Postville, IA - Prosecutors have added wire and mail fraud charges to the slew of allegations against former Agriprocessors executive Sholom Rubashkin, according to a seventh federal indictment filed today. The new, 163-count indictment adds nine mail-fraud charges to the allegations against Rubashkin, and 14 counts of wire fraud. Prosecutors allege that the former Postville meat-packing...

Jakarta, Indonesia - Bombs have exploded at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and the Marriott Hotel in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, police said. The front of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel was severely damaged in one blast, while the extent of the second explosion at the Marriott was unclear. At least 8 foreigners have been killed, and dozens have been injured people were seen being taken away from the...

Ulster Heights, NY - The proprietors of Camp Yeshiva Meor Hatalmud, an Orthodox Jewish summer camp looking to set up on the property of the former Four Seasons bungalow colony on Geiger Road, have been working tirelessly to bring the property up to the Town of Wawarsing's specifications, much to the approval of Wawarsing's Building Code Enforcement Officer, Barron Berg. "They worked hammer and...

Jerusalem - In a move initiated by President Shimon Peres, his aide Yosef Avi Yair Engel met with a representative of the anti-Zionist Eda Haredit umbrella organization on Thursday night in order to try and calm the situation in Jerusalem. Vilent protests continued to escalate in the capitol and in Beit Shemesh as hundreds of haredim demonstrated over the arrest of a Neturei Karta woman...

Buffalo, NY - Medication that can protect humans against nuclear radiation has been developed by Jewish-American scientists in cooperation with a researcher and investors from Israel. The full story behind the dramatic discovery will be published by Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth's this weekend edition. The ground-breaking medication, developed by Professor Andrei Gudkov – Chief...

Jerusalem - The head of the Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem, the Gaon Rabbi Natan Tzvi Finkel, posted a handwritten note on yeshiva stationery this evening which told students at the yeshiva they were not to go to any of the hareidi-religious demonstrations which have been held in response to the arrest of a hareidi woman accused of starving her son. The note reads: "To all the students of the holy...

Albany, NY - The New York Senate has agreed to outlaw use of portable electronic devices to text, play games or surf the Web while driving. Drivers could face fines up to $150 for using handheld devices or laptops to send text messages or read, view or transmit images or data. Fines could be imposed only as a secondary offense after a driver is pulled over for breaking another law. It's...

Brooklyn, NY - Six people have been busted for running a massive $47 million Medicaid scheme that involved filing bogus claims with the state, authorities announced today. Over the past ten years, Alexander Levy, with the help of several accomplices, allegedly controlled a string of health care entities to illegally obtain payment for the treatment of Medicaid recipients and then launder the...

New York - A new line of Kosher poultry – under the supervision of Rabbi Binyumin Gruber of Monsey, NY – will begin production in mid-August, 2009 at the Empire Kosher Poultry facility in Mifflintown, Pennsylvania. In light of its recent announcement that Empire will be expanding capacity in the Kosher poultry market, the company received requests to add a Chasidisha Schechita...

New London, CT - Neighbors to the proposed synagogue and day care center on Goose Lane will go before a judge regarding a civil land use suit filed in New Haven Superior Court. Donna Criscenzo, Sherrye McDonald, and James Colebrook, all with Goose Lane addresses, will be asking the courts to honor a written covenant on 181 Goose Lane, the Chabad property, which says the land can only be used...

Jerusalem - A large forest fire is raging in the mountains near Jerusalem, as 15 firefighting teams are battling to contain it with the assistance of planes. No injuries were reported in the blaze, which the fire department suspects is a result of arson. "It's a crazy sight," Beit Shemesh Fire Department Spokesman Shmulik Amsalem told Ynet. "All the forests here are burning; the mountains...

New York - Stocks closed higher after a late rally triggered partly by positive comments from the economist known as "Doctor Doom." After drifting for most of the session, the market picked up in late trading after Nouriel Roubini, who has remained pessimistic about the economic recovery, was quoted by Reuters as saying that the recession could be over by the end of the year. The S&P 500...

Manhattan, NY - New York City has never been a better place to get sick. For the first time, three New York hospitals made the U.S. News and World Report ranking of the nation's top 20 medical centers. New York-Presbyterian was the city's top hospital, as it reliably has been for years, in the 2009 rankings posted to the magazine's Web site. But for the first time, two other city...

Borough Park, NY - Religious Jewish residents of New York were invited to a meeting arranged on the spur of the moment at the Ateres Chaya Hall in Boro Park to join the efforts to save the three bochurim imprisoned in Japan. The speakers brought frightening details of their legal situation and their health. Thousands heralding from every community were attendance. Most of those present had...

Nuremberg, Germany - Prosecutors have launched an investigation into whether a garden gnome with its right arm raised in a Heil Hitler salute breaks the law. The golden gnome has gone on display at an art gallery in Nuremberg, the Bavarian city that hosted huge Nazi party rallies before the Second World War and the major war crimes trials afterwards. Walter Traeg, a spokesman for the...