Free Republic

A Jordanian judicial official says the country's state prosecutor has charged a man with premeditated murder who is suspected of drowning his 22-year-old sister for having an extramarital affair. The official says the unidentified woman's brother beat her with the help of his family Saturday and then took her to the Dead Sea, where he drowned her. The official says the state prosecutor also charged the woman's parents and another brother Monday with assisting in the murder by knowing about it and for beating the woman before she died. He says they carried out their suspected actions after seeing an...

Diamond synchatron to use x-rays to examine Dead Sea Scrolls By Nic Fleming and Roger Highfield Last Updated: 5:01pm BST 12/09/2007 Secrets contained in fragile documents such as the Dead Sea Scrolls are to be revealed using one of the most powerful light sources in the Universe. British Association Festival of Science: Full coverage British scientists are using a giant instrument - in essence an extremely powerful torch and microscope combined - to read parchments that are too brittle to unroll or unfold. Part of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Their discovery enhanced knowledge of Christianity and Judaism The Diamond synchatron...

New boost for planned canal between Red Sea and Dead Sea · Firms commissioned to study feasibility of link· 25-year project would ease region's water shortage Ian Black, Middle East editor Wednesday June 27, 2007 The Guardian (UK) Hopes of building a canal linking the Red Sea to the Dead Sea have been given a fresh boost with 11 firms commissioned to produce feasibility studies. Their work will be submitted to an Israeli-Jordanian-Palestinian committee looking at ways to implement the huge engineering scheme, which could take as long as 25 years to complete. As well as reviving the rapidly shrinking...

A cycling tour to sound the alarm about the deteriorating state of the Dead Sea is planned for next month, hoping to attract those concerned that the area is heading toward an ecological disaster. Cyclists will have the opportunity to ride over 260 kilometers during the January 24-26 competition known as the Tour de Dead Sea. According to the Megilot Council, which organized the event, both professionals and amateurs are invited to be a part of the event, which aims to sensitize the public to the drastic drying-out of the Dead Sea. The tour's route circles the sea and includes...

An Israeli company reports it has struck oil in the Dead Sea region, possibly worth up to $350 million. The company, Ginko Oil Exploration, says that oil spurted on Monday from a depth of 1,800 meters (1.12 miles), and that further tests will be carried out in the coming days. The oil, estimated at about 6.5 million barrels' worth, was found just north of the Dead Sea. Ginko extracted about 120,000 barrels of crude oil from the site about ten years ago, but gave up the initiative. The drilling has now been renewed, as it has in many places around...

The Dead Sea is dying, with the world's saltiest water body threatened by a lack of fresh water and an increasingly tense political situation, environmentalists have warned. The bare, sun-baked landscape around the Dead Sea -- the lowest point on earth which is bordered by Israel, Jordan and the West Bank -- has since Biblical times been fed by the Jordan river's fresh water. But that has been systematically diverted for agricultural and hydroelectric projects, while an evaporation basin for farming world-famous Dead Sea minerals has lowered the water level by one metre (three feet) a year for the past...

Fire Destroys Large Part of Dead Sea Nature Reserve The Associated Press Published: May 31, 2005 JERUSALEM (AP) - Two-thirds of Israel's Ein Gedi nature reserve was destroyed by fire Tuesday, causing considerable damage to animal and plant life in the lush oasis sandwiched between the harsh Judean Desert and the Dead Sea. Residents of Kibbutz Ein Gedi nearby said the fire covered the kibbutz in smoke, the Haaretz daily reported. Tourists were evacuated from the area, but no injuries were reported. The cause of the blaze was not immediately known. Animal life in the reserve includes the deer-like ibex...

The mother of all Palestinian modern-day curses By Yoav SternThe parchment on which the curse was written and the package in which it was found." During a Dead Sea-area dig in 2002, Prof. Yizhar Hirschfeld discovered two small packages wrapped in cloth. The contents of one of them, just recently made public, was a scathing curse aimed at Israeli leaders. "Oh God almighty, I beg you God to destroy Ariel Sharon, son of Devorah, son of Eve." Thus opens a unique text, written in eloquent Arabic, on parchment found more than two years ago at the bottom of the Dead...

JERUSALEM (AP) - The Dead Sea is dying, and only a major engineering effort can save it, Israel's Minister of the Environment said Monday. The Dead Sea gets its name from its heavy salt content, because no aquatic creatures can live in it. Now there's a new ``death threat'' - the Dead Sea is drying up and disappearing. An Israeli TV reporter, illustrating the government report, stood on a spot where, just 20 years ago, water met land. Now that point is 2,000 feet of parched ground away, he said, as the sea gradually recedes. Because it is landlocked in...

