TEL AVIV – In a New York bar, men and women might exaggerate their biographies in the pursuit of the opposite sex. But here in the Holy Land, deceiving your partner can have serious consequences.

The Jerusalem District Court ruled this week on the fine points of what a man must tell a woman before they engage in sexual relations, convicting an Arab man of “rape by deception” for lying to a Jewish woman to get her to sleep with him.

Two years ago, 30-year-old Sabbar Kashur met a woman in the city of Jerusalem and introduced himself as a Jewish bachelor seeking a serious relationship. Shortly after meeting the woman, the two had consensual sex.

But later, when the Jewish woman found out that Kashur was not a fellow Jew, she filed a police complaint alleging rape and indecent assault. (The misrepresentation went further – he was not a bachelor either, but rather a married father of two daughters).

On Monday, Kashur was convicted on the charge of rape by deception and sentenced to 18 months in prison by the Jerusalem District Court.

In the verdict, Judge Zvi Segal said that the consent for sex was obtained under false pretenses. “If she had not thought the accused was a Jewish bachelor interested in a serious romantic relationship, she would not have cooperated,” the judge wrote in his verdict.

The court rejected a request by Kashur’s lawyers that he perform community service in lieu of jail time, writing: “The court is obliged to protect the public interest from sophisticated, smooth-tongued criminals who can deceive innocent victims at an unbearable price – the sanctity of their bodies and souls.”

But, Kashur believes the case is racially motivated because the woman went to police only after learning he was an Arab non-Jew. “If I were Jewish, I would have never been questioned,” he told Haaretz newspaper.

In fact, given demographic concerns that are often top of mind for Israelis, sexual relations between Jews and Arabs are often discouraged. Arabs make up about 20 percent of Israel’s population, but intermarriage is still rare.

Elkana Laist, who works in the Public Defender’s Office in Jerusalem, criticized the verdict, telling Haaretz it “opens the door to a rape conviction every time a person lies regarding details of his identity. Every time the court thinks a reasonable woman would not have sex with a man based on that representation, the man will be charged with rape. That approach is not accepted around the world, either.”
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Still, some hailed the verdict as a victory for women.

“This is a brave and revolutionary verdict,” said Nurit Tsur, Executive Director of the Israel Women’s Network.?She told NBC News that the verdict was important because it acknowledged that sexual consent is not only a physical matter, but an emotional one.

“A woman has the right to get the full picture of the person who stands in front of her,” said Tsur.

Kashur’s lawyers say they are considering an appeal to the High Court of Justice. ?

Update: This post has been updated to clarify that the defendant was an Arab non-Jew.

EPA

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton talks at a ceremony at Pakistan National Council of Arts in Islamabad on Monday,

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent trip to Islamabad was met with a range of reactions, mainly that of suspicion, despite the many gifts she brought with her.

The two-day trip was aimed at bettering U.S. relations with Islamabad and to further fortify Pakistan’s cooperation in the war in Afghanistan. However, in an effort to show the relationship went beyond that, Clinton came with a number of humanitarian and economic offerings to help some of the country’s problems. This included a promise of 0 million in economic aid for such projects such as clean drinking water and the building of hydroelectric dams and hospitals. The secretary of state also launched a trade agreement between Afghanistan and Pakistan that has taken some 45 years to come into fruition.

She told the Pakistanis: “We know that there is some questioning, even suspicion, about what the United States is doing today and I can only respond by saying that very clearly we have a commitment that is much broader and deeper than it has ever been.”
Her comments were bolstered by Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who said “…we are focusing all projects, all sectors that would make a qualitative difference in lives of ordinary Pakistanis, so they understand that this relationship is beyond security, this is a relationship that improves our purchasing power, our quality of life, and then the different message is understood.”

Read story: Tension with Pakistan on display as Clinton visits

On the ground, however, such acts of kindness were not appreciated. On the second day of Clinton’s visit the front cover of Pakistan’s The Nation had a piece that read: “We are told she has come with a 0 million aid package and apparently the aid will go into power, agriculture, health and dams also – but as we all know for the Americans there is no such thing as a ‘free lunch’ – and already our country is bleeding because of the alliance with the US so we are going to be bled some more with this aid package.”

