Cabinet approves bill excusing ultra-Orthodox from IDF service

Haaretz

The cabinet approved on Sunday two recommendations affecting the ultra-Orthodox community, one of which will release most of them from mandatiory military service in exchange for alternative work in a civilian service.

The second proposal was to accept the recommendations of an interministerial committee to limit to five years the time yeshiva students can receive stipends. In addition, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office announced that 50 million additional shekels would be given to aid other students in need in conjunction with the proposals dealing with yeshiva students. [...]

Body of U.S. tourist found near Jerusalem; police suspect terror attack

Haaretz

Israeli security forces early Sunday found the body of Christine Logan, an American tourist woman feared kidnapped by Arab assailants while hiking with a friend near Jerusalem the day before.

Logan's friend, 46-year-old Kaye Susan Wilson, was hospitalized after she managed to escape her attackers despite multiple stab wounds and her hands tied behind her back. [...]

Medical science reverses itself on carbohydrates

Los Angeles Times

Most people can count calories. Many have a clue about where fat lurks in their diets. However, fewer give carbohydrates much thought, or know why they should.

But a growing number of top nutritional scientists blame excessive carbohydrates — not fat — for America's ills. They say cutting carbohydrates is the key to reversing obesity, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and hypertension.

"Fat is not the problem," says Dr. Walter Willett, chairman of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. "If Americans could eliminate sugary beverages, potatoes, white bread, pasta, white rice and sugary snacks, we would wipe out almost all the problems we have with weight and diabetes and other metabolic diseases." [...]

Bloody Muslim ritual in Lebanon

Caution graphic bloody scenes

CNN

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Humans, Like Animals, Are Fearless Without Amygdala

NYTimes

In the 1930s, researchers discovered that when a certain part of monkeys’ brains was removed, the animals became fearless. They approached snakes, started batting them around like sticks and played with their hissing tongues.

This experiment has been repeated in animals numerous times, and the scientific consensus is that when the amygdala is removed, an animal loses any sense of fear.

Now, scientists have confirmed that a missing amygdala results in similar behavior in humans, according to a study in the journal Current Biology. [...]

Somber Farewell Melava Malka For Spinka Rebbe Before Being Sent To Prison | AllJewishLinks.com

http://www.alljewishlinks.com/somber-farewell-melava-malka-for-spinka-rebbe-before-being-sent-to-prison/

Queens Jewish Community to host child safety program on January 2

In an effort to educate people about protecting children from improper
behavior, the Queens Jewish community is hosting a critical program for
parents, teachers, and rabbonim that will focus on prevention, awareness
and action strategies. The program, which is entitled "Keep Kids Safe
from Inappropriate Behavior at School and in the Neighborhood," will
take place on Sunday, January 2, 2011 at 7:30 PM at the Young Israel of
Kew Gardens Hills, which is located at 150-05 70th Road in Kew Gardens
Hills, New York.

This program is provided free of charge as a community service and is
being sponsored by the National Council of Young Israel, the Queens
Jewish Community Council, the Queens County District Attorney's Office,
the Vaad Harabonim of Queens, and JBFCS' UJA-Federation's Partners in
Caring @Pride of Judea.

Rabbi Noach Isaac Oelbaum, the Mara D'asra of Congregation Nachlas
Yitzchak in Queens, New York, will discuss halachic perspectives; Dr.
Shloimie Zimmerman, Psy.D, a psychologist in private practice in
Brooklyn, New York, will discuss psychological perspectives; and Lois
Raff, Esq., Counsel to the Queens County District Attorney, will discuss
legal perspectives. The communal response will be discussed by Rabbi Zvi
Y. Gluck, Clergy/Liaison to the Community Affairs Division, NYPD/Queens
South; Rabbi Fabian Schonfeld, the Mara D'asra of the Young Israel of
Kew Gardens Hills; and Daniel Maurer, the President of the Young Israel
of Kew Gardens Hills.

For more information about "Keep Kids Safe from Inappropriate Behavior
at School and in the Neighborhood," call the National Council of Young
Israel's Director of Programming, Rebbetzin Judi Steinig, at
212-929-1525, or send an e-mail to jsteinig@youngisrael.org.

