Over 1000 Migrants Rescued in Mediterranean

ROME: The Italian navy said on Friday it had rescued in 24 hours more than 1,000 migrants attempting the perilous journey across the Mediterranean by boat in rough winter seas.

Some 823 migrants were picked up on Thursday and another 233 were rescued on Wednesday as part of a major ongoing search and rescue operation to save the lives of thousands of immigrants heading for Europe in overcrowded and rickety boats, the navy said. The immigrants, including 30 women and 42 minors, mainly hail from Egypt, Iraq, Pakistan and Tunisia.

Six military vessels and several helicopters were involved in picking them up and transferring them to the coastal town of Augusta in Sicily.

Immigration charities estimate that between 17,000 and 20,000 migrants have died at sea trying to reach Europe over the past 20 years, often crossing on rickety fishing boats or rubber dinghies.

The immigrants were rescued as part of the Italian government’s “Mare Nostrum” operation, which mobilizes warships, amphibious vessels and aircraft to try and prevent further tragedies like the two shipwrecks in October in which more than 400 immigrants died.

Source:  Pakistan Dawn

Italian Journalist Murdered in Gaza

(IPI/IFEX) - 15 April 2011 - Hamas officials have said they found the body of an Italian journalist and activist who was kidnapped yesterday in Gaza, reports say. Vittorio Arrigoni, 36, was affiliated with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a pro-Palestinian rights group, and reported on Palestinian issues for the left-wing Italian newspaper Il Manifesto and Peacereporter, and also wrote a blog, according to a report on the ISM website.

The journalist was kidnapped yesterday by a militant Islamist group, which released a YouTube video saying that they would kill Arrigoni unless Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, released a number of political prisoners, reports say. But before the Friday evening deadline had passed, the Hamas-run Interior Ministry in Gaza announced that the activist's body had been found, reports said.

Hamas has said that one suspect is now in custody, CNN reported on its website today.

"Our heartfelt condolences go out to Vittorio Arrigoni's family, friends and colleagues," said IPI Director Alison Bethel McKenzie. "By all accounts, this was a courageous journalist and activist who chose to remain in Gaza even when it was under attack. We are appalled at his death and call on the authorities to fully investigate and prosecute those responsible. It is unacceptable for human lives to be used as bargaining chips."

Hamas is also designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and others. Hamas officials have governed Gaza in a parallel government since 2007, after a post-election battle with Fatah, the political group that now dominates the Western-recognized Palestinian National Authority, whose effective control is limited to the West Bank.

In 2007, Hamas helped to free BBC correspondent Alan Johnston after he was held captive by terrorists for four months, and there has been a "history of bad blood" between the rival Islamist groups since then, the Bethlehem-based Maan News Agency reported.

The outcry against Arrigoni's death has been immediate. An ISM co-founder, Huwaida Arraf, told Maan News Agency, "He was more Palestinian than the criminals that killed him."

The website of the Italian daily Il Manifesto, which Arrigoni wrote for, carried the headline "Restiamo Umani" ("Let's Remain Human"), a phrase they say the journalist and activist repeatedly used when discussing the situation in the Palestinian Territories.

"It hurt really badly [to see the video of Arrigoni], if we consider the work that Vittorio has been carrying out from 2008 until today to inform always, at any time, through his blog, on Facebook and through articles on various websites, about what happened in Gaza," colleague Michele Giorgio wrote on in an editorial for Il Manifesto. "Without a moment of rest, even at night."

Officials in Rome condemned "in the strongest manner the act of vile and senseless violence committed by extremists who are indifferent to the value of human life," Maan News Agency reported.

The Palestinian National Authority called the murder "a dark page in our history, "Italian news agency AGI reported today.

And a spokesperson for the Interior Ministry in Gaza said that Hamas "condemns the heinous crime that does not reflect our values, our religion or our custom and tradition," AGI said.

But journalists working in the Gaza Strip have frequently complained of attacks and harassment by Hamas forces. Protests in Gaza last month calling for an end to the rivalry between Hamas and Fatah were violently dispersed, and journalists covering the demonstrations were targeted. The offices of Reuters, Japan TV, CNN and other news agencies were attacked, and individual reporters received death threats, the Palestinian Centre for Development and Media Freedoms said in a report last month.

