The Independent, a British newspaper, published the following article about Britain's attempts to curtail immigration. The articles discusses the most recent attempt to limit the influx of immigrants to only those considered skilled workers (think H-1B visas). Like the U.S., the British government is requiring businesses to prove they are unable to find and hire U.S. workers to do the jobs they are seeking immigrants for.

As Britain continues to create new legislation to handle increasing rates of immigration, we should continue to monitor their progress in handling the situation. They might just come up with a new approach we haven't yet thought about.

"New immigration controls detailed today would have prevented 20,000 foreign workers taking jobs in Britain last year, the...

Amnesty International, a human rights watchdog group, released a report today detailing numbers and trends in state-sanctioned executions worldwide. According to the report, China led the world in executions with 470, down substantially from the 1,010 killed in the previous year. However, the group believes the number executed to be much higher as the country's government does not actually publish these statistics. The US-based organization “Dui Hua Foundation” estimates that 6,000 people were executed in China last year , based on reports from Chinese officials.

Iran maintained the the second-highest number of executions and the most per capita, with 377 killings that included a man stoned for adultery.

The number of American executions fell to its lowest level in about 15 years, putting...

In a surprising but refreshingly novel approach to foreign diplomacy, the Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan has decided to use YouTube to address Arab stereotypes by fielding questions and comments from YouTube users.

Queen Rania, named the third most beautiful woman in the world in 2005 by Harpers & Queen magazine, is renowned for her philanthropic work and attempts at improving education, women's rights, and global understanding of Islam.

The Queen's move into the Web 2.0 world via YouTube follows a recent trend here in the U.S. in which government agencies have enrolled bloggers to communicate directly with citizens, embraced audio casts of their work called podcasts, and military branches have promoted their activities via YouTube videos. But the interactive format employed...

Japan has created an unusual government post to promote animation, and named a perfect figure Wednesday to the position: a popular cartoon robot cat named Doraemon.

The appointment is part of Japan's recent effort to harness the power of pop culture in diplomacy. Japan also created an International Manga Award last year under comic enthusiast former Foreign Minister Taro Aso , who likened it to a " Nobel Prize " for an artist working abroad.

The Chinese government has blocked access to YouTube after scores of clips showing violence between police and Tibetan protesters were posted to the site.

A massive new fleet of vehicles that can run on ethanol alcohol produced from fermenting sugarcane, gas, or a mixture of the two called flex-fuel vehicles is holding gas prices that are escalating out of control around the world at 2005 prices in Brazil.

These vehicles, which account for 20 percent of all vehicles in Brazil and 90 percent of new sales, has prevented state oil company Petrobras from charging more for gasoline despite record world oil prices, the company said Friday.

"It doesn't make sense hiking the price of gasoline abruptly if it will cause me a bigger loss of the market than what is already happening today," a Petrobras director told reporters . "It's possible that this year we'll sell more ethanol than gasoline in Brazil."

Unlike hybrids...

One by one, from Morocco to Saudi Arabia to Iran, Muslim governments have signed up for the boycott of the international book fair opening Friday in the French capital. The reason? It showcases Israeli literature this year -- which, by mere coincidence organizers say, happens to be the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Jewish state.

There was no mention of whether these governments have also boycotted the Bible, also a Jewish book.

A court in Sicily has ruled that an accused Mafioso can be put under house arrest because he is too fat for any Italian jail.

Salvatore Ferranti, who weighs 462 pounds, was allowed to go home after spending six months in four Italian prisons, his lawyer told Reuters, confirming a local newspaper report.

Desperate for a glimpse into Adolf Hitler 's unpredictable mind, British spies hired an astrologer during World War II to write horoscopes for him and other Nazi leaders, documents declassified Tuesday show.

Louis de Wohl was sent by Prime Minister Winston Churchill , who did not believe in astrology, to the U.S. to persuade Americans that the Nazis would lose within months if the U.S. entered the war. Read more

Last week, the Pakistani Government ordered all Internet service providers to block the YouTube website for containing "blasphemous" content and material considered offensive to Islam. Other officials said the site had been blocked because it contained controversial sketches of the Prophet Mohammed, which were republished by Danish newspapers earlier this month.

One tech blogger reported "Unfortunately, the method used by Pakistan Telecom was to advertise false domain routing for IP addresses owned by YouTube. This would have worked fine if not for the fact that the false routing information leaked out of Pakistan and shut down routing world-wide , knocking YouTube off the air for a couple hours."

The recent moves places Pakistan amid Communist China for censorship of...