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Spas and beauty products have long touted the health benefits of floating in the buoyant Dead Sea waters and slathering its thick black mud on your skin. Now an Israeli company is promoting Dead Sea salt as a healthful gourmet product, in part because of its high mineral content.
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Rawabi, a privately developed Palestinian community, sits in the West Bank. The first residents are due to move in later this year, but its developer is worried about water. To get a pipe laid, Rawabi needs Israeli permission. Israel has cooperated, but the Palestinian developer says the cooperation has been "very slow and always incomplete."
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The housing minister has approved the construction of 1,200 new apartments, a move that threatens newly restarted peace talks.
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Israeli settlers turned the area near the spring into a picnic spot. A local Palestinian says the land has been in his family for generations. The fight is symbolic of the much larger battle over West Bank land.
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The trip comes after Palestinians balked at some of the conditions for returning to negotiations. The Mideast peace process has been a priority for John Kerry as secretary of state. This visit is his sixth to the region in as many months.
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Despite much international criticism, Israel has continued building its West Bank barrier. It's now nearing completion, while the Israelis and Palestinians continue to argue over whether it will help or hurt prospects for a Middle East peace agreement.
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Political unpredictability in the region hampers all kinds of businesses: from stone-cutters and shoemakers to IT. Business owners in the West Bank say Secretary of State John Kerry's commitment to remove barriers to commerce might go further than actual cash.
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Palestinian Emad Burnat got a video camera to document his son's childhood. But he has spent the past several years filming the conflict between Palestinian residents of his village and Israelis who are building a separation barrier. His work is now up for an Oscar.
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A longtime proponent of a peaceful solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is feeling the heat from Palestinians frustrated with the lack of progress in Mideast talks. Opponents also say the 77-year-old leader isn't addressing dire economic problems.
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Israel's highest court has ruled that Ulpana, a Jewish settlement outpost in the West Bank, was built on Palestinian land and should be torn down. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government is now looking for a way to keep it in place. The issue could threaten the survival of Netanyahu's government.