TA scientists discover origin of skin disease

After more than decade of research, scientists uncover genetic basis for the severe skin disease pytiriasis rubra pilaris (PRP).

 

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH

 

Only now, almost 200 years after it was first described, Israeli and other researchers have discovered the genetic basis for the severe skin disease pytiriasis rubra pilaris (PRP), which affects people of all backgrounds around the world.
SKIN AFFECTED by pytiriasis rubra pilaris disease - Photo: Courtesy Sourasky Medical CenterSKIN AFFECTED by pytiriasis rubra pilaris disease – Photo: Courtesy Sourasky Medical Center

After more than a decade, the lead researchers at Tel Aviv’s Sourasky Medical Center finally identified mutations in the gene CARD14 that codes for a very important regulator of inflammation in the skin. Continue Reading »

IDF tanks move closer to Egypt border

 Military issues unusual order, deploys Armored force closer to border following terror attack on civilian crews building fence

By Yoav Zitun

 

 

The IDF has deployed Armored forces near the Israel-Egypt border, moving tanks closer to the fence, Ynet has learned. The unusual move followed Monday’s terror attack on defense contractor crews building the new security fence.

The attack claimed the life of Said Phashpashe, 36, from Haifa. Golani soldiers who were scrambled to the area killed two terrorists.

Ynet was able to document the presence of Israeli tanks in close proximity to the border – maneuvers which are barred by Jerusalem’s peace treaty with Cairo. Continue Reading »

Haifa man named as victim of terrorist attack on Egypt border

Saeed Fashafshe, 35, was killed in a terrorists attack along Israel’s border with Egypt.

 

 

The Defense Ministry contractor killed in a terrorist attack along Israel’s southern border early Monday has been identified as Saeed Fashafshe, a 35-year-old Israeli Arab resident of Haifa.

Fashafshe, who was married and a father of four, worked  for a company owned by his brother which was contracted by Defense Ministry for jobs along the Egyptian border.

Saeed Fashafshe was killed in a terrorists attack along Israel's border with Egypt on June 18, 2012.

hHaifa man Saeed Fashafshe, 35, was killed in a terrorist attack along Israel's border with Egypt on June 18, 2012. - Reproduction by Hagai Frid.

An initial investigation revealed that three terrorists penetrated the fence along the border between the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula, placed an explosive device on Philadelphi Strip near Be’er Milka, and waited for Israeli vehicles to pass by. Continue Reading »

IDF Hits Gaza Sniper Squad

Terrorist snipers fired at Israelis along the Gaza border over the past few days. UAV fires, hits them.

By Gil Ronen

 

An IAF Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) fired at a squad of terrorist snipers in northern Gaza Monday. The squad was one of the terror cells that have been firing at Israelis in the past few days. On Sunday, the snipers fired at a farmer and later at an IDF force.

The IDF identified hits on target.

Voice of Israel radio cited Arab sources that said that a missile fired by the IAF hit Islamic Jihad terrorists on motorcycles near Beit Hanoun. Continue Reading »

Jewish Trucker Ends Arab Carjack Terror in Hevron Hills

A Jewish trucker ended the lives of two Palestinian Authority Arabs who attempted to kidnap him and steal his vehicle on Sunday in Judea.

By Chana Ya’ar

 

A Jewish trucker ended the lives of two Palestinian Authority Arabs who attempted to kidnap him and steal his vehicle on a road in the Hevron Hills area of Judea (Yehuda) on Sunday. A third Arab who was involved in the attempted robbery and kidnapping was wounded.

The 52-year-old trucker, a resident of the coastal city of Ashkelon, was also injured in the incident.

The three Arabs hurled a blunt object at him, according to IDF Army Radio. Continue Reading »

Time to rethink chemotherapy?

New cell research from Israel suggests the need for a radically different approach to chemotherapy.

 

 

For cancer patients undergoing treatment, the ups and downs can feel like living through one of those B-level movies where the zombies just never seem to die: Victories of remission can quickly end in disappointment as the cancer returns once more.

 

Leukemia cells dividing. Photo courtesy of Public Library of Science

Leukemia cells dividing - Photo courtesy of Public Library of Science

Why this happens has long puzzled scientists around the globe, but a new multi-center team in Israel whittles the problem down to the roots of where cancer begins. Continue Reading »

Short on space, Israel look to artificial islands

Cabinet to vote on plan to form new landmasses to house airport, infrastructures; environmental group anticipates problems

 

 

Israel is well-known for its innovation and outside the box thinking, but usually not on the scale now being suggested. At the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, ministers are set to decide whether to give the green light to an ambitious new project that would see artificial islands constructed off Israel’s coastline.

Satellite image of Kansai International Airport in Osaka Bay in Japan (photo credit: courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory)

Satellite image of Kansai International Airport in Osaka Bay in Japan - Photo: courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory

Plans for the islands, which will be home to a new airport, a sea port, a power plant and a military testing base, have already been approved by the Ministry of Interior, and if approved by cabinet ministers on Sunday, will go to a special inter-ministerial committee for more specific discussions on implementation. Continue Reading »

The Man in Black’s Zionist roots

Professor Shalom Goldman makes a strong case for Johnny Cash being the forerunner of the American Christian Zionist movement.

