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Santa isn't welcome in Hazleton because he's an illegal immigrant just like all the others the small Pennsylvania town in the United States is trying to get rid of - or so someone would have you believe.
A ceremony took place in Strasbourg, with Parliament's President Josep Borrell and Finnish Minister of Trade Mauri Pekkarinen signing the text. They represent the two "arms" of the EU law-making process: elected MEPs and the Council of EU Ministers representing the EU-25 governments.
According to a European Commission projection this week, the Eurozone economy is strong enough to withstand expected weak U.S. economic performance, higher German taxes and lowered exports for 2007.
The eurozone consists of twelve of the current twenty-five European Union member states using the single European currency - the euro (€; ISO 4217 code EUR). The eurozone is forecast to grow by 2.6% this year.
Sweden's statistics office reported on 19 December that immigration to Sweden is expected to reach a record high this year, in part due to a temporary easing of asylum rules.
Preliminary data showed 96,800 people will have migrated to the Nordic country by year-end, up 48% compared to the year before, it said in a statement.
The office - the SCB - "has counted the number of immigrants since 1875 and the number has never been as high as in 2006," it said.
Amanda Vanstone, Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, announced on 17 December that Australia will remove the application charge for electronic visas issued through its Electronic Travel Authority (ETA) system for all current European Union citizens. This will mostly affect new member states from the EU-25 expansion, as most EU citizens could already obtain the visa without a state fee.
The UK government may force foreign nationals living in Britain to register their biometric data by 2008, aiming to curb illegal immigration and identity fraud costing £1.7 billion ($3.3 billion) a year.