United Nations agencies report the number of fatalities of migrants making the perilous journey across the Mediterranean Sea continues to increase as two more shipwrecks off the coast of Spain Thursday have claimed more lives. 

The Spanish Coast Guard carried out a search and rescue operation in the Western Mediterranean on Thursday.  UN agencies report some six boats were rescued in the Alboran Sea with at least 25 people reported dead or missing.

The UN refugee agency reports two boats had dead people on board who had died at the time of the rescue by Spanish search and rescue services.  But, UNHCR spokeswoman, Liz Throssell, notes this is a developing story and the numbers are likely to change.

“On the one boat, we understand 33 people were rescued, including a person who, unfortunately, died later at the hospital and there were 12 people dead and 12 missing during the journey and apparently there was a massive sea swell that threw them into the water,” said Throssell.

Throssell says a second boat had 57 people on board, as well as one person who had died during the rescue.

The International Organization for Migration reports more than 113,000 migrants and refugees entered Europe by sea this year through three main migratory routes.  IOM spokesman Joel Millman tells VOA that since mid-2017 there has been a constant rise in arrivals.

“What was remarkable and noticeable about Spain for most of this year was the volume of arrivals kept increasing but the fatalities reported were quite few,” said Millman. “In the last two months, that situation has changed.”  

IOM has documented the deaths of 769 people in the waters between North Africa and Spain this year.  It says this is more than triple the number recorded in 2017 and six times higher than in 2016.
…

U.S. President Donald Trump has thanked Albania for expelling the Iranian ambassador and another diplomat for allegedly engaging in illegal activities that threaten Albania’s security.

Trump’s letter to Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, dated Dec. 14, thanked him “for your steadfast efforts to stand up to Iran and to counter its destabilizing activities and efforts to silence dissidents around the globe.”

The U.S. Embassy in Tirana published the letter on its Facebook page on Thursday.

Albania’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday said the two diplomats were expelled for “violating their diplomatic status” following talks with other countries, including Israel.

Trump’s letter said the expulsion “exemplifies our joint efforts to show the Iranian government that its terrorist activities in Europe and around the world will have severe consequences.”

Iran blamed the United States and Israel for the expulsions. The official IRNA news agency quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi as saying that “Albania has become an unintentional victim of the United States, Israel and some terrorist groups.”

The spokesman said the U.S. and Israel are working to destroy relations between Iran and European countries, and that Albania should not allow others to dictate its relations with Tehran.

Shahin Gobadi of Iran’s National Council of Resistance based in Paris, France, also hailed Albania’s expulsion of the two diplomats as “a very necessary and courageous act.”

Albania is home to 2,500 members of the Iranian opposition group in exile Mujahedin-e Khalk, who moved from Iraq.

Gobadi said “The clerical regime’s embassies in Europe are centers of terrorist acts against the dissidents.” 

He said two plots of the Iranian regime were foiled, one in Albania — an attempt to bomb the Nowruz (Iranian New Year) celebration in March — and the other in a gathering of Iranians in Paris in June, and “the regime’s embassies and diplomats played a major role in both of these foiled terror plots.”

Private Top Channel television reported that the Iranians were suspected of illegal activities related to a World Cup qualifying match between Albania and Israel two years ago. 

Albanian media also hinted that cancellation of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Albania in November could have been related to a possible plot against him.

Earlier this year, a court in neighboring Kosovo sentenced nine Albanians for planning a foiled attack against the Israeli soccer team during the match in Albania.

 

    
…

Italian paleontologists say the largest and oldest meat-eating dinosaur ever to have been found was from what is now the northern area of Lombardy.

In the scientific journal PerrJ, the Italians recently published their study on the fossils discovered years ago in a large marble quarry in the Italian Alps.

The scientists said the dinosaur lived 200 years ago, and its skeleton was the first known to have been found in Italy from the Jurassic age.

They named the creature Saltriovenator zanellai, which means Zanella’s Saltrio hunter, in honor of Angelo Zanella, the amateur hunter who accidentally unearthed the bones, and for the area where the bones were found.

Zanella has said he will never forget that day. The bones appeared in large blocks of rock in a marble quarry near Saltrio in the summer of 1996. He reported his find to the Natural History Museum in Milan, which further scouted the area and found more fossils. Many of the bones bore the feeding marks of ancient marine invertebrates.

