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AMSTERDAM, 22/09/07 - The Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR) says the Dutch must adapt themselves more to Islam. It also advises the elimination of the word 'allochtoon', the most common term used to describe residents with a foreign background. The WRR itself thought up the word allochtoon in 1989. In a report at the time it was suggested this neutral-sounding word was less stigmatising than, for example, immigrant or foreigner. The WRR advice was successful; today, media, schools and politicians all use allochtoon. Now the WRR however advises using the word allochtoon as little as possible. The word "is...

France Races to Oust Illegal Immigrants By ELAINE GANLEY – 4 hours ago PARIS (AP) — A Russian boy suffers head injuries after falling from a window while trying to elude police. A North African man slips from a window ledge and fractures his leg while fleeing officers. A Chinese woman lies in a coma after plunging from a window during a police check. As France races to deport 25,000 illegal immigrants by the end of the year — a quota set by President Nicolas Sarkozy — tensions are mounting and the crackdown is taking a toll. Critics say the...

France approves immigration curbs The French National Assembly has passed a controversial bill tightening entry conditions for the relatives of immigrants living in France. Under the legislation, the relatives will have to prove they are solvent financially and can speak French. It also includes plans for DNA testing of foreigners seeking to join family members living in France. But the new bill has been criticised by some members of President Nicolas Sarkozy's centre-right government. The legislation would require immigrant family members older than 16 to take a test in their country of origin, demonstrating a good knowledge of French language...

Tuesday, September 18, 2007 For 15 years, Manuel Ortega was living his version of the American Dream in Florida. He had steady employment, sometimes working as a detailer for local car dealers, other times as a forklift driver. He earned enough to buy a van and rent a house for his wife and three children. His kids earned good grades in school and played with the family pet, a Shih Tzu named Chaparro (Shorty). They were safe and kept out of trouble. Ortega's dream, as he recounted it Tuesday standing outside a room at a Windsor motel, is now but...

Swedish Artist Displays Prophet Cartoon By LOUISE NORDSTROM – 5 hours ago STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) — A Swedish artist displayed a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad to a seminar in Stockholm on Tuesday despite a death threat from al-Qaida in Iraq. "Nobody has really seen this image and it has just become more and more impossible to show it, so I thought that ordinary people should be given the possibility to see it live," Lars Vilks told a crowd of about 100 people at a seminar. He then held up the drawing — a rough sketch depicting Muhammad's head on...

France worried about shortfall in deportation of illegals PARIS, Sept 12, 2007 (AFP) - France's immigration minister summoned some 20 local government heads for a meeting on Wednesday to demand that they step up deportations of illegal migrants. Immigration Minister Brice Hortefeux called in "prefects who must improve their figures when it comes to border exits," said a ministry spokesman. President Nicolas Sarkozy, who won election in May on a platform that called for tightening controls on immigration, has set a target of 25,000 deportations for 2007. But fewer than 9,000 illegal migrants were deported in the first five months...

Brown brings Maggie back to No 10Last updated at 00:34am on 14th September 2007 Comments (13) The wave was as magisterial as ever, although her steps were a little less confident. But walking through the front door of No 10 Downing Street yesterday, Maggie Thatcher seemed to be back where she belonged. It was a day that many thought they would never see. And as she arrived as the guest of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, it was perhaps a day that David Cameron wished he hadn't seen. As the Tory leader launched his green policy proposals, Westminster's attention was riveted...

Report estimates county's illegal immigrant cost at $256 million in 2006 By: GIG CONAUGHTON - Staff Writer SAN DIEGO ---- A county-commissioned study estimated that illegal immigrants directly cost the county of San Diego and taxpayers $101 million last year, and indirectly cost an additional $155 million in unpaid medical care. However, the estimates in the $40,000 study, which the county Board of Supervisors voted to pursue in May 2006, were largely based on anecdotal information rather than hard statistics. Supervisors sought the study in the hope of presenting federal officials with a bill for the costs of illegal immigration...

Politicians, regulators and financial specialists outside the United States are seeking a role in oversight of American markets, banks and rating agencies in the wake of recent problems related to subprime mortgages. Their argument is simple: The United States is exporting financial products, but losses to investors in other countries suggest that American regulators are not properly monitoring the products or alerting investors to the risks. "We need an international approach, and the United States needs to be part of it," said Peter Bofinger, a member of the German government's economics advisory board and a professor at the University of...

OMAHA, Neb. - Meatpacking plant officials accused of discriminating against dozens of Somali Muslim workers have offered to tweak break times to help accommodate the workers' prayer demands. If the dozens of Muslim workers and Swift & Co. can agree on details, a resolution could defuse the dispute that started earlier this year when 120 workers at the Grand Island plant abruptly quit because they weren't allowed to pray at sunset. Many say they were fired, quit or were verbally and physically harassed over the issue, and some have complained to the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission about the way...

