Seattle - A federal jury convicted the son of a Russian lawmaker Thursday of hacking into U.S. businesses to steal credit card information and orchestrating an international online theft scheme that netted him millions of dollars. Jurors deliberated over two days before finding Roman Seleznev guilty of 38 charges, including nine counts of hacking and 10 counts of wire fraud. He could face up to 40 years in prison when he’s sentenced Dec. 2, and he still faces similar charges in federal courts in Nevada and Georgia, his attorney said. Seleznev hacked into businesses, mostly pizza restaurants in Washington state, and stole millions of credit card numbers that he sold on underground internet forums, authorities said. The thefts led to almost $170 million in credit card losse...
United Nations - The Israeli government on Thursday rejected a U.N. request for diplomatic immunity for a Palestinian engineer who worked for the U.N. in the Gaza Strip but is now in prison after being accused of assisting the territory’s Islamic militant Hamas rulers. Israel arrested 38-year-old Waheed Borsh, who worked for the U.N. development agency known as UNDP for 13 years, on July 16 on suspicion of aiding Hamas. The government announced on Aug. 9 that he had been indicted on charges of assisting the militant group. Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nachshon said “Israel rejects the claim that a person assisting a terror organization recognized by the international community such as Hamas could enjoy immunity.” Israel’s Shin Bet i...
North Berwick, Maine - Republican Gov. Paul LePage is being accused again of making racially insensitive comments, this time by saying photos he’s collected in a binder of drug dealers arrested in the state show more than 90 percent of them are black or Hispanic. The governor made the remark at a town hall in North Berwick on Wednesday, a day he also said the father of a dead Muslim U.S. Army captain is a “con artist” for criticizing GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump. LePage’s comment about the drug dealers came after a businessman asked how he could bring a company to Maine “given the rhetoric you put out there about people of color,” the Portland Press Herald reported. LePage, who’s white, said he keeps a three-ring binder of photo...
New York - Amazon is starting a site offering research, reviews and other information on new and used cars. The latest venture by the e-commerce powerhouse will compete with established players in the field including CarSoup.com, Edmunds.com, truecar.com and cars.com. Amazon Vehicles won’t sell cars. But in addition to car specifications, images, videos and customer reviews, the new site will let customers ask each other questions about cars. Amazon.com Inc. already sells car parts and accessories in its Amazon Automotive store. From its roots as an online bookseller, the Seattle company has expanded into a myriad of arenas. Most recently it launched a site for handmade goods, introduced a voice-recognition speaker and has begun creating original movies and TV shows.
Manchester, NH - Hillary Clinton said Thursday that Donald Trump has unleashed the “radical fringe” within the Republican Party, including anti-Semites and white supremacists, dubbing the billionaire businessman’s campaign as one that will “make America hate again.” Trump rejected Clinton’s allegations, defending his hard-line approach to immigration while trying to make the case to minority voters that Democrats have abandoned them. The ping-pong accusations come as the two candidates vie for minorities and any undecided voters with less than three months until Election Day. Weeks before the first early voting, Trump faces the urgent task of revamping his image to win over those skeptical of his candidacy. In a tweet shortly after Clinton wr...
Washington - Eating a handful of nuts five times per week may reduce inflammation, a condition that contributes to heart disease, diabetes and many other chronic illnesses, say the authors of a recent U.S. study. This inflammation-dampening effect might be the secret to the health benefits of nuts, the study team writes in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Past research has linked eating nuts to lower rates of heart disease and diabetes, but the exact reason was unknown, senior study author Dr. Ying Bao, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, told Reuters Health. “We hypothesized that nuts may exert these health benefits by reducing inflammation,” Bao said by email. Nuts may lower inflammation because they contain fiber, magnes...
New York - The regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac unveiled on Thursday a program aimed at homeowners who are paying their mortgages on time but whose loan-to-value (LTV) ratios are too high to qualify for traditional refinance programs. To be eligible for this program, which Fannie and Freddie will implement, borrowers must have not missed any mortgage payments in the prior six months; must not have skipped more than one payment in the previous 12 months; must have a source of income and must receive a benefit from the refinance such as a reduction in their monthly loan payment, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said. “This new offering will give borrowers the opportunity to refinance when rates are low, making their mortgages more affordable and thus reducing credi...
Washington - Cars that wirelessly talk to each other are finally ready for the road, creating the potential to dramatically reduce traffic deaths, improve the safety of self-driving cars and someday maybe even help solve traffic jams, automakers and government officials say. But there’s a big catch. The cable television and high-tech industries want to take away a large share of the radio airwaves the government dedicated for transportation in 1999, and use it instead for superfast Wi-Fi service. Auto industry officials are fighting to hang on to as much of the spectrum as they can, saying they expect they will ultimately need all of it for the new vehicle-to-vehicle communications, or V2V. The government and the auto industry have spent more than a decade and more than ...
Amatrice, Italy - Strong aftershocks rattled central Italy and shut down a key route into the hard-hit town of Amatrice on Friday as hopes dimmed that firefighters would find any more survivors from the earthquake that killed at least 267 people. The Italian government declared Saturday a day of national mourning and scheduled a state funeral to be attended by President Sergio Mattarella. Some crumbled buildings in Amatrice cracked even further after the biggest aftershock of the morning struck at 6:28 a.m. The U.S. Geological Service said it had a magnitude of 4.7, while the Italian geophysics institute measured it at 4.8. The shaking ground also damaged a key access bridge to Amatrice, forcing emergency crews to close it and making an already challenging traffic flow into th...
