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January 18, 2018 at 8:52 am
Temperatures in the remote, diamond-rich Russian region of Yakutia have dropped to near-record lows, plunging to -67 degrees Centigrade (-88.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in some areas.
MOSCOW (AP) — Even thermometers can’t keep up with the plunging temperatures in Russia’s remote Yakutia region, which hit minus 67 degrees Celsius (minus 88.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in some areas Tuesday.
In Yakutia — a region of 1 million people about 3,300 miles (5,300 kilometers) east of Moscow — students routinely go to school even in minus 40 degrees. But school was canceled Tuesday throughout the region and police ordered parents to keep their children inside.
In the village of Oymyakon, one of the coldest inhabited places on earth, state-owned Russian television showed the mercu...
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January 18, 2018 at 8:50 am
DETROIT – Among the many shiny models vying for attention at Detroit's North American International Auto Show are the revamped Volkswagen Jetta, Hyundai Veloster and Kia Forte.
But cars — particularly small ones — are having a tough time getting buyers to look their way as SUVs grow in popularity.
Car sales are expected to hit a record low this year after steadily declining for several years. SUVs surpassed cars for the first time in 2016, and the gap only widens: Auto shopping site Edmunds.com forecasts the utilities will make up 43.5 percent of new vehicle sales this year, while cars will fall to 34.5 percent. (Edmunds regularly provides content, including automotive tips and reviews, for distribution by The Associated Press.)
The reasons are plenty, inclu...
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January 18, 2018 at 8:49 am
NEW YORK — Stop making excuses. Start making plans.
That's the message behind the second annual National Plan for Vacation Day. It's an effort by the travel industry to persuade Americans to use Jan. 30 as a day to schedule their vacations for the year and take advantage of any paid time off they are entitled to from their jobs.
Destinations, tourism agencies and others in the travel industry are expected to offer promotions in conjunction with the effort. It will be promoted on social media with a #PlanForVacation hashtag.
Alamo, for example, will publicize vacation-planning tips and offer a 10 percent discount on base rates for weekly car rentals (bookable Jan. 23-Feb. 6, for travel March 1-Aug. 30).
Las Vegas is also taking part in the campaign, planning a video show...
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January 18, 2018 at 8:46 am
BOYNTON BEACH, FLA.
A fourth person has died in Florida after being struck by a new high-speed train.
Boynton Beach police spokeswoman Stephanie Slater said in an email that the train struck 51-year-old bicyclist Jeffrey D. King on Wednesday as he pedaled around the gates, which were down, in an attempt to beat the oncoming train.
Last week, as the new Brightline train was offering preview runs before its debut, it struck and killed a 32-year-old woman who was crossing the tracks. Witnesses told police she tried to make it across after the guard rails were down.
The currently runs between Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach but will expand to Miami and Orlando.
A woman was struck in July in Boca Raton in an apparent suicide, and another woman was hit in Deerfield Beach.
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January 18, 2018 at 8:40 am
Lawmakers grilled executives Facebook, Google's YouTube and Twitter on Wednesday about what the companies are doing to prevent terrorists from using their platforms to spread propaganda and recruit new followers.
The Senate's commerce, science and transportation committee hearing comes amid growing government scrutiny over misuse of social media platforms and questions about what the companies are doing to prevent it.
And it comes after November's exhaustive congressional hearings on what the companies knew — and did — about Russia's efforts to meddle with the 2016 U.S. elections using their platforms.
Lawmakers acknowledged that the companies, especially Google and Facebook, have come a long way when it comes to weeding out extremist material. But they s...
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January 18, 2018 at 8:38 am
NEW YORK (AP) — The volatility of the digital currency markets was on display again Wednesday, as bitcoin briefly fell below $10,000 before rebounding back above $11,000 in the U.S. afternoon.
With the drop below $10,000, bitcoin had lost about half its value since hitting a high above $19,000 in mid-December. Other digital currencies bounced around as well.
