Egypt on Wednesday rejected criticism from the UN human rights chief of its policy of shooting African migrants trying to enter illegally into Israel as unprofessional. The statement from Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, "contains many errors and false allegations . . . and lacks professionalism and impartiality," foreign ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said.

A group of 28 suspected members of one of Europe's biggest people-smuggling rings went on trial Wednesday in Paris where they risk jail sentences of up to ten years. The "Baghdad ring" of smugglers charged between 10,000 euros and 15,000 euros (14,000 and 20,000 dollars) to migrants seeking passage to Britain, Ireland, Sweden and Norway, according to French prosecutors.

The UN human rights chief on Tuesday urged Egyptian forces to stop shooting at African migrants trying to enter Israel illegally through Egypt, after 60 were killed in the past two and a half years. "While migrants often lose their lives accidentally when travelling in over-crowded boats, or trying to cross remote land borders, I know of no other country where so many unarmed migrants and asylum seekers appear to have been deliberately killed in this way by government forces," Navi Pillay said.

US officials expressed hope that high-level migration talks with Cuba on Friday would yield "positive results," but also demanded that Havana release an American consultant held here since December. The most senior US delegation to the communist-ruled island in years sought to advance progress on US-Cuba Migration Accords in the second round of talks on the contentious issue in the past year.

French police on Sunday shut down a makeshift shelter for migrants in the Channel port of Calais, just 24 hours after an activist group had opened up the centre. About 90 migrants spent the night at a warehouse in Calais, the northern city that has been at the centre of a government campaign to prevent foreigners trying to illegally enter Britain from setting up base there.

At least 10 migrants died and 30 went missing when the boat smuggling them from Somalia to Yemen suffered an engine failure in the Gulf of Aden, officials said Sunday. Seventy people, mostly Ethiopians, were rescued when the coastguard in the northern breakaway state of Somaliland's Sanag region spotted the boat drifting towards the shore.

French police on Sunday blocked dozens of migrants, mostly from Afghanistan, from entering a building rented by an activist group offering them shelter. About 90 migrants spent the night at the hangar in Calais, which has been at the centre of a government campaign to prevent foreigners trying to illegally enter Britain from setting up base there.

French police on Sunday blocked access to a building in northern France rented by an activist group sheltering dozens of migrants, mostly from Afghanistan. About 90 migrants spent the night at the hangar after the "No Border" group sent word that it was offering shelter in Calais, which is mostly used as a springboard by workers trying to get to Britain.

The number of Indian students in Australia is set to plunge by a fifth in 2010 after a spate of violent attacks and visa scams, an official report said Wednesday. Australia's Tourism Forecasting Committee (TFC) said that judging from visa applications there would be 4,000 fewer Indian arrivals next year, a drop of 21 percent.

Emigration from Mexico, which is mainly to the United States, has fallen almost 40 percent since 2007, according to figures from the National Statistics Institute Monday. The figures, which compare the first six months of the past three years, showed a downward trend, with 281,678 Mexicans emigrating in the first half of 2009, compared with 465,054 in the same period in 2007.