Spring Glen, NY - The Department of Health has asked the former Homowack Lodge voluntarily to evacuate, the Town of Mamakating supervisor says. The town and the Department of Health have found numerous health and safety violations. The facility is being used as a summer girl’s camp. “After several investigations conducted by New York State Department of Health in conjunction with town of...

Los Angeles, CA - United States federal drug enforcement officials have contacted Israeli company Teva Pharmaceuticals - the maker of the powerful anesthetic Propofol - as part of their investigation into Michael Jackson's death. A spokeswoman for Teva Pharmaceuticals says the Drug Enforcement Administration asked the company about a specific batch of the drug. Teva voluntarily recalled two...

Jerusalem - Angry protests continue to stage throughout Meah Shearim and Kikar Shabbos after a Meah Shearim woman exhibiting signs of Munchausen psychological syndrome in abusing her 3 year old child was seized by state authorities and imprisoned. Hundreds of protesters rioted and riot police were sent to deal with them. One policeman was lightly injured, and one protester was severely hurt...

Manhattan, NY - Police have arrested a teenager for the bombing of an Upper East Side Starbucks on Memorial Day, a blast that shattered windows and left employees and residents shaken. The suspect's identity has not yet been released. The May 25 explosion, which shattered multiple windows at the coffee shop and damaged a nearby bench, (as was reported at that time here on VIN News), was...

Brooklyn, NY - Gutter punk Johnny has traveled hobo-style all over the country, but he has never had it as good as he does in Wlliamsburg. Brooklyn, NY - He's just a short train ride from Manhattan, where he panhandles on Wall St. to pay for a hefty drug habit, his friends said. "I've squatted all over the place," said the 21-year-old drifter. "I've never made as much money as I make...

Jerusalem - Rabbanit? Rabbah? Maybe just plain Rabbi? What should be the title of an Orthodox woman who happens to also be a rabbi? Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of women who took part in a conference Monday organized by Kolech, an Orthodox feminist movement, were asked precisely that question. The vote is a milestone. The very fact that women self-defined as committed to Orthodox Jewish law...

Butner, NC - A prison coach who helped Bernard Madoff get ready for his 150-year sentence says the disgraced financier was not afraid before starting his term at a federal penitentiary in North Carolina. Herb Hoelter told the CBS "Early Show" that Madoff was remorseful but composed when Hoelter met him four days before sentencing. Hoelter said Madoff would not be in danger at the Butner...

Jerusalem - The Israeli military used reckless force during the fighting in Gaza earlier this year, resulting in needless deaths and damage, a group of former Israeli soldiers charged in a report Wednesday. In testimonies collected by the organization Breaking the Silence, formed by Israeli army reservists, soldiers who participated in the Gaza fighting describe demolishing homes for no reason...

Florida - This story has been slipping under the Main Stream Media Radar for some time now. U.S. Army Major Stefan Frederick Cook from Florida Filed a restraining order asking for legitimate confirmation that his Commander in Chief was legitimately in Office, giving him his orders to Deploy to Afghanistan with his unit. Today in a stunning development, the Military rescinded those...

Beersheba - The District Court today acquitted Shai Dromi of manslaughter, but found him guilty of illegal possession and use of a firearm. In January 2007, the Negev farmer shot at a group of people who broke into his farm to steal livestock, killing Khaled el-Atrash and wounding another intruder. In a much-anticipated verdict by a panel headed by Court President Yehoshua Pilpel, judge...

Miami, FL - A former vice president claims his boss at Deutsche Bank Securities told him he could not attend a holiday party "because they were 'not letting Jews in,'" and the company fired him for complaining of it. David Sugarman says he was the only Jewish worker in Deutsche Bank's Miami office. He says that for more than 2 years the bank "repeatedly subjected (him) to offensive...

West Palm Beach, FL - - When Franklin Silbey and other members of Temple Israel in West Palm Beach recently visited Jewish synagogues and cemeteries in Cuba, they noticed two details right away. ''No security, and no graffiti,'' Silbey said. ``Everywhere else in the world you go, guards are outside the synagogues. Automatic weapons, in some cases metal detectors, and you get graffiti in the...

Jerusalem - Dozens of ultra-Orthodox demonstrators torched garbage bins Wednesday in Jerusalem's Shabbat Square in protest against the arrest of the haredi mother accused of starving her three-year-old son. Police arrived on the spot, and arrested 15 people. A Border Guard officer was injured by a stone thrown at him, and cars and buses were damaged. Rioters have also taken to the streets...

Washington - Federal officials are weighing a plan to let borrowers who have fallen behind on mortgage payments avoid eviction by renting their home instead. One proposal is for delinquent homeowners to surrender ownership of their homes but continue to live on the property for several years. Officials have been frustrated as red tape and rising interest rates have slowed a housing rescue...

Tehran - An Iranian passenger plane has crashed in northwest of Iran, near the city of Qazvin with all on board presumed dead. Mohammad Reza Montazer Khorasan, the head of the disaster management centre in Iran's health ministry said all 168 people on board have been killed in the crash. The Tupolev plane went down near Jannat-abad village near Qazvin at 11:33 am local time on Wednesday...