239 migrants die in shipwrecks of Libya – Russia grants Seagal Citizenship

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A woman wrapped in a survival foil blanket looks on aboard the Topaz Responder ship run by Maltese NGO Moas and the Italian Red Cross during a rescue operation of migrants and refugees on Nov 3, 2016, off the Libyan coast in the Mediterranean Sea.
A woman wrapped in a survival foil blanket looks on aboard the Topaz Responder ship run by Maltese NGO Moas and the Italian Red Cross during a rescue operation of migrants and refugees on Nov 3, 2016, off the Libyan coast in the Mediterranean Sea.

GENEVA, Nov 3, (Agencies): At least 239 migrants, believed to be from West Africa, have died in two shipwrecks off Libya, a spokesman for the United Nations migration agency, said on Thursday.

One group of migrants, including about 20 women and six children, set off in a rubber dinghy from Libya around 3:00 am on Wednesday, but their boat collapsed after a few hours, said Flavio di Giacomo, a spokesman for the UN’s International Organisation for Migration, who cited accounts by survivors.

By the time rescuers arrived, most had drowned. Twelve bodies were recovered, including three babies. About 27 survived.

Another two women reported surviving a separate disaster that happened at about the same time. Their rubber dinghy was carrying about 130 people.

The International Organization for Migration said the latest deaths meant 4,220 lives had been lost in the Mediterranean so far this year, compared with 3,777 in the whole of 2015.

October saw a surge in migrant arrivals in Italy, with 27,388 arriving, more than the two previous Octobers combined, and bringing this year’s total arrivals to over 158,000, di Giacomo said.

The smugglers who arrange the journeys have told migrants that European training of Libyan coastguards means the rescue missions will soon be handed over to Libya and any rescued migrants will be taken ashore in Libya rather than Italy, di Giacomo said.

That was possibly causing the rush to board boats now, he said, although the information, gleaned from rescued migrants, was not confirmed.

Suspect detained: Germany’s top security official is praising the detention of a suspected extremist in Berlin, saying it shows authorities are being vigilant and doing “everything to avoid terrorist attacks in Germany.”

The man, who claims to be 27 and from Syria, was taken into custody late Wednesday on suspicion of being a member of the Islamic State militant group.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said Thursday “it is very good this person has been taken out of circulation.”

He said the suspect had been under surveillance for a while, but didn’t give further details.

The man, who has lived in Germany since 2015, is expected to be taken before a judge later in the day to determine whether there is enough evidence to hold him longer.

Belgium backs extradition: A Belgian court Thursday backed the eventual extradition to France of the suspect in a deadly attack on a Jewish museum in Brussels in 2014, prosecutors said.

French national Mehdi Nemmouche, 31, is also suspected by Paris of being among the captors of four French journalists who were kept hostage in Syria.

“This morning, the pre-trial chamber of the Brussels court of first degree has declared enforceable the European Arrest Warrant that had been issued by the French judicial authorities against Mehdi Nemmouche,” the Belgian federal prosecutor said in a statement. He can be sent to France “when Belgium no longer needs him” in relation to the Jewish Museum attack in which four people were killed, a spokesman for the prosecutor told AFP.

On May 24, 2014 a gunman opened fire in the entrance hall of the museum in the centre of the Belgian capital, killing two Israeli tourists, a French volunteer and a Belgian museum receptionist. (AFP)

France closes 4 mosques: France’s interior minister has ordered the closure of four mosques that allegedly espoused a ‘radical ideology,’ the latest such shutdowns among dozens since the Nov 13 Paris attacks nearly a year ago.

A state of emergency in France allows for the closing of places of worship where the preaching risks provoking hate, violence or acts of terrorism.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve ordered the mosques in the Paris region closed on Wednesday. A ministry statement did not name the mosques, located east, west and north of the city.

“Under cover of religion, these places held meetings that in reality were aimed at promoting a radical ideology,” the statement said. Dozens of mosques where radicalism allegedly thrived have been closed and non-citizens, including imams, expelled since the attacks that killed 130 people.

Activist ‘suffers seizure’: Jailed Russian activist Ildar Dadin has suffered a suspected seizure after saying he was beaten by prison staff, his wife told AFP on Thursday, adding she feared it had been caused by kicks to the head.

Dadin’s wife Anastasia Zotova said activists who visited Dadin in his prison in northwestern Russia on Wednesday told her they had seen him suffer a “strange” episode “like an epileptic fit”.

The deputy head of Russia’s prison service Valery Maksimenko, quoted by TASS state news agency, told the public chamber advisory body that Dadin fell off a chair “in a fit” while being examined by doctors Wednesday.

The 34-year-old came to prominence when he was handed a two-and-a-half year sentence under a controversial law that punishes repeated participation in unsanctioned rallies, after he demonstrated against President Vladimir Putin’s rule.

Seagal now ‘Russian’: Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed an order to give Russian citizenship to US actor Steven Seagal, the Kremlin said on its website on Thursday.

Commenting on the subject on a conference call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Seagal has repeatedly asked for Russian citizenship.

Seagal is famous for his “warm feelings towards Russia” that he has never concealed, Peskov said.

“At the same time, he is a rather well-known actor, which became the reason for granting him Russian Federation citizenship,” Peskov said.

Seagal, who according to his own website is 64, is the latest Western celebrity who has been given a Russian passport in the past few years. In 2013, Gerard Depardieu, a French actor, was given Russian citizenship by Putin.

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