Theresa Maggio

The Washngton Post published a Reuters report saying Italy now claims that 4,800 boat people were rescued over the weekend.

From La Repubblica:

The wave of boats headed for the Italian coasts never stops, the caption says. Some ten cadavers were pulled from the sea in a rescue operation. On just 2 April, the ship Fiorillo had aided 397 refugees and the Bersagliere took on board a total of 778. It is one of the highest number  Read More 

http://video.repubblica.it/edizione/palermo/palermo-corteo-funebre-traffico-bloccato-per-sparare-i-petardi/199084/198127#commenta
Here is a video of a funeral cortege that stops traffic in the middle of Piazza Independenza in downtown historic center of Palermo. They open the door to the hearse carrying the corpse, and set off fireworks so the deceased can see them. One commentor said, "  Read More 

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/migrant-death-in-the-mediterranean/

Some of the survivors of the raft that sank 80 miles off the coast of Libya, killing 400 by drowning, said that their traffickers had beaten several of their fellow travelers to death with clubs because they did not obey. One man was beaten to death at the farm where the refugees are stockpiled until setting  Read More 

450 landed safely today at Augusta, Sicily and another 200 at Pozzallo, Sicily.

The Worst Ever Migrant Tragedy. From La Repubblica:
The traffickers had packed more than 700 immigrants like animals on a 20-meter old wooden fishing boat and set them sailing across the Mediterranean from a point east of Tripoli, Libya. One of them had a satellite telephone and alerted the Italian National Center of the Coast  Read More 

They left on two rubber rafts from Tripoli but they came from Senegal, Nigeria, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mali, Siera Leone and the Ivory Coast. All men but for one woman ho had married her husband, who accompanied her, this year. The immigrants were piled on top of each other in the  Read More 

Mayor Orlando says Europe has washed its hands of the tragedy and abandoned Sicily and Italy to its own devices when it comes to handling the huge continuing wave of refugees.
Three rescued Somalis, picked up by Maltese mercantile ship, arrived at Palermo and were hospitalized for health problems. Altogether 91 Somalis arrived at Palermo's  Read More 

Last week Sicily was cut in two when an overpass on the Palermo-Catania Highway A19 broke up. One of the pilons sustaining the bridge ceded to a mudslide, leaned like the Tower of Pisa and is now pressing against other pilons. Engineers say the bridge will have to be demolished and rebuilt. Sicily has  Read More 

After the crumbling of several buildings in the neglected Vucciria, the city has finally decided to spend some time and money fixing the historic market site up. It will take a year, with a firm that "works very fast", to pull up the limestone paving stones, work on the light and telephone cables and  Read More