Experts at a water conference in Jordan yesterday warned the Dead Sea may disappear in 50 years if current conditions are maintained, prompting Jordanian and Israeli officials to appeal for international assistance to save the much-revered body of water. The sea – the saltiest water in the world and the lowest point on earth – has been dropping 3.3 feet per year for at least the past 20 years, mostly because of river diversion projects by Syria and Israel, according to experts. "We appeal to water experts attending this conference to help us explain the crisis of the Dead Sea...

Early makeup kit may confirm biblical story Excavation: Israeli archaeologists find 2,500- year-old accessories, which likely belonged to Jews who returned from exile in Babylon. Associated Press February 23, 2004 JERUSALEM -- Israeli archaeologists excavating caves near the Dead Sea discovered jewelry, a makeup kit and a small mirror -- 2,500-year-old fashion accessories for women. The trove apparently belonged to Jews who returned from exile in Babylon in the 6th century B.C., said Tsvika Tsuk, chief archaeologist for the Israel Nature and Parks Authority. "This find is very rare. Both for the richness of the find and for that period,...

Magnitude 5.2 DEAD SEA REGION 2004 February 11 08:15:01 UTC Preliminary Earthquake Report U.S. Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center World Data Center for Seismology, Denver       Magnitude 5.2 Date-Time Wednesday, February 11, 2004 at 08:15:01 (UTC) - Coordinated Universal Time Wednesday, February 11, 2004 at 10:15:01 AM local time at epicenter Location 31.63N 35.47E Depth 15.4 kilometers Region DEAD SEA REGION Reference 30 km (20 miles) SE of JERUSALEM, Israel 35 km (25 miles) ENE of Hebron, West Bank 55 km (35 miles) NNW of Al Karak, Jordan 55 km (35 miles) SW of AMMAN, Jordan Location...

Jerusalem-(AP) -- The Dead Sea is dying because it's drying up. That's the assessment of Israel's Minister of the Environment, who says only a major engineering effort can save it. The Dead Sea gets its name from the salt content so high that it can't accommodate sea creatures. An Israeli TV report illustrated the shrinking shoreline. A reporter stood at the spot where 20 years ago water met land. That spot is now 2,000 feet away, across the parched landscape. The Dead Sea is so salty that people can float with no effort. It's popular for spas and treatments at...

The Dead Sea is dying as its dark salty waters retreat (Filed: 04/10/2003) Human exploitation is forcing the surface level down by three feet each year, reports David Blair The jagged cliffs of the Judaean desert mountains, where John the Baptist wandered and Jewish fighters made their last stand at Masada, once sloped directly into the Dead Sea. Today, many of those cliffs descend into ugly mudflats covering much of the basin marking the lowest point on Earth. For the Dead Sea is in retreat as human intervention forces the water level downwards by more than three feet per year....

<p>An exhibit featuring replicas of the Dead Sea Scrolls has opened at the visitors center at the Mormon temple in Kensington, Maryland.</p> <p>The free exhibit, sponsored by the Institute for the Study of Ancient Religious Texts at Brigham Young University, chronicles the creation of the scrolls in the ancient city of Qumran on the northwestern rim of the Dead Sea, as well as their discovery by a Palestinian shepherd in 1947.</p>

Lieberman blasted for suggesting drowning Palestinian prisonersBy Gideon Alon A storm erupted in the Knesset plenum yesterday, following Transport Minister Avigdor Lieberman's reported proposal to provide buses to take the Palestinian prisoners that Israel releases to a place "whence they will not return." According to another report, Lieberman said the prisoners should be drowned in the Dead Sea and he would provide the buses to take them there. MKs Jamal Zahalka (Balad) and Talab A-Sana and Abdelmalek Dahamsha (United Arab List) blasted Lieberman. "How can you suggest transferring thousands of Palestinian prisoners to the Dead Sea and drowning them there?"...

Scrolls, Scripts & Stelae A Norwegian Collector Shows BAR His Rare Inscriptions Hershel Shanks If you have a Dead Sea Scroll for sale, you should get in touch with Martin Schøyen (pronounced Skoo-yen) in Oslo. He is a prime prospect. He already owns several Dead Sea Scroll fragments—making him one of the few individuals in the world (I can think of only one other) who own Dead Sea Scroll material. In his spacious London pied-à-terre, Schøyen also has one of the unusual pottery jars from Qumran in which the Bedouin found the first intact scrolls in 1947 or 1948....