page 32
page 32 NIGER Niger tells Europe it needs 1b euros to fight illegal migration Niger, a major transit country for Africans seeking to reach the EU, told foreign ministers visiting from Europe on Tuesday it needs 1 billion euros to combat illegal migration. As many as 150,000 migrants, most coming from other West African nations, […]
page 32
NIGER
Niger tells Europe it needs 1b euros to fight illegal migration
Niger, a major transit country for Africans seeking to reach the EU, told foreign ministers visiting from Europe on Tuesday it needs 1 billion euros to combat illegal migration.
As many as 150,000 migrants, most coming from other West African nations, will travel through Niger this year, crossing the Sahara Desert on their way to the Mediterranean coast, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
A vast landlocked country, Niger borders Nigeria in the south and Libya to north – from whose coast many migrants set off on the perilous sea journey to EU members Italy or Malta.
“Niger needs a billion euros to fight against clandestine migration,” Foreign Minister Ibrahim Yacoubou told a news conference in Niger’s capital, flanked by his French and German counterparts Jean-Marc Ayrault and Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
“We’ve solicited the help of the European Union, France and Germany. We want to protect legal migration against clandestine migration,” Yacoubou said.
W/AFRICA
Pirates paid ‘$400,000’ ransoms in West Africa’s Gulf of Guinea
Ransoms of up to $400,000 (£273,000) have been paid to gangs which hijacked ships in the Gulf of Guinea in 2015, a maritime report says.
The region was the most dangerous in the world for seafarers, with pirates becoming more violent, it added.
A total of 32 seafarers had been kidnapped so far this year compared with 15 in 2015, the report said.
Kidnapping for ransom took place mainly in the oil-producing areas off Nigeria’s coast, it said.
The spike in kidnappings appeared to be linked to political developments in Nigeria, the report by the US-based group Oceans Beyond Piracy group said.
There had also been a sharp drop in oil theft last year, which the report put down to improved patrolling of Nigeria’s waters, and the fall in oil prices making it less profitable.
ITALY
Court rules food theft ‘not a crime’ if hungry
Stealing small amounts of food to stave off hunger is not a crime, Italy’s highest court of appeal has ruled.
Judges overturned a theft conviction against Roman Ostriakov after he stole cheese and sausages worth €4.07 (£3; $4.50) from a supermarket.
Mr Ostriakov, a homeless man of Ukrainian background, had taken the food “in the face of the immediate and essential need for nourishment”, the court of cassation decided.
Therefore it was not a crime, it said.
A fellow customer informed the store’s security in 2011, when Mr Ostriakov attempted to leave a Genoa supermarket with two pieces of cheese and a packet of sausages in his pocket but paid only for breadsticks.
In 2015, Mr Ostriakov was convicted of theft and sentenced to six months in jail and a €100 fine.
UNITED STATES
Islamic State kills U.S. Navy SEAL in northern Iraq
A US Navy Seal who was advising Kurdish Peshmerga forces in northern Iraq has been killed by Islamic State (IS) militants, US defence officials say.
The special warfare operator, who has not been named, died as a result of a gunshot wound, the Navy Times reported.
Peshmerga officials said the militants breached the frontline north of the IS-held city of Mosul on Tuesday morning.
The American was the third to be killed in combat since the US-led coalition campaign against IS began in 2014.
Although Iraqi pro-government forces have gradually pushed back IS since then with the help of US-led coalition air strikes and military advisers, the jihadist group still controls large parts of the country’s north and west.
The Navy Seal’s death was announced by US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter, who said only that a serviceman had died as a result of enemy fire near Irbil, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region.
KENYA
Police ‘foil anthrax attack’ by ‘IS-linked group’
Kenyan police say they have foiled a “large-scale” biological attack using anthrax, by a terror group with links to so-called Islamic State (IS).
A man, his wife and another woman have been arrested. Rewards have been offered for two other men.
Police did not name the network, but said it stretches across the country and outside its borders, including to Somalia, Libya and Syria.
There was no immediate independent confirmation.
In a statement, the police said Mohammed Abdi Ali, a medical intern at a Kenyan hospital, was in charge of a “terror network… planning large-scale attacks akin to the Westgate Mall attack” in which 67 people were killed.
They say he was also “engaged in the active radicalisation” of students and helped recruit Kenyans “to join terror groups in Libya and Syria”.
SYRIA
Russia hopes to extend truce to Aleppo
Russia’s foreign minister says a unilateral truce declared by the Syrian military could be extended to the city of Aleppo “in the next few hours”.
Sergei Lavrov said Russia was working with the UN and US to include Aleppo in the “regime of calm” that has covered Damascus and Latakia since Saturday.
But Mr Lavrov warned that rebels would have to leave areas where allied jihadist militants were being targeted.
More than 250 people have been killed in Aleppo in the past 10 days.
About two-thirds of those deaths have been in the rebel-held eastern side of the city, including 55 in an air strike on a hospital the US says was deliberate.
On Tuesday, 19 people were killed by rebel rocket fire in government-controlled areas of Aleppo, monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. State media said a hospital was hit, killing three people and wounding 17.
JAPAN
Japan agrees to lease military aircraft to Philippines
Japan will lease military aircraft to the Philippines in another sign of deepening security ties between the two former foes to counter Beijing’s increasing regional influence.
The agreement was made during telephone talks between Japan’s Defence Minister Gen Nakatani and his Philippine counterpart Voltaire Gazmin, the ministry said.
Tensions in the South China Sea — through which one third of the world’s oil passes — have mounted in recent years since China transformed contested reefs into artificial islands capable of supporting military facilities.
Under the accord, Tokyo will lease up to five TC-90 training airplanes and help Manila train pilots and aircraft mechanics, the ministry said. The planes can be used as surveillance aircraft, according to local media.
It will be Japan’s first lease of its Self-Defence Forces’ aircraft to another country after it recently lifted a self-imposed ban on weapons exports.
GERMANY
German couple tortured two women to death
Police in Germany investigating the deaths of two women say they were the victims of a couple who held them hostage and tortured them.
They say a man and his ex-wife placed dating advertisements to lure the women to their home.
The suspects – Wilfried W, 46, and Angelika B, 47 – were arrested last Wednesday and charged with manslaughter.
The man denies any wrongdoing but his partner is reported to have confessed.
Detectives believe there may be further victims and are searching the couple’s home in Hoexter, north-western Germany.
KENYA
Baby rescued after four days in collapsed building
A six-month-old girl has been rescued from the debris of a building that collapsed four days ago in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
Later the Kenyan Red Cross said the baby, Dealeryn Saisi Wasike, was reunited with her father. She has no physical injuries.
The six-storey residence came down in heavy rain, killing at least 23 people.
Dozens of others are still thought to be buried under the rubble, but hopes of finding more alive are fading. The baby’s mother is still missing.
The building had been earmarked for demolition. Its owner was due to appear in court on Tuesday charged with manslaughter.
ISRAEL
Israeli given life sentence for Palestinian’s murder
The Israeli ringleader in the killing of a Palestinian teenager who was abducted and burned to death in 2014 has been sentenced to life in prison.
Yosef Haim Ben David, 31, was convicted of murdering Mohammad Abu Khdair, 16, after judges rejected an insanity plea.
Two Israeli youths have also been jailed for their roles in the killing.
Khdair was killed in revenge for the murders of three Israeli teens in the West Bank in a cycle of violence that led to a 50-day war in the Gaza Strip.
His body was discovered in a forest in West Jerusalem on 2 July 2014, two days after the bodies of the Israelis abducted and murdered by Hamas militants that June were found.