The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Italy

  • U.S. allies rule out military solution in Syria

    U.S. allies rule out military solution in Syria

    Germany and Italy stressed Tuesday the need for a political solution in Syria, where the U.S. has intervened with missile strikes in response to a chemical weapons attack on civilians.

    Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven (G7), which comprises the U.S., Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Japan and Canada, discussed the crisis with representatives from the European Union and several Middle Eastern countries.

    “We do not believe that the military solution is the right one,” said Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano, who hosted the talks also involving ministers from Saudi Arabia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Jordan.

    The ministers, meeting in the Tuscan town of Lucca, agreed that “Russia must not be isolated and, on the contrary, must insofar as possible be involved in the political transition process in Syria,” Alfano added.

    While the White House said Monday the U.S. was ready to repeat strikes against Syrian targets to prevent the use of chemical weapons, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson focused on diplomacy in talks with partners, Germany said.

    “Tillerson explicitly said they are seeking a non-violent, non-military way,” German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel told reporters, praising his U.S. counterpart for taking “a very realistic and clear stance.”

    The U.S. bombing of Syrian airfield on April 7 in response to the attack in the city of Khan Sheikhoun has confounded expectations that Donald Trump would be an isolationist president, and soured his relations with Russia.

    Russia, a staunch ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has condemned US actions as reckless and counterproductive.

    Iran, another main backer of the regime in Damascus, has expressed similar concerns.

    The G7 was attempting to put up a united front on Syria ahead of Tillerson’s Wednesday visit to Moscow.

    Calls Britain made on Monday to threaten Syria and Russia with further sanctions did not seem to make headway.

    Nevertheless, Gabriel urged Moscow to reconsider its support for al-Assad.

    “I believe that it is almost inconceivable that Russia wants to stand on the side of such a murderous regime as that of Bashar al-Assad for the long haul,” he said.

    North Korea’s illegal nuclear programme and the US decision to send warships to the Korean peninsula, ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Libya, the threat from terrorism and migration were also on the agenda.

    The Lucca talks were also laying the ground for next month’s G7 summit in Taormina, Sicily, the first to be attended by Trump.

     

  • Babies cry more in UK, Canada, Italy, less in Germany: Study

    Babies cry more in UK, Canada, Italy, less in Germany: Study

    Babies cry more in Britain, Canada, Italy and Netherlands than in other countries, while newborns in Denmark, Germany and Japan cry and fuss the least, researchers said on Monday.

    In research looking at how much babies around the world cry in their first three months, psychologists from Britain have created the first universal charts for normal amounts of crying during that period.

    Dieter Wolker, who led the study at Warwick University, said: “babies are already very different in how much they cry in the first weeks of life.

    “We may learn more from looking at cultures where there is less crying, (including) whether this may be due to parenting or other factors relating to pregnancy experiences or genetics.”

    The highest levels of colic, defined as crying more than three hours a day for at least three days a week, were found in babies in Britain, Canada and Italy, while the lowest colic rates were found in Denmark and Germany.

    On average, the study found, babies cry for around two hours a day in the first two weeks.

    They then cry a little more in the following few weeks until they peak at around two hours 15 minutes a day at six weeks.

    This then reduces to an average of one hour 10 minutes by the time they are 12 weeks old.

    But there are wide variations, with some babies crying as little as 30 minutes a day, and others more than five hours.

    The research, published in the Journal of Pediatrics, was a meta-analysis of studies covering some 8,700 babies in countries including Germany, Denmark, Japan, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands and Britain.

    Wolker said the new crying chart would help health workers reassure parents whether their baby is crying within a normal range in the first three months, or may need extra support

  • 11,000 Nigerian women arrived Italy from Libya in 2016

    The United Kingdom has called for urgent international collaboration to help Nigeria tackle human trafficking challenge at source, pledging at least five million pounds to the course.

    United Kingdom’s Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, Kevin Hyland, made the call at the UN Security Council Open Debate on Modern Slavery on Saturday in New York.

    Hyland said that women and girls from Nigeria, who were illegal migrants, were victims of forced labour and sexual exploitation in detention centres across Libya, in attempt to get into Europe.

    He pointed out that “for decades, transnational traffickers have operated in a particular part of Nigeria, deceiving victims with false promises of better lives in Europe”.

    “But what was a trickle has now become a flow,” he said.

    The envoy said that long-established transnational organised crime groups were also using power vacuums caused by Boko Haram conflict to increase their trafficking operations.

    “These criminals are taking advantage of conflict and instability in the Lake Chad Basin and Libya and have massively scaled up their trafficking operations by utilising these now ungoverned routes.

    “In 2016, just over 11,000 Nigerian women arrived in Italy from Libya.

    “This is an eightfold increase from the numbers that arrived in 2014.

    “The International Organization for Migration believes that 80 per cent are trafficking victims destined for brothels across Europe,” he said.

