A nativity scene featuring a dark-skinned Jesus, Mary and Joseph that has gone on display in a Verona courthouse has created heated debate in a city with strong links to Italy’s anti-immigration Northern League party. The nativity’s appearance coincides with the League’s controversial “White Christmas” operation, a two-month sweep ending... 

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Rabbi Dov Gruzman (left) pictured with former Jewish US Ambassador Ronald Lauder in 2008. A Chabad rabbi was attacked after presiding over a public Chanukah menorah lighting in Vienna. The assailant who punched Rabbi Dov Gruzman and bit off part of the rabbi’s finger following the lighting Saturday night in Stephansplatz Square was Muslim, according to reports. Gruzman,... 

Quentin Patrick will spend at least the next 16 years in prison because the convicted drug dealer, paranoid of being robbed, answered a Halloween knock on his door with a barrage of bullets from an AK-47, killing a 12-year-old South Carolina boy. But the 16-year, eight-month sentence handed down Monday was just 20 months more than the minimum Patrick could have faced... 

The Swiss people recently ratified a referendum that forbids the construction of Muslim mosques with minarets attached, and now Swiss People’s Party proposed the organizing of a new referendum that will deport from Switzerland all immigrants who committed a crime. This new referendum could enter in a conflict with the 1951 Geneva Convention about immigrants status.... 

Religious scandal at Chisinau/Kishinev after a group of almost 100 devoted Orthodox Christians lead by their priest teared up a Jewish Menorah on the day of Hanukkah. The Menorah was placed right next to the Stephen III of Moldavia statue (better known as Stephen the Great) Friday on December 11 by “representatives” of the Jewish community from the Moldovan... 

The Russians were less likely to register marriages with foreigners. However, experts still managed to calculate who among the inhabitants of Earth like most Russians. It turned out that the palm went to residents of neighboring Ukraine. At least , evidenced by the RF Ministry of Justice data presented in the State Duma on Monday at a roundtable on international marriages.... 

In Moscow, Vladimir Putin has held his longest-ever question-and-answer session with the public. During the 4-hour conversation, the Prime Minister covered everything from the economy, jailed former Oligarchs to depression.  Read More →

Israeli 'spitter' being carried away by Israeli authorities and left unpunished Father Samuel Aghoyan, a senior Armenian Orthodox cleric in Jerusalem’s Old City, says he’s been spat at by young haredi and national Orthodox Jews “about 15 to 20 times” in the past decade. The last time it happened, he said, was earlier this month. “I... 

The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund said yesterday that it would file a federal civil rights complaint accusing the Philadelphia School District of failing to address violence against Asian immigrant students at South Philadelphia High School. The complaint will claim that the district violated the students’ right to equal protection under the 14th... 

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi was punched in the face at the end of a rally on Sunday by a man holding a small statue in his hand, leaving the 73-year-old media mogul with a bloodied mouth and looking stunned, police said. The 42-year-old man accused of attacking Berlusconi in Milan as he signed autographs was immediately taken into custody. TV showed the leader... 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that the cabinet’s approval of a plan to change Israel’s map of national priority areas to include more West Bank settlements did not signify a permanent stance on the future of these areas. “We will determine the future of settlements only within the framework of a permanent agreement [with Palestinians],”... 

Danish police on Sunday released hundreds of activists who were detained during a mass rally demanding strong action from delegates at the U.N. climate conference. Police said only 13 of the 968 people detained during and after the demonstration in Copenhagen remained in custody Sunday. Of those, three — two Danes and a Frenchman — were set to be arraigned in court... 

Three African-American players from the Lappeenranta-based Finnish American Football League team Rajaritarit are suspected of rape. According to the club, the players have been in police custody since Monday of last week. “The matter came to me as a total surprise. We have made an effort to provide support to our players through the entire process”, explains Rajaritarit... 

A Stanford Professor has used United Nation security officers to silence a journalist asking him “inconvenient questions” during a press briefing at the climate change conference in Copenhagen. Professor Stephen Schneider’s assistant requested armed UN security officers who held film maker Phelim McAleer, ordered him to stop filming and prevented further questioning...