 

 

Way before the modern-day Christian Zionist movement became a bastion of American support for Israel, there was the Man in Black.Johnny Cash, the all-American country music great whose career spanned six decades, carried on an ardent love affair with Israel for most of that time. Cash, a devout Christian who died in 2003 at the age of 71, visited the country five times from 1966 through the mid-1990s along with his wife June Carter Cash and their children.
Continue Reading »

Israel gets natural gas supplement from offshore well

Noble energy begins to supply Israel with natural gas month ahead of schedule

Reuters

 

 

A US Israeli consortium began supplying Israelwith natural gas from its offshore Pinnacles well on Wednesday to help stave off a national energy shortage expected this summer.

Natural gas on its way (Illustration) Photo: Reuters

Natural gas on its way (Illustration)- Photo: Reuters

Israel lost about 40 percent of its natural gas supplies in early 2011 when saboteurs in the Sinai peninsula began attacking the pipeline that carried gas to Israel from Egypt

as part of a 20-year deal. In April, Egypt officially terminated the deal, sending Israel scrambling to find alternative power sources. Continue Reading »

Egypt busts Sinai terror ring amid run-off presidential elections, report says

Egyptian daily al-Shuruq says 22 men, including Palestinians, Syrians, and Jordan’s planned to destabilize country following poll results, obtained police uniform and weapons.

 

 

Egyptian security forces arrested a suspected terror ring, thought to have planned attacks against targets in the Sinai in an attempt to destabilize the country following a key run-off presidential election, an Egyptian newspaper reported on Sunday.

The reported bust comes on the second day of voting in Egypt, pitting Ahmed Shadiq, former premier under Hosni Mubarak, and the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi, and follows reported attempts by the Brotherhood to strike Israeli targets in order to sway election results. Continue Reading »

Romney Woos Christians with Support for Israel

Romney stumped for the Christian vote in Pennsylvania by promising he would do “the opposite” of Obama and stand firm with Israel.

By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

 

Mitt Romney stumped for the “evangelical Christian vote in Pennsylvania on Saturday by promising a cheering crowd he would do “the opposite” of President Barack Obama and stand firm with Israel.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney - Reuters

Polls show that Pennsylvania is solidly behind the president, but Republicans see a change in the surveys that indicate they have a shot at taking the state in the general elections in November. The last time a Republican presidential candidate won Pennsylvania was in 1988, when George Bush was elected after Ronald Reagan’s two terms as president. Continue Reading »

Remains of 2nd Grad rocket found at Mitzpe Ramon

Discovery comes after rocket shell found in Arava region; IDF investigating if fired from Egypt or Jordan; no injuries or damage.

 

 

Police bomb squad officers found the remains of a second rocket fired deep into southern Israel on Saturday, at Mitzpe Ramon, in the heart of the Negev desert.

“It’s a 122 millimeter diameter Grad-type rocket. The same type of rocket that was fired earlier at Uvda,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told The Jerusalem Post.

Police officers remove the remains of Grad rocket – Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen

Security officials are examining when the rocket was fired, as well as additional circumstances surrounding the incident.

Continue Reading »

BGU students develop autonomous drone

Software engineering students’ program enables AR Drone helicopter to fly automatically, without remote control

By Vita Kairys

 

 

Maxim Kirilov, Yuri Bakolin, and Yuval Kovler, three software engineering students from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, have developed a program that makes the AR Drone helicopter autonomous – allowing it to fly without being remote-controlled.

The drone Screenshot

The drone - Screenshot

With the new program, the drone – equipped with two cameras and an ultrasound sensor – receives instructions by Wi-fi from a computer in range.

Kirilov, Bakolin and Kubler developed the project to see how an autonomous drone could be used for various daily purposes, such as security sweeps of the university’s corridors. Continue Reading »

Abbas: Release Prisoners, then I’ll Meet Netanyahu

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas will demand the release of 123 prisoners before agreeing to meet PM Binyamin Netanyahu, says PLO negotiator.

By Elad Benari, Canada

 

 

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas will demand the release of 123 long-term prisoners before agreeing to meet Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat said on Friday.

Saeb Erekat

Saeb Erekat - Reuters

Speaking to the Bethlehem-based Ma’an news agency, Erekat said Abbas wants Israel to free 123 prisoners detained before the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993.

Erekat also said Abbas may meet with Israel’s deputy prime minister Shaul Mofaz, but noted that no date has been set for such a meeting. Continue Reading »

Audrey Russo’s The Invisible Refugees Of 1948

By Audrey Russo

The constant bombardment, via the media, of the so-called palestinian refugees is beyond an emetic. It’s been evident to those with ears to hear and eyes to see, that this manufactured problem was part of a grander machination by the Arab/Muslim nations. How can this be said with any integrity? When the facts are revealed…the dots will be connected.

And the true, yet oddly imperceptible…refugees will make the proper nexus…

Almost 1 million Jews lived in diverse Arab countries in 1945. The majority of those communities dated back to Biblical times.

From 1947-48, Jews in these countries were persecuted.

Continue Reading »