News from my hometown; I remember this church the last time I visited. It was beautiful, but I remember being frustrated because I was missing Miss Universe 1993. This is sad to see, although hardly surprising.

Couple Lights Fireworks in Nazareth Shrine

Friday March 3, 2006 11:01 PM

By AMY TEIBEL

NAZARETH, Israel (AP) - An Israeli couple, joined by a young woman reported to be their daughter, entered one of Christianity's holiest sites on Friday and set off a series of small explosions, sparking a riot that left six people wounded in this Arab town in northern Israel.

The family's motives were unclear, but police said they had been treated for psychiatric problems in the past and faced the possibility of losing custody of their children.

Although the attack did not appear to be nationalistic, it underscored the tensions between Israel's Jewish majority and its Arab minority. Israeli Arabs, who make up about 20 percent of the population, complain of systematic discrimination.

Police said the three entered the Basilica of the Annunciation Friday evening and set off firecrackers and other small explosives. Church officials said the site was unguarded, and witnesses said the explosives were hidden in a baby stroller.

A witness who identified herself only by her first name, Rouan, said the church was crowded with worshippers praying for the coming Easter holiday.

``We heard a boom. It went on for six or seven minutes,'' said the 22-year-old woman. She said the blast left black spots on the walls inside, but witnesses said there was no serious damage.

Within minutes, thousands of people began rioting outside, preventing police from entering. The attackers - who were disguised as pilgrims - remained barricaded inside the building for several hours before police broke through the crowd and took them into custody.

By late Friday, the riot had stopped, though hundreds of young men milled about, as small bonfires set inside garbage bins crackled and the acrid smell of tear gas blanketed the air. An Israeli helicopter hovered overhead.

Police officials said the couple involved in the attack had been treated for psychiatric problems in the past. The officials said authorities had questioned the Jerusalem couple this week and threatened to place their children in foster care.

Police said the couple had previously threatened to attack churches, and also spent time in the Palestinian territories, including a visit to the late Yasser Arafat's headquarters. Israeli media reported that the young woman with them was a daughter, though it was not known how many children they have.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Israeli Public Security Minister Gideon Ezra said the attack did not appear to have nationalist motivations. He said the husband is Jewish and the wife is Christian.

Archbishop Elias Shakur, the top Roman Catholic official in Nazareth, dismissed the attackers as lone extremists.

``It's a big tragedy for all of us in Israel, for Christians, for having their most holy places spoiled and used in a barbaric way,'' he said.

The church is at the site where Christians believe the Angel Gabriel appeared before the Virgin Mary and foretold the birth of Jesus.

Nazareth, the boyhood town of Jesus, is inhabited by Christian and Muslim Arabs, and religious tensions have boiled over in the past, with the two sides in a dispute over attempts to build a mosque next to the church.

``We live here two religions together and they tried to make trouble for us,'' said Jaber Zeid, 20, of Nazareth.

Israel's roughly 1 million Arabs hold Israeli citizenship, in contrast to Palestinian residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip who live under the Palestinian Authority.

Despite tensions between Jews and Arabs, violence is rare. Last August, a Jewish army deserter killed four Israeli Arabs in a shooting rampage on a bus. The attacker was killed by a mob.

In the worst ethnic violence in Israel, police killed 13 Arab-Israeli demonstrators who blocked a highway in October 2000.

Well, I wrote an exam today and have one tomorrow-- of course, I am hardly prepared, and it is just past five a.m. in the morning. Looking at it optimistically, the misery of having two difficult exams in a row is offset by the fact that both are labour economics courses (today's was Income Distribution and Inequality, tomorrow's is Gender and the Labour Market). Thus, the fact that both courses overlap in some areas has provided an easy transition in terms of studying. Unfortunately, I am up to my ass in labour market theory and am so sick and tired of listening to women bitch and moan about discrimination (the aforementioned overlapping in course subjects), that I am almost tempted to send them back to the kitchen (woah-joke!). Really though, I want sleep and sex, not Becker's Theory of Discrimination and Atkinson's Index of Inequality. God damn it.

Tomorrow after the exam I will be heading to see Controller Controller and Death From Above. I saw the former last semester, but I was too tired and stoned to fully enjoy it-- a shame since I love their music; all I could remember was watching the lead singer making orgasm faces on stage. I've never seen the latter band live, but have heard that earplugs are recommended. Good fun I hope, I shall be a hipster for a day, since that's how long I can stand being associated with those 'tards before my Arab ass shits diaroehha on their hipster clothes and hipster music.

In more international news, Sharon has recently decided to "delay" pull-out from Gaza; surprise, surprise. Strangely enough, the past couple of days I became somewhat optimistic that he was going to go through with this promise, and so I was surprised to read about this.

What is more troubling, perhaps, is the Israeli propaganda machine that continues to make it appear that the Israelis have been kind enough to give "away" the land, completely disregarding the illegality of the settlements themselves. Take this particular gem, for instance:

"We need to do everything to make the evacuation easier and to allow settlers to overcome the crisis of disengagement. These, effectively, are to be difficult days in the history of the Jewish people," [Sharon] said on Tuesday.

"Evacuation"? "Disengagement"? Who are they kidding. Jesus, did Britain bugger off of India post-colonialist stylez, referring to the process as a disengagement or evacuation? It's like Person A stole Person B's computer,and when Person A was caught, he decided he would give the computer back but whined about how he would lose his stash of porn that he downloaded on said computer. Yeah that's right, I called the Settlers PORNO.

Through all these lies and manipulations, Israel continues to build new settlements in the West Bank.

Ok, too depressing...no more reading news before bedtime.