A grenade attack against a Roma family in southern Hungary killed both parents and injured two of their children, local police said Wednesday, adding however that this was not a racist attack.

`Racism can be ruled out as a motive for the murder according to preliminary results of the investigation,` said police spokesman Peter Zsobrak.

A grenade attack against a Roma family in southern Hungary killed both parents and injured two of their children, local police said Wednesday, adding however that this was not a racist attack.

`Racism can be ruled out as a motive for the murder according to preliminary results of the investigation,` said police spokesman Peter Zsobrak.

The first ethnic minority head of a German party dismissed comparisons with Barack Obama as his Greens wrapped up an annual conference Sunday with fighting talk ahead of elections next year.

The oldest Armenian-language newspaper is celebrating its 100th anniversary in Turkey, surviving a century of tumult in a place where Armenians were massacred and reduced to a tiny community.

The oldest Armenian-language newspaper is celebrating its 100th anniversary in Turkey, surviving a century of tumult in a place where Armenians were massacred and reduced to a tiny community.

The Czech school system still discriminates against Roma children who often have to sit in sections reserved for the mentally disabled, said a European Roma Rights Centre report published Thursday.

`Roma children continue to be dramatically over-represented in practical primary schools that follow a curriculum for mentally disabled pupils,` the report said.

This World War I battleground village in northern France paid special tribute Tuesday to the `Harlem Hellfighters,` the African-American soldiers who liberated it 90 years ago.

At 11:00 am, as France marked the end of the Great War, Sechault Mayor Didier Lange laid a wreath at the granite memorial honouring the 369th regiment from New York.

Hungary`s Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany will meet his Slovak counterpart Robert Fico this weekend in a bid to ease nationalist tensions after recent violence over a football match, officials said Tuesday.

Hungary`s Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany will this weekend meet his Slovak counterpart Robert Fico in a bid to ease tensions between the two countries after recent violence over a football match, a Hungarian government spokesman said Tuesday.

Slovak Foreign Minister Jan Kubis called on Hungary Saturday to clamp down on extremism after a week of anti-Slovak rallies in Budapest, including a flag-burning protest.

`We are calling on the Hungarian cabinet to find or create tools that would enable action against these bandits,` Kubis told the public Slovak Radio.

Swedish minorities face widespread discrimination including a lack of education in their mother tongues, Sweden`s ombudsman against ethnic discrimination said Friday.

`There are still discriminatory structures that affect minorities` possibilities to have their rights respected,` the body, DO, said in a report.

A growing number of ethnic minority candidates are winning election to parliament in Britain, increasing the chances of producing a `British Obama,` research published Thursday showed.

According to the left-wing Fabian Society think-tank, Britain may elect 10 or more new ethnic minority MPs at the next general election, which is due no later than 2010.

The leader of the Turkish minority party in Bulgaria, Ahmed Dogan, warned Wednesday of rising ethnic tension in the country in the run-up to general elections next July.

In an interview with the best-selling daily Trud, Dogan said he was `dumbfounded` by `furious hatred` against him, his party and the Turkish minority, following the mysterious suicide of his secretary Ahmed Emin.

TEHRAN, September 15, 2008 (AFP) - Fifteen Sunni members of parliament in Shiite-majority Iran have called for tough action after a Sunni mosque was demolished in the southeast of the country, a report said on Monday.

BUCHAREST, September 8, 2008 (AFP) - Romanians came across as an intolerant people Monday in a Gallup poll that suggested that a majority harbour deep prejudices against homosexuals, Roma and people with AIDS.

BRATISLAVA, September 2, 2008 (AFP) - A new secondary school for talented Roma children opened its doors at the start of a new school year Tuesday in a rare initiative to give such children a good start in life.

BRATISLAVA, September 2, 2008 (AFP) - A new secondary school for talented Roma children opened its doors at the start of a new school year Tuesday in a rare initiative to give such children a good start in life.

A black Dutch citizen went on trial in Poland Monday, accused of attempted murder after fighting ...

SOFIA, July 29, 2008 (AFP) - The Simon Wiesenthal Centre called Tuesday on Bulgaria's president to withdraw a journalism prize awarded to a columnist it says compared gypsies to animals.

WASHINGTON, July 24, 2008 (AFP) - Two-thirds of US Hispanic voters support Democrat Barack Obama for the White House, while less than one quarter back his Republican rival John McCain, a poll showed Thursday.

