| Europe |
| Berlusconi to meet Gadhafi in Libya amid Lockerbie protests |
| 2009-08-23 |
| Italy's premier will go ahead with a trip to Libya next week despite international protests over the welcome Tripoli staged for the freed Lockerbie bomber, officials said Sunday. Silvio Berlusconi had long planned to meet with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi on August 30 to mark the first anniversary of a compensation and immigration accord that has helped stem the tide of illegal migrants reaching Italian shores. The premier's office confirmed the visit was going ahead despite outrage in London and Washington over the warm reception Libya gave to terminally ill Abdel Baset Megrahi, who was freed Thursday by Scotland on compassionate grounds. A Berlusconi ally, Margherita Boniver, said the premier will ask Gadhafi for an explanation when the two leaders meet next Sunday. |
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| Africa Horn |
| Israeli guards repel Somali pirate attack on cruise ship |
| 2009-04-27 |
| [Haaretz Defense] An Italian cruise ship with 1,500 people on board fended off a pirate attack far off the coast of Somalia when its Israeli private security forces exchanged fire with the bandits and drove them away, the commander said Sunday. Cmdr. Ciro Pinto told Italian state radio that six men in a small white boat approached the Msc Melody and opened fire with automatic weapons Saturday night, but retreated after the Israeli security officers aboard the cruise ship returned fire. Pinto said pistols were handed out to security staff and they opened fire on the pirates when they tried to clamber up the sides of the ship. "It felt like we were in war," Pinto said. "They tried to put up a ladder with hooks. They were climbing up, so we reacted. We started firing. When they saw us firing -- we even sprayed them with water with the firehose -- they gave up and went off," Pinto said. The pirates followed the Melody for another 20 minutes, firing at it all the while, Pinto said. "The passengers meanwhile were inside the cabin. There are no injuries. Only two people with scrapes," the captain said. "Someone slipped, fell. Just a few light scrapes." Domenico Pellegrino, head of the Italian cruise line, said Msc hired the Israelis because they were the best trained security agents, the ANSA news agency reported. Cruise line security work is a popular job for young Israelis who have recently been discharged from mandatory army service, as it is a good chance to save money and travel. Civilian shipping and passenger ships have generally avoided arming crewmen or hiring armed security for reasons of safety, liability and compliance with the rules of the different countries where they dock. Saturday's exchange of fire was one of the first reported between pirates and a nonmilitary ship. International military forces have battled pirates, with U.S. Navy snipers killing three holding an American captain hostage in one of the highest-profile incidents. The Spanish warship SPS Marques de Ensenada was meeting up with the liner to escort her through the pirate-infested northern Gulf of Aden, the Maritime Security Center said. The cruise ship was headed as scheduled to the Jordanian port of Aqaba. The Melody was on a 22-day cruise from Durban, South Africa, to Genoa, Italy. Another Italian-owned vessel remains in the hands of pirates. The Italian-flagged tugboat Buccaneer was seized off Somalia on April 11 with 16 crew members aboard. On Saturday, the Foreign Ministry dispatched a special envoy, Margherita Boniver, to Somalia to try to win the release of the tug and crew. In a statement, the ministry also denied reports by relatives of the crew that an ultimatum had been issued by the pirates. |
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| Southeast Asia | ||
| Kidnapped Italian Priest Freed by Philippine Gunmen: Prodi | ||
| 2007-07-20 | ||
A Roman Catholic priest kidnapped in the southern Philippines last month has been freed, Italian Premier Romano Prodi said yesterday.
Bossis sister, Pinuccia Bossi, told Sky TG24 that she had just spoken to her brother. Hes good and hes coming home, she said. Pope Benedict XVI said last week that he was praying daily for Bossi. The release came as a surprise since officials in Italy and the Philippines had said as recently as last week that they did not even know who was behind the kidnapping. There was not even a hint from Philippine officials of Bossis fate yesterday. Bossi, a member of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME), was taken at gunpoint on June 10 near his church in the coastal town of Payao, Zamboanga Sibugay province, after holding mass with his congregation. Philippine authorities have tagged the gang of Akiddin Abdusallam, described as a rogue leader of the MILF, as the group that kidnapped Bossi, the third PIME member to be abducted in the southern Philippines in the last nine years. Immediately after the abduction, Philippine government forces teamed up with the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in searching for the priest. But after weeks without any positive result, Prodi sent lawmaker Margherita Boniver as her special envoy to the Philippines to work for Bossis freedom.
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| Southeast Asia | ||
| Search continues for Catholic priest kidnapped by Muslim gunmen | ||
| 2007-07-05 | ||
| Dozens of U.S.-trained commandos have joined the search for an Italian Roman Catholic priest taken captive by Muslim gunmen in the troubled southern Philippines. Philippines military chief General Hermogenes Esperon said nearly 2000 soldiers, backed by four navy boats and four helicopters, had been searching for nearly a month now in the Zamboanga peninsula to free Giancarlo Bossi, held by a rogue faction of Muslim rebels. "We have limited our operations in a few areas in the south," Gen Esperon said. "We're not letting up on the operations. It's just that we don't want to compromise the safety of Father Bossi." There have been no sightings of or contacts with the priest since he was abducted after saying mass on June 10. On Wednesday night, an Italian lawmaker arrived in Manila to work with Philippine officials on the case. "Let me make it clear, I did not come here to negotiate," Margherita Boniver said.
Kidnap-for-ransom is a thriving industry in some parts of the south, where Muslim and communist insurgents operate.
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| Afghanistan/South Asia | |
| Minister: Kidnapped Italian Aid Worker OK | |
| 2005-05-18 | |
| Italy's foreign minister said Tuesday that an Italian aid worker taken hostage in Afghanistan is all right, as he tried to reassure an anguished nation over its latest abduction drama. "We know that she is well because the kidnappers have initiated a channel of contacts with the Afghan authorities," Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini told reporters about efforts to win the freedom of CARE International worker Clementina Cantoni, who was abducted in Kabul on Monday. When reporters asked Fini if the kidnappers had asked for ransom in exchange for the woman's release, he replied: "It's a question on which utmost reserve, discretion and prudence are obligatory to reach the objective."
Earlier, a top aide to Fini, Ministry Undersecretary Margherita Boniver, told Sky TG24 that "the most accredited hypothesis about the kidnappers is that of common criminals." | |
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