Corsica/Berlin: Mosques attacked Via AFP : French police said Monday they were probing a “racist” arson attack on a Muslim prayer hall in Ajaccio, the capital of the Mediterranean island of Corsica. The interior ministry said in a statement that the arson took place overnight and that “writing of a racist nature were found on the facade of the building housing the place of worship”. ( source ) Early Sunday morning paint was thrown at the Sehitlik mosque in the Neukölln district of Berlin

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Greece: Most Greeks Support Clampdown on Illegal Immigration Via GreekReporter : Ahead of May elections, more than six in 10 Greeks, or 61.7 percent, agree with recent government moves to clamp down on illegal immigration in the country, a poll showed. A survey of 1,610 Greeks over the age of 18 by Kapa Research SA for To Vima newspaper published today found that 83.4 percent of interviewees believe illegal immigration is a major problem for Greece while 48.3 percent said that the main priority of any immigration policy should be to gradually remove all immigrants from the country, up from 19.5 percent in a similar poll in 2009.

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Geneva: ‘Project Maghreb’ helps deport North African repeat offenders Via TdG : The police in Geneva estimates that 300-400 illegal North Africans are responsible for more than 6000 crimes over the past four years. In theory, once they serve their sentence, they can be deported back, but in practice Geneva is dependent on readmission agreements signed with other countries

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France: 57% distrust for ‘violent’ suburban youth Via the Local : Nearly 60 percent of the French say they distrust youth from the ‘banlieues’, France’s impoverished, immigrant-dominated suburbs, according to a new survey that has laid bare the country’s divisions. “The results are extremely worrying,” Thibault Renaudin, national secretary of Afev, the youth organisation which published the poll, told The Local

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Sarkozy: ‘ It is not France’s role to accept those who violate its values’ Via AFP : President Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday that France would speed up expulsions and block the entry of extremists in the wake of shootings by an Islamist radical who killed seven people. “We will speed up expulsion procedures for reasons of public order,” Sarkozy said in a speech praising security services for their handling of the attacks carried out in southern France by Mohamed Merah.

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Switzerland: Anti-racism week Via swissinfo : Swiss cantons and cities have joined forces to stamp out racism, which some observers say is on the rise. But their week-long campaign only targets part of the country

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France: Women’s match called off over hijab Via AFP : A referee on Sunday refused to officiate a French women’s football match, when players for one of the teams took the pitch wearing Muslim headscarves, the club involved said. The official sent a report to the Languedoc-Roussillon league in the south of the country about the incident involving players from Petit-Bard Montpellier, who had been due to play Narbonne in the regional promotion tie. ( source )

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Berlin: Syrian Channels Aid to Embattled Countrymen Via Spiegel : A Syrian expat in Berlin has teamed up with Germans to launch a donation drive similar to long-distance “adoption” programs for children in poor countries.

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Brussels: Algerian crashes into police escort in suicide attempt Via VRT : A car crashed into the police escort waiting for the ambassador of Qatar outside the royal palace of Laken in Brussels on Tuesday morning.

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Oslo: 47% immigrants by 2040 Statistics Norway estimates Oslo’s immigrant population in 2040 will be between 40% to 56%, most probably 47%.

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