Tag: Italy

Planet Watch

Global revolt against automotive terror

Bangladesh has seen huge demonstrations over the past week, as tens of thousands of university students and schoolchildren protest lax traffic enforcement after two young students were killed by a speeding bus. The protests have for days paralyzed Dhaka, with roadblocks erected on major thoroughfares. Meanwhile, in southern Italy's Puglia region, hundreds of African farmworkers downed tools and marched from the fields after 16 migrant workers were killed when their vans were hit by trucks hauling produce. Authorities pledge a crackdown on the "mafia" that controls agribusiness in Puglia, but the farmworkers have continued to press their protests. (Photo:  Dinamopress via El Salto)

Europe

‘Left’ joins with Euro-fascists to betray political prisoners in Russia

The European Parliament overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling on Russian authorities to release Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, and all the other "illegally detained Ukrainian citizens" in Russia and Russia-annexed Crimea. Sentsov has been on hunger strike in a Russian prison since May 14, demanding the release 64 Ukrainian citizens he considers political prisoners. Sentsov was arrested in Crimea in 2014, after Russia seized the Ukrainian region. The 76 MEPs who voted against the resolution are either of far-right formations such as the French National Front, Germany's Alternative für Deutschland, the Greek Golden Dawn, Italy's Northern League, the Netherlands' Party for Freedom, and Britain's UK Independence Party; or "leftist" parties such as the French Left Front, Germany's Die Linke, the Greek Syriza, Italy's The Other Europe, and Spain's Podemos. (Photo via Kyiv Post)

North Africa
Libya

Libya: Europe ‘complicit’ in horrific abuses

European governments are knowingly "complicit" in the torture, abuse and exploitation of tens of thousands of refugees and migrants detained by the Libyan immigration authorities or criminal gangs in appalling conditions, Amnesty International charges in a new report.  Dozens of migrants and refugees told Amnesty about collusion between detention center guards, the Libyan Coast Guard and smugglers. European countries and especially Italy have been aiding Libyan authorities in migrant interception, as well as striking deal with local militias.

North Africa

Libya: rights groups accuse UAE of war crimes

At a press conference on the sidelines of the UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva, Libyan human rights groups accused the United Arab Emirates of committing war crimes in the country, including killing hundreds of civilians. The rights groups said that the UAE committed these crimes through direct air-strikes on Libya, and by backing the renegade general Khalifa Haftar.

North Africa

Libya: Haftar vows to attack Italian warships

The military commander of Libya's unrecognized eastern government, Khalifa Haftar, threatened to bombard any warships entering the country's national waters—an explicit challenge to Italy, which is dispatching vessels to the Libyan coast as part of its effort to intercept migrants seeking to cross the Mediterranean from North Africa.  The statement took aim at the Tripoli government, which Haftar accused of entering into agreements with foreign powers that "violate the sovereignty of Libya under the pretext of fighting illegal immigration."

Mexico

Mexico: fugitive narco-governors snared

Javier Duarte, the ex-governor of Mexico's Veracruz state, was detained by Interpol in Guatemala—the latest in a string of fugitive Mexican ex-governors to be arrested abroad.

North Africa

More mysterious air-strikes in Libya

The latest in an ongoing wave of unclaimed air-strikes in Libya hit al-Jufra air base in the interior of the country, which is in the hands of local militia forces.

North Africa

Libya: Obama’s parting air-strikes

US B-2 Stealth bombers and drones carried out a raid against presumed ISIS camps in the Libyan desert—part of a final spate of air-strikes ordered by President Obama.

Europe

Mediterranean migrant death toll soars

With two months still to go, deaths of refugees and migrants crossing the Mediterranean so far this year have hit a record high, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

Watching the Shadows

Ex-CIA agent faces extradition to Italy

Former CIA operative Sabrina de Sousa will be extradited to Italy to serve a four-year prison sentence for a "rendition" following a ruling by Portugal's high court