Shorts: Mideast

Chomsky meets with Hezbollah

beirut (jta) | Noam Chomsky met with Hezbollah's leader this week, the al Manar TV network reported.

The terrorist group's station broadcast that the American linguist and MIT professor met with Sheik Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut this week.

Chomsky also spoke at the Center for American Studies and Research at the American University of Beirut.




Israeli economy exceeds predictions

jerusalem (jta) | Israel's economy beat first-quarter forecasts.

The country's GDP rose 6.6 percent, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported this week.

Most of the increase was caused by a 76 percent jump in new car purchases. The country's trade balance also improved, with a 5.2 percent drop in imports and a 2.4 percent rise in exported goods.




Engineers develop anti-rocket roofs

jerusalem (jta) | An Israeli munitions firm announced it has developed material for fortifying Israeli towns against Palestinian rockets.

Israel Military Industries said this week that, after simulating the trajectory and impact of the Kassam rocket favored by Palestinian terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip, it had designed an impenetrable, multi-layered roofing material.

IMI said it was in talks with the Defense Ministry on an initial order of the product to protect schools in Israeli towns around Gaza.