In October last year, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate's (PJS) headquarters in Gaza were shut down. Although the syndicate is now operating again, their officer Amal Touman was prevented from leaving Gaza to attend an International Federation of Journalists meeting in Morocco this week, PJS President Abdel Nasser Al-Najjar told IPI by phone from Casablanca today.

Al-Najjar called Arrigoni's death a "horrible incident" and a "big crime," and said that perhaps people will now "be aware that these groups will damage the opportunity for freedom of the press and the peace process."

Il Manifesto had planned journalist demonstrations calling for Arrigoni's release in Milan, Rome, Turin and other cities for this afternoon. These will now be turned into memorials, the newspaper's website said.


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10 EU States Support Italy's Side in Crucifix Case

STRASBOURG, France, JUNE 1, 2010 (Zenit.org).- The "crucifix trial" in the European Court of Human Rights has given rise to an unprecedented intervention of 10 member States as third parties.

The European Centre for Law and Justice, which was also authorized to become a third party in the court hearing regarding the legitimacy of displaying crucifixes in Italian schools, reported today that ten other States will have this amicus curiae status in the "Lautsi vs. Italy" case.

This case was referred to the Grand Chamber when the Italian government appealed a decision issued by the Second Section of the court last November, which spoke against the presence of the crucifix in classrooms.

These States, all of which are supporting Italy in the desire to overturn last November's decision, include: Armenia, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Lithuania, Malta, Monaco, San-Marino, Romania, and The Russian Federation.

The third party status allows the States to submit to the court their written and oral observations as official parties to the case.

The court's Grand Chamber will hold a public hearing on June 30, and the final judgment on the case is expected by the end of the year.

The director of the European Centre for Law and Justice, Gregor Puppinck, stated in a communiqué today that this is "an important precedent in the practice of the court, because usually member States abstain from intervening, or intervene only when the case affects a national of their State."

"The Lautsi case is unique and unprecedented," he continued. "Ten States are in fact explaining to the court what is the limit of its jurisdiction; what is the limit of its ability to create new 'rights' against the will of the member States."

"This can be seen as a kind of counter-balancing of power," he explained.

The communiqué also noted the "tremendous importance" of the fact that this is "an unprecedented alliance between Catholics and Orthodox countries in the face of the liberal and secularist ideology."

"Those countries are uniting their forces to protect their religious heritage and freedom to reaffirm that the Christian symbols have a natural right to be displayed in public within Christian countries," it added.

The center pointed out that the court's role is to apply the European Convention on Human Rights, which says nothing about "duties to secularize education in Europe" nor about "the nature of the relationship between the State and the church."

Italian Government Fined for Crucifixes

On Tuesday, the European Court of Human Rights fined the Italian government for having crucifixes in its schools.

It’s yet another example of oversize, secular bureaucracies pitted against the most natural forms of agreement, in this case the nation.The European Court of Human Rights ordered that the government pay 5,000 Euro ($7,390) to Soile Lautsi, a mother of two who claimed that public schools in her northern Italian town refused eight years ago to remove the crucifix from the classroom.

We might at first wonder, “It’s amazing that they’ve had crucifixes in the classroom for so long.” Yet, living in a culture where our battles have been over whether Catholic colleges may retain crucifixes, that only demonstrates our own lack of understanding of European history.

Manuela Mesco, writing for England’s The Guardian, explains that the reason crucifixes are hanging in Italian classrooms is that the decision was the result of a legal and political agreement between the Italian state and the Catholic Church.

That agreement, known as the Lateran Treaty (Patti Lateranensi), reached in 1929 between Benito Mussolini and Cardinal Pietro Gasparri, writes Mesco,“established a framework for the mutual recognition and cohabitation of the secular and the religious domains within the Italian state.”

Article 7 of the Italian constitution states: “The state and the church are, each one in its own domain, independent and sovereign.”

“The agreement, among other things, states that crucifixes must hang in every classroom and tribunal in the country,” says Mesco.

Read it all here.