Europe's Roma are paying a high price amid the spiralling economic crisis, the head of the Council of Europe said Tuesday, warning that many more were likely to head westward as conditions deteriorate in the East. "Minorities in Europe are coming under a lot more pressure than they have in a long time," Thorbjoern Jagland said in an interview with AFP ahead of an address at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. "The tensions are really growing," he said, speaking in his native Norwegian.

The head of a pan-European rights body on Tuesday called on EU hopeful Turkey, which has more jailed journalists than any other country in the world, to improve its dismal record on freedom of expression. "There are still 450 cases pending against Turkey in the freedom of expression" domain before the European Court of Human Rights, Council of Europe chief Thorbjorn Jagland told a conference in Ankara. "This is simply too much," he said, adding that "the need for action is evident".