Classes funding for Reform Jews ordered

JERUSALEM -- Israel's Supreme Court has ordered the government to allot funds to classes for Reform Jewish conversions. The ruling represents a small step toward recognition of the liberal stream of Judaism.

Tuesday's ruling followed a petition by the Israel Reform Movement, a liberal branch of Judaism that has long been engrossed in a power struggle with the Orthodox in Israel.

Only the Orthodox branch, which accepts Jewish law as obligatory, enjoys full government recognition and the financial support that comes with it. Reform and Conservative Jewish movements are prominent in the United States and other countries but are tiny in Israel.

The high court said in its ruling that the funding is a matter of religious freedom.

Lost Byzantine frescoes are recovered by Italy

ROME -- Italian cultural authorities said Tuesday that they had recovered two precious Byzantine-era frescoes ripped from a church in southern Italy by looters 27 years ago. The frescoes were found in the home of a shipping heiress on a remote Greek island.

The art squad of the Carabinieri paramilitary police showed off the delicate frescoes and other artifacts recovered by Italy as part of its crackdown on illicit antiquities trafficking. In all, police say they recovered more than $4 million worth of stolen statues, busts and ancient pots.

Police say the frescoes were discovered as part of investigations into Marion True, a former curator of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. True is on trial in Rome with art dealer Robert Hecht, accused of knowingly acquiring dozens of allegedly looted ancient artifacts. Both deny wrongdoing.

The frescoes, which date from the 11th to the 13th centuries and depict saints, were found in the home of Greek shipping heiress Despoina Papadimitriou. She is the sister of the late Christo Michailidis, a London-based art dealer who supplied Greek, Roman and Etruscan antiquities to the Getty. She has not been charged with any wrongdoing in Italy in relation to the looted art.

Okla. governor signs Ten Commandments bill

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Gov. Brad Henry has signed a bill to permit a Ten Commandments monument on the grounds of the state Capitol.

Henry took the action Monday, rejecting arguments that the display violated the state and U.S. constitutions barring government favoring a religion.