With recent statistics showing that one in ten of Britons were born abroad, immigration is emerging as a key issue in 6 May British general election, reports The Times. Unveiling the Labour party manifesto 12 April, PM Gordon Brown will seek to address concerns that immigrants without sufficient English working in the health service risk putting patients lives at risk. One pledge, the London daily reveals, is “to extend the English language requirement to all new applicants for public sector jobs”. The Times leader argues that immigration “is a wonderful problem for a country to have”, and takes pride in the fact that “this is where they (immigrants) want to be”. But it takes issue with Mr Brown’s pledges : “In truth, this is less a policy about immigration, than a bad one about public sector recruitment. If a doctor does not speak English, he may risk lives; if a traffic warden does not, he may risk social cohesion. But a binman? A cleaner?”
The leader of Greece’s leftist alliance SYRIZA is the new bright hope of Greek politics. Steering a course between pragmatism and the rhetoric of class warfare, he has unsettled Berlin, and not just those who back Angela Merkel's austerity policies. 
Europe’s economic woes have forced us to try to understand the secret Olympian world of global finance. But now that we pay more attention to bond yields and stability mechanisms, isn’t it clear that the experts up on their lofty peaks don’t know what’s going on either? 
This year’s Eurovision Song Contest is hosted by Azerbaijan, a country that is far from being a model democracy. An Estonian journalist takes a critical look at the deferential treatment enjoyed by the regime in Baku.