A debate is raging over Switzerland’s naturalisation rate in the run-up to a nationwide ballot on citizenship procedures early next month. Rightwingers argue no country in Europe approves more citizenship applications than Switzerland. But officials say the comparisons are misleading. Over the past few weeks the rightwing Swiss People’s Party has been recycling... 

A court in French-Flanders annulled a marriage since the bride turned out not to be a virgin, report French newspaper Libération. The judges came to the conclusion that the bridegroom was deceived concerning an ‘essential characteristic’ of the bride, who had assured him before the wedding that she was still virgin. The judges therefore decided to apply... 

Municipalities in Sweden should be required to accept refugees, a government inquiry has concluded. Next week the results of a state commission will be presented which suggest that all municipalities should be forced to take in refugees, reports the Dagens Samhälle newspaper. Last year county administrative boards took over responsibility for managing the receiving... 

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  Human rights group Amnesty International has said it is extremely alarmed by what it calls a “climate of discrimination” in Italy. The Italian section of the rights body said recent tough new immigration measures were a worrying trend. It added that politicians from both sides of the spectrum were legitimising the use of racist language. Last week,... 

Jannes Mulder, former internist and oncologist, writing in the Dutch medical journal Medisch Contact, says that girls are still being circumcises, even though the procedure is banned. The Dutch Council for Public Health estimates that at least 50 girls are circumcised every year, mostly in the Somali community. In his article, ‘A drop of blood’, Mulder suggests... 

  HIP HOP music is fuelling gun and knife crime in Britain, says music star Tricky. He says some parts of the United Kingdom are now worse than New York’s notorious Bronx district. “I love hip hop. But it has to take some responsibility for the gun culture we’ve got over here. We’re getting super-violent,” the Press Association reported... 

THE service sector is at risk of losing more than one million jobs during the next two decades as a result of big business outsourcing work overseas, a union report predicts. One in 10 service jobs could be sent offshore, the report prepared for the Service Unions of Australia reveals today. The service sector accounts for four out of five jobs and 80 per cent of economic... 

HORRIFIC footage of a group of teenage girls bashing a mother at a shopping centre is being examined by police. Graphic footage of the fight, which appeared to have been filmed on a mobile phone by a teenage bystander outside of a Westfield shopping centre, has been viewed more than 140,000 times since it was uploaded onto the internet last week. Do you have information... 

Prison officers at one of Britain’s maximum security jails are losing control to Muslim gangs, according to a confidential report obtained by The Observer. An internal review of Whitemoor in Cambridgeshire warns that staff believe a ‘serious incident is imminent’ as several wings become dominated by Muslim prisoners. The report, written by the Prison... 

War Abroad, Poverty at Home By Paul Craig Roberts The US Senate has voted $165 billion to fund Bush’s wars of aggression against Afghanistan and Iraq through next spring. As the US is broke and deep in debt, every one of the $165 billion dollars will have to be borrowed. American consumers are also broke and deep in debt. Their zero saving rate means every one of... 

What the Talmud Really Says About Jesus “What exactly is so scandalous? How about Jesus punished in Hell for eternity by being made to sit in a cauldron of boiling excrement? That image appears in early manuscripts of the Babylonian Talmud, as does a brief account of Jesus’ trial and execution—not by the Romans but by the Jewish high court, the Sanhedrin.” Publisher’s... 

Was World War II worth it? By Pat Buchanan In the Bush vs. Putin debate on World War II, Putin had far the more difficult assignment. Defending Russia’s record in the “Great Patriotic War,” the Russian president declared, “Our people not only defended their homeland, they liberated 11 European countries.” Those countries are, presumably: Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia,... 

Israel provided a textbook example of a “hate crime” when Orthodox Jews gathered and publicly burned hundreds of New Testament Bibles last week. The Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, architect of hate crimes laws worldwide, says a hate crime occurrs whenever violation of the law is motivated by bias against an identifiable protected group of people... 

Instead of a rich legacy bequeathed upon the United States by forever U.S. Senator Teddy Kennedy, the oft-intoxicated, blubbery fourth brother of the Kennedy clan—four decades ago–drunkenly drove over a bridge that caused the death of Mary Jo Kopechne and lied about what happened. But his worst and most destructive legacy for the United States stems from his authorship...