Jewish & World News

Tributes have been pouring in from Anglo-Jewry in memory of the late British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. Baroness Thatcher, who died on Monday at the age of 87, was described as "a giant who had a transformative impact on Britain" by chief rabbi Lord Sacks.

The British Labor party suspended politician Lord Nazir Ahmed over allegations that he blamed a road accident that he caused on a Jewish conspiracy. Ahmed, 55, was jailed for causing a deadly road accident while texting behind the wheel. Earlier Thursday the Times of London cited him as saying that his prison sentence was a result of pressure applied on the court by Jews “who own newspapers and television channels.”

Poultry has gone off the menu for many Orthodox London Jews because 80 percent of the chickens that have been slaughtered for them were declared not kosher. “We apologize to the public for the shortage of chickens in the recent/current week/s,” according to an announcement dated March 7 by the Kashrut Committee of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations.

The British capital’s new Jewish community center buried a time capsule on Wednesday on the site of its purpose- built building to give the next generation a glimpse of how London Jews went about their lives in 2013. The time capsule was buried in the piazza floor at the state-of-the-art building – known as JW3, and located in Hampstead, northwest London – which is nearing completion and will be one of the largest Jewish community centers in Europe when it opens in September.

A Jewish school and an Islamic school in Manchester, England, entered into a twinning relationship. The King David High School and the Manchester Islamic High School for Girls will hold exchange trips and lessons.

Restoration of one of Britain's oldest synagogues will begin in March. The roof of Exeter Synagogue, which celebrates its 250th anniversary this year, will be replaced in the project. The work will cost about £118,000 and will include repairing one of the walls which has suffered from damp, said a synagogue spokeswoman.

Anti-Semitic incidents in Britain rose 5 percent over the previous year, making 2012 the third highest number of incidents on record. The Community Service Trust, British Jewry's security unit, reported Thursday that there were 640 reported anti-Semitic incidents, compared to 608 in 2011.

Computer hacking collective Anonymous says it has attacked government websites in retaliation for the UK's handling of the Julian Assange case. It claimed responsibility on Twitter for the denial-of-service attacks. Websites affected include the Ministry of Justice and the Home Office.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is keeping busy inside Ecuador's London embassy by working on his computer, exercising on a treadmill and cooking food in his microwave, according to friends. Vaughan Smith, a former army officer who hosted 41-year-old Assange at his English mansion for more than a year while the Australian was under house arrest, said conditions in the embassy were basic, but comfortable enough.

A painful economic recession, rising unemployment and biting austerity measures may have already driven more than 1,000 people in Britain to commit suicide, according to a scientific study published on Wednesday. Don't miss these Health stories The study, a so-called time-trend analysis which compared the actual number of suicides with those expected if pre-recession trends had continued, reflects findings elsewhere in Europe where suicides are also on the rise.

Prime Minister David Cameron said on Thursday that Britain's Olympic cycling glory has driven France "mad", and rejected claims of cheating by pointing out that the riders' wheels are made across the Channel. "We've got a system that seems to be delivering. It's driving the French mad," Cameron told BBC radio in an interview.

Sixteen gang members have received prison sentences ranging from 16 months to nine years for their role in Britain's riots a year ago. The riots lasted from Aug. 7-10, 2011. They were triggered by the police killing of a London gang member and swept several English cities including the capital.

The world must “never forget” the terrorist attacks that killed Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics, David Cameron has said. On the 40th anniversary of the attack, the British Prime Minister led tributes to the 11 men who lost their lives on “one of the darkest days in the history of the Olympic Games”.

A ten-year-old child in Essex has been given permission by a judge to convert to Christianity against her Jewish mother's wishes. Both parents of the girl, who cannot be named, are Jewish. But after the marriage soured, her father converted to Christianity and his children, the girl and a younger brother, could now do the same.

London - A first-class stamp will rise in price from 46p to 60p from 30 April after the regulator lifted some price controls on Royal Mail. A second-class stamp will go up from 36p to 50p - some 5p below the top price allowed by Ofcom.

Heavy drinking is a major cause of a 25% increase in deaths from liver disease in England in under a decade, according to the government's specialist NHS unit on terminal care. The first report from the fledgling National End of Life Care Intelligence Network warns that the victims of liver disease are getting younger, with deaths increasing among people in their forties. Deaths rose from 9,231 in 2001 to 11,575 in 2009; some 60% of these were men, and 90% of them were under 70. Deaths are more common in England's northern regions marked by high unemployment and low educational achievement.

Restrictions on hundreds of Welsh and Cumbrian sheep farms dating back to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster have finally been lifted - 26 years on. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) said the controls were not "proportionate" to the "very low risk" and removing them would not compromise the consumer.

A British television station is searching for the "ultimate Jewish mother" for a new series. The four-part "Jewish Mum of the Year" series on Channel 4, which is being filmed in collaboration with The Jewish News of Britain, will air in the fall. Contestants reportedly will be judged on their skills in cooking, homemaking, matchmaking, party planning and how well they know their children. The search reportedly will focus on large Jewish communities in Glasgow, Manchester, Leeds, Essex and London.

Shocked London Olympics workers fled after an excavator struck a Nazi bomb left over from World War II. Construction crews from the 2012 Games raced away Wednesday amid fears the relic could explode. The scare halted work to clear a site for four temporary indoor basketball courts in east London. It resumed four hours later after police were called and the 2.2-pound (one-kilogram) bomb was taken away.

Tourists will not be charged for trips up the the Big Ben clock tower until at least 2015, after a U-turn by the Commons group which suggested the idea. Several MPs raised objections to charging £15, saying it would discourage people on average earnings from visiting. So the House of Commons Commission decided not to push for change until at least the end of this parliament.