Foreign News

Italy’s PM investigated over release of Libyan war crimes suspect

Published

1 year ago

2025/01/29

Priyan

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni says she has been placed under judicial investigation over Italy’s surprise release of a Libyan citizen who had been wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

In a video message shared on social media on Tuesday, Meloni said she was suspected by prosecutors of embezzlement and aiding and abetting a crime.

Osama Najim – also known as Almasri – is the head of Libya’s judicial police and the director of an infamous detention centre in Mitiga, near Tripoli.

Mr Najim was arrested in Italy on 21 January and unexpectedly freed days later “due to a legal technicality”, the interior ministry said.

The ICC, which said it had not been consulted, swiftly issued another arrest warrant for Mr Najim and demanded an explanation from the Italian authorities.

In the video, Meloni said the Rome appeals court released Mr Najim because the ICC warrant had not been sent to the Italian justice ministry.

“At that point, so as not to let him go free on Italian territory, we decided to expel him and repatriate him immediately, with a special flight,” Meloni said.

Last week, Justice Minister Carlo Nordio said that Mr Najim had been expelled because of the “danger” he posed – a comment which was derided by the opposition.

The decision to free Mr Najim was heavily criticised by the opposition and NGOs such as Amnesty International, which said Mr Najim was guilty of “horrific violations committed with total impunity”.

Videos that showed a jubilant crowd welcoming Mr Najim as he stepped off an Italian government plane in Tripoli caused particular uproar.

@MarcoFattorini /X A man embraces another man after getting off a small passenger jet with an Italian flag on the side. The man facing the camera is smiling. He's wearing a black jacket and an orange T-shirt. — Photos of Mr Najim stepping off an Italian government plane after being repatriated to Libya circulated widely on Italian media (BBC)

Meloni said that Nordio, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi and the cabinet undersecretary for intelligence matters, Alfredo Mantovano, had also been placed under investigation. Being placed under investigation in Italy does not mean that formal charges will necessarily follow.

In a defiant tone, the Italian PM appeared to hint at political motives for the investigation.

She pointed out the lawyer who filed the complaint, Luigi Li Gotti, was a former left-wing politician, while the prosecutor leading the case, Francesco Lo Voi, recently investigated Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini on an unrelated matter.

Meloni ended the video saying that she could not be “blackmailed or intimidated”.

“This may be why I’m unpopular among those who don’t want Italy to change and improve,” she said. “But that’s precisely the reason I intend to continue on my way, protecting Italians, especially when the nation’s safety is at stake, head held high with no fear.”

Matteo Renzi of the opposition party Italy Alive (IV) – who was among the first to denounce Mr Najim’s release – said he felt Meloni was “exploiting” the investigation to “feed her usual victim complex”.

Giorgia Meloni, the leader of the far-right, anti-migrant Brothers of Italy party, has headed Italy’s ruling right-wing coalition since 2022.

She has repeatedly vowed to crack down on immigration and has pledged to stop boats heading to Italy from North Africa, vowing to put an end to illegal departures and human trafficking.

Meloni, like other leaders before her, has worked with Libyan authorities and militias, providing them with financial and technical support under controversial agreements to tackle illegal immigration, including training and funding for the Libyan coast guard which intercepts migrant boats.

(BBC)

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Foreign News

Kim Jong Un chooses teen daughter as heir, says Seoul

Published

14 hours ago

2026/02/12

Priyan

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has selected his daughter as his heir, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers on Thursday.

Little is known about Kim Ju Ae, who in recent months has been pictured beside her father in high-profile events like a visit to Beijing in September- her first known trip abroad.

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) said it took a “range of circumstances” into account including her increasingly prominent public presence at official events” in making this assessment.

The NIS also said it would keep close tabs on whether she will attend the North’s party congress later this month – its largest political event that is held once every five years.

The party Congress is where Pyongyang is expected to give more details about priorities like foreign policy, war planning and nuclear ambitions for the next five years.

On Thursday lawmaker Lee Seong-kwen told reporters that Ju Ae, who was previously described by the NIS as being “trained” to be a successor, was now at the stage of “successor designation”.

“As Kim Ju Ae has shown her presence at various events, including the founding anniversary of the Korean People’s Army and her visit to the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, and signs have been detected of her voicing her opinion on certain state policies, the NIS believes she has now entered the stage of being designated as successor,” Lee said.

Ju Ae is the only known child of Kim Jong Un and his wife, Ri Sol Ju. The NIS believes Kim Jong Un has an older son, but this son has never been acknowledged nor shown on North Korean media.

News of Ju Ae’s existence first emerged through an unlikely source: the American basketball player Dennis Rodman, who revealed to The Guardian newspaper back in 2013 that he “held baby Ju Ae” during a trip to the secretive state.

Ju Ae – who is believed to be 13 – made her first appearance on state television in 2022. She was shown inspecting North Korea’s latest intercontinental ballistic missile while holding her father’s hand.

She has since made frequent appearances on on state media, softening her father’s image of a ruthless dictator. She accompanied him to Beijing for China’s largest-ever military parade, where she was seen stepping off his armoured train at Beijing Railway Station.

