News in Brief

Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit signed an order Monday reducing the number of city council members in local municipalities, starting after the November 11 local elections. Cities with populations exceeding 300,000, such as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, for example, will have 27 council members, instead of 31. Communities with 25,000 to 60,000 residents will have no more than 15 council members, down from 21. "[T]he order seeks to significantly improve the ability of local authority heads to manage the authority and form coalitions," Sheetrit said. (Igal Hai)

Businessman Yair Tsabari yesterday announced the formation of a new party to run in the Tel Aviv City Council elections, scheduled for November. Tsabari, who will head Anshei Ha'ir (townspeople), has not yet decided whether to run for mayor. Among the city councillor candidates on the new list are attorney Naftali Gur Arie, singer Arik Sinai and former municipal veterinarian Dr. Benjamin Roisman. Tsabari, 58, was the founder of the Zapari Bird Park in Hayarkon Park. (Igal Hai)

The Health Ministry ordered the closure of several Lake Kinneret beaches after someone broke into a wastewater treatment facility next to Guy Beach early yesterday and intentionally damaged the machinery, sending a small amount of sewage into the lake. The affected beaches - Sironit, Rimonim, Guy, Ganim and the religious beach - will be closed until further notice. The police are investigating the incident, which apparently was perpetrated by someone very familiar with the facility. (Eli Ashkenazi)

Police searching for illegal weapons in a home in a Wadi Ara village found 19 partridges and a Eurasian sparrowhawk, whose flight feathers had been clipped. In addition to the protected species, the home's yard contained a bird incubator and examples from nonprotected species such as a quail and pheasant. The partridges and hawk were taken to the Hai-Bar Carmel Nature Reserve for pre-release rehabilitation, and a criminal investigation was begun against the suspect. (Eli Ashkenazi)

Shmuel Levy, head of field operations in Ehud Barak's 1999 election campaign, was charged in Tel Aviv District Court yesterday with intentional aggravated assault. On Thursday, Levy allegedly attacked Rene Avraham, 63, on Jaffa Street, causing head injuries. Avraham remains in a coma in Ichilov Hospital. Levy told the police that Avraham is a pedophile and that he attacked him after observing him touching a boy inappropriately. But the police found no record of pedophilia associated with Avraham. In June, Levy went to the police and claimed he had information incriminating Barak in campaign-funding irregularities. Levy says the Labor Party owes him NIS 14 million for services rendered. (Ofra Edelman)

A Rishon Letzion man yesterday discovered the dead body of a resident of a southern Bedouin village lying in a thicket. An initial police investigation into the incident revealed that the man, who was from the village of Kseifa, had been shot to death. His body was found in Rishon Letzion's Nachalat Yehuda neighborhood. After the resident informed authorities of his discovery, police arrived at the scene to find the victim's car. They located the body a few meters from the car, and found evidence of gunshot wounds. (Roni Singer-Heruti)