A tourist trail tracing the boundary of the former Warsaw ghetto was inaugurated in the Polish capital Wednesday, honouring the memory of the 450,000 Jews from the city killed by the occupying Nazis.

Twenty-one commemorative plaques bearing photographs from the period have been installed at key points along the trail, although few vestiges of the ghetto remain today.

A tourist trail tracing the boundary of the former Warsaw ghetto was inaugurated in the Polish capital Wednesday, honouring the memory of the city`s 450,000 Jews killed by the occupying Nazis.

Twenty-one commemorative plaques bearing photographs from the period have been installed at key points along the trail, although few vestiges of the ghetto remain today.

The leader of Lithuania`s Jewish community Wednesday received a top German award to honour his efforts to reconcile Germans and Lithuanian Jews, who were all but wiped out in the Holocaust.

Germany`s embassy in Vilnius said that Simonas Alperavicius, 80, had received the German Cross of Merit, First Class, which is the only decoration awarded by the German state.

The leader of Lithuania`s Jewish community Wednesday received a top German award to honour his efforts to reconcile Germans and Lithuanian Jews, who were all but wiped out in the Holocaust.

Germany`s embassy in Vilnius said that Simonas Alperavicius, 80, had received the German Cross of Merit, First Class, which is the only decoration awarded by the German state.

An Auschwitz survivor warned Friday that `history is repeating itself` in Italy, where Roma, or gypsies, face state-sanctioned discrimination 70 years after the notorious racial laws here targetting Jews.

Barack Obama`s new chief of staff Friday apologized to a US organization defending Arab rights after his father made derogatory anti-Arab comments to a major Israeli daily.

Rahm Emanuel called the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee to repudiate the remarks made by his father Benjamin, an Israeli doctor, to the Israeli daily Maariv.

An anti-Semitic book by US automobile pioneer Henry Ford, reprinted by Iran, was withdrawn from an international book fair in the Croatian capital, organisers said Friday.

The book `The International Jew,` first printed in the 1920s, was withdrawn from the Iranian stand at the Zagreb Interliber fair after a protest by the Israeli embassy here, an official said.

The 16th edition of the Vienna Jewish Film Festival opened Thursday with 35 feature films and several short subjects and documentaries on the programme of the two-week event.

Barack Obama attracted great support from Jewish voters in his run for the US presidency despite the controversy surrounding the Democrat`s alleged links with Islam, according to political analysts.

Exit polls from the November 4 election indicate that 78 percent of Jewish voters chose Obama over his Republican rival John McCain.

Too poor and too few, Poland`s several thousand Jews lack the resources to preserve their heritage, still in jeopardy after the destruction wrought by the Nazis and decades of communism.

`It`s urgent. If we don`t react now, in 10 years, there will be even more ruins,` laments Monika Krawczyk, head of the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland (FODZ).

US architect Daniel Libeskind is to design a new synagogue in Munich, possibly on the site of the southern Germany city`s first Jewish house of worship, Jewish leaders said on Tuesday.

A German body investigating Nazi war crimes said Monday it had enough evidence for prosecutors to bring charges against an alleged former death camp guard now living in the United States.

A German body investigating Nazi war crimes said Monday it had enough evidence for prosecutors to bring charges against an alleged former death camp guard now living in the United States.

A prominent Jewish group said Monday it was reviewing legal options against a German neo-Nazi party for `racist` remarks calling Barack Obama`s election a `declaration of war` on non-white America.

A prominent Jewish group said Monday it was reviewing legal options against a German neo-Nazi party for `racist` remarks calling Barack Obama`s election a `declaration of war` on non-white America.

Germany marked Sunday the 70th anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogrom, a prelude to the Holocaust, with solemn ceremonies throughout the country and celebrations of the rebirth of Jewish life here.

Germany marked Sunday the 70th anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogrom, a prelude to the Holocaust, with solemn ceremonies throughout the country and celebrations of the rebirth of Jewish life here.

Austria on Sunday joined Germany in marking at solemn ceremonies the 70th anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogrom, a prelude to the Holocaust.