BRATISLAVA, July 24, 2008 (AFP) - Floods forced the evacuation of almost 400 people, mostly from the Roma minority, in eastern Slovakia, the interior ministry said Thursday, after heavy rains that have also left two people dead.

WASHINGTON, July 23, 2008 (AFP) - Thousands of people, mostly blacks and Hispanics, lined up outside a Washington hotel Wednesday, clutching documents they hoped would help them save their homes and escape unaffordable mortgages.

SACA-KOSICE, July 17, 2008 (AFP) - Slovakia, which adopts the euro in six months, is putting its money where its mouth is with a drive to help its long-neglected gypsy minority with the switch to the official EU currency.

WASHINGTON , July 9, 2008 (AFP) - White House rivals Barack Obama and John McCain on Tuesday tried to woo Hispanic voters who may prove to be crucial in the November 4 presidential election.

WASHINGTON, June 28, 2008 (AFP) - Republican presidential hopeful John McCain and Democratic rival Barack Obama called for immigration reform on Saturday as they courted America's ever-growing Latino voting population.

ROME, June 8, 2008 (AFP) - About 3,000 gypsies took to the streets of Rome Sunday to protest against alleged xenophobia against them amid widespread anger among Italians, who blame them for rising crime and insecurity.

SKIADA, June 2, 2008 (AFP) - A world removed from the Greek city bars and coffee-shops where customers crave his product, 63-year-old farmer Hussein Emin praised the virtues of tobacco as he sat on a broken chair outside his farm.

'In my years, no child has left this village,' he said looking around the small ethnic Turkish community of Skiada in northeastern Greece.

A recently abandoned Roma encampment in southern Italy was torched on Wednesday, after nearby sites were set afire two weeks ago forcing the gypsy inhabitants to flee, the domestic ANSA news agency said.

Several firefighters and four fire trucks tried to tackle the blaze, which was meant to stop the camp's 70-odd residents from returning, ANSA said.

STRASBOURG, May 20, 2008 (AFP) - EU parliamentarians on Tuesday condemned recent violence against the gypsy minority in Italy, reminding Rome of the obligation to uphold European law in its fight against illegal immigration.

STRASBOURG, May 20, 2008 (AFP) - The European Commission on Tuesday strongly condemned violence against gypsies in Italy, reminding the Rome government of the obligation to uphold European law in its fight against illegal immigration.

ROME, May 14, 2008 (AFP) - Two Roma encampments in southern Italy were set alight Wednesday to keep their inhabitants from returning after they fled attacks by local residents, a report said.

Firefighters had just put out the first blaze in Ponticelli on the fringes of Naples when a second encampment nearby was set alight, Italy's ANSA news agency said.

ROME, May 14, 2008 (AFP) - Two abandoned Roma encampments in southern Italy were set alight Wednesday, to keep their inhabitants from returning after they fled attacks by local residents, ANSA news agency reported.

Firefighters had just put out the first blaze in Ponticelli on the fringes of Naples when a second encampment nearby was set alight, ANSA said.

ROME, May 13, 2008 (AFP) - Demonstrators hurled Molotov cocktails and stones in an outburst of violence against gypsies outside Naples Tuesday after a gypsy girl was alleged to have tried to kidnap a local child, eyewitnesses said.

The petrol bombs set fire to four huts at the gypsy encampment at Ponticelli on the fringes of Naples. No casualties were reported.

BRATISLAVA, April 8, 2008 (AFP) - Slovak authorities used International Roma Day Tuesday to promise to address the lagging educational standards of its large Roma community.

ATHENS, April 2, 2008 (AFP) - Recent judgements by the European Human Rights Court in Strasbourg have served as a reminder to Greece of the need to respect its Turkish minority, whose very existence the Greek state traditionally ignores.

BRATISLAVA, March 26, 2008 (AFP) - The Slovak government weighed into a row over the treatment of Slovak speakers in a small Hungarian town on Wednesday by expressing its concern in an official statement.

BRATISLAVA, March 26, 2008 (AFP) - The Slovak government adopted Wednesday a five-year programme aimed at improving the lagging educational and living standards of its large Roma minority.

LONDON, March 10, 2008 (AFP) - Ethnic minorities and indigenous groups will suffer disproportionately from the effects of climate change, according to a report published Tuesday.