America had a great following here more than 50 years ago. The skepticism seen now is a result of past conflicts and changes in American foreign policy over the years. The bitterness is also, in part, a remnant from the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, when America discarded Pakistan after seeking its help to defeat the Russians. This has been fueled further since the start of the war in Afghanistan, when America was once again back, enjoying the support of Gen. Musharraf. Pakistanis feel that they are constantly used and then abandoned by the U.S.

Ibtassim Abassi, a journalism student, said Clinton “is here for her own problems, not for Pakistan, they use Pakistan to reduce their own problems.” His contention was that the main objective of her trip was to win the war in Afghanistan.

To Abed Hussain, the aid was not enough and he felt that his government was being manipulated. “The help they are extending is very inadequate, very insufficient, that is not sufficient for us to remove poverty or unemployment… our leadership is not so courageous and not so brave … I don’t think they are able to get the benefits of the visit of Hillary Clinton.”

Sentiment on the street was similar among most of the people with whom we spoke: It was unrealistic to expect a change in public opinion so soon as a result of these new initiatives brought in by Clinton.

This new strategy may take a while to sink in; perhaps the motives of America may be convincing if the projects are demonstrated to be a success. The conflicts and differences of opinion over the last few decades still appear to be fresh in the Pakistanis’ minds and overshadow any gesture offered.

By Adrienne Mong, NBC News Correspondent

BEIJING – The live music scene in Beijing is one of the great perks of living in the Chinese capital. As we reported a couple of years ago, a thriving community of independent musicians and artists can satisfy practically any music craving.

Experimental folk? Check.

Indie electronica? Check.

Rock with comic cross-talk? Check.

But if you crave big marquee names, better move to Tokyo.

In the past year, China has seen only two major-league performers come from overseas: Usher earlier this month, and Beyoncé last October.

Photo by Ed Flanagan/ NBC News

Usher’s popularity in China is in part due to his wholesome image.

For a major international city with nearly 18 million permanent residents, that’s a pretty poor showing of global mainstream pop and rock acts.

One reason for the paucity is censorship.

Avoiding controversy
Since Bjork’s controversial act of shouting “Tibet, Tibet” at the end of a song called Declare Independence during a concert in Shanghai in March 2008, China’s Ministry of Culture has maintained strict restrictions on foreign performers.

Since then, a handful of western artists have had to cancel gigs because of their perceived politics. In 2009, ministry officials revoked permits for Oasis to perform, calling the band “unsuitable.”

Photo by Adrienne Mong/NBC News

Thousands of young Chinese fans turned out for Usher’s concert last weekend.

Bob Dylan was due to perform in Beijing and Shanghai this year, but concert promoters said the Chinese Ministry of Culture denied him a permit, perhaps concerned about the legendary 68-year-old musician’s counter-culture origins.

But it’s not just about politics.

“Anything that talks about violence or things that are a little bit extreme, those tend not to be approved here,” said Adam Wilkes, managing director of 8th Round, a live entertainment company in Beijing that organized this month’s Usher concert.

Usher’s mass appeal in China is in part due to his wholesome image as well as his talent, the accessibility of his music (R&B remains extremely popular amongst the young urban set here), and his fame in the west.

Chinese acts still reign
Concert promoters face other challenges trying to bring overseas rock/pop acts here.

“Foreign mainstream artists are not particularly influential in China,” said Jia Wei, a music critic.

“They are merely competitors in the local music scene.”

Photo by Ed Flanagan/ NBC News

Chinese pop stars like Taiwanese-American Wang Leehom have no trouble holding concerts in China.

Usher drew a large audience at the spiffy Wukesong Stadium, which looked to be about 70-80 percent full. That’s not a bad turnout considering the cheapest tickets went for in a city with a median monthly income of 0.

But that was nothing compared to the sell-out concerts by Mandopop stars like Jay Chou or Wang Leehom, who attract at least 35,000 people per show.? (In fact, Wang made a special appearance at Usher’s concert and sang a duet in Mandarin with him, triggering screams of delight from the audience.)

