New York - Stocks rallied Friday, with the Dow soaring nearly 500 points, following news that President-elect Barack Obama has chosen his point man to handle the U.S. economic crisis. Wall Street cheered the news that Obama has picked New York Federal Reserve President Timothy Geithner to be Treasury Secretary. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 494.13, or 6.5 percent, to close at...

Washington, DC - Timothy Geithner, the president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, is expected to be tapped by President-elect Barack Obama to be the next secretary of the U.S. Treasury. Obama is expected to announced his economic team on Monday in an effort to calm markets. Geithner was considered a top prospect along with former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers for the Treasury...

Postville, IA - A federal grand jury has brought fresh immigration charges against five former supervisors at Agriprocessors, the controversial Postville meatpacking plant. Defendants in the case unveiled Friday afternoon include three people who already faced charges: Former top executive Sholom Rubashkin, former poultry-line supervisor Hosam Amara and former human-resources official Karina...

New York - There's 911 in case of emergencies and 311 if you need help from the city. Now city residents can dial 511 to know the best way to get around. The New York State Department of Transportation unveiled "511," its new traffic and transit help line. Travelers can get real time updates on road conditions as well as traffic reports. Officials say it will soon include construction...

Gotha, Germany - Police in Germany searched today the home of a man whom they suspect hung a pig's head over the entrance of an historic Jewish cemetery a week ago. They said the suspect, 48, from the town of Gotha had a criminal record for similar hate offences. The vandalism hit two cemeteries on the same night. The animal head was placed next to the Star of David symbol at the cemetery in...

New York, NY - Mayor Bloomberg's approval rating has dropped to its lowest point in three years - a 9% nose dive that shows New Yorkers are angry with his change in term limits and plan to raise taxes on homeowners. A Marist poll out Friday showed 59% of voters think he is doing an excellent or good job, down from 68% a month ago. It's the first time his popularity has fallen below 60%...

Berlin, Germany - An 88-year-old Berliner, who was expelled from university by the Nazis because of his Jewish ancestry just before his final examination in 1943, has just now received his diploma with a 65-year delay. The president of Berlin's Technical University, Kurt Kutzler, personally awarded Dimitri Stein with his Ph.D. in electrical engineering after he passed the final oral exam earlier...

New York - Meeting in New York on November 13th, rabbis participating at the annual conference of the Association of Kashrus Organizations (AKO), learned that certain Anheuser-Busch beers were not kosher. Although it has been known for generations that beer is inherently kosher, the rabbis noted that flavored beer produced by Anheuser-Busch were not. Mott’s, a division of Dr Pepper/Snapple...

New York - Orange County has for years touted its position as being the fastest, or one of the fastest growing counties in New York. Now, it has another, not-so-prestigious designation. In the third quarter of 2008, Orange County has the highest foreclosure rate in the state with one out of every 205 households facing foreclosure, according to a report by State Comptroller Thomas...

New York - From the agitation and anger of the crowds, the din of the car horns and the shouts of “Civil rights now!” and “Bigots!” one would have been forgiven for thinking that the protesters were denouncing some horrific assault on human freedom. But no, the demonstrations – and church vandalisms and business boycotts – were in protest of California voters’ passage of the...

Brooklyn, NY - Medium box. I need a large! I have my children to feed, please - please can I have a large box? Sorry. Medium box. That's how it went on a recent Thursday night at the Tomche Shabbos food pantry in Brooklyn's Borough Park neighborhood, one of the several that provide weekly baskets of strictly kosher food to 500 needy haredi families. Jeno Herschkowits, who has run the pantry...

Jerusalem - Dressed in skirts and under the watchful eye of a guard to protect them from peeping Toms, some 100 ultra-Orthodox women play flag football in Jerusalem every week. Six years ago Yona Mishan decided to bring the popular American college sport to the country. Along with several young religious women, who knew the game from their college days, he set up an amateurs' league in the...

South Jefferson, NY - The operators of Oorah Catskill Retreat, a Gilboa recreational summer camp for New York City-area Jewish children, are moving to buy the former Scotch Valley Ski Area and associated Deer Run resort complex, Oorah officials said. “We would like to see it happen by [early] next year,” said Eliyohu Mintz, chief executive of the Lakewood, N.J., Oorah organization. If...

London - I had to read the story twice to be sure I had understood it correctly. In Stamford Hill, a "Shabbat siren" has been announcing the arrival of the Sabbath. Actually, I'd better be precise. It is not, strictly speaking, a siren. It is "a selection of music and songs being played over a number of loudspeakers". Apparently, those who established it want to make the area "more like...

Washington - Babies born four months before the peak cold and flu season have a 30 percent higher risk of developing asthma, U.S. researchers said on Friday, suggesting that these common infections may trigger asthma. "All infants are exposed to this and it is potentially preventable," said Dr. Tina Hartert, director of the center for Asthma Research at Vanderbilt University, whose study...