Palermo, Italy | AFP | More than 1,000 migrants sang hymns, danced and clapped as they sailed into Palermo on Monday, along with the corpses of 17 people who did not survive another series of tragedy-tainted rescues in the Mediterranean. Starting with the sick, women and children, several hundred of …
Read More »Did it crash or land? Search on for Europe’s Mars craft
Paris, France | AFP | Europe’s second attempt to reach Mars’ surface appeared in peril Thursday as initial analysis suggested the latest lander may have plummeted to its demise. While holding out faint hope, ground controllers said it seemed the paddling pool-sized lander’s parachute may have been discarded too early, …
Read More »Germany fetes Syrian ‘heroes’ who nabbed bomb plot suspect
Berlin, Germany | AFP | Germany on Monday hailed three Syrians who helped police capture a compatriot suspected of planning a jihadist bomb attack, with social media coming alive with jibes against anti-migrant protesters. “Syrian turns in terror suspect. I’m celebrating this. What about you, Pegida and co?” said Julia …
Read More »Merkel announces aid package for Niger to stem migrant flow
Niamey, Niger | AFP | German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday announced a 27-million-euro aid package for Niger, her second stop in a three-nation Africa tour aimed at fighting terrorism and stemming the migrant influx to Europe. The German leader said the army of the arid west African country, one …
Read More »Germany’s Merkel in Africa on trip aimed at stemming migrant flows
Bamako, Mali | AFP | German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday warned against Africa suffering from a “brain drain” as she arrived on a three-day tour of the continent focused on security and stemming the migrant influx to Europe. Merkel also underscored the need to “establish coherent cooperation” in development …
Read More »Dramatic rescue images as EU urged to change on migrants
ABOARD THE ASTRAL, Italy | AFP | The horror, terror and joy felt during perilous rescues of migrant boats have been captured in powerful new images published Wednesday, as the latest deadly episode in the Mediterranean fuelled calls for Europe to change tack on the crisis. DEATH IN THE …
Read More »Rosetta’s comet adventure in numbers
Darmstadt, Germany | AFP | Europe’s ground-breaking quest to unravel the Solar System’s mysteries concludes Friday with the Rosetta comet chaser crashlanding onto the cosmic wanderer’s rocky surface. The mission, summarised in numbers: 1: Rosetta became the first spacecraft, in August 2014, to enter the orbit of a comet. In …
Read More »More than 100 bodies recovered from Egypt migrant shipwreck
Cairo, Egypt | AFP | Rescuers recovered 53 bodies on Friday from a migrant boat that capsized off the Egyptian coast, bringing the death toll from the disaster to at least 108, a health ministry official said. “There have been 53 bodies recovered as of 11 am (0900 GMT) on …
Read More »Boat with up to 450 migrants capsizes off Egypt, 42 drowned
Rosetta, Egypt | AFP | A boat carrying up to 450 migrants capsized in the Mediterranean off Egypt’s north coast on Wednesday, drowning 42 people and prompting a search operation that rescued 163 passengers, officials said. The vessel overturned off the port city of Rosetta, police and health officials said. …
Read More »Missing comet lander Philae spotted at las
Paris, France | AFP | Europe’s Rosetta spacecraft has finally spotted the tiny lander Philae stuck in a dark crack on the surface of its comet home — the first glimpse since the robot lab crashlanded in 2014, ground controllers said Monday. The European Space Agency (ESA) released a photograph …
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