Los Angeles - With its $500 million purchase of left-leaning Current TV, the Pan-Arab news channel Al-Jazeera will soon be seen in tens of millions of U.S. homes. It's a steep price, but the acquisition helps the network in its aims to quickly spread its message to more Americans. The purchase will create a news channel called Al-Jazeera America, coming to American homes with a distinctly...

Bridgeport, CT - The Hearst Connecticut Media Group apologized Thursday because one of its newspapers ran an ad for an antique gun show next to an article about the Newtown school shooting. A statement released by Group Publisher Paul Farrell said the ad's placement in The Advocate of Stamford was the result of an oversight. "Our newspapers should not be running gun ads — including ads...

Weston, MA - An experimental drug to combat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly called Lou Gehrig's disease in the United States, failed to work in an important trial and Biogen Idec said it would stop development of the treatment. The drug, dexpramipexole, had shown promise and seemed to work against ALS in a mid-stage clinical trial in 2011. Biogen shares fell 6 percent in premarket...

New York - This could give you nightmares: 1 in 24 U.S. adults say they recently fell asleep while driving. And health officials think the number is probably higher. That's because some people don't realize it when they nod off for a second or two behind the wheel. In a government study released Thursday, a little over 4 percent of U.S. adults said they fell asleep while driving at least...

New York - Switzerland's oldest bank became the first foreign bank to plead guilty in the United States to tax charges when it admitted Thursday that it helped American clients hide more than $1.2 billion from the Internal Revenue Service. Wegelin & Co., founded in 1741, entered the plea in federal court in Manhattan, agreeing to pay $20 million in restitution to the IRS, a $22 million fine...

Borough Park, NY - Two police officers were shot at the Fort Hamilton Parkway train station in Brooklyn. Officer Lukasz Kozicki was shot in his legs and groin and Officer Michael Levay was shot was grazed and shot in the lower back of his bulletproof vest. One passenger was also grazed by a bullet on the subway. "The doctors here at Lutheran have given both officers excellent care and I'm...

London - A Pakistani man accused by British authorities of being an al-Qaida operative who took part in a plot to bomb US and English targets was extradited from Britain to the United States on Thursday to face terrorism charges. Abid Naseer, 26, was one of a dozen men arrested in April 2009 on suspicion of preparing to cause mass casualties by bombing Manchester city center in northern...

Putnam County, NY - A New York county clerk justified his refusal to release the names and addresses of handgun permit holders to a newspaper, saying it would give stalkers and thieves a convenient roadmap to target potential victims — and determine whether they have a gun. "This certainly puts my public in danger," Putnam County Clerk Dennis Sant said Thursday following a news conference in...

Jerusalem - Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef may no longer bless his adherents via smartphone, the Central Election Committee ruled on Thursday. On Sunday, Shas unveiled the app – called Maran Shelita, a Hebrew acronym for “the great rabbi, who should live a good and long life” – which can be used to request blessings from Yosef. The Maran Shelita app does not condition...

New York - As the fallout continues from the investigative series published in the Forward newspaper (http://bit.ly/UQPF4e) alleging sexual misconduct on the part of two Yeshiva University staff members, one victim, Mordechai Twersky, has retained attorney Kevin Mulhearn to represent him in a lawsuit against YU. Mulhearn is best known for winning a sex abuse lawsuit on behalf of 12 men who...

Trenton, NJ - An Ocean County, N.J., man today admitted that he ran a real estate investment fraud scheme that caused $200 million in losses and then laundered the proceeds of the scheme, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced. Eliyahu Weinstein, 37, of Lakewood, N.J., pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Joel A. Pisano in Trenton federal court to two counts of the Indictment pending...

New York - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, sidelined for almost a month by a string of medical problems, is upbeat and planning to return to work next week, the State Department said Thursday. One day after being released from the New York hospital that was treating a blood clot in her head, Clinton was at home resting, but was far from idle. She spent the day engaging with senior staff...

Washington - The State Department said on Thursday the time was not right for Google Inc Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt and former diplomat Bill Richardson to travel to North Korea. State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland said Schmidt and Richardson would be traveling as private citizens, not representatives of the U.S. government. "Frankly, we don't think the timing of this is...

Israel - Approximately 3,000 haredim were enlisted into the IDF and will begin active service by August 2013, Maj.-Gen. Orna Barbivai told Israel Radio Thursday. The head of manpower in the IDF said that the ultra-orthodox youth who received call-up orders had previously deferred their military service for religious reasons, and that this would be the first year that thousands of haredim would...

Washington - The House and Senate ushered in a new Congress Thursday, re-electing embattled Republican John Boehner speaker and hailing one of its own senators who returned a year after being felled by a stroke. The 113th Congress convened at 12 noon EST, the constitutionally mandated time, with pomp, pageantry and politics, on both sides of the Capitol. Boehner, bruised after weeks with...