She is often seen wearing her hair long, which is forbidden for her peers, and wearing designer clothes, which are out of reach for most in her country.

Another lawmaker, Park Sun-won said the role Ju Ae had taken on during public events indicated that she has started to provide policy input and is being treated as the de facto second-highest leader.

The North Korean power had passed down the three generations of the Kim family, and it is widely believed that Kim Jong Un will pass on the throne to Ju Ae.

In recent months, she was shown standing taller than her father, walking beside him, rather than following him.

In North Korea, where photos published by the state media are believed to carry a great symbolic weight, it is rare for individuals other than Kim Jong Un to be positioned equally prominently in the frame.

Although the South Korean spy agency now believes Ju Ae is the designated heir, it still raises questions.

It is puzzling why Ju Ae, a daughter, would be selected as the heir above an older son in North Korea’s deeply patriarchal society.

Many defectors and analysts had previously dismissed the idea of a woman leading North Korea as an unlikely scenario, referring to the country’s entrenched traditional gender roles. But Kim Jong Un’s sister – Kim Yo Jong – does offer a precedent for female authority in the regime.

Kim Yo Jong currently holds a senior position in the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, and is reported to have influence over her brother.

However, it is also a mystery why Kim Jong Un, who is still young and appears relatively healthy, is already designating a 13-year-old child as his heir now.

It is unclear what changes Ju Ae’s succession may bring to North Korea.

Many North Koreans hoped that Kim Jong Un, a Western-educated young man, would open their country up to the outside when he succeeded his father.

Yet such hope was unfulfilled. Whatever plans this teenager may have for her country, she would likely have the singular power to shape it however she likes.

[BBC]

Foreign News

Powerful cyclone kills at least 31 as it tears through Madagascar port

Published

1 day ago

2026/02/12

Priyan

Trees were uprooted and some districts left without power [BBC]

At least 31 people have died after a powerful cyclone struck Madagascar, says the disaster authority in the Indian Ocean island.

Cyclone Gezani made landfall on Tuesday, hitting the island’s main port, Toamasina. Madagascar’s disaster management office said there was “total chaos” – reporting that houses collapsed in the impact zone, where the bodies were found.

Neighbourhoods were plunged into darkness as power lines snapped, while trees were uprooted and roofs ripped off.

“What happened is a disaster, nearly 75% of the city of Toamasina was destroyed,” the country’s military leader Colonel Michael Randrianirina, who seized power in October, told the AFP news agency.

“The current situation exceeds Madagascar’s capabilities alone,” he added.

The cyclone’s landfall is likely to have been one of the most intense recorded around the city in the satellite era, according to the CMRS cyclone forecaster on France’s Reunion island, AFP reports.

The National Office for Risk and Disaster Management said many were killed when houses collapsed. Cyclone Gezani hit Toamasina – the country’s second-largest city – with winds reaching 250 km/hour (155 mph).

“It’s total chaos, 90% of house roofs have been blown off, entirely or in part,” the head of disaster management at the Action Against Hunger aid agency, Rija Randrianarisoa, told AFP.

Madagascar’s disaster management office has evacuated dozens of injured people and hundreds of residents from a district around Toamasina, home to 400,000 people.

Residents in and around Toamasina described scenes of chaos as the cyclone made landfall. “I have never experienced winds this violent… The doors and windows are made of metal, but they are being violently shaken,” Harimanga Ranaivo told the Reuters news agency.

Gezani is the second cyclone to hit Madagascar this year. It comes 10 days after tropical cyclone Fytia killed 14 and displaced over 31,000 people, according to the UN’s humanitarian office.

Ahead of the cyclone’s arrival, officials shuttered schools and rushed to prepare emergency shelters.

Madagascar’s meteorological service said on Wednesday morning that Gezani had weakened to a moderate tropical storm and had moved westward inland, about 100km (60 miles) north of the capital, Antananarivo.

“Gezani will cross the central highlands from east to west today, before moving out to sea into the Mozambique Channel this evening or tonight,” the service said.

Cyclone season in the Indian Ocean around Madagascar normally lasts from November to April and sees around a dozen storms each year, AFP reports.

More about Madagascar from the BBC:

[BBC]

Foreign News

Bangladesh election 2026: Polls to open amid heavy security

Published

1 day ago

2026/02/12

Priyan

Voters queue up at a polling station at the Sangeet Government Music College in Dhaka, February 12, 2026 [Aljazeera]

Nearly 127 million eligible voters are heading to the polls in Bangladesh, in a key test of the country’s return to democracy after a student-led uprising toppled longtime leader Sheikh Hasina in August 2024.

The vote is a direct contest between the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and a Jamaat-e-Islami led coalition of 11 parties, which includes the National Citizens Party (NCP), formed by youth ‌activists instrumental in ousting Hasina.

Corruption, inflation, employment and economic development are the main issues deciding the election in the world’s eighth most populous nation.

Besides the parliamentary election, the country is holding a referendum on the National Charter 2025 – a document drafted by the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus, setting the foundation for future governance.

[Aljazeera]