Chinese conglomerate in negotiations to buy Israeli dairy co-op Tnuva
(JNS.org) Negotiations for control of Israeli dairy cooperative Tnuva are moving forward, as the company’s controlling shareholders—British investment firm Apax and Mivtach Shamir Food Industries Ltd.—consider selling Apax’s share in the company to China’s Bright Food Group.
According to sources close to the negotiations, if the deal goes forward it would be for some 8.5 billion to 9.5 billion shekels ($2.4 billion to $2.7 billion). The emerging deal is said to be serious, but contrary to recent rumors the Chinese company is not planning to send representatives to Israel in the near future, according to Israel Hayom.
Bright Food— a Chinese government-owned conglomerate that deals in acquiring food companies—appointed representatives for the negotiations, among them accountant Erez Sofer, attorney Adir Waldman to represent the Chinese company in Israel, and attorney Reuven Behar. The team was appointed to thoroughly examine the deal.
Currently, Apax and Mivtach Shamir control 76.7 percent of Tnuva’s shares, with the remainder still controlled by kibbutzim and agricultural communities. The majority share, 56.5 percent, belongs to Apax.
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IAF strikes Gaza terror sites in response to Palestinian rocket fire
(JNS.org) Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip fired two rockets into southern Israel on Monday, Israel Hayom reported. The rockets exploded in open areas and no injuries or damage were reported.
In response, the Israeli Air Force struck two targets in the Gaza Strip overnight—an underground rocket launcher in central Gaza and a terror site in northern Gaza. Direct hits were confirmed, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.
No Palestinian injuries were reported in the IAF strikes.
According to the IDF, more than 30 rockets have been fired from Gaza into southern Israel since the start of 2014.
“The daily reality of Israelis exposed to rocket attacks is unbearable, incomprehensible and immoral,” Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, from the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, said.
Figure skaters are first Jewish medalists at 2014 Sochi Olympics
(JNS.org) Jewish-American figure skaters Jason Brown and Charlie White won bronze medals at the team figure skating competitions on Sunday at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
Brown has also grabbed international attention due to his hairstyle. His flowing ponytail seemed to move with him symmetrically as he danced. The ponytail even got its own Twitter account, @2014PonyPower.
“I’m that crazy guy with long hair who loves to skate and loves to perform,” Brown told NBC News after it was announced that he made the U.S. Olympic team.
Canadian-Jewish figure skater Dylan Moscvovitch won a silver medal in the team competitions.
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Israel sets another tourism record in January
(JNS.org) Israeli tourism has started off 2014 strong after a record year in 2013, with tourists to the Jewish state up 19 percent in January, setting a new monthly record.
According to the Israeli Tourism Ministry, a total of 229,000 tourists visited Israel last month, with 200,000 staying for more than one night, a record for January.
“This is an excellent beginning for 2014, following the record year for incoming tourism to Israel in 2013,” said Tourism Minister Uzi Landau.
Last year, Israel set a number of tourism records with more than 3.5 million visitors, a 0.5 percent increase over 2012, generating more than $11.5 billion in revenue for the Israeli economy.
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Iran unveils new generation of nuclear centrifuges
(JNS.org) Iran has unveiled a new generation of nuclear centrifuges that are 15 times more powerful than the country’s current ones, Iranian nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi said Monday.
“We unveiled a new generation of centrifuges that surprised the Westerners,” Salehi said, Iranian state broadcaster IRIB News reported. “This new machine is 15 times more powerful than the previous generation.”
Salehi said the new centrifuges do not violate the interim nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1 powers. Iran will not give up its right to enrich uranium, he added.
“We have met our needs to the 20-percent-enriched fuel (for the Tehran research reactor and medical purposes) and we have enough fuel, but we have not lost our right to produce 20 percent fuel,” Salehi said, Fars News Agency reported.
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Hamas seizes Apollo statue discovered by Gaza fisherman
(JNS.org) An extremely rare and incredibly intact statue of the Greek god Apollo, possibly worth tens of millions of dollars, has mysteriously resurfaced in Gaza only to be seized by Hamas, the Islamic terror group that controls the coastal enclave.
The statue was claimed to be found by a Gaza fisherman named Jouda Ghurab last August. Ghurab says that it took six men to lift the statue out of the water and that he used a donkey cart to transport it back to his home. Eventually, news of the rare find spread and caught the attention of Hamas, whose authorities seized the statue to investigate it. It even appeared briefly on Ebay with a $500,000 price tag.
“Our investigations are still going on,” Muhammad Ismael Khillah, assistant undersecretary at the Gaza Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, told Bloomberg Businessweek.
According to archeologists, the statue looks like it was made between the 5th and 1st century BCE, making it more than 2,000 years old.
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Preceding provided by JNS.org