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A man and woman were injured this afternoon after a white van mounted the pavement at a bus stop on Upper Clapton Road. Police were called shortly after 4:00pm this afternoon (Monday, 1 August) to a report of a van in collision with two people. Both were taken to hospital by Hatzolah, an emergency service that serves the Jewish community and are not suffering life changing or threatening injuries. A posting on Twitter claimed the man suffered a fractured leg and shoulder, while a police spokes person told Hackney Hive that the man had a serious leg injury, the woman...

A group of men in Brooklyn apparently decided the fastest way to steal a bike chained to a tree was to cut down the tree. A video on YouTube shows the men early yesterday morning looking at the bike before finally chopping down the tree. One then rides the bike a bit, only to leave it right where the group found it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PcV4LVhSRLg

The Grand mufti of Jerusalem Sheikh Muhammad Hussein on Tuesday condemned the vandalism of a Ramallah area mosque earlier in the day, saying, "the attack on this mosque is part of a systematic policy aiming to flame the conflict and show disrespect to the religious and human values of others," the Palestinian Authority's Ma'an news agency reported. Arabs from the community of al-Muayar near Ramallah reported that a carpet in the mosque was set aflame during the early morning hours in what appeared to be a "price tag" attack...

CNN's Anderson Cooper interviewed Rep. Bob Wagner, R-Harrison, regarding his “birther” bill, which would require presidential candidates to provide the state with a valid copy of his or her birth certificate. During the interview Wagner said that he's unsure if President Barack Obama was born in the United States (he was, in fact, born in Hawaii). Wagner also.. posted using frpa

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – A California man was arrested in the U.S. Virgin Islands on suspicion of selling drugs to fellow passengers on a Caribbean cruise, officials said Friday. Steven Barry Krumholz, 51, of West Hollywood, was arrested on board the Allure of the Seas in St. Thomas, said Jeffrey Quinones, a spokesman in Puerto Rico for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The ship had just come from the Bahamas on a charter billed as the "world's largest gay cruise."

A classmate of the man accused of shooting Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords this morning describes him as "left wing" and a "pot head" in a series of posts on Twitter this afternoon. Caitie Parker did not immediately respond to our request for an interview, but her "tweets" in the hours after the shooting paint a picture of Jared Loughner as a substance-abusing loner who had met Giffords before the shooting. She says, Loughner described the congresswoman as "stupid and unintelligent." We've confirmed that Parker and Loughner went to school together at Mountain View High School in Tucson and that both attended...

Authorities have captured an Arizona prison escapee and an alleged accomplice who have been on the run since last month, the Arizona Department of Corrections said late Thursday. John McCluskey and Casslyn Mae Welch were arrested in the Springerville, Arizona-area, according to the department. McCluskey, 45, was serving a 15-year sentence for attempted second-degree murder and other charges when he and fellow convicts Tracy Province and Daniel Renwick broke out of the prison July 30, allegedly with Welch's help. Province and Renwick are already in custody. Welch, who was on the visitation list for one of the inmates, threw cutting...

Prosecutors accuse Uri Brodsky of illegally helping to procure a German passport used in connection with the slaying of a Hamas commander in Dubai. Prosecutors say an alleged Mossad spy wanted in connection with the slaying of a Hamas leader in Dubai earlier this year has been set free on bail by a German judge on Friday. Cologne prosecutors' spokesman Rainer Wolf said after a closed-doors hearing that the suspect known as Uri Brodsky is free to travel wherever he wants to go while judicial proceedings against him in Germany will continue. Wolf said Brodsky could "return to Israel today...

As both major parties gear up for the big push toward November's midterm balloting, accusations are flying in many states and districts that one party or the other is recruiting phony candidates so as to distort voter turnout. The idea, most of the accusers allege, is to pick off favored opposition candidates by filling their primary slates with candidates who either poach from their voter base or sow confusion on the ballot, thereby producing a weaker nominee to run against in the general election. Last month, for example, Democrats cried foul over the outcome of the South Carolina primary vote,...

Peter King of SI.com makes a point in his Monday Morning Quarterback column that reflects a sentiment that has been quietly spreading through the league: the Steelers need to have a plan at quarterback for 2010 in the event that Ben Roethlisberger isn't available. Though the key moment in this regard remains the ultimate decision on whether charges will be filed, the fact that the case already has created enough of a mess to keep Roethlisberger away from offseason workouts underscores the gravity of the situation. How serious is it? Says King, "I've been alarmed by some of the hearsay...

