London - main business center of the EU
London is the main business center of the European Union. This is evidenced by the results of a special survey called European Cities Monitor, published in Brussels and conducted this fall among the heads of 507 large European companies. Behind the UK capital in the top five cities most important for European business, businessmen named Paris, Frankfurt, Barcelona, and Brussels.
Russia calls compatriots
The Federal Migration Service of Russia will open 11 representative offices abroad, which will deal with the return of compatriots to their homeland. As the head of the FMS Konstantin Romodanovsky stated, five such representative offices are already successfully operating in Turkmenistan, Latvia, Armenia, Georgia, and Tajikistan, and by the end of 2007 another 11 services will appear - in Kazakhstan, Moldova, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Lithuania, Estonia, Germany, the USA, and Israel.
The FMS program promises great benefits to those wishing to return. Newcomers can count on relocation allowances, moving expenses, housing, employment, and a social package. In addition, as Konstantin Romodanovsky said, participants in this program will be able to obtain Russian citizenship in an accelerated manner. So, if a foreigner without privileges can count on a Russian passport only five years after moving to Russia, a program participant will receive the document in just two to three months.
As clarified by the FMS press service, a compatriot will be spared not only from the need to obtain a temporary residence permit and a residence permit, but also from collecting a package of documents for citizenship. "Only an application is required, the rest of the documents will be processed by FMS employees," explained FMS press secretary Konstantin Poltoranin. "Until receiving a Russian passport, a compatriot will be protected by a certificate of program participation." At the same time, program participants will be deprived of the right to dual citizenship.
Konstantin Romodanovsky came up with another initiative concerning illegal immigrants. In January 2007, the FMS plans to declare an amnesty for all illegals, that is, allow them to officially register the right to work and live, regardless of how they ended up in Russia. The FMS plans to start the amnesty exactly two weeks before the new migration legislation comes into force, simplifying the registration procedure for foreign citizens in Russia. According to the calculations of Romodanovsky's department, two weeks will be enough for all those wishing among the 10 million illegals to start a new life.
Latvia left a chance for citizenship to Russians
The Latvian parliament rejected a draft law on citizenship that aimed to make the procedure for obtaining Latvian citizenship as difficult as possible, denying the "blue passport" to several categories of citizens.
Thus, the bill provided for the termination of the naturalization process for persons "who arrived in Latvia during the period of occupation." Except for rare cases when citizenship would be granted by the Saeima for special merits to the country, or provided that the person is a spouse of a Latvian citizen. Also, the authors of the document, belonging to the party Tevzemei un brivibai/LNNK, proposed in their bill to deny citizenship to young people born on the territory of Latvia but studying in the Russian language.
The "black list" under the bill was also to include former employees of the Communist Party or the KGB, people who participated in anti-state actions, as well as chronic alcoholics and drug addicts.
Sweden increased fines for traffic violations
In Sweden, as of October 1, fines for traffic violations have doubled, the traffic police reports. According to the new rules, the fine for running a red light, for example, will increase from 1,200 Swedish kronor (?130) to 3,000 kronor (?325).
A driver or passenger not wearing a seatbelt now faces a fine of 1,500 kronor (?163), and if a child under 15 is not buckled up, the responsible driver will have to pay 2,500 kronor (?271). For speeding, the offender faces a fine of 1,500-4,000 kronor (?163-433) if the excess is no more than 30 km/h. If the driver exceeded the speed by more than 30 km/h, the court will set the amount of the fine.
However, even after the increase in fines, Sweden is still far from neighboring Finland, where speeding fines are set as a percentage of salary, so for violators with a high annual income, it can reach tens of thousands of euros.
New York hospitals will be required to use interpreters
The New York State Department of Health plans to require local hospitals to use professional interpreters when medical staff communicate with patients who do not know English. This was reported to journalists by a representative of the New York State Department of Health, Jeffrey Hammond.
A directive that each hospital must have interpreters on staff is already in effect, but in practice, in many cases, communication between doctors and patients still occurs not through professionals but through family members or friends. "Such practice contributes to distortion of information and violation of its confidentiality," believes Adam Gurvich, director of the health legal department of the New York Immigration Coalition. According to him, Coalition lawyers have repeatedly encountered cases where patients who do not know English were directly threatened with life due to misunderstandings between them and medical staff.
In accordance with the new rules, hospital interpreter services will be provided to all non-English-speaking patients on a mandatory basis, and information about their native language will be recorded in medical documents. "These rules will become part of state law," Gurvich emphasized.
Finland will punish buyers of sex services
In Finland, a law on criminal punishment for the purchase of sexual services provided by victims of human trafficking, so-called "sexual slaves," enters into force.
According to the new law, using or even attempting to use the sexual services of a victim of human trafficking will be punishable by a fine or imprisonment for up to six months. According to Janne Kanerva, a representative of the Finnish Ministry of Justice, one of the most obvious signs of human trafficking is the presence of an intermediary or payment for "services" to a third party.
Previously, Finland prohibited the purchase and sale of sexual services in public places, the organization of brothels, publication in the press and placement on internet sites of advertisements offering sexual services, except for "phone sex." Thus, until now, the law mainly restricted and prosecuted those involved in prostitution and procuring. Clients of various "massage parlors" and those ordering "girls" to their homes, as a rule, faced no consequences.