The night of the Germany-Argentina World Cup quarterfinal, Chou staged a show at the Workers’ Stadium in Sanlitun, where expats and locals converged on a concentration of bars, restaurants, and clubs to watch the match.?And I’m pretty sure the traffic snarling up the roads in Sanlitun were because of Chou, not the soccer.

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And when tickets were released this month for a series of comeback concerts in China by Faye Wong, a semi-retired Hong Kong pop singer, they were sold out within ten minutes.

But there’s also the fact China’s music industry is new and relatively undeveloped, with the concert industry really only five years old.

What little music recording infrastructure exists here revolves around local talent, said Wilkes, who’s spent almost a decade working in China.

“For the most part, the mainstream state-owned media does not focus their attention on Western popular culture,” he said.?”So most of this information comes in organically through the Internet, so it’s available, but it’s not driven.”

So for the foreseeable future, it seems Beijing will still only be attracting A-list music performers at the rate of one a year.

Thank goodness for the underground music scene.

Mongolian hip hop, anyone?

By Michele Neubert, NBC News Producer
Reporter’s Notebook

GAZA STRIP – “Marhaba! Smell the jasmine and taste the olives,” was the text message I had just received and dismissed – thinking it must be from a friend making a joke, knowing where I was heading on assignment.

But the follow-up “Welcome to Palestine” text was a dead giveaway. This was clearly my phone company provider’s warm welcome on a recent trip to Gaza.

But the 25-mile long, 6-mile wide Gaza Strip that greeted me didn’t exactly gel with the phone company’s sales pitch.

As we exited through the sleek, spiked turnstile at the Erez Crossing from Israel, I quickly realized we’d entered another world.?

AFP PHOTO/MAHMUD HAMS

Palestinian workers lay asphalt as a street is paved in Gaza City using funding from the ruling Hamas government on July 11, 2010.

Instead of the robotic scanners, conveyor belts and digital display boards on the Israeli side, we were now greeted by porters offering rickety wooden trolleys andbroken wheelchairs as luggage carts.

Warmed by the porters’ eager help, we lugged our cases of TV gear to a decidedly lower tech, makeshift border, administered by the Hamas-run authorities.

The plight of Gaza’s 1.5 million people has gained renewed attention since Israel’s botched raid on an aid flotilla trying to breach the blockade on May 31.

Israel has imposed a blockade on Gaza since Hamas seized control of the territory in June 2007. Israel says the purpose of the blockade is to weaken Hamas, which has pledged to destroy Israel, and to put an end to the rocket attacks from Gaza.

But the blockade has been widely criticized as a form of “collective punishment” that has created a humanitarian crisis by groups from the European Union to Amnesty International.

We went to Gaza to see for ourselves what life was like for people living under the austere conditions.

Bags of rubble?
Before we arrived, Christopher Gunness, the spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), summed-up the situation, “There’s 80 percent aid dependency, 44 percent unemployment and deep poverty has tripled in the last year.”

He emphasized the urgent need for cement, which is vital for important rebuilding projects. But the importation of cement-making materials have been banned by Israel because of its potential use for military purposes such as building weapon-smuggling tunnels.

But even with the U.N. spokesman’s warning, the scene was startling.?

There were several small groups of young men hacking away at the rubble remains of buildings, homes, businesses, shops, schools, restaurants – all destroyed during decades of conflict, with the most recent damage done by Israel’s 2008-2009 incursion.?

Primitively equipped, these crews loaded donkeys or horses and carts with sacks full of crushed pebbles. These bags of rubble, worth about on the local market, would be used for makeshift repairs.

But as we progressed into the center of Gaza, I couldn’t help notice how clean everything looked despite the scars of some unfinished and destroyed buildings.

The area certainly seemed more spruced up than four or five years ago, when I last visited. Adding to the atmosphere was the intoxicating vegetation, lush orange-colored blossoms, roses, carnations.?

I was also taken in by the shop windows. Along with the usual hardware, food and repair shops, tucked in among the more traditional Arab fashion window displays were alluring party dresses and summery designs that could easily match some London boutiques.?

