Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s scheduled visit to Austria was canceled at the last minute due Vienna’s denial of an Iranian request to clamp down on demonstrations protesting his visit, two leading Austrian media outlets reported on Wednesday. Rouhani was set to meet and sign a number of bilateral agreements with Austrian President Heinz...

The Iranian Supreme Court sentenced a man to have his eye gouged out in accordance with the country’s strict retribution laws, The Independent reported on Tuesday. The convict, identified only as 28-year-old Saman, brawled with his then-25-year-old victim Jalal in 2011. Saman said that he unintentionally blinded Jalal during the altercation with...

The Swedish Academy, which awards the Nobel Prize for Literature, has condemned the 1989 fatwa issued by Iran calling for the killing of author Salman Rushdie. The academy did not condemn the fatwa, which was issued in reaction to the alleged blasphemy in Rushdie’s book The Satanic Verses, when it was first announced....

The Geneva-based organization UN Watch blasted the United Nations Human Rights Council for appointing Michael Lynk, a Canadian academic with a record of anti-Israel statements, to be the council’s rapporteur to investigate “Israel’s violations of the principles and bases of international law.” A statement by UN Watch on Wednesday charged that Lynk “fails...

A committee of the University of California’s Board of Regents unanimously approved a proposal on Wednesday condemning anti-Semitism and “anti-Semitic forms of anti-Zionism,” saying that they were discrimination that must be challenged by campus leaders. The ad hoc committee will be sending the “Statement of Principles Against Intolerance” to the full UC board...

Britain’s Secretary of State for Justice, Michael Gove, said at a global anti-Semitism conference in Berlin on Monday that the anti-Israel boycott movement has adopted “methods of apartheid” against Israel by singling out the Jewish state for condemnation. “Israel is dealing with a prejudiced, systematic attack against its existence,” Gove said...