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The article reports that Denmark's government ministers have reacted with dismay to the prospect of debating a potential world first issue, a ban on circumcising boys, and mentions that idea has prompts questions about human rights, and religious freedom.

The article reports on a bill in Iceland that could make it a crime to circumcise infant boys for nonmedical reasons, which has drawn support from hundreds of doctors and nurses, and criticism from religious leaders, like Ahmad Seddeeq, the imam of the Islamic Cultural Center of Iceland.

The article reports on the vote of the New York City Board of Health on September 9, 2015 to fulfill the priority of Mayor Bill de Blasio for the cancellation of the regulations on a controversial practice of circumcision ritual in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community.

The article offers information on the plan New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to ease the ruling of the controversial ritual on circumcision, to wave the consent form from parents, to protect religious freedom of the Orthodox community.

BERLIN -- German lawmakers on Wednesday passed legislation ensuring parents the right to have their boys circumcised, bringing a close to months of legal uncertainty set off by a regional court's ruling that equated the practice with bodily harm. The measure passed by a vote of 434 to 100, with 46 abstentions, in Germany's lower house of Parliament, the Bundestag. The vote followed months of emotional debate, and angered and alienated many German Jews and Muslims, for whom circumcision is a religious rite, integral to their beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BERLIN -- In the first move to create legal clarity since a court ruling in June equated circumcision with bodily injury, local Berlin officials laid out guidelines Wednesday to allow the practice to continue in the capital, pending nationwide legislation. The move comes after an outcry from doctors, who feared they could be prosecuted for carrying out the procedure, after a ruling June 26 by a Cologne court that, although not applicable in other jurisdictions, created legal confusion around the country. The ruling also provoked strong protest from religious communities in Germany and abroad. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Jewish and Muslim groups from across Europe on Thursday called on Germany to protect the right to circumcise boys after a Cologne court ruled that the practice amounts to bodily harm. ''Circumcision is an ancient ritual that is fundamental to our individual faiths, and we protest in the strongest possible terms this court ruling,'' said a statement signed by European Jewish and Muslim leaders. The June 26 court decision applies only to the Cologne court's jurisdiction, but it has created legal uncertainty. Germany's Medical Association warned doctors not to carry out circumcisions for religious reasons until the ruling was clarified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Male circumcision will remain legal throughout California, after Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill on Sunday that prevents local governments from banning the practice. The measure was drafted in response to efforts in San Francisco and Santa Monica to outlaw circumcision for any males under 18 years old. In San Francisco, supporters of the ban gathered enough signatures to get an initiative on the ballot in November. In July, a Superior Court judge struck the initiative from the ballot, citing state law concerning medical procedures. Supporters of the Santa Monica circumcision ban failed to get the measure on the ballot. Two State Assembly members introduced legislation to prevent any potential circumcision bans -- which Jews and Muslims argued violated their free expression of religion -- in any other municipalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A judge said Wednesday that she intended to strike a ban on circumcision of male children from the city's November ballot. Judge Loretta M. Giorgi of Superior Court said in a tentative ruling on a challenge brought by the city attorney's office and Jewish groups that the ban violated a California law that makes regulating medical procedures a function of the state, not cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LOS ANGELES -- The primary backer of an effort to get a ban on circumcision on the ballot in Santa Monica is abandoning her push, saying the proposed legislation had been misrepresented as an effort to impinge on religious freedom. A similar measure in San Francisco is scheduled for a fall vote. The woman, Jena Troutman, a mother of two boys who began the process of trying to get a ban on the Santa Monica municipal ballot in 2012, said the news media had distorted the effort. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article reports on the appointments of several allies of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on the city's Health Board as his government prepares to present a plan that would ease rules on circumcision ritual linked to herpes infections in infants.

The article reports on the appeal made by lawyer Shay Dvoretzky to federal judge in December 2012 to block a New York City regulation about the circumcision practice of Orthodox Jewish groups. According to Dvoretzky, the regulation infringe the free speech rights of the religious groups since it requires parents to approve a consent form before their infants' circumcision. However, a city lawyer argued that the restriction is needed because the ritual can cause herpes infections to infants.

Vorarlberg Province has told state-run hospitals to stop circumcising boys, wading into a religiously charged debate after a regional court in Germany banned the procedure as physical abuse. The provincial governor, Markus Wallner, said he had halted circumcisions until Austria formulated a uniform approach to the practice, a religious duty for Muslims and Jews. ''This is a subject that has to be regulated countrywide,'' his spokesman said. Last week, Germany's lower house of Parliament passed a resolution protecting religious circumcision of infant boys after a Cologne court had banned the practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]