Projet de loi relatif à l'immigration et à l'intégration . Excerpt from the "Exposé des motifs", by French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy: L'immigration demeure aujourd'hui sans rapport avec les capacités d'accueil de la France et ses besoins économiques. L'immigration à des fins professionnelles, qui représente à peine 7 % des flux doit être encouragée car [...]

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Leading Tuesday's international brief, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has resigned his position, removing the last legal hurdle to the formation of a new Italian government under Prime Minister-elect Romano Prodi . Berlusconi has been asked to stay in the government by Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi until a smooth transition can be arranged. Prodi [...]

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The Administrative Court of Thailand said Tuesday that it will probably release a decision in mid-May on whether the country's April 2 general election should be annulled. Considering its overlapping jurisdiction with two other Thai courts, including the Constitutional Court of Thailand which agreed Monday to consider a petition to void the election , it [...]

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US courts approved 1,773 requests for wiretaps last year in state and federal investigations, a four percent increase from the prior year, according to the 2005 Wiretap Report released Monday by the Administrative Office of the US Courts . In state courts, wiretap applications grew by 17 percent to 1,148 requests with New York (391), [...]

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French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin expressed support Tuesday for a proposed immigration law , but indicated that its language could be amended after meeting over the weekend with leaders of the Catholic and Protestant churches in France, who oppose the bill. The National Assembly will first consider the measure Tuesday afternoon, but religious and [...]

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A Turkish appeals court has rejected a prosecutor's recommendation and has ruled that charges still stand against Hrant Dink, a high-profile Turkish-Armenian journalist and editor of the newspaper Agos who has written about the killings of an estimated million Ottoman Armenians in the early 20th century. Accused of publicly denigrating or insulting Turkishness under controversial [...]

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