But I quickly snapped back to reality.?? ??

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Limited options
There’s really not much evidence of glitz and allure on the streets. Since Hamas took over, they’ve imposed strict Islamic dress code. Most Gaza women cover at least their heads and some have adopted full burqa-like attire.

But not 22-year-old Berlanty Azzam.???
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One of an estimated 5,000 Christians in Gaza, she managed to leave and study on the West Bank, only to have her travel permit later rejected by the Israelis. She’s decided not to cover up and wanders around freely in jeans, short-sleeved tee-shirts and an uncovered head.

Freely might be an overstatement. She has to deal with being stared at and abused by males in the street, so as a result, she spends a lot of time at home or on the Internet. When she does venture out, it’s with her mother, Evette Azzam.

Evette told us that her main worry is for her daughter’s future, “There are so few Christian boys left; so who should she marry? What kind of future could she have?”

For Berlanty, the only future is escape. “Every day I’m trying to forget I’m in Gaza,” she said. “But if they opened the border and it remains like it is now, I’d be out in a flash.”

But the option of leaving is exactly what most Gazans, trapped by Israeli travel restrictions, don’t have. Access to the outside world remains elusive for most since border crossings are mostly limited to humanitarian cases, students studying abroad, and foreign passport holders. Prospects for a future in the blockaded area just aren’t there for Muslims and Christians alike.

The future looks grim for even one of the more privileged teenagers we talked to, Baraa Abu Shawiesh, 14, who was lucky enough to visit the U.S. on an aid-backed program recently. She told us she has changed her dream for the future from becoming a doctor to working as translator, believing that could increase her chances of getting out of Gaza one day. Meantime, she struggles with the frustrations of day to day.

“I want to scream out in a very loud voice and tell them – the presidents and leaders and children from other countries – that we Palestinian children, we love peace, we hate wars and we are?actually very kind,” Shawiesh said.

Born into a grim future
As we approached Schiffer Hospital, one of Gaza’s finest hospitals even though it is still damaged from Israeli attacks, a different kind of screams were ringing out.
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Gunness, the U.N. spokesman, had told us that the World Health Organization needs million worth of urgent medical supplies to adequately operate in Gaza. He suggested we visit Schiffer Hospital’s prenatal ward to understand the situation better.

Gaza has more premature babies than anywhere in the world, according to Dr. Ashraf who showed us around.

“The causes for such high numbers of premature births may be myriad, but the consequence is that these babies, who just barely arrive into the world, must struggle for survival. We just don’t have the special food and medical equipment that allows them to develop and thrive,” he said.

During our visit, two babies – one just an hour old, looking frail and withering – were without incubators.
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I asked how the woman who we had heard screaming on arrival was feeling. “Oh she’s just given birth to?premature quadruplets,” Ashraf said. “And we don’t have any incubators left for them.”

For those children who do survive, and there are many of them – some 44 percent of the population is under 15 – it’s a tough future. An estimated 95 percent of them suffer from trauma and stress.
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Gaza Mental Health Community Director, Dr. Ahmed Abu Tawaheena, told us that the children here are reacting to the traumas of war and the blockade with an inability to concentrate and violent behavior against each other.

“But their biggest fear is that they will be abandoned by their parents, or that their parents won’t get their salary,” he explained.
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“The kids maybe traumatized, and yet I?end up treating many of their parents?for depression,” said Tawaheena. “One father who has tried to commit suicide several times told me what his young son said to him.?After asking three times over a short period if the father could spare a shekel [about 25 cents] for his son’s pocket money, the boy said?‘If you don’t even have that, why did you bring me into this world?’

MAINZ, Germany – Winning the World Cup means everything to soccer fans, a yearning that can lead to some strange behaviors.

Superstitious Germany supporters, like myself, turned to special rituals ahead of each game during the recent South Africa contest, hoping that previous victories could be repeated by doing things like wearing the same unwashed shirt or watching the match in exactly the same beach chair, with exactly the same group of people.

REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

Octopus Paul, better known as the so-called “octopus oracle” swims in front of a soccer ball in his tank at the Sea Life Aquarium in the western German city of Oberhausen July 9, 2010.