HONOLULU (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama said on Friday it appeared the man suspected of trying to bomb a Detroit-bound plane on Christmas was a member of al Qaeda and had been trained and equipped by the Islamic militant network. Defending his administration's counterterrorism efforts amid scathing Republican criticism, Obama said he received preliminary results of the reviews he ordered into air travel screening procedures and a "terrorist watchlist system" and expected final results in the days to come. Obama, who is on vacation in Hawaii, had called for an immediate study of what he termed "human and systemic...

No posts from Bloomberg allowed. Link is below or at nachumlist.com also linked.

FLINT, Michigan -- Don't rub the stars from your eyes: you really might see award-winning actor Brian Dennehy chatting up fellow star Fred Thompson at Gillie's Coney Island in Genesee Township or Blackstone's in downtown Flint. The pair have signed on to two of the leading roles in "Alleged," a new movie on the historic Scopes Monkey Trial being shot at Crossroads Village starting Sept. 14. Dennehy will portray Clarence Darrow and Thompson will play William Jennings Bryan in an original screenplay (not a remake of the Spencer Tracy classic) about the famous courthouse battle over evolution. Names have not...

NEW YORK – The list of investors who say they were duped in one of Wall Street's biggest Ponzi schemes is growing, snaring some of the world's biggest banking institutions and hedge funds, the super rich and the famous, pensioners and charities. The alleged victims who sunk cash into veteran Wall Street money manager Bernard Madoff's investment pool include real estate magnate Mortimer Zuckerman, the foundation of Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, and a charity of movie director Steven Spielberg, according to The Wall Street Journal.

SAN FRANCISCO -- The man charged with murdering a San Francisco father and two sons during a traffic incident appeared in court today and listened quietly as he was ordered held without bail. --snip-- He appeared shackled at the waist in a jail jumpsuit, a large tattoo of the Salvadoran national crest visible on the back of his closely shaved head. ... --snip-- The three murder counts carry special circumstances of multiple murder and murder as part of a street gang, which both carry the potential of life imprisonment without parole or the death penalty. Police say Ramos is a...

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela wants the U.S. ambassador to explain a violation of its airspace by a U.S. Navy plane, the country's foreign minister said Monday. The U.S. Navy plane was detected in Venezuelan airspace Saturday night near the Caribbean island of La Orchila, and questioned by the Caracas airport control tower, Defense Minister Gen. Gustavo Rangel Briceno said. The Navy S-3 Viking, used for counter-narcotics missions, may have accidentally crossed into Venezuela's airspace while experiencing "intermittent navigational problems" on a training mission in international airspace, a U.S. defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the issue's...

WASHINGTON - An aide to President Bush has resigned because of an alleged misuse of grant money from U.S. Agency for International Development and his former employer, a Cuban democracy organization. Felipe Sixto was promoted on March 1 as a special assistant to the president for intergovernmental affair and stepped forward on March 20 to reveal his alleged wrongdoing and to resign, White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said on Friday. The matter has been turned over to the Justice Department for investigation, Stanzel said. He said Bush was briefed on the case and felt that the approriate action was being...

KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan police killed three Taliban commanders allegedly involved in the abduction of 23 South Koreans two months ago, the Interior Ministry said. The police operation took place Friday in the Qarabagh district of Ghazni province, where insurgents seized the 23 South Koreans on July 19, the Interior Ministry said. "The commanders who were killed during this operation were directly involved in the kidnapping case of the Korean hostages," the ministry said in a statement Saturday. It did not provide any further details or the identities of the slain Taliban. There have been several military operations in Ghazni...

CAIRO, Egypt - Saudi police have arrested three men suspected of links to al-Qaida, alleging they used the Internet to plan terrorist attacks, recruit supporters and publish tracts on militant ideology, the Interior Ministry said Tuesday. A ministry statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency alleged that the leading figure, identified as Abu Usaid al-Fallouji, worked as "a coordinator between the members of the deviant group and sympathizers, planning terrorist acts and directly contacting others for financial help and for actual operations." Saudi officials use the term "deviant group" in reference to al-Qaida. The statement said the leading figure,...

A homeowner stopped an alleged burglar by beating him into submission with a football helmet. Kevin Williams, 44, of Palm Bay spotted a man outside his window at 3:15 a.m. Monday using a screwdriver to pry at the screen door, Florida Today reported. "I had to protect my home . . . I wasn't sure what in the world he would do, rape my wife, steal something, I didn't know," Williams said. "I got my son's helmet from the garage, went out there and hit him several times. I started from the head and worked my way down to the...