New York - Snow, rain and gloom of night can't stop them - but budget cuts might. The United States Postal Service is considering closing as many as 40 post offices throughout Brooklyn, according to union officials. The prime targets are 18 retail stations in storefronts around the borough, said Brooklyn American Postal Workers Union president Jim Musumeci. "It's totally unfair to the...

Alexandria, VA — A Virginia man has been sentenced to life in prison for joining al-Qaida and plotting to assassinate then-President George W. Bush. Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, who grew up in Falls Church, was convicted in federal court in 2005. He was originally sentenced to 30 years in prison, but an appeals court sent back the case out of concern that the sentence was too lenient. On Monday...

Washington - A proposed law would create a toll-free hotline allowing the public to rat on bus drivers and train conductors who text on the job. In the wake of several tragic accidents blamed on texting, Sen. Charles Schumer announced plans for a sweeping ban on bus or train operators using cell phones for calls or text messages. His bill would bar electronic devices inside any public or...

Rockland County, NY - Haverstraw town has given up on acquiring an 11.5-acre parcel in the former Letchworth Village property for now, and the owner of the property is getting ready to propose a yeshiva on the site. The property includes the old power plant that once fed electricity to the state's facility for people who were developmentally disabled. The property owner, Danbury LLC, bought...

Gaza Strip, Gaza - The networking Web site Facebook removed a page dedicated to Hamas' Gaza leader Ismail Haniya, al-Hayat reported. The Web page titled "Commander Haniyah" had more than 10,000 friends when it was removed without any explanation. The Palestinian Maan news agency said one of the supervisors of Haniya's site said he feared similar action will be taken against the page devoted...

Parvati Valley- An Israeli search team is expected to arrive in India on Monday, to search for an Israeli backpacker missing in the Parvati Valley area. Last Tuesday , 24 year-old Ami-Chai Shtainmitz and a friend set out on a one-day trek from the village of Khirganga. The two split up at some point, but when Shtainmitz did not return, his friend notified Israeli authorities. In the meantime...

New York - The events of last week were shocking in scope, magnitude, and enormity. Right on the heels of the mother of all financial scandals known as the Madoff Scandal, the headlineslast week read how a Rabbi’s son, himself the admitted perpetrator of an enormous financial scandal, had brought down close to fifty other people, five of whom were Rabbis. In truth, there are four issues...

New York - With the recent media attention of the arrest of a Brooklyn man who is accused of trafficking kidneys, one might wonder does the Jewish law permit selling and donating organs. Renowned doctor and expert in medical law according to the Halacah, has written below article on this subject, and is posted on Aish.com The Organ Shortage There is a severe shortage of organs for...

New York, NY - US tax agents are tailing UBS bankers in an attempt to identify who their clients are to determine who may be evading taxes. The Internal Revenue Service wants to force UBS to disclose the identity of an estimated 52,000 US holders of secret Swiss accounts suspected of dodging taxes, even though this breaches Swiss bank secrecy laws. A possible compromise involving the names...

North Port, FL - Seven years after a court ordered Mykola Wasylyk out of the United States for his role in Nazi prison camps, the former Ellenville man still lives in the country. The U.S. Department of Justice is still working to deport Wasylyk and four other people shown to have played a part in the Nazi Party during World War II, according to spokeswoman Laura Sweeney. Wasylyk was 81 years...

Jerusalem - The biometric database finds another adversary: New opposition to the biometric database bill had formed recently, this time from religious elements. The biometric database bill, which passed its first Knesset reading in October, suggests the use of smart IDs and passports, based on fingerprints and visual scans in order to prevent forgery of state documents. The controversial...

Tehran - Iran on Monday rejected the idea of US defensive umbrella to protect Washington's regional allies against a nuclear Iran. Foreign ministry spokesman Hasan Qashqavi told reporters Monday that "there is no need" for a US defensive umbrella, just for Washington to tell Israel to "dismantle its own 200 nuclear warheads." Last week US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Iran...

New York City - No stopping or standing? No problem. Despite a widely touted citywide crackdown on parking placards -- both real and counterfeit -- New Yorkers can apparently still easily flout the law by parking with bogus permits. Transportation Alternatives, a group that promotes bike-riding and mass transit, tested Mayor Bloomberg's anti-placard movement by parking a car illegally...

Spring Glen, NY - The former Homowack Lodge remained occupied, one day before a state Department of Health-imposed deadline to vacate the premises. The DOH issued the order last week for Congregation Bais Trana to vacate the property, now called Machne Bnos Square. The congregation opened a girls camp at the site earlier this month without a permit and has refused to leave. ...