MOSCOW — A Russian reconnaissance aircraft was shot down by a Syrian missile over the Mediterranean Sea, killing all 15 people on board, the Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday. It blamed Israel for the crash, saying the plane was caught in the crossfire as four Israeli fighters attacked targets in northwestern Syria.
MOSCOW — Russia has announced major military drills in the Mediterranean Sea amid growing tensions over a rebel-held enclave in Syria.
Following the docking of the Aquarius in Marseilles, no migrant transport NGO vessels are currently operating in the Mediterranean as some face increasing legal pressure from European countries.
When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu travels to New Delhi next month, he will bring a special gift for his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi — a Gal-Mobile water desalinization and purification jeep.
Contents: European Union continues to face crises regarding migration; Bitter divisions emerge at EU summit over migration issues
US President Donald Trump could be eyeing an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal that would include transferring sections of the Sinai Desert from Egypt to a newly created Palestinian state, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm reported.
Iran is building a permanent military base in Syria just south of Damascus, the BBC reported Friday, citing a Western intelligence official. The British broadcaster commissioned a series of satellite pictures that indicate widespread construction at the site.
According to official reports, during the year 2016, only 2.65 percent of those immigrating into Italy were awarded asylum as refugees, with the vast majority staying on in the country as illegal, undocumented immigrants.
Fox News reports that a Russian warship “has entered the eastern Mediterranean, heading toward two U.S. Navy destroyers that launched airstrikes last night.”
Contents: Russia denies reports of Russian special forces in eastern Libya; Russian intervention comes as fighting between Libya’s militias increases; E-mail problems
A new report suggests that huge economic interests lurk behind a number of NGOs and cooperatives dedicated to bringing as many immigrants as possible into Europe.
(AP) – A Norwegian ship has rescued 503 people from the Mediterranean Sea in eight operations since Thursday. The Norwegian Police Service says the Siem Pilot arrived Sunday in the Sicilian port of Catania with 503 migrants on board. A
The head of EU border agency Frontex on Monday criticised charities that rescue migrants off Libya, arguing that they encourage the traffickers who profit from the dangerous Mediterranean crossings. Such rescue operations “should be reevaluated”, Fabrice Leggeri told Germany’s Die
Contents: Furious Turkey threatens migrant deal over Greece’s failure to extradite; Desperate EU officials still try to shut down Mediterranean migration route
Contents: Over 100 migrants drown in Mediterranean after their dinghy sinks; With Libya in chaos, migrant deal with Italy collapses
Iran has played a pivotal role in Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s campaign to crush rebel resistance in Aleppo and is now close to establishing a “Shi’ite crescent” of regional influence stretching from the Afghan border to the Mediterranean Sea.
Contents: Mediterranean migrant traffic to Italy and Greece continues, despite cold weather; Europeans wonder if Turkey will reopen the refugee floodgates
Greek intelligence has disclosed that the Turkish government plans to allow 3,000 migrants to leave their shores every day to head for Greece.
Russia on Monday said its air force was continuing to hold off on strikes against war-ravaged Aleppo, after rebels snubbed Moscow’s offer to quit Syria’s second city.
Contents: Turkey’s Erdogan and Russia’s Putin sign TurkStream gas pipeline deal; Turkey-Russia TurkStream deal based on pragmatism rather than reconciliation
Russia flexed its muscles again over Syria on Friday, for the first time launching cruise missiles at targets from warships in the Mediterranean Sea days after beginning bombing runs from a base in Iran.
Russia on Thursday moved it’s largest Soviet era aircraft carrier, The Admiral Kuznetsov, from its current location off the coast of northern Syria to a new home in the Mediterranean Sea.
Israeli-made unmanned sea vehicle, which will likely enter service in the Israel Navy, held its first torpedo launch test at Haifa port recently.
Rome (AFP) – About 4,500 migrants were rescued from rubber dinghies in the Mediterranean on Thursday, the Italian coastguard said, averting another potential high seas disaster. A coastguard spokesman said it appeared many people had left the Libyan coast trying
In one of this year’s worst Mediterranean Sea disasters, more than 700 migrants were aboard a vessel that capsized off the coast of the Greek Island of Crete late Thursday, and despite rescue operations that managed to save 340 lives, hundreds are still missing.
“Deeply saddened” by the loss of hundreds of lives of migrants trying to reach Europe by sea, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has praised the joint rescue operations of Italian and European forces, while calling for “a comprehensive and collective response” as well as “expanded legal pathways” for migrants to enter Europe.
Egypt said Wednesday that a French ship has picked up signals from deep under the Mediterranean Sea, presumed to be from black boxes of the EgyptAir plane that crashed last month, killing all 66 passengers and crew on board.
Contents: Thousands of refugees leave Libya for Italy, hundreds drown; Turkey’s president Erdogan tells Muslims not to use birth control; Population growth rate of Muslims and Christians
After nine months of “Operation Sophia”, a damning report has revealed that the naval operation David Cameron promised would “smash” the gangs smuggling migrants to Europe has not just failed but is actively helping the criminal gangs. Operating outside European
Contents: EU-Turkey migrant deal unravels over brinksmanship on both sides; More refugees now reaching Europe via Italy than via Greece; Italy rescues 800 migrants from Mediterranean Sea, many of them from Syria
Up to 500 migrants might have drowned in the Mediterranean last week when human traffickers crammed people onto an already overcrowded ship, causing it to sink, the U.N. refugee agency said on Wednesday. Somalia’s government said on Monday about 200
More than 400 drowned when a vessel crammed with migrants capsized early Monday morning during an attempt to make the crossing from Egypt to southern Italy across the perilous Strait of Sicily. The migrants were mostly Somalis, along with some
The Times of Israel reports: Two pilots were lightly injured when a light plane made an emergency landing in the Mediterranean Sea off the Tel Aviv coast Sunday afternoon, police said. According to initial reports, the pilot crash-landed the plane
The Jerusalem Post reports: Gaza could be a ticking timebomb of disease for the region if a serious sewage issue is not fixed, an Israeli environmental group warned on Thursday. Gidon Bromberg, founder and Israel director of EcoPeace, told the Jerusalem
GENEVA (AFP) – Over one million migrants and refugees crossed the Mediterranean Sea to Europe in 2015, nearly half of them Syrians, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said Wednesday. The milestone marks an almost five-fold increase over 2014 figures, when UNHCR recorded
The Islamic State (IS) terror group’s Libya branch is reportedly using a flight simulator to train jihadis on how to pilot aircraft, after successfully apprehending the system from an airport once held by Libya’s recognized military under former dictator Muammar Qaddafi.
The UN Security Council on Friday approved a European military operation to seize and destroy boats used by migrant smugglers in the Mediterranean after thousands died in dangerous crossings. The British-drafted resolution authorizing the use of force won UN backing
“Zohr is the largest gas discovery ever made in Egypt and in the Mediterranean Sea and could become one of the world’s largest natural gas finds,” Eni said in a statement.
The number of migrants and refugees who have made the dangerous voyage across the Mediterranean into Europe has already hit an estimated 150,000 this year, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) revealed today, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
From Reuters: Four great crises around Europe’s fringes threaten to engulf the European Union, potentially setting the ambitious post-war unification project back by decades. The EU’s unity, solidarity and international standing are at risk from Greece’s debt, Russia’s role in
