Brooklyn, NY - As maternity wards in hospitals across Brooklyn have closed their doors, those in the borough that haven't are scrambling to keep up with a big influx of births. At Maimonides Medical Center, the 74 babies born in 48 hours two weeks ago set a record - but that was just the tip of the iceberg. In the first five months of this year, 3,137 babies were born at the Borough Park...

Mea Shearim - The six ultra-Orthodox protesters arrested during violent demonstrations Saturday over the opening of a municipal parking lot on the Jewish Sabbath were released today by the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court. The court placed restrictions on the six. One is a minor, and three others are foreign citizens. Police sources said they agreed to release the suspects in order to lower...

Israel - Magen David Adom staffers and volunteers who are religiously observant have been advised to use their teeth to respond to emergency calls using their new Mirs communications devices on Shabbat and festivals. The cell phones will be placed in a special holder that keeps the folded devices open at all times, with a thin metallic arm sticking out that they can pull with their teeth to...

Sierra Leone - Former Liberian president who is standing trial at The Hague, Charles Taylor has turned to Judaism for succour. His wife Victoria Taylor told BBC Network Africa show that her husband has not renounced Christianity, but only wanted to take on Judaism. Asked what they discuss when she visits her husband, she said anytime she visited, they would talk about religion, God and...

Lebanon - An anti-Syrian coalition defeated Hezbollah and its main Christian ally Michel Aoun in Lebanon's parliamentary election on Sunday, sources on both sides said. If confirmed, the result would be seen as a blow to Syria and Iran, which support Hezbollah, and a boost to the United States, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, which back Hariri's alliance. "We have lost the election," said a senior...

New York City - A New York State Senator called for the installation of video surveillance cameras in NYPD police cars. The cameras State Senator Eric Adams wants installed have a 360 degree field of view - both inside and outside the vehicle - real-time monitoring, audio and night capabilities. Adams said each AV 360 device would cost the city $2500, but he said it would be worth...

Jerusalem - Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat met on Sunday evening with Orthodox representatives from city council in an effort to ease the tensions brought on by the municipality's decision to open the Safra Square parking lot on Shabbat to help solve the shortage. Both sides characterized the meeting as "good." One of the suggestions made at the meeting was to open an alternative parking lot...

New York - Uncorrected vision usually treated with an eye exam and glasses costs $269 billion annually in lost productivity worldwide, U.S. researchers said. The study, published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization, was conducted by researchers from The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of School of Public Health in Baltimore, Australia's International Center for Eyecare Education...

Brazil - Brazilian military authorities say search boats scouring the Atlantic Ocean have now recovered 17 bodies of passengers on a doomed Air France flight that crashed a week ago. Air Force Col. Henry Munhoz says four of the bodies were men and four were women. He did not immediately provide information about the gender of the other bodies. The flight was carrying 228 people when it crashed...

Colonie, NY - Four hundred New York National Guard Soldiers, Airmen and New York Guard volunteers converged on Albany June 5-7 to hone their skills in responding to a dirty bomb attack on an American city. The three-day exercise brought members of the New York National Guard’s CERFP—an element trained to rescue survivors from contaminated attack sites-- from Buffalo, the Finger Lakes and...

Washington - Salaam aleikum, dudes! I thought I knew a little bit about the Middle East. Boy, was I wrong. Last week, President Obama set me straight. Here's what our president taught me during his Middle-Eastern pilgrimage: There is no more terrorism. Wow, cool! No more security checks at airports, right? It's unclear which side won, but it's all over. Obama didn't mention terrorism a...

New York, NY - New York has long been known as "the city that never sleeps," but it appears the economic meltdown has ushered in a new era of shut-eye. Less city money means fewer construction projects. Less money in people's pockets means less hubbub in shopping centers. And less noise translates to fewer calls to the city's 311 hot line to complain about it. Noise complaints phoned into...

Normandy - As President Obama observes this 65th anniversary of the D-Day invasion at Normandy, here is the amazing story of one of the thousands of American heroes who embarked on what General Dwight Eisenhower described as "a great crusade." My longtime friend and personal hero, Retired Brigadier General Alvin Ungerleider was a 23-year-old Army lieutenant on June 6, 1944. The soldier from...

Monroe, NY - Wal-Mart has created 65 new jobs – in addition to 412 already there – in support of a $4.5 million renovation project that promises to remake the 8-year-old Larkin Avenue store. About 55 of the new full-time and part-time positions have already been filled, according to manager Scott Satterfield, who said the employees are “doing whatever we have to do for the...

Washington - I listened intently to every word in Barack Obama's speech. Apart from a few small nuances, George W. Bush could have delivered the same speech. On the Israeli-Palestinian-Arab issue, in particular, not only could Bush have delivered the same speech, he did - almost everything the current U.S. president said in Cairo was said many times over by his predecessor. It was not Obama...