Barcelona footballer Lionel Messi places a wish on Jerusalem’s Western Wall

Barcelona footballer Lionel Messi placed a wish in Jerusalem’s Western Wall today as he and his team-mates completed a two-day “peace tour” of Israel and the West Bank  that included a training clinic for young Palestinians in Hebron and meetings with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.

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Lev Leviev

Meet Lev Leviev, the billionaire who lost his sparkle in Cannes jewellery heist

The Carlton Intercontinental hotel on the exclusive Promenade de la Croisette in Cannes was the setting for an extraordinarily brazen diamond heist at the weekend, in which a lone gunman strolled into a jewellery exhibition taking place at the hotel and stuffed a suitcase with millions of pounds worth of Leviev diamonds before walking out. The owner of Leviev diamonds, Lev Leviev, is yet to comment on the theft. Apart from being a billionaire with an amazingly alliterative name,  just who is this wronged bling merchant?

Palestinian groups furious as Israeli jeans company Fox sets up shop in Ramallah

Activist says company 'supports occupation' and the Palestinian Authority is violating its own laws by allowing store opening to go ahead

John Kerry's Israel visit is the fourth in as many months

US Secretary of State John Kerry in Middle East for separate talks with Israel and Palestine

Israel visit is the fourth in as many months

We need to review security for Jews in the West Bank, says Israel’s Economy Minister Naftali Bennett

Israel’s right wing Economy Minister Naftali Bennett says he plans to submit a plan to his colleagues on reviewing security for Jews in the West Bank after claiming that the situation has deteriorated in recent months.

Google has changed the designation on its Palestinian site from

Google searches for Middle East peace - and makes a bold political statement - with launch of 'Google Palestine' to sit alongside Google Israel

The Palestinian Authority has called the move 'a step in the right direction'

Israelis burn Palestinian fields and stone vehicles in West Bank after father is stabbed to death at settlement bus stop

Salam Zaghal drew a large knife and killed Evyatar Borowski before reportedly firing at Israeli border police

Palestinians sit around the grave of Haitham Mishal in Gaza City

Motorcyclist killed in first Israeli air strike on Gaza since November truce

Attack that hit 'top militant' is most serious test yet of the Egyptian-brokered truce

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad offers resignation in bitter dispute with President Mahmoud Abbas

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has offered to resign because of an increasingly bitter dispute with President Mahmoud Abbas over the extent of his authority, officials said today.

Israel’s Palestinian-only buses prompt apartheid comparisons

Israel will open new “Palestinian bus routes” in the West Bank tomorrow after bowing to pressure from settlers who argue that sharing transportation is a  security risk.

Gaza militants 'fire rocket into Israel'

Action is first attack from Palestinian territory to land in Israel since fighting last November

Palestinian women mourn at the funeral of Arafat Jaradat in the West Bank town of Si’ir, near Hebron

Tense West Bank funeral for ‘hero’ who died in Israeli jail

Thousands of mourners gather for funeral as militants threaten to begin a ‘third intifada’

Houses (foreground) of the West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim

UN calls Israel's West Bank settlements 'creeping annexation' and suggests it jeopardises a future Palestinian state

Report added that Israel has an obligation not to allow its citizens to move to the West Bank

Palestinians evicted from E1, east of Jerusalem, less than 48 hours after beginning protest

A group of Palestinian protesters who had built a tented village in a strategically important area of the West Bank have been evicted by Israeli police, less than 48 hours after beginning their action.

Hamas rival Fatah party stages first Gaza rally since 2007

The Fatah party of Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas staged a massive rally today in the Gaza Strip, the first such gathering in the territory since the Islamist Hamas group took control there in 2007 and a reflection of the warming ties between the two rival factions.

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The great war photographer was not one person but two. Their pictures of Spain's civil war, lost for decades, tell a heroic tale
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Someone, somewhere has to write speeches for world leaders to deliver in the event of disaster. They offer a chilling hint at what could have been
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Think comedy’s a man's world? You must be stuck in the 1980s, says Holly Williams
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Wilko Johnson: 'You have to live for the minute you're in'

The Dr Feelgood guitarist talks frankly about his terminal illness
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Entrepreneurs are giving vintage ice-cream vans a new lease of life
Who stole the people's own culture?

DJ Taylor: Who stole the people's own culture?

True popular art drives up from the streets, but the commercial world wastes no time in cashing in
Guest List: The IoS Literary Editor suggests some books for your summer holiday

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Before you stuff your luggage with this year's Man Booker longlist titles, the case for some varied poolside reading alternatives
What if Edward Snowden had stayed to fight his corner?

Rupert Cornwell: What if Edward Snowden had stayed to fight his corner?

The CIA whistleblower struck a blow for us all, but his 1970s predecessor showed how to win
'A man walks into a bar': Comedian Seann Walsh on the dangers of mixing alcohol and stand-up

Comedian Seann Walsh on alcohol and stand-up

Comedy and booze go together, says Walsh. The trouble is stopping at just the one. So when do the hangovers stop being funny?
From Edinburgh to Hollywood (via the Home Counties): 10 comedic talents blowing up big

Edinburgh to Hollywood: 10 comedic talents blowing up big

Hugh Montgomery profiles the faces to watch, from the sitcom star to the surrealist
'Hello. I have cancer': When comedian Tig Notaro discovered she had a tumour she decided the show must go on

Comedian Tig Notaro: 'Hello. I have cancer'

When Notaro discovered she had a tumour she decided the show must go on
They think it's all ova: Bill Granger's Asia-influenced egg recipes

Bill Granger's Asia-influenced egg recipes

Our chef made his name cooking eggs, but he’s never stopped looking for new ways to serve them
The world wakes up to golf's female big hitters

The world wakes up to golf's female big hitters

With its own Tiger Woods - South Korea's Inbee Park - the women's game has a growing audience
10 athletes ready to take the world by storm in Moscow next week

10 athletes ready to take the world by storm in Moscow next week

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The Last Word: Luis Suarez and Gareth Bale's art of manipulation

The Last Word: Luis Suarez and Gareth Bale's art of manipulation

Briefings are off the record leading to transfer speculation which is merely a means to an end