Here is the complete text of President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech, as prepared for delivery on Tuesday: Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, fellow citizens: Fifty-one years ago, John F. Kennedy declared to this Chamber that “the Constitution makes us not rivals for power but partners for progress … It…
A U.S. Senate panel approved Chuck Hagel as President Barack Obama’s new secretary of defense on Tuesday, setting the stage for a vote on his confirmation by the full Senate, possibly this week. After more than two hours of often intense debate, the Senate Armed Services Committee voted 14-11 along party lines to advance the…
The first major museum exhibition on the divisive biblical figure of Herod the Great has provoked a modern-day row between Israel and the Palestinians over who has the right to dig up his artefacts. The Israel Museum in Jerusalem on Tuesday unveiled a display dedicated to Herod – branded a baby-killer in the Christian tradition…
The United States has urged Egypt to move fast to agree a loan deal with the IMF, reform its energy sector and guarantee investors against “arbitrary acts” to avert a deeper slide in its economy. In unusually blunt comments, U.S. Ambassador Ann Patterson said Egypt’s government and opposition must stop ignoring economic problems and work…
President Obama is scheduled to deliver an address directly to the Israeli people during his two-day visit to Israel. The Obama administration has requested that Obama deliver his speech directly to at least 1,000 Israelis, Ynet reported Tuesday. The address will either be at the Israel Museum or the International Convention Center in Jerusalem. Ynet…
Iran denied on Tuesday it had agreed to allow international investigators to question Tehran officials over the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires as part of a plan to form a truth commission. Israel and world Jewish groups have denounced the pact which is seen as running counter to U.S.-led efforts…
A number of Israeli lawmakers on Tuesday called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to share the sensitive information that was the focus of an urgent meeting his office convened earlier in the day with the heads of Israeli media outlets. The Prime Minister’s Office had called the meeting of the forum known as the Israeli…
Singles who believe in love at first sight can turn to new apps that will match them with potential dates in time for Valentine’s Day, but only if each person has expressed an interest. With the new dating apps, users simply flip through photos of people in nearby locations and express their interest in dating…
Israel said on Tuesday that the international community must make clear to North Korea after its latest nuclear test that such activities cannot be tolerated. In a statement, the Foreign Ministry said the test, North Korea’s third in defiance of U.N. resolutions, and a ballistic missile launch in December raised “grave concerns” about proliferation of…
An Australian man committed suicide in a high-security Israeli jail in 2010 after being held for months in great secrecy, Australia’s ABC channel said on Tuesday, throwing new light on a case that has rattled Israel. The unsourced ABC story named the man, known previously only as “prisoner x”, as Ben Zygier. It added that…
A French organization that saved Jews during the Holocaust has declined to attend a commemoration because it was organized by pro-Israel Jews. The Marseille branch of CIMADE, a French Protestant group established in 1939, declined to attend the region’s main memorial ceremony for Jewish Holocaust victims because of the pro-Israel attitude of CRIF, the umbrella…
