The general manager of the Motiva refinery that saw a large fire on Thursday says all personnel at the site have been accounted for with no injuries reported.
Aug 122016
Aug 112016
For nearly 40 years, everything about Gil Grunbaum’s life was a lie, including his name.
He was not, as he had always assumed, the only son of wealthy Holocaust survivors who owned a baby garments factory near Tel Aviv. Grunbaum had been stolen from his mother by doctors at a hospital in northern Israel in 1956, moments after she gave birth.
His biological parents – recent immigrants to Israel from Tunisia – were told their child had died during delivery. They were sent home without a death certificate and denied the chance to see their baby’s body or a grave.
Despite his darker looks, it never occurred to Grunbaum that the parents who raised him were not biologically related to him. Now aged 60, he says the discovery was “the most shocking moment imaginable. Everyone I loved – my parents, aunts, uncles and cousins – had been deceiving me for decades.”
And so had government officials.
“Even when I discovered by chance that I was adopted, the welfare services did everything they could to try to stop me finding my biological family,” Grunbaum told Al Jazeera. “No one wanted me to know the truth.”
Aug 112016
Firefighters are on the scene at an apartment complex in Montgomery County where an “explosion” and fire left “multiple” people injured, according to fire officials.
As of Thursday morning, MCFRS Chief Scott Goldstein says at least 5-7 residents are still unaccounted for.
Aug 082016
Christopher Biggins, having been removed from Channel 5’s Celebrity Big Brother house for making a “joke” about the Holocaust, is to visit Nazi concentration camps from the Second World War.
To make amends, Biggins is planning to turn a trip to Krakow in Poland into a pilgrimage to the camps, including nearby Auschwitz where more than a million people were killed.
Aug 082016
Sprinklers have been installed near the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, leading to criticisms of insensitivity because of their perceived similarity to the Nazi gas chambers.
“I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel comfortable going into a shower at the entrance to an extermination camp,” Rabbi Rafi Ostroff wrote on Facebook, alongside pictures of the mist sprinklers.
Aug 072016
Princess Beatrice has split from her boyfriend of 10 years, it was reported.
The daughter of the Duke and Duchess of York is believed to have separated from Dave Clark a month ago despite hopes that the pair were planning to announce their engagement.
According to the Mail on Sunday, her family were shocked and saddened by the news, with her mother Sarah Ferguson telling friends it was like losing a son.
However it is thought not all of the Royal Family approved of the match, and although they were introduced by the Duke of Cambridge, it was rumoured that he did not approve of the union and pointedly did not invite Mr Clark to his wedding in 2011.
Until the birth of Princess Charlotte, Beatrice was sixth in line to the throne and needed to seek permission from the Queen before accepting a proposal of marriage. It was feared that she would side with Prince William and veto the match, but after Charlotte’s birth it was widely assumed that Mr Clark would propose.
It was claimed that Beatrice, 27, broke off the relationship when it became clear no proposal was forthcoming. A spokesman for Buckingham Palace did not deny the split.
Mr Clark is son to Michael Clark, a wealthy American lawyer who was head of the legal counsel at Cadbury Schweppes.
The couple, who ran the marathon together in 2010, were thought to be inseperable with Mr Clarka constant presence at royal family occasions such as Princess Eugenie’s birthday parties, several of Sarah Ferguson’s charity events and Royal Ascot. Mr Clark has accompanied the family on holidays to the Bahamas and the Swiss skiing resort of Verbier.
Beatrice followed Mr Clark to America as he pursued his career with taxi app Ube, enrolling in a finance course in San Francisco, where Uber has its headquarters, before taking an investment banking job in Manhattan.
Last week it was reported Beatrice left the company a month ago – around the time she and Dave parted ways. She has remained in New York and is working for friends at a consultancy.
Sources said the princess and Mr Clark still spoke occasionally but said a reconciliation did not appear likely.
Aug 072016
Christopher Biggins has made a tearful apology after being removed from Channel 5’s Celebrity Big Brother house for making a “joke” about the Holocaust.
Channel 5 ruled that the 67-year-old actor made remarks “capable of causing widespread offence” following a conversation on the show with former X Factor star Katie Waissel.
Biggins, who had made earlier controversial comments about Aids and bisexuals, told the 30-year-old, who is Jewish: “You better be careful or they’ll be putting you in a shower and taking you to a room.”
Aug 052016
Dozens of Black Lives Matter organizations jointly released a wide-ranging platform Monday spelling out standpoints on dozens of issues. But the new platform’s stance on Israel has angered major Jewish organizations.
The platform calls for an end to U.S. federal aid for Israel. By providing aid, the platform argues, the United States is “complicit in the genocide taking place against the Palestinian people.” Criticizing the construction of Israeli settlements in Palestinian areas and the arrest of young Palestinians, it describes Israel as “an apartheid state.”
That inflammatory language drew a strong response from Jewish leaders Thursday.