Research in rats is re-igniting the long-running debate over whether mobile-phone use can cause cancer. Two types of tumors — one in the brain, one in the heart — were spotted in some male rats exposed to radiofrequency radiation at levels used by the U.S. telecommunications industry, according to a 74-page report on partial findings from the U.S. government-funded study. The study follows a flurry of reports published in 2011 that confused more than clarified the cancer risk faced by the world’s billions of mobile-phone users. “These findings appear to support the International Agency for Research on Cancer conclusions regarding the possible carcinogenic potential of radiofrequency radiation,” the researchers wrote in the report. “Given the w...
Longtime Jewish leader Abraham Foxman sharply rebuked the Guggenheim Museum on Friday for publishing an article on its website accusing Israel of a litany of serious crimes.  Foxman — who was tapped to head a new center on the study of antisemitism at New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage following his retirement as national director of the Anti-Defamation League — was commenting on an article by Israeli artist and curator Chen Tamir, titled “Censorship in Israel,” which accuses “racist and lopsided” Israel of failing to uphold freedom of speech, oppressing Palestinians and acting as an occupying power. “The metanarrative in Israel is one of continuous existential fear and victimization, which leads to the increased just...
Toronto - Toronto’s Trump tower is close to being sold and may not bear the name of presumptive U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump after it changes hands, a lawyer for its owner said on Friday. Symon Zucker, who represents Talon International Development Inc, said the 65-storey hotel and condominium building in the city’s financial district has found a potential buyer and the sale will conclude “hopefully shortly.” The tower is operated for Talon by the Trump Hotel Collection, presided over by billionaire businessman Trump and his children. Zucker said Talon’s contract with Trump Hotel would not apply to the new owner, which would be free to change the building’s name, though he declined to comment on whether it may do so or the ...
New York - A New York City man has been sentenced to six years in prison for calling 911 more than 50 times to report fake emergencies. Ronald DeShields was sentenced Thursday. The calls, made between January and February 2014, included false claims of police-involved shootings, law enforcement in need of assistance and fires with people trapped. DeShields had the phone used for the calls when he was arrested. Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown says his actions put lives at risk by preventing rescuers from responding to real emergencies. DeShields was convicted in April on charges of falsely reporting an incident and reckless endangerment.
Cairo - The search for the EgyptAir plane which crashed last week killing all 66 people on board has narrowed to a 5-kilometer-wide area in the Mediterranean Sea, based on signals from the craft’s emergency beacon, Egypt’s chief investigator said. The chief investigator, Ayman al-Moqadem, said late Thursday that Airbus had given Egyptian authorities information on the Emergency Locator Transmitter, or ELT, from the doomed aircraft. An official from the Egyptian investigation team on Friday clarified that the beacon information was from the day of the crash, May 19, and that no new signal had been found. An Airbus official said he was unaware of any ELT received or given to the Egyptians. Both officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because h...
Detroit -  Eight automakers are recalling more than 12 million vehicles in the U.S. to replace potentially dangerous Takata air bag inflators. Documents detailing recalls by Honda, Fiat Chrysler, Toyota, Mazda, Nissan, Subaru, Ferrari and Mitsubishi were posted Friday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. They’re part of a massive expansion of Takata air bag recalls announced earlier this month. Seventeen automakers are adding 35 million-to-40 million inflators to what already was the largest auto recall in U.S. history. In addition, the Japanese transport ministry on Friday announced 7 million more Takata-related recalls covering air bag inflators without a chemical drying agent. Friday’s U.S. recalls include passenger air bags in older model...
Jerusalem - A piece of 21st century technology may help address a historical wrong from the 15th century whose consequences still reverberate today. Descendants of the Jews who were forcefully converted to Christianity under the Inquisition – variously called anusim, marranos, or “secret jews” – can now connect with their Jewish heritage via the new online project Reconectar, meaning “reconnect” in Spanish and Portuguese. “Our people was divided by force more than 500 years ago, with hundreds of thousands of Jews needing either to escape or to convert. Now we can bring their descendants back to their roots,” Ashley Perry, president of the Reconectar project, (http://reconectar.co/ ) told Tazpit Press Service (TPS). Himself a d...
