New York, NY - Bill Gates and Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that they would spend $500 million to stop people around the world from smoking. Tobacco could kill as many as one billion people in the 21st century, most of them in poor and middle-income countries, according to World Health Organization estimates. In an effort to cut that number, Bloomberg's foundation plans to commit $250...

Melbourne - Hard-to-find documents detailing the history of Australia’s Jewish community are becoming more readily available since the National Archives in Canberra commenced digitising its massive collection. The National Archives maintains such a large number of government records that immigration documents alone fill 22 kilometres of shelf space. Senator John Faulkner launched the...

Kings County, NY - The Brooklyn district attorney has a warning for you: Take a swipe at a transit worker and your next stop could be jail. District Attorney Charles Hynes said Tuesday that he has formed a unit to specifically prosecute assaults on bus drivers, subway operators and station agents. He said he will seek hefty punishment against offenders. Transit officials said they support the...

Forest Hills, Queens, NY - The sister of a Queens woman accused of hiring a hit man to kill her husband threatened to kill the victim's brother if he talked to cops, prosecutors said. Natella Natanova allegedly threatened to kill dentist Daniel Malakov's brother Gavril as he walked along a Queens street in March. "She stopped him in his tracks and said, 'You know - if you talk, you will be...

New York - The New York Times Co. will increase the Monday-Saturday newsstand cost of its flagship paper by 25 cents to $1.50, the publisher said Wednesday. Times Chief Executive Janet Robinson said the price increase for the New York Times will take effect Aug. 18. The company has already raised home delivery prices for the paper 4.5 percent in two separate hikes since last July. That helped...

Kings County, NY - Most people see the district attorney as a person whose primary duty is to put criminals behind bars. Addressing a group of teen volunteers from Kings County Hospital, however, Brooklyn district attorney Charles Hynes said that his ultimate goal was to help children from ending up on the wrong side of the law. "I look forward to a day when these children - your children and...

New York City - Open windows offer relief from the summer heat, but for kids in a vertical city, they also pose hazards. To prevent needless falls, the Health Department is urging New Yorkers to make sure their window guards are in place. City law requires apartment building owners to install window guards in units with children under age 11. Likewise, anyone caring for kids age 10 and under must...

City Hall - Council Member Simcha Felder (D-Brooklyn) expressed his support of demonstrators today at NBC’s headquarters at Rockefeller Center, organized by American Jewish World Services, regarding the lack of coverage of China’s link to the Sudanese government and the ongoing violence in Darfur. “This is a case of inaction being measured in lives,” Felder said. “We expect...

Springfield, NJ - Springfield’s observant community marked a milestone with the dedication of a mikva, or ritual bath. Completed on April 30, Mikvah Yisroel of Springfield serves an Orthodox community that includes Congregation Israel of Springfield and Yeshiva Tiferes Boruch, a boys’ school in Plainfield. The ritual bath “will help bring more young families to town,” said Rachel...

Postville, IA - What’s a proper Jewish response to the ongoing scandal surrounding the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Iowa? And is it even proper, ahead of a court’s final judgment, to refer to the controversy surrounding America’s largest kosher meat processor as a “scandal”? An Orthodox colleague and I have been debating this. I had expressed outrage over the long list of...

Odessa, Ukraine - Jewish community leaders in southern Ukraine have protested to the central government over a real estate project planned on a Holocaust grave site The Jewish Council of Odessa, a Black Sea port city, in an open letter to Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, said plans to revamp the town's Tolbukhin Square should be stopped out of respect to possibly tens of thousands of persons...

Jerusalem - Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama toured Israel's Holocaust memorial Wednesday, laying a wreath in memory of the 6 million Jews who died and saying, "Ultimately, this is a place of hope." Obama toured the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial on a Jerusalem hillside as he moved through a busy day of meetings with Israeli and Palestinian officials, including Israeli Prime...

Israel - Standing on a hilltop overlooking the desert scrub into Gaza, Gov. Jon Corzine asked his 74-year-old tour guide if he, his children and grandchildren would stay in the border town hit by more than 7,000 rockets in the past seven years. "We will not leave. We have no other place to live," said the guide, Shalom Halevi. "The citizens of Sderot are very brave." Corzine clapped him on...

Rockland County, NY - The state Department of Health has approved a plan for Helen Hayes Hospital to open an outpatient rehabilitation clinic in the Refuah Health Center, according to state documents. The new clinic will cost $119,726, according to the state. Helen Hayes, a state-run rehabilitation center in West Haverstraw, will offer physical and occupational therapy to patients who need...

Woodmere, NY - Heavy fire destroyed a two and half 75x35 framed house at 960 Smith Lane. Fire Departments from Woodmere, Hewlett are still on the scene for the structure fire that's burning all floors of this private dwelling, part of the structure has collapsed...