Over 60 dead as migrant vessel
capsizes off
Libya coast
Cairo, Dec 17: A boat carrying dozens of migrants trying to reach Europe capsized off the coast of Libya, leaving more than 60 people dead, including women and children, the UN migration agency said. Saturday’s shipwreck was the latest tragedy in this part of the Mediterranean Sea, a key but dangerous route for migrants seeking a better life in Europe. Thousands have died, according to officials. The UN’s International Organisation for Migration said in a statement the boat was carrying 86 migrants when strong waves swamped it off the town of Zuwara on Libya’s western coast and that 61 migrants drowned, according to survivors. “The central Mediterranean continues to be one of the world’s most dangerous migration routes,” the agency wrote on social media platform X. A spokesman for the Libyan coast guard was not immediately available for comment. (AP)
Illegal migration a threat to UK, warns Sunak
London, Dec 17: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who was in Italy over the weekend on an official visit, has warned that illegal migration threatens to “overwhelm” Europe and indicated that it may be time for an update of international law. At an event in Rome on Saturday, the British Indian leader also cautioned that “enemies” could use immigration as a “weapon” by “deliberately driving people to our shores to try to destabilise” European society. He was addressing the Atreju political festival, organised by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right wing Brothers of Italy party. “If we do not tackle this (illegal migration) problem, the numbers will only grow,” said Sunak. “It will overwhelm our countries and our capacity to help those who actually need our help the most. If that requires us to update our laws and lead an international conversation to amend the post-war frameworks around asylum, then we must do that. Because if we don’t fix this problem now, the boats will keep coming and more lives will be lost at sea,” he said. (PTI)
Boston Tea
Party turns
250 years old
Boston, Dec 17: Patriotic mobs and harbour tea-dumping returned to Boston on Saturday as the city marked the 250th anniversary of the revolutionary protest that preceded America’s independence. The commemoration of the Boston Tea Party included scheduled reenactments of the throwing of tea leaves into the city’s harbour and community meetings that preceded the defiant act on December 16, 1773 – though this time, the symbolic protest was aided by spotlights and microphones. City officials were expecting thousands of visitors for the celebration. Crowds who gathered to watch the reenactment quickly joined in, shouting “Huzzah!” along with the costumed actors as boxes of tea were dumped in the harbour. Later, they resoundingly cheered as narrators detailed the drafting of the Declaration of Independence. Tea for the reenactment was supplied by the East India Co., the same British company that was at the centre of the raucous dispute. (AP)