Televangelist: I lost my show over Muslim remarks ST. PETERSBURG -- Televangelist Bill Keller may have finally met an opponent he can't out-talk. The controversial late-night Christian talk show host, known for his biting criticism of religious, political and pop culture figures, is going off the air. Keller, 49, says he ran afoul of the Tampa Chapter of the Council of American Islamic Relations. The group calls Live Prayer with Bill Keller a hate-filled broadcast that damages Muslims and Islam. Earlier this month, CAIR asked CBS executives to remove Keller's nightly talk show from WTOG-TV Ch. 44, a CBS-owned station...

Iraq report may bolster surge policy By PAMELA HESS, Associated Press Writer 48 minutes ago Intentionally or not, a new assessment of Iraq's political and military prospects landed just in time to bolster President Bush's case that the United States should maintain its troop buildup in the country and stand by its beleaguered government. The consensus report by U.S. spy agencies contained a veiled warning: Any move to shift U.S. troops out of their role directly combating insurgents could squander the modest security gains secured by the troop surge. "A change of mission ... would place security improvements at risk,"...

Texas has carried out its 400th execution since the US Supreme Court reintroduced the death penalty in 1976. Johnny Ray Conner, 32, was put to death by lethal injection for the 1998 fatal shooting of a grocery store clerk. Conner was pronounced dead at 1820 (2320 GMT), eight minutes after the lethal mix of drugs was injected. Earlier this week, the EU urged Texas to end the "cruel and inhumane" practice. Texas's governor said it was a "just and appropriate" punishment. System 'broken' Members of Conner's family and that of the victim, Kathyanna Nguyen, witnessed the execution through windows in...

Muslims want ban on Easter eggs 22 August 2007 ANTWERP – "If headscarves are banned for employees who work at the desk at city services in order to guarantee neutrality of services, then we demand that no Christmas trees be set up in city buildings and that no Easter eggs be given out." Antwerp trade union representative Badia Miri said this on Wednesday in the Gazet van Antwerpen. Miri is one of the seven Muslim women who were forced to remove their headscarves if they wanted to continue working at the desk. Three of the seven staff members of the...

Encouraged by widespread opposition to the conflict in Iraq, Hollywood film-makers are preparing to unleash an unprecedented wave of war movies on cinema-goers. In a notable break with the past -- where anti-war films were released several years after the conflict in question -- a whole new genre has been created even while US troops remain on the front lines of the "War on Terror." The release in the United States next month of "In the Valley of Elah", a gritty drama from Oscar-winning director Paul Haggis about the murder of an Iraq war veteran, signals the start of the...

Patriotic War Book Heats Up Hollywood lone-survivor.JPGI hear there's a frenzied Hollywood bidding war going on today over the No. 1 book on The New York Times non-fiction bestseller list: Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes Of SEAL Team 10 by Marcus Luttrell. Studio toppers are interrupting their vacations to try to get this book which was sold to Little Brown by superagent Ed Victor for a seven figure advance. What's even more interesting is that liberal Hollywood is hot for this patriotic tell-all by a proud conservative. According to The Washington Post review,...

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Monday he'd participate in the Sept. 9 Univisión ''forum'' to be held at the University of Miami. Hillary Clinton, who was to be a no-show, changed her mind last week and decided to appear. But Univisión has started calling what it formerly dubbed a debate a ''forum'' so Clinton could stick by her statement that she'd only participate in six debates. The Univisión forum will be different from others in that it will be conducted in Spanish with instant English translations. Democratic candidates Bill Richardson and Chris Dodd, who both speak Spanish, were the...

DOCTORS and health workers have been banned from eating lunch at their desks - in case it offends their Muslim colleagues. Health chiefs believe the sight of food will upset Muslim workers when they are celebrating the religious festival Ramadan. The lunch trolley is also to be wheeled out of bounds as the 30-day fast begins next month. But staff and politicians branded the move political correctness gone mad and warned that it was a step too far. Bill Aitken, the Scottish Conservative justice spokesman, said: “This advice, well-meaning as it may be, is total nonsense. “It is the sort...

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — An ethnic Indian Malaysian was sentenced to whipping and 10 months in prison for hiring six illegal immigrants, the first time an employer has been ordered to face the cane for the offense, officials said Friday. S. Varatheraaj V. Santrian was sentenced to one stroke of the cane after a court in southern Malaysia found him guilty Thursday of employing six illegal Indian workers at his restaurant in 2005, said immigration department prosecutor Azlan Abdul Latiff. "This is the first case where an employer is being sentenced to caning," he told The Associated Press. "I think...