LONDON (TIP): A teenager will appear in a London court on September 29 charged with the murder of a 15-year-old schoolgirl in a case that has once again shone the spotlight on UK knife crime. Elianne Andam was stabbed to death in Croydon, south London, as she went to school on Wednesday. A 17-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was arrested shortly afterwards. He is due to appear at youth court, sitting at Croydon Magistrates’ Court, later Friday charged with murder and possession of a knife, police said in a statement.
Emergency services including an air ambulance were called to the scene at around 8:30 am (0730 GMT) following reports of a stabbing.
Paramedics battled to save the girl but she was pronounced dead at the scene 50 minutes later. London mayor Sadiq Khan said he was “heartbroken” by the fatal incident and pledged to “continue working day and night to end the scourge of knife crime in our city”.
According to official figures, 99 people under the age of 25 were killed in England and Wales with a knife or sharp object in the year to March 2023. Of those 13 were under the age of 16.
The deaths were among 50,000 stabbing incidents in the year to March 2023, a five percent increase on the previous year and a 75 percent increase on a decade ago, the figures from the Office for National Statistics showed.
Andam was a pupil at Old Palace of John Whitgift School, a private girls’ school in Croydon.
“We are deeply shocked by the senseless and tragic death of our much-loved and valued friend and pupil,” the school said in a statement. “It will take some time for the Old Palace community to come to terms with this terrible news.” (AFP)
Month: October 2023
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Teen in court after schoolgirl becomes latest UK knife victim
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Four more officials held after Libya flood disaster
BENGHAZI (TIP): Libya’s prosecutor general has ordered the arrest of four more officials, bringing to 12 the number held as part of an inquiry into this month’s flood that killed thousands. Flooding caused by hurricane-strength Storm Daniel tore through eastern Libya on September 10, leaving at least 3,893 people dead and thousands more missing.
The seaside city of Derna was the worst hit by the flash flood, which witnesses likened to a tsunami. It burst through two dams and washed entire neighbourhoods into the Mediterranean. The four additional suspects, including two members of the Derna municipal council, were arrested for suspected “bad management of the administrative and financial missions which were incumbent upon them”, said a statement issued overnight on September 29 and September 30 by the prosecutor general’s office in Tripoli, western Libya.
On Monday the office ordered the arrest of eight officials, including Derna’s mayor who was sacked after the flood. Libya’s prosecutor general Al-Seddik al-Sour belongs to the internationally recognised administration in the country’s west. Another, in the flood-stricken east, is backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar. On September 29 the eastern authorities said they would begin paying compensation to people affected by the disaster, which a UN agency has said uprooted more than 43,000 people. “Cheques have been handed over to the mayors” after a relief committee received records of damage caused by the flooding, the government based in Libya’s east said in a statement.
People whose homes were destroyed would receive 100,000 dinars ($20,500) in compensation, Faraj Kaeem, the eastern administration’s deputy interior minister, said separately. Those with partially destroyed homes would get 50,000 dinars, while those who lost furniture or household appliances would be given 20,000 dinars, he said.
Libya has been wracked by division since a NATO-backed uprising toppled and then killed longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.
The eastern administration announced on Wednesday the creation of a fund for the reconstruction of Derna and confirmed it would host an “international conference” on October 10 to aid the port city’s reconstruction.
The authorities have yet to specify how the new fund will be financed, but the eastern-based parliament has already allocated 10 billion dinars to reconstruction projects.
On Thursday during talks with the European Commission, the United Nations’ envoy, Abdoulaye Bathily, said he had called for funds to be monitored. (AFP) -
Leaders of European Union’s Mediterranean nations huddle in Malta to discuss migration
VALLETTA (TIP): The leaders of nine southern European Union countries met in Malta on September 29 to discuss common challenges such as migration, the EU’s management of which has vexed national governments in Europe for years.
The nations represented at the one-day huddle included host Malta, France, Greece, Italy, Croatia, Cyprus, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain. Slovenia and Croatia, with Adriatic Sea coasts, were added to the so-called “Med Group” in 2021. While Portugal has a long Atlantic Ocean border, the European Union considers it partially in the Mediterranean region.
Two top EU officials — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel — were invited to the closed-door meeting. The leaders of the EU’s 27 nations have an informal European Council meeting scheduled for next week in Spain.
The huddle’s main aim is to help develop consensus among the members on major issues concerning all EU countries.
However, unity on migration has been elusive, as witnessed in Brussels during a Thursday meeting of interior ministers, who are tasked with enforcing individual nations’ rules within the broader contours of EU regulations.
Italy, for example, which now receives by far the largest number of migrants arriving via the Mediterranean Sea, has pushed in vain for fellow EU nations to show solidarity by accepting more of the tens of thousands of people who reach its shores.
Many of the migrants are rescued by military boats, humanitarian vessels or merchant ships plying the waters crossed by migrant smugglers’ unseaworthy boats launched from Tunisia, Libya, Turkey and elsewhere. Earlier this month, some 8,000 migrants stepped ashore on Lampedusa, a tiny Italian fishing island, in barely 48 hours, overwhelming the tourist destination.
The relentless arrivals, which slow only when seas are rough, have put political pressure on one of the Malta summit’s attendees — Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni. She came to power a year ago after campaigning on a pledge to stop illegal migration, including with a naval blockade, if necessary. Under current EU rules, the nation where asylum-seekers arrive must shelter them while their applications are processed. In Italy’s case, the majority of migrants arriving by sea from Africa and Asian countries are fleeing poverty, not war or persecution, and aren’t eligible for asylum.
But because Italy has so few repatriation agreements with home countries, it is stymied in sending unsuccessful applicants back. Many migrants slip out of Italy and into northern Europe, their ultimate destination, in hopes of finding family or work.
Little progress has been made on a new EU pact as the member states bicker over which country should take charge of migrants when they arrive and whether other countries should be obligated to help.
Three years after unveiling a plan for sweeping reform of the European Union’s outdated asylum rules, such squabbling fuels doubt as to whether an overhaul will ever become reality.
While heads of government or state represented most countries at Friday’s summit, Spain sent its acting foreign minister because Acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was involved in discussions at home on forming a new government. (AP)