ROME: At least eight migrants were found dead and around 40 were rescued by the Italian coast guard overnight on a ship off the coast of the island of Lampedusa, Italian media reported on Friday.
The rescuers took the survivors to the main port on Lampedusa, which lies to the south of Sicily, news agency ANSA said.
Italian authorities escorted another three stricken vessels carrying 156 people to Lampedusa, one of the main entry points for people trying to reach Europe.
Italy is facing a surge in arrivals from North Africa.
Some 105,140 migrants reached Italy by sea in 2022, interior ministry data showed, compared with 67,477 in 2021 and 34,154 in 2020.
The United Nations estimates that almost 1,400 migrants died while trying to cross the central Mediterranean in 2022.
8 migrants found dead on ship off Lampedusa coast — Italian media
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8 migrants found dead on ship off Lampedusa coast — Italian media
- Italian authorities escorted another three stricken vessels carrying 156 people to Lampedusa
- Italy is facing a surge in arrivals from North Africa
Six-year-old girl among Myanmar group arrested for killing retired general
Cho Htun Aung, 68, a retired brigadier general who also served as an ambassador, was shot dead in Myanmar’s commercial capital of Yangon on May 22, in one of the highest profile assassinations in a country in the throes of a widening civil war.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military seized power in a February 2021 coup, overthrowing an elected government led by Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and triggering widespread protests.
The junta’s violent crackdown on dissent sparked an unprecedented nationwide uprising. A collection of established ethnic armies and new armed groups have wrested away swathes of territory from the well-armed military, and guerrilla-style fighting has erupted even in urban areas like Yangon.
“A total of 16 offenders — 13 males and three females — were arrested,” the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported.
In an accompanying graphic, the newspaper carried the image of the six-year-old child, identified as the daughter of the alleged assassin.
Her face was blurred in an online version of the newspaper seen by Reuters, but visible in other social media posts made by junta authorities.
A junta spokesman did not respond to calls seeking comment.
Golden Valley Warriors, an anti-junta insurgent group, said they killed the retired general because of his continued support for military operations, including attacks on civilians, according to a May 22 statement.
The junta claims the group is backed by the National Unity Government — a shadow government comprising of remnants of Suu Kyu’s ousted administration that is battling the military — and paid an assassin some 200,000 Myanmar Kyat ($95.52) for a killing, the state newspaper reported.
NUG spokesperson Nay Phone Latt denied the shadow government had made any such payments. “It is not true that we are paying people to kill other people,” he told Reuters. Since the coup, Myanmar’s junta has arrested over 29,000 people, including more than 6,000 women and 600 children, according to the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners, an activist group.
Fatalities among civilians and pro-democracy activists verified by AAPP during this period amount to more than 6,700, including 1,646 women and 825 children.
Russia sees bleak prospects for expiring nuclear arms pact given ‘ruined’ ties with US
- President Vladimir Putin in 2023 suspended Russian participation in New START, blaming US support for Ukraine
- But Russia would remain within the treaty’s limits on warheads, missiles and heavy bomber planes
Russia sees little chance of saving its last nuclear accord with the United States, due to expire in eight months, given the “ruined” state of relations with Washington, its top arms control official said in an interview published on Friday.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov also told TASS news agency that President Donald Trump’s proposed Golden Dome missile defense project was a “deeply destabilizing” factor creating formidable new obstacles to arms control.
His comments were among Moscow’s bleakest yet about the prospects for the New START agreement, the last remaining nuclear arms treaty between the two countries, which caps the number of strategic warheads that each side can deploy.
President Vladimir Putin in 2023 suspended Russian participation in New START, blaming US support for Ukraine, although he said that Russia would remain within the treaty’s limits on warheads, missiles and heavy bomber planes.
But if the treaty is not extended or replaced after it expires on February 5 next year, security experts fear it could fuel a new arms race at a time of acute international tension over the conflict in Ukraine, which both Putin and Trump have said could lead to World War Three.
The Federation of American Scientists, an authoritative source on arms control, says that if Russia decided to abandon the treaty limits, it could theoretically increase its deployed nuclear arsenal by up to 60 percent by uploading hundreds of additional warheads.
Ryabkov described Russia-US ties as “simply in ruins.”
“There are no grounds for a full-scale resumption of New START in the current circumstances. And given that the treaty ends its life cycle in about eight months, talking about the realism of such a scenario is increasingly losing its meaning,” Ryabkov told TASS.
“Of course, deeply destabilizing programs like the Golden Dome – and the US is implementing a number of them – create additional, hard-to-overcome obstacles to the constructive consideration of any potential initiatives in the field of nuclear missile arms control, when and if it comes to that.”
Trump said last month he had selected a design for the $175-billion Golden Dome project, which aims to block threats from China and Russia by creating a network of satellites, perhaps numbering in the hundreds, to detect, track and potentially intercept incoming missiles.
Analysts say the initiative could sharply escalate the militarization of space , prompting other countries to place similar systems there or to develop more advanced weapons to evade the missile shield.
Ryabkov’s comments came in the same week that Ukraine stunned Moscow by launching drone strikes on air bases deep inside Russia that house the heavy bomber planes that form part of its nuclear deterrent.
Russia has said it will retaliate as and when its military sees fit.
Bolivia justice minister accuses Morales of ‘terrorism’ over road blockades
- Supporters of the former president have began blocking roads leading to La Paz, the seat of government
- Protests have snowballed into a wider revolt over President Luis Arce’s handling of a deep economic crisis
Siles said the government had filed a complaint against Morales for “terrorism, public incitement to crime and attacks on the security of public services,” among other crimes, over the campaign of road blockades that has paralyzed central Bolivia since Monday.