    Hyland mentioned a particular State in Nigeria that he visited, saying “it is the main region where traffickers source their victims.

    “This trafficking is especially brutal in nature.

    “Women who insist they will not work as prostitutes are tied up in a position called ‘the crocodile’ where their hands are tied to their feet and they are left for days without food or water.

    “Some are left to die as an example to others,” he stated.

    According to him, the UK Government recently announced at least five million pounds to work in partnership with Nigeria to help tackle trafficking at source.

    “All of the Nigerian survivors I met wanted to tell me about the identities, tactics and routes of traffickers.

    “Unfortunately this information is not being routinely collected, analysed or acted on.

    “Much more needs to be done to protect the vulnerable,” he appealed.

    He said that Prime Minister Theresa May had committed the UK to international leadership in combating modern slavery.

    “Unless those behind this trade in human lives are pursued and punished, vulnerable people will continue to be sourced, used, abused and replaced and treated as mere commodities.

    “So, I urge international organisations and Member States and in particular, law enforcement and intelligence agencies, to prioritise efforts to increase cross border collaboration to investigate, disrupt and dismantle human trafficking networks.

    “We need high profile convictions of the organisers, to act as a deterrent to others.

    “This can be achieved through increased use of joint investigation teams, multilateral prosecutions and data and intelligence sharing.

    “We need to get smarter at debriefing victims and sensitively sharing this information with law enforcement and victim support agencies, to inform disruption and protection efforts,” Hyland said.

    He strongly welcomed UN Resolution 2331, which called for ‘proactive responses to protect against slavery and trafficking to be systematically integrated into humanitarian responses to conflict and related emergencies’. (NAN)

  • Ministry to part mining intervention funds to boost tiles production

    The Ministry of Mines and Steel Development said on Tuesday it would commit part of the mining intervention funds to support tile producers, to reduce importation gap.

    Dr Kayode Fayemi, Minister of Mines and Steel Development, disclosed this during a tour to CIBI Nigeria Limited quarry in Buruku, Kaduna State.

    Fayemi said part of the fund would be drawn from the World Bank single digit loan and the N30 billion Mining Intervention Fund approved by the Federal Government last year, among others.

    According to him, the ministry is in partnership with the Bank of Industry (BOI) to offer loan facility from the intervention funds to ”serious minded people” already producing tiles.

    “We are working with the BOI to disburse the loans as soon as the intervention funds are released to serious tile producers across the country,” he said.

    He said the CIBI would have been able to produce more than 200,000 square metres being made annually from dimension stones, if adequate resources, including finance, equipment and others were in its reach.

    Fayemi said that Nigeria needed four million square metres of tiles annually, adding that all the local tile producers could only produce less than a million annually.

    “The bulk of tiles we use in Nigeria are imported from Italy, China and India, among others; we need to support them because we envisaged this in our roadmap.

    “We are endowed with lots of mineral resources; we have dimension stones everywhere but not exploited; there is no stone we don’t have in Nigeria,” he said.

    Alhaji Nuhu Wya, Chairman of CIBI, urged government to support its project, as there were more demands for tiles but it lacked sufficient capital to expand the business.

    Wya said the company usually received market orders from its customers two months before production.

    ”Our company needs long-term loans to run the business to increase tiles production that could reduce importation gap.

    “If investment put in oil industry is replicated in solid minerals, Nigeria does not need to depend on oil as its mainstay because we are blessed with mineral stones abundantly,’’ he said.

    The ministry’s roadmap to contribute to the nation’s GDP is to reduce importation of tiles and concentrate on the production.

    The minister, on March 13, commenced tour of mine fields across the country.

     

  • Six-year-old to meet Fiorentina idol

    Six-year-old to meet Fiorentina idol

     

     

     

     

    Fiorentina have invited a young supporter to visit the team after he drew winger Federico Chiesa for a school assignment.

    Chiesa’s surname means ‘church’ in Italian, and when little Vittorio was asked by his teacher to draw the religious building, he drew the up-and-coming Fiorentina talent instead.

     

    His father, Dario, put the image on social media and it went viral across Italy. The story came to Fiorentina’s attentions, and the Serie A side have subsequently invited Vittorio and his father to the training ground to meet the Viola squad.

    Of course, proud Papa Dario didn’t expect such a strong reaction.

    “We didn’t think all of this would happen,” Dario told Violanews. “The teacher asked Vittorio and the other class pupils to write the word ‘church’ in capital letters and then represent it with a design.

    “When my son handed over his work to the teacher he said ‘I drew a child who goes to church’.

    “When he returned home he told us to the truth that he had in fact drawn Federico Chiesa.”

    So there’s your lesson, kids: make mistakes at school to achieve your dreams. Or something like that.

  • Libyan force suspects rival in Italian embassy bomb

    Libyan force suspects rival in Italian embassy bomb

    A counter-terrorism unit in the Libyan capital Tripoli said it suspected Saturday’s car bomb near the recently reopened Italian embassy was planted by backers of the “powerful” Libyan National Army (LNA) based in the eastern part of the divided country.