Bitcoin has slumped 20 percent this week as traders worry that regulators in South Korea will crack down on trading of digital currencies. The price of bitcoin fell as much as 20 percent Wednesday, but later recovered and was nearly flat at $11,392 around 5:10 p.m. Eastern Time, according to Coindesk.
Bitcoin hasn't caught on as a currency for buying things, as intended. But it has drawn huge interest from traders, and it...
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January 17, 2018 at 10:00 pm
דינער 'אש התורה' לטובת ישיבת מיר ירושלים בבארא פארק
Dinner Eish Hatorah For Yeshivas Mir Yerishulayim in Boro Park
טבת תשע"ח
Photo Credit: JDNMir Yeshiva today has over 1,000 chassidish talmidim learning in the Yeshiva. Over the past 20 years there have been close to 10,000 Chassidish students that have passed through the doors of the Yeshiva, with the majority coming from the New York metropolitan area. As such, the Mir has undertaken to make an Annual Chassidish Dinner as an opportunity for those alumni to express their hakoras hatov. This year was the fifth year that the Yeshiva has organized an Annual Dinner, and had a record participation of over 2,000 attendees who came out in force to show their gratitude. Rabbi ...
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January 17, 2018 at 9:46 pm
Chayim Aruchim
Kever Rochel
Medical Halacha
Shiur Iyun
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January 17, 2018 at 8:56 pm
An FBI agent shared the name of former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos with Trump dossier author Christopher Steele during a meeting in early October 2016.
That new bit of information was revealed in a column published Wednesday by Washington Post columnist David Ignatius.
Ignatius reports that Steele, a former MI6 agent, met with an old FBI contact in Rome around Oct. 1, 2016 to share findings from his investigation into Donald Trump’s and the Trump campaign’s associations with the Russian government.
“At this meeting, the FBI official asked Steele if he had ever heard of Papadopoulos,” reports Ignatius, who cited an official familiar with the meeting as his source.
According to Ignatius, Steele had not heard of Papadopoulos, a little-...
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January 17, 2018 at 5:15 pm
LONDON/MILAN (Reuters) - Swiss food group Nestle (NESN.S) has agreed to sell its U.S. confectionery business to Italy’s Ferrero for $2.8 billion, it said on Tuesday, marking CEO Mark Schneider’s first big sale and a small step on its path towards healthier products.
Nestle, the world’s biggest packaged-food company, has cited the unit’s weak position in the United States, where it trails Hershey (HSY.N), Mars Inc and Lindt, as the rationale for a sale.
For family-owned Ferrero, the cash deal offers a chance for the Italian company to build scale quickly in that key market, where it has done two other deals in the past year.
The maker of Nutella spread and Ferrero Rocher pralines will become the third-largest chocolate company in the U.S. and globally, according t...
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January 17, 2018 at 4:55 pm
Security forces capture terrorists who carried out attack near Havat Gilad.
Security forces on Wednesday evening captured the terrorists who carried out the shooting attack near Havat Gilad last week, in which Rabbi Raziel Shevach, H'yd, was murdered.
The forces from the Yamam counter-terrorism unit located the terrorists' hiding place, and a gun battle broke out between the forces and the terrorists.
According to Palestinian Arab reports, two terrorists were involved, one of whom was eliminated and the second arrested.
The police said that there several people were wounded in the incident, but no further details can be provided at this time due to the limitations of the military censor.
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January 17, 2018 at 4:48 pm
One terrorist eliminated and another arrested by security forces inside Jenin.
At least one terrorist was eliminated on Wednesday evening in a clash between security forces and terrorists in the Palestinian Arab city of Jenin.
During an operation to arrest wanted persons, a gun battle broke out between the security forces and the terrorists, during which one terrorist was killed.
According to Palestinian Arab reports, another terrorist was arrested.
