Shorts: Mideast

Lion has brain surgery in Israel

jerusalem (jta) | The first-ever brain operation on a lion was performed in Israel.

The operation on Samson the lion was conducted recently at Hebrew University.

A resident of Hai-Kef Zoo in Rishon Le-Zion, Samson was suffering from damage to the rear portion of his skull, a condition that can affect animals in captivity. The operation removed part of his thickened skull tissue, relieving the pressure on Samson's brain. After a 10-day recovery, Samson returned to his zoo to be reunited with his sister, Delilah.




Israel wins, Lebanon walks

jerusalem (jta) | Lebanon pulled out of the Eurovision song contest to avoid the possible embarrassment of broadcasting an Israeli victory.

"According to Lebanese national legislation, Tele-Liban is not permitted to broadcast the performance of the Israeli participant, thereby breaching the rules of the Eurovision Song Contest 2005," said a statement posted March 18 on Eurovision's Web site. The station will pay a fine.

"Lebanon is in a state of war with Israel," Ibrahim Khoury, Tele-Liban's director, told The Associated Press. "If the Israeli contestant wins, we would have to show the celebrations." Israel has won the popular European contest three times. This would have been the first time Lebanon participated. Ukraine hosts the contest set for May this year.




Arab League wants commitment

algiers (ap) | The head of the Arab League told Israel this week not to expect nations in the region to normalize ties without giving them something in return.

Arab leaders gathered for a summit in the Algerian capital rejected a Jordanian proposal that they offer Israel diplomatic ties without Israel's first returning occupied lands — a proposal that would be a dramatic change in the Arabs' peace strategy.

Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said Israel expects "the Arabs will make concessions and even normalize without anything real in return."

"This shouldn't be," the Egyptian diplomat said. "It should be commitment for commitment. Then we can reach a balanced peace and close the issues of the conflict in order to establish relations in parallel with the withdrawal and the establishment of a Palestinian state."




Lost at port

jerusalem (jta) | Israel tried to redirect a pod of dolphins that wandered into the port of Haifa.

Some 40 dolphins swam into the port Tuesday, seemingly because their natural navigational abilities failed them. Navy vehicles and marine biologists tried to help them return to the Mediterranean Sea.

If the dolphins do not find their way out themselves, scientists said, they would make loud noises underwater to help point the way. Meanwhile, many local residents were drawn to the port to see the friendly mammals.




Israel to support Palestinian informants

jerusalem (jta) | Israel plans to absorb hundreds of Palestinians who worked with its security forces in the Gaza Strip.

Security sources said that Dahaniya, a southern Gaza village where hundreds of Palestinian informants for Israel and their families live under army guard, will be dismantled during this summer's Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

The town's residents will be relocated to Israel, but their status as permanent residents or as citizens hasn't yet been decided, sources said. Along with the informers, who face death sentences in Palestinian Authority areas, Dahaniya is home to hundreds of Egyptians who worked with Israel when it occupied the Sinai peninsula.




Egyptian students rally against compromise

jerusalem (jta) | Thousands of Egyptian students rallied against compromise with Israel.

The demonstration at Al-Azhar University in Cairo marked the first anniversary of Israel's assassination of Hamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin and his successor, Abdel Aziz Rantissi, the Associated Press reported.

At the rally, which came as an Arab League meeting opened in Algeria, protesters burned American and Israeli flags. Elsewhere, thousands of people marched through the West Bank city of Nablus to mark the killing of Yassin.




Egypt's ambassador takes up post after four-year gap

jerusalem (ap) | A new Egyptian ambassador arrived in Israel last week to take up a post that had been vacant during more than four years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting.

The envoy, Mohammed Assem Ibrahim, was formerly Egypt's ambassador to Sudan. He is known to be close to President Hosni Mubarak and helped mend relations after an abortive 1995 attempt to assassinate Mubarak, blamed on Sudan's Islamic regime.




Palestinian Audis provoke public outcry

jerusalem (jps) | The Palestinian Authority's decision to purchase more than 100 new vehicles for all members of the Palestinian Legislative Council and the new Cabinet has drawn sharp criticism.

The Palestinian Authority's 24 ministers will each receive a German Audi A-6 car, at a cost of $76,000. The 86 lawmakers will be given the cheaper version of Audi, the A-4, which costs an estimated $45,000.

Palestinian columnist Yahya Rabah attacked the decision to buy the expensive vehicles at a time when the Palestinian Authority is cutting expenditure in many fields and can't pay police salaries.

"First, I would like to point out that there are no ministers, legislators and leaders in the world without cars," Rabah said. "But everything is relative. The Palestinian Authority is hardly able to pay the civil servants or cover running expenses, members of the security forces are struggling to get a 20 percent rise in their wages, and we still haven't solved the problem of unemployment."