Cristiano dal Sasso of the Natural History Museum led the research. He said this dinosaur fossil was the first to be found in Lombardy and the oldest and largest dinosaur of the lower Jurassic in the world.

Dal Sasso said 132 bone pieces were recovered and that it was not easy to extract the bones from the hard rock. The team worked systematically, fragment by fragment, to recompose and position the bones. He said the discoveries were very exciting.

Measurements

In their study, the paleontologists outlined the characteristics of the dinosaur. They said the carnivore had estimated body length of 7.5 meters (24.6 feet), an 80-centimeter (31.4-inch) skull and weighed at least a ton.  It had very sharp teeth, and its lower limbs had four fingers, three of which had powerful claws.

Dal Sasso and his team said this dinosaur was a real war machine. He said it was one of the predators at the top of the food chain and therefore must have preyed on large herbivore dinosaurs.

The remains of ​Saltriovenator zanellai were the second set to have been found in Italy. The first were fossils of the tiny dinosaur Scipionyx, which were unearthed in southern Italy in 1980.
…

Spain’s prime minister and the president of the country’s Catalonia region sat down for formal meeting Thursday after intense political maneuvers to dictate the terms of the talks and whether the loaded topic of Catalan independence would be on the agenda.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez flew to Barcelona, Catalonia’s capital, to meet with the region’s pro-secession president, Quim Torra. The regional leader called the meeting a “summit” between the two governments, which the Spanish side rejected.

Torra greeted Sanchez with a handshake in front of the Palau de Pedralbes that once housed Spanish royalty. They spoke briefly as they walked into the former palace belongs to the regional government.

Sanchez had said he wanted to focus on social and economic issues in Catalonia rather than on the region’s divisive push for independence last year. Torra wanted Catalan self-determination to be on the agenda. The format of their meeting was not decided until hours before its start due to last-minute jockeying over the scope of the talks.

Ultimately, it was agreed that the vice presidents of the central and regional governments, along with two other members of Sanchez and Torra’s Cabinets, would hold a side meeting.

But hopes for solid results were dimmer than when the two leaders last met. Their talks in Madrid in early July were described as “long, sincere and frank.” The difficulty agreeing on the form of the meeting lowered observers’ expectations for progress.

Opposition parties on the right also have accused Sanchez of wanting to appease Catalonia’s separatists in exchange for their support for his national budget.

Various pro-independence groups called for protests in front of the palace and at a hotel where Sanchez was expected to attend a Catalan business forum later Thursday. Worker and student groups also called strikes for Friday, when the Spanish Cabinet at large holds its weekly meeting in Barcelona.

Security in the prosperous northeastern region of 7.4 million residents, normally in the hands of the Catalan police, was reinforced with hundreds of anti-riot national police officers.

The ministers’ council normally takes place in Madrid, but Sanchez’s center-left administration wanted to signal it has the right to conduct business anywhere on Spanish territory. Catalan authorities are supporting the protests, but said they would ensure both Sanchez’s right to hold the meeting and the right of citizens to protest.

Nine separatist leaders who were charged with rebellion and other offenses for their roles in a banned secession referendum and an illegal declaration of independence last year issued an open letter from prison urging Catalonia’s people to take their grievances to the streets “massively, with determination and peacefully.”

Four of the imprisoned politicians said Thursday they were abandoning the prison hunger strike they started at the beginning of the month to call attention on what they considered unfair treatment by Spain’s judiciary. Activist-turned-politician Jordi Sanchez and former Catalan Cabinet member Jordi Turull went without food for 19 days, and ex-regional ministers Josep Rull and Joaquim Forn for 17.

Their spokeswoman, Pilar Calvo, said at a news conference the strike brought attention to the separatists’ plight and prompted Spain’s Constitutional Court to review some of their appeals. The four want to exhaust all their appeals in Spain so they can take their case to the European Court of Human Rights.

The Constitutional Court had said the appeals were following the normal judicial calendar. On Thursday, it issued a new ruling, refusing to end Jordi Sanchez’s preventive jailing and denying that the case could be compared to that of a Kurdish politician in Turkey.

In Geneva, former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, who has become one of the most prominent voices of the Catalan separatist movement, announced that he and five other Catalan politicians were filing a complaint to the U.N.’s Human Rights Committee because they consider that Spain violated their democratic rights as elected officials.

