Migrant ship refused access to Italian, Maltese waters: NGO
Rome, June 28: Italy and Malta are refusing to allow a migrant rescue ship operated by award-winning Spanish charity Proactiva Open Arms to enter their territorial waters, the NGO tweeted on Thursday.
"Italy and Malta are refusing to allow the ship Open Arms access to their territorial waters. The vessel has saved over 1,000 lives in a year in coordination with the Italian coastguard," read the tweet.
Italy's new populist government is taking a tough stance against charity migrant rescue boats in the Mediterranean and has turned two away from Italian ports this month with hundreds of Africans on board, sparking diplomatic standoffs with European officials.
One of the two boats, operated by the German charity Mission Lifeline, docked in Malta on Wednesday with 230 migrants on board after being stranded at sea for five days.
Malta said it would seize the boat pending an investigation of claims by Italy and Malta that Lifeline flouted international rules by refusing to cooperate with Libyan coastguard. The rescued migrants will be taken in by Malta, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg and Portugal.
Mission Lifeline denies Italy and Malta's claims that it acted illegally and insists that its affairs are in order.
Malta's Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said the country had no obligation under international law to assist the ship, but was doing so on humanitarian grounds.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
RR beat RCB by six wickets in IPL
Guwahati (PTI): Blistering fifties by Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Dhruv Jurel powered Rajasthan Royals to a six-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bengaluru in their IPL match here on Friday.
Sent in to bat, RCB rode on a fighting half-century by skipper Rajat Patidar (63) to post 201 for 8.
Virat Kohli (32), Romario Shepherd (22) and Venkatesh Iyer (29) also chipped in with useful contributions.
In reply, Sooryavanshi (78 off 26 balls) and Dhruv Jurel (81 not out off 43 balls) shared a 37-ball 108-run partnership for the second wicket to set the platform. Krunal Pandya (2/30) tried to bring them back with back-to-back wickets.
But Jurel, in the company of Ravindra Jadeja (24), completed the task with another 68-run stand, with two overs to spare.
For RR, Jofra Archer (2/33), Ravi Bishnoi (2/32) and Brijesh Sharma (2/37) took two wickets.
Brief scores:
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: 201 for 8 in 20 overs (Rajat Patidar 63; Jofra Archer 2/33, Ravi Bishnoi 2/32, Brijesh Sharma 2/37).
Rajasthan Royals: 202 for 4 in 18 overs (Vaibhav Sooryavanshi 78, Dhruv Jurel 80 not out; Krunal Pandya 2/30, Josh Hazlewood 2/44).
