Suspected assailants of rabbis arrested in Moscow

Moscow prosecutors said on Thursday that three men had been detained on suspicion of violently attacking two rabbis. Alexander Lakshin and Eliahu Fomiuk were assaulted when walking in a pedestrian underpass near a synagogue late last Friday, accompanied by two children. Lakshin said he had been kicked in the back and hit on the head with a bottle; the children managed to run away. A spokesman for the Moscow prosecutor's office said that three men aged 19 to 26 had been detained and that their involvement in the attack was being verified. Top Jewish leaders in Russia have largely praised the efforts of President Vladimir Putin's government in encouraging religious tolerance, but human rights groups accuse Russian authorities of failing to adequately prosecute the perpetrators of anti-Semitic violence.