A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Italy protests after France blocks trains carrying African migrants
ROME – France shut its border yesterday to trains from Italy carrying African migrants, drawing a formal protest from Rome and accusations it was violating European principles.
Italian railway and border police said France was preventing all trains passing the Ventimiglia-Menton border.
Foreign minister Franco Frattini instructed Italy’s ambassador in Paris to express “the firm protest of the Italian government to the French authorities”, a foreign ministry statement said.
France’s actions appear to be “illegitimate and in clear violation of general European principles”, it said.
Italy has complained about being “left alone” by European Union partners to deal with thousands of mainly Tunisian migrants who arrived on its southern island of Lampedusa recently, fleeing political turmoil in north Africa. – (Reuters)
Yemeni forces fire on protest march
SANAA – Yemeni forces loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh fired at a protest march in Sanaa yesterday, wounding at least 10 people, doctors said, heightening tension as opposition leaders prepared to meet Gulf Arab mediators.
Doctors said about 200 more demonstrators were overcome by tear gas when they marched outside their normal protest zone in the streets near Sanaa University, a hub of pro-democracy demonstrations that have lasted three months.
Both Western and Gulf Arab allies have tried without success so far to broker a resolution to a crisis over a transition of power from Saleh, who has led the Arabian Peninsula state for 32 years and says he wants a handover, but only to “safe hands”. – (Reuters)
Protesters support jailed Chinese artist
Demonstrators around world were yesterday sitting outside Chinese embassies demanding the release of the detained Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.
In Hong Kong there were scuffles as 150 protesters came up against lines of police, with reports of at least one detention. In Berlin, about 200 people took part in a largely silent protest. Ai was arrested on April 3rd at Beijing airport and is being investigated by the Chinese authorities for tax evasion, bigamy and spreading pornography on the web. His whereabouts remain unknown. – (Guardian service)