Beaches of Cyprus Receive Award
In 2007, almost all beaches of Cyprus received the honorary "Blue Flag" award - an exclusive sign indicating full compliance of the beach with all requirements for safety, water quality, and environmental conditions. 52 beaches of the island were awarded.
The "Blue Flag" campaign started in 1987 within the framework of the European Year of the Environment on the initiative of the independent organization Foundation for Environmental Education. Over twenty years, the "Blue Flag" mark was awarded to more than 3,200 beaches in 36 countries. The "Blue Flag" is a kind of "quality mark" for tourists, as well as an incentive for local authorities to continue working on improving coastal areas, reports the Cyprus Tourism Organization. Now tourists going to Cyprus can be sure that the beaches will not disappoint them.
UK Requires Fingerprints for Visas
According to information received from the Embassy of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, in Ukraine, starting from August 2 of this year, the procedure for collecting biometric data from persons applying for a visa to the United Kingdom will be introduced. This was reported by the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.
The collected information will be stored in the database of the United Kingdom in strict accordance with the legislation of that country, including the Data Protection Act of 1998. The data will not be stored in the countries where they are provided, or in any other state.
Persons applying for a visa in Ukraine must provide their biometric data in the form of scanned ten fingerprints and a digital photograph. To perform the necessary procedures, the British Embassy plans to use the services of VFS Global in Kyiv. It will transmit visa applications to the embassy, where visa officers will make a decision on granting or refusing entry. No additional fee is provided for this service. In accordance with Section 8 of the UK Immigration Act of 1971, members of the cabinet, official delegations, senior officials, as well as children under 5 years old will be exempt from the biometric data collection procedure.
In Spain, Number of Legal Immigrants Doubles
The number of legal immigrants arriving from EU countries to Spain increased by 94.83% over the year, according to a report published by the country's National Statistics Institute. "The significant increase in the immigration flow from EU countries is primarily due to the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the EU in January 2007. At the same time, the number of immigrants arriving in Spain from non-EU countries decreased by 10.6% over the year," the report notes.
The report states that thanks to immigrants, Spain's overall fertility rate was raised from 1.24 (average number of children per family) in 2001 to 1.37 in 2007. Despite this, Spain continues to rank last in the number of children born among all EU countries. According to the president of the Statistics Institute, Eduard Hertfelder, the low birth rate is primarily due to the fact that "the state does not fulfill 80% of its promises regarding families," as well as the fact that in Spain "the working day is very long (approximately from 9:00 to 20:00 with a siesta break), which makes it difficult for everyone to balance work and family."
As indicated in the report, in 2010 every fourth child in Spain will be born into an immigrant family. Last year, already every sixth baby in the country was born to an immigrant mother, which is more than five times higher than the figure ten years ago.
According to the institute, the number of immigrants officially living in Spain is 2.03 million people, approximately 7.89% more than in July last year. Of these, 659.45 thousand are citizens of EU countries and 1.375 million came from other countries.
Air France Refuses to Deport Migrants
The board of the trade union of the Franco-Dutch airline Air France-KLM appealed to its shareholders with a demand to stop using the company's aircraft for the expulsion from France of foreigners living in the country illegally.
"The committee representatives demand that shareholders advocate for stopping the use of Air France-KLM group aircraft for transporting expelled foreigners who lived illegally in the country, as this harms the company's image and threatens flight safety," says a document distributed on the eve of the shareholders' meeting of this largest airline in Europe. "Transporting illegal immigrants has a very negative impact on the image and brand of Air France, particularly in Africa," quotes one of the trade union representatives radio station France Info. "The disgust of company employees is becoming increasingly palpable." In May, an Air France flight from Paris to Bamako (Mali) was canceled as a result of a protest by passengers against the deportation of immigrants who were flying on the same plane.
Nicolas Sarkozy, who held the post of Minister of the Interior of France at the end of 2005, stated then about the steady increase in the number of foreigners expelled from France: 10 thousand people in 2002, 12 thousand in 2003, 15 thousand in 2004. In 2005, France crossed the 20 thousand mark, and in 2006 Sarkozy, who is currently the president of the country, aimed to expel 25 thousand illegal immigrants from the country. Sarkozy assured that he intends to continue to steadily pursue a policy of systematic expulsion of foreigners without legal grounds for staying in France.
According to the National Institute for Demographic Studies, the influx of illegal immigrants into France is approximately 13 thousand people per year.
Emigrant Museum Opens in Hamburg
A museum for emigrants, Ballinstadt, opened in Hamburg. Its exhibition will remind of the 5 million people who left from here at the beginning of the last century, mostly for the United States. The museum's computer archive contains information not only about the date of departure, but also about the age, occupation, religion, and place of birth of each person. The museum is very popular among tourists, and visitors find it hard to get a free computer.
The museum's creators, opened on the site where a city of emigrants was formed 100 years ago, tried to make the exhibition appealing to young people. At the entrance stand eight life-size dolls representing emigrants from different countries. Each tells their own story: where they come from and why they decided to move.
The emigrant city of Ballinstadt was founded by entrepreneur Albert Ballin in 1901. It had about 30 buildings, but only the ruins of one pavilion have survived to this day.
New York is the most fashionable city
A new ranking of the world's most fashionable cities has been compiled. For the fourth time, New York topped the list, having long displaced Paris from the fashion Olympus. The main competitors of the French capital in the battle for second place in recent years have been London, Rome, and Milan. This time, "silver" went to Rome, while Paris found itself in third place on the list of the most stylish megacities.
The fourth and fifth places are held by Milan and London. Tokyo came sixth, while seventh place went to Los Angeles. Ninth place belongs to Las Vegas, the capital of world gambling, and Singapore closes the "glamorous top ten." Moscow did not make the top 10 and took only 16th place.
The annual ranking of the most fashionable cities is compiled by an American non-profit group, based on the results of a survey. The company researches language development and tracks the frequency of use of words and expressions in various media, including the Internet and the blogosphere.