2,000-year-old leper found in Israel

jerusalem (jta) | Human remains found near Jerusalem’s Cinematheque theater were dated to Second Temple times.

Some of the remains are believed to be from a member of a well-off family, perhaps a member of a priestly caste, who suffered from leprosy, The Jerusalem Post reported. Researchers at Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center used DNA analysis and light and electron microscopy to date and detail the remains.

Palestinian terrorist card deck debuts

jerusalem (jta) | A deck of playing cards has been issued with pictures of figures supposedly on an Israeli “hit list.”

Similar to the U.S. military’s 52-card deck of most-wanted Iraqis, the Israeli deck has Saddam Hussein and Yasser Arafat as jokers, and includes Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantissi and Hamas spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin as aces in the deck.

An explanation that accompanies the cards, which sell for about $4 a pack and are available at www.terrorists-playingcards.com, facetiously claims that the figures are on an Israeli Defense Forces’ hit list.

It’s not clear from the site who produced or is selling the cards.

Six Knesset members cheat on game show

jerusalem (jta) | Israeli lawmakers cheated on a recent Israeli TV game show testing their IQs and still lost.

In “Test of the Nation,” six Knesset members, led by the Likud Party’s Haim Katz, admitted to cheating by sharing answers with one another. They likened their cheating to that of many Israeli schoolchildren, The Associated Press said.

Want to buy Goering’s boat?

jerusalem (jta) | The former yacht of Nazi Hermann Goering is up for sale in Egypt.

German boat dealer Christopher Brunner-Schwer told der Spiegel magazine that he hopes to make a fortune selling the boat, posted for sale by the American widow of an Egyptian oil agent.

“Arabs like the boat’s history,” he said, “and that is raising the price.”