News Brief

A new Facebook group memorializes the Palestinian attacker who murdered eight yeshiva students.

In addition to glorifying the students’ murders, the Facebook page dedicated to Abu Ala Dhaim, 25, refers to him as a “martyr” and links to a page that calls Jews “pigs,” according to a report by The Israel Project.

A picture posted on the Facebook page devoted to Dhaim shows the body of one of the dead students riddled with gunfire. At the top of the picture, the first line of the Arabic text reads “The Heroic Jerusalem Act.”

More than 65 million people worldwide use Facebook, a popular online social networking Web site. Many are in the same age range — 14 to 26 — as the students who were murdered and injured.

Major terrorist organizations maintain modern Web sites that communicate the details of their attacks against civilians, according to The Israel Project.

Shimon Peres will host a high-level conference featuring top figures from President Bush to Google founder Sergey Brinn.

The Israeli president’s conference, called “Facing Tomorrow,” is scheduled for May 13-15 to coincide with festivities for Israel’s 60th anniversary. The conference will look at issues that face the world at large, Israel and the Jewish people.

Along with Bush and Brinn, other participants will include former leaders such as Tony Blair, Mikhail Gorbachev and Vaclav Havel, as well as renowned figures such as Henry Kissinger, Elie Wiesel and Tom Friedman. Business leaders scheduled to attend include Mark Zuckerman, the founder of Facebook, and media mogul Rupert Murdoch.