Caribbean - The four remaining Israeli nationals held hostage [reported by VIN News] by Chinese laborers on the island of West Caicos were released early Saturday following negotiations conducted by representatives of the Ashtrom Engineering and Construction firm with the captors. The Chinese laborers agreed to release the Israelis after reaching an agreement with the Ashtrom...

Tehran - Japan defeated Iran Friday for the Asian seat on the council by a U.N. General Assembly vote of 158-32. Iran's candidacy was controversial because it has received three sets of Security Council sanctions due to concerns about its sensitive nuclear activities. Iran says Western intolerance of its independent positions was behind Tehran's failure to win a seat on the U.N. Security...

St. Louis - Standing under the Gateway Arch, Sen. Barack Obama spoke this afternoon before a crowd his campaign said totaled 100,000, a new U.S. record for his presidential bid. "All I can say is wow," Obama said as he took the stage, his home state behind his back across the Mississippi River. In May, the Illinois Democrat attracted about 75,000 to an event in Portland, Ore., while his...

Chicago, IL - Visitors to the Spertus Museum will do as much nose-ogling as navel-gazing when they tour the latest show at Chicago's only Jewish museum, which, among other works of art, uses a diverse display of 49 oversize nasal sculptures to bust one of Judaism's most despicable stereotypes. The provocative collection from the Jewish Museums of Berlin and Vienna uses contemporary artwork...

Fair Lawn, NJ - 100's of mourners attended the funeral service yesterday for the 10-year-old sixth-grader Fair Lawn girl who died when a stolen car crashed into [reported first by VIN News] her family's sedan and was ripped in half. Miriam Avraham, 10, was a "typical" girl "who loved music and she had a great sense of humor," her mother, Helene Avraham, said Friday. Her brother, Shachar, 14...

Kiryas Joel, NY - KJ Fire Department are on the scene and requesting a 2nd Alarm for a working fire at 1 Anipoli Drive and Rision Road fire is on the 2nd and 3rd floors of an occupied 3 story 40 by 70 wood structure, fire started from the Sukkah, requesting Woodbury and South Blooming Grove to respond to the scene. Also KJ Hatzolah are on the scene for a child that was struck by a vehicle...

Melbourne, Australia - A second case has just emerged of a teacher at a Jewish school fleeing Australia after allegations of inappropriate behaviour with students. David Kramer - a former teacher at Yeshiva College in Caulfield - was jailed in July for seven years in St Louis, Missouri, in the United States, after pleading guilty to two counts of child molestation. Allegations were made in the...

Brooklyn, NY - On the sidewalk in front of the Islamic Center of Bay Ridge, a group of Arab men, unable to squeeze inside the mosque, worshiped alongside a bright red table that held voting literature and buttons that said, "I'm Arab and I vote." "Yalla vote, Yalla vote," Jihad Kifayeh, 17, shouted as he pressed voter registration forms into the hands of his elders outside the mosque in...