Israel - Yeshiva students on their summer break are urged by the Chief Rabbinate to take adequate safety precautions when hiking. “Unfortunately, bitter experience has taught that in many cases people go hiking without adequate preparedness and aren’t careful about safety rules intended to safeguard their lives in order to return to their families and learning in peace,” the Chief...

Trenton, NJ - It will cost more to buy liquor and wine in New Jersey starting Saturday. The state will raise the tax per gallon of wine and spirits by 25 percent. Customers will pay $5.50 in tax per gallon of liquor and 87 1/2 cents per gallon of wine. Lawmakers did not include beer when they raised the tax to help balance the budget in the recession. Some bars and restaurants say...

New York, NY - New criminal charges have been filed against two former WexTrust Capital LLC executives accused of running a $255 million Ponzi scheme that targeted Orthodox Jews. The case surfaced last August when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused the executives, Steven Byers and Joseph Shereshevsky, of conducting at least 60 private placements and creating 150 entities...

New York, NY - Here's a "help wanted" flyer being circulated by the Bloomberg campaign in search of "well-spoken, persuasive, confident, and hard-working" field workers to pound the pavement of Brooklyn and Queens to rally the Jewish vote on behalf of the mayor. For some reason, I find the carefully-chosen use of the word "persuasive" amusing. What? Pushy and aggressive is too much? The flyer...

New York - Notorious Holocaust denier David Irving has added New York to the list of cities where he plans to spew his noxious notions about what the Nazis did to the Jews. "In the fall, I'll be in the New York area," said Irving, when reached on his cell phone Friday. "I won't go into specifics." That's probably because Irving, who once claimed that Adolf Hitler knew nothing about the...

New York, NY - Sullivan County Manager David Fanslau declared Friday a local state of emergency for the towns of Callicoon, Delaware and Rockland for at least the next 24 hours. Fanslau said he disaster has been declared due to extensive flooding from heavy rainstorms over a period of approximately 24 hours, resulting in substantial injury and damages to residences, buildings, businesses, roads...

Washington - The Obama administration has failed to name an envoy for monitoring and combating anti-Semitism around the world as mandated by US law since the previous ambassador was relieved of his duties at the start of the president's term more than six months ago. The failure to name a new envoy for the post raises questions about the importance the new administration attaches to the fight...

Sydney, Australia - Australia's best-known Muslim leader 'holds views which can properly be described as racist,' a Supreme Court judge said today when deciding against him in a defamation action he brought against a Sydney radio station. Keysar Trad, head of the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia, is the spokesman for Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali, the mufti of Sydney's biggest...

Washington - The House raced Friday to pass legislation pouring an additional $2 billion into the popular - but financially strapped - "cash for clunkers" car purchase program. Reps. Sander Levin, D-Mich., and Betty Sutton, D-Ohio, revealed the floor plan after he and other lawmakers were assured by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood that the program would continue at least through Friday...

Washington - U.S. President Barack Obama has decided to extend sanctions against Syria, despite positive sings of progress in the relationship between the two nations, a White House statement said Friday. The decision to maintain current sanctions against the Syrian government, the statement said, comes as a result of continuing attempts to maintain instability in neighboring Lebanon. "In...

Miami, FL - The U.S. and Switzerland reached an agreement to settle a U.S. Justice Department lawsuit against UBS AG seeking the names of 52,000 American account holders. Justice Department attorney Stuart Gibson provided no details of the accord in a telephone conference call today with U.S. District Judge Alan Gold. Gibson said a settlement may be submitted in writing on Aug. 7. “The...

Postville, , IA - The federal trial of Sholom Rubashkin and three managers at a Postville slaughterhouse will proceed as scheduled despite protests from defense lawyers, a judge ruled Thursday. All four men and the plant itself are scheduled for trial on Sept. 15 in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids. Judge Linda Reade denied a request by several lawyers to postpone the trial, in light of a...

Israel - Charedi businessman and Shufersal Co-Chairman Shulem Fisher, who had previously voiced strong objections to businesses being open on Shabbat, is due to partner up in British Israel Investments Ltd. whose shopping centers are open on Saturdays. British Israel is planning to purchase Iris Hagilboa Construction and Development Ltd. owned by Fisher and the Bronfman family. Bronfman Fisher...

New York City - Fare increase have become MTA's bailout for all problems created by them and the union's ever since the union went on strike 3 years ago. the service is deteriorating, rider ship that was at its peak when gas prices were $ 4 dollars a gallon, declined sharply as the price of gas went down, bonuses are handed out as if it were a candy store-its new head of the MTA is just one...

Jerusalem - The three-year-old haredi boy who was allegedly starved by his mother over a period of two years, and who became the center of a political and religious storm following the woman's arrest, was released from Shiba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer. Relatives of the boy picked him up from the hospital will be caring for him until the completion of the legal proceedings against his...