's founding, wildly contrasting images of victory and violence showcased the contradictions that bedevil the Jewish state. Deadly protests flared along the Gaza border, where troops killed dozens of Palestinians, while politicians feted the new U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem as a symbol of ironclad alliance with Washington. And with improbably odd timing, seemingly oblivious to both, crowds gathered in liberal Tel Aviv to exult over the winner of a campy European pop contest. Nahum Barnea, I...
JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military said Saturday it was shutting down its main cargo crossing into Gaza after Palestinian protesters caused extensive damage to it, and that it had also destroyed an attack tunnel militants dug near its main pedestrian crossing. The twin developments come ahead of a potentially charged week along the Israel-Gaza border as weekly protests being staged there are expected to culminate with a potential breach of the border and a surge in casualties. Once again, thousands of Palestinians protested Friday in v...
BEIRUT (AP) — Israeli forces unleashed a heavy bombardment against Iranian military installations in Syria on Thursday in what Israel called retaliation for an Iranian rocket barrage on its positions in the occupied Golan Heights, the most serious military confrontation between the two bitter enemies to date. The two rivals have long fought each other through proxies, and with the new exchange each seemed to be sending a warning that a direct clash between them could swiftly escalate. "If we get rain, they'll get a flood," Israeli Defense Minis...
*JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's seizure of Iran's purported nuclear program archive and the dramatic display of the documents taken from a facility in the heart of Tehran marked a rare case of Israel going public about the operations of its top-secret Mossad spy agency. The Mossad, long shrouded in mystery and mythology, is legendary in international intelligence circles for being behind what are believed to be some of the most daring covert operations of the past century. Only a few have come to light and often only years later. Israel is t...
JERUSALEM (AP) — In an abrupt and startling reversal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nixed his own deal Tuesday with the United Nations to resettle tens of thousands of African migrants in Israel and other Western nations, caving in to nationalist critics who have demonized the migrants for taking over poor neighborhoods in Tel Aviv. The move leaves unresolved one of Israel's most charged and divisive issues — what to do with the Africans who say they fled for their lives in search of sanctuary in the Jewish state. The abo...
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel will target militant groups inside Gaza if violence along the territory's border with Israel drags on, the chief military spokesman warned on Saturday, a day after 15 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in the area's deadliest violence in four years. The violence significantly petered down Saturday as just small groups of Palestinians threw stones in several areas near the border fence, drawing Israeli fire that injured 25 people, the Gaza Health Ministry said. Friday's mass marches were largely led b...
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — The Israeli military confirmed on Wednesday it carried out the 2007 airstrike in Syria that destroyed what was believed to be a nuclear reactor, lifting the veil of secrecy over one of its most daring and mysterious operations in recent memory. Although Israel was widely believed to have been behind the Sept. 6, 2007, airstrike, it has never before commented publicly on it. In a lengthy release, the military revealed that eight F-15 fighter jets carried out the top-secret airstrikes against the facility in the Deir e...
JERUSALEM (AP) — In its most serious engagement in neighboring Syria since fighting there began in 2011, Israel shot down an infiltrating Iranian drone Saturday and struck Iranian targets deep in Syria before one of its own jets was downed. The sudden escalation offers what could be a harbinger of what lies ahead as the Syrian fighting winds down and an emboldened Iran establishes a military presence that Israel vows it will never accept. Israel has issued several stern warnings of late about the increased Iranian involvement along its b...
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli leaders angrily criticized pending legislation in Poland that would outlaw blaming Poles for the crimes of the Holocaust, with some accusing the Polish government of outright denial Saturday as the world marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the proposed law "baseless" and ordered his country's ambassador to Poland to meet with Polish leaders to express his strong opposition. "One cannot change history, and the Holocaust cannot be denied," he said. The lower house of t...
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced a new scandal Tuesday after a recording emerged of his 26-year-old stay-at-home son joyriding at taxpayer expense to Tel Aviv strip clubs with his super-rich buddies and bragging about how his father pushed through a controversial gas deal. The 2015 recording, aired Monday night on Israel's top-rated news broadcast, sparked public outrage over its misogynistic content and raised questions over why a state-funded bodyguard and driver were necessary to facilitate such deb...
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli airstrikes killed two Hamas members early Saturday following a rocket attack on Israel, in the latest fallout from President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital — a development that has roiled the region and the larger Muslim world. The Israeli military said it targeted four Hamas facilities in response to rockets fired the previous night, including one that landed in the town of Sderot without causing casualties or major damage. The military said it struck warehouses and wea...
