Iran will manage to bring its high inflation lower and return to growth next year despite Western sanctions over its nuclear programme, according to projections from the International Monetary Fund. The IMF forecasts, which also include a small trade surplus this year and next, suggest that although the sanctions are damaging Iran by cutting its…
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday is set to hear arguments on whether colleges and universities can continue to favor minority candidates in admissions policies. Given that the court in 2003 approved such policies, its decision to take up the issue again suggests it may be looking to cut back on affirmative action. The case…
Slovenia’s National Assembly is set to vote on a proposed ban on all ritual slaughter, which the European Union member country’s government recently submitted for approval. Estonia, meanwhile, has reportedly imposed new restrictions on its already stringent slaughter policy. Dr. Igor Vojtic, a member of the executive board of Slovenia’s Jewish community, told JTA that…
Belgian Health Minister Laurette Onkelinx has complained to police about a pamphlet naming a Jewish member of her party an “enemy of Islam.” The Turkish-language pamphlet called Yves Goldstein, an associate of Onkelinx and fellow member of the Socialist Party, “an active Zionist and an enemy of Islam,” Onkelinx said at a news conference on…
Iran would currently need at least two to four months to produce enough weapons-grade uranium for one nuclear bomb, and additional time to make the device itself, a U.S. security institute said on Monday. Estimates of how quickly Iran could enrich its uranium to the fissile level required for bombs are closely watched as they…
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney offered a sweeping critique of President Barack Obama’s handling of threats in the Middle East on Monday in a foreign policy address in which he tried to present himself as a credible mainstream alternative. Romney departed from his focus on the U.S. economy to talk about how he would handle…
A Hungarian nationalist online radio station called the recent assault on a Jewish community leader in Budapest a “response to general Jewish terrorism.” “Predictably and unfortunately, the good attackers were captured very quickly,” the news edition of Szent Korona Radio, or Holy Crown Radio, reported. The report was about the arrest of two men, 20…
A missile fired by an Israeli aircraft hit and wounded two Palestinian militants and eight bystanders in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday, Palestinian hospital officials said. The militants were riding a motorcycle near the town of Rafah which borders Egypt’s Sinai peninsula. One of them and a bystander were in a critical condition, the…
Palestinians freed from Israeli jails held their own version of the Barcelona-Real Madrid soccer match on Sunday to protest at the presence of a former captive Israeli soldier at the actual fixture. The five-a-side kick-about in Gaza comprised mostly of ex-prisoners protesting at Gilad Shalit’s presence in Barcelona. He was abducted by Gaza militants in…
The incursion by an unmanned aircraft into Israeli airspace at the weekend exposed the weakness of Israeli air defences, an Iranian military official was quoted as saying on Monday. The Israeli air force shot down a drone on Saturday after it crossed into southern Israel, the military said, but it remained unclear where the aircraft…
Unknown attackers shot blank bullets outside a synagogue near Paris. The security unit of France’s Jewish communities, SPCJ, reported that the shots were fired on Oct. 5 at the synagogue at Argenteuil, a northwest suburb of Paris, hours after the city’s chief prosecutor gave a news conference detailing the arrests of suspects in the recent…
