Spring Valley, NY - A health center for the poor that was closed nearly two months ago because of unsanitary conditions reopened yesterday. Patients were told yesterday that they could start seeing doctors again at the Ben Gilman Medical and Dental Clinic at 175 Route 59. A free community health screening and media tour of the facility will also be offered in two weeks. The center was...

India - A day after a stunning confession by the lone surviving gunman from last year’s terrorist attacks here, the judge presiding over his trial confronted some tough choices on how the court should proceed with the case. The first option — accepting the admission of guilt by Ajmal Kasab, the 21-year-old Pakistani man accused of killing dozens of innocent people in a series of attacks on...

Lakewood, NJ - It is an inspirational story. One sees a family in turmoil. Cancer has taken hold of a child or of a loved one. We see their agony and want to do something. But we are powerless. Can we donate? Yes, but most of us do not have access to large sums. Most of us think fleetingly about doing something, and then the thought goes away. Not Dovid Egert, however. Dovid is an...

Williamsburg, NY - Just my luck. It rained buckets on the night I decided to sleep on the rooftop at Hotel Toshi in Williamsburg. Luckily, the hotel had put up a tent. "It only keeps out some of the rain," said Robert (Toshi) Chan, founder of Hotel Toshi, who rents the roof of his South Eighth St. building for $100 a night. That's for sure. The tent was bigger than an average hotel...

Russia - Thanks to arrangements made by the Jewish community of S. Petersburg with a nearby farm, there are now kosher chickens for local Jews. The Roskar Farm agreed to have a team of 30 people come to the farm in order to prepare chickens in a manner that would be in accordance with the highest standards of Jewish law. The shechita (ritual slaughtering) was performed by shochet Yossi...

Israel - Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar called on American Jews to explain to the Obama administration the religious obligation of every Jew to live in every part of the Land of Israel. The Jerusalem Post obtained a letter addressed to American rabbinical organizations and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, in which Amar wrote that "the Torah commands the...

Bucharest - The police raid on the Romanian fertility clinic that ended in the arrest of 30 Israeli doctors working on the site has caused no small amount of stress for the families of the detained doctors. "We are very stressed out. Nevertheless, we aren't speaking with him every single minute," said Chen Levitt, daughter of Prof. Nathan Levitt, to Ynet on Tuesday. Levitt is among the...

Brooklyn, NY - A fuming state Sen. Carl Kruger and other city pols yesterday demanded that Mayor Bloomberg apologize for referring to the failed policy of appeasing the Nazis when he was describing his reluctance to negotiate with the state Senate. "We are not Nazis! We are legislators!" Kruger said. Kruger said he wanted an apology on behalf of "millions of people that lost family in the...

New York City - You'd think cellphone dead zones wouldn't be a problem for Mayor Bloomberg, who travels at all times with all sorts of sophisticated communications gear. But it is. "I keep losing calls," the mayor disclosed yesterday, responding to a question at a press conference in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. "It's really bad in this area." The mayor said he has called the president of AT&T...

New Square, NY - A continuing dispute over fighting fires in this small Hasidic village once again boiled to the surface when firefighters from Hillcrest yesterday responded to a blaze at the grand rabbi's home and found that a group of unsanctioned local volunteers with a makeshift firetruck had already begun dousing the flames. Hillcrest Fire Chief Kim Weppler said he was concerned that the...

New York - Coke is apparently not It in Venezuela. The government there recently took the step of banning Coke Zero "to preserve the health of Venezuelans," as a government minister put it, leaving even the most unflappable among us wondering what the heck is going on. Is it time to put down the can of diet soda and back away slowly? It just might be. Even if you're not plugged into talk-radio...

Jerusalem - The mother suspected of starving her toddler son underwent a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation Monday night. The woman was examined close to midnight at the private clinic of Dr. Yaakov Weill, and not at the home of the Froelich family where she is being held under house arrest, in an apparent attempt to avoid the media. Sources estimated that the woman will be required to...

Israel - Throughout the West Bank flyers were distributed with the title "Learn from the haredim – Win the battle." A copy of the flyer distributed read, "In the State of Israel, only those who flip over tables win. This is what the Arabs did in the intifada… this is what the Druze did in Pekiin… this is what the haredim did in Mea Shaarim and the police folded." The flyer is signed by...

Bethel, NY - A Hasidic bungalow colony Monday denied town inspectors access to a newly built shul and community center, prolonging a standoff that likely will be headed to court. Supervisor Daniel Sturm and a town engineer planned to inspect the building in the afternoon but were called off by the colony's attorney. "They are not going to let us in at 1 o'clock as scheduled," Sturm said. "We'll...