Women's prayer at Western Wall sparks protest

JERUSALEM -- Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews flooded into the Old City's Western Wall Plaza early Friday in a boisterous and sometimes violent protest against a group of female activists exercising a newly court-affirmed right to pray at the holy site in a similar fashion as men do. It was a rare scene of chaos, protest and sporadic clashes by Jewish worshipers in front of what most view as Judaism's most sacred place after the Temple Mount. Dressed in black hats and coats, mobs of young ultra-Orthodox men tossed eggs, water bottles and coffee cups at members of Women of the Wall as their leaders led a group of 100 men and women in prayer. Several women from the group wore white shawls...