Israel Settles, Paris Summits; Holy Land Polygamy; Mount Synagogue; China Takes a Sail; India's Even Bigger Statue; and The Year Ends with a Ban

Israel

Israel plans more settlements; Abbas looks to Paris summit usatoday v

The developments came just days after the United States broke with past practice and allowed the U.N. Security Council to condemn Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem as a “flagrant violation” of international law.

In defiance of Israeli law, polygamy sanctioned by top rabbis timesofisrael

An organization catering primarily to the Jewish Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox communities actively encourages and facilitates polygamy, claiming the practice will help reduce the number of single women within their communities and at the same time give Jews an edge in the demographic race against Arabs in Israel.

Third Temple

The First Step Towards Building the Third Temple: A Synagogue on the Temple Mount breakingisraelnews

Yaakov Hayman, the head of Yishai, an NGO dedicated to reinstating Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount, is preparing to submit a survey map to the Israeli government to build four synagogues, one in each corner of the Temple Mount compound, a critical turning point steering Israel in the right direction towards prayer at Judaism’s holiest site.

In a rare show of unity in a profession trained in dialectic, rabbis from all sectors have voiced support for the construction. The seeds of the project were planted when Rabbi Shlomo Goren, the IDF’s Chief Rabbi, stood at the Kotel moments after it had been liberated from Jordan. Rabbi Goren organized several prayer sessions on the Temple Mount complete with Torah scrolls, but the government put a stop to them before he could see it through.

China

China's aircraft carrier prowling Pacific, sending a message cnn

The Liaoning carrier's J-15 fighter jets practiced air confrontations and air refueling in the Yellow Sea late last week before the ship and its flotilla of escorting frigates and destroyers headed into the open Pacific beyond Taiwan and Okinawa.

Also see Taiwan deploys jet fighters to monitor China's aircraft carrier focustaiwan.tw

India

How a half-billion-dollar statue is dividing India washingtonpost

Over the weekend, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the statue that will be completed by 2019, it reminded Indians about another tall, bronze statue that he had promised just two years ago. Modi had called it the “Statue of Unity,” statueofunity.in and it was to be the world’s tallest statue, portraying Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, one of the founding fathers of India, in his home state of Gujarat. But now the Shivaji statue in the Arabian Sea is set to be about 26 feet taller.

Also see 92-YO Artist Making Mumbai's 3600 Crore Shivaji Statue Explains How He Will Design It indiatimes

UN

U.N. secretary-general to kick off Times Square New Year’s Eve countdown cbsnews

Organizers of the Times Square New Year’s Eve celebration announced Monday that Ban will push the Waterford crystal button to begin the official 60-second countdown to 2017.