LEBANON: Mysterious explosion in Hezbollah member's house

A mysterious explosion went off in the home of Hezbollah member Abdel Nasser Issa in southern Lebanon on Monday evening, sparking a flurry of contradictory reports regarding the cause of the blast and number of casualties.

Hezbollah denied initial reports that five people had died, including a party official and his son. Local media claimed that no one was killed but that Issa was undergoing treatment at a nearby hospital for serious injuries.

The Israeli army issued a statement claiming the explosion "proves again the presence of weapons forbidden in southern Lebanon" under U.N. Resolution 1701, and Israeli resident Shimon Peres accused Hezbollah of turning Lebanon into a "powder keg." But as of this afternoon, Hezbollah's news channel, Al Manar, was favoring an AFP report suggesting the explosion may have taken place while Issa was attempting to defuse unexploded Israeli ordnance he found next to a nearby river.

A spokeswoman for the U.N. peacekeeping force confirmed that the Israeli Army requested an investigation into the explosion, which comes just a few months after another mysterious blast in an abandoned house near the Israeli border which was widely believed to have been caused by a Hezbollah weapons cache. Hezbollah has maintained that the building contained unexploded Israeli shells from the 2006 July war.

-- Meris Lutz in Beirut

Photo: the first-floor garage where the explosion took place was scorched when a still-unexplained explosion went off Monday night. Credit: Naharnet.com

EGYPT: Cleric calls for 'Friday of anger' against Al Aqsa violations

The head of the International Union for Muslim Scholars, Yusuf Al Qaradawi, is urging Egyptians to turn this Friday into a nationwide day of anger against the "Israeli practices at the Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem."

The Qatar-based cleric flew to Egypt from Doha on Monday to deliver a speech at the Egyptian Journalists' Syndicate in Cairo, where he condemned the Arab governments' silence towards the "violation of Al Aqsa's holiness" by Israeli settlers and occupation forces.

Tensions erupted in the area known as Al Haram Al Sharif to Muslims and the Temple Mount to Jews last week when a group of non-Muslims entered the compound, which is the third holiest venue in Islam and the most important in Judaism.

While Israeli authorities said that the group was composed of French tourists, Palestinians believed that they were Israeli extremists entering the mosque in celebration of the Jewish Sukkot festival. Further confrontations took place Sunday as tens of Palestinians entered the mosque overnight amid rumors that larger numbers of Israelis will be allowed to enter the mosque, before Israeli forces shut down the holy site.

SYRIA, ISRAEL: Facebook sparks new conflict over Golan Heights

Facebook users in the Golan Heights, which was captured from Syria by Israel in a 1967 war, now find themselves at the center of a new, virtual skirmish over the disputed territory.

Until recently, Facebook users in Golan towns were listed as living in Syria, prompting more than 2,600 Israelis to form a group called "Facebook, Golan residents live in Israel, not Syria." Now, users are allowed to choose whether their hometown is listed as part of Israel or Syria.

Honest Reporting, the Jerusalem-based organization behind the campaign, wrote on the group's page that "it is not for Facebook to decide the national origin of Golan residents."

Alex Morgalin, the creator of the group, wrote in an e-mail to The Times that the petition was not motivated by political considerations.

"We do not take a position on the future of the Golan," he wrote. "What we are concerned with is the present -- that people who identify as Israelis, living under Israeli law, were not allowed to identify themselves that way."

EGYPT: Journalists call for firing of colleague who met Israeli ambassador

Journalists working for Egypt's largest broadsheet, Al-Ahram, have called for the dismissal of a fellow writer for what they described "an act of normalizing relations with Israel" after she met the Israeli ambassador at the state-run newspaper's offices this week.

The meeting between Hala Mustafa, who's also the chief editor of one of Al-Ahram's magazines, and Ambassador Shalom Cohen sparked anger among dozens of writers as well as the Egyptian journalists union. Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, but many writers, artists and intellectuals oppose any contacts with the Jewish state.

"We will not let this incident pass without holding accountable those responsible," said Alaa Thabit, a member of Al Ahram staff. The journalists union has called an emergency meeting next week to investigate Mustafa. 

Outraged journalists said that Cohen's reception at Al-Ahram's Cairo headquarters was arranged without the approval of the newspaper's general director, Abdul Moneim Saied. However, Mustafa claims that Saied had knowledge of the meeting in advance and did not directly object.

"Dr. Saied met with Israeli and Jewish personalities himself many times, both in Egypt and abroad, and he even travelled to Tel Aviv in the past," she said.

