Across the United States, there will be re-enactments and parades, cannon salutes and speeches. The U.S. Postal Service plans to issue a commemorative stamp, while the Massachusetts Historical Society will display the pen Abraham Lincoln used on Jan. 1, 1863, to formally declare millions of slaves free. But the star of next week’s 150th anniversary…
Top Arab officials paid a rare visit to the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Saturday to discuss a Palestinian financial crisis that President Mahmoud Abbas hopes will be eased by Arab donations. Arab League Chief Nabil Elaraby and Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr congratulated the Palestinians on a successful United Nations status upgrade last month,…
President Barack Obama and U.S. congressional leaders agreed on Friday to make a final effort to prevent the United States from going over the “fiscal cliff,” setting off intense bargaining over Americans’ tax rates as a New Year’s Eve deadline looms. With only days left to avoid steep tax hikes and spending cuts that could…
A $100 million claim on behalf of a 6-year-old survivor is the first legal action to come out of the Connecticut school shooting that left 26 children and adults dead two weeks ago. The unidentified client, referred to as Jill Doe, heard “cursing, screaming, and shooting” over the school intercom when the gunman, 20-year-old Adam…
Some 200 settlers clashed with Israeli security forces attempting to evacuate the West Bank outpost of Oz Zion. The Jerusalem Post reported that the settlers threw stones at security forces, who eventually abandoned the evacuation attempt near the Beit El settlement on Friday, prior to the start of the Sabbath. The news site NRG reported…
Ron Dermer, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Bejamin Netanyahu, is set to replace Michael Oren as Israel’s ambassador to the United States, an Israeli newspaper reported. The daily Makor Rishon on Friday reported that Oren has requested to end his tenure in the spring of 2013, when he will have completed a four-year tenure….
A Belgian court ordered a Jewish school for girls to admit two boys or face heavy fines. If the Benoth Jeruzalem school in Antwerp fails to admit the boys, it will have to pay $2,600 for every day that the two boys are not allowed to study there, a Belgian judge ruled on Dec. 21,…
Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood produced the worst anti-Semitic and anti-Israel slurs this year, according to the Simon Wiesenthal Center. The Center topped its annual “Top Ten Anti-Semitic/Anti-Israel Slurs” list with a quote from Mohammed Badie, a Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader who lamented “Jewish control” and ”spreading of corruption on earth,” and recommended “holy Jihad” as a…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party is set to win a parliamentary election on Jan. 22 although the popularity of a far-right party opposed to Palestinian statehood is growing, polls showed on Friday. Two out of three surveys showed the right-wing Likud losing voters to political newcomer Naftali Bennett’s religious party Bayit Yehudi (Jewish…
Iran has slowed down its nuclear program, signaling its willingness to negotiate its future, the New York Times reported. Citing U.S. and other Western officials, the paper reported on Friday that Iran began in August to convert some of its uranium enriched to 20 percent into an oxide powder that can be used in its…
A Bronx woman has been hit with federal fraud charges for soliciting donations in the name of Newtown rampage victim Noah Pozner, federal prosecutors announced today. Nouel Alba, 37, of the Bronx, N.Y., was charged with lying to FBI agents in connection with their investigation into a fraudulent fundraising scheme related to the Newtown school…
