Last week European Union leaders agreed to the creation of a new agency to manage Europe's expanding frontiers. Following a two-day EU summit in France, the European Commission plans to draw up a formal proposal next month for the launch of the Border Management Agency. The agency will coordinate monitoring of land, air and sea borders, especially in the Mediterranean, where illegal immigration is a pressing concern, but the agency will not encroach on the rights of EU member states to patrol their own borders.

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A British Court of Appeals dismissed the claim of a woman diagnosed with the AIDS virus that deporting her to Uganda, where she could die untreated, would amount to a violation of her human rights. The woman entered the country on a false British passport in March 1998 and has been receiving NHS treatment at a London hospital.

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Estonia and Romania are set to approve an agreement to mutually abolish visa requirements for the two countries' citizens. According to the agreement, Estonian citizens will be able to stay in Romania without a visa for up to 90 days in a six-month period and vice versa. The agreement does not include work authorization. Romania is the only EU country with which Estonia does not currently have a visa-free travel agreement.

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In Japan, the seizure of faked travel documents was up 42% to 1,739 in the first half of the year, over 2002. The Justice Ministry said they intercepted about 850 forged passports, half seized from Chinese nationals.