France approved a new immigration law
The upper house of the French parliament has approved a new law tightening immigration rules. From now on, people without education and professional qualifications will find it much harder to settle in France. The amnesty for illegal immigrants who have been in the country for more than 10 years is also abolished. Future immigrants will have to sign a special commitment - to learn French and respect the principles of the French state.
The US completed a roundup of illegal immigrants
US authorities conducted a mass roundup of illegal immigrants, resulting in 2,179 people being detained. The operation began on May 26 and ended last week, according to American police. According to them, illegal immigrants were detained in 34 of the country's 50 states.
Many of those arrested were wanted for various criminal offenses. They are citizens of more than 40 countries, mainly Latin American ones. About 900 of them had previously been deported from the United States to their home countries.
US Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff described the operation as "an example of a new tough strategy for strengthening law and order in the country." Such roundups are regularly conducted by American authorities. The most recent operation against illegal immigrants took place in April, when more than 1,100 people were arrested.
Catalonia has become the most independent autonomous community in Europe
According to the vote count in the referendum on expanding Catalonia's autonomy, 73.9% of residents of this Spanish region voted "yes." According to the website of the Catalan Generalitat, 20.76% of Catalans were against granting the region broad autonomy, and 5.34% of ballots were blank or invalid.
Turnout in the referendum across Catalonia was 49.41% of registered voters. The lowest figure was in the province of Tarragona (48.12%), and the highest in Lleida (51.58%).
The head of the Generalitat's public relations department, Josep Vendrell, said that "many Catalans did not come to vote because they went to the beach in the morning or did not want to miss the next World Cup matches." Nevertheless, "if Catalans did not like the new status, they would have put aside everything and come to the polling stations to vote against," the representative of the Catalan administration stressed.
Vendrell explained that thanks to the new agreement on Catalonia's status, "clear boundaries have been drawn between the powers of the central and local authorities in Catalonia," and Madrid "will no longer be able to interfere in matters that fall under the competence of the Catalan government."
The new autonomy status provides for greater financial independence - 50% of the value-added tax collected in the region will remain in Catalonia, as will the same share of income tax, instead of the previous 33%. In addition, the Generalitat's powers are expanded in matters of ensuring internal security, managing telecommunications, local airports and seaports, and in the area of immigration. The Catalan language is recognized as an official language on par with Spanish.
Catalonia is home to 7 million people - less than one-sixth of Spain's total population - yet the region accounts for about 20% of the country's GDP. With the adoption of the new status agreement, the Spanish region will become one of the most self-governing autonomous communities in Europe.
Arab interior ministries to take up resort security
Interior ministers of Arab countries have decided to strengthen security measures at tourist sites. In particular, they are talking about developing a unified set of security rules, as well as an action plan for crisis situations.
The documents are to be drawn up on the basis of the sad experience accumulated in recent years and are intended to "guarantee the safety and peace of mind of tourists." This set of measures is to be prepared by the next ministerial meeting in early 2007.
Muhammad bin Ali Kuman, Secretary-General of the Council of Arab Interior Ministers, speaking at the conference, condemned the terrorist attacks carried out at Egyptian resorts and against hotels in the Jordanian capital, Amman. He stressed that the terrorists attempted to strike at economic sectors vital to many Arab states.
Finland passes law banning smoking in restaurants
The Finnish parliament has passed a law banning smoking in restaurants. In accordance with the parliament's decision, the new law will take effect at the beginning of June 2007. It provides for a complete ban on smoking in restaurants. Each restaurant owner will be able, at their discretion, to equip a special closed smoking room where food or drinks cannot be ordered, or to ban smoking in the restaurant premises entirely.
However, large restaurants where non-smoking areas are equipped with an air conditioning system have received a two-year deferment for building special smoking rooms. For them, the law will only take effect in June 2009. The new law is intended to protect the health of not only non-smoking visitors but also restaurant staff.
According to statistics, about a third of waiters have to spend on average more than four hours per shift in an area where smoking is allowed. Moreover, dividing into zones, if there is no air conditioning system, practically does not save non-smoking visitors from cigarette smoke.
A similar law banning smoking in restaurants is in effect in Norway.
Austria begins issuing biometric passports
In Austria, new biometric passports with a chip containing the owner's biometric data have started to be issued. These documents are being brought into compliance with a common European Union decision, said Austrian Interior Minister Liese Prokop at a presentation of the new passport model. According to her, similar documents with biometric data are already in use in Belgium, Sweden, Great Britain, Germany, and France.
At first, the passport chip will contain traditional data - personal information, a photograph, and a signature. Fingerprints will not be added until two or three years from now. Old passports will remain valid until their expiration date.
New passports will be printed at the state printing house for security reasons. From the day of application to receipt of the document, one will have to wait about five days. The fee for obtaining a passport remains the same - €69.
In the US, the number of schools with single-sex education has increased
The number of schools with single-sex education for boys and girls in the US has increased more than 50-fold since 1998, the director of the National Association for Single Sex Public Education, Leonard Sax, told reporters.
“Since 1998, the number of schools in the US offering single-sex education for boys and girls has grown from four to at least 223. Schools with at least a few ‘single-sex’ classes exist in 32 states of the country,” Sax said. In his opinion, a rapid growth in the number of schools practicing single-sex education is expected in the US in the near future.
According to Sax, new directives from the US Department of Education will be issued this summer that will significantly ease the organization of experiments with single-sex education for American schools. “These changes to the rules for public schools were proposed back in 2004. Their adoption will encourage thousands of educational institutions to join the gender education program,” Sax emphasized.
Current US federal education regulations permit the creation of schools for students of a particular sex only if a similar institution for the opposite sex is opened simultaneously in the same region, in order to ensure equal educational rights for both sexes. Under the new changes to the rules for schools, this restriction is planned to be abolished.