New York: Judge grants bail to one of six al-Qaida suspects

A federal judge granted bail Tuesday to only one of six Americans accused of being part of an al-Qaida sleeper cell in Buffalo.

In granting $600,000 bond to Sahim Alwan, Magistrate H. Kenneth Schroeder Jr. said Alwan had “disavowed any continued activity in al-Qaida” and had tried to extricate himself.

As to the five others, the judge said: “I find that each defendant … has not come forward with sufficient evidence to offset the government’s claim of dangerousness and risk of flight.”

The defendants six Americans of Yemeni descent are accused of being members of an al-Qaida cell awaiting orders from Osama bin Laden’s terror network to carry out an attack in the United States.

West Bank: Israeli forces go into Hebron

Israeli armored vehicles rolled Tuesday into the Palestinian parts of the divided city of Hebron, after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon defended an Israeli raid in Gaza that resulted in the deaths of 16 Palestinians.

Sharon expressed regret at civilian deaths, but declared, “There is a need to be certain that terrorist organizations will not have the freedom to carry out intentional murder.

“The operation was a successful operation. … There will be more operations in Gaza.”

New York City: Survey finds decline in U.S. Jewish population

The Jewish population in the United States declined and aged in the last decade as Jews failed to have enough children to keep their numbers stable, according to a survey released Tuesday.

The 2000-2001 National Jewish Population Survey found 5.2 million Jews live in the United States, compared with 5.5 million a decade ago. Their median age rose from 37 to 41 in the same period, fueling concern that the faith is not being passed down to a younger generation.

Half of Jewish women age 30-34 have no children, compared with 27 percent of all American women, and the Jewish women who do have children aren’t having enough to keep the population even, the survey found. Researchers said the numbers partly reflect that Jewish women, like other women, have been delaying marriage to pursue higher education and careers.

New York: Firefighters who died in 2001 remembered at memorial

Firefighter Lawrence Stack was off-duty on Sept. 11, 2001, when he rushed to the World Trade Center and was killed in the terrorist attack.

Now, his wife, Theresa, feels it is her duty to attend every memorial that honors him.

On Tuesday, she was among about 1,200 firefighters and relatives at a ceremony near the state Capitol in Albany honoring 359 New York state firefighters and fire safety workers who died last year in the line of duty all but 12 of them on Sept. 11.

Seven other names also were read from previous years, the earliest dating to 1866.

The annual ceremony increased the total number of names on the state Fallen Firefighters Memorial to 2,241.