This week from Israel

* Moran Itzkovitch (34), an Israeli with a dream, will lift off on a hot air balloon, on a journey across five continents. Itzkovitch, along with a group of one Israeli and eight Americans, will lift off from the Gilboa in Israel on October 3rd and participate in the Israeli hot air balloon festival in the south. Two days later, they will take a boat to Virginia, US, hover over ten states, and from there fly to South America, Asia, Australia and Europe. The journey is due to last one year, but according to Itzkovitch, nothing is certain when using a hot air balloon as transportation.

* In the past decade, a contest called Junior Eurovision took place. This is a singing competition starring children and aimed for children from all over Europe. The Junior Eurovision operates in a similar way to the official annual Eurovision Song Contest, where each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and radio and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the most popular song in the competition. While Israel participates in the official contest since 1973 (with three wins), an Israeli delegation was invited to take part in the Junior Eurovision this year for the first time. In our delegation there are six members, ages 10 to 14, which will try to impress the rest of Europe on December 1st.

* Research on molecules' energy in coal earned Yuval Catzanelson (18) from Israel the first prize on First Step to Nobel Prize in Physics, an international contest which took place in Poland. The Israeli delegation had 16 members, from which 12 won various prizes and honorary scrolls in various categories. This made Israel come in first place as a delegation. But Catzanelson was the only Israeli member to win first prize in one of the most important categories in the contest. This will grant Catzanelson with a month-long stay in Poland, where he will perform research on his study, and will lecture in front of important figures in Physics from all over the world.

* A race car built by a group of Israeli students from Ben-Gurion University in the Negev, came in 11th on Formula SAE competition in Italy. 42 teams of Students from all over the world participated in the competition, where students design team develop a small Formula-style race car. The team that came in 1st place this year was the German team. 

* Venezuela, which has no formal diplomatic relations with Israel, signed on an agreement with an Israeli company. This may not be a friendship statement, but this deal will defiantly bring Israel to Venezuela in a form of a settlement with an Israeli twist. According to the agreement, with a 400 million dollars investment- the Israeli company will build a Moshav- a unique Israeli form of settlement, which will contain 500 residence unites, schools and kindergartens, a dairy barn, chicken coops and a closed water base.