«Dialogue between religions is as necessary as ever in light of recent conflicts» said UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Monday at a meeting Monday in Vienna of Muslim, Jewish and Christian leaders aimed at forging new efforts promoting interfaith dialogue and tolerance.

After France, Spain said Wednesday it will back a Palestinian bid for enhanced UN status at the body’s General Assembly on Thursday.

The Rabbinical Centre of Europe (RCE) on Wednesday slammed a ruling by the Constitutional Court in Poland that shechitah, the Jewish ritual slaughter of animals, was ''illegal.''

Warsaw court reportedly rules against Jewish and Muslim exemption from stunning animals before slaughtering them.

PA leader intensifies efforts to persuade as many countries as possible to vote in favor of status upgrade at UN.

Meeting follows European memo discussing visa ban for ''violent settlers''; J'lem singles out British, Irish, Danish and EU foreign services for promoting the conference along with various NGOs.

The Hungarian government on Tuesday condemned comments made by a parliament member of the extreme-right Jobbik party who said officials of Jewish origin should be listed because they might be a ''national security risk.''

As Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas arrived in New York ahead of his appeal for UN non-member observer status later this week, British daily The Daily Telegraph reported Monday.

Forensic experts take samples from the late Palestinian leader's corpse in Ramallah to test for Polonium poisoning.

King Albert II of Belgium on Monday inaugurated the Museum of the Holocaust and Human Rights.