Czech Republic to stay out of UN pact on migration

November 14, 2018

PRAGUE (AP) — The Czech government has decided the country will stay out of a United Nations pact promoting an international approach to safe and orderly migration. Wednesday's decision comes after Prime Minister Andrej Babis vehemently opposed the document, saying it poses a threat for his country's security and sovereignty.

Babis has argued the U.N. pact that is the subject of an adoption meeting set for Dec. 11-12 in Marrakech, Morocco, is dangerous even though it's nonbinding because "it, in fact, defines migration as a basic human right."

Babis noted that the United States, Austria and Hungary also reject it. The Czech Republic previously refused a European Union plan to assign member states a required number of asylum-seekers to accept.

Italian president calls WWI a warning to Europe to co-exist

November 04, 2018

ROME (AP) — Italy's president lamented World War I's roots in "aggressive nationalism" and held up the European Union on Sunday as the "highest expression" of a commitment to common good needed to prevent catastrophic military conflicts.

Commemorating the 100th anniversary of the end of the war, Italian head of state Sergio Mattaella also recalled Europe's history of anti-Semitism as he urged young people to remember the conflict's lessons while striving for peaceful coexistence.

"To celebrate together the end of the war and to jointly honor the fallen - all the fallen - signifies to reiterate with force, all together, that over the path of war, we prefer to develop friendship and collaboration," Mattarella said at a ceremony in Trieste, a port city not far from some of the deadliest battles between Italian soldiers and troops of the Austrian-Hungarian empire.

The event was part of a week of observances planned for the centenary of Armistice Day. More than 60 heads of state and government, including U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, are expected to attend an international ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris on the Nov. 11 anniversary.

French President Emmanuel Macron started a six-day tour of World War I battlegrounds Sunday night in the eastern French city of Strasbourg. Accompanying him were his wife, Brigitte, and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

On Monday, Macron plans to attend a ceremony in memory of the soldiers who died early in the war, during the Battle of Morang in 1914. In Trieste, Italy's president singled out the memory of a "simple soldier," Vittorio Calderoni, who died from his wounds at age 17 just after World War I ended. Calderoni was the son of Italians who had immigrated to Argentina, but he sailed to Europe to enlist in the army and fight for Italy.

Mattarella said he chose to pay tribute to him "because Vittorio Calderoni was Jewish, the youngest of some 400 Italians of Jewish origin who died in the Great War." The president said he considered it his duty to note that in the same square where he spoke, late Italian dictator Benito Mussolini delivered a 1938 speech that ushered in "the dark and tragic" period of the Fascist regime's anti-Jewish laws.

Mattarella encouraged young people to keep an "active" memory for the victims of wars as a way to consolidate freedom and harmony as "irreversible" choices for Europeans. In contrast, Mattarella said, the war demonstrated the "incapacity of the European ruling class" to pursue "national aspirations and interests in a peaceful" way and to thus surrender to "aggressive nationalism" and the desire for power.

Rome is a founder of the European Union, the unity of which is being tested by rising nationalist sentiments in several member countries, including Italy, where a populist government took over in June.

Thomas Adamson in Paris and Luigi Navarra in Redipuglia, Italy, contributed to this report.

Storms, floods in Sicily kill at least 12 people; 2 missing

November 04, 2018

ROME (AP) — Storm-related floods killed at least 12 people in Sicily, Italian authorities said Sunday, including nine members of two families who were spending a long weekend together when water and mud from a swollen river overran their rented villa.

After surveying the stricken Mediterranean island by helicopter, Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte identified two more of the victims as a German couple whose car was swept away by flood waters near Agrigento, a tourist town known for its ancient Greek temples.

Italian news reports said a 1-year--old, a 3-year-old and a teenager were among the flood victims from the family get-together in Casteldaccia. A survivor, Giuseppe Giordano, lost his wife, two of his children, his parents and a brother, Italian news agency ANSA said.

State broadcaster RaiNews24 said Giordano was stepping outside on Saturday night when the torrent rushed in and described him as the sole person to made it out alive. When he opened the door, "there was a river of water, I was knocked down and grabbed hold of a tree," Giordano told reporters between sobs. "I was yelling, 'Help, help.'"

