UNITED NATIONS (AP) — China is going after the United States over more than $1 billion that the Trump administration owes the United Nations in unpaid dues for its regular operating budget and arrears for the separate budget for the U.N.’s far-flung peacekeeping operations. The unusual singling out of the U.S. non-payment by China’s U.N. […]

HERZLIYA (VINnews) — China’s Ambassador to Israel, Du Wei, has been found dead in his Herzliya apartment.  Israeli police have launched an investigation but initial findings suggested no foul play. The cause of death appears to be a cardiac incident, as the envoy was found dead in his bed by staff at his residence with […]

BNEI BRAk (VINnews) — R’ Refael Sheinfeld, a 59-year-old ZAKA volunteer in Tel Aviv and member of Chevra Kadisha Bnei Brak, passed away on Shabbat after contracting the coronavirus a month ago. Sheinfeld had been in serious condition in Ichilov hospital in Tel Aviv and had been placed on a special Ecmo machine which replaces […]

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Thousands of Bosnians, many wearing masks, demonstrated Saturday against a Mass in Sarajevo for Croatia’s Nazi-allied soldiers and civilians killed by partisan forces at the end of World War II. The Mass in Sarajevo was a replacement for a controversial annual gathering usually held in Bleiburg, Austria, which was canceled due […]

HAMEDAN,IRAN (VINnews) — ADL director Jonathan Greenblatt claimed Friday that there were “disturbing reports” that the tombs of Mordechai and Esther in Hamedan, Western Iran had been torched, but the extent and the exact nature of the reported attack on the site remains unclear and no attacker has been identified yet, according to a report […]

MOSCOW — Russian doctors say they are treating a woman who may have contracted coronavirus for the second time after recovering from it. The woman was discharged from a hospital in the Siberian city of Ulan-Ude after receiving treatment for coronavirus and testing negative for it in early April. But two weeks later she started […]

KIRYAS YOEL (VINnews) — The Satmar Rebbe, Rabbi Aharon Teitelbaum, sharply criticized his brother-in-law the Vizhnitzer Rebbe for meeting with Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu in the prime minister’s residence. According to a recording obtained by VIN News, Rav Aharon spoke at a special Le’Chaim tish (celebration) for a small number of his associates marking […]

WATERMAEL-BOITSFORT, Belgium (AP) — Something he saw as he drove to work one morning gave Tristan Van den Bosch an uplifting idea. “I saw a man shouting at his mother,” said Van den Bosch. Not unusual — except that the man was on the ground and his mother was three stories up. She was, like […]

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged governments, civil society and health authorities on Wednesday to urgently address mental health needs arising from the coronavirus pandemic, warning that psychological suffering is increasing. The U.N. chief said in a video message launching a policy briefing that “after decades of neglect and under-investment in mental […]

MADRID (AP) — Spain’s government said Thursday it will extend the deadline for descendants of Sephardic Jews expelled from the country more than 500 years ago, who have launched the process of acquiring Spanish citizenship but couldn’t complete it due to the pandemic. The extension of one year until Sept. 2021 only applies to those […]