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ROME (JTA) — A crude firebomb was hurled at Rome's main synagogue, causing minor damage to the entrance.

The synagogue was empty at the time of the Saturday night attack, and no injuries were reported.

Italian police detained a suspect, a 34-year-old Egyptian who apparently seemed drunk or mentally disturbed.

Jewish community sources played down the incident, characterizing it as the work of a disturbed individual.

The synagogue, the scene of an 1982 Arab terrorist attack that left a small child dead, is heavily guarded by paramilitary police 24 hours a day.

Anti-Semitic fliers circulated in Russia

MOSCOW (JTA) — About 200,000 residents of the southern Russian region of Volgograd found anti-Semitic leaflets in their mailboxes last week.

The flier, which contained various anti-Semitic slogans, also made references to members of the Russian Cabinet and other top Russian officials who are Jewish.

The leaflet claimed that Russia is an occupied country with no ethnic Russians in the federal government.

"Only [Russian] patriots are the people. The rest are slaves," it said.

The leaflet called on local voters to support the editor of a local anti-Semitic newspaper in the upcoming elections for Volgograd's regional legislature.

There are 5,000 Jews in Volgograd.

Israeli doctor freed after Morocco snafu

MARRAKECH (JTA) — A prominent Israeli physician who was prevented from leaving Morocco for more than a week has returned home.

Daniel Weinstein, the head of obstetrics at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, was a key organizer of the First World Congress on Maternal Mortality, March 8 to 14 in Marrakech.

Moroccan police confiscated Weinstein's passport after the conference, apparently because he was held responsible for a large unpaid bill.

Weinstein acknowledged that conference organizers owed some $40,000 to $50,000 to the conference hall and the adjoining hotel, but he said a local conference planner had the money.

Politics may played a role in his detention. Although delegates came to the conference from 78 countries, only 77 flags were hoisted outside the conference hall, he said. The Israeli flag was absent.