Puigdemont has fought off extradition to Spain after he fled to Belgium shortly after the secession attempt in 2017. He later won a seat in the Catalan parliament while campaigning from abroad but faces immediate arrest if he returns to Spain, where he is sought for rebellion.

Referring to the volatility of the situation in Catalonia, Puigdemont told reporters that Catalonia’s pro-independence movement “doesn’t have to show its commitment to non-violence” after one decade of massive peaceful demonstrations.
…

The announcement Wednesday by the White House that the U.S. has defeated Islamic State (IS) in Syria and begun withdrawing troops from the country took many by surprise.

The Syrian civil war, now in its eighth year, is further complicated by the actions within its borders by four other countries: the U.S., Russia, Iran and Turkey.

​Why is the U.S. involved in Syria?

The U.S. mission in Syria has always been to defeat Islamic State, which in 2014 took over vast swaths of Iraq and Syria.

The United States has about 2,000 troops, mostly special forces, located mainly in northeast Syria. The troops act as advisers and provide support, including air power and weapons, for local militias, such as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which is also fighting IS. Washington had given support — weapons and training — to moderate rebel groups fighting the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, but ended that support earlier this year.

The U.S. also leads a coalition of nearly 60 countries, the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, that has targeted IS and other extremist groups with airstrikes since late 2014.

​Why is Russia involved?

Russia, a longtime Syrian ally, entered the conflict in Syria in 2015, offering the Assad regime weapons and air support, as well as troops on the ground.

Some also see Russia’s involvement as President Vladimir Putin asserting himself on the world stage, and a way for Russia to be an influence in the region.

When it began its air campaign in Syria, Moscow said it was targeting “terrorists,” which they said included IS and other terrorist groups. The U.S.-led coalition, however, said Russian airstrikes were targeting the non-IS rebel forces battling Assad’s government.

Why is Iran involved?

Iran’s engagement in Syria began gradually since the start of the country’s civil war in 2011, initially in the form of providing military advisers to the Syrian regime. The engagement later morphed into a full-scale military intervention where the regime sent its forces and employed its proxies to fight alongside Assad to crack down on the various Syrian rebel groups in the country.

By supporting Assad, Tehran has been able to maintain a regional presence against rivals Saudi Arabia and Israel. In October, U.S. lawmakers voiced concerns that Tehran might be in the process of establishing a long-term presence in Syria.

According to a report published by the U.S. Department of State in October, Iran has spent about $16 billion to destabilize the Middle East by funding proxy wars in different countries including Yemen, Iraq and Syria.

​Why is Turkey involved?

Turkey has supported non-Kurdish Syrian opposition groups, such as the Free Syrian Army (FSA), since the civil war began. They fear gains made by Kurdish groups in Syria would embolden the Kurdish population in Turkey to seek independence.

Turkey launched two military operations to help Syrian rebels recapture territory in Syria from Islamic State and the mostly Kurdish militia in Syria, the YPG, in August 2016 and January 2018. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signaled earlier this month that Turkish forces may soon launch a new operation against U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish militias in northern Syria, which is where most U.S. troops are based.

While Turkey is part of the U.S.-led coalition battling IS, the cooperation between U.S. and SDF forces has strained relations between Ankara and Washington.

Nisan Ahmado of VOA’s South and Central Asia division contributed to this report.
…

London’s Gatwick Airport shut down late Wednesday while officials urgently investigated reports that two drones were flying above the airfield.

The airport suspended all flights, causing severe disruptions just days before Christmas, one of the heaviest travel times of the year.

Police and aviation authorities were still investigating early Thursday as incoming flights were diverted to other locations in Britain and nearby countries. 

Passengers complained on Twitter that their flights had landed at London Heathrow, Manchester, Birmingham and other cities. Other flights were sent to France and the Netherlands. 

One traveler whose flight was diverted tweeted that passengers were not being told when they could continue to their destinations.

Gatwick advised travelers via Twitter to check flights scheduled for Thursday before heading to the airport. It also advised anyone planning to pick up arriving passengers to check first.

Wide-ranging effect

Any problem at Gatwick causes a ripple effect throughout Britain and continental Europe, particularly during a holiday period when the air traffic control system is under strain.

