Italy’s intelligence agency has warned in a briefing to the country’s parliament that attacks on migrants and minorities could rise in the run-up to May’s European elections. The number of racially motivated attacks have risen sharply in Italy, tripling between 2017 and 2018, when the far-right League entered government in coalition with the anti-establishment Five Star Movement.

The report from the security intelligence department, which coordinates and submits information collected by the Italian secret services to the prime minister, said racism and xenophobia were among the threats the country could face in 2019. It said there was “a real risk of an increase in episodes of intolerance towards foreigners”.

It warned that assaults by neo-fascist and Nazi groups against migrants“could intensify with the approach of the European elections” and said a probable increase in clashes between anti-fascist and far-right groups could cause serious public order problems. The intelligence agency report said the Italian far right was characterised in 2018 “by a pronounced vitality” and an increase in xenophobic propaganda “focused on the opposition to migration.” Separate figures from the anti-racist organisation Lunaria, which publishes quarterly reports on the number of racially motivated attacks in Italy, counted 126 physical attacks, especially against migrants, in 2018. It had recorded 27 racially motivated attacks in 2016 and 46 in 2017.(theguardian)…[+]

An 11-year old girl who became pregnant after being raped was forced to give birth after Argentine authorities refused to allow her the abortion to which she was entitled. The authorities ignored repeated requests for an abortion from the child, called “Lucía” to protect her identity, as well as her mother and a number of Argentine women’s right activists. After 23 weeks of pregnancy, she had to undergo a caesarean section on Tuesday. The baby is unlikely to survive.

The move has been described as the “worst kind of cruelty for this child” and has been blamed on an anti-choice strategy in the country to force girls to carry their pregnancies to term. Lucía told the psychologist at the hospital to which she was admitted after two suicide attempts: “I want you to remove what the old man put inside me.”Lucía, the youngest of three sisters, became pregnant after she was abused by her grandmother’s 65-year-old partner. She was placed under her grandmother’s care in 2015, after her two older sisters were reportedly abused by her mother’s partner. Lucía discovered she was pregnant on 23 January at a first-aid centre in her hometown in the northern province of Tucumán. A week later, the child was admitted to the Eva Perón hospital outside the provincial capital city of Tucumán. Suffering from self-inflicted lesions resulting from apparent suicide attempts, she was placed in state care.(theguardian)…[+]

Former prime minister, Basdeo Panday, has issued a pre-action protocol letter to the All Trinidad General Workers’ Trade Union claiming that he is being illegally and wrongfully evicted from his office at the Rienzi Complex in Couva. The trade union, owner of the property, served the“notice of eviction letter” on Panday at his office last week. The office was then padlocked, preventing Panday from entering the building.

Panday’s pre-action protocol letter, dated February 27, requested that as a matter of urgency the trade union immediately remove the locks and refrain from blocking access and occupation of the premises, as Panday had not removed his furniture , documents and valuable personal property. Panday is the Honorary President of the All Trinidad General Workers’ Trade Union and founder of the United National Congress (UNC), which was previously housed at Rienzi Complex. The letter stated that Panday had held an office at the Rienzi Complex for the last 39 years, until his illegal eviction on February 21.(Trinidad Express)…[+]