The hospital caring for Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon said early today that there was no change in his condition overnight, and doctors planned to bring him out of a medically induced coma.

ARIEL Sharon is a farmer-turned-soldier, a war hero-turned-politician, a hard-charging Israeli who built Jewish settlements on war-won land but didn’t shy away from destroying them when they collided with his bigger design.

Ariel Sharon is a farmer-turned-soldier, a war hero-turned-politician, a hard-charging Israeli who built Jewish settlements on war-won land but didn’t shy away from destroying them when they collided with his bigger design.

Israel’s most tightly-guarded secret has nothing to do with its military might. It is Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s weight.

At least 12 people have been killed and around 15 injured when Palestinian militants raked Israeli troops and settlers with gunfire in a carefully orchestrated ambush in Hebron – a divided city long plagued by religious tensions and flashes of furious violence.