Israel to participate in probe

Israel will be participating in the probe being conducted by the United Nations. Here is to hoping that the probe is conducted without bias. Knowing how the UN behaves, the probe will be with bias.

Israel has agreed to participate in a United Nations investigation of the Gaza-bound Turkish flotilla incident.

"Israel has nothing to hide," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday after informing U.N. Secretary Ban Ki-moon that Israel would participate in the panel that he is establishing. "The opposite is true. It is in the national interest of the State of Israel to ensure that the factual truth of the overall flotilla events comes to light throughout the world, and this is exactly the principle that we are advancing."

Netanyahu and his inner Cabinet of seven ministers made the decision to participate in the international probe.

Geoffrey Palmer, the former prime minister of New Zealand, and Alvaro Uribe, the outgoing president of Colombia, will serve as chair and vice chair of the panel. Its two additional members will be from Turkey and Israel.

It marks the first time that Israel will serve on a U.N. committee that is investigating its activities, according to Haaretz.

Newsweek was recently sold.

Sidney Harman, 91, will buy Newsweek from the Washington Post Company, it was announced Monday. Bidding on the weekly magazine had lasted two months.

Harman paid $1 and will accept Newsweek's liabilities of approximately $71 million.

Washington Post Chairman Donald Graham reportedly chose Harman, the founder of audio equipment company Harman Industries and husband of U.S. Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), among several bidders because he is expected to leave Newsweek’s essential character unchanged and retain the highest number of staff members.