From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Israel buying 4 German warships to patrol Mediterranean
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel will purchase four German warships for $480 million with the help of German government subsidies.
The deal was signed Monday in Israel. About one-third of the purchase — or more than $150 million – will be subsidized by a German government grant. The ships will be delivered in five years by the Thyssen Krupp consortium.
They will be used to patrol Israeli gas drilling rigs in the Mediterranean Sea and secure other work off the Israeli coastline there.
German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen arrived in Israel on Sunday for a visit as the guest of Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon. The same day, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin arrived in Germany for a three-day visit to celebrate 50 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
Click here for the full story
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Bodyguards assigned to Israel’s new justice minister after threats
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Newly appointed Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked was assigned bodyguards after threats were made on her life.
Meanwhile, photos showing Shaked, of the right-wing Jewish Home party, wearing a Nazi uniform also have surfaced on social media.
The security detail was assigned to Shaked on Monday by Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, who expressed concern about the Nazi photos seen on Facebook and elsewhere. A similar photo of Shaked in her late teens appeared in the days before the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995.
Shaked, 39, has expressed a desire to weaken Israel’s Supreme Court, notably by strengthening the legislative branch. She is a strong critic of the left wing.
From Russia Today
Kiev seeks $350bn damages from Russia for ‘aggression’
Edited time: May 11, 2015 12:11
Russia has to pay Ukraine $350 billion in damages, a top government official said in an interview. Kiev is accusing Russia of invading its territory, a claim Moscow denies.
“At a certain point Russia will pay,” Ukrainian Deputy Economy Development Minister Aleksandr Borovik told Channel 5. “We need to calculate, we need to be ready to lobby it wherever we can. And say, look, this must be paid.”
The Ukrainian official said the sum was taken from the precedent of Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in 1991.
“It was $350 billion when Iraq attacked Kuwait. Then they decided $320 billion was owed. Taking into account how long that aggression took and how long Russia’s aggression against us has been going on, those are comparable,” Borovik said.
Click here for the full story
From PressTV
Gunshots from Egypt seriously wound Gaza truck driver
Gunfire from Egypt has inflicted serious injury on a Palestinian truck driver in the Gaza Strip, medical sources say.
The young truck driver was hit by the gunshots while he was on his way to the southern border city of Rafah on Monday.
“A 27-year-old driver who was working at the Kerem Shalom crossing was seriously wounded on Monday morning by shots which were fired from the Egyptian side of the border,” said Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesman for Gaza’s health ministry.
The Israeli-controlled terminal of Kerem Shalom is the sole commercial crossing of Gaza, which has been under a crippling Israeli siege since 2007.
Gaza’s Interior Ministry condemned the shooting, demanding that the authorities in Egypt hold “an urgent inquiry.”
The source of the fire was not immediately clear. The incident, however, took place as persisting militancy continues to trouble Egypt’s restive Sinai Peninsula.
On May 1, the Gaza-based resistance movement Hamas said it is taking extra security measures along the border between Egypt and the Gaza in an attempt to prevent insecurity both in the Palestinian enclave and on the Egyptian soil.
Click here for the full story
From The Times of Israel
After election debacle, UK Labour rues its choice of the wrong Miliband brother
Ed Miliband’s shock defeat of older, more articulate David for leadership in 2010 has cost his party, and his family, dear
LONDON (AP) — They were two very talented brothers with so much potential. The older one was poised to become the leader of Britain’s Labour Party, with a chance to become prime minister, while the younger was expected to rise with his brother to the highest ranks of the country’s political arena.
But things didn’t go that way for David and Ed Miliband. Ed didn’t want to take a back seat to his more polished and articulate older brother and shocked Britain’s establishment in 2010 by challenging David for the Labour leadership role and triumphing.
Five years later, that victory has turned bitter.
The Downing Street dreams of 45-year-old Ed have been dashed by his party’s dismal failure in Thursday’s election, which saw Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservatives score a convincing victory over a weakened Labour Party.
The Miliband family has suffered as well: A gulf as wide as the Atlantic Ocean has opened between the once-close brothers, with David, 49, abandoning politics and moving to self-imposed exile in New York. That has left the brothers’ 80-year-old mother, a Holocaust survivor, trying to bridge the gap.
Click here for the full story
