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June 24, 2016 at 6:36 pm
Turkish President meets Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal as his country is reportedly set to announce normalization with Israel.
Amid reports that Israel and Turkey will announce a deal on normalizing ties this coming Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday met Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in Istanbul.
According to the Turkish Anadolu news agency, the two discussed ways to resolve the disagreements among Palestinians as well as Turkish humanitarian assistance.
A source from the Turkish Presidency quoted by the news agency said that Erdogan emphasized during the meeting that Turkey was keen on easing the distress of Palestinians.
The meeting comes following reports in Turkish media that Israel and Turkey are set to announce the normalization of ties, cut after the 2010 M...
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June 24, 2016 at 6:29 pm
ST Louis - Bernie Sanders said Friday he will vote for Hillary Clinton for president, stopping short of a full endorsement of his Democratic presidential rival more than a week after the final primary contests.
The Vermont senator said in an interview with MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that he was “pretty good at arithmetic” and understood that Clinton had won more pledged delegates than he had during their lengthy primary.
Asked if he would vote for the former secretary of state, Sanders replied, “Yes,” adding: “I will do everything I can to defeat Donald Trump.”
But Sanders has yet to call on his supporters to vote for Clinton and has not said whether he would campaign on her behalf. His latest comments acknowledged the inevitable...
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June 24, 2016 at 6:28 pm
Washington - An Associated Press review of the official calendar Hillary Clinton kept as secretary of state identified at least 75 meetings with longtime political donors, loyalists, Clinton Foundation contributors and corporate and other outside interests that were not recorded or were listed without the names of those she met.
The missing entries raise new questions about how Clinton and her inner circle handled government records documenting her State Department tenure — in this case, why the official chronology of her four-year term does not closely mirror other more detailed records of her daily meetings.
At a time when Clinton’s private email system is under scrutiny by an FBI criminal investigation, the calendar omissions reinforce concerns that she sou...
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June 24, 2016 at 6:26 pm
Washington - Disturbed by Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, U.S. activists have taken out online advertisements, circulated petitions, put up billboards and even chipped in for an airplane banner to try to shame companies into dropping their sponsorships of the Republican National Convention in July.
The campaign, led by the political arm of California-based advocacy group Color of Change, seeks to weaken Trump’s White House bid by pressuring companies to skip the Cleveland convention where he is expected to formally become the nominee.
“The fact of the matter is that any employee of these Fortune 500 companies that are sponsoring the convention, if any of those employees went into their job and said the things Donald Trump is saying, they’d be fired...
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June 24, 2016 at 6:24 pm
Washington - A U.S. Navy captain who was in charge of 10 American sailors briefly held by Iran in January has been relieved of command because of a “loss of confidence in his ability to command,” a Navy statement said on Friday.
Ten U.S. sailors, who were aboard two patrol craft, were detained by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Jan. 12 when they inadvertently entered Iranian territorial waters. They were released the next day after being held for about 15 hours.]
Captain Kyle Moses, commander of Task Force 56, was the second person to be publicly reprimanded so far over the incident. In May, Commander Eric Rasch, who was the executive officer of the coastal riverine squadron that included the 10 sailors, was fired.
Vice Admiral Kevin Donegan...
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June 24, 2016 at 6:23 pm
Fort Lee, NJ - Authorities say they’ve nabbed two New Jersey residents who have racked up about $30,000 in unpaid tolls combined.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey says officers pulled over Englewood resident John Reynolds on Wednesday morning after seeing him pass through the E-ZPass lane of the George Washington Bridge while pretending his cellphone was a transponder.
Authorities say the car had about 300 toll violations, totaling about $19,000.
The next morning, officers stopped North Plainfield resident Lucy Sanchez on the bridge after police say she passed through without paying a toll.
Police say Sanchez didn’t have a driver’s license and had nearly 150 toll violations, totaling about $9,000.
Both are charged with theft of service and evading ...
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June 24, 2016 at 6:22 pm
New York - Stephanie Rodenberg-Lewis wasn’t happy with her insulin pump and finally switched two years ago to another brand. Now her health insurer is pushing her to go back.
UnitedHealth Group Inc. has made a deal with device maker Medtronic that will slash options for diabetics who use the portable pumps, which costs thousands of dollars. The move has angered Rodenberg-Lewis and others who will be limited to three pump choices instead of nine.
Health insurers, big employers and other bill payers have been trying for years to rein in costs and improve care by steering clients to certain doctors and hospitals. They’ve also restricted options for some prescriptions and lined up deals for smaller-ticket items like diabetes test strips or items patients don’t chos...
