African Immigrants in Italy: Slave Labor for the Mafia

Xenophobes in homogenous European countries often complain that immigrants will erase their most precious cultural norms. The race riots in southern Italy last weekend may be one indicator that change is inevitable, as African immigrants who don’t live by the country’s infamous omert code of silence violently protested against the powerful Mafia clans that control their lives, says Roberto Saviano, author of Gomorrah, an anti-Mob book that earned him both critical praise and a 24-hour police guard.

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After Strauss-Kahn: Who’s Next to Head the IMF?

Even before Dominique Strauss-Kahn announced from New York’s Riker’s Island prison on Wednesday that he was stepping down as head of the International Monetary Fund , world powers were already jostling over who could replace him. Indeed, since Strauss-Kahn’s arrest last Saturday on charges of attempted rape, European officials have been swift to argue that Europe should maintain the hold it has had on the IMF’s top job ever since the Washington D.C.-based organization was created in 1945

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Four E.U. Nations Stoke Fears of an Immigrant Flood

Immigration has always been a contentious issue in Europe. But these days, with enduring economic turmoil further fueling concerns over rising unemployment, European nations are especially sensitive about the prospect of foreigners taking jobs away from their citizens.

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Non-Starter: Why Libya’s Rebels Distrust the African Union

An African delegation on a mission to end the seven-week conflict in Libya received a hostile welcome in the rebel capital of Benghazi Monday. “No Gaddafi, no sons!” hundreds of protesters shouted as they swarmed the vehicles of the Presidents of Congo, Mali, Mauritania and Uganda

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Why Google Isn’t the New Microsoft

Last week, the European Commission — which is investigating whether Google’s search engine violates European antitrust law — received a formal letter of complaint from an interested party. The complainant charged Google with “a broadening pattern of conduct aimed at stopping anyone else from creating a competitive alternative.” It accused the company of hurting consumers by refusing to open up services such as YouTube to other search engines, said that its practices were “disconcerting” and “troubling,” and called on European officials to step in and clamp down.

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