Italy has rescued more than 70,000 desperate migrants, fleeing war or abuses in their homelands, from boat wrecks in the Mediterranean, at a cost of roughly €9Million a month. The European Union needs to step it up and help defray these costs. Despite Italy’s efforts, tragedies at sea occur regularly. Yesterday, smugglers deliberately sank a boat holding 500 migrants who drowned in the Mediterranean.
Individual governments have begun setting up specialized war crimes units, composed of police, prosecutors, and immigration officials. These units are designed to prosecute suspects accused of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and torture, regardless of where the crimes were committed and the victim’s and accused’s nationality.
A Kurdish group reports that Islamic State fighters have captured more than 700 Yazidi women and girls in Iraq.
In the United States, the Obama administration has made curbing nicotine use by kids a public health priority, with efforts including mass media campaigns to reduce teen smoking. But when it comes to the serious health risks run by thousands of children who work each summer on tobacco farms in the United States, the administration has been conspicuously silent.
Kabul’s Appeals Court turned a blind eye to serious flaws in the handling of the notorious Paghman gang rape case and upheld death sentences for five of the defendants.