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June 24, 2016 at 6:22 pm
Charleston, WV - A deluge of 9 inches of rain on parts of West Virginia destroyed or damaged more than 100 homes, knocked out power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses and killed 14 people, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin said Friday.
About 500 people were stranded overnight in a shopping center when a bridge washed out, and dozens of other people had to be plucked off rooftops or rescued as waters quickly rose during the storm.
“Our focus remains on search and rescue,” the governor said. He added: “It’s been a long 24 hours and the next 24 hours may not be much easier.”
The deaths included an 8-year-old boy and a 4-year-old boy who were swept away in different counties, authorities said. Greenbrier County Sheriff Jan Cahill described “complet...
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June 24, 2016 at 6:21 pm
London - An intense leadership battle is expected to unfold within Britain’s Conservative Party after its long-standing, passionate split over the country’s role in Europe reached a pinnacle Friday with a vote to exit the bloc and the resignation of the prime minister.
The still youthful-looking David Cameron announced he would step down after Brits rejected his plea to vote to keep Britain inside the European Union, setting in motion complex divorce proceedings expected to take two years or more to work out.
Speaking in a stoic tone, with his wife Samantha standing nearby, Cameron said Britain needs a new “captain” to manage torturous negotiations with EU officials about how to separate Britain from the 28-nation bloc.
Strong disagreements over Britain&...
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June 24, 2016 at 6:16 pm
Pyongyang, North Korea - The top North Korean official for U.S. relations told The Associated Press on Friday that his country is now a nuclear threat to be reckoned with, and Washington can expect more nuclear tests and missile launches like the ones earlier this week as long as it attempts to force his government’s collapse through a policy of pressure and punishment.
“It’s the United States that caused this issue,” Han Song Ryol, director-general of the department of U.S. affairs at North Korea’s Foreign Ministry, said in his first interview with an American news organization since assuming the post three years ago. “They have to stop their military threats, sanctions and economic pressure. Without doing so, it’s like they are telling...
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June 24, 2016 at 6:15 pm
Washington - Britain’s stunning vote to leave the European Union, buoyed by a frenzy of nationalism and populist anger, was a crushing rejection of the political elite. Republican Donald Trump hopes it is also a preview of November’s U.S. presidential election.
The referendum result reverberated immediately in a U.S. presidential campaign dominated by Trump’s rapid rise to capture the nomination, fueled by a similar brew of anti-establishment and anti-globalization sentiment.
The vote in Britain reinforced the notion that the insurgent campaign launched by the wealthy real estate developer had tapped into a global political movement that might be hard to stop.
“This is a protest vote against globalization and there is one presidential candidate who...
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June 24, 2016 at 6:11 pm
Dallas, TX - More than 30 people who attended an event with motivational speaker Tony Robbins have been treated for burns after Robbins encouraged them to walk on hot coals as a way of conquering their fears, Dallas fire officials said.
Five people were taken to a hospital Thursday night, while the rest were treated at the scene for burns to their feet and lower extremities, Dallas Fire-Rescue spokesman Jason Evans said.
The hot coals were spread outside the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center as part of a four-day Robbins seminar called “Unleash the Power Within.” It’s a regular part of some of Robbins’ seminars; more than 20 people were treated for foot burns after an event in 2012 in San Jose, California.
Paul Gold of West Palm Beach, Florida...
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June 24, 2016 at 5:03 pm
Adamstown, PA - A 91-year-old Pennsylvania man who has for years lectured to school groups and others about what he said were his experiences at Auschwitz now says he was never a prisoner at the German death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.
Joseph Hirt, of Adamstown, made the admission in a letter to LNP newspaper (http://bit.ly/28XFmgJ ) Wednesday. He said he used poor judgment and faulty reasoning in trying to tell the story of those affected by the Nazis.
“I am writing today to apologize publicly for harm caused to anyone because of my inserting myself into the descriptions of life in Auschwitz,” Hirt wrote. “I was not a prisoner there. I did not intend to lessen or overshadow the events which truly happened there by falsely claiming to have been personally in...
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June 24, 2016 at 5:03 pm
Washington - Hillary Clinton’s campaign is calling Donald Trump’s reaction to Britain’s vote to leave the European Union “dangerous and frightening.”
Trump, say her aides, reacted with “pathological self-congratulations,” a lack of understanding about the situation and a focus on his own businesses rather than the economic impact on American families.
