A growing refugee crisis

April 20, 2015 - Daily News Briefing

Conflicts, collapsed states, and economic hardship cause millions of people to flee for their lives.

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Only a few dozen people were saved Sunday after a fishing boat smuggling hundreds of migrants from Libya to Europe overturned, in what could become one of the Mediterranean's deadliest mass drownings. "How can it be that we daily are witnessing a tragedy?" asked Italian Premier Matteo Renzi, who huddled with his top ministers in an emergency strategy session in Rome. Resisting rising political calls for military intervention, Renzi ruled out any naval blockade off Libya's coast. He said that would only "wind up helping the smugglers" since military ships would be there to rescue any migrants, and because the chaos in Libya would make it impossible to force the passengers back to shore.

United Airlines stopped a prominent security researcher from boarding a California-bound flight late Saturday, following a social media post by the researcher days earlier suggesting the airline's onboard systems could be hacked. The researcher, Chris Roberts, attempted to board a United flight from Colorado to San Francisco to speak at a major security conference there this week, but was stopped by the airline's corporate security at the gate. Roberts founded One World Labs, which tries to discover security risks before they are exploited.

Islamic State militants in Libya shot and beheaded groups of captive Ethiopian Christians, a video purportedly from the extremists showed Sunday. The attack widens the circle of nations affected by the group's atrocities while showing its growth beyond a self-declared caliphate in Syria and Iraq. It also mirrored a film released in February showing militants beheading 21 captured Egyptian Christians on a Libyan beach, which immediately drew Egyptian airstrikes on the group's suspected positions in Libya. Whether Ethiopia would — or could — respond with similar military force remains unclear.

Mexican authorities on Saturday confirmed the capture of a leader of the Gulf Cartel, describing him as responsible for much of the violence in the U.S. border city of Reynosa in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas. Jose Tiburcio Hernandez Fuentes – known as "El Gafe" (The Jinxed One) –was captured on Friday and transferred to Mexico city, despite a shootout between the Mexican army and police and around 60 of Hernandez's gunmen who tried to rescue him.

South Africa's President Jacob Zuma canceled a state visit to Indonesia over the weekend to deal with a wave of anti-immigrant violence at home, promising peace to those who wished to remain in Africa's most advanced economy. The unrest which began in the port city Durban two weeks ago and spread to Johannesburg, Africa's economic hub, appeared to have died down on Saturday as police patrolled trouble spots.

Iraqi soldiers surrounded and entered the country's biggest oil refinery Saturday, which has been besieged for days by Islamic State militants, a senior official said. The refinery at Beiji, some 155 miles north of Baghdad, has been held by the Iraqi military for months despite the militants' onslaught. Holding it remains crucial for the country, as it accounts for a little more than a quarter of the country's entire refining capacity. Abdel-Wahab al-Saadi, the top military commander in Iraq's Salahuddin province, said ground forces entered the refinery Saturday, days after a number of Islamic State militants carried out a large-scale attack and briefly took over a small part of the sprawling complex.

“The object of the Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind.” – Mary Baker Eddy

The Daily News Briefing is published Monday through Friday by The Christian Science Publishing Society in Boston, Massachusetts.

To send a comment to the Editor, email editor@csmonitor.com.

“The object of the Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind.” – Mary Baker Eddy

The Daily News Briefing is published Monday through Friday by The Christian Science Publishing Society in Boston, Massachusetts.

To send a comment to the Editor, email editor@csmonitor.com.

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