Random News from the Rest of the World

There are conflicting reports on what caused the stampede as thousands of Shia Muslims gathered for the Ashoura commemoration of the death of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, who died in battle in the year 680.

The stampede was triggered by one person who stumbled and fell during a ritual known as the "Tuwairij run," officials told the BBC.

A mass panic ensued when a walkway collapsed near the gold-domed Imam Hussein shrine, according to officials cited by The Associated Press. Another official told the AP that there had been no collapse or crack in the walkway near the shrine

The Thomas Cook travel agency and airline abruptly collapsed Monday morning, putting tens of thousands of jobs at risk. More than 150,000 travelers are currently abroad, leaving the government to carry out what Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab calls the "biggest peacetime repatriation in U.K. history."

Italy and France are set to sign an agreement to exchange works by Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael, burying a spat triggered by Italy’s former populist government.

The deal is expected to be signed in Paris on Tuesday by the recently reappointed Italian culture minister, Dario Franceschini, and his French counterpart, Franck Riester. It will result in Italian museums lending works by Leonardo to the Louvre, in Paris, for an exhibition in October to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the artist’s death. In return, France will lend Italy paintings by Raphael for events marking 500 years since his death next year.

A spokesman for Franceschini said “many” works would be exchanged, but which ones would be determined in the next week.

Franceschini began the negotiations between French and Italian museums when he served as culture minister under the centre-left Democratic party’s government in 2017. The plan envisaged 26 paintings and drawings by Leonardo being lent to the Louvre for its October show.

The Paris museum holds five of only 14 paintings attributed to Leonardo, born near the Tuscan hill town of Vinci in 1452, and hoped to source further works from Italy that were robust enough to travel. They are thought to have included the Vitruvian Man drawing, in Venice, as well as the unfinished painting Saint Jerome in the Wilderness, currently on display at the Vatican Museums.

The plan hit a stumbling block when the Democratic party was ousted from government in Italy’s general elections in March 2018, paving the way for a coalition between the far-right League and the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S). The then culture minister, M5S’s Alberto Bonisoli, hindered progress, claiming the deal was unbalanced. His deputy, Lucia Borgonzoni, from the League, threatened to cancel the loan of Leonardo works last November, accusing France of trying to take centre stage in the commemorations and sidelining Italy, saying “Leonardo is Italian; he only died in France”.

The renaissance master was party a wider diplomatic dispute, mostly over immigration, between the two countries which led to France recalling its Rome ambassador in February. Tensions began to ease after the French president, Emmanuel Macron, invited his Italian counterpart, Sergio Mattarella, to France in May to mark the beginning of the year-long Leonardo commemorations.

The deal was revived when Franceschini returned to the culture ministry this month after M5S formed a coalition with the Democratic party, foiling the former deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini’s gambit to collapse the government and force snap elections.

Macron arrived in Rome on Wednesday for a meeting with Mattarella and the reappointed prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, confirming the two countries were friends again.

Jacques Chirac, who molded the legacy of Charles de Gaulle into a personal power base that made him one of the dominant leaders of France across three decades and a vocal advocate of European unity, has died. He was 86.

One day, the Chirac were spending their holidays in Saint-Tropez. I wasn't far away, and he called me and said: "Do you want to come over? I found a restaurant on the beach, a very good restaurant, we'll both go and we'll leave Mom at home."

[by 'Maman' = Mom he meant his wife, Bernadette, of a stern ultra-catholic noble background]

Then in the middle of the morning he called me back to say "Bernadette will join us ... It will cause problems..." We arrived at the same time at the Nikki Beach restaurant. I looked up and I understood why it will cause problems: the waitresses were topless! And Chirac immediately said: "Bernadette, I have no idea why Jean-Louis always wants to drag me to this place."

Nigeria: Police release 19 pregnant women from "baby factory"
01/10/19

He was granted subsidiary protection the following year — a status given to those who do not qualify as refugees but are in danger if they return to their country of origin.

Sounds odd to me. Does that status have legal significance.

When you present David Gressly, who used to run the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo and who was recently appointed to coordinate the Ebola response for the U.N., with the anger and accusations of neglect, he immediately blames the government saying they are "primarily responsible" for fixing many of the country's problems.

But, he says, he gets it. The frustration with the violence and the government and the U.N.'s seeming inability to stop it is understandable. He says many times, it is the protests against the militia attacks that have hindered the response against Ebola in Eastern DRC.

He says that when security forces take action against the armed militias, the situation stabilizes and health workers are able to work more freely.