BERLIN - German retailer KarstadtQuelle AG said Thursday it is dropping three lawsuits against a Jewish family in a dispute over Berlin properties seized during the Nazi era and now worth more than $117 million US. The Jewish Claims Conference, which is representing the heirs of the Wertheim family in the case, called the decision a "long-delayed victory for justice and a victory for history."...

Germany - After the discovery of 34 bodies buried in a mass grave from World War II, on a U.S. Army base by construction workers in September, the German authorities launched an attempt to identify the remains and locate the victims' relatives, but some rabbis reject DNA tests as part of a larger precept of honouring the dead, and German, so officials dropped the idea.But some holocaust survivors...

Manhattan +Hazmat Situation+ Several workers overcome from an acid spill, when workers on the 13th floor of the building - at 15 West 47th Street between 5th and 6th Ave's - pured ammonium sulfide solution down the drain causing some in the building to have difficulties breathing, FD on the scene, EMS requested with several ambulances, Hazmat-1 and Hazmat-Bat are enroute...

Elkridge, MD. - Howard County police are investigating several hate-bias crimes in Elkridge along Ducketts Lane, Kyle Leaf Court, Lori Lane and Karas Walk. Officers said at least 10 homes or vehicles were spray-painted with swastikas, and police are offering a $300 reward for information about the person or people responsible. Investigators believe the graffiti was sprayed randomly and wasn't...

New York - Beth Israel Medical Center has agreed to pay nearly $73 million to settle civil charges that it bilked taxpayers by defrauding the Medicare program in a massive, decade-long, illegal-billing scheme. The feds charged in a civil complaint that Beth Israel doctored its bills to Medicare to suck in a staggering $54.7 million in illegal reimbursements between 1992 and 2001...

Williamsburg +Public School Bomb Threat+ The Public School IS 318 at 101 Walton Street Throop Avenue to Harrison Avenue, has been evacuated due to a bomb threat, PD of the 90th Pct are doing a floor by floor search, ESU has been canceled....

Chester +Route 17 Heavy Traffic+ Fire Department and PD are on the scene of numerous MVA's on Route 17 eastbound between exits 125-129, very heavy/long delays in the area, use alternate routes...

Queens +Motor Vehicle Accident+ A MVA in Kew Gardens at Audley Street and Abington Rd, Hatzolah on the scene working...

A crowd of Hasidic spectators sat riveted yesterday as an Orange County judge grilled lawyers about his request to have the leader of the Satmar Hassidic sect testify to settle a critical question in a case before him.   "Is he physically capable, yes or no?" demanded acting state Supreme Court Justice Stewart Rosenwasser, after lawyers from Aron Teitelbaum's faction pressed the judge to...

Brooklyn +Track Fire+ large visible fire and heavy smoke is coming from the tracks 3rd rail area of the Newkirk Plaza at Newkirk Ave and East 16th Street, train traffic for the (Q) Express and (B) Local lines have been ordered to be stopped and all power to be shut off. U/D: 08:19 No train traffic are running through the station. U/D: 08:57 Local lines have been just reopened...