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January 17, 2018 at 4:46 pm
Stocks traded higher on Wednesday following the release of stronger-than-expected quarterly results from some of the biggest U.S. companies.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 323 points to a record high, closing above 26,000 for the first time. The index first broke above the milestone mark on Tuesday.
The S&P 500 gained 0.9 percent, with staples and tech rising more than 1 percent. Tech stocks got a boost from Apple, which erased losses after announcing plans to repatriate billions in overseas cash. The stock closed 1.7 percent higher.
The Nasdaq composite rose 1 percent.
Bank of America reported adjusted quarterly earnings that surpassed analyst estimates. U.S. Bancorp also posted better-than-expected results.
Earnings season is off to a strong ...
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January 17, 2018 at 4:46 pm
Baltimore, MD -- Ten days after filing as a candidate for the Maryland Senate, J.D. Merrill has raised nearly $65,000. Merrill is a former City Schools teacher and administrator who is running in Maryland’s 41st legislative district.
The report shows 359 contributions, nearly 25% of which came from current or former educators who have invested in Merrill’s vision for a new commitment to public education in Baltimore. The median contribution was $50 and more than half of the contributions were $100 or less, highlighting the grassroots energy behind the campaign.
“We are energized by the hundreds of donors who have invested in our message that we all do better when our schools do better,” Merrill said. “Together, we will bring hardworking and accountabl...
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January 17, 2018 at 4:09 pm
LONDON (AP) - A London man who talked about forming "a death squad sent by Allah" has gone on trial for allegedly plotting a series of attacks in the British capital.
Prosecutor Mark Heywood told a jury at London's Central Criminal Court on Tuesday that 25-year-old Umar Haque "was fascinated by the warped and extreme ideology of Islamic State."
Heywood said Haque identified multiple targets, including Big Ben, Heathrow Airport, banks, shopping centers and embassies. He was arrested in May.
Authorities recorded a conversation in which they allege Haque said, "We are a death squad sent by Allah and his messengers to avenge my Arab brothers' blood."
Haque has denied preparing acts of terrorism. Three men he met through a London mosque and who are accused of helping him also deny...
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January 17, 2018 at 4:06 pm
A Cypriot company says its new sub-sea internet cable that will connect Israel with Spain will be powerful enough to handle up to 60 percent of the world's internet traffic at peak time.
Quantum Cable Chairman Nasos Ktorides said after signing on Tuesday an agreement to lay the cable that the $200 million project is expected to come online in 2020.
Ktorides said the cable will have 40 times more capacity than existing internet cables on the Mediterranean seabed. He said that's enough capacity to handle as many as 80 million high-definition video calls between Asia and Europe simultaneously.
The 4785-mile (7,700 km) cable will reach Bilbao, Spain, where an equally powerful internet cable now connects Spain with the U.S. state of Virginia.
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January 17, 2018 at 4:02 pm
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump denied on Wednesday that the planned relocation of the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem would take place within a year, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he expected the controversial move to happen by then.shington, U.S., January 17, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Reversing decades of U.S. policy, Trump in early December recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and set in motion the process of moving the embassy from Tel Aviv, imperiling Middle East peace efforts and upsetting the Arab world and Western allies alike.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said last month the embassy move was “probably no earlier than three years out, and that’s pretty ambitious,” a timeframe that administration officials ...
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January 17, 2018 at 3:59 pm
Charges could be filed in connection with the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, even though the gunman responsible for killing 58 people is dead, a lawyer for Las Vegas police told a judge Tuesday.
Attorney Nicholas Crosby did not identify new evidence or suspects but said charges might be possible depending on the results of an ongoing investigation.
Sheriff Joe Lombardo and the FBI have said they believe Stephen Paddock acted alone to carry out the Oct. 1 shooting that also injured hundreds before killing himself.
"Without naming names, there are potential charges against others as a result of the ongoing investigation?" Clark County District Court Judge Elissa Cadish asked Crosby as he argued to keep police search-warrant records sealed.
"Yes," said Crosby, who represe...
