World Court to rule on barrier decried as a misery and hailed as life-safer

EVERY time Nisreen Hurub needs kidney dialysis, she has to take a long and painful detour to hospital around Israel's West Bank barrier.

Every day that passes without another bombing or shooting near his shop in northern Israel, Michael Nachmass is thankful for fences and walls that let him breathe a little easier.

In one of the highest-profile decisions of its 58-year history, the World Court rules tomorrow on the legality of a barrier that Palestinians decry as a land grab that multiplies misery, but which Israelis call a life-saver.