Las Vegas - Lego bricks are getting cozy with the iPhone and other Apple devices in the latest incarnation of the Mindstorms robotics kit. Lego is set to announce Monday that a new, $350 Mindstorms EV3 kit will have the ability to talk to iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches through Bluetooth wireless connections. That means Lego builders can use the devices as remote controls for their robots, or...

Bangkok - Police in Thailand say they have arrested an Algerian cybercrime suspect sought by the U.S. FBI for allegedly making hundreds of millions of dollars by hacking banks' websites. Immigration police chief Lt. Gen. Panu Kerdlarppol said Hamza Bendelladj was arrested Sunday night during a layover at Thailand's international airport while traveling from Malaysia to Egypt. He and his family...

Athens, Greece - When cars had metallic bumpers, sodas were used to polish them, and popular acidic soft drinks has also been known to be a good toilet-bowl cleaner. Now, Greek gastroentrologists headed by Dr. Spiros Ladas at Athens University Medical School and Laikon Hospital have published a study proving that drinking Coca-Cola (the brand name provided in the article) can open up clogs in...

Rome - The Vatican on Monday dismissed anti-Semitic comments by the head of a rebel Catholic traditionalist group, saying the Roman church did not see Jews as enemies. Bishop Bernard Fellay, head of the rebel Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), said last month that Jews were among those "who over centuries have been enemies of the Church". Jewish support for the modernizing reforms of the...

Manhattan, NY - New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and City Council Member Daniel R. Garodnick today unveiled newly designed and simplified parking regulation signs in Midtown’s commercial parking areas, making it easier to see and read signs while reducing their size. The initial rollout replaces 6,300...

Albany, NY - New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says his state needs to ban assault weapons outright, not just rely on increased penalties under current rules. Following the recent shooting of 26 people at a Connecticut school, officials in New York are calling for measures to prevent similar mass-killings there. Senate Republican Majority Leader Dean Skelos proposes tougher prison sentences for...

Washington - There is "not one shred of evidence that I'm anti-Israeli," former Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel told the Lincoln Journal Star, (http://goo.gl/SjZvy) in an interview published immediately after he was nominated by US President Barack Obama as the next US secretary of defense. In his first statements since Obama's formal announcement, Hagel insisted that an accurate assessment of...

New Jersey - New Jersey's Democratic Senate leader says Republican Gov. Chris Christie may have "prayed" for Superstorm Sandy to hit because it has given him cover for his failed economic policies. Senate President Stephen Sweeney says Christie's jobs plan before the late October storm was a disaster and now the reconstruction will provide an economic boost through thousands of construction...

Washington - Cheers, a standing ovation and a gag gift of protective headgear greeted Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton as she returned to work on Monday after a monthlong absence caused first by a stomach virus, then a fall and a concussion and finally a brief hospitalization for a blood clot near her brain. A crowd of about 75 State Department officials greeted Clinton with a...

New York - A New York state commission on Monday recommended privatizing the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA), a state-owned entity that was slow to restore power to customers on Long Island following Superstorm Sandy in October. LIPA, with just 100 employees, provides power on Long Island through a services agreement with UK power company National Grid Plc. The Moreland Commission, set...

Jerusalem - Arye Deri, one of the three chairmen of the Shas Party, on Monday night dispelled rumors he was considering joining a united Center-Left bloc to challenge Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. In statements posted to his Facebook page, Deri wrote that "Netanyahu does not need to be afraid, we [Shas] will recommend him as the next prime minister." Deri caused waves in an interview...

Putnam County, NY - The chief prosecutor in a New York county says he is opposed to releasing the names and addresses of licensed gun owners. Putnam County District Attorney Adam Levy issued a statement Monday. He says disclosing the information would endanger residents with permits and their neighbors. Levy was responding to a Freedom of Information Law request from The Journal News. The...

Jerusalem - President Barack Obama's nomination of Chuck Hagel as the next U.S. secretary of defense is causing jitters in Israel, where some circles view the former Nebraska senator as unsympathetic or even hostile. Hagel's positions on Israel's two most pressing foreign policy issues — Iran's nuclear program and relations with the Palestinians — appear to be at odds with the Israeli...

Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz’s proposal to bring a casino to Coney Island has the Sephardic Community Federation spearheading an effort to prevent the casino from becoming a reality. The Sephardic Community Federation, which boasts a membership of 100,000 Sephardic Jews in the New York metro-area, has been running a series of ads against the casino stating that...

New York, NY - A suspect in an alleged al-Qaida plot against the New York City subways also was part of a terror campaign that would have targeted Britain and Norway, U.S. prosecutors said. Abid Naseer pleaded not guilty Monday through his attorney, Steven Brounstein. The lawyer declined to comment outside court. The judge ordered Naseer, who was extradited last week from Britain, held...