Even our national team coach, Jogi Loew, after advancing to the knockout stage, admitted that he was wearing his light blue cashmere sweater over and over again in order to cast a good spell on his team’s next game.

And then there was the fascination with Paul the octopus, who forecast the outcome for Germany’s matches from his fish tank at SeaLife Aquarium in Oberhausen.

From match to match, we attentively watched the eight-tentacle prophet predict the winner of the next game by choosing between two boxes, each containing a delicious mussel snack and decorated with the respective countries’ flags.

From frying pan threats to honorary citizenship
At first, Paul was ridiculed as nothing more than a PR stunt. But then, after correctly predicting all seven of Germany’s World Cup games – plus Spain’s win over the Netherlands in Sunday’s final – Paul left the soccer world, and even his harshest critics, stunned.

“We had World Cup-related events in all of our eight SeaLife aquariums,” said Kerstin Kuehn, a spokeswoman for SeaLife in Germany, “with two other octopuses also predicting games and even cute little seahorses playing soccer. But Paul is a real oracle; he became the mega star.”

On the sidelines of the World Cup, a media frenzy around Paul kicked in, including live coverage of Paul’s predictions on Germany’s N24 news channel.

Many supporters of the German team quickly turned into “octopus fans” when Paul predicted German victories over England and Argentina.

But summer love for the cephalopod immediately turned into antipathy after Germany’s 1-0 loss to Spain in the semi-finals, which Paul had also correctly predicted.

“Suddenly a number of recipes for octopus dishes were prominently posted on the Internet,” Kuehn said.

But Paul still had some notable international supporters, who quickly came to his defense.

“I am concerned for the octopus. I am thinking of sending him a protective team,” joked Spain’s Prime Minister Jose Luiz Rodriguez Zapatero on Spain’s Radio Cadena Ser.

REUTERS/Radu Sigheti

A Dutch fan wears an octopus-shaped hat outside the Soccer City stadium before the FIFA World Cup 2010 final soccer match between Netherlands and Spain in Johannesburg, July 11.

And Spain celebrated “Pulpo Paul” (Paul the Octopus) as a hero after Sunday’s World Cup final victory over the Netherlands. During a parade in Madrid on Monday, Spanish goalkeeper Iker Casillas raised a cardboard cutout of Paul in Spain’s national colors. Meanwhile, the city council of Carballiño, a town in northwestern Spain, unanimously voted to name Paul an honorary citizen.

(An ambiguous honor for Paul, some might say, because the specialty of the region is spiced calamari in olive oil.)

International affairs
Paul’s World Cup duties ended last week, but the octopus is still the talk of the day.

During this week’s Russian-German talks in Yekaterinburg, a top Russian official blamed Paul for Germany’s painful semi-final defeat.

“I was supporting Germany,” Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov told German Chancellor Angela Merkel during the meeting. “Of course, if it was not for Paul – you know who I am talking about, Paul the octopus – then everything would have been fine.”

“We ate his brother in arms last night at the restaurant,” Russian President Dmitry Medvedev quickly added.

Octopus retired?
It seems that everybody wants a piece of Paul these days.

Earlier this week a British bookmaker put in a bid to buy Germany’s psychic octopus and media reports suggest that Madrid’s Zoo Aquarium is seeking to bring Paul to Spain. The zoo is supposedly prepared to trump any other offer that his present owners receive.

SeaLife in Oberhausen insists that Paul is going nowhere.

“We are definitely not going to sell Paul. He is now retired and will no longer be prognosticating anything,” Kuehn said from her Hamburg office.

But whether or not Paul is ready to head into the golden years of retirement, his special talents are still very much in demand.

“We had a large number of strange requests, including women who wanted Paul to predict when they will get pregnant or others who asked if Paul could forecast the lucky lottery numbers,” Kuehn said.

And the beat goes on.

A catchy song tribute to Paul is currently a big hit on YouTube and gotten almost half a million views. And a software firm in Brazil has created an “Ask the Octopus” app for Apple’s iPhone, which gives users a 50-50 choice for an “oracle” answer.