    The blast occurred in central Tripoli about 350 metres from the Italian embassy.

    The bodies of two men were recovered from the wreckage of the car.

    Tripoli’s Special Deterrence Forces said in a statement on Thursday that the men had been trying to target the embassy, but had been prevented from parking their car near the embassy compound’s walls.

    Tripoli is home to myriad of armed groups with shifting and conflicting loyalties.

    In 2014 fighting between armed alliances backing opposing political factions resulted in rival governments being set up in Tripoli and the east.

    Since March 2016, a third U.N.-backed government has been trying to establish itself in the capital, but it has been unable to win support from groups in the east aligned with the government there and with the eastern-based LNA.

    The LNA has made significant gains over the past year in its “Operation Dignity” campaign against Islamist-led opponents in the eastern city of Benghazi, and has pushed west to control key oil facilities.

    It has said it is preparing to “liberate” Tripoli.

    Many doubt it has the capacity to do so, but the claim has led to speculation that it is trying to lay the ground for a military takeover.

    The deterrence forces said: “according to the investigations the perpetrators of the terrorist act are connected with what is known as Operation Dignity, but it’s still unclear if it was an individual act or on Operation Dignity’s orders.

    “This terrorist act is a result of political conflict between east and west and aims to show the capital as unsafe.”

    It gave the names of the two suspects whose bodies had been found in the car, naming a third suspect who it said was still at large.

    There was no immediate response from eastern officials.

  • Unaccompanied child migrants in Mediterranean doubles

    Unaccompanied child migrants in Mediterranean doubles

    The number of child migrants who crossed the Mediterranean Sea to Italy without family more than doubled to 25,800 in 2016, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said in Geneva on Friday.

    More than 90 per cent of all underage arrivals in Italy were children who traveled alone or who had become separated from their parents during the journey.

    “These figures indicate an alarming trend of an increasing number of highly vulnerable children risking their lives to get to Europe,” said UNICEF emergency coordinator Lucio Melandri.

    It said that most of these unaccompanied children come from Eritrea, Egypt, Gambia and Nigeria, and most of them are boys between the ages of 15 and 17.

    The girls that make the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean are at risk being forced into prostitution in Libya to pay off their travel costs to people smugglers.

    Governments should address the causes of child migration and should do a better job of protecting them, UNICEF said.

    In particular, irregular underage migrants should not be detained, the UN agency said.

  • Buhari sympathizes with Italy over earthquake

    Buhari sympathizes with Italy over earthquake

    President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed deep grief and sympathy with Italy over the deadly earthquake that has claimed more than two hundred lives in the central parts of the country.

    According to a statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, Buhari said: “My heart and prayers go out to the people of Italy at this time of national mourning, caused by the devastating earthquake.”

    Buhari told the Italian Prime Minister, Mr. Matteo Renzi, that his family, the government and the people of Nigeria shared the grief of Italian citizens over the deadly natural disaster.

    The President prayed to God to comfort the families of the victims and grant them the fortitude to overcome their grief at this emotionally challenging time.

  • Buhari seeks more economic engagement with Italy

    Buhari seeks more economic engagement with Italy

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday called for more intensive trade and economic engagement between Nigeria and Italy.

    He made the call during a courtesy call by Mr. Paolo Gentiloni, the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation at the State House, Abuja.

    Buhari, in a statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, described the connection between Nigeria and Italy as very strong.

    He however urged that efforts should be made to make it stronger and more secure.

    Buhari commended the resilience of Italian businesses in Nigeria and expressed happiness that new businesses were in line to be set up in the country.

    He also commended Italian support for the government in tackling the humanitarian situation in the Northeast and the training they are giving to Nigerian policemen.

    Mr. Gentiloni, who was accompanied by the Italian Minister of State for Interior, Mr. Domenico Manzione, announced his government’s Ten Million Dollars humanitarian assistance to the Lake Chad region countries in addition to what they are already doing, which is within the framework of the European Union.

    He said that the visit of the business group and his delegation was a fulfillment of the promise made by Mr. Matteo Renzi, the Italian Prime Minister, during his visit in February, towards strengthening relations with Nigeria politically and economically.

  • Italy, Netherlands offer to split contested UN Security Council seat

    Italy and the Netherlands propose to split a two-year term on the UN Security Council Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders says

    The proposal was after the two countries tied with the same number of votes in a contested race to attain a UN non-permanent seat

    Koenders said that Italy would serve a one-year term in 2017 and the Netherlands would sit on the council in 2018.

    Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni says the proposal is symbolic because it’s a “message of unity between two European countries.”

    The Western European regional group will discuss the proposal on Wednesday.

    The decision comes after neither of the countries could attain the two-thirds majority vote needed with both receiving 95 votes in the fifth round of voting.