It is a busy airport 27 miles (43 kilometers) south of London, hosting a variety of short- and long-haul flights and serving as a major hub for the budget carrier easyJet.

Gatwick normally operates throughout the night, but the number of flights is restricted because of noise limitations. The airport website says it usually handles 18 to 20 flights overnight during the winter months.

Gatwick said in a statement that it apologized for the inconvenience but had to put place safety first.

There have been occasional reports of drones nearly hitting commercial airliners in the London area in recent years.

Strong sales of small consumer drones have led to repeated warnings about possible threats to scheduled flights. 
…

Christmas holidaymakers have been warned by officials and campaigners not to inadvertently fund slavery with their gift lists as awareness grows over forced and child labor used in a list of products from princess dolls to sparkly make-up.

Festive goods ranging from toys to novelty jumpers to counterfeit designer bags may be produced using child slaves or other abused workers in often-complex global supply chains and consumers should be asking questions, experts said.

Forced labor: 25 million

About 25 million people are estimated to be trapped in forced labor, according to the United Nation’s International Labour Organization (ILO), and anti-slavery campaigners said their work may be found in many popular gifts.

“We are all even more aware at Christmas that we are not all in the same situation — that you may be in a happier situation than someone else in the world,” said Suzanne Hoff at the anti-trafficking organization La Strada International.

“It’s not only a good time of year to think about that but also to think ‘How I can I ensure that I don’t contribute to the further exploitation?’”

​Must-have toys, knock-offs

One of this year’s must-have toys may have been made by workers earning less than 1 pound ($1.26) an hour, it emerged.

Workers at a Chinese toy factory making Disney and Fisher-Price dolls worked illegal overtime and received no holiday or sick pay, according to an investigation by rights groups Solidar Suisse and China Labor Watch.

Neither Disney nor Mattel replied to requests for comment.

British government officials have warned that buying fake goods, from handbags to mobile phones, could support sweatshops and child labor.

“Border Force are at ports, airports and mailing rooms, working hard to keep these knock-off goods out of the country, depriving criminals of illicit profits and keeping consumers safe,” Immigration Minister Caroline Noakes said in a statement.

Make-up, mobile phones and jewelry may all be tainted by slavery in the sourcing of raw materials, according to CORE, a UK-based watchdog on corporate accountability.

And embracing the trend for a novelty reindeer jumper might come with a heavy price as the clothing industry has been hit by repeated scandals over mistreating workers as demand for cheap fast fashion soars, according to the UK’s Environmental Audit Committee.

Holiday dinners not immune

Even the Christmas dinner is not immune. Fruit and vegetables may have been produced using forced labor, with experts, including Britain’s anti-slavery body Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, warning agriculture workers are vulnerable to abuses including debt bondage.

After-dinner chocolates may come with a not-so-sweet aftertaste as plantations from Brazil to Ghana have been found to use child labor by various studies including by the Brazilian Federal Labor Prosecution Office and ILO.

Experts urged consumers to consider transparency over sourcing while doing any last-minute shopping and to press for change by asking brands what action they are taking.

“Why not take a moment whilst you’re watching telly on Boxing Day to write or reach out on social media to customer services of the brand of your favorite gift or two?” said Joanna Ewart-James, of the anti-slavery group Freedom United.

“Let them know how much you love your new present and ask what they are doing to ensure the workers in their supply chains are not exploited.”
…

French “yellow vest” protesters occupied highway toll booths, setting a number on fire and causing transport chaos in parts of the country just days before the Christmas holidays getaway.

France’s biggest toll road operator, Vinci Autoroutes, said there were demonstrations at about 40 sites along its network and that some highway intersections had been damaged, notably in tourist towns such as Avignon, Orange, Perpignan and Agde.

Protesters set fire overnight to the Bandol toll station, forcing the closure of the A50 highway between Marseille and Toulon, said Vinci, whose network is mainly in southern and western France. The Manosque station was also torched.

Some 20 people were arrested on Tuesday following the blazes, while four others remain in custody following fires on Saturday.

“Motorists should take utmost care as they approach toll gates and motorway access ramps due to the presence of numerous pedestrians,” Vinci said in a statement.

Several people have died in roadside accidents at yellow vest roadblocks in recent weeks, mostly at the many roundabouts blocked by groups of demonstrators.