Supporters of the former president – who served from 2006 to 2019 – began blocking roads leading to La Paz, the seat of government, over the electoral authorities’ refusal to allow Morales to run for a fourth term in August 17 elections.
The protests have since snowballed into a wider revolt over President Luis Arce’s handling of a deep economic crisis, marked by severe shortages of hard currency and fuel.
Many of the protesters have called on Arce, an ally-turned-foe of Morales, to resign.
A leaked audio message on Thursday appeared to capture Morales calling on his supporters in the country’s agricultural heartland to shut down two key roads leading to La Paz.
The government reported more than 40 blockades nationwide on Thursday, which the minister of economy said were causing daily losses of $100 to $150 million.
Around 30 police officers have been injured in clashes with protesters since the beginning of the week, according to Gabriela Alcon, deputy minister of communication.
Morales, 65, was barred by the Constitutional Court from seeking re-election but attempted in vain to register as a candidate last month.
He faced a similar situation in November 2019 when the government of right-wing president Jeanine Anez accused him of “sedition and terrorism.”
Morales had allegedly called on supporters to maintain blockades which caused food and fuel shortages in La Paz.
Morales is also wanted on charges of human trafficking over his alleged sexual relationship with a minor while in office.
He has firmly rejected the charges as a case of “judicial persecution.”
Polish foreign minister takes aim at Musk after Trump clash
WARSAW: Poland’s foreign minister poked fun at Elon Musk late on Thursday, returning to a social media spat from March after the Tesla and SpaceX boss spectacularly fell out with US President Donald Trump.
Warsaw’s top diplomat Radoslaw Sikorski found himself embroiled in an extraordinarily public clash with Musk and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in March after he said Ukraine may need an alternative to the Starlink satellite service.
Amid a flurry of posts on his social media platform X, Musk had told Sikorski to “Be quiet, small man.”
On Thursday simmering tensions between Musk and Trump exploded into a public feud, as the president threatened to cut off government contracts to companies run by the world’s richest man. Musk suggested Trump should be impeached.
Sikorski took aim at Musk in a post on X, saying “See, big man, politics is harder than you thought.”
There was no immediate response to the post from Musk.
Europe eyes Kosovo-Denmark deal for foreign prisoners
- The agreement provides for the reception of up to 300 foreign prisoners sentenced in Denmark
- The prisoners must not be convicted of war crimes or terrorism, nor suffering from mental illness or a terminal disease
GNJILANE: By 2027, Denmark will relocate its foreign convicts to a prison in Kosovo under a 200-million-euro agreement that has raised concerns among NGOs and residents but which could serve as a model for the rest of the EU.
The agreement, reached in 2022 and ratified by Kosovar MPs in 2024, provides for the reception of up to 300 foreign prisoners sentenced in Denmark.
They must not have been convicted of terrorism or war crimes nor suffer from mental illness or a terminal disease. Once their sentence is completed in Kosovo, they will be deported to their home country.
In exchange, Denmark will pay 200 million euros ($230 million) — more than six times the annual budget of Kosovo’s Ministry of Justice.
The detainees will be imprisoned in a dedicated facility in the village of Pasjak, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) southeast of the capital, Pristina, where work on renovation of the facility is to start soon.
From the main road, the narrow path leading to the red-bricked prison divides the village in two, leaving about 1,500 residents on one side.
The school, mosque and cemetery are on the other near the prison itself, which is surrounded by high walls with barbed wire and observation posts.
The project has left residents perplexed.
“We don’t know who they will bring or if they will pose a threat to the village,” said Zeke Zeka, a 57-year-old farmer and deputy chief of the village.
“If they were good, Denmark would keep them and not transfer them out of the country,” he added.
Hanging out washing in the courtyard, Zeka’s wife, Hasime, 57, said she regrets having a prison practically on her doorstep but added: “It can’t be helped. We weren’t asked.”
Doubt has spread even inside the prison, where the guards feel discriminated against.
“We will continue to work for the same pay but under a Danish regime, which is therefore more demanding, and whose standards are among the highest in Europe,” one of them explained to AFP during a tour.
The agreement stipulates that Kosovo “must make the necessary adjustments to the prison facilities to ensure they meet the requirements of the sending state,” explained Ismail Dibrani, director of the Kosovo Correctional Service.
“Of course, the layout will be adapted to the Danish prison system,” he added, specifying that there will be “workshops where prisoners can work in printing, sewing, design, etc..”
On the Danish side, the government appointed a senior official, Mads Beyer, in April to co-direct the prison, in cooperation with local authorities.
His job, he confirmed to AFP, will be “to ensure that prisoners serve their sentences in accordance with Danish rules and under conditions similar to those applied in Danish prisons.”
The UN Committee Against Torture, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and several NGOs have expressed concern about the project.
But the initiative is being keenly watched across Europe.
French President Emmanuel Macron recently declared that prisoner relocation was “not taboo” while Sweden on Tuesday said it was looking to rent prison places in Estonia.
“Unlike the majority of European states that are facing prison overcrowding, we have sufficient capacity,” explained Dibrani.
“Our prison capacity is currently 2,500 places, while we instantly have around 1,800 prisoners.”
“After signing the agreement, we received a number of requests from European countries, for huge sums of money. But we haven’t discussed it yet,” he added.
“We already have a lot of work to do for our own country.”
