German chancellor opposes circumcision ban

This week German Chancellor Angela Merkel set herself against a German court ruling by telling members of her CDU party that "I do not want Germany to be the only country in the world in which Jews cannot practise their rites," the Guardian reports. 

Last month, after a lengthy legal battle, a judge in Cologne outlawed male circumcision as being against the best interests of the child.

The decision instantly became a target of vehement criticism from Jewish and Muslim communities of Germany.