By GERARD HEUMANN 09/19/2010 22:46 Jerusalemites are not likely to forgive or forget the trauma of the 10 years of construction and endless disruptions to traffic caused by the Jerusalem Light Rail project The long-awaited inauguration of the Jerusalem Light Rail line, the first of its type in the country, is scheduled, barring further delays, […]

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By Hana Namrouqa AMMAN – HRH Prince Asem Bin Nayef on Monday announced the launch of the Arab Council for Renewable Energy, which seeks to promote renewable energy use and appliances in the Arab region. During the Green Techies Forum and Exhibition (GTFEX 2010), which opened yesterday with the participation of over 350 sector representatives […]

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By EHUD ZION WALDOKS 09/20/2010 04:29 Plan calls for an NIS 200 million annual project budget to encourage research, support companies in the field and foster international cooperation. The cabinet discussed on Sunday a proposed ten-year national plan to fund research into alternative fuels in the hopes of reducing world dependence on oil. The plan […]

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By EHUD ZION WALDOKS 09/17/2010 03:48 A national plan for developing alternatives to oil will be proposed by the prime minister to the cabinet; calls for the government money to be supplemented by private sector. Netanyahu grandiosely declared at last year’s President’s Conference in October that Israel would find a substitute for oil in the […]

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Government plan, to be reviewed Sunday, will make Israel a global center for alternative energy technology. By Avi Bar-Eli An interministerial committee charged with finding ways of turning Israel into an international hub for technology to reduce global oil consumption will present its findings to the cabinet today. The government plans to invest NIS 2 […]

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Gas barons will profit while traditional exporters may suffer. By Eytan Avriel This has gone widely unnoticed, but underneath the surface, a drama has been unfolding in the forex market. After almost three months during which the dollar stayed above NIS 3.80, if not far above that level, in recent weeks speculators have begun buying […]

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Haifa Oil Refineries agrees to fund nearly half of polluted river’s cleanup project, after Environmental Protection Ministry says it’s responsible for 87% of contamination Amir Ben-David, Yedioth Ahronoth Published: 09.14.10, 16:24 Israel’s Haifa Oil Refineries Ltd (ORL) have, for the first time, assumed responsibility for their part in the sorry state of the Kishon River […]

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Uri Shani, the head of the Water Authority, is leaving after four years on the job. By Avi Bar-Eli Uri Shani, the head of the Water Authority, is leaving after four years on the job. Shani started in December 2006 and was scheduled to serve until the end of 2011, but he recently informed National […]

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By Olivia Alabaster Tuesday, September 21, 2010 BEIRUT: “If water resources become even more limited, it could destabilize the Arab region and destabilize peace,” according to one of the speakers at this year’s German-Arab environmental conference, held at the Lebanese American University (LAU) Byblos campus on Monday. Fathi Zereini, from the German-Arab Society for Environmental […]

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By RON FRIEDMAN 09/16/2010 04:02 Omer’s mayor Pini Badash claims culprits are local Beduin who claim the land for themselves; damage estimated at NIS 500,000. When JNF-KKL foresters arrived at the woods outside Omer on Wednesday morning, they were in for a nasty surprise. As they prepared to water the saplings, they discovered that thousands […]

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By Hana Namrouqa AMMAN – More than 9,000 factories, farms and workshops breached public health regulations and environmental laws over the last two months, according to the Ministry of Environment. During July and August, the majority of the 9,790 violations detected by ministry inspectors and environment Rangers were committed by factories emitting excessive fumes, car […]

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By Mohammad Ghazal STOCKHOLM – Over 90 per cent of water resources in the Palestinian territories are exploited by Israel, leaving insufficient water for an eventual Palestinian state, according to a Palestinian official. Total annual agricultural, industrial and domestic consumption in the West Bank and Gaza amounted to 330 million cubic metres (mcm) in 2009, […]

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Jordanians, officials or otherwise, have long acknowledged that there is a growing water problem that needs to be taken care of urgently. But while the need to deal with the problem is pressing, the measures hopefully envisaged should cater to both the immediate and long-term needs. In other words, patching a pipe here, tightening a […]

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By Taylor Luck AMMAN – A drop in the amount of natural gas supplied by Egypt is forcing the Kingdom to explore new energy sources, according to a senior official. Natural gas, which the Kingdom receives from Egypt at preferential prices, fuelled 90 per cent of electricity generation last year, but the amount of gas […]

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By Mariam Ghorbannejad While Syria is the 88th largest country in the world, it has the 11th largest deposit of phosphate, a type of rock with high concentrations of the mineral phosphorus and a key ingredient used in fertilizer. With the planet’s population expanding and subsequently becoming hungrier daily, this rock-like substance ranks with petroleum […]

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By REBECCA ANNA STOIL 09/14/2010 01:24 Committee chairman recommends full salt harvest as solution to southern area’s problems. A multi-million dollar empire could come crashing down on the shores of the Dead Sea if Israel fails to act soon to solve the crisis caused by rising sea levels in the Ein Bokek area. But a […]

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Minister highlights new plans to improve supply Friday, September 10, 2010 Bassil warns of serious water shortage in September BEIRUT: Lebanon may be facing a serious water crisis in September and October if the government fails to take quick actions to contain this problem, Energy and Water Minister Jebran Bassil said. Bassil’s remarks came during […]

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Wednesday, September 15, 2010 BEIRUT: Civil Defense and Lebanese Army personnel succeeded on Tuesday in extinguishing a fire that broke out in Daraya two days earlier. The state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported that efforts to quench the Daraya fire were finally successful. The blaze started on Sunday in the woodland separating the Chouf villages […]

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Wednesday, September 15, 2010 BEIRUT: Agriculture Minister Hussein Hajj Hassan launched a workshop in Batroun on Tuesday to encourage harvesting fish and protecting Lebanon’s maritime wealth. The workshop was part of a regional project organized by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), with the aim of promoting guided fishing, east of the Mediterranean. It was attended […]

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AMMAN (JT) – Prime Minister Samir Rifai on Monday underscored the need to take all necessary measures to prevent the recurrence of the “drinking water shortage crisis” witnessed recently in a number of governorates. During a tour to the governorates of Zarqa and Jerash yesterday, Rifai underlined the need to develop plans and programmes in […]

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