It is believed that Cohen's meeting with Mustafa was part of an effort by the Israeli ambassador to organize a seminar on whether the issue of normalization of ties with Israel could help end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

--Amro Hassan in Cairo

Photo: Hala Mustafa. Credit:Al Youm Al Sabee

ISRAEL: Pilot and astronaut father share final resting place

Capt. Assaf Ramon was buried beside his father, Ilan Ramon, the Israeli astronaut killed with six others in the Columbia space shuttle disaster. The bittersweet success story of a boy following his father's path, graduating flight school with honors only three months ago, was embraced by the Israeli public, as was the news that his F-16 crashed Sunday in a training accident; the nation adopted the family's second tragedy as its own.

Private and public mix in a small country where the draft is mandatory for most; a national or greater cause helps make sense of tragedy. Eulogized by many as the finest of modern-day Zionists, exemplary Israelis and pioneers, the father and son share their final resting place with other individuals who are part of the national narrative.

They are buried in Nahalal. The first workers' farm, founded in 1921, is famous for its unique circular design, a  spectacular site that was also home to the Jezreel Valley's early Zionist settlers. Nahalal was the home of the Dayans; the dynasty that gave Israel one of its great military heroes, Moshe Dayan, also produced some of the country's best known public figures in culture, politics and army.

LEBANON: Druze leader Jumblatt says Iran can supply nation's weapons

The leader of Lebanon's Druze community says the country should buy weapons from Iran, among others, to use to defend itself against the Israeli "enemy," Iran's English-language Press TV is reporting on its website. 

The U.S. has given Lebanese security forces millions of dollars in aid, equipment and training. 

But Washington refuses to give Lebanon any weapon that could harm Israel, a staunch American ally. 

That's OK, says Walid Jumblatt. If the United States fails to provide Lebanon with such weapons, it could turn to the Islamic Republic, which already is believed to supply weapons to Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite political organization and militia.

ISRAEL: Prime Minister Netanyahu's secret trip to...where?

So, where was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week?

Standing up journalists and canceling other appointments, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu disappeared from the press' radar for about 14 hours Monday, sparking a brush-fire of rumors.

Persistent queries and theories produced the first version of the explanation that evening. The prime minister spent the day visiting a "security installation" in central Israel, where meetings had run longer than expected, said a statement, curiously issued by his military secretary, Gen.  Meir Kalifi, and not his usual news media advisers. That's one long meeting. You can drive from the border with Lebanon to the border with Egypt and back twice in that time.

The next day a Palestinian newspaper chimed in, reporting that he had visited an Arab country that does not have diplomatic relations with Israel and that he had taken Kalifi and National Security Adviser Uzi Arad with him. The agenda was said to be Iran.

This was one step closer. Kalifi and Arad evidently did join the magical mystery tour -- but to a different destination. Wednesday, Israeli news reports said that Netanyahu had made a flash visit to Russia. Yes, he had visited a security installation, but proceeded from there to the airport, where he had leased a private plane from an Israeli tycoon to avoid attention and flew to Russia with Kalifi, Arad, a select security detail --  and according to one report, another senior person. The lot of them returned at 3 a.m. 

SYRIA: Venezuela's Hugo Chavez slams Israel during Damascus visit

The notoriously fiery Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez took on Israel on Thursday during a joint press conference in Damascus with Syrian President Bashar Assad, calling the Jewish state "genocidal," "anti-peace" and accusing it of implementing "America's imperialist policies."

Chavez, a vocal leftist, went on to praise the Syrian people as the "architects and designers of the resistance," condemning American and European hegemony and the "unipolar" world order, according to the official Syrian news agency, SANA.

The Venezuelan president is currently on an 11-day international tour, including stops in Libya, Algeria, Iran, Belarus and Russia.

EGYPT: What's behind Jewish synagogue restoration?

Is historical preservation or modern day cultural politics behind the restoration of the Maimonides synagogue in Cairo's ancient Jewish quarter?  

Although most Egyptians are against efforts linking their country to Jewish or Israeli heritage, the move has been interpreted as an attempt by Culture Minister Farouk Hosni to win international recognition ahead of his controversial bid to become head of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Hosni's bid to become the next UNESCO director-general was set back in 2008 when he said that he'd personally burn Hebrew books if he found any in Egyptian libraries. Since then, it is been reported that the ministry has been trying to make amends for Hosni's comments. It recently has begun allowing the translation of books written by Jewish and Israeli authors, a move that dismayed many Egyptians.

PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES: Google launches local search engine

Google, one of the top search engines in the world, launched a local Arabic search engine for the Palestinian territorities Thursday, which will enable Palestinians to access more relevant data based on their searches, the Lebanese daily The Daily Star reported Friday.

Localized searches will also enable more effective targeted advertising via Google's AdWords software, which places ads using search terms and location based on IP address.