"My son Federico tried to save his little sister, but both died," Giordano said, telling reporters he heard his son call out "I handle" about the girl's rescue. Then "I saw the windows go dark, the light go out, a layer of mud was moving across the floor," Giordano said, Then, he said he was swept away from the house by the force of the water.

The two families had gathered in the villa during Italy's long weekend centering on the Nov. 1 All Saint's Day national holiday. Although Italian news reports originally described him of the house's owner, Giordano said he was renting the villa.

Casteldaccia Mayor Giovanni Di Giacinto told Sky TG24 that the flood water reached 2 meters (move than 6 feet) high inside the home. Rescuers retrieved the bodies from the home. A Sicilian prosecutor opened an investigation to determine if neglect, such as possible inadequate drainage of the river, played a role in the deaths or if the home was built illegally close to the river.

The latter might be the case. Pino Virga, the mayor of the neighboring town of Altavilla Milicia, told SkyTG24 TV that other local authorities told him the house was slated for demolition because it stood too near the river.

Separately, Di Giacinto told reporters the homeowner had blocked the demolition by challenging it in a local tribunal. A nursing home up the road was spared any damage, ANSA reported. Only days earlier, other storms battered much of northern Italy, killing at least 15 people, uprooting millions of trees near Alpine valleys and leaving several Italian villages without electricity or road access for days.

Conte said a special Cabinet meeting could be in the coming days to deliberate aid for storm-ravaged communities, as well as to approve 1 billion euros ($1.15 billion) to ensure safe hydrogeological conditions in Italy, including proper cleaning of riverbeds.

The other known casualty in Sicily was a man whose body was also found on a guardrail along a Palermo-area road after floodwaters swept away his car, Italian news reports said. Across the island, in the town of Cammarata, near Agrigento, the fire department said its divers worked to recover the bodies of the couple whose car was caught up in the flooding waters of the Saraceno River.

Also in Agrigento province, firefighters rescued 14 people from a hotel in the town of Montevago, which was threatened by floodwaters from the Belice River. Elsewhere in Sicily, at least two other people were missing Sunday after floodwaters swept away their cars, including a doctor heading to the hospital in the hill town of Corleone.

In Casteldaccia, Maria Concetta Alfano said she, her husband and their adult disabled daughter fled after barking dogs drew their attention to the rising waters in the Milicia River. ANSA quoted the husband, Andrea Cardenale, as saying he drove away as "water was up to the hood of the car."

Venice hit by high tide as Italy buffeted by winds; 6 killed

October 29, 2018

MILAN (AP) — Venice was inundated by an exceptional high tide Monday, putting three-quarters of the famed Italian lagoon city under water as large swathes of the rest of Italy experienced flooding and heavy winds that toppled trees and other objects, killing six people.

Tourists and residents alike donned high boots to navigate the streets of Venice after strong winds raised the water level 156 centimeters (over 5 feet) before receding. The water exceeded the raised walkways normally put out in flooded areas in Venice, forcing their removal. Transport officials closed the water bus system except to outlying islands because of the emergency.

Venice frequently floods when high winds push in water from the lagoon, but Monday's levels were exceptional. The peak level was the highest reached since December 2008, according to Venice statistics.

Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro said a series of underwater barriers that are being erected in the lagoon would have prevented the inundation. The project, nicknamed Moses, is long overdue, beset by cost overruns and corruption scandals.

Brugnaro said he had asked to talk with Premier Giuseppe Conte to underline the urgency of the project, which would raise barriers when the tide reaches 109 centimeters (43 inches). That happens, on average, four times a year in Venice.

Residents and businesses typically reinforce their doors with metal or wooden panels to prevent water from entering the bottom floors, but photos on social media showed shop owners using water pumps this time to try to protect their wares.

Much of Italy is under alert for flooding from heavy rains, a problem exacerbated by a lack of maintenance of the country's many river beds. High winds toppled trees that killed passers-by in four incidents in Naples, Lazio and Liguria.

