Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was reportedly in a meeting with Russia's Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar when FIFA, the international football, announced Thursday in Zurich its decision to choose Russia for the organization of the 2018 World Cup.

Australian Jewish lawmaker Michael Danby called on New Zealand Prime Minister John Key to dismiss his agriculture minister over a ban on kosher slaughter.

Over 50 Muslim and Jewish leaders from across Europe are to discuss initiatives to improve and deepen the sometimes tense relations between the two communities, at a one-day gathering in Brussels on Monday.

A British Euro MP was booted from the European Parliament on Wednesday after calling a German colleague an ''undemocratic fascist.''

Police busted on Tuesday a Chechnya-linked Islamist network plotting an attack on Belgium and rounded up another extremist group suspected of recruiting jihad fighters, amid heightened terrorism fears in Europe.

Charlotte Knobloch, outgoing head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, received Germany's highest award.

Two Jewish groups are pressing the U.S. Senate to ratify the new START missile reduction treaty with Russia.

The American Jewish Committee on Sunday criticized Pope Benedict XVI for saying his World War II-era successor, Pope Pius XII, ''did all he could to save people,'' in the current pontiff's new book.

Dozens of people attended the funeral of leading Moroccan rights activist Abraham Serfaty on Friday, including representatives of NGOs and members of the government.

A fierce Israel defender, he will have broad control over the House of Representatives agenda