New York, NY - Getting your car towed for breaking city parking rules was never much fun, but now the pain has been ratcheted up a notch. Under tougher procedures put out by the Police Department, seemingly abandoned vehicles that have accumulated three or more tickets for lesser infractions — like parking at an expired meter or on a street that is supposed to be cleared for sweeping — are...

Israel - The Chief Rabbinate is establishing a laboratory in the center of the country to carry out kashrut testing for companies marketing leafy vegetables. The move follows the discovery of worms and other things that rendered produce marked "mehadrin" (a strict level of kashrut) unkosher. The companies affected were Yevulei Hanegev and Alei Sharon. Rabbi Yosef Efrati, who certifies the...

England - Conservative MP John Bercow was elected as the first Jewish speaker of the House of Commons in the 302-year history of the British parliament's lower chamber on Monday. Newly elected speaker of the... Bercow, the 46-year-old member for Buckingham, succeeded Michael Martin, who was forced to resign due to his handling of the MPs expenses scandal. The son of a Jewish taxi driver...

Roundhay, England, UK - Taggart Senior members of the Jewish community have spoken of their horror after bacon rashers were draped over the door handles of a Roundhay synagogue. Police also found bacon stuffed through the keyhole of the Sinai Synagogue on Roman Avenue when they were called to the incident. Dan Cohen, chair of the Leeds Jewish Orthodox Community Group, said that the...

New York - The case of a man accused of posing as his dead mother to collect her Social Security is 1 of dozens cracked by a new investigative team. The mortgage and real estate fraud unit has opened more than 80 cases since March. They have led to seven indictments so far. Sen. Charles Schumer and Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes are announcing details of the cases today. The unit...

Washington - A six-car Red Line train headed in the direction of Shady Grove derailed between the Takoma and Fort Totten Metrorail stations and was involved in a collision with another train at 5 p.m., according to preliminary reports from Metro. Rescue workers at the scene were reported that up to 70 people were injured, while at least 40 people were still trapped inside the train. Local...

Israel - Haredi community steps forward: In a progressive move several special-needs couples have been allowed to marry, Yedioth Ahronoth reported today. The ultra-Orthodox community prohibits the intellectually challenged to marry, for fear that their disability would keep them from properly observing matrimonial mitzvot. The Halacha differentiates between two kinds of mental defects: The...

San Jose - Itai Elias, 26, of Ashkelon was murdered in Costa Rica on Monday, apparently during a robbery. His brother, who was not hurt, witnessed the incident. According to another version, the Israeli was killed during a brawl with a group of locals. The victim's family has received notification of his death, and the Israeli embassy in San Jose said it was handling the affair. ...

South Carolina - Where is South Carolina's governor? The lieutenant governor doesn't know, and neither does a state senator who's a close confidante. Even his wife is in the dark. Gov. Mark Sanford's unannounced absence from the state capitol perplexed some politicians Monday, and his staff wouldn't say where he was. His wife said she hadn't heard from him in several days — including...

Jerusalem - Though eighty-five-year-old Eliezer Katz has lived in Eretz Yisrael for the last seventy years, his accent still rings of Vienna. In its tranquil home at 49 Neustift Street, in Vienna’s seventh district, the Katz family led a relatively uneventful life. For years, the father, Asher-Zev (“Zelig-Wolf”), had been a clerk at the railroad station, then switched to selling clothing...

New York - Stocks sank Monday, as the World Bank's weak outlook on global growth and a selloff in commodity prices sent investors heading for the exits. Oil and gold prices slumped and the dollar was mixed. Treasury prices rallied as investors sought safety, sending the corresponding yields lower. The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) fell more than 200 points. The World Bank cut its...

New York - The Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil fraud charges against brokerage firm Cohmad Securities Corp., its co-founder and three others in connection with the Madoff investment fraud. In its complaint, the SEC charged Cohmad co-founder Maurice "Sonny" Cohn, and Cohmad executives Marcia Cohn and Robert Jaffe with fraud. Mr. Jaffe recruited investors from the Palm Beach...

Rome - A Palestinian man who helped plan the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship during which an American passenger was killed has died in an Italian jail. Lawyer Sandro Clementi said Khaled Hussein died of a heart attack early Monday in a jail in Benevento, near Naples. He was 73. Clementi said Hussein was convicted in absentia by a Genoa court and sentenced to life in jail in...

New York - In a break from established ethical consensus, the state of New York has decided that women can be paid for donating eggs for research. The move should boost research into "therapeutic cloning", which aims to derive stem cells matched to individual patients. Donating eggs involves hormone injections to stimulate the ovaries to release a batch of eggs in one go. It is uncomfortable...

Spain - After months of negotiations and demonstrations, the bones of the 105 Kedoshei Toledo were finally buried. The Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe (CPJCE), the Conference of European Rabbis (CER), the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain and the Madrid Jewish community, finally reached a solution with Spanish authorities over the fate of the Jewish bones...