Jerusalem  - Arab Israeli lawmakers reacted with outrage Friday to remarks by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, in which she said the "national solution" for Israel's Arab citizens would be a future Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.

"These (things) have been said before, but this time it is more severe because they are said by a candidate for the premiership," Ahmed Tibi, of the United Arab List
(UAL) which has four mandates in the 120-seat Knesset, told Israel Radio.

Calling the remarks "painful," he accused Livni of pandering to right-wing voters.

Jerusalem, Dec 11: A marine archeologist has put forward a theory that suggests the origin of the flood of Noah, which according to the bible had destroyed much of humanity, was the Carmel Mountains in Israel.

According to a report in Jerusalem Post, the new theory about the source of the great flood detailed in the Book of Genesis, has been put forward by a British marine archeologist Dr. Sean Kingsley.

In the theory posited by Dr. Kingsley, the drowning of the Carmel Mountains' villages 7,000 years ago, which include houses, temples, graves, water wells, workshops and stone tools, is by far "the most compelling" archeological evidence exposed to date for Noah's flood.

Jerusalem - Israel postponed to next week the release of some 230 Palestinian prisoners, originally planned for Tuesday as a goodwill gesture for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, Israel Radio reported.

Israeli government officials told the radio that they decided to delay the release by one week at the request of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Abbas is currently in Mecca and scheduled to return later this week. The Palestinian president was present during the last prisoners' release by Israel in August and personally welcomed the 198 ex- detainees who at a ceremony in his Ramallah headquarters.

Jerusalem - The Likud, the hardline opposition party currently tipped by opinion polls to win Israel's upcoming elections, was choosing its list of candidates Monday.

Some 99,000 registered members of the party of hawkish former premier Benjamin Netanyahu are eligible to vote nationwide at polling stations which opened at 10 am (0800 GMT) for 11 hours. With voting computerized, final results were expected at 2230 GMT.

Jerusalem  - Basic human rights, such as health, a life of dignity, education, housing, equality, freedom from racism, freedom of expression, privacy and democracy are increasingly being violated in Israel, a human rights watchdog group warned Sunday.

In its annual report, the Association of Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) pointed to "extremely worrisome trends at the centre of which are violations of the most elementary human rights."

The report also noted that the situation in the occupied West Bank, between Israeli settlers and the local Palestinian population, was "reminiscent, in many and increasing ways, of the apartheid regime in South Africa."

Jerusalem/Ramallah/Gaza City - Israel and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Tuesday welcomed Hillary Clinton's nomination as the next US secretary of state.

Abbas' staunch rival, the radical Islamic Hamas movement ruling Gaza, however, said Clinton would display the same pro-Israeli bias as it charged previous US secretaries of state had in the past.

"We don't count on any foreign policy of the American administration, especially when dealing with the Middle East and the Palestinian cause," Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan said, adding "there is no difference between the successive administrations."