Trump “actively rooted” for the United Kingdom to leave the EU and is “rooting for the economic turmoil in its wake,” Clinton adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters.
Trump, in a news conference in Scotland, praised the vote results and drew parallels to the populist anger driving his own presidential campaign.
Clinton’s team argues that the economic downturn li...
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June 24, 2016 at 4:33 pm
A day after flirting with record levels, U.S equity markets on Friday extended a global-market meltdown after the United Kingdom, in a stunning decision, voted to sever its more than 40-year membership in the European Union.
At the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 610 points, or 3.39% to 17400. The S&P 500 dropped 76 points, or 3.60% to 2037, while the Nasdaq Composite shed 202 points, or 4.12% to 4707.
The major averages ended just off the lows of the session. During the final hour of trade, the Dow fell 647 points. To illustrate the rush on Wall Street, the Vix, which measures expected volatility over the next 30 days, jumped 44% during the session to 24.92.
“We expect the next several days to be as turbulent as other major market shocks of the...
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June 24, 2016 at 4:16 pm
Growing up in the Viznitz community in Montreal, Etty Sims had little exposure to life outside of her close-knit Hassidic sect.
In this world, the highest career aspiration for girls was to teach preschool. So even when she became captivated by the fast-paced rhythm of hospitals and the life-saving work of medical clinicians as a teenager, Sims simply didn’t allow herself to dream of becoming a doctor.
“Where I grew up, anything outside that community wasn’t even a discussion,” explained Sims, 29, who graduated from Cooper Medical School of Rowan University last month as part of the Camden-based school’s 43-member inaugural class. “I can’t even say college was discouraged. It just wasn’t a possibility.” With a f...
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June 24, 2016 at 3:37 pm
The Torah recounts that as B'nei Yisrael brought what would be their only Korban Pesach during their sojourn in the desert, there were individuals who were temei meis and thus unable to participate. There is a discussion in the gemara (Sukkah 25a) as to who in fact these individuals were. R' Yosei HaGelili suggests they were the ones in charge of transporting the body of Yoseif. Rabbi Akiva is of the opinion that it was Misha'eil and Eltzaphan who were instructed to remove Nadav and Avihu's bodies from the mishkan. Finally, Rabbi Yitzchak discounts the first two opinions and posits that these were individuals who had become tamei as a result of a meis mitzvah.
It is somewhat intriguing that the approach taken in the gemara is that there was something special and unique...
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June 24, 2016 at 3:09 pm
Hezbollah leader admits his group lost fighters in Syria, but vows to continue to be involved in the war there.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah acknowledged on Friday that his group had lost fighters in Syria, but vowed to continue to be involved in the war there.
Speaking in remarks broadcast on the Shiite group's Al-Manar television and quoted by AFP, Nasrallah said that the offensive on the city of Aleppo was the "greatest battle" in Syria.
He stressed his group would "increase our presence in Aleppo... because the real, strategic, greatest battle is in Aleppo and the surrounding area."
Nasrallah also announced that 26 Hezbollah fighters had been killed in the offensive this month, a rare admission of casualties for the group.
He spoke at a commemoration event for Must...
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June 24, 2016 at 3:06 pm
Prime Minister Netanyahu reacts to British Prime Minister's resignation announcement, thanks him for his friendship with Israel.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Friday thanked British Prime Minister David Cameron for his friendship with Israel, following Cameron’s announcement that he would step down in the wake of Britain’s vote in favor of leaving the European Union.
“I have great appreciation for Prime Minister David Cameron, a respected leader and a true friend of Israel and the Jewish people,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
“Throughout his premiership the security, economic and technological cooperation between the United Kingdom and Israel has greatly expanded,” added Netanyahu.
“Together we laid a strong foundation for con...
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June 24, 2016 at 3:00 pm
The Rabbinical Council of America, the leading organization of orthodox rabbis in North America, appreciates and supports the efforts of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel to reverse the decision of the local Bet Din of Petach Tikvah which refused to accept its recommendation to recognize the validity of the conversion to Judaism of an applicant for marriage arranged by our colleague Rabbi Haskel Lookstein.
Rabbi Shalom Baum, president of the RCA, said, "We regret the angst caused to this righteous convert, as well as the vulnerability felt by many righteous converts who feel that their legitimate status as Jews remains always subject to scrutiny. We call upon the Chief Rabbinate and the Israeli Religious Courts to ensure that in the future such applicants are treated with the dign...
