The 200 robed and bearded men gathered at dusk on the market square, rolled out their prayer rugs and intoned Allah’s praises as dismayed townspeople looked on. It was Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month, and the group that calls itself “Invitation to Paradise” was mounting a defiant response to weeks of public protests against construction of a religious school to teach its austere,... 

Diversity: New laws will encourage employers to increase female representation in the workplace. Employers are to be allowed to discriminate in favour of women, black and disabled job candidates under controversial new laws. Lib Dem equalities minister Lynne Featherstone insisted the shake-up announced yesterday was not about ‘political correctness’ but making the workplace fairer. The legislation... 

Austrian MP Ewald Stadler addresses the Turkish Ambassador to Austria, requesting him to be declared “Persona non Grata” due to his recent subversive remarks about Austria.  Read More »

One in four farming families are living below the poverty line, according to a study by the Commission for Rural Communities. A quarter of farming households receive relatively little support, either from agricultural policies or the welfare state, it said. Commission chairman Stuart Burgess said: “While many farming households have successfully increased production, resilience and farm incomes,... 

An Austrian has been fined for yodelling while mowing his lawn, according to a report. An Austrian has been fined for yodelling while mowing his lawn, according to a report. The Kronen Zeitung newspaper claims Helmut G. was told by a court in Graz, Styria, that his yodelling offended his next-door Muslim neighbours. The men reportedly accused the 63-year-old of having tried to mock and imitate the... 

Researchers at Edinburgh University’s department of psychology report that there is a biological mechanism underpinning the loyalty that a person feels to their social group. The study investigated whether people are hard-wired to show bias to people of their own religion, ethnicity and race, or whether loyalties depend more on context. This work adds to an extensive body of previous research... 

As predicted, the Swiss People’s Party (which actually fights for the interests of the Swiss People) has won its latest battle. Foreigners who commit serious crimes or benefit fraud will be automatically deported. The law passed with 52.9% of the vote. Leftists, who love both crime and destroying Western countries, were predictably upset. For example, Marcelo Kohen, a professor of international... 

Unless something is done to reverse the flight of ethnic Russians from the republics of the North Caucasus, a commentator in one Moscow newspaper says, that region will ultimately be lost to Russia because “a Caucasus without ethnic Russians can mean only one thing: a Russia without the Caucasus.” In Friday’s “Segodnya,” Aleksey Sidorenko argues that Russian outmigration from the region... 

A British member of the European parliament was thrown out of a debate on Wednesday, after quoting Nazi slogans in German in the chamber. ‘Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Fuehrer (One People, One Kingdom, One Fuehrer),’ said Godfrey Bloom from the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), which wants Britain’s exit from the EU. He was speaking in Strasbourg, France, during a debate on plans... 

Jem Stansfield travels to the Solar Furnace Research Facility in Southern France. He witnesses the incredible power generated by highly concentrated sunlight. Sunlight, focused intensely enough that it can (and does) burn any material on earth. Just how hot does it get in that ring of fire sunshine? Over 6,300 degrees Fahrenheit.  Read More »

French president Nicolas Sarkozy arrogantly snubbed Romanian president over Roma deportation issues The French-Romanian friendship on head of state level is not what it used to be. President Nicolas Sarkozy seems to have treated his Romanian counterpart Traian Basescu coldly, even impolitely, at the group photo with all NATO state leaders at the Lisbon summit. Basescu tried to stop his French counterpart... 

As America has been moving left, Europe is taking the opposite course. Social-Democratic parties have lost some of their dominance. These two maps plot political power. For countries with coalition governments, the holder of the Prime Minister or being the largest party in the coalition is used. Purple is where the Prime Minister and President are from different blocks (for countries where the President... 

Some 30 million Poles are eligible to vote in the elections Voting stations across Poland opened Sunday for municipal elections in which 48,000 regional leaders were to be elected. The elections are regarded as a political barometer ahead of parliamentary elections in 2011. Local elections in Poland have opened across the country, in a key test for the government ahead of parliamentary elections next... 

They are cursed in cities and towns across Europe. On talk shows, in newspapers and in bars and cafes, they are dismissed as parasites, threatening social norms and culture. And when unemployment rises and governments impose cuts on public spending, the eyes turn again to the immigrants. In France, once seen as a bastion of European egalitarianism, the issue of immigration and racial identity has... 

This artist's impression shows HIP 13044 b, an exoplanet orbiting a star that entered our galaxy, the Milky Way, from another galaxy. European astronomers say they have discovered the first planet that comes from a galaxy outside the Milky Way, according to research released in the United States. A hot, gaseous and fast-spinning planet has been found orbiting a dying star on the edge of the Milky...