An attempt by an Italian mayor to create a separate bus route for Roma people sparked outrage among politicians on Saturday, who compared the move to apartheid-era South Africa’s segregation policies.
Borgaro Torinese Mayor Claudio Gambino, of the center-left Democratic Party, said last week that he wants separate buses because Roma people who live in a camp of about 600 inhabitants on the outskirts of the northern Italian town “have been afflicting us for over 20 years.”
“To guarantee the security of our citizens, we need two buses. One for citizens, the other for Roma people,” he was quoted as saying by Italian media on Friday, adding that buses were plagued by theft and petty violence.
Town councilor Luigi Spinelli of the Left, Ecology and Freedom Party (SEL) has supported the motion — to the disgust of his party’s leader, Nichi Vendola, who told La Stampa daily on Saturday that “giving people different rights is called ‘apartheid.’”
“The left — which competes with the right — has lost all reason to think itself different,” he said, calling on Gambino to “think again.”
The Democratic Party’s rights supervisor Micaela Campana said the party had told Gambino that “marginalization is never the solution” and “answering violence by excluding people will not help.”
The plan has won the support of the anti-immigration Northern League party, with Italian Senator Roberto Calderoli saying: “These are the real problems. I send my compliments to Borgaro’s administration which — despite being left-wing — has listened to the people.”
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not