The Israeli and Palestinian presidents are to pay a symbolic visit to the Vatican next month to pray for peace.

Israel’s president urged Israeli and Palestinian leaders to overcome differences and resume peace negotiations, saying the sides could not afford “to lose this opportunity”.

THE art collection of the man who first recorded Rory Gallagher and Van Morrison forms the backbone of Whyte’s sale of Irish and British art at the RDS next Monday at 6pm.

This week, while Barcelona were losing 2-0 in Milan in their Champions League last 16 first leg, and manager Tito Vilanova was continuing his cancer treatment in New York, club president Sandro Rosell visited Israel, on a mission to bring peace to the Middle East.

Palestinians have decided not to team up with Israelis in a football match against Barcelona designed to promote peace.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Israeli president Shimon Peres have discussed the need to halt Syrian violence as well as blocking Iran’s potential production of nuclear weapons during talks in Jerusalem.

IRAN accused Israel and the United States of seeking world support for a military strike on its nuclear facilities, which Russia warned yesterday would be “a very serious mistake”.

THE UN nuclear watchdog is expected this week to issue its most detailed report yet on research in Iran seen as geared to developing atomic bombs, heightening international suspicions of Tehran’s agenda and stoking Middle East tensions.

Seven people were today found guilty of child sex abuse charges after a major trial in Portugal lasting nearly six years.

US Vice President Joe Biden yesterday pledged Washington’s full commitment to Israel’s security while throwing his weight behind a renewal of Middle East peace talks after a 14-month hiatus.

Israel’s president has called on Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas to rescind his decision to stand down, invoking the memory of Yitzhak Rabin at a public commemoration for the assassinated Israeli premier.

ISRAEL promised Russia it would not launch an attack on Iran, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said yesterday, describing such an assault as “the worst thing that can be imagined”.

Israel rejected UN calls to open an independent inquiry into its conduct in last winter’s Gaza Strip war and said it would launch a diplomatic offensive to block any attempt to bring its soldiers before an international war crimes tribunal.

ISRAELI President Shimon Peres has been discharged from a Tel Aviv hospital, a day after fainting on stage during a talk.

Israeli President Shimon Peres has been discharged from a Tel Aviv hospital, a day after fainting on stage during a talk.

President Shimon Peres fainted on stage while speaking at an event in Tel Aviv, Israeli media reported tonight.

On the other hand, you might ask what kind of “enlightened and cultured people”, to use Peres’s phrase, is it that needs a bulldozer to crack a nut; that feels the need to deploy hundreds of policemen to the task of evicting two Arab families from an Arab neighbourhood? That’s Israel for you

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will head into his first visit with President Barack Obama today worried by US overtures to Iran and Syria and under pressure to support a Palestinian state.

The pope called for an independent Palestinian homeland as soon as he arrived in Israel today.

The Iranian government brushed aside a Persian New Year’s message from US president Barack Obama offering to resolve years of hostility, saying it wanted concrete change from Washington before it was ready to enter a dialogue.

Israel’s hardline prime minister designate, Benjamin Netanyahu will meet the head of the dovish Labour Party today after failing to tempt centrist leader Tzipi Livni into a broad, moderate, coalition government.

Hard-line Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu was today chosen to form a new Israeli government.

FAR-RIGHT politician Avigdor Lieberman endorsed Benjamin Netanyahu for Israeli prime minister yesterday, all but guaranteeing that the US-educated hawk will be the country’s next leader.

Far-right Israeli politician Avigdor Lieberman has endorsed Benjamin Netanyahu for prime minister.

ISRAELI president Shimon Peres will hold talks with party leaders today before deciding whom he should ask to form a new government after an indecisive election, a statement released last night said.

Final results in Israel's election tonight give the moderate Kadima Party one more seat in the new parliament than Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud.

ISRAEL’S national election is likely to be a cliffhanger, pollsters said yesterday, on the eve of a vote in which right-winger Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party had been forecast to emerge victorious.

The World Economic Forum settled back into even-tempered discussion of global warming, help for Africa and the faltering world economy today, a day after Middle East tensions ruffled the elite gathering.

ISRAEL MOVED closer to a bruising election campaign that will decide the future of peace talks yesterday, as polls showed moderate foreign minister Tzipi Livni in a surprisingly close race with hard-liner Benjamin Netanyahu.

ISRAELI president Shimon Peres yesterday asked foreign minister Tzipi Livni to form a government, opening the way for the new Kadima party leader to become the second woman prime minister in the country’s history.

Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert has formally resigned this evening after handing a letter of resignation to president Shimon Peres.

Embattled prime minister Ehud Olmert today told his Cabinet that he is stepping down.

The world must prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said today.

Presidential hopeful Barack Obama promised today he would preserve the close relationship between the US and Israel.

Israel is marking its 60th Independence Day, which began at sunset yesterday, with a great sense of pride but also uncertainty about its future and doubts about prospects for peace with the Palestinians.

US Vice President Dick Cheney began Easter Sunday with a prayer and the singing of “Amazing Grace” at a tiny chapel in Jerusalem, then launched into a day of talks about the Mideast peace process and the rising influence of Iran in the region.

A barrage of rockets battered an Israeli town less than half a mile from the Gaza fence today – seriously wounding a woman – just before the arrival of President Shimon Peres.

President George Bush ended the first leg of his Middle East visit today with a promise to return to continue pressing the Israelis and Palestinians into reaching a peace agreement.

More than 100,000 Israelis gathered in the square where their prime minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated 12 years ago to remember him – and protest against a decision to allow the assassin to be present at his son’s circumcision today.

Madonna is celebrating the Jewish New Year by joking she's the world's new "ambassador for Judaism."

Pop star Madonna toasted the Jewish new year with Israeli President Shimon Peres and declared herself an “ambassador for Judaism,” local newspapers reported today.

Pop star Madonna met Israeli President Shimon Peres today during a visit to Israel to attend a conference on Jewish mysticism.

Elder statesman Shimon Peres took office as Israel’s ninth president today at the age of 83, pledging to devote the full seven-year term to realising his lifelong dream of bringing peace to the Middle East, despite the limitations of the largely ceremonial post.

Elder statesman Shimon Peres has been elected Israel’s next president, winning the support of 86 of parliament’s 120 members in a second and final round of balloting, Channel TV reported today.