Police who patrol Malmö’s Rosengård district are being offered a special Arabic language class to help them better understand and communicate with local residents in the predominantly immigrant area. So far 45 officers have signed up for voluntary twelve-week class, which will provide training on a number of common greetings and pleasantries in Arabic, the local Skånska Dagbladet newspaper... 

Former French President Jacques Chirac The trial of former French President Jacques Chirac has opened in his absence in Paris on charges of misusing public funds during his time as mayor of the city. Chirac’s lawyers had last week submitted a medical report to the court, explaining that the 78-year-old is in a state of vulnerability that makes him unable to answer questions about his past, the... 

The Dutch monarchy faces a vote in parliament this week which could remove its remaining political powers, stripping Queen Beatrix of her role as head of state and reducing her public functions to purely ceremonial ones. As well as being head of state, the Dutch monarch has traditionally been president of the influential council of state, and has regularly over the years become actively involved in... 

Torn apart: The parents, left and right, with six of their children who they fear will be taken away from them. Although it sounds like a story from the Twilight Zone, it looks like in England it’s illegal to be fat. Four obese children are on the brink of being permanently removed from their family by social workers after their parents failed to bring their weight under control. In the first... 

Football Association chiefs have made an official complaint after black England footballers were subjected to vile racist abuse from Bulgarian fans. Manchester United’s Ashley Young and Arsenal’s Theo Walcott were taunted with monkey noises and Nazi salutes during England’s victory in Sofia last night. The chants could be heard when Young was substituted and Walcott was targeted... 

It seems that French President Nicolas Sarkozy has warmed to the role of Napoleon. The events in Libya have infatuated him. Gaddafi has not been toppled yet, but Sarkozy already threatens Iran. “Its military nuclear and ballistic ambitions constitute a growing threat that may lead to a preventive attack against Iranian sites that would provoke a major crisis that France wants to avoid at all... 

As the coldest summer in Britain for 18 years draws to a close, a new study by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) has again pointed to the conclusion that the Sun’s cosmic rays, and their role in cloud formation, rather than man-made emissions, are responsible for the Earth’s changing temperatures. Climate realist and author Lawrence Solomon explains the results of CERN’s... 

A photo of the Milky Way galaxy Scientists at the University of Zurich in Switzerland say they have created the world’s first realistic simulation of the formation of the Milky Way. Astrophysicists from the University of Zurich working with astronomers at the University of California maintain that their recent video simulation of the Milky Way shows the creation of our galaxy less than a million... 

Millions of Russian Muslims are celebrating Eid ul-Fitr on Tuesday, marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan. In Moscow mosques were not able to accommodate all worshippers, so people poured into streets and lanes. The solution has been to allow the people to pray right outside in the street, despite the disapproval of some residents. This year, Moscow authorities opened a large exhibition center... 

Scientists say they have devised a way of using graphene, the thinnest material in the world, for a very speed exchange of data on the Internet. British scientists, including last year’s Nobel Prize-winning scientists Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov, believe that with the new method they can capture and convert more light than before, paving the way for advances in high-speed Internet and other... 

King's College London scientists are trying to use coral's natural defense against the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays to make a sunscreen pill. King’s College London scientists are trying to use coral’s natural defense against the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays to make a sunscreen pill. The team, who studied samples of the endangered Acropora coral in Australia’s... 

A shocking report prepared by the Russian Foreign Ministry for Prime Minister Putin on French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s unexpected trip to China last week to meet with China’s President Hu Jintao states that this Western leader told the Chinese that the Americans were responsible for removing from Libya an estimated 1,500 young girls and boys purported to be utilized as ‘sex slaves.’ Though... 

Twinkle, twinkle little star: The diamond planet - the shrunken core of a once-huge star - is a chunk of crystallised carbon measuring 40,000 miles across, five times the diameter of Earth. It is certainly what you could call a gem of a discovery. Astronomers believe they have found an entire planet made of diamonds. Scientists at the University of Manchester think they have unearthed a once-massive... 

Silvio Berlusconi (R) and Nicolas Sarkozy (L) The race for Libya’s vast oil wealth is gathering momentum. States who worked together during the NATO airstrikes are now working against each other in the battle to secure lucrative energy contracts. ­Meanwhile, fears are rising that a new regime in Libya could easily slide into corruption. Half a billion dollars from Italy, and now a whopping $1.5... 

More than 30 people have been arrested in Moscow and St. Petersburg as ultra-nationalists staged rallies over the death of Ivan Agafonov. Agafonov, 19, died after a scuffle outside a Moscow nightclub on Aug. 13 and Dagestan-born martial arts champion Rasul Mirzayev is accused of throwing the fatal punch. That has angered right-wing groups, who are planning a wave of protests against “Caucasian lawlessness”. And...