Charities running migrant rescue ships accused of collusion with human traffickers, "facing 20 years in prison"
CBSN
Charities running migrant rescue ships in the Mediterranean faced a pre-trial hearing in Sicily Saturday over alleged collusion with human traffickers after a controversial probe that involved mass wiretapping.
Twenty-one suspects, including crew members of Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Save the Children and German NGO Jugend Rettet rescue ships, are accused of "aiding and abetting unauthorized entry into Italy" in 2016 and 2017.
"Our crews rescued over 14,000 people in distress from unseaworthy and overcrowded boats... and are now facing 20 years in prison," Kathrin Schmidt, who sailed with Jugend Rettet's ship Iuventa, said ahead of the hearing.
Paris — Jean-Marie Le Pen, the historic leader of France's far-right political movement, died Tuesday at the age of 96, the French news agency AFP said, citing his family. Le Pen, who had been in a care facility for several weeks, died Tuesday "surrounded by his loved ones," the family said in a statement.
Seoul — North Korea on Monday test fired a ballistic missile as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited South Korea, where he warned that Pyongyang was working ever closer with Russia on advanced space technology. Blinken also said that while he believed a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas would end the war in Gaza, it may not happen until after President Biden's term, under returning President-elect Donald Trump.