Brooklyn, NY - Home prices in Williamsburg and Greenpoint grew more in the last 12 months than prices in any other Brooklyn area, according to a new report. The average sales price in the two neighborhoods increased 12.7% from the second quarter of 2007 through the second quarter of 2008 to $663,946; and the average sales price per foot increased 20.3 percent over the same period to $445. These...

Ashkelon, Israel - Construction on a 200-bed underground emergency facility at Ashkelon's Barzilai Medical Center, which was speeding ahead amid concerns over a resumption of violence from the Gaza Strip, has ground to a halt after the discovery of ancient graves at the building site. The hospital is now negotiating with the Religious Services and Health ministries over how to proceed...

New York - Con Edison is expecting to bill its residential customers in New York City and Westchester County 22% more for electricity this summer than last because of rising fuel costs. A customer who uses 350 kilowatt-hours of power per month, a typical amount, would pay about $105, $19 more than a year ago and $8 more than an estimate at the end of May. Business customers will most likely see...

Goshen, NY - A deal is being finalized to sell the Arden Hill campus of Orange Regional Medical Center to a Monroe planner with ties to the Village of Kiryas Joel. The buyer is Simon Gelb, said Goshen Mayor Bob Weinberger, who learned of the deal from an Orange Regional official Friday morning. Gelb, who works out of an office in Monroe, has not indicated what he plans to do with the 30-acre...

Fort Lauderdale, FL - A rabbi, a 70-year-old man and their wives were tossed off a Continental flight to Newark because the plane's crew said they were inciting a riot. Charles Kuperwasser, 55, and Mark Furer, 70, said they are contacting attorneys after being bounced from Flight 400 from Fort Lauderdale. "We were treated worse than dogs," said Kuperwasser, a rabbi from Lakewood...

Jerusalem, Israel - Israeli police went on high alert Saturday after a gunman opened fire on policemen standing outside the walls of the Old City, wounding two of them before fleeing on foot. "Our forces have been placed on high alert after the attack on Friday night which wounded two Israeli policemen, and which we believe was a terrorist attack," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. "One...

Washington - The Senate on Friday afternoon approved a major package of housing legislation, including a rescue plan aimed at helping hundreds of thousands of troubled borrowers avoid foreclosure by refinancing their mortgages. The bill would authorize the Federal Housing Administration to insure up to $300 billion in refinanced mortgages, enabling borrowers now saddled with unaffordable loans...