Several hundred people have rallied in Cologne in protest against heightened trouble stemming from the migrant community, and the authorities’ failure to intervene and prevent the dozens of sexual assaults which took place during wild New Year celebrations. Organized via social networks, hundreds of men and women demonstrated against the intolerable levels of abuse witnessed by women at the hands... 

The German authorities must do everything to prevent a repeat of the mass sexual assaults committed in Cologne on New Year’s Eve, the country’s justice minister, Heiko Maas, said, promising swift punishment for the perpetrators. “What happened at the Cologne main train station and other locations in Germany is unacceptable, it may not repeat itself and the offenders have to be punished,” Maas... 

Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini on Tuesday said comments made by a fellow minister about dropping out of the European Union were made during the heat of the moment amid a spat over illegal immigration. “I don’t think he said anything about leaving Europe. He expressed strong disappointment , irritation and anger. Europe is and will be an extraordinary opportunity for us,”... 

Illegal north African immigrants protest over stagnated evacuation out of the southernmost Italian island of Lampedusa, March 31, 2011. Tensions between Italy and France were rising over the immigration emergency as more refugees coming from the southern island of Lampedusa tried to escape across the frontier and were pushed back by the French police. Tensions between Italy and France were rising over...