ISRAEL

Israeli holding company IDB Holding Corp said on Saturday it was close to signing a deal to acquire from HSBC the bank's headquarters in Manhattan for $330 million.

Israeli planes carried out strikes on tunnels used for smuggling along the Gaza-Egypt border and a building east of Gaza city on Saturday, causing damage but no casualties, security forces and the Israeli military said.

An Israeli soldier held captive for the past three years by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas smiled briefly and looked healthy in a two-minute Hamas video handed over to Israel on Friday.

Israeli writer Amos Oz is favorite to be picked for the 2009 Nobel literature prize next Thursday, but with the judging notoriously hard to predict, he is far from a safe bet.

The United Nations put off taking action Friday on a U.N. report that accuses both Israel and Palestinian militants of war crimes in Gaza, after U.S. pressure aimed at getting the peace process back on track.

A two-minute video of an Israeli soldier held captive by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas for the past three years shows him healthy and coherent and speaking to the camera, Israeli officials said on Friday.

An Israeli court has stepped into a battle over a legacy that may include lost manuscripts of the great 20th century writer Franz Kafka, ordering an elderly heiress to open up a secret hoard of papers, Israel's Haaretz newspaper said Friday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday the United Nations would deal a fatal blow to prospects for Israeli-Palestinian peace if it endorsed a report critical of Israel's January war in Gaza.

Clean technology has for the first time become the top category in U.S. venture capital investment, eclipsing biotech and software, as private money follows the government's lead, the Cleantech group reported.

Suddenly, the Iranian existential threat seems to have receded from Israel's horizon.

Michelle Moran never had any doubts what she wanted to be in life -- a writer.

Iran said on Tuesday it would refuse to discuss a newly declared nuclear plant at forthcoming international talks and cautioned Western powers it could curb cooperation further if they repeated past mistakes.

Iranian students chanted anti-government slogans to protest a minister's visit to their university in Tehran Tuesday, a reformist website reported.

Students demonstrated at Tehran University against the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday, a reformist website reported, more than three months after Iran's disputed presidential election.

Oil rose more than 1 percent toward $67 a barrel on Monday as U.S. equities jumped and news emerged that Iran was test-firing missiles.

Oil rose nearly 2 percent above $67 a barrel on Monday as U.S. equities jumped and news emerged that Iran was test-firing missiles.

Oil edged above $66 a barrel on Monday, rebounding after an earlier decline which extended last week's 8.4 percent slide, as the dollar lost ground and stock markets moved higher.

Iran test-fired missiles on Monday which a commander said could reach any regional target, flexing its military muscle ahead of this week's crucial talks with major powers worried about Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

Oil traded around $66 a barrel on Monday, steadying after an earlier decline which extended last week's 8.4 percent slide, as the U.S. dollar lost ground and stock markets moved higher.

Oil fell below $66 a barrel on Monday, extending last week's 8.4 percent drop, as investors focused on high inventories and sluggish demand, shrugging off tension between Iran and the West.

Iran has test-fired medium-range missiles, state TV reported on Monday, a day after the Islamic Republic's elite Revolutionary Guards launched short-range missiles as part of several days of war games.