New York - During the height of the primary season, a sense of Donald Trump overload in the media united a divided electorate. Now, as things pivot toward a general election campaign almost certain to match Trump against Hillary Clinton, television news producers will be watched to see whether traditional notions of fairness and equal time will take hold in a political season that has been anything but traditional. The expected Republican nominee so dominated campaign coverage that by late March a Pew Research Center survey found that 75 percent of Americans said the media had given him too much attention. “Donald Trump does make news and he does drive ratings,” said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylva...
Mesa, AZ - A 23-year-old man who set out for a peaceful hike in an Arizona park died after being stung by more than 1,000 bees, a swarm so threatening it thwarted rescuers’ repeated attempts to reach him. Alex Bestler visited Usery Mountain Park with a friend on Thursday and was hiking the Merkle Trail when the unprovoked attack occurred, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. It is unclear whether Bestler was allergic to bees. His Facebook page says he was raised in Elton, Louisiana, but has since moved to North Dakota. It was also not immediately known whether his assailants were Africanized “killer” bees that have been migrating north from Brazil and have been blamed for a string of deadly attacks in Arizona and other states. As...
Santa, NM - It was a stunning rebuke — even by Donald Trump’s standards — aimed at the nation’s only Latina governor at a political rally in her home state of New Mexico. Trump chastised Republican Gov. Susana Martinez for not doing her job when it came to unemployment, federal food aid and even containing the Syrian refugee crisis while he stumped at a raucous political rally this week in the nation’s most Hispanic state. Martinez, who has not endorsed the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, skipped the event in Albuquerque, citing a busy schedule. The public spat dampened any lingering speculation that Martinez might be picked as vice president to attract more female and minority voters to the Republican ticket. It also thrust the second-term go...
New York - New York City police say they’ve made an arrest in the death of an aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo who was caught in the crossfire between two gangs last year. Carey Gabay (guh-BAY’) was shot in the head in September during a pre-dawn party celebrating the West Indian Day Parade. The 43-year-old Harvard-educated lawyer was a first deputy general counsel at the Empire State Development Corp. Micah Alleyne was arraigned Friday and held without bail. The name of an attorney who could comment on his behalf was not immediately known. Ken Taub of the Brooklyn district attorney’s office said more arrests are expected in the case.
Cincinnati -  Dr. Henry Heimlich, the 96-year-old Cincinnati surgeon credited with inventing the lifesaving technique named for him, used it for the first time this week to save a fellow senior center resident who was choking on a hamburger, a center spokesman said on Friday. Heimlich, who in multiple national television appearances had demonstrated the technique commonly known as the “Heimlich Maneuver” to dislodge food from an airway, had never employed it in an emergency, said spokesman Ken Paley. But on Monday, Heimlich was sitting at a communal dining table at Cincinnati’s Deupree House, an upscale senior living center where he lives, and noticed fellow resident Patty Ris, 87, in distress while eating an open-faced hamburger. He dashed out of his sea...
Brooklyn, NY - One man is in police custody this afternoon in connection with a bizarre turn of events in Williamsburg that sent a nine year old Chasidic boy to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries on Thursday afternoon after he was hit by a car driving on the sidewalk. Police said that the man in custody was the passenger in the Toyota Camry.  Charges are still pending and the NYPD is continuing its search for the driver. As previously reported on VIN News(http://goo.gl/D1Tigt), two men who had been attempting to pass counterfeit bills in Williamsburg drove their vehicle onto the sidewalk in an attempt to flee the area before police arrived on scene.  The incident took place at the southwest corner of Lee Avenue and Rodney Street and had pedestrians scatt...
