Italian migrant boat deaths on Sunday

ITALIAN prosecutors have identified smugglers who allegedly charged 8,000 euros (£7,000) each for a ‘voyage of death’ which saw a wooden boat break apart just a few hundred metres off Italy’s Calabrian coast early on Sunday.

Local prosecutor Giuseppe Capoccia confirmed investigators had identified three suspected smugglers, a Turk and two Pakistani nationals. A second Turk is believed to have escaped or died in the wreck of the boat, which set off from Turkey.

Italy’s customs police said that crossing organisers charged 8,000 euros each for the trip.

Interior minister Matteo Piantedosi pushed back strongly at suggestions that the rescue was delayed or affected by government policy discouraging aid groups from staying at sea to rescue migrants.

The EU border agency Frontex has said its aircraft spotted the boat off Crotone, Calabria, late on Saturday and alerted Italian authorities. Italy sent out two patrol vessels but they had to turn back because of the poor weather. The rescue operation then went out early on Sunday after the boat had splintered.

“There was no delay,” Mr Piantedosi said. “Everything possible was done in absolutely prohibitive sea conditions.”

As the Times went to press yesterday (February 28), rescue teams had pulled more bodies from the sea, bringing the death toll to 65.

Eighty people survived but dozens more are feared dead since survivors indicated the boat had carried about 170 people when it set off last week from Izmir.

Post-election tensions rise in Nigeria

NIGERIA’S opposition has demanded a revote for the country’s presidential election, where the partial results show an early lead for the ruling party.

At a press conference in the capital Abuja, the three main opposition parties said the election was an insult to democracy and called for Nigeria’s election chief to resign.

Results from Saturday’s presidential and parliamentary elections in Africa’s most populous nation have been trickling in.

The ruling party – the All Progressives Congress – candidate Bola Tinubu is in the lead, winning six states, with the main opposition candidate from the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, trailing closely with five.

Peter Obi of the Labour Party, a surprise leading candidate in what is usually a two-horse race, has not won any states despite a strong showing in polls before the election.

In order to win, the candidate who leads the popular vote must also win at least a quarter of the votes in two-thirds of the states and Abuja.

Parties have three weeks to appeal against results, but an election cannot be invalidated unless it proves that the national electoral body largely did not follow the law and conducted actions which could change the final result.

Journalists’ union calls strike at BBC England

BBC journalists have voted ‘overwhelmingly’ in favour of strike action in a dispute over planned changes to local radio programming.

In October, the BBC proposed local radio stations share more content and broadcast less programming unique to their areas which would see local programming restricted before 2pm and afternoon programmes across England shared between its 39 local radio stations.

The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) previously warned the propositions would lead to a loss of posts and journalists having to re-apply for their own jobs.