The Orthodox American businessman who has spent the last 18 months in a Bolivian jail without charge has been released on bail.

Grandfather Jacob Ostreicher, who was accused of allowing his rice farming business to be used as a front for money-laundering for the drugs trade, was ordered to pay more than £8000 in bail money and will remain under house arrest.

A Satmar counsellor has been found guilty of 59 counts of sexual abuse of a young girl in a case that has caused outrage in his Brooklyn community.

Nechemya Weberman, 54, was found guilty on Monday of a three-year-long abuse of a girl, which began when she was 12 years old. The girl had been sent to him for religious counselling because she was deemed “rebellious” by her Orthodox school.

Shas, Israel’s religious Sephardi party, has announced its official list for the upcoming Knesset elections.

Interior Minister Eli Yishai was awarded top spot by the party’s Council of Torah Sages.

Aryeh Deri came second and Ariel Attias won third place.

In an interview with Ynet on Wednesday, Mr Deri denied that he was running for the top position.

The city of Harish in the Galilee has become a new battlefield for secular and Orthodox Jews.

Harish was initially intended by the government to be a new Orthodox urban centre and after a marketing initiative aimed at the Orthodox community, an auction was held for plots of land in the city.

A Chasidic businessman charged with rape and indecent assault of a young woman may have to face a new trial in after a jury at Wood Green Crown Court failed to return a verdict.

Menachem Mendel Levy, a father of five aged 40, had pleaded not guilty to sexually abusing the woman from the age of 14 until 20.