San Francisco, CA - Duane Allen Hoffman, who says he lived lavishly by impersonating the rich and powerful, is down on his luck these days: He is stuck in San Francisco County Jail awaiting trial for theft and fraud. Suffering from AIDS and in a wheelchair, he says he'll be a happier man when he obtains the fruits of his successful legal campaign for the right to wear a yarmulke in his...

New York City - Noise from screeching brakes and roaring trains on subway platforms is so harsh on the ears that it can cause "permanent, irreversible, noise-induced hearing loss," a new study in a top medical journal found. Researchers said that sound levels in some stations can reach up to 102.1 decibels -- that's at least 23 points above what human ears should safely endure, the American...

London - British researchers have announced the discovery of a rare original copy of America's Declaration of Independence - just in time for the Fourth of July. Katrina McClintock, a spokeswoman at the National Archives, said that a researcher accidentally discovered the "Dunlap print," named after a printer, several months ago. The find was announced only after it could be properly...

Los Angeles, CA - More than 1.2 million people have now registered to get tickets for Michael Jackson's memorial service next week. Only 11,000 tickets will be given out for the Tuesday service at Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles. Another 6,500 tickets will be given away for the Nokia Theater overflow section next door. City officials are preparing for massive crowds. Assistant Police...

London - Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone faced criticism from politicians and Jewish groups Saturday after being quoted as saying that Adolf Hitler "got things done." In an interview with London's The Times newspaper, Ecclestone expressed a preference for "strong leaders," citing former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Max Mosley, outgoing head of Formula One's governing body, as...

New York City - A massive waterfall built at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge as part of a much-touted art project left a famed restaurant swimming in bills after it was doused with hundreds of tons of salt water, a lawsuit alleges. The owners of the River Café (right) in Brooklyn claim that their eatery suffered $3 million in damage after being soaked by the art installation, "The New York...

Washington - Recently appointed ambassador to the United States Michael Oren warned over the weekend that an Iranian atomic bomb could "wipe Israel off the map in a matter of seconds," and that the Iranians could "accomplish in a matter of seconds what they denied Hitler did, and kill 6 million Jews, literally." Oren was speaking to The Atlantic journalist Jeffrey Goldberg in a forum at the...

Mineola, NY - Rabbi Anchelle Perl wasn't at Congregation Beth Shalom Chabad in Mineola on Friday morning as he usually is, as the temple was closed for the Fourth of July weekend. Instead, he got a call unlike any he's ever received: Someone had sprayed two large, bright orange swastikas on the synagogue's front doors. "As soon as I came and saw it was a swastika, I realized this was a bias...

Jerusalem - For the second straight week, haredim protested Saturday in Jerusalem against the opening of a parking lot on Saturdays, with no end in sight to the month-old dispute. The level of violence at the afternoon protest was lower than the previous weekend. Dozens of police officers were deployed near the disputed parking lot and have placed roadblocks along the road in a bid to prevent...