Legendary musician Bob Dylan and Israeli president Shimon Peres have been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The singer, who turns 71 next month, was named as one of 13 individuals to be given the highest honour open to American civilians.

Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, has enjoyed a career spanning five decades and won five Grammy awards.

Israel has begun marking its annual Holocaust Memorial Day.

As is customary, sirens went off at 10am local time across the Jewish state and pedestrians and drivers came to a standstill, in memory of the six million Jews who perished during the Shoah.

A plea for clemency for the convicted spy Jonathan Pollard has been rejected by the Obama administration.

On Monday Israeli President Shimon Peres called on the White House to free the former

US Navy intelligence analyst, who was given a life sentence 15 years ago.

The woman who lost two children and her husband five days ago when an Islamist gunman attacked a school in Toulouse has issued a plea for Jews to do a good deed in their memory.

The Israeli woman who was severely wounded in an attack on an Israeli embassy car in the Indian capital on Monday was on the way to pick up her children from school.

Tal Yehoshua Koren, the wife of an Israeli Defence Ministry and a mother of two, was in the car on Monday afternoon when it exploded. The driver was also hurt.

Shimon Peres has called for Iran and Israel not to live as enemies even as a website linked to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's regime called for "the final annihilation of Israel".

The Israeli president and Nobel laureate, at a speech marking the creation of the Knesset 63 years ago, said that the two countries "were not born enemies".

The Israeli President has paid tribute to the late leader of the Czech Republic.

Playwright turned politician Vaclav Havel, who died on Sunday at the age of 75, led the nation as it moved from Communism to democracy.

Shimon Peres described Mr Havel as a friend of Israel and a personal friend, and said he was like nobody else.

Israeli President Shimon Peres is never one to turn down a celebrity meeting and here he is with actor Jason Alexander, best known as the hapless George in Seinfeld.

Alexander was heading a delegation on behalf of the organisation One Voice, which promotes support for a two-state solution among grassroots Israelis and Palestinians.

The Israeli soldier who was freed last week after five years in the captivity of Hamas has thanked President Shimon Peres for the support he gave the family.

Gilad Shalit and his parents met the president at their home in northern Israel today, six days after he returned to Israeli soil for the first time since June 2006.

The prisoners who are being released in exchange for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit have been officially pardoned.

However President Shimon Peres included a note with the pardon files that said the decision to free them had been made "with an aching heart".

"The voices of the terror victims and the deep grief of their families burns all of our hearts," he said.

Secret peace talks between Israeli President Shimon Peres and Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, took place in London, the JC can reveal.

The encounter was hosted over dinner by UK businessman Poju Zabludowicz at his north London home.

A secret meeting between Israeli President Shimon Peres and Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority, has taken place in London as part of a series of back-channel negotiations to reach a peace agreement in the Middle East, the JC can reveal.