New York - In light of recent tragic suicides committed as a direct result of child sexual abuse, as well as other physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual consequences suffered by innocents in Jewish Orthodox communities and beyond, a proclamation signed by a large and diverse group of rabbis from the United States, Canada and Israel has taken a firm stand against abuse in children, acknowledging that the Jewish community has been slow to recognize incidents of molestation in the past and calls upon schools and synagogues to institute policies that will prevent sexual abuse. The statement, signed by close to 300 Orthodox Jewish rabbis, admits that rabbis and community leaders have not always dealt effectively or appropriately with victims of child sexual abuse or their ...
In this week's parshah, the Torah warns us not to forget Hashem in our pursuit of wealth, nor when we achieve it. After describing a future where the Jewish people enjoy great prosperity, the Torah foretells and warns "...you will then say in your heart: my strength and the might of my own hand made this wealth for me". The Saba of Kelm observes that the Torah does not write, "maybe you will say" that your ingenuity and hard work brought you your success. Rather, the Torah attests that you will certainly say this and think that you earned your wealth through your own hard work and good ideas. Apparently, the Torah is attesting that this is human nature. The Torah, therefore, proceeds to instruct us to take to heart that it is really Hashem who gives us our talents for making wealth (...
Baltimore, MD - Aug. 24, 2016       
Baltimore, MD - Aug. 25, 2016 - These short videos of Doniel Lansky, a'h, singing Nishmas were shot in April at the Ksivas Sefer Torah for Mercaz Torah U'Tefilah.
New York - US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump met with minority Republicans in New York on Thursday, including his former Republican campaign rival Ben Carson. Trump said his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and the Democratic party at large have done “little work” for African-Americans, and said he will make this a “focal point” of his speeches moving forward. Trump said America cannot become ‘great again’ unless blacks, Hispanics and others—“everybody”—are involved in the process.
Baltimore, MD – Aug. 25, 2016 – Please be aware that Park Heights Road between Glen Avenue and Pinkney seems to be completely closed off to vehicular traffic with police activity. Currently, traffic is being rerouted to both Cross Country and Reisterstown Road.
Umm Al-fahm, Israel - On the rundown streets of Umm al-Fahm, an Israeli-Arab city of 50,000, locals in smoky cafes are reluctant to speak. Violent crime at the hands of drug gangs is rife here. Reprisals are common. Israeli Jews rarely set foot in the city. “The gangs are in control,” said a man who refused to give his name, standing beneath two security cameras that he said were pointless since the police rarely came. Cities like Umm al-Fahm illustrate a stark division within Israeli society: the growing lawlessness in parts of the Arab community, which makes up 20 percent of Israel’s population and frequently complains of discrimination. With murder rates and other criminal activity far higher among Arabs - 59 percent of all murders are committed by Arabs, p...
Rio De Janeiro - Brazil’s Senate on Thursday began deliberating whether to permanently remove President Dilma Rousseff from office, the final step in a leadership fight that has paralyzed Congress and cast a pall over a nation in the midst of a severe recession. Brazil’s first female president is accused of illegally shifting money between government budgets to mask yawning deficits. Detractors say she did that to shore up support and argue those maneuvers exacerbated the recession in Latin America’s largest economy. Rousseff denies wrongdoing and says her enemies, including the country’s elite who have fumed about her Workers Party’s lock on power the last 13 years, are conducting a “coup.” Senators are now embarking “on their mos...
Los Angeles - It’s a conspiracy: The 2016 campaign features one candidate who warned against the “vast right-wing conspiracy” and another who was a leader of the so-called “birther” movement. Donald Trump and his surrogates hint at a mysterious “illness” afflicting rival Hillary Clinton. Pushing back, Clinton warns of murky ties between Trump and the Russian government, insinuating that her Republican opponent may be a puppet of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Rumors and innuendo long confined to the far reaches of the Internet are dominating the presidential race, forcing Clinton to grapple — once again — with the kinds of whispers that have dogged her family for decades. Clinton has largely avoided discussing the conspira...
Bear, Delaware - Delaware State Police investigators were trying to determine Thursday how a woman fell 35 feet to her death from a zip line platform at a state park. Tina Werner, 59, of Felton, was waiting to ride the zip line at the Go Ape Tree Top Adventure at Lums Pond State Park in Bear on Wednesday afternoon when she tumbled from the platform, authorities said. Participants are equipped with climbing harnesses and carabineers that clip onto safety wires throughout the treetop course, which spans seven acres and includes four zip lines and a variety of swings, rope ladders, bridges and trapezes. According to the website of Go Ape, which is based in Frederick, Maryland, and operates attractions in 15 states, patrons receive a 30-minute training session before being turned l...
A man is in custody and three people are dead after an apparent crossbow attack on a residential street in Scarborough on Thursday afternoon. Paramedics confirm the deceased are two men and a woman, all adults. Another male was taken to hospital with minor injuries. It happened at Lawndale and Argo roads near Eglinton Avenue East and Markham Road. Homicide detectives are on scene and have launched an investigation. No further information is currently available. It’s not the first time a crossbow has been used to end a life in Toronto. In December 2010, Zhou Fang shot and killed his father with a crossbow in a busy east end Toronto library. Two years later, Fang was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 10 years.
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