Tokyo Japan - The youngest of three Israeli Yeshiva students accused of smuggling drugs from Israel into Japan, has been sentenced today. According to preliminary reports, the judge gave his verdict, sentencing Yosef Bandau from five to eight years in prison, from which 266 days he already served, and a third off for good behavior. The judge also order to pay a fine of 4 million yen roughly...

Washington - Supreme Court Justice David Souter is planning to retire at the end of the current court term. The vacancy will give President Obama his first chance to name a member of the high court and begin to shape its future direction. At 69, Souter is nowhere near the oldest member of the court. In fact, he is in the younger half of the court's age range, with five justices older and...

Queens, NY - The neighborhood ripped by a gas explosion last week is getting back to normal – except for one house already razed, and two more that will soon come down as well. That Floral Park family was thankful today to be able to salvage some keepsakes, Including Some 200-year-old Jewish artifacts. Roy and Larry Barth recovered from their parents' fire-gutted home photos that were almost...

Holland, Netherlands - Dutch recipients of Yad Vashem's highest honor are considering returning the title to protest "discrimination" against saviors of ex-Jews, said leaders of Holland's Jewish community. Yad Vashem has agreed to review the claims. The protest is about a decision by Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority not to honor Non-Jewish Dutchmen who hid...

New York City - Vice President Joe Biden, on one of the morning talk shows Thursday, when asked about travel advice to his family given the current flu situation, said, "I wouldn't go anywhere in confined places now. One person sneezes, it goes all the way through." And he used planes and subways as examples of what he tells his family not to use. You could imagine the uproar. And yes, the...

Paris, France - The family of a man allegedly tortured and killed for being Jewish left a Paris courtroom today to protest the judge's handling of the trial, a lawyer said. Ilan Halimi's family walked out after Youssouf Fofana, the suspected ringleader of 27 young people on trial for killing Halimi, 23, made intimidating comments, saying he had friends in the courtroom who would "take pictures...

Lakewood, NJ - The Justice Department announced an agreement with the owners, a manager and a former manager of Cottage Manor Apartments in Lakewood, N.J., to settle allegations of discrimination on the basis of religion, national origin and race. Under the settlement, which must be approved by the U.S. District Court in New Jersey, the defendants must pay a total of $170,000 to identified...

New York City - At least now you know why they stopped and frisked you. The NYPD has begun handing out informational cards to pedestrians they stop, question and frisk, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Thursday. Cops in sections of Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx have given those people 4 X 2 1/2-inch white cards that explain a so-called stop, question and frisk encounter. "We...

New York, NY - Mayor Bloomberg will propose a sales-tax increase higher than the 0.25 percent spike he had recommended in January. Sources say the mayor needs to boost the city's sales-tax rate because a series of other sales-tax measures he had been counting on to raise $894 million for his $60 billion budget in 2010 came up short in Albany. "We need to raise $1 billion," said an...

Washington - A member of the security advance team for President Obama's recent trip to Mexico is suspected of having contracted swine flu which is H1N1 ...

Brooklyn, NY - There is legislation pending to extend the statute of limitations on reporting and prosecuting child molesters. There is general agreement this change in the law would be good. Victims of child molestation even older adolescents are often not ready to disclose or confront their offenders until years later. A second piece of legislation to open "a window" of one year permitting...

New York - The state's top court ruled Thursday that a once-common scam to snag free rides on New York City's subways can be prosecuted as a felony. The Court of Appeals said deliberately bending subway cards to fool the turnstile scanners is forgery, upholding Jonathan Mattocks' conviction and prison sentence of two to four years. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority estimated in 2005...

Mexico - The Jewish community of Mexico City, the epicenter of the new epidemic that has taken the world unawares, has had to make drastic changes to protect themselves from the immediate danger they are in. Chaim Silber, the head of Hatzala in the country, says, "In the first few days of the plague, the bewilderment was immense. The future was unknown, and people couldn't decide what to do...

Jerusalem - After years of debate, Israel has finally decided to institute Standard 873 concerning the backpacks that elementary school students carry their books in to school. Grisha Deutsch, who is in charge of standards in the Ministry of Trade and Labor, says that many deliberations were held with Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education officials before the new standard was...

Israel - Police say they have arrested seven Arab Israelis on charges of plotting bomb attacks and kidnappings of Jews in retaliation for Israel's recent military offensive in Gaza. Police superintendent Avid Agarissi said the suspects were charged with contacting "terror groups in Gaza" to train to kidnap civilians and build explosive devices. He said they wanted to carry out attacks to...