Jerusalem - A group of more than 200 Israeli military and intelligence officers are criticizing the government for a lack of action in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and have issued a detailed plan they say can end the impasse. The plan by Commanders for Israel’s Security on Friday called for a broad Israeli withdrawal from territory captured in the 1967 war to allow the Palestinians to establish their state. The group’s chairman Amnon Reshaf criticizes “fear mongers” who say there is no Palestinian partner for peace. The report’s publication closely follows the appointment of a defense minister who is an outspoken skeptic of peace efforts with the Palestinians, and a French initiative to restart talks that collapsed in 2014. War veter...
Borough Park, NY - An NYPD driver will be disciplined for passing a stopped school bus this morning in Borough Park. Police told VIN News that the commanding officer of the barracks section will be disciplining the unnamed driver. As previously reported on VIN News (http://goo.gl/8ezjst), dashcam footage captured the NYPD truck loaded with police barriers passing the school bus on 18th Avenue between 55th and 56th Streets. Today’s incident comes in the midst of a Memorial Day crackdown on drunk and irresponsible drivers throughout New York State. “There is zero tolerance for reckless and impaired driving and state police and local law enforcement will be out in full force to help ensure a safe holiday weekend,” said Governor Cuomo. “I encourage all New Y...
Washington -  Donald Trump is adding his voice to the growing chorus of Republicans encouraging Marco Rubio to run for re-election to the Senate. Trump derided Rubio as “Little Marco” on the presidential campaign trail and remarked in March that “the people of Florida can’t stand him. He couldn’t get elected dogcatcher.” But now Trump says over Twitter that polling shows Rubio has the best chance of keeping his Senate seat in GOP hands, and that it’s important for Republicans to keep their majority. “Run Marco!” Trump writes. Rubio told reporters this week he’s “unlikely” to reconsider his plans to retire from the Senate, especially since a good friend of his, Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, is in the ra...
Nashville, TN - A Republican Tennessee lawmaker says getting a traffic camera ticket isn’t a problem — he just burns them. State Rep. Andy Holt set such ticket ablaze on Wednesday and posted the video to Facebook. A news release issued in conjunction with the Facebook video urges others who are issued traffic camera tickets in Tennessee to ignore them. Holt is a longtime critic of traffic camera tickets and has previously called for banning them. Knoxville Police Chief David Rausch said in an email Thursday to the Knoxville News Sentinel (http://bit.ly/1TH1DkL) that Holt’s advice is unsound. Rausch says ignoring or burning a ticket “does not make the violation and accountability go away.”
New York -  Splitting the bill for those pizzas you shared with your buddies or that utility bill that is suddenly due is going to get easier and faster even if you don’t all use the same bank. JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and other big banks are upgrading their online payment services to let customers make instant transfers of money to others who bank elsewhere, often at no cost. The move comes as traditional banks face pressure from payment companies like Venmo and Square Cash that offer ways to split the bill. Banks developed online services that allow their customers to send money to anyone with a phone number or email address several years ago. But the services were considered overly complicated. Until last year, bank customers could only send money to another cus...
Washington - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders expressed disappointment on Friday after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he would not debate Sanders ahead of California’s June 7 primary. “I heard that he was going to debate me, then I heard that he was not going to debate me, then I heard that he was going to debate me. Now you’re telling me that he is not going to debate me. Well, you know, I hope that he changes his mind again,” Sanders said in a video clip posted on an ABC News Twitter account.
Laval, Quebec - Quebec provincial police say a man with reported high-level ties to organized crime has been shot dead north of Montreal. Spokesman Jason Allard says a 67-year-old man was shot one or more times in his car around 8:30 a.m. in Laval. Allard says police have reason to believe the victim was tied to organized crime but adds that the coroner still has to confirm his identity. The man was pronounced dead after being hospitalized. Local media have identified the death person as high-ranking Mafia Rocco Sollecito.
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