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Russia doesn’t list Hamas, Hezbollah as terrorists

moscow (ap) | Russia published a list Friday, July 28 of 17 groups it regards as terrorist organizations, and did not include the Palestinian group Hamas or Lebanon’s Hezbollah guerrilla group, both of which are regarded as terrorists in Washington.

Groups on the list, published in the official daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta, included al Qaida and the Taliban as well as the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, a rebel group fighting for Kashmir’s independence from India, and Egypt’s banned Muslim Brotherhood.

The Russian Federal Security Service’s top official in charge of fighting international terrorism, Yuri Sapunov, said that Hamas and Hezbollah were not a major threat to Russia and were not regarded as terrorist groups worldwide.

Polish city offers respite for young Israelis

lodz (jps) | In a highly symbolic gesture of friendship, the central Polish city of Lodz has offered to host a group of 15 youngsters from northern Israel for a two-week vacation in Poland to give them a respite from the war in the north, Polish officials said Thursday, July 27.

The initiative, which was the brainchild of Lodz Mayor Jerzy Kropiwnicki, has been passed on to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs for final approval, Polish Ambassador to Israel Agnieszka Magdziak-Miszewska said.

The all-expenses-paid vacation will include relaxation and recreation in the Polish countryside for the youths from the northern coastal town of Nahariya, and three of their educators, after two-weeks of nonstop Hezbollah rocket attacks.

Holocaust memorial defaced with swastika

berlin (jps) | Vandals scratched a swastika into one of the slabs that makes up Berlin’s Holocaust memorial last weekend, police said.

Security officers found the swastika on Saturday morning, July 29, a police statement said. The damage was swiftly repaired, but there was no information on who was responsible.

The memorial — a vast field of more than 2,700 gray slabs situated close to the Brandenburg Gate in the heart of Berlin — opened to the public in May 2005.

Authorities have said the memorial, which is freely accessible around the clock, drew some 3.5 million visitors in its first year. Although the slabs are covered with an anti-graffiti coating, five swastikas and four Stars of David were reported in the same period.

Berlin to return painting to Jewish heirs

berlin (ap) | A 1913 painting by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner depicting a lively Berlin street scene will be returned to heirs of the Jewish family that was forced to hand it over to the Nazis before World War II, the state government said last Friday.

Kirchner’s oil painting “Berliner Strassenszene” has hung in the Bruecke Museum in the German capital since 1980. No details of the restitution, including the identity of the original owners, or the heirs, were to be released, the statement said.

The painting’s value was estimated to be over $12.59 million, the government said.