Massive hunt for US woman feared snatched near J'lem

JPost

A huge police and IDF search was under way on Saturday night for a woman feared kidnapped in the Beit Shemesh-Jerusalem area, in what police think could be a nationalistically motivated incident.

The search, which was joined by volunteers, was launched after another Kaye Susan Wilson, found with her hands bound and several stab wounds in her chest and back, reported being attacked by two Arab men in a forest near Mata, located outside Jerusalem, within the Green Line. [...]

Convictions upheld in murder of French Jew Halimi

YNet

A French appeals court has upheld the convictions of 16 people for their roles in the 2006 kidnapping, torture and murder of a young French Jew - handing down sentences of up to 18 years in prison.

The appeals court in Creteil was hearing the appeals of defendants already convicted by a lower court into the slaying of Ilan Halimi, who was lured into their custody by a young woman, then sequestered and killed.

The ringleader, Youssouf Fofana, was not on trial in the proceedings that began Oct. 25: He chose not to appeal his conviction and life sentence. Fofana, a 28 year-old of Ivoirian origin, expressed no remorse and expressed defiance throughout his trial. On various occasions, he smirked at Halimi’s relatives, shouted "Allahu Akbar!" and at one point threw shoes at lawyers. [...]

Lieberman leads Senate Repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’

NYTimes

The Senate on Saturday struck down the ban on gay men and lesbians serving openly in the military, bringing to a close a 17-year struggle over a policy that forced thousands of Americans from the ranks and caused others to keep secret their sexual orientation. [...]In a last-ditch effort, Mr. Lieberman and Senator Susan Collins of Maine, a key Republican opponent of the ban, encouraged Democratic Congressional leaders to instead pursue a vote on simply repealing it. The House passed the measure earlier in the week. [...]

New York priest defrocked for child sex abuse

CNN

A high-ranking New York priest has been found guilty by a church tribunal of sexually abusing a minor in the 1970s, according to a statement obtained Saturday from the Catholic Archdiocese of New York.

Monsignor Charles M. Kavanagh was dismissed from the priesthood following the decision Wednesday by the tribunal, which was acting on authority from the Vatican.

The accuser, a former seminary student of Kavanagh's, brought the case to the Manhattan district attorney in 2002. He then wrote to Edward Cardinal Egan, the former Archbishop of New York, informing him of his claim, according to the Office of Communications for the Archdiocese. [...]

Beneath the Dead Sea, Scientists Are Drilling for Natural History

NYTimes

 Five miles out, nearly to the center of the Dead Sea, an international team of scientists has been drilling beneath the seabed to extract a record of climate change and earthquake history stretching back half a million years.

The preliminary evidence and clues found halfway through the 40-day project are more than the team could have hoped for. The scientists did not expect to pull up a wood fragment that was roughly 400,000 years old. Nor did they expect to come across a layer of gravel from a mere 50,000 to 100,000 years ago. That finding would seem to indicate that what is now the middle of the Dead Sea — which is really a big salt lake — was once a shore, and that the water level had managed to recover naturally. [...]

Astronomer Sues University, Claiming Religion Cost Him a Job

NYTimes

In 2007, C. Martin Gaskell, an astronomer at the University of Nebraska, was a leading candidate for a job running an observatory at the University of Kentucky. But then somebody did what one does nowadays: an Internet search.

That search turned up evidence of Dr. Gaskell’s evangelical Christian faith.

The University of Kentucky hired someone else. And Dr. Gaskell sued the institution.

Whether his faith cost him the job and whether certain religious beliefs may legally render people unfit for certain jobs are among the questions raised by the case, Gaskell v. University of Kentucky. [...]

Transplants cut in Arizona justified by incorrect data

NYTimes

First, it was distraught patients awaiting organ transplants who protested Arizona’s decision to no longer cover such operations under its Medicaid program.

Now, Arizonans who received such transplants, and are alive and well as a result of them, are questioning the data that lawmakers relied on to make their controversial benefit cuts.

“They say it’s too expensive,” said Star Boelter, 52, who had a stem cell transplant that was paid for by Arizona’s Medicaid program in 2009 after suffering from leukemia. “Well, how much is life worth? They say most people die. Well, I’m alive because of my transplant.” [...]