JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

Updated 02/06/12 @ 03:53PM EST

• Fifty Jewish leaders signed a pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in advance of Tu b'Shvat.
• Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman will meet top Congress members and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton during his U.S. visit.
• The United States and Israel have rescheduled their joint military exercise for around October.
• The United States closed its embassy in Syria out of security concerns, the State Department announced.
• A Knesset member from the left-wing Meretz Party has authored a bill that would provide financial aid to young people who leave the haredi Orthodox fold.

• President Obama expanded Iran sanctions to include parties dealing with Iran's Central Bank.
• Hundreds of Israeli teachers have sent a letter to Israel's education minister opposing school trips to Hebron.
• Jewish and historical groups in Poland have called for a day to be devoted to Poles who helped Jews during the Holocaust.
• Rabbi Shmuley Boteach has sent a letter declaring his intent to run for Congress in New Jersey's newly formed 9th District.
• Major Palestinian parties Fatah and Hamas agreed to form a unified government for the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

• A Baptist bishop in Georgia has apologized for a church service in which he was wrapped in a Torah scroll and called a king.
• President Obama said Israel and the United States will work in "lockstep" to keep Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
• Forty-three employees of NGOs in Egypt, including 19 Americans, have been charged with using foreign funds to incite violence in the country.
• Invective against Arabs was spray-painted on a home in a West Bank village.
• International pop star Madonna reportedly will launch her new world tour in Israel.

• Russia and China blocked approval of a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have backed an Arab League peace plan for Syria.
• Jewish and Israeli institutions in the Unites States are on high alert over concerns that Iran or its proxy will target them, a U.S. news network reported.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he will address the AIPAC policy conference as speculation grows about how the United States and Israel will tackle Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program.
• SNCF, the French national railroad, has handed over digital copies of hits World War II-era archives.
• Participants in a special Saturday night caucus in Nevada were required to sign a legal declaration stating they could not attend their regular caucus due to their "religious belief."

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