Austria on Sunday joined Germany in marking at solemn ceremonies the 70th anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogrom, a prelude to the Holocaust.

Pope Benedict XVI marked Sunday the 70th anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogrom, a prelude to the Holocaust, by recalling the agony he felt as a boy growing up in Nazi Germany.

Germany marked Sunday the 70th anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogrom, a prelude to the Holocaust, with solemn ceremonies throughout the country and celebrations of the rebirth of Jewish life here.

The anniversary of one of the most shameful chapters of Germany`s turbulent history and one of its most euphoric both fall on Sunday, prompting commemorations and celebrations throughout the country.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Saturday, on the eve of the 70th anniversary of major anti-Jewish riots, on her compatriots to `fight with determination` against racism and anti-Semitism.

Pope Benedict XVI Saturday returned to the defence of one of his predecessors, Pius XII, accused of passivity during the Nazi genocide of Jews, saying the controversy was excessive and one-sided.

Original plans for the construction of the Nazi extermination camp of Auschwitz, including a gas chamber and crematorium, have been found in a Berlin apartment, a newspaper reported Saturday.

The leader of Belgium`s far-right National Front party, Michel Delacroix, resigned Thursday a few hours after he was shown on television singing a song making light of the Holocaust.

For Steffi Pinkus the first memory of the Nazi pogrom Kristallnacht, 70 years ago this week, is her uncle`s panicked voice as he learned the noose was tightening around the necks of Germany`s Jews.

A Vatican exhibit marking 50 years since the death of Pius XII was to open Tuesday, just days after Pope Benedict XVI placed his controversial Nazi-era predecessor`s sainthood dossier on hold.

A Vatican exhibit marking 50 years since the death of Pius XII was to open Tuesday, just days after Pope Benedict XVI placed his controversial Nazi-era predecessor`s sainthood dossier on hold.

Jewish leaders expressed outrage Monday over two `hate crimes` committed in Germany over the weekend, before the 70th anniversary of the Nazis` Kristallnacht pogrom.

Police reported that two men in a car cut off a minivan carrying a rabbi and eight rabbinical students in Berlin early Sunday and repeatedly shouted anti-Semitic slurs before throwing a burning object at the vehicle.

Austria awarded the Israeli historian, Yehuda Bauer, one of its highest awards Thursday for his work and research on the Holocaust.

At a ceremony in Austria`s education ministry, State Secretary Hans Winkler awarded Czech-born Bauer the Golden Honour Badge for Merit of the Republic of Austria.

Pope Benedict XVI may wait for the opening of archives on Pope Pius XII -- not expected for at least six years -- before any possible beatification of the controversial wartime pontiff, an official said Thursday.

GONDER, Ethiopia, Oct 27, 2008 (AFP) - In a makeshift synagogue painted in the colours of Israel's national flag, thousands of Ethiopian Jews listen as a sermon is relayed live by mobile phone speaker from the Israeli city of Haifa.

BRUSSELS, Oct 27, 2008 (AFP) - A Belgian culinary show has yanked plans to feature Adolf Hitler's 'favourite meal' this week after cooking up a controversy, Flemish public television VRT said Monday.

'The management of VRT defends the content of the programme but preferred to withdraw it from scheduling on account of the controversy,' the channel said in a statement.

VIENNA, Oct 27, 2008 (AFP) - A tram driver in the Austrian capital has been sacked after using the Nazi greeting 'Sieg Heil' on a late-night journey, Vienna's public transport company Wiener Linien said Monday.

The 35-year-old 'has already collected his working papers,' a company spokesman said.

BRUSSELS, Oct 24, 2008 (AFP) - Belgians will discover Tuesday the culinary secrets behind trout in butter sauce, as a television cooking show focuses on Adolf Hitler's 'favourite meal', a programme already slammed by a Jewish group.

President Alexander Lukashenko took part in unprecedented commemorations Monday for hundreds of thousands of Jews killed in Belarus during the Nazi World War II occupation.