Brooklyn, NY - There's a nonstop buzz over Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO -- an around-the-clock air assault by noisy helicopters flying over the East River, angry residents say. While helicopter traffic has previously been an on-again, off-again issue for decades along the northwest Brooklyn waterfront and other parts of the Big Apple, longtime residents of both tony neighborhoods said it's never...

Israel - A new section of the Trans-Israel Highway (Route 6) will open today after years of delay, extending the road 17 kilometers northward from its current terminus at the Wadi Ara Junction. The new section will end at the Tut Junction, near Yokne'am. However, another 60 kilometers remain to be built before the road reaches its final northern end-point of Shlomi. Construction of the road...

Rhinebeck, NY - A Jewish group's plans to build a cultural and religious center in the town have been temporarily derailed by a real estate agent the organization later learned had filed for bankruptcy, the group's leader said. Rabbi Hanoch Hecht, director of the Rhinebeck Jewish Center and co-director of Chabad of Dutchess County, said Rhinebeck real estate agent Lance Lavender had accepted...

Constanta, Romania - A Romanian city mayor outraged Jewish and pro-democracy groups after he goose-stepped with his son in World War Two German uniforms during a weekend fashion show. Wearing Nazi uniform is illegal in Romania, which denied participating in the Holocaust until 2004 when it accepted the findings of international commission that Romanian authorities killed up to 380,000 Jews in...

Jerusalem - The rioting in Jerusalem over the arrest of a woman accused of abusing her three year old son is certainly horrifying. The destruction, and mayhem, are not only inexcusable, but the perpetrators, until they make financial amends, have disqualified themselves from ever being a kosher witness at a Jewish wedding. Torah Jews do not act in such a manner, and it should be very strongly...

New York - A group of 28 imams and rabbis from 10 European countries arrived in New York and Washington this week for whirlwind visits to interfaith centers to break new ground on Muslim-Jewish relations and combat Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in each other's communities. They will receive instructions from teams of American rabbis and imams who will show the Europeans how American-style...

Jerusalem - Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer on Monday called on the heads of the ultra-Orthodox sector in Israel to promote employment among Haredi men and women in order to minimize the prevalent poverty among them. During a conference for the ultra-Orthodox community in Jerusalem, Fischer said that the low employment rate among the Haredi men and women was the root cause of for the...

New York, NY - The city will no longer allow parents to hire teaching assistants to work in public schools. The practice has gone on for years. Many parents feel the aides are needed to cope with overcrowding in well-regarded schools. Following a union complaint, principals have been told that any aides must be Department of Education employees. The New York Times says fundraising by...

Washington - Among Barack Obama's many firsts, we can now add this: He has made Hillary Clinton nearly invisible. Even Bubba never managed that. The secretary of state surfaced in Washington the other day for a speech designed to highlight her heavyweight status within the Obama administration. Her appearance did just the opposite, confirming the sense she is being marginalized on foreign...

Scoul, Switzerland - "Europe's largest kosher hotel" is attracting more and more orthodox Jews to Scuol, a remote Swiss mountain village. The Scuol Palace, where Lower Engadine spa tourism originated 150 years ago, has been run by Abraham Friedman and his wife Zipora for around three years. The wings of the building, which rises like a yellow colossus from the surrounding pines and larches...

New York City - Researchers for the first time have linked air pollution exposure before birth with lower IQ scores in childhood, bolstering evidence that smog may harm the developing brain. The results are in a study of 249 children of New York City women who wore backpack air monitors for 48 hours during the last few months of pregnancy. They lived in mostly low-income neighborhoods in...

Long Island, NY - The manicured sprawl of a chic Long Island country club holds a morbid mystery. Hundreds of partially engraved Jewish tombstones shore up portions of the Woodmere Club golf course against the waters of Reynolds Channel, the Post has learned. In one area, the tide laps at a pillar with an engraved Star of David. Elsewhere, the names Morris Gutterman, Ira Feinberg and...

Jerusalem - The appointment of Yakov Litzman (United Torah Judaism) as deputy health minister has led to a significant change in the ministry's offices: Secular female employees working in proximity to the ultra-Orthodox minister have started wearing more modest outfits, and some even keep a shawl at the their desk's drawer in case they are asked to meet with Litzman directly. Litzman did not...

Butner, NC - Bernard Madoff's fellow inmates at a North Carolina federal prison -- where the Ponzi schemer arrived just last week -- are discussing beating him up to boost their jailhouse reputations, The Post has learned. "Some of the guys were talking about smacking him around a little, just to get the notoriety of it," said a source who has a relative locked up with the 71-year-old...

New Delhi, India - The lone surviving gunman from the Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people in November, including six Jewish occupants of the local Chabad House, and raised tensions between India and Pakistan pleaded guilty in court on Monday, police said. Pakistani citizen Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, 21, pleaded guilty in a Mumbai court and was recording his confession there, the police officer...