News in Brief

Palestinians and foreigners crossing into the Gaza Strip at the Erez Crossing were surprised to see Hamas police searching their bags and confiscating leaflets calling for the release of the captive IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. For some time now, activists on behalf of Shalit have stood on the Israeli side of the border and handed out leaflets to those entering the Gaza Strip, with text in English and Arabic calling for Shalit's release - highlighting the direct link between his captivity and the continued siege on the Strip. A kilometer from Erez, in the Gaza Strip, Hamas has set up a checkpoint controlling those entering from Israel. There, baggage is checked and those entering are registered. Foreigners say that the process is polite and orderly. (Avi Issacharoff)

Norway's University of Trondheim will be violating the law if its board members vote to boycott Israel, the minister for higher education, Tora Aasland, warned in a television broadcast yesterday. If the board votes in favor on Thursday, the Trondheim-based Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) will become the first Western university to boycott Israel. Speaking to the newspaper Aftenpost ahead of the controversial vote, Aasland added that neither she nor the government view boycotts against Israel favorably. "The employees themselves have a statutory right to choose both the subject and method of their research," she said, adding that the university's management should not enforce any boycott moves on its researchers. (Cnaan Liphshiz)