Officials closed major tourist attractions in Rome, including the Colosseum and Roman Forum, early because of heavy rains. Veneto regional governor Luca Zaia says flooding this week could reach the levels of the 1966 flood that struck both Venice and Florence. The Interior Ministry urged officials in storm-struck regions, about half of the country, to consider closing schools and offices for a second day Tuesday.

Greek civil servants walk off job in 24-hour strike

November 14, 2018

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Civil servants in Greece walked off the job Wednesday in a 24-hour strike to protest austerity measures, demanding wage and pension increases as well as the abolition of all legislation as part of the country's international bailouts.

The strike shut down local government, while workers at state-run hospitals also participated. More than 1,000 protesters marched through central Athens in two separate demonstrations. To tackle a crippling financial crisis, successive governments from 2010 imposed big tax hikes and spending cuts, including on pensions and salaries, in return for billions of euros in emergency loans from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund.

"During all the years of the crisis the workers have lost more than 40 percent of their salaries. And the result is they can't cover their basic needs anymore," said Spyros Konstantas, head of the Attica regional administration workers' union, as he called for salary increases.

"We demand and seek the coverage of everything we lost during the crisis." Greece saw its economy shrink by a quarter, while unemployment hit nearly 28 percent during the bailout years. The country's third and final bailout officially ended in August.

"We're seeking for them to give back all that they stole from us during the years of the bailouts," said Argyri Erondokrytou, a 31-year-old doctor at a public hospital in Athens. "It is a strike that demands from this government that its promises that we have exited the bailouts will not be only in words, but will also be in material things."

Greek authorities say lost ancient city of Tenea is located

November 13, 2018

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece's culture ministry said Tuesday that archaeologists have located the first tangible remains of a lost city that the ancient Greeks believed was first settled by Trojan captives of war after the sack of Troy.

A ministry statement said excavations from September to early October in the southern Greek region of the Peleponnese turned up "proof of the existence of the ancient city" of Tenea, until now known mostly from ancient texts.

Finds included walls and clay, marble or stone floors of buildings, as well as household pottery, a bone gaming die and more than 200 coins dating from the 4th century B.C. to late Roman times. A pottery jar containing the remains of two human fetuses was also found amid the foundations of one building. That was unusual, as the ancient Greeks typically buried their dead in organized cemeteries outside the city walls.

Lead archaeologist Elena Korka, who has been excavating in the area since 2013, told The Associated Press that her team had only been digging in the rich cemeteries surrounding Tenea until this year. In one, antiquities smugglers dug up two remarkable 6th century B.C. marble statues of young men in 2010 and tried to sell them for 10 million euros.

"This year we excavated part of the city itself," Korka said. Excavation work continues on the cemeteries, located near the modern village of Hiliomodi about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of Athens.

Archaeologists discovered nine burials there this year, finding gold, copper and bone jewelry, pottery and coins dating from the 4th century B.C. to Roman times. "The citizens seem to have been remarkably affluent," Korka said, adding that the city probably did well out of trade, standing on a key route between the major cities of Corinth and Argos in the northeastern Peloponnese.

So far, not much was known about Tenea, apart from ancient references to the reputed link with Troy and to its citizens having formed the bulk of the Greek colonists who founded the city of Syracuse in Sicily.

Korka said more should emerge during the excavations, which will continue over coming years. "(The city) had distinctive pottery shapes with eastern influences, maintained contacts with both east and west ... and had its own way of thinking, which, to the extent that it could, shaped its own policies," she said.

Tenea survived the Roman destruction of neighboring Corinth in 146 B.C., and flourished under Roman rule. It appears to have suffered damage during a Gothic invasion in the late 4th century A.D. and may have been abandoned around the time of Slavic incursions two centuries later.

EU sets Nov. 25 as summit day to endorse Brexit

November 15, 2018

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union chief Donald Tusk has called for a summit of leaders to take place on Nov. 25 so they can endorse a draft Brexit deal that has been reached with the British government. Following an early Thursday meeting, Tusk heaped praise on the EU's Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, who had "achieved the two most important objectives" — limiting the damage caused by Britain's impending departure and maintaining the interests of the other 27 countries that will remain in the bloc after Brexit.

While British Prime Minister Theresa May is trying to win support within her fractured party as well as Parliament, the EU has held the line behind Barnier during the negotiations.