News in Brief

The Charles Bronfman Foundation's Humanitarian Award for 2007 will be awarded to Dr. Amitai Ziv, the foundation announced in New York. Ziv, 48, is the founder and the director of the Israel Center for Medical Simulation and the deputy director of the Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer. Ziv, a former air force pilot, adapted his knowledge of simulators to medical education. In its announce ment the foundation said that Ziv "represents the best of the young generation's values, commitment, creativity and energy." (Amiram Barkat)

The central district prosecution yesterday appealed to the Tel Aviv District Court against the sentence given to Attorney Eyal Schaefer, who was convicted of indecent acts on an 11-year-old boy. The Rehovot Magistrate's Court sentenced Schaefer to six months' community service and a NIS 100,000 fine to be paid to the plaintiff as part of a plea bargain. (Nir Hasson)

An 11th suspect (all from the Bedouin village Bir al-Maksur) was arrested yesterday in the serial rape case in which six of the eight men still held have confessed to the rapes and reenacted them. The rapes occurred in the North. Bir al-Maksur is in the Galilee, near Hamovil Junction. One of the suspects reportedly said they were raping Jews in response to what the Israeli army had done to the Palestinians in the territories. (Eli Ashkenazi)

There are suspicions that unknown persons tried to plant a bomb in the car of Eilat mayor, Meir Yitzhak-Halevy last night. The mayor's security detail noticed two suspicious figures near his car. A bodyguard chased after then but the two escaped. Police bomb squad officers carried out an inspection of the site and initial conclusions suggest that the two persons were planning to plant a bomb in the mayor's car. Further lab tests are expected to offer more definitive results. (Revital Levy-Stein)