Manhattan, NY - A hedge fund manager being sued over his role the Bernard Madoff scandal is selling off $310 million worth of art. Financier J. Ezra Merkin ran a fund that invested heavily with Madoff, and lost everything when the fraud fell apart. His clients say he misled them about what he did with their money. Merkin has denied any wrongdoing, but has agreed to sell his collection of...

North Korea - A U.S. official says a North Korean ship has turned around and is headed back the way it came, after being tracked for days by American vessels on suspicion it was carrying illicit weapons. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence, says it is unclear whether the Kang Nam is going back to its home port in North Korea or diverting elsewhere. The...

South Carolina - Mark Sanford has been holding a televised cabinet meeting this weekend. And the South Carolina governor started out by using an interesting comparison to respond to calls for his resignation. King David didn't back down after his own sex scandal, he told his colleagues, and neither will I. Said Sanford: I have been doing a lot of soul searching on that front. What I...

New York City - Mayor Michael Bloomberg says New York City's schools can't close for Muslim holidays. The City Council is considering a non-binding resolution on Tuesday asking the Education Department to observe Eid al-Fitr (ayd ahl-FIH'-tur) and Eid al-Adha (eed al-AHD'-hah). New York City has the nation's largest school system and 12 percent of its 1.1 million students are Muslim. Eid...

Los Angeles, CA - A Los Angeles dermatologist who treated Michael Jackson for years is the biological father of Jacko's son and daughter, according to a bombshell new report. Us Weekly magazine reports in its upcoming issue, which hits newsstands tomorrow, that Dr. Arnold Klein is the man who fathered Prince and Paris. The kid's mother, Debbie Rowe, once worked for Klein. Rowe is...

Washington - U.S. banks are raising credit card rates and fees as fallout from the recently passed credit card law, an industry lobbyist said. "The industry is restricted in setting credit terms based on the borrower's individual risk profile, so the price goes up for all borrowers," said Scott Talbott, senior vice president of the Financial Services Roundtable. Among recent changes, Bank...

Queens, NY - An American Airlines passenger jet headed towards LaGuardia Airport was forced to make an emergency landing after a collision with birds, the Federal Aviation Administration confirmed. The American Airlines Flight 1256 was approaching the Queens airport from Miami when it reported the bird strike just after 11 a.m. on Tuesday morning, at approximately 900 feet altitude. The...

Tegucigalpa - Honduras' ousted president, bolstered by international support, said he will return home this week to regain control. The man who replaced him said Tuesday that Manuel Zelaya could be met with an arrest warrant. The military coup on Sunday provoked nearly universal condemnation from governments of the Western Hemisphere, from President Barack Obama to Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, and...

Norfolk, VA - Joseph Shereshevsky worked hard to come off as a mensch. Turns out, he might be a ganif who ripped off many in his greater mishpuchah. He went by Yossi. Shereshevsky came to Hampton Roads 10 years ago, telling some that he wanted to put an unsavory past behind him. Overweight, balding and often disheveled - a classic schlub - Shereshevsky quickly gained entry to Hampton Roads'...

New York - I'M NOT accepting Bernard Madoff's apology. Someone who stole and lied with forethought and malice for as long as he did wasn't sorry at the time, so him saying, "I'm sorry" yesterday is meaningless to me. I lost $2.6 million to Madoff; my children lost their $500,000 trust fund; and my mom, Adele, lost $6 million. Plus, the foundation she had set up to fund scientific research...

New York - The next "tweet" you get may come from City Hall. Mayor Bloomberg announced yesterday that the city will use Twitter to send out information about such things as alternate-side parking rules, school closures and other government events. The city is also going to make 311 available through the Web phone service ...

Minsk - An ailing American New York lawyer who was imprisoned in Belarus last year on charges of using fake documents and attempted commercial espionage was pardoned on Tuesday by the president of the former Soviet country, an official said. Emanuel Zeltser, a 55-year-old diabetic, was sentenced to three years in prison in August 2008. His supporters called the charges politically...

Albany, NY - There’s quorum in the Senate chamber right now — everyone is here except for Democratic Sen. Kevin Parker. The Senate Democrats had gaveled in, the Senate Democrats made a quorum call. They then asked to repeat all of the senators that were not present. The Senate Republicans began to file in as the names of the absent were repeated. Democratic Senate Leader Malcolm Smith...

Jerusalem - It was by all accounts an unprecedented gathering of leading kiruv rabbonim from around the world, as well as rabbonim in cities and towns throughout Israel. The event took place from June 15 -17 at Jerusalem’s Inbal Hotel. The sponsor was the Eternal Jewish Family International, which is in the midst of a major global expansion of its activities to support rabbanim and batei din...

Miami, FL - A Jewish education center in Miami faces foreclosure by Regions Bank. The Lubavitch Education Center’s 84,020-square-foot, seven-story building on seven acres, along with two other properties, is named in the $8 million foreclosure lawsuit filed by the Birmingham, Ala-based bank in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court. The nonprofit center is affiliated with the Chabad Lubavitch...