The “yellow vests” protesters — named after the fluorescent jackets French motorists must have in their cars — have blocked roads and roundabouts across France since mid-November. The demonstrations began as a protest against fuel tax increases, but have morphed into a wider backlash against the liberal economic policies of French President Emmanuel Macron.

Protesters took to the streets of Paris and other cities on Saturday in a fifth weekend of demonstrations, though they were noticeably smaller than in previous weeks after Macron announced tax and salary concessions.

Costly damage

Protesters angry about high fuel costs and new speed limits have also damaged or torched hundreds of traffic radars.

Radars-auto.com estimated that by the middle of last week some 1,600 – about half of all French traffic radars — had been damaged. More than 250 have been entirely destroyed, it said.

The French state will also lose several tens of millions of euros in revenues, it said, adding that in 2017 the radars had yielded on average 84 million euros ($96 million) per month.

The interior ministry declined comment on the number of radars damaged, but said that minor damage cost on average 500 euros per radar to repair, with major damage costing up to 200,000 euros.

Fines for damaging radars can run as high as 75,000 euros. “Even wrapping a radar in plastic or a yellow vest … without destroying it is an offense,” a ministry official said. Vinci estimates the damages since the start of the protests will cost it “several tens of millions” of euros, not including lost revenue, as the protesters have allowed thousands of motorists onto the highways for free.

It dropped a plan to send invoices to motorists who drove through toll booths without paying and whose license plates were captured on cameras following government criticism.

($1 = 0.8792 euros)
…

U.S. President Donald Trump has sent a letter to Kosovo counterpart Hashim Thaci urging him to do everything to reach a longstanding deal with Serbia two decades after their war ended, according to Thaci’s official website.

Serbia and its former province of Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008, committed in 2013 to a European Union-sponsored dialogue meant to resolve all unsolved issues but little progress has been made.

“Failure to capitalize on this unique opportunity would be a tragic setback, as another chance for a comprehensive peace is unlikely to occur again soon,” says the text of the letter posted Tuesday on Thaci’s website.

“The United States has invested heavily in the success of Kosovo as an independent, sovereign state,” it said.

In Washington, the White House had no comment. There was no immediate comment from the U.S. Embassy in Kosovo’s capital Pristina.

Serbian-Kosovar tensions rose anew last week when Kosovo’s parliament voted to approve the creation of a 5,000-strong standing army — only a week after Serbia’s premier suggested such a move could provoke military intervention by Belgrade.

In June this year, Thaci said he would seek a solution with Serbia by “correcting borders,” but politicians and analysts in Kosovo said that means land swaps.

But his plan rang alarm bells among Balkan neighbors and some Western governments who saw it as a move to take three Serbian municipalities inhabited mainly by ethnic Albanians, who make up more than 90 percent of Kosovo’s population.

If there would be a land swap, then Serbia would get part of northern Kosovo populated mainly by minority Serbs who refuse to recognize the authority of the Pristina government.

Britain and Germany have said they do not favor border changes, but the United States said if these were agreed by Serbia and Kosovo, it would respect such a deal.

The United Nations Security Council publicly discussed the issues between the two countries and recent tensions on Monday at a meeting attended by the presidents of Serbia and Kosovo.

The letter posted by Thaci’s website said Trump would welcome hosting the Kosovo and Serbian presidents at the White House as part of such an “historic accord.”

Kosovo is recognized by more than 110 countries, including the United States, but not by Serbia, Russia or China.

Washington remains the biggest supporter of Kosovo both politically and financially.

It was under U.S. command that NATO bombed Serbian forces in 1999 to halt killings and expulsions of Kosovo Albanians during a counter-insurgency operation.
…

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel offered to resign on Tuesday after socialists and greens tabled a motion of no confidence in his minority government.

Michel relaunched his government a week ago as a minority administration after the Flemish N-VA, the biggest party in his coalition, quit in protest at his support of the U.N. migration pact.

Some European politicians say the accord could increase immigration as the bloc has turned increasingly restrictive on accepting refugees and migrants alike.

Michel’s slimmed down three-party coalition consisted of his French-speaking liberal MR and two Flemish parties.

With parliamentary elections due in May, Michel could be asked by King Philippe to stay on in a caretaker capacity but with limited power. The king may also speak to other political leaders in a bid to resolve the issue.
…