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Showing posts with the label Africa

Human Trafficking: Scores of Stranded Migrants Rescued from the Mediterranean Sea

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Spain’s maritime rescue service says it has saved 66 migrants from two boats in the Mediterranean Sea. The service says that one boat carrying 58 migrants was intercepted by rescue craft in the Strait of Gibraltar before sunrise on Sunday. A further eight migrants were pulled from a second boat in waters east of the strait. Spain saved 177 migrants traveling in six boats on Saturday. Thousands of refugees and other migrants attempt the perilous crossing from Africa in hopes of reaching European shores each year. They are often packed by human traffickers into small boats unfit for the open sea. SOURCE: Associated Press 

Mauritania Votes in Favour of Abolishing their Senate

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News monitored on Al Jazeera Network has it that Mauritanians have voted to abolish their senate and alter their national flag by referendum. The electoral commission announced this on Sunday, in a clear victory for President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz the day after the vote. While turnout was 53.73 percent, 85 percent of voters on Saturday declared "Yes" to changes put to a referendum when they were defeated in the Senate in March, despite fierce criticism from a boycott movement that called mass protests during campaigning. Abdel Aziz, who last week described the senate as "useless and too costly," has said the move to abolish the governing body would improve governance by introducing more local forms of lawmaking. But the boycott movement drew broad political support from figures as diverse as religious conservatives and anti-slavery activists. Members of opposition parties spearheading the boycotters held a press conference on Sunday during which they denoun...