Category: slide

Two Italian fishing boats attacked between Libya, Tunisia

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Two Italian fishing boats from the Sicilian port town of Mazara del Vallo – the ”Aliseo” and ”Anna Madre” – were reportedly attacked by a boat off Zarzis, at the border between Libya and Tunisia, in international waters. An Italian Navy helicopter and a Tunisian military vessel reportedly intervened, persuading the vessel to back off, according to the president of the Sicilian fishing district, Giovanni Tumbiolo. The vessel reportedly belongs to Tunisian Customs authorities. The incident occurred on Wednesday night and is allegedly connected to the so-called local ‘fishing war’…

Migrant rescue ship blocked in Lampedusa amid NGO crackdown

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A ship chartered by the German NGO, Jugend Rettet, was blocked overnight off the southern island of Lampedusa by the coastguard as part of a ‘routine check’. The organisation was among those which refused to sign a ‘code of conduct’ on migrant search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean imposed by the Italian government. The ship, Iuventa, was escorted by the coastguard to the port of Lampedusa, an island that lies between Sicily and Tunisia. Two Syrians, who had been transferred to the ship by one of the Italian military…

Tunisian dinar falls to lowest rate in years

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The Tunisian dinar fell to its lowest rate in years trading at 2.83 against the euro and 2.412 against the US dollar. Authorities explained the decline saying that Tunisia did not receive the last instalment from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan which would have contributed to helping the country’s foreign currency reserves recover. The authorities added that revenues from tourism have not been taking into account because the season had not ended yet. Economists predict the Tunisian dinar will continue to fall against foreign currencies in light of the…

Thomas Cook to re-offer trips to Tunisia

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UK travel agent Thomas Cook has announced that it could start offering package holidays to Tunisia as soon as spring 2018. Thomas Cook has not offered packages to the country after the 2015 terror attack that left 38 people, including 30 British holiday makers, dead. Reported in UK news outlet The Independent, the news came after the UK Foreign Office removed Tunisia from its ‘no-go’ list, meaning that companies can start offering trips again. Peter Fankhauser, chief executive of Thomas Cook, said: “The Foreign Office came to the conclusion that it…

Citizen Diplomacy’s Evolution onto the Web

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Youth in Des Moines, Iowa have more in common with students in Tunisia than they thought. In particular, a passion for social justice. While participating in Youth for Understanding’s (YFU) Virtual Exchange Initiative, a program that digitally connects students in different countries for moderated, in-depth discussion, a group of students in Iowa brought up the Black Lives Matter movement. “They were somewhat shocked to find out that their peers in Tunisia, though in a slightly different capacity, could relate having just gone through a revolution,” Erin Helland, director of Virtual…

EU Praises Tunisia on Human Rights: New Law Fights Gender-Based Crimes

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The European Union has lauded a new Tunisian law that aims to fight against gender-based violence in the country. Brussels says that this ambitious law is a decisive step towards absolute respect for human rights and equal opportunities. The European External Action Service (EEAS) commented that “the Assembly of Representatives of the Tunisian people took a big step forward in the process of democratic transition through the unanimous adoption of an ambitious law against gender-based violence”. The new piece of legislation also stresses the country’s global vision that protects women…

Big Opportunities and Challenges for Big Law in Africa

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At the end of June, DLA Piper acquired firms in Senegal and Tunisia, boosting its presence in Africa to 19 countries. It’s a sign, according to Bloomberg Law, that Big Law is starting to see the potential for legal work in the region. Several African countries could use the help. Statistics from the Law Society of South Africa paint a bleak picture, with a per capita population of lawyers of 1 to about 2240 people. The situation is even more dire in Zambia, where a University of Pennsylvania law school study…

Tunisia Takes a Big Step to Protect Women From Abuse

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 Tunisia has long been regarded as a pioneer for women’s rights in the Arab world, but the day-to-day life of many Tunisian women is still one of abuse and harassment. So when Parliament passed a measure last week outlawing violence against women, some burst into ululation and passed around bouquets of jasmine. The new law makes it easier to prosecute domestic abuse, and it imposes penalties for sexual harassment in public spaces. It says that citizens are entitled to notify the police if they witness violence against women, and that children…

Tunisia’s Nobel prize-winning union meets Bashar al-Assad

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UGTT called for support for the Syrian president in his ‘war against terrorism’ A delegation from the Nobel-prize winning Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT) has sparked controversy after a delegation of leaders met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. According to a statement put out by the union, a delegation chaired by general secretary Bouali M’Barki and composed of 21 trade union leaders, met Assad in Damascus on Saturday. It said the visit aimed to show solidarity with the Syrian people in their “war against terrorism”. More than 3,000 Tunisians have reportedly…

Temperature and salinity double in Mediterranean

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The Mediterranean is responding very quickly to global warming and the rate of evaporation is higher than precipitation and fluvial supply. Temperatures and salinity is also increasing at two and a half times the rate at the midway point in the twentieth century and higher than that of the oceans, according to research published in Scientific Reports by a team of oceanographers from the marine sciences institute of the Italian national research center (ISMAR-CNR), the National Oceanography Centre di Southampton (UK) and the Institut National des Sciences et Technologies de…